ONCE upon a time there was a proud ruler who had a daughter.
But the daughter was a child of ill fortune. When the time came for her to marry
she ordered all her suitors to assemble before her father's castle. She was to throw a red silken ball among them and
whoever caught it would become her husband. Many princes and counts assembled
before the castle. Yet among them there was also a beggar. And the princess saw
that small dragons were crawling
into his ears and emerging through his nose; for he was a child of good
fortune. So she threw the ball to the beggar and he caught it.
Angrily her father demanded: 'Why did you throw the ball
into the beggar's hands?'
'He is a child of good fortune,' said the princess. 'I want
to marry him, and then perhaps I shall share in his good fortune.'
But the father would not hear of it, and when she stood firm
he drove her from the castle in anger. So the princess had to go off with the
beggar. She lived with him in his small hut and had to gather herbs and roots
and cook them herself so they should have something to eat. Often they both
went hungry.
One day her husband said to her: 'l shall go out and seek my
fortune. When I have found it I will return for you.' The princess said: 'Yes,'
and he left. He was away for eighteen years. And the princess lived in want and
sorrow, for her father remained hard and unyielding. If her mother had not
secretly sent her money and food she might well have died of hunger during that
long period.
The beggar, however, made his fortune and eventually became
emperor. He returned and stood before his wife. But she no longer recognized
him. She only knew that he was the emperor.
He asked her how she was.
'Why do you ask me how I am?' she replied. 'Surely I am much
too lowly for you.'
'Who then is your husband?'
'My husband was a beggar. He left to seek his fortune, eighteen
years have passed now and he has still not returned. '
'And what have you been doing all this long time?'
'l have been waiting for his return.'
'Have you no wish to take another husband since he has
stayed away so long?'
'No, I shall remain his Wife unto death.'
When the emperor saw how faithful his wife was he revealed
himself to her, had her arrayed in fine garments and took her with him to his
imperial castle. There they then lived in splendour and joy.
After a few days the emperor said to his Wife: 'We spend
each day feasting, just as though it were the
New Year.'
'And why should we not spend our time feasting,' the woman
replied, 'now that we are emperor and empress?'
But the woman was a child of ill fortune after all. When she
had been empress for eighteen days she fell and died. But the man lived for
many more years.
[The story, originally
titled " The Child of Good
Fortune and The Child of Ill Fortune ", was translated by Ewald Osers from
German, published by George Bell & Sons.
Throwing embroidered
ball to choose husband (Pao Xiu Qiu 抛绣球 is a
long standing and well established tradition for an unmarried girl to decide
her future husband. Normally girls from well to do family, especially a princess
in dramas, or legendary stories. For example, in the great Chinese novel, the
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, the Tang Monk Hsüan Tsang’s mother Wen-ch'iao,
who was the daughter of a great statesman but not yet married, sat in a high,
festooned tower, with an embroidered ball in her hand. While Hsüan Tsang’s
father Ch'en just passed the imperial examination, and came out the first
place, he was led past the tower, when Wen-ch’iao saw Ch’en’s fine appearance,
and knew that he had just taken the first place in the examinations, she threw
down her coloured silk ball, and it fell exactly on the middle of Chen's black
gauze hat. The next thing Ch'en could remember was that a whole posse of maids
and serving-girls surrounded him in the middle of the twittering of flutes and
reed-organs, and his horse was taken by the bridle and led into the courtyard
of the minister's house.
This great stroke of
luck also befell on Hsüan Tang’s head, but unfortunately he was a Buddhist
monk, and not allowed to marry. When Hsüan Tsang and his disciples came to Shie
Wei country, the King's only daughter had fixed on that very day and hour to
throw a coloured silk ball on the head of her chosen husband. But the princess
was actually an impersonator, she was a witch transformed from a Heavenly rabbit
fairy. The real princess was secretly driven away, and lived in an orphanage by
a Buddhist Monastery.
Nowadays, among some ethnic minority in
southwestern China, such as Zhuang, and Dong minorities, throwing silk ball is still one
of the most popular festival activities.
The dragon is the
symbol of the ruler, other people saw small dragon crawling into the beggar’s
ear and emerging through his nose, which signified that the beggar was actually
a ‘A Really Dragon and the Son of Heaven’.
New year is the chief
Chinese festival, which young and old celebrate for fortnights until Lantern
Festival which is at the 15th day of the first Moon.]
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