Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

“In moments, he disappeared from view into the shadow of Fruitless Mountain, and if it wasn’t for the goldfish Minli had in her hands, all would have thought he was a dream.”

Minli senses something surreal about the goldfish man’s visit. Indeed, he arrives in the very moment she’s wishing for a way to bring her family luck, but whether his timing is magic or coincidence is up for debate. The goldfish man initiates Minli’s adventure. Like his visit, her entire adventure unfolds like a dream but produces evidence of reality.

“Money must be used sometime. What use is money in a bowl?”

Ba says this to Ma when she scolds Minli for buying a goldfish with her half of the only money she has to her name. This quote is illustrative of Ba’s even-keeled temperament, his willingness to embrace Minli’s choices, and his ability to put a positive spin on life. The quote also describes a worldview where the accumulation of money is not important, which supports the novel's themes of gratitude and the unimportance of wealth.

“Stories cost us nothing.”

Ma believes storytelling is a waste of time, but Ba believes they’re important. The value of storytelling becomes evident throughout the novel, as stories educate characters about their history, inform their values and decisions, and comfort them during difficult times. Characters in the novel constantly discover the incalculable value of free things like love, togetherness, and stories.

“‘Most fish talk,’ the fish said, ‘if you are willing to listen. One, of course, must want to hear.’”

This is the first time Minli hears her goldfish speak, and it is also the initiation of her journey to Never-Ending Mountain. It's the instructions from the goldfish that make Minli feel equipped to embark on her trip. Throughout the novel, and the ability to hear goldfish talk is symbolic of a character’s faith and optimism.

“It is impossible. But it is not ridiculous.”

After Ma and Ba discover Minli's note saying she's left home, Ma reacts negatively, believing it’s foolish of Minli to chase “impossible” dreams. Ba, however, believes there’s an important differentiation between “impossible” and “ridiculous,” and that pursuing challenging goals is not without value. The novel presents Minli’s many successes on her journey, not excluding the material wealth she brings to her village, as argument in favor of this worldview. This quote also sets up Ma’s development from discontented naysayer to contented believer.

“You feel real to me. So I think you’re a real dragon. Or, at least real enough.”

Minli utters this to Dragon after hearing his origin story, just before deciding to become his friend. This is the way she seems to approach the magical events on her quest: things may be surreal or fantastical, but she approaches them head-on, without much debate. Her attitude toward Dragon develops the theme of faith.

“Magistrate Tiger scowled at the blank ground with rage and vowed to punish the family for their disrespect. But while he glared, the wind blew and covered him with a grayish green dust. As he stood like a green powdered statue, he felt as if the sky were laughing at him.”

This passage describes Magistrate Tiger just after he’s learned that the village with the secret to happiness has vanished. His main qualities—anger, self-centeredness, and vengefulness—are in full effect, and nature appears to respond to him in a punitive way, confirming his flaws. His feeling of being laughed at is either a rare glimpse of his humanity or an advanced display of ego. The green dust foreshadows his reincarnation as the Green Tiger.

“‘I think Minli, like the secret word and the paper of happiness,’ Ba said, ‘is not meant to be found.’”

At the silver goldfish’s urging, Ba tells Ma “The Story of the Paper of Happiness,” which details Magistrate Tiger’s unsuccessful attempt to get his hands on the paper of happiness. The lesson seems to be about resisting the urge to chase something for selfish gain, and Ba applies to this to chasing Minli, who clearly wants to go. He releases the need to find her—an act of faith and selflessness—and, with these words, convinces Ma that turning back home is the right thing to do.

“‘It doesn't seem likely that a fish that small could swim up a waterfall,’ Dragon said. ‘Even if she does find the right river, she might not be able to get to the gate.’ ‘If there is a gate, Aunt Jin will find a way through it,’ the fish said.”

This exchange happens between Dragon and the fish, who Minli and Dragon meet on their travels. Dragon is the voice of doubt here, and the fish is the voice of faith. Though they're talking about Aunt Jin, the passage also seems to describe Minli, someone special attempting a seemingly impossible task. It foreshadows both Aunt Jin’s success in reaching Dragon’s Gate and Minli’s success in reaching Never-Ending Mountain.

“On the ground, crushed and a little muddy, was a blue silk dress. As I lifted it, the softness made me ashamed of my rough hands.”

The buffalo boy tells Minli how he met the weaver girl one day swimming in a lake, and he describes how he felt handing her her dress. He doesn’t know that the weaver girl is an immortal being when he meets her, but the way he feels unworthy even of touching her clothes indicates that there’s something special about her. It’s poignant to hear him describe his shame in the presence of a nice or beautiful object, and this shame makes the gruff boy an empathetic character. This quotation is typical of the novel’s authorial voice: simple language that still achieves richness in imagery and a considerable depth of feeling.

“It was funny how the buffalo boy’s whole manner changed when he talked about her—his vaguely mocking attitude and tough expression washed away and he lit up like a lantern.”

Minli observes the buffalo boy as he talks about his friend, the weaver girl, and notices how he changes in a positive way because of his connection to this other person. Ma’s story mirrors this softening of a hard character—the novel presents the possibility that even the toughest characters with the thickest skin can be impacted by their love for others. This quote also contains a simile with light imagery, which signifies truth, wisdom, and purity. When the buffalo boy “lights up like a lantern” (109), it’s because his love for his friend elevates him to a state of being where unpleasant things lose their importance.

“And like a lid of a jewelry box, the door opened into a landscape of radiant colors. The bamboo, pine, and plum leaves seemed to shine in the sun as if carved from emeralds, and the accents of the pink and red flowers were like nestled rubies.”

The Inner City of the City of Bright Moonlight, home to the king and his palace, is unlike any place Minli has ever seen. The author departs from her usual food and nature imagery here to describe the city’s colors in terms of precious jewels to indicate its contrast with the rest of Minli’s experiences. The departure in imagery also indicates a contrast between the landscapes of ordinary people’s lives and the lives of royalty.

“They had finished eating the main meal and she was enjoying a turtle-shaped cake filled with sweet and soft red bean paste, a taste not known to her before. As she swallowed, its richness seemed to warm her from her throat to her stomach.”

This iteration of the food motif appears in the Inner City with the king of the City of Bright Moonlight. The new and unusual food is a metaphor for new and unusual experiences: her journey introduces her to all kinds of things “not known to her before” (135). Furthermore, Minli describes feeling warmth throughout the novel, and it always signals to her that she’s in a good, safe place, while simultaneously signaling to the reader that she’s on track to complete her mission.

“Everything’s alive—the ground you’re walking on, the bark of those trees. We were always alive, even before we were lions and were just raw stone.”

The stone lions that guard the City of Bright Moonlight share this statement with Dragon, putting into words an idea present in many stories in the novel. In “The Story of Fruitless Mountain,” Jade Dragon is said to become a river, and in “The Story of the Dragon,” Dragon is born as a painting of a dragon. The idea of natural and human-made inanimate objects having a living spirit is one present in Chinese folklore and appears often in the novel.

“Minli smiled. The exhaustion from the long night of worry had made her feel heavy and clumsy, but the children’s happiness seemed to carry her.”

Minli is generally quick thinking (as her name indicates), optimistic, and buoyant. By the time she survives the ordeal in the cave with the Green Tiger and meets Da-A-Fu, it’s clear she’s experiencing physical fatigue and emotional wear-and-tear. This time period represents one of her lowest points, and it’s only with the help of spirited friends and allies that she makes it to the next stage of her quest.

“But she did remember the cozy lovely feeling of falling into a bed, like holding a warm steamed bun on an icy day.”

Minli wakes up in Da-A-Fu’s hut in the Village of Moon Rain, having slept so hard that she can’t immediately remember the time leading up to her going to bed. This quotation is exemplary of the kind of simile found so often throughout the novel: simple language and food imagery. Describing a feeling in terms of a relatively simple thing like good food underlines the theme that simple things are valuable and pleasurable.

“So instead of bringing the kites in, they cut the strings. As the kites were freed, a strong gust of wind burst from the sky. One by one, the butterflies and dragons disappeared as if flying home to the moon. As the kites vanished from sight, there was a sad sigh. No one spoke, but they all wished for an escape from tomorrow’s tragedy.”

This quotation is part of “The Story of Da-A-Fu’s Ancestors,” which chronicles people coping with fear and sorrow on what they believe to be the last day of their lives. The imagery of butterflies and dragons “flying home to the moon” (213) is vivid; it exudes both hope and sorrow, making this story poignant and memorable. It’s a powerful moment in the novel and builds the theme of gratitude and contentedness.

“The pearl should not belong to one being. Do you not see this is where the pearl belongs, where everyone on heaven and earth can see its beauty and enjoy it?”

In “The Story of the Dragon’s Pearl,” which Ba tells Ma one night in their hut, an immortal character called Heavenly Grandfather forces his daughter to give up her stolen dragon’s pearl and leave it in the Celestial River. This same pearl becomes the moon—a central image in the novel and a powerful symbol in Minli’s life. The sentiment in this quote echoes the king of the City of Bright Moonlight, who believes in relinquishing personal ownership of valuable objects for the benefit of others. The story underpins the theme of sacrifice and informs Minli’s future decision to return her own dragon’s pearl to the king.

“She spoke without the desire or envy she used to feel when speaking of the wealth of others. The moonlight seemed to transform her, lifting the years of bitterness and hardship and leaving her with a sad serenity. It affected Ba unexpectedly, in a way he had not felt in years; he filled with great tenderness.”

Ma undergoes a period of reflection and mourning while Minli is gone as she reckons with her daughter’s absence, how she contributed to Minli’s unrest, and what her life looks like without Minli in it. This quote represents a change in Ma and a major moment in her story arc. While Ba doesn’t undergo as much of a change as Ma in the novel, the fact that he hasn’t felt this “great tenderness” (232) in years reveals some amount of previously undisclosed suffering or loneliness and marks a change for him as well.

“‘The only things for me to teach you,’ the Old Man said to Wu Kang as he handed him an axe, ‘are the lessons of contentment and patience. Only when you are able to cut this tree down will I know you have learned them.’”

This quote comes straight from the mouth the Old Man of the Moon, an immortal character who possesses all the knowledge in the universe, and it is a clear statement of theme. It’s the lesson Minli and Ma both learn from different experiences and stories over the course of the novel, but it has unique impact because it’s about what can happen when one doesn’t learn these lessons. Wu Kang consigns himself to a life of endless striving, with no friends or family to share the burden. Minli witnesses this right before she makes her decision about what to ask the Old Man of the Moon, and she absorbs the lesson.

“As Dragon soared through the sky, any heaviness inside Minli left. He seemed to dance in the air, and his happiness made her feel as light as the clouds around her. The sun seemed to warm her heart and joy bubbled inside of her. She knew she had asked the right question.”

Minli makes peace with her difficult decision in front of the Old Man of the Moon. Seeing Dragon happy is the reward of her sacrifice, sacrifice being a virtue the novel endorses in several ways. Dragon’s flight is both a literal power and a metaphor for being unburdened, which both Dragon and Minli feel.

“Moonlight misted over the rough floors and made the sparse room grow silver, the goldfish bowl looking like a second moon. The shabby walls and worn stones seemed to shimmer as if a translucent silk veil covered them, muting any flaws and transforming the house into a dwelling of luminous light and delicate shadows. Minli had never seen her home look so beautiful.”

This passage occurs at the moment when Minli returns home and crosses the threshold of her home, changed from her journey. Ma and Ba are asleep, and Minli takes in the physical and emotional details of a place she once saw a certain way and now sees, literally, in a new light. It connects moon and light imagery to Minli’s newfound feelings of gratitude and wisdom, rendering moonlight a symbol of purity, of innumerable value, and of enlightenment.

“Ma sighed. But it was a sigh of joy, a sound of happiness that floated like a butterfly in the air.”

This moment takes place at the end of the novel, after Minli’s return. At the beginning of the novel, Ma’s sighing is an expression of her frustration and hopelessness. The fact that, here, her sigh exhibits a happy and light feeling demonstrates a marked character change.