Reading (Notes) Up with the Jones

Portucala thellusonii, a hand-coloured engraving after a drawing by Miss S. A. Drake (fl. 1820s-1840s), from the 26th volume of the Botanical Register (1840), edited by John Lindley. Found on wikimedia.

Yang Oerlang
This story is from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).
The daughter of the ruler of heaven came down to earth and got married. When she returned to heaven, she was pregnant with a son. The ruler was not happy and banished her to earth, covering her with hills. Her son was born, and he was very talented. Oreland has gifted in transformations, mastering many forms by the time ha was an adult. He went to the hills and rescued his mother from within. They stopped to rest and the mother was thirsty. Her son fetched her water from the bottom of the valley, but when he returned, she was no longer there. He searched for her, finally finding her skin, bones and blood stains on a rock nearby. She was divine, but her father had stripped her of that. She spent so long underground in the darkness of there prison, that the light destroyed her. There were multiple suns that lit the earth at that time. In his grief and anger, Oerlang took mountains on his shoulders and chased down the suns that destroyed his mother. He eventually crushed them to death between the mountains. He kept this up, grabbing mountains and pursuing suns until nine of the ten had been crushed. The past remaining sun hid himself (because apparently suns are he, who knew) under a portulacca plant. But a worm told his location. As he was about to crush the last sun, a messenger from eh ruler of heaven came down to tel him that he couldn't do that. That the earth and sky need the sun be a habitat place for living creatures. For his dedication to his mother and his talent, he was given the title of a god and the position of the ruler of heavens bodyguard (because that isn't a screwed up family situation). And He took the position. The sun rose from the plant, but the plant was left with the ability to have delicate white peals under the leaves, residue from the sun hinging under them.