The Silver River lute). The story is based on a 4,000-year-old Chinese folktale about the creation of Night and Day, a story of star-crossed lovers. "The Silver River" is the Chinese name for what is known in the West as the "Milky Way", the galaxy of the solar system. In Chinese tradition, the Silver River bathed heaven and earth in constant light and connected both realms, allowing earthly and celestial creatures to meet. The Jade Emperor, Lord of Heaven, dreams of a chaos that plunges heaven and earth into darkness. His nightmare comes true when the mortal Cowherd (also known as Buffalo Boy
Myth of the flat Earth Boston College theology professor and ex-priest Thomas Groome erroneously stated that "the Catholic Church never said the earth is round, but just stopped saying it was flat." The 1937 popular song "They All Laughed" contains the couplet "They all laughed at Christopher Columbus/When he said the world was round". In the Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" cartoon "Hare We Go" (1951) Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand the Catholic quarrel about the shape of the Earth; the king states the Earth is flat. In Walt Disney's 1963 animation "The Sword in the Stone", wizard Merlin (who has traveled into the future) explains to