the Lady of Tushan

During the reign of Emperor Yao, a great flood occurred in China and the emperor assigned Gun to control the flood, but Gun failed and was later executed. Then the Emperor Yao recruited Yu, Gun's son as successor to his father's flood control efforts. Instead of building earthen dikes, Yu dredged new river channels to serve both as outlets for the flood, and as irrigation conduits to distant rivers, then to distant seas. Yu worked so hard that his entire hands were filled with thick callus, and his feet were completely padded, and sometimes he even changed himself into a black bear to do the digging.

Yu laboured with all his might, and his labours involved him perpetual journeying over the mountains and down on the great plains. When travelled around, he met a beautiful maid on the Mount Tu, she is said to have been a mountain nymph, and was the eldest daughter of the Tu family, so she was called the Lady of Tushan.

Yu always travelled around and left very little time over for domesticity. He even didn't enter the door of his home when he was three time passing by. One day when he was working hard near his home, his wife was pregnant, she cooked some delicious food and delivered by herself to Yu. Yu changed into a bear digging into the mountain, he didn't notice his wife approaching. This gave the lady so great a shock that she turned into a stone.

Yu called out anxiously to the petrified mother to give him his son, whereupon the stone burst open, revealing the infant inside. So Yu named his only son Qi, which means "open or reveal".

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 Four Diamond Kings of Heaven

On the right and left sides of the entrance hall of Buddhist temples, two on each side, are the gigantic figures of the four great Diamond Kings of Heaven. They are four brothers named respectively Mo-li Ch’ing (Pure), Mo-li Hung (Vast), Mo-li Hai (Sea), and Mo-li Shou (Age). Mo-li Ch’ing, the eldest, is twenty-four feet in height, with a beard the hairs of which are like copper wire. He carries a magnificent jade ring and a spear, and always fights on foot. He has also a magic sword, ‘Blue Cloud,’ on the blade of which are engraved the four characters: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind. When brandished, it causes a black wind, which produces tens of thousands of spears, which pierce the bodies of men and turn them to dust. The wind is followed by a fire, which fills the air with tens of thousands of golden fiery serpents. A thick smoke also rises out of the ground, which blinds and burns men, none being able to escape. Mo-li Hung carries in his hand an umbrella, called the Umbrella of Chao...

Chinese Æsop:

Search This Blog