Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales (Part B, Week 9)

Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

1. The Little Hunting Dog

(Image Information: White Horse Temple)
  • in the city of Shansi, there was a scholar who made his home in a Buddhist temple
  • one night, two knights with plumes rode into the room
  • they were two inches high
  • the scholar pretended to be asleep, and watched them
  • they vanished without a trace

2. Fox-Fire

  • strong young farmer saw something shiny floating in the air
  • fox preparing the elixir of life
  • the fox was angry, but feared the farmer's strength

3. The Talking Silver Foxes

  • silver foxes are yellow, fire-red, or white in color
  • they can influence human beings
  • behind the temple is a cave where the foxes used to live
  • one time a farmer was plowing on the side of the mountain
  • he saw a man with a straw hat, Neighbor Wang

4. Retribution

  • boy named Ma whose father taught him at home
  • little Ma ignored the affair with the frightened old man
  • the constable gave notice to the dead man lying on the river-bank
  • nine years passed, and Ma became 21

5. The Night on the Battlefield

  • merchant wandering toward Shantung
  • heavy storm blew in
  • merchant could not sleep because of hunger and thirst
  • officers received his commands and withdrew
  • merchant stole from his room and looked through the crack of the door

6. The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

  • a beautiful maiden was sitting in her courtyard
  • a cyclone came and carried her off
  • a student was polite and affable at the top of the pagoda
  • she said she wished to remain, and not marry him, but he appeared each day to see if she changed her mind
  • the maiden was seized with terror

7. The Flying Ogre

  • Buddhist monk loved to wander in lonely places
  • saw a girl running barefoot and in a red coat
  • she said a man was pursuing her
  • she ran up a hollow tree and crawled in it
  • the monk protected the girl, until he said she was a flying ogre

8. The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge

  • a sorcerer knew how to deceive many with his blank arts
  • one day, he wanted to go out so he placed a bowl and ordered his pupils to watch it
  • the pupils denied that they disobeyed him
  • eventually, one pupil insulted the sorcerer and he was turned into a pig

9. The Three Evils

  • young man named Dschou Tschu 
  • wore a hat on his head and his garments were embroidered silk and he had a dragonspring sword
  • first evil = evil dragon at the long bridge
  • second evil = tiger with the white forehead
  • third evil = himself, Dschou Tschu

10. How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off

  • at the time of seven empires, Si-Men Bau was a governor on the Yellow River
  • he heard an evil custom when he entered the office
  • the girl's parents said farewell, but Si-Med told them to wait 
  • he sent the girl back to her home and ended the evil custom

11. Yang Gui Fe

  • favorite wife of the emperor Ming Huant of the Tang dynasty
  • she enchanted the emperor with her beauty 
  • his own soldiers mutinied and said that Yang Gui Fe's cousin was to blame
  • the cousin was killed, but they weren't satifsied
  • Yang Gui Fe became a blessed spirit and dwells in the great south palace

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