Starry River of the Sky

“‘My ancestor was a great man.’

‘Your ancestor? My ancestor was the…’ Rendi sputtered, and then stopped.

‘What did your ancestor do?’ Peiyi said. ‘Mine moved a mountain!’

Rendi bit his lip in frustration. His ancestors were far greater than the ancestors of this dirty-faced girl!”

This excerpt comes from one of the first interactions between Rendi and Peiyi, and it exemplifies the role of Storytelling as a Self-Portrait. The ancestor that Peiyi mentions here is the man responsible for the mountain’s departure and the moon’s fall from the sky: a fact that is not revealed until the end of the book. Peiyi’s dogged insistence that her ancestor was great shows how people often choose to believe the most flattering truths about themselves and their loved ones rather than acknowledging the truth. This incident also offers support for Rendi’s divided sense of self. In the early chapters, Rendi wants to leave his family behind and even as he wishes to retain his identity. As a result, he gets angry when he thinks of home because he wants to flaunt who he is despite how angry his identity makes him.

“Long ago, so long that only the sky, mountains, and water can truly remember, six suns appeared in the sky. These six suns caused great suffering and devastation to the earth. Rain boiled away before ever touching the ground. The trees and plants withered, leaving behind only the scorched earth, burned and brown. All the villagers were forced to live like worms, crowding into an ancient dark hole in one of the hills. As they began to starve, they also began to despair.”

This passage comes from one of the stories that Madam Chang tells. It reveals the actions of the archer who shot down the extra suns in the sky and saved the world from burning, a man who is later revealed to be linked to Madam Chang.