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The Land of Men

Wang Meng was an high official of King Taimou of the Shang dynasty, who was dispatched in the twenty-sixth year of his reign to greet the Western Rong tribe when they came to pay a visit of submission. The King also gave Wang Meng a secret mission to search for medicinal herbs which could add one thousand years to one’s life if eaten.

After Wang Meng completed his friendly mission to the Western Rong tribe, he followed the Queen Mother of the West to the Land of Man, where he ran out of food and could go no farther. But Wang survived by eating the fruit of trees and wearing clothes of bark. Though he never married, he gave birth to two sons who sprang forth from his body, whereupon he died. These were the ancestors of the inhabitants of the Land of Men, who wear proper robes and caps and carry swords just like their father did.

The Land of Men lies twenty-thousand li beyond the western frontier marked by the Jade Gate.

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