Chinese Æsop:

The God Of Climbing Mountains, Yu-Er, is only one foot tall with completely human features. I think Yu-er might be mountain dwarf. Duke Huan of Qi (685–643 b.c.e.) was on a military campaign northwards against the state of Guzhu. A little more than three miles from the Bei-er River, he stopped short and stared transfixed. He aimed his bow but drew back and dared not shoot, saying to his attendants, “Do you see that person ahead?” The attendants answered, “We see no one.” The Duke said, “This campaign is destined to fail for I am much confused! I have just seen a person only a foot tall with completely human features. He wore a hat and his right arm was raised as he raced on a horse. This campaign is destined to fail for I am much confused! How could there be a person like this?” Guan Zhong (c. 730–645 b.c.e.) replied, “I have heard that there is a God Of Climbing Mountains, Yu-Er, who is only one foot tall with completely human features. When a hegemon arises, the God Of Climb...

There is also a Chinese Rip Van Winkle, a tale of a man who, wandering one day in the mountains, came upon two immortals playing checkers; and after watching them for some time, and eating some dates they gave him, he discovered that the handle of an axe he was carrying had mouldered into dust. Returning home, he found, as the Chinese poet puts it, " City and suburb as of old, But hearts that loved him long since cold." Seven generations had passed away in the interim.  (Herbert Allen Giles)

Wang Chih was a woodcutter, he was hardy young fellow who used to venture deep into the mountains to find suitable wood for his axe. One day he went farther than usual and became lost. He wandered about for a while and eventually came upon two strange old men who were playing Go, their board resting on a rock between them. Wang Chih was fascinated. He put down his axe and began to watch. One of the players gave him something like a date to chew on, so that he felt neither hunger nor thirst. As he continued to watch he fell into a trance for what seemed like an hour or two. When he awoke, however, the two old men were no longer there. He found that his axe handle had rotted to dust and he had grown a long beard. When he returned to his native village he discovered that his family had disappeared and that no one even remembered his name.

The Sun King The worship of the sun was part of the State religion, and the officials make their offerings to the sun-tablet. The moon also is worshipped. At the harvest moon, the full moon of the eighth month, the Chinese bow before the heavenly luminary, and each family burns incense as an offering. Thus “100,000 classes all receive the blessings of the icy-wheel in the Milky Way along the heavenly street, a mirror always bright.” In Chinese illustrations we see the moon-palace of Ch’ang O, who stole the pill of immortality and flew to the moon, the fragrant tree which one of the genii tried to cut down, and a hare pestling medicine in a mortar. This refers to the following legend. The sun and the moon are both included by the Chinese among the stars, the spirit of the former being called ‘the Sun-king,’ that of the latter ‘the Moon-queen,’ or ‘Ch’ang O of the Lunar Palace.’ Shên I lived in the reign of Yellow Emperor, who appointed him Director of Construction and Furnishing....

A famous hermit was once deep in his meditations, when he saw a form standing before him, who introduced himself as the spirit of the hills, and said he had come for instruction in doctrine. Having received it, he asked what recompense he could give. The hermit answered, 'The hill where I generally meditate has no pines; could you move these thither for me?' 'You humble servant,' replied the spirit, 'never fear.' And he bowed exit. That night there was a great thunderstorm, and the morning saw all the pines transplanted around the dwelling of the hermit. (A string of Chinese peach-stones (1895), Cornaby, William Arthur)

Long, long ago, on the top of a mountain called the Flower-and-Fruit Mountain, there lay all by itself a queer-shaped stone egg. No one knew what bird had laid it, or how it had got there ; no one ever saw it, for there was nobody there to see. The egg lay all by itself on some green grass, until one day it split with a crack, and out came a stone monkey, a monkey whose body was of shining polished stone. Before long, this wonderful stone monkey was surrounded by a crowd of other monkeys, chattering to one another as hard as they could. By and by they seemed to have settled something in their minds, and one of them came forward and asked the stone monkey to be their king. This post he accepted at once, having indeed already thrown out hints that he thought himself quite fit to rule over them. Flower-and-Fruit Mountain Soon after this, he determined to travel in search of wisdom, and to see the world. He went down the mountain, until he came to the sea-shore, where he made himself ...

One day, an old priest stopped at a wayside inn to rest, spread out his mat, and sat down with his bag. Soon afterwards, a young fellow of the neighbour- hood also arrived at the inn ; he was a farm-labourer and wore short clothes, not a long robe like the priest and men who read books. He took a seat near to the priest and the two were soon laughing and talking together. By and by, the young man cast a glance at his own rough dress and said with a sigh, " See, what a miserable wretch I am." " You seem to me well fed and healthy enough," replied the priest ; " why in the middle of our pleasant chat do you suddenly complain of being a miserable wretch ? " " What pleasure can I find," retorted the young man, " in this life of mine, working every day as I do from early morn to late at night ? I should like to be a great general and win battles, or to be a rich man and have fine food and wine, and listen to good music, or to be a great man at ...

Once upon a time, the youngest daughter of Emperor Yandi, legendary ruler of primitive China, went boating on the Eastern Sea. While she was enjoying herself, a strong wind rose on the sea and her boat capsized. Just before she was buried by the surging waves, she turned into a beautiful bird. The bird looked like a crow, but had a colorful head, a white bill and two red claws. She lived on Fajiu Hill where grew a lot of mulberry bushes, and when she flew over the roaring sea, it cried sadly in the sound "jinwei, jingwei". That was why people called it "Jingwei". Jinwei hated the sea so much that it decided to fill it up. Every day, it flew to and fro between the mountain and the sea, carrying a twig or a pebble from the mountain and dropping it into the sea. One day, the roaring sea said to Jingwei, "Poor little bird, stop doing that meaningless thing! You'll never fill me up." Jingwei replied, "I'll fill you up no doubt! I will, even if it...

Once a famous artist Zhang Seng You drew four dragons on the walls of An Le Temple, Jin Ling, but he left the pupils of the dragons unfinished. Someone asked him the reason of the omission. In answer, he said that if he put the pupils therein the dragons would become alive and fly away. The questioner did not believe it and requested him to complete the work. The artist nodded assent. But as soon as the two dots were drawn, all of a sudden, there were thunder and lightning and the dragon became alive and instantly flew away, while the other three without pupils still remained there. Based on this fairy tale, the last touch added to a drawing is said to be the act of adding pupils to a dragon, that is to say, the last touch in a masterpiece is the most important part of a drawing, or any other important business.