This week, I decided to switch it up from the types of stories I have been reading the past few weeks. The last few units I have read were composed of stories that all flowed together in a series. This week, I decided to do a reading unit that had individual stories that can stand alone.
Link to Chinese Fairy Tales Unit: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-chinese-fairy-tales.html
The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck
This is the story of a woman who was to marry a man. She was a child of ill-luck so she married a beggar, who she believed to be of good fortune. The beggar left to retrieve his fortune and was gone for eighteen years. He came back as an emperor to his wife but she did not recognize him. He asked if she wanted to remarry another man, as her husband had been gone so long. She refused, noting that she would be the wife of her husband until she died. He took her into his palace and she became empress, only to die eighteen days later. Thus, she was a child of ill-luck.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-favorite-of-fortune-and-child-of.html
The Cave of the Beasts
This story is about a family of seven daughters. The father of the family was angry with his daughters and planned to leave them in the wild to be devoured by beasts. However, the daughters found a cave in which they found shelter in. In the cave, there were many precious stones and jewels that belonged to a wolf and a fox. The beasts curled in the kettles near the fire to stay warm. When the daughters awoke to the sight of beasts near them, they heaped up stones on the kettles and lit the fire. The girls lived in happiness in the cave until their father came to get them. The family lived happily with the wealth from the contents of the cave.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-cave-of-beasts.html
The Panther
The story of the panther reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood. A panther ate a woman and her son and dressed in the woman's clothes to go eat her daughters. The girls found out that the panther was evil and went to find help. They set up a trap and killed the panther by outsmarting him. This story was weirdly similar to Little Red Riding Hood and I feel as though it was a stem for the story.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-panther.html
Why Dog and Cat are Enemies
The story of the dog and the cat was interesting to me. The story begins with a ring that has magical powers. The owners of a dog and a cat told them to fetch the ring. So, they went on a journey and with the help of a mouse, fetched the ring and swam across a river to go back home. The dog had to run around a house, but the cat simply climbed and jumped over it, causing it to get home faster. The dog was scolded for not helping the cat and the cat never said anything, causing the dog and cat to forever be enemies.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-why-dog-and-cat-are-enemies.html
Yang Oerlang
This story made almost no sense to me. From what I gathered, the mother of Yang Oerlang died, causing him to be very upset. He crushed many suns between mountains that he picked up by himself. There was a lot of good that came from his destruction and Yang Oerlang was honored as a god ever since.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-yang-oerlang.html
The Lady of the Moon
The story began with the Hou I shooting down nine of the ten suns so that the world would not get too hot. Hou I met the Queen-Mother of the Jasper Sea and he took the herb of immortality. His wife then ate some of it and went to the moon. The story then shifts to the man in the moon who resides in a castle. The Lady of the Moon steps up to them and shows the men music and dancing of all kinds. They return to earth and wrote the music down.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-lady-of-moon.html
The Girl with the Horse's Head or the Silkworm Goddess
This is the story of a girl who was waiting for her father and couldn't find him. She told a horse that she would marry him if he found her father. The horse did just that and the girl did not marry the horse. The horse became angry and the father had the horse killed and his skin hung in the yard to dry. The next day, the girl went to the yard and the skin of the horse wrapped itself around her, slowly causing her to become a silkworm. She then spun much silk and sold it at a large profit. She lived among the clouds and her family missed her. She instructed them to watch over the growing of the silkworms, and they did just that.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-girl-with-horses-head-or-silkworm.html
The God of War
This is the story of Guan Di, the God of War. The story notes that there was a great war between nations, causing much turmoil and hardship. Guan Di died in battle and was seen as a ghost, just as he was living. Since this sight by a monk, Guan Di has been spiritually active, receiving many sacrifices and worship.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-god-of-war.html
The Miserly Farmer
The story of the miserly farmer begins with a farmer selling his pears in the city. A bonze (priest) comes up to him, asking to buy one pear. The farmer was angry, as he had trouble selling his pears. In order to defeat the farmer, the bonze ate the pear and planted the seed in the ground. Out of that sport immediately grew a tree, which produced many pears for the crowd. When the bonze left, there was nothing left of the farmer's peaches or his cart. He went after the bonze but he was nowhere to be found.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-miserly-farmer.html
The King of the Ants
This is the story of a scholar who one day wandered into the Emmet (ant) village. He lived in the village, becoming accustomed to the strange sight of the ants. One day, there was a conquest for the ants to catch fish. The ants were rude to the scholar, so he killed them. He then found the ants nest and smoked them out.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-king-of-ants.html
The Little Hunting Dog
This is the story of a man who moved to a Buddhist temple and had a peculiar sight appear to him. He was in bed one night when all of a sudden, many little soldiers riding on horses the size of grasshoppers came into his room. They left just as they came, but left a little hunting dog behind. The man, who had been plagued by insects was relived to find the dog was able to kill insects that would come into the man's bed. However, one day the little dog climbed into bed with the man, and the man squished the dog, killing him.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-little-hunting-dog.html
Fox-Fire
This is the story of a farmer who saw a fox on his way home one night. The fox was preparing the elixir of life, blowing in and out a ball of fire. The man was perplexed and took the elixir and swallowed it, causing the fox to become angry. With the elixir, the man could make himself invisible, raise the dead, and see ghosts and devils for fifty years. The fox took the ball of fire back and was gone.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-fox-fire.html
The Talking Silver Foxes
The talking foxes can speak to humans and can influence them as well. One day, the a farmer found a talking fox and whipped him, causing the fox to run away. The fox became scared of the farmer, causing him to run away every time the farmer was near. The fox spirit then ceased to show itself out of fear of the farmer.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-talking-silver-foxes.html
Retribution
This is the story of Ma, a boy who was homeschooled by his father. At the home of Ma and his father, a man fell down their slope and was killed, so Ma's father hid the man. Ma grew older and became a teacher. One day, he looked out his window and saw the water-carrier who he thought was dead. He grew to realize that the man was reborn and the same exact thing happened again with a boy and Wang.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-retribution.html
The Night on the Battlefield
This is the story of a merchant who was traveling and needed a place to rest. The inn would not let him eat, but let him stay. The merchant found that in the inn were many soldiers and after some time, the general arrived. The merchant watched as the general took his legs off and was terrified. The merchant told the innkeeper the next morning what he had seen and the keeper told him that the neighborhood was covered with old battlefields and lots of supernatural things happen after dark.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-night-on-battlefield.html
The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away
This is the story of a maiden who was sitting in the courtyard of her home and was carried off by a cyclone. She found herself next to a man in the dress of a student. The man asked for her hand in marriage and she refused day and after day. He kept her at the top of the pagoda so that she could not leave. One day, she saw when the man left that he turned into an ogre and was seized with terror. The girls brother then killed the ogre and save her. This story reminded me a lot of the story of Rapunzel.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-maiden-who-was-stolen-away.html
The Flying Ogre
In this story, a Buddhist monk was wandering in the forest and found a girl running towards him yelling that a man was pursuing her and hid in the tree. The man asked the bonze where she was and he pointed to the tree. He told the monk that he was chasing ogres to kill. There was a rain of blood form the tree and the monk believed the ogre to have been captured.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-flying-ogre.html
The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge
This is the story of the sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge who could deceive many with black arts. The sorcerer had many pupils who he tried to confuse and punish. One pupil was turned into a pig and another was put into a cage by the sorcerer. In order to be punished, the sorcerer's family was killed and he was to fight a giant and was killed.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-sorcerer-of-white-lotus-lodge.html
The Three Evils
This story is about Dschou Tschu, a powerful young man. A mandarin came to him, telling him of three evils: the dragon that causes men to drown on the bridge, the tiger with the white forehead, and Dschou Tschu himself. Tschu defeated each of the three evils and left the country so as to defeat all three evils.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-three-evils.html
How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off
The story begins with the river god in search of a wife. He found a girl who was to be his wife and she was adorned in many jewels and taken in a procession to the ceremony. Si-Men had the girl thrust in to the river so that she could not be married. This was how the evil custom of paying for marriage was ended.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-how-river-gods-wedding-was-broken.html
Yang Gui Fe
Yang Gui Fe was the favorite wife of the emperor who had enchanting beauty. The cousin of the wife started a war in the kingdom and was to be killed. Out of fear of her anger, the empress was to be killed as well and was hung by a tree. Her husband began missing her and searched everywhere for her. He finally found his wife in a palace and wept at the sight of her.
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-yang-gui-fe.html
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