Chinese Æsop:

AN TA-CH'ENG was a Chung-ch'ing man. His father, who had gained the master's degree, died early; and his brother Erh-ch'eng was a mere boy. He himself had married a wife from the Ch'en family, whose name was Shan-hu; and this young lady had much to put up with from the violent and malicious disposition of her husband's mother. However, she never complained; and every morning dressed herself up smart, and went in to pay her respects to the old lady. Once when Ta-ch'eng was ill, his mother abused Shan-hu for dressing so nicely; whereupon Shan-hu went back and changed her clothes; but even then Mrs. An was not satisfied, and began to tear her own hair with rage. Ta-ch'eng, who was a very filial son, at once gave his wife a beating, and this put an end to the scene. From that moment his mother hated her more than ever, and although she was everything that a daughter-in-law could be, would never exchange a word with her. Ta-ch'eng then treated her in much...

HSI CH'ENG-LIEH was a Ch'eng-tu man. He had a wife and a concubine, the latter named Ho Chao-jung. His wife dying, he took a second by name Shen, who bullied the concubine dreadfully, and by her constant wrangling made his life perfectly unbearable, so that one day in a fit of anger he ran away and left them. Shortly afterwards Ho gave birth to a son, and called him Ta-nan; but as Hsi did not return, the wife Shen turned them out of the house, making them a daily allowance of food. By degrees Ta-nan became a big boy; and his mother, not daring to ask for an increase of victuals, was obliged to earn a little money by spinning. Meanwhile, Ta-nan, seeing all his companions go to school and learn to read, told his mother he should like to go too; and accordingly, as he was still very young, she sent him for a few days' probation. He turned out to be so clever that he soon beat the other boys; at which the master of the school was much pleased, and offered to teach him for nothi...

In old China, filial piety was honoured and enforced by law to its extreme, whosoever curses father or mother is to die. Once a woman was frightening a stubborn boy by crying, 'Come, mandarin, come! the boy has struck his mother.' Which cries was heard by a passing by mandarin, and he stopped his chair. The mother explained that she was talking in sport. She urged that the child was not old enough to know good and evil. 'We will see about that, ' said the magistrate. 'Bring a bowl of rice and a bowl of muck.' The child chose the former. 'He does know, you see. Flay him.' It was done. The place where this cruel incident happened was called the Lake of the Flayed Child to this day. Although some say, in Chinese, the sounds, being almost identical with those of melon seeds, those two words, and not the flayed child, may form the more correct name of the place.

The same official (Le Hung Chang 李鸿章) presents a supplementary petition. According to information received from several persons, there lately lived a filial young lady named Pang Yun-chun, a native of the district of Hwae-ning in Gan-hwuy, the eldest daughter of Pang Tsëö-khe, the Prefect of King-chow. From her earliest years this young lady delighted in reading poetry, and took pleasure in listening to ancient and modern tales of filial piety, rectitude, purity, and chastity. She accompanied her mother to her father's residence at his official post, and never left her for a moment. In the 6th year of the present reign, the mother became seriously ill, and the daughter secretly cut off a piece of her arm and gave it to her in her medicine, whereupon the mother recovered. During the winter of the 11th year, the mother again became ill, and the daughter gave her soup and medicine, and for more than twenty day and nights never put off her own clothes. She again cut off a piece ...

Ts'een Ting-ming (錢鼎銘), Deputy Governor of Honan, petitions in reference to a dutiful daughter who cut a piece of flesh from her arm, in order to cure her father of his sickness. In the present Holy Dynasty, filial piety rules the Empire, and this doctrine originates in the female sex. The petitioner's birth place is Tae-tsang (太倉) in the province of Këang-soo (江蘇). In the district of Chin-yang there lived a daughter remarkable for her filial piety, whose name after her marriage, was Mrs. Wang. In the fifth year of the reign of the Emperor Hëen-fung, this young lady's father became dangerously ill, and his filial daughter, lighting incense sticks, announced (to the gods) her desire to sacrifice her own body for her father's sake. After this announcement, her father's illness increasing, and his physicians being unable to cure him, this filial daughter secretly cut off a piece of flesh from her arm, and putting it into the medicine prescribed, gave it to her fathe...