Lei Chên-tzŭ, AKA Leizhenzi AKA The Son of Thunder, was either a son of the Chinese Thunder god Lei Kung, or Lei King's alter ego...
And legends about him are full of animal and plant calendar markers related to the rain and thunderstorm season in China...
Believe or not, The Son of Thunder was born out of an an egg hatched by the heat of the thunder strike on the Swallows mountain...
And just in case anyone had any doubt that he was "official", the newborn Son of Thunder had an inscription on his palm that read: "Ministry of Thunder"...
Love this 🙂
In the Lei Chên-tzŭ legends, it is not explicitly stated what kind of egg it was, but in a legend found in "Researches into Chinese superstitions" we read that "the spirit of thunder liked to hide inside a hen"...
"One day in the eighth month, while cutting faggots on Mt. Shen-lei, in Yung-chow, Sin-hing come across five hens roosting in a cave. He took them home to his mother, and went back to the forest to collect firewood..."
"...His mother wanted to keep 4 of the hens and to kill 1 and cook it for a meal. But this hen spoke and said to her:
"Beware, I am the Spirit of the Thunder: you cannot eat me, beware of doing me any harm..."
"...The old lady was quite unmoved by this prodigy: thereupon the lightning flashed and she was killed...
When Sin-hing came back with the firewood, he found his poor old mother lying lifeless on the floor..."
"...The Thunder-spirit then appeared before him, and said:
If I have killed your mother, the reason is that she was about to kill me. Do not bear me any grudge. I am the Thunder-spirit and I now ask your pardon..."
"...Thereupon, he gave Sin-hing 12 iron-pills. Sin swallowed them and was completely metamorphosed. His mouth became a beak; he grew wings, in one hand he held a hammer and in the other a wedge, beneath his feet were five drums."
Basically Sin-hing became the Thunder god Lei Kung...
So I would say that the egg from which Lei Chên-tzŭ, The Son of Thunder, was born was a chicken egg...
But why would The Son of Thunder be born out of a Chicken egg on a Swallow mountain?
Did you know that the amount of daylight hours affects a chicken's reproductive cycle? Hens need at least 12 hours of daylight per day to lay eggs, whereas 14 to 16 hours of sunlight per day will keep them performing at their full potential...
The domesticated chickens descend from the Red Junglefowl...And it's reproductive cycle is also affected by the sunlight...
In this field study of the reproductive cycle of the Red Junglefowl in the area around New Delhi, India, it was determined that their main mating season is Apr/May...
This area is located at the latitude of around 30 degrees north. This is the diagram that shows the change of the number of daylight hours as we go through the year depending on the latitude. Check what happens there in Apr/May...Yup, we reach 14 hours of daylight...
I don't know where Yung-chow from the story is. It could be Jiangsu, Not sure...But it is most likely somewhere in central or northern China, above the 30 degrees north Latitude. So the Chinese hens from the story would also be laying eggs starting from Apr/May...
Now have a look at this picture. This is a distribution of thunderstorm frequency in China per month...You can see that the main thunderstorm season, with over 80% of all thunderstorms, starts in Apr/May...
And it peaks in Jul/Aug...The 8th moon...Which is also the peak of the rain season in the same area of China...And everywhere else in Yangtze and Yellow river areas...Basically, the hottest part of the year is also the wettest...and (thunder)stormiest..
Sooo...Thunder spirit hiding in a hen, and being born out of a chicken egg heated up by a thunder strike...
Animal calendar marker for the beginning of the thunderstorm season...
But why was the egg hatched on the "Swallow mountain"? I don't know if this is a real mountain...Maybe it is...But maybe this is just another animal calendar marker...
Marking the return of the swallows to China in the spring, and the start of their nesting season in Apr/May... At the beginning of the rain and thunderstorm season...
I don't know...It all kind of fits...But it could all be just a coincidence...🙂
Anyway, The Son of Thunder gets hatched out of the egg...But he is no mighty god...He is just an ordinary boy "with brilliant shiny eyes"...By "coincidence", he gets found and adopted by the Wen Zhong, the dude who later became known as Lei Zu, "The Minister of Thunder"...🙂...Check my post about "The Minister of thunder"...You'll love it...
But, one day, the Son of Thunder finds two magic apricots (in some versions of the story two magic peaches) and eats them...And in an instant, his skin turns green, his nose turns into a beak, he grows "Wings of the Wind and Thunder", and he gains awesome magical strength...
WTF? Well...Guess when Apricots and Peaches are ripe enough to be picked and eaten by, like, Sons of Thunder? In May...At the beginning of the main thunderstorm season...So, another, this time plant, calendar marker for the beginning of the thunderstorm season...
I think this is pretty cool, don't you think? All these crazy "nonsensical" details suddenly make a lot of sense if you look at them as animal and plant calendar markers linked to the thunderstorm season in China...
Will be back tomorrow with more gossip from the Chinese "Ministry of Thunder"...You'll love it...Until then, good night and sweet dreams...
References:
"Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain"
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