Note 15 — Chapter X · The Mother-goddess of China and Japan
Reading edition
The Purple Sea idea may have been derived from the ancient Well of Life story about El Khidr,15 whose body and clothing turned green after he had bathed in it. Purple supplanted green and blue as the colour of immortality and royalty after murex dye became the great commercial asset of sea-traders. Tung Fang So may have had attached to his memory a late and imported version of the El Khidr story.