Creatures of Time: The Kong Chiang

Lasting far longer than dynasties or governments is the Kong Chiang. Whereas Krannozhi perceives only the future at the expense of the present, the Kong Chiang witnesses all of time, from beginning to end, as now. Scrolls uncovered in the western deserts of China and traced to the Zhou Dynasty, approximately 900 years before the time of Christ, depict the Kong Chiang as a type of tiger, always in movement, always in profile. Its black and orange stripes trail behind it, either blurred by its speed, or forever attempting to regain ground on their own hide. 

The Kong Chiang occupies the element of air, but it is one of the few creatures of this realm that does not fly. A jade sculpture bought by an Italian merchant near Shanghai and dated to the early Ming Dynasty of the 14^th century depicts an evolution of the Kong Chiang in the form of a flattened monkey.

The Kong Chiang is said to travel at speeds so great that time itself must slow to nothing. Albert Einstein surmised that objects travelling at high speeds could alter their own passage through time, thereby exchanging sequence for confluence. Chinese mainstream culture has appropriated modern science to help explain this creature. If the Kong Chiang were able to travel at what amounts to light speed, it would also grow to near-infinite mass. If it somehow did not, it would nonetheless leave an easily recognizable path encircling the Earth (to say nothing of the devastation a being moving at light speed would have to life on the planet). 

Since neither of these things is true, it has been surmised that the Kong Chiang resides only in bi-dimensional space, consisting of length and height, but no width.

Even if this implausible hypothesis were correct, there would be a line of points having no width, which no man would be able to cross (as the Kong Chiang would be continuously passing through every point of the line). Viewing this line from the side would show only a plane of whatever color the Kong Chiang may be. Touching this plane would be akin to pressing flesh to propeller blades, though its effect on the creature itself is unknown. 

The sun stretches into the moon through night and day while all events of human history are a tapestry woven within itself to the Kong Chiang. Existence is homogeneous. Legends describe the Kong Chiang as a friend to the indecisive and carpenters.