From early legends and the Chu Ci (Songs of Chu, a Han-dynasty anthology of Warring States period poetry) to the literature of the Han (221 BC-220 AD) and the Six Dynasties (220-589), a comprehensive set of ideas emerged based on the belief that above the world there was a fairyland where life was better than in this world and where all things could live on in their worldly form.
在早期神話與楚辭、漢魏六朝一路而下的文學、小說中，也出現一套完整的想法，相信世上有個仙境，比現實人生更好，萬物又可以保持現有生命型態生活其中。