Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

in this story, the daughter of a prince had a lot of bad luck, and when it came time for her to marry she had to throw down a ball of red silk to all her suitors, and whoever caught it would be her husband.
she threw the ball into a beggar's hands and married him, but her father threw her out.
she and her husband lived on the streets struggling to find food.
one day her husband left and promised not to return until he found them a fortune.
eventually, he did return as an emperor, but 18 years had passed by so the wife did not recognize him.
once she realized who he was they went to live happily as emperor and empress, but sadly the wife died 18 days later.

A father finds duck eggs in the woods and intends on eating them himself and not sharing them with his daughters.
he wakes up in the morning to find that his daughters have all eaten the eggs, so he decides to trick them and leave them in the woods to be eaten by wolves.
the daughters realize their father left them so they find a cave to sleep in for the night. While they're sleeping a fox and wolf come home to the cave and sleep in their warm kettles over the fire.
the daughters wake up and see the creatures in the kettles so they put the lids on the kettles to trap them and start a fire underneath them. The creatures realized what was happening and they begged for their lives, but the girls did not listen.
the girls killed the creatures and lived happily in the cave for a few days, then their father started to miss them.
the father went looking for them and found them in their cave and they all carried the precious stones home and became a wealthy family.

This story reminded me of red riding hood a lot.
a panther eats a mother and son and pretends to be her to trick her daughters at home as well.
the daughters discover that the pather was an imposter and they make a plan to get rid of the pather for good with the help of a few passing strangers.

In this story, a dog, a cat, and a mouse work together to bring their owners a special ring from a box that is across a river.
the dog helped the cat and mouse by letting them ride his back while he swam across the river.
the mouse then chewed through the box and got the ring, giving it to the cat.
The dog carried the cat and mouse across the river again and the cat quicks left the dogs back when the reached land and purposely beat the dog to the house, giving their owner the ring.
the owners gave all the credit to the cat and the dog got scolded for not doing anything to help.
the dog became angry with the cat for its evilness and the hatred between them has lasted ever since.

In this story, there is a pear farmer and a priest.
The priest asks the farmer for a single pear but the farmer refuses even though he has hundreds.
eventually, an artisan walks over and buys a pear and gives it to the priest. he immediately eats it, plants it, and a huge pear tree appears.
the people and the priest eat some pears from the tree together and then the priest cuts it down and walks away.
the farmer distracted by all that had happened turns back to his cart of pears and sees that they are all nearly gone, and his wooden cart was chopped up.
The farmer realizes the magic the priest used on him.

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

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