"It had but a single leg; in ancient times children would hop on one leg, wrinkle their foreheads, and shout, 'It will soon rain, for Shang Yang is frolicking in the yard!' It was said that the bird drank water from the rivers and dropped it on the land."
Interesting, isn't it, that even the lengend explains that water rose from rivers, to the sky, to produce rain, as it does according to more modern understanding of the water cycle. Apart from hopping about on his single leg, and bringing the rain, Borges provides little clue as to Shang Yang's appearance, so I was free to imagine this strange creature myself.
Shang Yang is printed in Payne's gray, a bluish, dark gray like rain, on Japanese kozo, or mulberry paper. Each sheet is 6 inches by 12.5 inches (15.2 cm by 31.8 cm). There are 12 prints in this edition.
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