Long, long ago, there was a legend that a terrible plague broke out in a place called Xianning, and almost one-third of the people died in this disaster People have used various countermeasures but there has been no improvement. At the foot of the hanging list mountain, there is a young man named Wu Gang. His mother is also bedridden due to the epidemic, and the young man goes up the mountain every day to collect herbs to save her. One day, on the way back to the Western Heaven after traveling eastward, Guanyin Bodhisattva saw Wu Gang picking herbs on a cliff. His spirit deeply moved the Bodhisattva. So the Bodhisattva had a dream for him at night, telling him that there was a tree called osmanthus in the Moon Palace. Soaking it in water and drinking it could cure his mother’s illness, and that there would be a ladder to the Moon Palace every time the moon was full on Mount Hang Bang.
Coincidentally, there were only three days left until the 15th of August. However, to reach the top of the mountain on the list, it was very difficult to cross seven deep rivers, and it would take at least seven days and seven nights. Unfortunately, time waits for no one. If he missed the 15th of August this year, he would have to wait for another year. So Wu Gang made up his mind to explore. Finally, on the evening of the 15th of August, he climbed to the top of the mountain on the list and boarded the ladder leading to the Moon Palace. As soon as he arrived at the Moon Palace, the fragrance of osmanthus was everywhere. He looked at the golden osmanthus and was very happy. He desperately picked it, thinking that picking more could save his mother and be friendly to the villagers. But he couldn’t take so many. So he had a sudden idea and came up with it. Shaking the osmanthus tree, the osmanthus flowers drifted down, causing them to fall into the river at the foot of the hanging mountain.
The river water has been dyed golden yellow People drank the water from this river, and all the plagues were cured. They were extremely happy and praised that this was not river water, it was clearly the life-saving water of a river. So they named this river Jinshui. Later, people called this river “Gan River”. However, Wu Gang’s unauthorized picking of osmanthus flowers was discovered by the Jade Emperor. In order to punish him, the Jade Emperor ordered him to cut down the osmanthus tree in the Moon Palace. This osmanthus tree is a spiritual object with self-healing function, so Wu Gang stayed in the Moon Palace for year after year.
