The Rainbow
In ancient China people believed in the supreme god Sky. Sky came out of a mountain at times when the world was all in darkness. He gave the Earth water, life and all natural environment. He later built a huge palace in the space. Whenever Sky sweated it became rain; whenever Sky shivered the ground shook causing earthquakes; whenever Sky breathed it created wind. Sky was powerful, he could make things, and change things.
Above the land of ancient China, Sky was ruling the space. One day his sweat came down and turned into rain drops. His breath turned into strong winds. Someone yelled out in the middle of a wheat field. “下雨了!”(“It’s raining!”), said Zhang. Zhang was a farmer and a skilled painter . He ran back into his little house. It rained endlessly, pounding on the roof tops and turning the sidewalks and roads into vast lakes of muddy water. Dark gray clouds covered the sky, only letting a few rays of sunlight slip past the barrier. The tremendous sound of raindrops blended in with the occasional whoosh of the wind through the tree tops. Everything was turned black or left white. Nothing was colorful, except for Zhang’s paints. Zhang thought to himself, “I can't let this happen to our Earth.” So He decided to paint the plants and animals around him with different colors.
One day when the Sun came out again, Zhang sat down in the tall wheat fields and arranged his red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple paints next to him. Then he began to paint things in many different colors or color combinations. He painted violets dark blue and tea plants green. He made roses red or pink or purple. He painted pansies in every color combination he could think of. Next he painted every single daffodil bright yellow. Zhang hummed happily to himself as he painted. He later painted the Maltese Tiger blue, and started painting all the other animals in wonderful colors.
Over the sky, two little baby 龙(dragons) were playing games with each other. The Chinese dragons imagined by the Chinese has the head of a 骆驼 (camel), the horns of a 鹿 (deer), fiery eyes and a long beard. It’s ears are like those of a 牛 (cow), its paws like the 虎 (tiger’s) and its claws sharp like an 老鹰 (eagle’s). It’s neck is 蛇 (serpentine); it has the belly of a青蛙 (frog) and the scales of a 鲤鱼 (carp). The first little dragon would chase his friend across the wheat field one way. Then they would turn around, and the other dragon would chase the first one back through the field.
Occasionally, Zhang would shade his eyes and look up into the sky to watch the two little dragons playing. Then he went back to work, painting yellow centers in the white mums. Above him, the two dragons decided to see how fast they could dive down to the fields below them. The first dragon sailed down and down, and then pulled himself up sharply just before he touched the ground. As he soared passing Zhang, his right claw dipped into the pot of red paint. When the second dragon dived toward the grass, his left claw grazed the orange paint.
Zhang scolded the two dragons, but they kept up their game, diving down toward the grass where Zhang sat painting and then flying back up into the sky. Soon their feet and scales were covered with paint of all colors. Finally Zhang stood up and waved his arms to shoo the dragons away.
Reluctantly, the dragons flew away from Zhang and his paint pots, looking for another game to play. They started chasing each other again, sailing back and forth over the top of the giant waterfall that stood next to Zhang's house. The first dragon flew through the misty spray of the waterfall. He left a long red paint streak against the sky. The second dragon chased his friend through the mist, leaving an orange paint streak. Then the dragons turned around. This time, the first dragon left a yellow paint streak and the second left a pretty blue-violet paint streak. As they raced back and forth, the colors grew more vivid. When the Sun shone on the colors, they sparkled radiantly through the mist of the waterfall. The colors reflected creating a huge color curve.
Zhang looked up in delight when the brilliant colors spilled over his wheat field. A gorgeous arch of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet shimmered in the sky above the waterfall. Zhang smiled at the funny little dragons, and said: "You have made a 彩虹(rainbow)!"
Zhang was so pleased that he left the rainbow permanently floating above his waterfall. He didn’t finish coloring the panda, so now all the pandas are all in black and white. From that day on, whenever the Sun shines on the rain or the mist, a beautiful rainbow forms. It is a reflection of the mighty rainbow that still stands over the waterfall at Zhang's house.