Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook: Unit: Chinese Fairy Tales

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Myth-Folklore Unit: Chinese Fairy Tales

Overview. In this selection of stories from Wilhelm's Chinese Fairy Book, you will find fairy tales (some that end happily ever after, and some not so), animal legends (including the reason "why the dog and cat are enemies"), plus many stories of magic and the supernatural, including a legend about a ghostly general and a haunted battlefield, as well as tales of flying ogres and shape-shifting demons. You will meet the heavenly hero Yang Oerlang, along with Guan Yu, the god of war, and other heavenly beings such as the "Silkworm Goddess." There are talking silver foxes, too, including the story of a farmer who was bold enough to steal the fox-fire, the elixir of life itself breathed out by one of these mythical creatures.

Language. The book is written in contemporary English, so the language used should not pose any problems.

Story Length. These are all single-page stories.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Chinese Fairy Tales. Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

READING A:

READING B:

China: The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck

ONCE upon a time there was a proud prince who had a daughter. But the daughter was a child of ill luck. When it came time for her to marry, she had all her suitors assemble before her father’s palace. She was going to throw down a ball of red silk among them, and whoever caught it was to be her husband. Now there were many princes and counts gathered before the castle, and in their midst there was also a beggar. And the princess could see dragons crawling into his ears and crawling out again from his nostrils, for he was a child of luck. So she threw the ball to the beggar, and he caught it.

Her father asked angrily: “Why did you throw the ball into the beggar’s hands?”

“He is a favorite of Fortune,” said the princess. “I will marry him, and then, perhaps, I will share in his good luck.”

But her father would not hear of it, and since she insisted, he drove her from the castle in his rage. So the princess had to go off with the beggar. She dwelt with him in a little hut, and had to hunt for herbs and roots, and cook them herself so that they might have something to eat, and often they both went hungry.

One day her husband said to her: “I will set out and seek my fortune. And when I have found it, I will come back again and fetch you.” The princess was willing, and he went away and was gone for eighteen years. Meanwhile the princess lived in want and affliction, for her father remained hard and merciless. If her mother had not secretly given her food and money, no doubt she would have starved to death during all that time.

But the beggar found his fortune, and at length became emperor. He returned and stood before his wife. She however, no longer recognized him: she only knew that he was the powerful emperor.

He asked her how she were getting along.

“Why do you ask me how I am getting along?” she replied. “I am too far beneath your notice.”

“And who may your husband be!”

“My husband was a beggar. He went away to seek his fortune. That was eighteen years ago, and he has not yet returned.”

“And what have you done during all those long years?”

“I have been waiting for him to return.”

“Do you wish to marry some one else, seeing that he has been missing so long?”

“No, I will remain his wife until I die.”

When the emperor saw how faithful his wife was, he told her who he was, had her clothed in magnificent garments, and took her with him to his imperial palace. And there they lived in splendor and happiness.

After a few days the emperor said to his wife: “We spend every day in festivities, as though every day were New Year.”

“And why should we not celebrate,” answered his wife, “since we have now become emperor and empress?”

Yet his wife was a child of ill luck. When she had been empress no more than eighteen days, she fell sick and died.

But her husband lived for many a long year.

Next: The Cave of the Beasts

(Twin Dragons, Luck)

(500 words)

China: The Cave of the Beasts

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Cave of the Beasts

ONCE upon a time there was a family in which there were seven daughters. One day when the father went out to gather wood, he found seven wild duck eggs.

(duck eggs, photo by P. Williams)

He brought them home, but did not think of giving any to his children, intending to eat them himself, with his wife.

In the evening the oldest daughter woke up and asked her mother what she was cooking. The mother said: “I am cooking wild duck eggs. I will give you one, but you must not let your sisters know.” And so she gave her one.

Then the second daughter woke up and asked her mother what she was cooking. She said: “Wild duck eggs. If you will not tell your sisters, I’ll give you one.” And so it went. At last the daughters had eaten all the eggs, and there were none left.

In the morning the father was very angry with the children and said: “Who wants to go along to grandmother?” But he intended to lead the children into the mountains and let the wolves devour them there.

The older daughters suspected this and said: “We are not going along!” But the two younger ones said: “We will go with you.” And so they drove off with their father.

After they had driven a good ways, they asked: “Will we soon get to grandmother’s house?”

“Right away,” said their father.

And when they had reached the mountains he told them: “Wait here. I will drive into the village ahead of you and tell grandmother that you are coming.” And then he drove off with the donkey-cart.

They waited and waited, but their father did not come. At last they decided that their father would not come back to fetch them and that he had left them alone in the mountains. So, they went further and further into the hills seeking a shelter for the night.

Then they spied a great stone. This they selected for a pillow and rolled it over to the place where they were going to lie down to sleep. And then they saw that the stone was the door to a cave. There was a light in the cave, and they went into it.

The light they had seen came from the many precious stones and jewels of every sort in the cave, which belonged to a wolf and a fox. They had a number of jars of precious stones and pearls that shone by night.

The girls said: “What a lovely cave this is! We will lie right down and go to bed.” For there stood two golden beds with gold-embroidered covers. So they lay down and fell asleep.

During the night the wolf and fox came home.

And the wolf said: “I smell human flesh!”

But the fox replied: “Oh, nonsense! There are no human beings who can enter our cave. We lock it up too well for that.”

The wolf said: “Very well, then let us lie down in our beds and sleep.”

But the fox answered: “Let us curl up in the kettles on the hearth. They still hold a little warmth from the fire.” The one kettle was of gold and the other of silver, and they curled up in them.

When the girls rose early in the morning, they saw the wolf and the fox lying there and were much frightened. And they put the covers on the kettles and heaped a number of big stones on them so that the wolf and the fox could not get out again. Then they made a fire.

The wolf and the fox said: “Oh, how nice and warm it is this morning! How does that happen?”

But at length it grew too hot for them. Then they noticed that the two girls had kindled a fire and they cried: “Let us out! We will give you lots of precious stones, and lots of gold, and will do you no harm!”

But the girls would not listen to them, and kept on making a bigger fire. So that was the end of the wolf and the fox in the kettles.

Then the girls lived happily for a number of days in the cave. But their father was seized with a longing for his daughters, and he went into the mountains to look for them. And he sat right down on the stone in front of the cave to rest, and tapped his pipe against it to empty the ashes.

Then the girls within called out: “Who is knocking at our door?”

And the father said: “Are those not my daughters’ voices?”

While the daughters replied: “Is that not our father’s voice?”

Then they pushed aside the stone and saw that it was their father, and their father was glad to see them once more. He was much surprised to think that they should have chanced on this cave full of precious stones, and they told him the whole story. Then their father fetched people to help him carry home the jewels. And when they got home, his wife wondered where he had obtained all these treasures.

So the father and daughters told her everything, and they became a very wealthy family, and lived happily to the end of their days.

Next: The Panther

(900 words)

China: The Panther

Compare the conclusion of the cats' battle against a monster in this Tibetan story: The Two Little Cats.

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

(Chinese leopard / panther)

The Panther

ONCE upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters and a little son. And one day the mother said to her daughters: “Take good care of the house for I am going to see grandmother, together with your little brother!” So the daughters promised her they would do so, and their mother went off.

On her way a panther met her, and asked where she were going.

She said: “I am going with my child to see my mother.”

“Will you not rest a bit?” asked the panther.

“No,” said she, “it is already late, and it is a long road to where my mother lives.”

But the panther did not cease urging her, and finally she gave in and sat down by the road side.

“I will comb your hair a bit,” said the panther. And the woman allowed the panther to comb her hair. But as he passed his claws through her hair, he tore off a bit of her skin and devoured it.

“Stop!” cried the woman; “the way you comb my hair hurts!”

But the panther tore off a much larger piece of skin. Now the woman wanted to call for help, but the panther seized and devoured her. Then he turned on her little son and killed him too, put on the woman’s clothes, and laid the child’s bones, which he had not yet devoured, in her basket.

After that he went to the woman’s home, where her two daughters were, and called in at the door: “Open the door, daughters! Mother has come home!”

But they looked out through a crack and said: “Our mother’s eyes are not so large as yours!”

Then the panther said: “I have been to grandmother’s house and saw her hens laying eggs. That pleases me and is the reason why my eyes have grown so large.”

“Our mother had no spots in her face such as you have.”

“Grandmother had no spare bed, so I had to sleep on the peas, and they pressed themselves into my face.”

“Our mother’s feet are not so large as yours.”

“Stupid things! That comes from walking such a distance. Come, open the door quickly!”

Then the daughters said to each other: “It must be our mother,” and they opened the door.

But when the panther came in, they saw it was not really their mother after all.

At evening, when the daughters were already in bed, the panther was still gnawing the bones he had brought with him.

Then the daughters asked: “Mother, what are you eating?”

“I’m eating beets,” was the answer.

Then the daughters said: “Oh, mother, give us some of your beets, too! We are so hungry!”

“No,” was the reply, “I will not give you any. Now be quiet and go to sleep.”

But the daughters kept on begging until the false mother gave them a little finger. And then they saw that it was their little brother’s finger, and they said to each other: “We must make haste to escape else he will eat us as well.”

And with that they ran out of the door, climbed up into a tree in the yard, and called down to the false mother: “Come out! We can see our neighbor’s son celebrating his wedding!” But it was the middle of the night.

Then the mother came out, and when she saw that they were sitting in the tree, she called out angrily: “Why, I’m not able to climb!”

The daughters said: “Get into a basket and throw us the rope and we will draw you up!”

The mother did as they said. But when the basket was half-way up, they began to swing it back and forth and bump it against the tree. Then the false mother had to turn into a panther again, lest she fall down. And the panther leaped out of the basket and ran away.

Gradually daylight came. The daughters climbed down, seated themselves on the doorstep, and cried for their mother. And a needle-vender came by and asked them why they were crying.

“A panther has devoured our mother and our brother,” said the girls. “He has gone now, but he is sure to return and devour us as well.”

Then the needle-vender gave them a pair of needles and said: “Stick these needles in the cushion of the arm chair with the points up.” The girls thanked him and went on crying.

Soon a scorpion-catcher came by, and he asked them why they were crying.

“A panther has devoured our mother and brother,” said the girls. “He has gone now, but he is sure to return and devour us as well.”

The man gave them a scorpion and said: “Put it behind the hearth in the kitchen.” The girls thanked him and went on crying.

Then an egg-seller came by and asked them why they were crying.

“A panther has devoured our mother and our brother,” said the girls. “He has gone now, but he is sure to return and devour us as well.”

So he gave them an egg and said: “Lay it beneath the ashes in the hearth.” The girls thanked him and went on crying.

Then a dealer in turtles came by, and they told him their tale. He gave them a turtle and said: “Put it in the water-barrel in the yard.”

And then a man came by who sold wooden clubs. He asked them why they were crying. And they told him the whole story. Then he gave them two wooden clubs and said: “Hang them up over the door to the street.” The girls thanked him and did as the men had told them.

In the evening the panther came home. He sat down in the armchair in the room. Then the needles in the cushion stuck into him. So he ran into the kitchen to light the fire and see what had jabbed him so, and then it was that the scorpion hooked his sting into his hand. And when at last the fire was burning, the egg burst and spurted into one of his eyes, which was blinded. So he ran out into the yard and dipped his hand into the water-barrel, in order to cool it, and then the turtle bit it off. And when in his pain he ran out through the door into the street, the wooden clubs fell on his head and that was the end of him.

Next: Why Dog and Cat are Enemies

(1100 words)

China: Why Dog and Cat are Enemies

For a different story about the enmity of the cat and dog, see this story in the Jewish Fairy Tales unit: The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog.

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies

ONCE upon a time there was a man and his wife and they had a ring of gold. It was a lucky ring, and whoever owned it always had enough to live on. But this they did not know, and hence sold the ring for a small sum. But no sooner was the ring gone than they began to grow poorer and poorer, and at last did not know when they would get their next meal.

They had a dog and a cat, and these had to go hungry as well. Then the two animals took counsel together as to how they might restore to their owners their former good fortune. At length the dog hit upon an idea.

“They must have the ring back again,” he said to the cat.

The cat answered: “The ring has been carefully locked up in the chest where no one can get at it.”

“You must catch a mouse,” said the dog, “and the mouse must gnaw a hole in the chest and fetch out the ring. And if she does not want to, say that you will bite her to death, and you will see that she will do it.”

This advice pleased the cat, and she caught a mouse. Then she wanted to go to the house in which stood the chest, and the dog came after.

They came to a broad river. And since the cat could not swim, the dog took her on his back and swam across with her.

Then the cat carried the mouse to the house in which the chest stood. The mouse gnawed a hole in the chest and fetched out the ring. The cat put the ring in her mouth and went back to the river, where the dog was waiting for her, and swam across with her. Then they started out together for home, in order to bring the lucky ring to their master and mistress.

But the dog could only run along the ground; when there was a house in the way, he always had to go around it. The cat, however, quickly climbed over the roof, and so she reached home long before the dog and brought the ring to her master.

Then her master said to his wife: “What a good creature the cat is! We will always give her enough to eat and care for her as though she were our own child!”

But when the dog came home they beat him and scolded him, because he had not helped to bring home the ring again. And the cat sat by the fireplace, purred and said never a word.

Then the dog grew angry at the cat, because she had robbed him of his reward, and when he saw her he chased her and tried to seize her.

And ever since that day cat and dog are enemies.

Next: Yang Oerlang

(etching by Hendrik Hondius)

(500 words)

China: Yang Oerlang

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Yang Oerlang

THE second daughter of the Ruler of Heaven once came down upon the earth and secretly became the wife of a mortal man named Yang. And when she returned to Heaven she was blessed with a son. But the Ruler of Heaven was very angry at this desecration of the heavenly halls. He banished her to earth and covered her with the Wu-I hills.

Her son, however, Oerlang by name, the nephew of the Ruler of Heaven, was extraordinarily gifted by nature. By the time he was full grown, he had learned the magic art of being able to control eight times nine transformations. He could make himself invisible or could assume the shape of birds and beasts, grasses, flowers, snakes and fishes, as he chose. He also knew how to empty out seas and remove mountains from one place to another. So he went to the Wu-I hills and rescued his mother, whom he took on his back and carried away.

They stopped to rest on a flat ledge of rock.

Then the mother said: “I am very thirsty!”

Oerlang climbed down into the valley in order to fetch her water, and some time passed before he returned. When he, did his mother was no longer there. He searched eagerly, but on the rock lay only her skin and bones, and a few blood-stains.

Now you must know that at that time there were still ten suns in the heavens, glowing and burning like fire. The Daughter of Heaven, it is true, was divine by nature, yet because she had incurred the anger of her father and had been banished to earth, her magic powers had failed her. Then, too, she had been imprisoned so long beneath the hills in the dark that, coming out suddenly into the sunlight, she had been devoured by its blinding radiance.

When Oerlang thought of his mother’s sad end, his heart ached. He took two mountains on his shoulders, pursued the suns, and crushed them to death between the mountains. And whenever he had crushed another sun-disk, he picked up a fresh mountain. In this way he had already slain nine of the ten suns, and there was but one left. And as Oerlang pursued him relentlessly, he hid himself in his distress beneath the leaves of the portulacca plant.

(portulacca plant)

But there was a rainworm close by who betrayed his hiding-place, and kept repeating: “There he is! There he is!”

Oerlang was about to seize him when a messenger from the Ruler of the Heaven suddenly descended from the skies with a command: “Sky, air and earth need the sunshine. You must allow this one sun to live, so that all created beings may live. Yet, because you rescued your mother, and showed yourself to be a good son, you shall be a god, and be my bodyguard in the Highest Heaven, and shall rule over good and evil in the mortal world, and have power over devils and demons.”

When Oerlang received this command he ascended to Heaven.

Then the sun-disk came out again from beneath the portulacca leaves,and out of gratitude, since the plant had saved him, he bestowed upon it the gift of a free-blooming nature, and ordained that it never need fear the sunshine. To this very day one may see on the lower side of the portulacca leaves quite delicate little white pearls. They are the sunshine that remained hanging to the leaves when the sun hid under them.

But the sun pursues the rainworm when he ventures forth out of the ground and dries him up as a punishment for his treachery.

Since that time Yang Oerlang has been honored as a god. He has oblique, sharply marked eyebrows, and holds a double-bladed, three-pointed sword in his hand. Two servants stand beside him, with a falcon and a hound, for Yang Oerlang is a great hunter. The falcon is the falcon of the gods, and the hound is the hound of the gods. When brute creatures gain possession of magic powers or demons oppress men, he subdues them by means of the falcon and hound.

Next: The Lady of the Moon

(700 words)

China: The Lady of the Moon

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Lady of the Moon

IN the days of the Emperor Yau lived a prince by the name of Hou I, who was a mighty hero and a good archer. Once ten suns rose together in the sky and shone so brightly and burned so fiercely that the people on earth could not endure them. So the Emperor ordered Hou I to shoot at them. And Hou I shot nine of them down from the sky.

Besides his bow, Hou I also had a horse which ran so swiftly that even the wind could not catch up with it. He mounted it to go a-hunting, and the horse ran away and could not be stopped. So Hou I came to Kunlun Mountain and met the Queen-Mother of the Jasper Sea. And she gave him the herb of immortality. He took it home with him and hid it in his room.

But his wife, who was named Tschang O, once ate some of it on the sly when he was not at home, and she immediately floated up to the clouds. When she reached the moon, she ran into the castle there and has lived there ever since as the Lady of the Moon.

On a night in mid-autumn, an emperor of the Tang dynasty once sat at wine with two sorcerers. And one of them took his bamboo staff and cast it into the air, where it turned into a heavenly bridge, on which the three climbed up to the moon together. There they saw a great castle on which was inscribed: “The Spreading Halls of Crystal Cold.” Beside it stood a cassia tree which blossomed and gave forth a fragrance filling all the air.

(illustration from the book)

And in the tree sat a man who was chopping off the smaller boughs with an ax. One of the sorcerers said: “That is the man in the moon. The cassia tree grows so luxuriantly that in the course of time it would overshadow all the moon’s radiance. Therefore it has to be cut down once in every thousand years.”

Then they entered the spreading halls. The silver stories of the castle towered one above the other, and its walls and columns were all formed of liquid crystal. In the walls were cages and ponds where fishes and birds moved as though alive. The whole moon-world seemed made of glass.

While they were still looking about them on all sides, the Lady of the Moon stepped up to them, clad in a white mantle and a rainbow-colored gown. She smiled and said to the emperor: “You are a prince of the mundane world of dust. Great is your fortune since you have been able to find your way here!” And she called for her attendants, who came flying up on white birds, and sang and danced beneath the cassia tree. A pure clear music floated through the air.

Beside the tree stood a mortar made of white marble in which a jasper rabbit ground up herbs. That was the dark half of the moon. When the dance had ended, the emperor returned to earth again with the sorcerers. And he had the songs which he had heard on the moon written down and sung to the accompaniment of flutes of jasper in his pear-tree garden.

Next: The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess

(600 words)

China: The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess

Here is the author's note to the story: "The stallion is the sign of the zodiac which rules the springtime, the season when the silkworms are cultivated. Hence she is called the Goddess with the Horse’s Head." You can read more about silkworms at Wikipedia.

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess

IN the dim ages of the past, there once was an old man who went on a journey. No one remained at home save his only daughter and a white stallion. The daughter fed the horse day by day, but she was lonely and yearned for her father.

So it happened that one day she said in jest to the horse: “If you will bring back my father to me, then I will marry you!”

No sooner had the horse heard her say this than he broke loose and ran away. He ran until he came to the place where her father was. When her father saw the horse, he was pleasantly surprised, caught him, and seated himself on his back. And the horse turned back the way he had come, neighing without a pause.

“What can be the matter with the horse?” thought the father. “Something must have surely gone wrong at home!” So he dropped the reins and rode back. And he fed the horse liberally because he had been so intelligent, but the horse ate nothing, and when he saw the girl, he struck out at her with his hoofs and tried to bite her. This surprised the father; he questioned his daughter, and she told him the truth, just as it had occurred.

“You must not say a word about it to any one,” spoke her father, “or else people will talk about us.”

And he took down his crossbow, shot the horse, and hung up his skin in the yard to dry. Then he went on his travels again.

One day his daughter went out walking with the daughter of a neighbor. When they entered the yard, she pushed the horse-hide with her foot and said: “What an unreasonable animal you were—wanting to marry a human being! What happened to you served you right!”

But before she had finished her speech, the horse-hide moved, rose up, wrapped itself about the girl and ran off.

Horrified, her companion ran home to her father and told him what had happened. The neighbors looked for the girl everywhere, but she could not be found.

At last, some days afterward, they saw the girl hanging from the branches of a tree, still wrapped in the horse-hide, and gradually she turned into a silkworm and wove a cocoon. And the threads which she spun were strong and thick. Her girl friend then took down the cocoon and let her slip out of it, and then she spun the silk and sold it at a large profit.

But the girl’s relatives longed for her greatly. So one day the girl appeared riding in the clouds on her horse, followed by a great company, and said: “In heaven I have been assigned to the task of watching over the growing of silkworms. You must yearn for me no longer!”

And thereupon they built temples to her in her native land and every year, at the silkworm season, sacrifices are offered to her and her protection is implored. And the Silkworm Goddess is also known as the Girl with the Horse’s Head.

(placing silkworms on screens)

Next: The God of War

(500 words)

China: The God of War

Here is the author's note to this story: "The Chinese God of War is a historical personality from the epoch of the three empires, which later joined the Han dynasty, about 250 A.D. Liu Be founded the “Little Han dynasty” in Setchuan, with the aid of Guan Yu and Dschang Fe. Guan Yu or Guan Di, i.e., “God Yuan,” has become one of the most popular figures in Chinese legend in the course of time, God of War and deliverer in one and the same person. The talk of the monk with the God Guan Di in the clouds is based on the Buddhist law of Karma. Because Guan Di—even though his motives might be good—had slain other men, he must endure like treatment at their hands, even while he is a god."

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

(Guan Yu statue)

The God of War

THE God of War, Guan Di, was really named Guan Yu. At the time when the rebellion of the Yellow Turbans was raging throughout the empire, he, together with two others whom he met by the wayside and who were inspired with the same love of country which possessed him, made a pact of friendship. One of the two was Liu Be, afterward emperor; the other was named Dschang Fe. The three met in a peach-orchard and swore to be brothers one to the other, although they were of different families. They sacrificed a white steed and vowed to be true to each other to the death.

Guan Yu was faithful, honest, upright and brave beyond all measure. He loved to read Confucius’s “Annals of Lu,” which tell of the rise and fall of empires. He aided his friend Liu Be to subdue the Yellow Turbans and to conquer the land of the four rivers. The horse he rode was known as the Red Hare and could run a thousand miles in a day. Guan Yu had a knife shaped like a half-moon which was called the Green Dragon. His eyebrows were beautiful like those of the silk-butterflies, and his eyes were long-slitted like the eyes of the Phoenix. His face was scarlet-red in color, and his beard so long that it hung down over his stomach. Once, when he appeared before the emperor, the latter called him Duke Fairbeard and presented him with a silken pocket in which to place his beard. He wore a garment of green brocade. Whenever he went into battle he showed invincible bravery. Whether he were opposed by a thousand armies or by ten thousand horsemen — he attacked them as though they were merely air.

Once the evil Tsau Tsau had incited the enemies of his master, the Emperor, to take the city by treachery. When Guan Yu heard of it, he hastened up with an army to relieve the town. But he fell into an ambush, and, together with his son, was brought a captive to the capital of the enemy’s land.

The prince of that country would have been glad to have had him go over to his side, but Guan Yu swore that he would not yield to death himself. Thereupon father and son were slain.

When he was dead, his horse Red Hare ceased to eat and died. A faithful captain of his, by name of Dschou Dsang, who was black-visaged and wore a great knife, had just invested a fortress when the news of the sad end of the duke reached him. And he, as well as other faithful followers would not survive their master and perished.

At the time a monk, who was an old compatriot and acquaintance of Duke Guan was living in the Hills of the Jade Fountains. He used to walk at night in the moonlight.

Suddenly he heard a loud voice cry down out of the air: “I want my head back again!”

The monk looked up and saw Duke Guan, sword in hand, seated on his horse, just as he appeared while living. And at his right and left hand, shadowy figures in the clouds, stood his son Guan Ping and his captain, Dschou Dsang.

The monk folded his hands and said: “While you lived you were upright and faithful, and in death you have become a wise god, and yet you do not understand fate! If you insist on having your head back again, to whom shall the many thousands of your enemies who lost their lives through you appeal in order to have life restored to them?”

When he heard this, the Duke Guan bowed and disappeared. Since that time he has been without interruption spiritually active. Whenever a new dynasty is founded, his holy form may be seen. For this reason temples and sacrifices have been instituted for him, and he has been made one of the gods of the empire. Like Confucius, he received the great sacrifice of oxen, sheep and pigs. His rank increases with the passing of centuries. First he was worshiped as Prince Guan, later as King Guan, and then as the great god who conquers the demons. The last dynasty, finally, worships him as the great, divine Helper of the Heavens. He is also called the God of War, and is a strong deliverer in all need, when men are plagued by devils and foxes. Together with Confucius, the Master of Peace, he is often worshiped as the Master of War.

Next: The Miserly Farmer

(800 words)

China: The Miserly Farmer

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Miserly Farmer

ONCE upon a time there was a farmer who had carted pears to market. Since they were very sweet and fragrant, he hoped to get a good price for them. A bonze [priest] with a torn cap and tattered robe stepped up to his cart and asked for one. The farmer repulsed him, but the bonze did not go. Then the farmer grew angry and began to call him names.

The bonze said: “You have pears by the hundred in your cart. I only ask for one. Surely that does you no great injury. Why suddenly grow so angry about it?”

The bystanders told the farmer that he ought to give the bonze one of the smaller pears and let him go. But the farmer would not and did not. An artisan saw the whole affair from his shop, and since the noise annoyed him, he took some money, bought a pear, and gave it to the bonze.

The bonze thanked him and said: “One like myself, who has given up the world, must not be miserly. I have beautiful pears myself, and I invite you all to eat them with me.”

Then someone asked: “If you have pears then why do you not eat your own?”

He answered: “I first must have a seed to plant.”

And with that he began to eat the pear with gusto. When he had finished, he held the pit in his hand, took his pick-ax from his shoulder; and dug a hole a couple of inches deep. Into this he thrust the pit and covered it with earth. Then he asked the folk in the market place for water with which to water it. A pair of curiosity seekers brought him hot water from the hostelry in the street, and with it the bonze watered the pit.

Thousands of eyes were turned on the spot. And the pit could already be seen to sprout. The sprout grew, and in a moment it had turned into a tree. Branches and leaves burgeoned out from it. It began to blossom, and soon the fruit had ripened: large, fragrant pears, which hung in thick clusters from the boughs. The bonze climbed into the tree and handed down the pears to the bystanders. In a moment all the pears had been eaten up. Then the bonze took his pick-ax and cut down the tree. Crash, crash! so it went for a while, and the tree was felled. Then he took the tree on his shoulder and walked away at an easy gait.

When the bonze had begun to make his magic, the farmer, too, had mingled with the crowd. With neck outstretched and staring eyes, he had stood there and had entirely forgotten the business he hoped to do with his pears. When the bonze had gone off he turned around to look after his cart. His pears had all disappeared. Then he realized that the pears the bonze had divided had been his own. He looked more closely, and the axle of his cart had disappeared. It was plainly evident that it had been chopped off quite recently.

The farmer fell into a rage and hastened after the bonze as fast as ever he could. And when he turned the corner, there lay the missing piece from the axle by the city wall. And then he realized that the pear-tree which the bonze had chopped down must have been his axle. The bonze, however, was nowhere to be found. And the whole crowd in the market burst out into loud laughter.

Next: The King of the Ants

(pears)

(600 words)

China: The King of the Ants

As you read this story, remember that "emmet" is an archaic name for "ant" in English; the translator has helpfully rendered the Chinese name of the fantastical village here into English for you.

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

(green tree ant)

The King of the Ants

ONCE upon a time there was a scholar who wandered away from his home and went to Emmet village. There stood a house which was said to be haunted. Yet it was beautifully situated and surrounded by a lovely garden. So the scholar hired it.

One evening he was sitting over his books, when several hundred knights suddenly came galloping into the room. They were quite tiny, and their horses were about the size of flies. They had hunting falcons and dogs about as large as gnats and fleas.

They came to his bed in the corner of the room, and there they held a great hunt, with bows and arrows: one could see it all quite plainly. They caught a tremendous quantity of birds and game, and all this game was no larger than little grains of rice.

When the hunt was over, in came a long procession with banners and standards. They wore swords at their side and bore spears in their hands, and came to a halt in the north-west corner of the room. They were followed by several hundred serving-men. These brought with them curtains and covers, tents and tent-poles, pots and kettles, cups and plates, tables and chairs. And after them some hundreds of other servants carried in all sorts of fine dishes, the best that land and water had to offer. And several hundred more ran to and fro without stopping, in order to guard the roads and carry messages.

The scholar gradually accustomed himself to the sight. Although the men were so very small he could distinguish everything quite clearly.

Before long, a bright colored banner appeared. Behind it rode a personage wearing a scarlet hat and garments of purple. He was surrounded by an escort of several thousands. Before him went runners with whips and rods to clear the way.

Then a man wearing an iron helmet and with a golden ax in his hand cried out in a loud voice: “His Highness is graciously pleased to look at the fish in the Purple Lake!” Whereupon the one who wore the scarlet hat got down from his horse and, followed by a retinue of several hundred men, approached the saucer which the scholar used for his writing-ink. Tents were put up on the edge of the saucer and a banquet was prepared. A great number of guests sat down to the table. Musicians and dancers stood ready. There was a bright confusion of mingled garments of purple and scarlet, crimson and green. Pipes and flutes, fiddles and cymbals sounded, and the dancers moved in the dance. The music was very faint, and yet its melodies could be clearly distinguished. All that was said, too, the table-talk and orders, questions and calls, could be quite distinctly heard.

After three courses, he who wore the scarlet hat said: “Quick! Make ready the nets and lines for fishing!”

And at once nets were thrown out into the saucer which held the water in which the scholar dipped his brush. And they caught hundreds of thousands of fishes. The one with the scarlet hat contented himself with casting a line in the shallow waters of the saucer and caught a baker’s dozen of red carp.

Then he ordered the head cook to cook the fish, and the most varied dishes were prepared with them. The odor of roasting fat and spices filled the whole room.

And then the wearer of the scarlet hat in his arrogance, decided to amuse himself at the scholar’s expense. So he pointed to him and said: “I know nothing at all about the writings and customs of the saints and wise men, and still I am a king who is highly honored! Yonder scholar spends his whole life toiling over his books, and yet he remains poor and gets nowhere. If he could make up his mind to serve me faithfully as one of my officials, I might allow him to partake of our meal.”

This angered the scholar, and he took his book and struck at them. And they all scattered, wriggling and crawling out of the door. He followed them and dug up the earth in the place where they had disappeared. And there he found an ants’ nest as large as a barrel, in which countless green ants were wriggling around. So he built a large fire and smoked them out.

Next: The Little Hunting Dog

(700 words)

China: The Little Hunting Dog

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

(White Horse Temple)

The Little Hunting Dog

ONCE upon a time, in the city of Shansi, there lived a scholar who found the company of others too noisy for him. So he made his home in a Buddhist temple. Yet he suffered because there were always so many gnats and fleas in his room that he could not sleep at night.

Once he was resting on his bed after dinner when suddenly two little knights with plumes in their helmets rode into the room. They might have been two inches high and rode horses about the size of grasshoppers. On their gauntleted hands they held hunting falcons as large as flies. They rode about the room with great rapidity. The scholar had no more than set eyes on them when a third entered, clad like the others, but carrying a bow and arrows and leading a little hunting dog the size of an ant with him. After him came a great throng of footmen and horsemen, several hundred in all. And they had hunting falcons and hunting dogs by the hundred, too. Then the fleas and gnats began to rise in the air; but were all slain by the falcons. And the hunting dogs climbed on the bed, and sniffed along the walls trailing the fleas, and ate them up. They followed the trace of whatever hid in the cracks, and nosed it out, so that in a short space of time they had killed nearly all the vermin.

The scholar pretended to be asleep and watched them. And the falcons settled down on him, and the dogs crawled along his body. Shortly after came a man clad in yellow, wearing a king’s crown, who climbed on an empty couch and seated himself there. And at once all the horsemen rode up, descended from their horses and brought him all the birds and game. They then gathered beside him in a great throng, and conversed with him in a strange tongue.

Not long after the king got into a small chariot and his bodyguards saddled their horses with the greatest rapidity. Then they galloped out with great cries of homage till it looked as though some one were scattering beans and a heavy cloud of dust rose behind them.

They had nearly all of them disappeared, while the scholar’s eyes were still fixed on them full of terror and astonishment, and he could not imagine whence they had come. He slipped on his shoes and looked, but they had vanished without a trace.

Then he returned and looked all about his room, but there was nothing to be seen. Only, on a brick against the wall, they had forgotten a little hunting dog. The scholar quickly caught it and found it quite tame. He put it in his paint-box and examined it closely. It had a very smooth, fine coat, and wore a little collar around its neck. He tried to feed it a few bread-crumbs, but the little dog only sniffed at them and let them lie. Then it leaped into the bed and hunted up some nits and gnats in the folds of the linen, which it devoured. Then it returned and lay down.

When the night had passed, the scholar feared it might have run away, but there it lay, curled up as before. Whenever the scholar went to bed, the dog climbed into it and bit to death any vermin it could find. Not a fly or gnat dared alight while it was around. The scholar loved it like a jewel of price.

But once he took a nap in the daytime, and the little dog crawled into bed beside him. The scholar woke and turned around, supporting himself on his side. As he did so he felt something, and feared it might be his little dog. He quickly rose and looked, but it was already dead—pressed flat, as though cut out of paper!

But at any rate none of the vermin had survived it.

Next: Fox-Fire

(700 words)

China: Fox-Fire

For more fox folklore, including fox-fire, see the Wikipedia article about Kitsune, and there is also an article about the bioluminescence called foxfire in English.

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Fox-Fire

ONCE upon a time there was a strong young farmer who came home late one evening from market. His way led him past the gardens of a wealthy gentleman, in which stood a number of tall buildings. Suddenly he saw something shining floating in the air inside the gardens, something which glowed like a ball of crystal. He was astonished, and climbed the wall around the gardens, but there was not a human being in sight; all he saw was, at a distance, something which appeared to be a dog, looking up at the moon. And whenever it blew its breath out, a ball of fire came out of its mouth and rose to the moon. And whenever it drew its breath in the ball sank down again, and it caught it in its jaws. And so it went on without a stop.

Then the farmer realized that it was a fox who was preparing the elixir of life. He hid in the grass and waited until the ball of fire came down again at about the height of his own head. Then he stepped hastily from his hiding-place, took it away, and at once swallowed it. And he could feel it glow as it passed down his throat into his stomach.

When the fox saw what had happened, he grew angry. He looked furiously at the farmer but feared his strength. For this reason he did not dare attack him but went angrily on his way.

From that time on the farmer-boy could make himself invisible, was able to see ghosts and devils, and had intercourse with the spirit-world. In cases of sickness, when people lay unconscious, he could call back their souls, and if someone had committed a sin, he could plead for them. He earned much money owing to these gifts.

When he reached his fiftieth year, he withdrew from all things and would no longer exercise his arts. One summer evening he was sitting in his courtyard, enjoying the cool air. While there he drank a number of goblets of wine, and by midnight had fallen fast asleep. Suddenly he awoke, feeling ill. It seemed as though some one were patting him on the back and, before he knew it, the ball of fire had leaped out from his throat.

At once a hand reached for it, and a voice said: “For thirty long years you kept my treasure from me, and from a poor farmer-lad you have grown to be a wealthy man. Now you have enough, and I would like to have my fire-ball back again!”

Then the man knew what had happened, but the fox was gone.

(nine-tailed fox)

Next: The Talking Silver Foxes

(500 words)

China: The Talking Silver Foxes

Here is the author's note to the story: "The silver fox is known in Chinese as “Pi,” the same word also being used for “panthers,” since this legendary beast partakes of the nature of both animals. “The Old Mother” is really the mother-goddess of the Taischan. But in other localities she is chiefly honored as a child-giving goddess. “A picture of the head priest of the Taoists”: Talismans painted by the head priest of the Taoists or the Taoist pope, the so-called “Master of the Heavens,” (Tian Schi) have special virtues against all kinds of sorcery and enchantment. The war god Guan Di also is appealed to as a savior in all sorts of emergencies."

[Notes by LKG]

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Talking Silver Foxes

THE silver foxes resemble other foxes, but are yellow, fire-red or white in color. They know how to influence human beings, too. There is a kind of silver fox which can learn to speak like a man in a year’s time. These foxes are called “Talking Foxes.”

(Bay of Kiau Chau)

South-west of the bay of Kaiutschou, there is a mountain by the edge of the sea, shaped like a tower, and hence known as Tower Mountain. On the mountain there is an old temple with the image of a goddess who is known as the Old Mother of Tower Mountain. When children fall ill in the surrounding villages, the magicians often give orders that paper figures of them be burned at her altar, or little lime images of them be placed around it. And for this reason the altar and its surroundings are covered with hundreds of figures of children made in lime. Paper flowers, shoes and clothing are also brought to the Old Mother and lie in a confusion of colors. The pilgrimage festivals take place on the third day of the third month, and the ninth day of the ninth month, and then there are theatrical performances, and the holy writings are read. And there is also an annual fair. The girls and women of the neighborhood burn incense and pray to the goddess. Parents who have no children go there and pick out one of the little children made of lime, and tie a red thread around its neck, or even secretly break off a small bit of its body, dissolve it in water and drink it. Then they pray quietly that a child may be sent them.

Behind the temple is a great cave where, in former times, some talking foxes used to live. They would even come out and seat themselves on the point of a steep rock by the wayside. When a wanderer came by, they would begin to talk to him in this fashion: “Wait a bit, neighbor; first smoke a pipe!” The traveler would look around in astonishment to see where the voice came from and would become very much frightened. If he did not happen to be exceptionally brave, he would begin to perspire with terror, and run away. Then the fox would laugh: “Hi hi!”

Once a farmer was plowing on the side of the mountain. When he looked up, he saw a man with a straw hat, wearing a mantle of woven grass and carrying a pick across his shoulder coming along the way.

“Neighbor Wang,” said he, “first smoke a pipeful and take a little rest! Then I will help you plow.”

Then he called out “Hu!” the way farmers do when they talk to their cattle.

The farmer looked at him more closely and saw then that he was a talking fox. He waited for a favorable opportunity and, when it came, gave him a lusty blow with his ox-whip. He struck home, for the fox screamed, leaped into the air, and ran away. His straw hat, his mantle of woven grass and the rest he left lying on the ground. Then the farmer saw that the straw hat was just woven out of potato-leaves; he had cut it in two with his whip. The mantle was made of oak-leaves, tied together with little blades of grass. And the pick was only the stem of a kau-ling plant, to which a bit of brick had been fastened.

Not long after, a woman in a neighboring village became possessed. A picture of the head priest of the Taoists was hung up in her room, but the evil spirit did not depart. Since there were none who could exorcise devils in the neighborhood, and the trouble she gave was unendurable, the woman’s relatives decided to send to the temple of the God of War and beg for aid.

But when the fox heard of it he said: “I am not afraid of your Taoist high-priest nor of your God of War; the only person I fear is your neighbor Wang in the Eastern village who once struck me cruelly with his whip.”

This suited the people to a T. They sent to the Eastern village and found out who Wang was. And Wang took his ox-whip and entered the house of the possessed woman.

Then he said in a deep voice: “Where are you? Where are you? I have been on your trail for a long time. And now, at last, I have caught you!” With that he snapped his whip.

The fox hissed and spat and flew out of the window.

They had been telling stories about the talking fox of Tower Mountain for more than a hundred years when, one fine day, a skilful archer came to that part of the country who saw a creature like a fox with a fiery-red pelt whose back was striped with gray. It was lying under a tree. The archer aimed and shot off its hind foot.

At once it said in a human voice: “I brought myself into this danger because of my love for sleep, but none may escape their fate! If you capture me, you will get at the most no more than five thousand pieces of copper for my pelt. Why not let me go instead? I will reward you richly so that all your poverty will come to an end.”

But the archer would not listen to him. He killed him, skinned him, and sold his pelt — and, sure enough, he received five thousand pieces of copper for it.

From that time on the fox-spirit ceased to show itself.

Next: Retribution

(1000 words)

China: Retribution

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Retribution

ONCE upon a time there was a boy named Ma whose father taught him himself, at home. The window of the upper story looked out on the rear upon a terrace belonging to old Wang who had a garden of chrysanthemums there.

(chrysanthemums)

One day, Ma rose early and stood leaning against the window, watching the day dawn. And out came old Wang from his terrace and watered his chrysanthemums. When he had just finished and was going in again, along came a water-carrier, bearing two pails on his shoulders, who seemed to want to help him. But the old man grew annoyed and motioned him off. Yet the water-carrier insisted on mounting the terrace. So they pulled each other about on the terrace-edge. It had been raining, the terrace was slippery, its border high and narrow, and when the old man thrust back the water-carrier with his hand, the latter lost his balance, slipped and tumbled down the slope. Then the old man hastened down to pick him up, but the two pails had fallen on his chest and he lay there with feet outstretched.

The old man was extremely frightened. Without uttering a sound, he took hold of the water-carrier’s feet and dragged him through the back door to the bank of the stream which flowed by the garden. Then he fetched the pails and set them down beside the corpse. After that, he went home, locked the door, and went to bed again.

Little Ma, in spite of his youth, thought it would be better to say nothing about an affair of this kind in which a human life was involved. He shut the window and withdrew. The sun rose higher, and soon he heard a clamor without: “A dead man is lying on the river-bank!”

The constable gave notice, and in the afternoon the judge came up to the beating of gongs, and the inspector of the dead knelt down and uncovered the corpse, yet the body showed no wound. So it was said: “He slipped and fell to his death!”

The judge questioned the neighbors, but the neighbors all insisted that they knew nothing of the matter. Thereupon the judge had the body placed in a coffin, sealed it with his seal, and ordered that the relatives of the deceased be found. And then he went his way.

Nine years passed by, and young Ma had reached the age of twenty-one and become a baccalaureate. His father had died, and the family was poor. So it came about that in the same room in which he had formerly studied his lessons, he now gathered a few pupils about him to instruct them.

The time for examinations drew near. Ma had risen early, in order to work. He opened the window and there, in the distant alley, he saw a man with two pails gradually drawing nearer. When he looked more closely, it was the water-carrier. Greatly frightened, he thought that he had returned to repay old Wang. Yet he passed the old man’s door without entering it. Then he went a few steps further to the house of the Lis, and there went in. The Lis were wealthy people, and, since they were near neighbors, the Mas and they were on a visiting footing. The matter seemed very questionable to Ma, and he got up and followed the water-carrier.

At the door of Li’s house, he met an old servant who was just coming out and who said: “Heaven is about to send a child to our mistress! I must go buy incense to burn to the gods in order to show our gratitude!”

Ma asked: “Did not a man with two pails of water on his shoulder just go in?”

The servant said there had not, but before he had finished speaking a maid came from the house and said: “You need not go to buy incense, for I have found some. And, through the favor of heaven, the child has already come to us.”

Then Ma began to realize that the water-carrier had returned to be born again into the life of earth and not to exact retribution. He wondered, though, for what merit of his the former water-carrier happened to be re-born into so wealthy a family. So he kept the matter in mind, and from time to time inquired as to the child’s well-being.

Seven more years went by, and the boy gradually grew up. He did not show much taste for learning, but he loved to keep birds. Old Wang was still strong and healthy. And though he was by this time more than eighty years old, his love for his chrysanthemums had only increased with age.

One day, Ma once more rose early and stood leaning against his window. And he saw old Wang come out upon his terrace and begin to water his chrysanthemums. Little Li sat in the upper story of his house flying his pigeons.

Suddenly some of the pigeons flew down on the railing of the flower-garden. The boy was afraid they might fly off and called them, but the pigeons did not move. The boy did not know what to do: he picked up stones and threw them at the birds. By mistake, one of them struck old Wang. The old man started, slipped, and fell down over the terrace. Time passed and he did not rise. He lay there with his feet outstretched.

The boy was very much frightened. Without uttering a sound, he softly closed his window and went away. The sun gradually rose higher, and the old man’s sons and grandsons all came out to look for him. They found him and said: “He slipped and fell to his death!” And they buried him as was the custom.

Next: The Night on the Battlefield

(1000 words)

China: The Night on the Battlefield

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Night on the Battlefield

ONCE upon a time there was a merchant who was wandering toward Shantung with his wares, along the road from the South. At about the second watch of the night, a heavy storm blew up from the North. And he chanced to see an inn at one side of the road, whose lights were just being lit. He went in to get something to drink and order lodgings for the night, but the folk at the inn raised objections. Yet an old man among them took pity on his unhappy situation and said: “We have just prepared a meal for warriors who have come a long distance, and we have no wine left to serve you. But there is a little side room here which is still free, and there you may stay overnight.” With these words he led him into it.

But the merchant could not sleep because of his hunger and thirst. Outside he could hear the noise of men and horses. And since all these proceedings did not seem quite natural to him, he got up and looked through a crack in the door. And he saw that the whole inn was filled with soldiers who were sitting on the ground, eating and drinking, and talking about campaigns of which he had never heard.

After a time they began calling to each other: “The general is coming!” And far off in the distance could be heard the cries of his bodyguard. All the soldiers hurried out to receive him. Then the merchant saw a procession with many paper lanterns and, riding in their midst, a man of martial appearance with a long beard. He dismounted, entered the inn, and took his place at the head of the board. The soldiers mounted guard at the door, awaiting his commands, and the inn-keeper served food and drink, to which the general did full justice.

When he had finished, his officers entered, and he said to them: “You have now been underway for some time. Go back to your men. I shall rest a little myself. It will be time enough to beat the assembly when the order to advance is given.”

The officers received his commands and withdrew. Then the general called out: “Send Asti in!” and a young officer entered from the left side of the house. The people of the inn locked the gates and withdrew for the night, while Asti conducted the long-haired general to a door at the left, through a crack of which shone the light of a lamp.

The merchant stole from his room and looked through the crack in the door. Within the room was a bed of bamboo, without covers or pillows. The lamp stood on the ground. The long-bearded general took hold of his head. It came off and he placed it on the bed. Then Asti took hold of his arms. These also came off and were carefully placed beside the head. Then the old general threw himself down on the bed crosswise, and Asti took hold of his body, which came apart below the thighs, and the two legs fell to the ground. Then the lamp went out.

Overcome by terror, the merchant hurried back to his room as fast as he could, holding his sleeves before his eyes, and lay down on his bed, where he tossed about sleepless all night.

At last he heard a cock crow in the distance. He was shivering. He took his sleeves from his face and saw that dawn was stealing along the sky. And when he looked about him, there he was lying in the middle of a thick clump of brush. Round about him was a wilderness, not a house, not even a grave was to be seen anywhere.

In spite of being chilled, he ran about three miles till he came to the nearest inn. The inn-keeper opened the door and asked him with astonishment where he came from at that early hour. So the merchant told him his experiences and inquired as to the sort of place at which he had spent the night. The inn-keeper shook his head: “The whole neighborhood is covered with old battlefields,” was his reply, “and all sorts of supernatural things take place on them after dark.”

(terracotta warrior, photo by K. Mircea)

Next: The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

(700 words)

China: The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

(Liaodi Pagoda)

The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

IN the western portion of the old capital city of Lo Yang, there was a ruined cloister in which stood an enormous pagoda several hundred stories high. Three or four people could still find room to stand on its very top.

Not far from it there lived a beautiful maiden, and one very hot summer’s day she was sitting in the courtyard of her home, trying to keep cool. And as she sat there a sudden cyclone came up and carried her off. When she opened her eyes, there she was on top of the pagoda, and beside her stood a young man in the dress of a student.

He was very polite and affable, and said to her: “It seems as though heaven had meant to bring us together, and if you promise to marry me, we will be very happy.” But to this the maiden would not agree. So the student said that until she changed her mind, she would have to remain on the pagoda-top. Then he produced bread and wine for her to satisfy her hunger and thirst, and disappeared.

Thereafter he appeared each day and asked her whether she had changed her mind, and each day she told him she had not. When he went away, he always carefully closed the openings in the pagoda-top with stones, and he had also removed some of the steps of the stairs so that she could not climb down. And when he came to the pagoda-top he always brought her food and drink, and he also presented her with rouge and powder, dresses and mandarin-coats and all sorts of jewelry. He told her he had bought them in the market place. And he also hung up a great carbuncle-stone so that the pagoda-top was bright by night as well as by day. The maiden had all that heart could wish, and yet she was not happy.

But one day when he went away, he forgot to lock the window. The maiden spied on him without his knowing it and saw that from a youth he turned himself into an ogre, with hair as red as madder and a face as black as coal. His eyeballs bulged out of their sockets, and his mouth looked like a dish full of blood. Crooked white fangs thrust themselves from his lips, and two wings grew from his shoulders. Spreading them, he flew down to earth and at once turned into a man again.

The maiden was seized with terror and burst into tears. Looking down from her pagoda, she saw a wanderer passing below. She called out, but the pagoda was so high that her voice did not carry down to him. She beckoned with her hand, but the wanderer did not look up. Then she could think of nothing else to do but to throw down the old clothes she had formerly worn. They fluttered through the air to the ground.

The wanderer picked up the clothes. Then he looked up at the pagoda, and quite up at the very top he saw a tiny figure which looked like that of a girl, yet he could not make out her features. For a long time he wondered who it might be, but in vain. Then he saw a light.

“My neighbor’s daughter,” said he to himself, “was carried away by a magic storm. Is it possible that she may be up there?”

So he took the clothes with him and showed them to the maiden’s parents, and when they saw them, they burst into tears.

But the maiden had a brother who was stronger and braver than any one for miles around. When the tale had been told him, he took a heavy ax and went to the pagoda. There he hid himself in the tall grass and waited for what would happen.

When the sun was just going down, along came a youth, tramping the hill. Suddenly he turned into an ogre, spread his wings, and was about to fly. But the brother flung his ax at him and struck him on the arm. He began to roar loudly and then fled to the western hills.

But when the brother saw that it was impossible to climb the pagoda, he went back and enlisted the aid of several neighbors. With them he returned the following morning, and they climbed up into the pagoda. Most of the steps of the stairway were in good condition for the ogre had only destroyed those at the top. But they were able to get up with a ladder, and then the brother fetched down his sister and brought her safely home again.

And that was the end of the enchantment.

Next: The Flying Ogre

(800 words)

China: The Flying Ogre

This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Flying Ogre

THERE once lived in Sianfu an old Buddhist monk, who loved to wander in lonely places. In the course of his wanderings he once came to the Kuku-Nor, and there he saw a tree which was a thousand feet high and many cords in breadth. It was hollow inside and one could see the sky shining down into it from above.

When he had gone on a few miles, he saw in the distance a girl in a red coat, barefoot, and with unbound hair, who was running as fast as the wind. In a moment she stood before him.

“Take pity on me and save my life!” said she to him.

When the monk asked her what was the trouble, she replied: “A man is pursuing me. If you will tell him you have not seen me, I will be grateful to you all my life long!”

With that she ran up to the hollow tree and crawled into it.

When the monk had gone a little further, he met one who rode an armored steed. He wore a garment of gold, a bow was slung across his shoulders, and a sword hung at his side. His horse ran with the speed of lightning, and covered a couple of miles with every step. Whether it ran in the air or on the ground, its speed was the same.

“Have you seen the girl in the red coat?” asked the stranger. And when the monk replied that he had seen nothing, the other continued: “Bonze, you should not lie! This girl is not a human being, but a flying ogre. Of flying ogres there are thousands of varieties, who bring ruin to people everywhere. I have already slain a countless number of them, and have pretty well done away with them. But this one is the worst of all. Last night the Lord of the Heavens gave me a triple command, and that is the reason I have hurried down from the skies. There are eight thousand of us under way in all directions to catch this monster. If you do not tell the truth, monk, then you are sinning against heaven itself!”

Upon that the monk did not dare deceive him, but pointed to the hollow tree. The messenger of the skies dismounted, stepped into the tree and looked about him. Then he once more mounted his horse, which carried him up the hollow trunk and out at the end of the tree. The monk looked up and could see a small, red flame come out of the tree-top. It was followed by the messenger of the skies. Both rose up to the clouds and disappeared. After a time there fell a rain of blood. The ogre had probably been hit by an arrow or captured.

Afterward the monk told the tale to the scholar who wrote it down.

Next: The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge

(ogre)

(500 words)

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