Richard Wilhelm
The Chinese Fairy Book
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Table of contents
PREFACE
NURSERY FAIRY TALES
LEGENDS OF THE GODS
TALES OF SAINTS AND MAGICIANS
NATURE AND ANIMAL TALES
GHOST STORIES
HISTORIC LEGENDS
LITERARY FAIRY TALES
PREFACE
The
fairy tales and legends of olden China have in common with the
“Thousand and One Nights” an oriental glow and glitter of
precious stones and gold and multicolored silks, an oriental wealth
of fantastic and supernatural action. And yet they strike an exotic
note distinct in itself. The seventy-three stories here presented
after original sources, embracing “Nursery Fairy Tales,” “Legends
of the Gods,” “Tales of Saints and Magicians,” “Nature and
Animal Tales,” “Ghost Stories,” “Historic Fairy Tales,” and
“Literary Fairy Tales,” probably represent the most comprehensive
and varied collection of oriental fairy tales ever made available for
American readers. There is no child who will not enjoy their novel
color, their fantastic beauty, their infinite variety of subject.
Yet, like the “Arabian Nights,” they will amply repay the
attention of the older reader as well. Some are exquisitely poetic,
such as “The Flower-Elves,” “The Lady of the Moon” or “The
Herd Boy and the Weaving Maiden”; others like “How Three Heroes
Came By Their Deaths Because Of Two Peaches,” carry us back
dramatically and powerfully to the Chinese age of Chivalry. The
summits of fantasy are scaled in the quasi-religious dramas of “The
Ape Sun Wu Kung” and “Notscha,” or the weird sorceries unfolded
in “The Kindly Magician.” Delightful ghost stories, with happy
endings, such as “A Night on the Battlefield” and “The Ghost
Who Was Foiled,” are paralleled with such idyllic love-tales as
that of “Rose of Evening,” or such Lilliputian fancies as “The
King of the Ants” and “The Little Hunting Dog.” It is quite
safe to say that these Chinese fairy tales will give equal pleasure
to the old as well as the young. They have been retold simply, with
no changes in style or expression beyond such details of presentation
which differences between oriental and occidental viewpoints at times
compel. It is the writer’s hope that others may take as much
pleasure in reading them as he did in their translation.Fredrick
H. Martens.
NURSERY FAIRY TALES
IWOMEN’S
WORDS PART FLESH AND BLOODONCE
upon a time there were two brothers, who lived in the same house. And
the big brother listened to his wife’s words, and because of them
fell out with the little one. Summer had begun, and the time for
sowing the high-growing millet had come. The little brother had no
grain, and asked the big one to loan him some, and the big one
ordered his wife to give it to him. But she took the grain, put it in
a large pot and cooked it until it was done. Then she gave it to the
little fellow. He knew nothing about it, and went and sowed his field
with it. Yet, since the grain had been cooked, it did not sprout.
Only a single grain of seed had not been cooked; so only a single
sprout shot up. The little brother was hard-working and industrious
by nature, and hence he watered and hoed the sprout all day long. And
the sprout grew mightily, like a tree, and an ear of millet sprang up
out of it like a canopy, large enough to shade half an acre of
ground. In the fall the ear was ripe. Then the little brother took
his ax and chopped it down. But no sooner had the ear fallen to the
ground, than an enormous Roc came rushing down, took the ear in his
beak and flew away. The little brother ran after him as far as the
shore of the sea.Then
the bird turned and spoke to him like a human being, as follows: “You
should not seek to harm me! What is this one ear worth to you? East
of the sea is the isle of gold and silver. I will carry you across.
There you may take whatever you want, and become very rich.”The
little brother was satisfied, and climbed on the bird’s back, and
the latter told him to close his eyes. So he only heard the air
whistling past his ears, as though he were driving through a strong
wind, and beneath him the roar and surge of flood and waves. Suddenly
the bird settled on a rock: “Here we are!” he said.Then
the little brother opened his eyes and looked about him: and on all
sides he saw nothing but the radiance and shimmer of all sorts of
white and yellow objects. He took about a dozen of the little things
and hid them in his breast.
“Have
you enough?” asked the Roc.
“Yes,
I have enough,” he replied.
“That
is well,” answered the bird. “Moderation protects one from harm.”Then
he once more took him up, and carried him back again.When
the little brother reached home, he bought himself a good piece of
ground in the course of time, and became quite well to do.But
his brother was jealous of him, and said to him, harshly: “Where
did you manage to steal the money?”So
the little one told him the whole truth of the matter. Then the big
brother went home and took counsel with his wife.
“Nothing
easier,” said his wife. “I will just cook grain again and keep
back one seedling so that it is not done. Then you shall sow it, and
we will see what happens.”No
sooner said than done. And sure enough, a single sprout shot up, and
sure enough, the sprout bore a single ear of millet, and when harvest
time came around, the Roc again appeared and carried it off in his
beak. The big brother was pleased, and ran after him, and the Roc
said the same thing he had said before, and carried the big brother
to the island. There the big brother saw the gold and silver heaped
up everywhere. The largest pieces were like hills, the small ones
were like bricks, and the real tiny ones were like grains of sand.
They blinded his eyes. He only regretted that he knew of no way by
which he could move mountains. So he bent down and picked up as many
pieces as possible.
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Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!