Amid the towering mountains of the southwestern Divine Land lay a plain. Hemmed in by rugged barriers on all four sides and cradled by mountains, its fertile soil stretched a thousand li. Shaped like the bottom of a basin, it was called the "Wilderness of Du Guang" in the ancient classics.
With the "Wilderness of Du Guang" at its heart, the region encompassed the surrounding two thousand li of mountains and forests, including both the "basin floor" and the "basin rim." This was the land known as "Ba-Shu," sometimes shortened to "Shu Land," "Western Shu," or simply "Shu."
West of this "Wilderness of Du Guang," along the western edge of the basin, a great river flowed north to south, known as the Min River. East of the Min River lay a continuous range of mountains, also running north to south, called Longquan Mountain.
Between this river and this mountain stood a vast city that had endured since antiquity:
"Chengdu."
Chengdu fell under the celestial domains of the Jing and Ghost mansions, which governed civilization and abundance. As the Treatise on Celestial Patterns recorded: "In the southern palace of the Vermilion Bird, Jing and Ghost correspond to Shu."
When the ancients built a city here, they saw Yuheng of the Northern Dipper casting its light between the river and the mountain. Inspired by "Tianshu forms an image; descending to earth, it becomes a capital," they named it "Chengdu."
As another great city corresponding to celestial mansions, Chengdu brimmed with the bustle and smoke of mortal life, surpassing even the great eastern city of Nanchang and the great northern city of Luoyang.
Moreover, the Shu Chinese Mysteries advocated cultivation within the mortal world. Rather than viewing mortal energies as raging floods and savage beasts, they encouraged using them to temper the primordial