The Kunlun () or Kunlun Shan is a mountain or mountain range in Chinese mythology, an important symbol representing the axis mundi and divinity.
The mythological Kunlun is based on various sources — mythologic and geographic — of the modern so-called Kunlun Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and Mount Kailash (as an archetypal omphalos). The term "Kunlun" has also been applied to Southeastern Asian lands or islands and seemingly even Africa — although the relationship to the mountain is not clear beyond the nomenclature. In any case, Kunlun refers to distant, exotic, and mysterious places. Different locations of Kunlun have been ascribed in the various legends, myths, and semi-historical accounts in which it appears. These accounts typically describe Kunlun as the dwelling place of various gods and goddesses where fabled plants and mythical creatures may also be found. Many important events in Chinese mythology were based around Kunlun.
Historical development
As the mythology related to the Kunlun developed, it became influenced by the later introduction of ideas about an axis mundi from the cosmology of India. The Kunlun became identified with (or took on the attributes of) Mount Sumeru.
Another historical development in the mythology of Kunlun (again with Indian influence) was that — rather than just being the source of the Yellow River — Kunlun began to be considered the source of four major rivers, flowing to the four quarters of the compass.
The Kunlun mythos was also influenced by developments within the Taoist tradition, and Kunlun came to be perceived as more of a paradise than a dangerous wilderness.
Some recent research proposed that, over time, the merging of various traditions has resulted in a duality of paradises – i.e., an East Paradise, identified with Mount Penglai, and a West Paradise, identified with Kunlun Mountain. A pole replaced a former mythic system that opposed Penglai with Guixu ("Returning Mountain"), and the Guixu mythological material was transferred to the Kunlun mythos.
Name
The Chinese name "Kunlun" (or ) is written with characters combining the "mountain radical" 山 with phonetics of kun and lun . Alternate names for Kunlun shan include Kunling (with "hill") and Kunqiu (with "mound").
The term "Kunlun" may be semantically related to two other terms: Hundun (), which is sometimes personified as a living creature; and kongdong (), according to Kristofer Schipper. Grotto-heavens were traditionally associated with mountains, as hollows or caves located in/on certain mountains. The term "Kunlun Mountain" can be translated as "Cavernous Mountain," and the mythological Kunlun Mountain has been viewed as a hollow mountain (located directly under the pole star).
The term "Kunlun," however, had also been used in old texts to refer to people and places unrelated to the mythical mountain. It was, for example, used in reference to the southern people called Gurong, who were slaves in China. Edward H. Schafer quotes the Old Book of Tang description "The people south of Lin yi are curly haired and black bodied and was called kurung" and following quote by 9th century buddhist scholar Hui Lin (慧琳), "They are also called Kurung. They are the barbarous men of the islands, great and small, of the Southern Seas. They are very black, and expose their naked Figures. They can tame and cow ferocious beasts, rhinoceroses, elephants, and the like." Schafer notes that — besides Kunlun — these southerners were occasionally referred to as Gulong or Gulun .
Julie Wilensky notes that the term Kunlun is a "mysterious and poorly understood word, first applied to dark-skinned Chinese and then expanded over time to encompass multiple meanings, all connoting dark skin." But she further explains: "These uses of kunlun are unrelated to the name of the Kunlun Mountains." In a footnote, she adds: "Chang Hsing-Iang writes that the Kunlun mountain 'region has been familiar to the Chinese from the earliest times, and no Chinese work has ever described its inhabitants as being black-skinned.'" She then proceeds to explain how "Kunlun" was used to refer to places in Southeast Asia and Africa.
Location
Various notions about the location of the mythical Kunlun Mountain have been proposed: chapter eleven of the Shanhaijing describes it as being in the northwest, chapter sixteen says it is south of the western sea, and other sources place it in the center of the Earth.
Some believed Kunlun to be located to the "far" west; in this case, the alleged location was relocated further and further to the west, along with advances in geographical knowledge. E. T. C. Werner identifies Kunlun with the Hindu Kush mountain range.
