Chinese Æsop:

Long ago, in the state of Qin, there was a man named Xiao Shi, who loved playing the music instrument Xiao. The Xiao he played might be the vertical singular bamboo flute, or the Paixiao which consists of many pipes of gradually increasing length, each pipe producing one note. I guess the instrument Xiao Shi played must be the latter, because It is shaped like the wings of a phoenix, and it is said that when he plays the xiao, its melodious tune attracted white cranes and peacocks to dance around him, even phoenix come down from the heaven to listen! Thus, this instrument is also called phoenix pipes. In that same state, the great Duke Mu of Qin had a beautiful daughter. For a child’s first birthday, the Chinese have a custom of setting out a plate filled with different objects for the baby to grab. In this small ritual, the parents hope to get a glimpse of the child’s future inclination. The plate held money, ink brush, jewels, books and other treasures. The Duke’s daughter’s smal...

According to legend, Chang'e and her husband Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously not pleased with Houyi's solution to save the earth: nine of his sons were dead. As punishment, the Jade Emperor banished Houyi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth. Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be immortals again. At the end of his quest he met the Queen Mother of the West who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half the pill to become immortal. Houyi brou...

Duyu (杜宇 Cuckoo Bird) descended from Heaven and resided in Zhuti (朱提), he married a lady called Zhu Li (朱利), who was born in a well. Duyu ascended to the throne after Yu Fu (魚鳧 Fisher Bird), and reigned for a hundred years the ancient kingdom Ba and Shu (巴 蜀) , which encompassed the SiChuan basin. His imperial title was Emperor Wang (望帝) . Du Yu was a kind-hearted king, and he loved his people as much as he loved his siblings and children. He taught his people to plow and sow, and harvest according to seasons and people of Shu adored and trusted him as if he were their father. One year, flood engulfed the country of Shu and people and crops became the food of fish and dragons. Du Yu tried all he could, but the flood continued to rage. When he realized that he could no longer provide security and happiness to his people, and was in great distress, he met a young man called Bie Ling (鳖灵 the Tortoise Spirit). Bie Ling told Emperor Wang that he came from Jing (荆). He was drowned and hi...

Emperor Wang, whose given name was Du-yu, sent his minister Bie Ling to work on irrigation and flood control, and in Bie Ling's absence had an adulterous affair with Bie Ling's wife. On Bie Ling's return, Emperor Wang was overcome with shame. He departed, abdicating his throne to his minister Bie Ling and was transformed in to a cuckoo. The unfaithful and carefree Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other bird's nests and leave them to bring up the offspring. Emperor Wang was so ashamed that he keeps calling "cuckold" day and night ever since he died and transformed into the cuckoo birds.

One day the White-Silk Maiden played on a fifty-string zither for the sage-ruler Fuxi, and the sound was unbearably mournful. To find relief from this sound, Fuxi broke the zither in half, creating the latter-day twenty-five-string zither.

Liu Bang was born into a peasant family in Pei County. Before Liu Bang's birth, his mother was caught in a rainstorm and took shelter under a bridge. Just then, there was lightning and thunder and the sky darkened. Liu Bang's father went to fetch his wife home and saw a dragon hovering above her. Liu Bang's mother became pregnant and gave birth to Liu Bang. Liu Bang had a high nose, whiskers and a beard, which made him resemble a dragon. He had 72 dark spots on his left leg. The young Liu Bang was outspoken, charismatic and of great forbearance and tolerance. However, Liu Bang enjoyed loafing, disliked reading and showed no interest in farming, hence his father often chided him as a "little rascal". Liu Bang persisted in his idling ways and depended on his brother's family for food and lodging. When he grew older, he was appointed as a patrol officer and forged close relationships with the officials in the county office, earning himself a little reputation...

Ts'ang Chieh is said to have had four eyes, and to have taken the idea of Chinese written language from the markings of birds' claws upon the sand. Upon the achievement of his task the sky rained grain and evil spirits mourned by night. Previous to this mankind had no other system than rude methods of knotting cords and notching sticks for noting events or communicating with one another at a distance. Ts'ang Chieh had four eyes and four pupils Cangjie had four eyes and four pupils, and when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. knotting cords Shortly after unifying China, the Yellow Emperor, being dissatisfied with his "rope knot tying" method of recording information, charged Cangjie with the task of creating characters for writing. The Yellow Emperor said, "These knots and sticks always make my head muddled. Mouse likes biting the ropes, and last night a fire almost destroyed all the sticks. Now I do...

At the beginning, the Jiang tribe settled on the plain along the Yellow River. A girl of this tribe named Jiang Yuan was virtuous and reverent to God. Jiang Yuan was betrothed and then married to Emperor Ku, but she was barren, so she presented pure offerings to God and sacrificed and prayed God to take away her childlessness. The next day she went out to the field, and saw a big foot print on the road, she was curious because of the huge size. So she put her own foot inside the big foot print to measure it. Suddenly she was moved and felt strange. Then she knew she had trod in the foot print of God, and had become pregnant. She came back to her home, and rested. When she had fulfilled her months, she gave birth to a son, who came forth like a lamb, there was no bursting, nor rending, no injury, no hurt. But the birth of this child was so odd that Mother Jiang Yuan felt bewildered and tried to abandon her newborn baby. First the boy was placed in a narrow lane, but the sheep and o...

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....

In the tenth year of T'ang Tai Chung's reign, his Empress died. She was a woman of no ordinary talent and virtue. He built her a splendid mausoleum, but the next year consoled himself by collecting beautiful damsels for the imperial seraglio. Among these was a young girl of fifteen, named Wu Chow . She was of low parentage, but soon procured great favour for herself, and high official posts for her near relatives, by her exceptional beauty and wit. An imperial censor, however, predicted calamity to the realm in connection with her name. The Emperor was alarmed, and sent away Wu Chow into a Buddhist nunnery, where her history is involved in some very serious scandals. She did not remain long in seclusion, for T‘ang Kao Chung, in fulfilment of an early vow he had made her, removed her back to Court. The reason given for the step in the orthodox history books is, that Kao Chung's Empress considered it the only means by which the influence of a certain inmate of the palace...

Li, the Pagoda-bearer In Buddhist temples there is to be seen a richly attired figure of a man holding in his hand a model of a pagoda. He is Li, the Prime Minister of Heaven and father of No-cha. He was a general under the tyrant Chou and commander of Ch'ên-t'ang Kuan at the time when the bloody war was being waged which resulted in the extinction of the Yin dynasty. No-cha is one of the most frequently mentioned heroes in Chinese romance; he is represented in one account as being Yü Huang's shield-bearer, sixty feet in height, his three heads with nine eyes crowned by a golden wheel, his eight hands each holding a magic weapon, and his mouth vomiting blue clouds. At the sound of his Voice, we are told, the heavens shook and the foundations of the earth trembled. His duty was to bring into submission all the demons which desolated the world. His birth was in this wise. Li Ching's wife, Yin Shih, bore him three sons, the eldest Chin-cha, the second Mu-ch...