Original Text
Along the seacoast there were originally no mountains. One day, towering peaks suddenly appeared, layer upon layer, stretching for several li, and all who saw them were filled with astonishment and wonder. Another day, these lofty mountains suddenly vanished, leaving nothing behind. It was said that in the sea there existed a great fish, which, every year at the Qingming Festival, would bring its entire family to pay homage at its ancestral graves; thus, this spectacle was often witnessed around the Cold Food Festival.
Commentary
According to Sheng Wei's "Chronicle of Pu Songling's Life," in the summer of the eleventh year of the Kangxi reign (1672), Pu Songling, together with Gao Heng, Tang Menglai, and five others, traveled to Mount Lao and composed the poem "A Song on Viewing the Mirage at Mount Lao." This appears to have been Pu Songling's sole journey to the Jiaodong region, where he ascended Mount Lao to gaze upon the vast sea and gathered related folkloric material. The tales in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" concerning Mount Lao and maritime legends are all connected to this excursion.
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" records a maritime legend in "The Great Fish of the Sea." During the Qingming Festival, fish as large as mountains appeared in great numbers, forming "steep ridges overlapping and stretching for several miles," only to suddenly "transform into nothingness." Truly strange and wondrous, it stirs the imagination. Some scholars believe the great fish of the sea refers to whales, which may or may not be the case.