Chinese Æsop:

Chien Ti and the Dark Bird Hsieh of Yin's mother was Chien Ti, who was one of the daughters of Yusung and the secondary wife of Emperor Ku. She was going with her two sisters to bathe, when she saw a dark bird drop its egg. Chien Ti picked it up, and swallowed it, and thus being with child gave birth to Hsieh. When Hsieh grew up, he was succeseful in assisting Yü to control the flood, and the Emperor Shun, directing Hsieh, said: "The people are wanting in affection for one another, and do not observe the five orders of relationship. You, as Minister of Instruction, should reverently inculcate the lessons of duty belonging to those five orders, but do so with gentleness." He held in fief the principality of Shang, and was given the surname of Tzŭ (son). Hsieh flourished in the reigns of Yao, Shun, and the great Yü. His services were manifest to the people, who were accordingly at peace. Hsieh died, after twelfth generations, Emperor T‘ien Yi or T‘ang the Completer ca...

Many, perhaps forty years ago, I was walking in the interior of Canton province, not far from its great East river which flows on to join the streams from the north and west at Whampou. All at once my steps were arrested by a loud shouting from the river, and I hurried to the bank to see what was going on. There, as I stood above the water, I saw two boats, long and slender, each built to represent a dragon, the head of which rose high and formed the prow. A man sat upon it with a flag in each hand, which he waved to direct the movements of the crew, and with his face turned towards the helmsman who stood near the stern. Midway in the boats were two men beating with all their might, the one a gong, the other a drum. The crew in each boat could not have been fewer than thirty men, each grasping a short stout paddle, and all, with quivering eagerness and loud cries, racing towards a certain point. At the conclusion of the race, the rowers exerting all their strength and skill, and the ...