The castle of Zeland

Though the beautiful Island Formosa (or Tai wan) lies at no great Distance either from Japan or China, it was a long time unknown to these two neighbours.

At the End of the Year of 1620, Japanese squadron ships came upon the coast of Formosa, and they settled a colony there.

About the same time a Dutch vessel, in her voyage from Japan, or in her return thither, was forced by a storm into Formosa, where they found the Japanese in no condition of opposing them. The country appearing beautiful to the Hollanders; and advantageous for their commerce, they pretended want of refreshment, and things necessary for refitting their vessel, which was damaged by the storm. Some of them made an excursion into the country, and having examined it, returned on board.

The Hollanders beseeched the Japanese to permit them to build an habitation upon the brink of the Island, at one of the entrances into the harbour, which might be serviceable to them with respect to their commerce to Japan; the Japanese at first rejected the proposal, but the Hollanders pressed the matter so that the Japanese at last consented, when they assured them they required no more ground than what could be encompassed with an Ox's hide.

The Hollanders then took an Ox's hide and cut it into small thongs, which they tied end to end, and therewith measured the ground they desired. The Japanese were at first a little vexed at this trick, but after some reflection, they laughed at it, and were pacified, and suffered the Hollanders to do as they pleased with the piece of ground.

(The General History of China, J. B. Du Halde, photo from Wikipedia)

Comments

The wonderful pear-tree

Once upon a time a countryman came into the town on market-day, and brought a load of very special pears with him to sell. He set up his barrow in a good corner, and soon had a great crowd round him ; for everyone knew he always sold extra fine pears, though he did also ask an extra high price. Now, while he was crying up his fruit, a poor, old, ragged, hungry-looking priest stopped just in front of the barrow, and very humbly begged him to give him one of the pears. But the countryman, who was very mean and very nasty-tempered, wouldn't hear of giving him any, and as the priest didn't seem inclined to move on, he began calling him all the bad names he could think of. " Good sir," said the priest, " you have got hundreds of pears on your barrow. I only ask you for one. You would never even know you had lost one. Really, you needn't get angry." "Give him a pear that is going bad ; that will make him happy," said one of the crowd. "The o

The Legend of The Three-Life Stone

The Buddhist believe metempsychosis, or the migration of the souls of animated beings, people's relationships are predestined through three states of life: the past, present, and future life. Legend has it that there's a road called Yellow Spring Road, which leads to Fogotten River. Over the river there's a bridge called Helpless Bridge (Naihe Bridge), at one end of the bridge sits a crimson stone called Three-life Stone. When two people die, they take this route to reincarnation. if they carve their name on the Three-life Stone together while they pass the stone, they are to be predestined to be together in their future life. Although before their rebirth they will be given a MengPo Soup to drink and thereby their memory of past life are obliterated. In reality, San-Sheng Shi (三生石), or Three-Life Stone is located beside Flying Mountain near the West Lake, Hangzhou. On the stone, there is seal with three Chinese characters that say "The Three-life Stone," and a de

The Fox and The Tiger

ONE day a fox encountered a tiger. The tiger showed his fangs and waved his claws and wanted to eat him up. But the fox said: 'Good sir, you must not think that you alone are the king of beasts. Your courage is no match for mine. Let us go together and you keep behind me. If the humans are not afraid of me when they see me, then you may eat me up.' The tiger agreed and so the fox led him to a big high-way. As soon as the travellers saw the tiger in the distance they were seized with fear and ran away. Then the said: 'You see? I was walking in front; they saw me before they could See you.' Then the tiger put his tail between his legs and ran away. The tiger had seen that the humans were afraid of the fox but he had not realized that the fox had merely borrowed his own terrible appearance. [This story was translated by Ewald Osers from German, published by George Bell & Sons, in the book 'Chinese Folktales'. Osers noted that this story was

Chinese Æsop:

Search This Blog