“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
1 -- Permission is granted to educators to reproduce this worksheet for classroom use
Plot Outline. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
1
1–10
Minli and her parents live in a poor
hut in a poverty-stricken village
beneath Fruitless Mountain. Her
father tells wonderful stories but her
mother thinks they are a waste of
time.
The Story of Fruitless Mountain
Fruitless Mountain is the heart of Jade
Dragon. Her children turned themselves
into rivers so that humans would not die
when she refused them rain; she then turned
herself into a river, but their spirits had been
released from the water. Her heart will be
hard until she reunites with at least one of
her children. [Story explains why the
village is so poor.]
2
11–15
Minli wants to help her parents and
change their fortune. She buys a
goldfish which is promised to bring
gold and jade.
--------------
3
16–25
Minli’s mother is angry because
Minli spent a penny on a goldfish.
The Story of the Old Man of the Moon
The evil magistrate (called Magistrate
Tiger) insists that everyone must bow to
him and wishes to marry his son into the
imperial family. He meets an old man
reading from a strange book, the book of
fortune. The old man prophesizes that the
magistrate’s son will marry a grocer’s
daughter, then a baby, and the magistrate
sends a man to kill her. When the boy
married, his wife turns out to be the
grocer’s daughter; she survived an attack
and was adopted by the king. [Shows the
power of the Old Man of the Moon to tell
futures and arrange fortunes. Minli thinks
he can solve her problems.]
4
26–29
Minli sets the goldfish free so they
won’t have to feed it. The goldfish
talks and tells her the way to Never-
Ending Mountain, where the Old
Man of the Moon lives.
------------------
5
30–32
Minli packs a bag and goes off in
search of the Old Man of the Moon.
---------------
6
33–35
Minli makes a compass and walks
all night into the forest.
-------------------
7
36–39
Ma and Ba find Minli’s note, follow
her to bring her home.
-----------------
8
40–42
Minli comes to a salty lake and hears
a voice calling for help. She dives in
and finds a dragon.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
9
43–45
Ma and Ba push on through the
forest. Ma blames Ba for Minli
leaving. They meet up with the
goldfish seller.
-----------------
10
46–49
The dragon was tied up by monkeys
while he slept because they were too
greedy to share their peaches. His
tears have formed the salty lake. He
tells Minli that he cannot fly. She
cuts him free, even though she must
dive down to do it.
-----------------
11
50–59
Minli frees the dragon and assures
him he is real. They become friends.
The Story of the Dragon
The dragon was born from a painting made
with a special inkstone, and was given as a
bribe to the Magistrate. His eyes were
missing and when the magistrate inked
them in, he became alive and ran off into
the forest. [This explains the dragon.]
12
60–68
Ma and Ba meet the goldfish man,
who tries to convince them to trust
Minli. He gives them a silver
goldfish.
The Story of the Goldfish Man
His grandmother was a fortune-teller who
read his fortune—to die on his 19
th
birthday. She told him he had one chance
to change his fortune and sent him to the
Old Man of the Moon with a bottle of fine
wine and wonderful cakes. He put the food
and wine next to an old man who was
reading a book and absently the old man ate
it. Then the goldfish man told his story and
the Old Man of the Moon changed his death
from 19 to 99 in gratitude for the food. [So
fates can be changed.]
13
69–73
Minli rides the dragon through the
forest, where they hear the
screeching of the angry monkeys as
they get close to the peach trees.
Minli figures the dragon is at least
100 because he remembers when the
peach orchard was just a peach pit.
Their challenge is to figure out how
to get past the monkeys.
-----------------
14
74–78
Minli tricks the monkeys by cooking
rice and covering it with fishnet.
The monkeys can reach in but
cannot get out with their fists full of
rice. While they are stuck, Minli
and the dragon go through the
orchard.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
15
79–87
Ma and Ba can’t decide whether to
go forward or go back. Ba tells a
story at the urging of the silver
goldfish. After the story, Ma agrees
to go home and wait for Minli’s
return.
The Story of the Paper of Happiness
There was a very happy family. The Tiger
Magistrate sent soldiers to get their secret of
happiness. The head of the family wrote
down the secret and placed it into a box. As
the soldiers went back, one stumbled, the
box broke, and the paper floated away. It
had one character written on it, over and
over, but the soldier could not read. The
magistrate thought that no one word could
be the secret of happiness, so he sent the
soldiers back to punish the family, but they
were gone, lock, stock and barrel.
[Convinces parents that Minli, like the
secret of happiness, cannot be found.]
16
88–96
After feasting on peaches and
walking for many days, Minli tells
Dragon that she is supposed to go to
the City of Bright Moonlight and
find the Guardian of the city to get
the borrowed line. They meet a fish
asking if one of them is Aunt Jin,
who is supposed to come back to
show the fish that the Dragon Gate is
real. Fish directs them to the City of
Bright Moonlight, but advises
dragon to stay hidden.
The Story of the Dragon Gate
There is a Dragon Gate over a huge
waterfall. If a fish can get up the waterfall
and through the gate, it will be transformed
into a dragon. [Suggests that Aunt Jin is the
fish that Minli set free.]
17
97–101
Minli goes into the Outer City and a
boy with a water buffalo gives her
direction to the Inner City, which is
guarded. She can’t get in, so she
goes home with the water buffalo
boy.
-----------------
18
102–10
Minli goes home with the buffalo
boy, whose parents are dead, and she
realizes how much better even her
poor home is. They share dinner
and he tells her about his friend. He
suggests that she will know how
Minli can see the king.
The Story of the Buffalo Boy’s Friend
The buffalo boy follows the buffalo to a
clear lake, where seven girls are swimming.
Six of the girls grab their clothes and run
away, but the buffalo is on the 7
th
girl’s
clothes. The buffalo boy gives them to him;
they talk and become friends. Now she
visits him every month when she comes to
see her grandfather.
19
111–14
The boy’s friend has said that the
king might be at the Market of
Green Abundance the next day.
-----------------
20
115–17
Ma is softening—she offers to help
carry the fishbowl and she feeds the
fish. They return home.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
21
118–25
Minli gives her last coin to a mean
vendor to buy a peach for an old
beggar. The beggar, who turns out
to be a magician plants the peach pit,
puts his stick in the hole, and brings
a peach tree into being. He feeds the
crowd from the tree, but the peaches
are disappearing from the mean
vendor’s stand. When he leaves,
Minli runs and grabs his arm, and
sees his gold dragon bracelet,
indicating that he is the king.
-----------------
22
126–31
Minli follows the king through a
secret door into the palace garden.
He hides her when his servants come
and orders them to bring two meals
to the pavilion, where he plans to
“commune with the moon.”
-----------------
23
132–42
The king and Minli have a delicious
dinner and he tells her that his great-
great-grandfather was the boy who
married the grocer’s daughter. He
also tells her this missing part of the
story. He gives her the paper, which
gives answers, but the answers
change with the problem; he thinks
the paper is the “borrowed line” she
seeks. Tonight it says, “You only
lose what you cling to.” He thinks it
is time the paper returns to the book.
The Unknown Part of the Story of the Old
Man of the Moon
The angry magistrate tore a page from the
Old Man of the Moon’s book, which was
the paper with the secret of happiness. The
page had been treasured by the kings of the
city for generations. [Ripping a page from
the Book of Fortune will not change one’s
fate.]
24
142–49
Dragon meets the stone lions, who
are alive and who are the guardians
of the city. After hearing the story
of the string, the dragon identifies it
as the borrowed line and the lions
give it to him.
A String of Destiny
The king’s father came to the city with his
officials, and turbulence occurred. This city
was cracking! The stone lions saw the Old
Man of the Moon and asked him for help.
He gave them a red string used to bind
people together and told them to hold on to
it until it was needed. The king rejected his
father and restored harmony to the city, so
the string has not been used yet. [Hold onto
things until they are needed.]
25
150–52
Ma weeps for Minli and fears she
will not return. Ba says he thinks
the words on the paper of happiness
must be “faith,” and he comforts his
wife.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
26
153–56
Minli awakes to find her traveling
kit and the borrowed line (paper)
beside her. She finds the dragon and
they realize they each have a
“borrowed line.” The question is:
Which is the real one?
-----------------
27
157–59
As they travel, the earth becomes
colder and more barren. They see
something yellow far ahead. They
decide to spend the night in a cave,
but Minli cannot sleep for thinking
of Ma and Ba and the boy. Then she
hears a noise and goes out—to find a
terrible tiger.
-----------------
28
160–61
Ba and Ma are afraid for Minli in a
terrible storm. They pray to the
moon to keep her safe.
-----------------
29
162–66
The tiger—huge, green, horrible,
and cruel—attacks Minli but Dragon
saves her. However, he is clawed by
the tiger and the gashes fester; he
becomes very sick.
-----------------
30
167–71
Minli goes toward the village to get
help, but encounters the tiger. She
picks up a sharp stone, but a little
boy grabs her and pulls her down.
She watches as a little girl goes to
the tiger and tells it a story.
The Story the Girl Told the Green Tiger
She reminds the tiger that he demanded two
children each month be paid in tribute to
him. She and her brother were to be the
first, but another beast had dragged her
brother away. She flatters the tiger, relays
insults from the other beast (who claims he
is the tiger’s son) and offers to take him to
the other beast’s cave. [They save Minli
and their village through courage and
cleverness. Both are needed.]
31
172–74
The little girl brings the tiger to an
abandoned house and tells him the
other beast is in a hole, which is
actually an old well. He growls at
his own reflection, gets furious at his
own echo, and leaps into the well
and is destroyed.
-----------------
32
175–78
The children are A-Fu and Da-Fu.
Their grandfather catches up with
them as they celebrate killing the
tiger. He has a medicine bag and
they hurry off to save the dragon.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
33
179–81
The grandfather pours the medicine
over the wounds and they begin to
heal. The children take Minli home
with them to rest, while the
grandfather stays.
-----------------
34
182–88
They reach the village where Da-A-
Fu live. There are beautiful yellow
flowering trees, but the rest of the
village looks drab. The children tell
Minli the story of the flowering
trees.
The Story of the Village of the Moon Rain
The village land was barren, no matter how
hard the villagers worked. Rain fell like
pearls one night and disappeared into the
ground. The next night, the rain fell again
and the villagers gathered the pearls in
baskets. They turned out to be seeds. They
planted the seeds and when the rain fell
again, the silver trees with golden flowers
began to grow. Now they plant seeds every
day and more trees sprout. [Nature is
generous and beautiful, but work is also
necessary.]
35
189–91
Ma and Ba clean up after the storm
but still worry about Minli. The fish
is silent. Ma actually laughs once at
Ba.
-----------------
36
192–
202
Minli sleeps and wakes refreshed.
Amah gives her some tea made from
the golden flowers, which is the
medicine that is curing the dragon.
They tell how they discovered the
medicine by accident and Minli tells
her adventures. The twins know
where Never-Ending Mountain is—a
day’s journey away—and promise to
take Minli there.
The Story of the Green Tiger and the Tea
The Green Tiger is the spirit of the angry
magistrate who was banned by his son. He
punished and destroyed people. The men
tried to kill him, but he was too strong and
wounded half of them with his poisonous
claws. When he came to the village, he left
a sign that indicated he wanted two children
sacrificed every month. Amah was out
getting water to clean wounds when she
saw the tiger and hid behind the flowering
trees. When he left, she boiled the water,
which had fallen flowers in it, making tea.
The tea healed grandfather and the other
men. [Explains how the tea the dragon was
using was found.]
37
203–08
The dragon comes to the village,
where he is treated kindly. After
breakfast, the twins and Minli set
off. She has a warm new jacket,
which the villagers made overnight
from pieces of their own clothing
displaying generosity and kindness!
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
38
209–16
They ride on Dragon’s back toward
Never-Ending Mountain. Da-A-Fu
tell how the Old Man of the Moon
brought their ancestors to the
village.
The Story of Da-A-Fu’s Ancestors
Their ancestors are the happy family that
gave the magistrate the paper. When
warned that he was going to punish them,
they decided to have one more happy day.
They had a picnic and flew and flew their
kites on the mountain, letting the kites go
free at the end of the day. As they walked
sadly home, they realized they were on a
different mountain, yet they found find their
village at the bottom, just as they had left it.
They realized that the kites had told the
moon their story and the moon took pity on
them and moved their village. [Moon can
intervene in fates.]
39
217–22
They arrive at Never-Ending
Mountain, but she realizes it is too
high to climb. Flying is the only way
to reach the Moon. Minli makes a
kite from the two borrowed lines—
the paper (a page from the Book of
Fortune and the string, the red cord)
plus her chopsticks. (Meanwhile, the
twins leave laughing that someone
might want to change their fortune.)
As Minli flies it up, the string keeps
magically lengthening. Finally she
feels a tug, but she cannot bring it
down. The string begins to thicken,
turning into a web and then a
delicate bridge.
-----------------
40
224–32
Ba agrees with Ma that it is hard to
wait, that it is like the dragon
waiting for his pearl. Ma actually
asks to hear the story. When he
finishes, she does not show the envy
of wealth that she has shown in the
past. She is changed inside. Ma has
lost her envy of others and has
become more serene.
The Story of the Dragon’s Pearl
A dragon worked for many years to make a
perfect, glowing pearl, and then the Queen
Mother of the Heavens stole it and locked it
away. When she showed it off to some
guests at a party, the dragon saw the light
and burst in. She fled with the pearl and,
cornered, tossed it over the garden gate,
where it sank into the Celestial River. Her
father scolded them both and said to leave it
there, when all people could enjoy its light.
That is the origin of the moon. [Beautiful
things should be shared, not kept greedily.]
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
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Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
41
233–35
The dragon is too big and heavy to
climb the rope bridge, but Minli
promises to ask his question for him.
She bravely starts up the long
bridge.
-----------------
42
236–44
After a long climb, Minli reaches a
white wall and is greeted by a white
rabbit, who has been expecting her
and tells her she is a little late. She
sees a man. Wu Kang, cutting down
the only tree, and the Rabbit tells his
story.
The Story of Wu Kang
Wu Kang was never satisfied, even though
he had a good family and farm. He moved
to the town but that was not enough. He
moved to the city and tried different
professions, but they were never enough.
Finally, he sought out an Immortal, the Old
Man of the Moon. Although the immortal
taught him many things, he was never
satisfied. So the Old Man of the Moon tied
him with red thread to a tree and said he
would learn patience and contentment by
chopping the tree down. The tree always
grows back and its seeds drop down to earth
(becoming the seeds that fall on Da-A-Fu’s
village), so Wu Kang must learn patience or
chop for all eternity. [Be satisfied with the
good things in your life.]
43
246–50
Minli sees the Old Man of the Moon
sitting with a giant book in his lap.
He is tying clay figures together
with red strings from a bag, the same
bag carried by the buffalo boy’s
friend, who turns out to be the
goddess of weaving. He recognizes
her and tells her he will answer one
question. She is torn between asking
her question and the Dragon’s
question. Then she sees that the
page has been returned to the book
of Fortune, and the character on it
says Thankfulness. She is thankful
for her friend the dragon and all his
help, and she decides to ask his
question (Why can’t he fly?”)
Thereby, she forfeits her own
question.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
9 -- Permission is granted to educators to reproduce this worksheet for classroom use
Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
44
251–55
Ma and Ba are still waiting. He tells
stories to pass the time and ease their
minds each night. One night she
says she will tell a story.
The Story That Ma Told
There was a discontented woman who was
never satisfied with her simple life with her
loving husband and beautiful daughter, but
always wanted more. She was bitter and
complaining and eventually her daughter
left home to try to improve the family’s
fortunes. The woman repented and asked
forgiveness of her husband and hoped to be
able to ask it of her daughter. [If you make
happy those that are near, those that are far
will come.]
45
256–59
The dragon waits three nights. Minli
returns and yanks the stone off the
dragon’s head and suddenly he can
fly. She explains that she did not
need to ask her question because she
has learned from the buffalo boy’s
simple life, the king’s generosity,
and Da-A-Fu’s unwillingness to
change their fortune, that fortune is
not gold, but something more. She
realizes that she already possesses
good fortune at home with her
parents.
-----------------
46
260–65
Minli and the dragon fly home, over
Da-A-Fu’s village, the City of
Bright Moonlight, and the monkeys.
When they get close to Fruitless
Mountain, they see another dragon,
gold—Aunt Jin, the goldfish
transformed? The dragon feels very
at-home at Fruitless Mountain and
the nearby Jade River. Minli
continue on alone. When she arrives
home, she is greeted warmly by the
goldfish and slips into bed.
-----------------
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”: A Common Core Exemplar
10 -- Permission is granted to educators to reproduce this worksheet for classroom use
Chapter
Pages
Main Story
Embedded Story
47
266–70
In the morning, Ma and Ba are
thrilled to see Minli. The stone turns
out to be a valuable dragon’s pearl.
Fruitless Mountain has turned green
and the Jade River has now become
clear. (Minli wonders if her dragon
friend might be one of Jade
Dragon’s lost children? He was
born from a painting, but perhaps
one made with an inkstone from
Fruitless Mountain, which is Jade
Dragon’s heart.) Minli realizes that
all her questions have been answered
and the village is prosperous after
all.
-----------------
48
271–78
The goldfish man comes back after
2–3 years thinking he is at another
village as he finds the village
prosperous. He sells out and learns
what happened. The people gave the
king of the City of Bright Moonlight
the priceless Dragon’s pearl, and in
turn, he gave them seeds and farm
equipment in gratitude. These were
more valuable to the villagers than
gold. Minli and her family now have
a big house with pictures of lucky
children on the gate, like A-Fu and
Da-Fu. The gate has lion-head
knockers. Children are drinking
Dragon Well tea in the house and
waiting to hear stories. Minli’s
parents greet the goldfish man
warmly. He finds Minli is in back,
bathed in moonlight and smiling at
the moon with children waiting to
hear the story of her journey from
Never-Ending Mountain.
-----------------
