Chinese Æsop:

In Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), in the land of Tao-chou (now in county Tao in Hunan Province), many of the people are dwarfs; The tallest of them never grow to more than three feet. They were sold in the market as dwarf slaves and yearly sent to Court; Described as "an offering of natural products from the land of Tao-chou." That custom of tribute dwarfish slave to the court has been in existence before Tang dynasty, and the local governor made a great profit of it, but the people suffered great, because that parted men from those they loved, never to meet again! Old men — weeping for their grandsons ; mothers for their children ! One day — Yang Ch'eng came to govern the land as the governor; He refused to send up dwarf slaves in spite of incessant mandates. He replied to the Emperor, "All people of Tao-chou are short, I don't which to chose and send to the court," and he also quoted from the ancient Sacred Books, and said, " Your servant finds in th...

There was once a Chang family, three daughters were all very beautiful and filial, but unfortunately all their husbands had little ailments. The eldest son-in-law had leprosy body, the second had scalp disease, and the third had red eyes disease. Though the affected places were different, they were all itchy scratchy. Three son-in-laws met together, it was quite a spectacular scene. They just couldn’t keep themselves still, especially during the feast, they couldn’t sit still and eat a proper meal, scratching, rubbing or wiggling, until their father was so disgusted and totally lost appetite. Another Chinese New Year festival, according to the customs, their daughters and son-in-laws came to pay visit on the Second Day in the First Moon. They were drinking, eating, merry-making, everything went well except that their father couldn’t tolerate their never stopping scratch, so he warned them that nobody would scratch at the dinner, or else they had to leave, and never allowed to enter...

There was once a woodcutter named Chang, he went to the South Mountain every day to cut wood, and burn charcoal. His father was a charcoal seller, he started to cut wood and burn charcoal with his father when he was a boy, now his hair had turn to grey, his face stained with dust and ashes, his ten fingers are black. He transport charcoal in an ox-drawn cart and sold in the market for the price of a silver coin, which was just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth. Although he worked very hard, he was still very poor. One morning, he took a break as usual; he sat down under a huge pine tree beside a spring, ate his stale bread, drank water from the spring, and sighed: “Oh, the Spirit of the South Mountain, why I work so hard, I am still very poor. Is it my fate? ” Just then he noticed a hole in the precipice behind the pine tree, a beautiful golden bird standing at the edge of the entrance, look left and right cautiously, then flew away. “That was a strange bird I ...