Extra Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

Since I did not get a chance to do part b of my reading dairy this week, I decided to read it for my extra reading diary post. For my extra reading diary post, I am going to tell of the stories that I found most interesting in the second part of the Chinese Fairy Tales.

Fox-Fire
A man sees a fox who was preparing the elixer of life. He steals it from the fox and keeps it thirty years. Eventually the fox gets it back. This story was a short one but I did like how the fox seemed to wait patiently to get his elixir back. He did not attack the farmer because the farmer had too much power but he waited until the farmer older and he managed to get it back. I like this story because the fox was able to get his elixir back, even if it took him thirty years to get it.

The Three Evils
In this story, a man becomes the new mandarin of the land. He is told by the people of the village that things are good except for three evils in their home. The evils are the dragon at the bridge, the tiger in the hills, and Dschou Tschu. He tells this to Dschou Tschu and he decides to deal with the evils himself. He slays both the tiger and the dragon and then to rid the village of the last evil, he decides to leave. I like this story because once he was made aware of what people thought of him, Dschou Tschu decided that he was going to go away and rid them of all the evils. He put his country over himself and did what was best for them. It was like he finally took responsibility for his own actions and did what he could to make things better for everyone.

Mandarin. Wikimedia Commons

Storytelling for Week 6: Bad luck Princess

Once upon a time, there was a Princess. She was not an ordinary princess. She was a princess of bad luck. No matter what she did, she could never seem to escape her bad luck. Nobody wanted to be the Princess's friend. Everyone in the Kingdom tried to stay as far away from her as possible. As she grew older, she realized that if she was ever going to have any friends, she would not be able to remain in the Kingdom where everyone knew about her bad luck.

"Tonight is the night," she told herself. It was the night that she decided she was going to run away from the kingdom. So after everyone in the palace had fallen asleep, the princess climbed out her window. It was painful to leave her mother, father, and little brother but she knew that if she ever wanted to find happiness, she had to leave.

It was a bitter cold night. She bundled up under her warm coat but her coat got caught on something. She tried to pull it away but it ripped completely off of her. This did not surprise her though. She was used to having bad luck but she wasn't sure of how she was ever going to keep herself warm. Suddenly, a handsome stranger walked up to her.

"Do you need a place to stay?" the handsome man asked.

With tears streaming down her face, she could only nod in reply. She followed this stranger to his house where she went inside to keep warm. They sat on the couch and talked all night long. He ignored all the bad things that were happening, like when she broke the cup that he gave her. She knew that she had found the man of her dreams. Shortly after this night, the two got married.

They tried to live happily, but her bad luck just kept getting in the way. Finally her husband decided that he was going to find a way to make things better. They said their goodbyes and he went on his way to find fortune, so they could share it together. It was the only way to get rid of her bad luck.

"Promise you will wait for me," her husband begged of her, "No matter how long it takes."

"Of course I will," she replied, "I will wait forever."

Years went by but the princess knew that she had to stay faithful. She waited and waited for her husband to return, but he never did. After many years had gone by, a man showed up at her door. She knew something was wrong. She could feel it. The man told her that her husband had offered his life so that she may live a happy one. Her husband was dead and he took her bad luck with him.

The princess kept her promise though. She never remarried but she went on to have good fortune and lived the happy life that her husband wanted her to live. She remained faithful the rest of her life.

Twin Dragons. Luck.  Wikimedia Commons

Author's note: I based this story on the The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck.
In the original story, a princess who was a child of ill luck. The princess decided that when it was her time to marry, she chose a beggar. Her father could not understand why she would chose the beggar but she chose him because he was a favorite of fortune and she believed that she could share in his good luck. She marries the beggar and moves into a hut with him. One day, he decides that he is going out to find his fortune and then he will return to her. 18 years later, he finally returns but she does not recognize him. He uses this to test her loyalty. He tries to convince her to leave her husband and when she refuses and says that she will wait on her husband until she dies, he confesses that he is her husband and they return as emperor and empress. She was still a child of bad luck and because of this, she dies shortly after.
I changed my story so that the princess and the beggar fall in love first. I thought that this would make for a better story since he is choosing to be with her even with her bad luck. I also changed the ending so that he loved her so much that he gave his life so she could get rid of her bad luck. He was willing to die for her so that she could live a happy life.

Bibliography: 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).

Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

Here are some of my favorite stories from the Chinese Fairy Tales Unit.

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck:
In this story, a princess, whom is a child of ill luck, is looking for a husband. She chooses a beggar because she knows that he is a favorite of fortune and she believes that she could share in his good luck. The beggar goes off to find his fortune and returns eighteen years later to his wife. She doesn't recognize him so she denies his advances and this makes him happy because it shows that she is still loyal to him. Even after so long, the princess stood by her commitments and would not betray her husband. She did this even though she did not know if he was ever going to return. I love how she chose to remain faithful to her husband even though it probably would have been easier to find someone else.

The Cave of the Beasts
This story is an odd one. A mother gives her daughters eggs and tells them not to tell anyone that they ate them. The father gets mad because all the eggs have been eaten and decides to abandon his daughters. It seems quite drastic a punishment for eating all the eggs but the girls stumble upon a cave and are able to defeat the animals that live there. The father comes back because he misses the girls and he finds the treasure. They become a wealthy family. This seems quite unfair that the father could be so horrible and yet the ending appears that they become a happy wealthy family.

A Cave by Remi Jouan. Source: Wikimedia Commons