Chinese Æsop:

Once upon a time, in the ancient state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period of China, a tale of courage and conspiracy unfolded that would be remembered through the ages. This is the story of the Banquet of the Brave. In the heart of Wu, a usurper king named Liao sat on the throne, having deceitfully taken it from his nephew, Prince Guang. Resolute in reclaiming his rightful place, Prince Guang plotted to overturn this injustice. Advised by the wise Wu Zixu, Prince Guang took under his wing a warrior of unmatched bravery and skill, named Zhuan Zhu. Zhuan Zhu, a man of Yue who had seen his share of struggles, was entrusted with a mission of grave importance. He was to master the art of cooking a great carp, King Liao's favorite dish. The prince intended to use this culinary allure as a means to draw the usurper into a trap. The fateful day arrived when King Liao was invited to a grand banquet at Prince Guang's residence. Despite his suspicions, the allure of the famed carp ...

In the old days described in the Spring and Autumn Annals, when China consisted of a host of rival States hard to amalgamate, there lived a celebrated statesman of the name of Yü Peh-ya.  His birthplace was the capital of the kingdom of Ch'u, which is now the present Kingchow (the " island of thorn bushes " to which Ts'ao Ts'ao sent his cynical adviser Ti'ao Hen), to the west of the modern Wuchang. But his star of good fortune led him into an official post in the kingdom of Tsin, which occupied what is now the southern half of Shensi, and the north-west of Honan. The King of Tsin, wishing to send an embassy of friendly congratulation to the King of Ch'u, Peh-ya sought and obtained the commission. Having reached the capital, he was granted a royal interview, and was entertained in sumptuous style. He naturally wished to visit his ancestral graves, and call upon such of his relatives and friends as the great change-worker Time had spared as yet. Public bus...

In the lawless times of the Chow dynasty, the prince of the State of Ts'ai, who was at enmity with the prince of the small State of Shi [B.C. 682], heard admiring accounts of the unparalleled beauty of the latter's wife, and reported the same to the prince of Ch'u. That prince went off at once on a visit to Shi, and was entertained with all due hospitality; which he recompensed by carrying off both husband and wife. The one he made doorkeeper, the other he kept within his palace. She had previously meditated drowning herself in a well, and now she declined to speak for three years. Piqued with her obstinacy, the prince of Ch'u went off to conquer the territory of Shi, but with only partial success. While he was away, the faithful wife happening to see her husband from the balcony, broke her long silence by saying to him, ' We can but die once; why then do we consent to prolong this misery and disgrace? Alive we can but live apart, but through death we may at least...

The marquis of Jin saw in a dream a great demon with dishevelled hair reaching to the ground, which beat its breast, and leaped up, saying. "You have slain my descendants unrighteously, and I have presented my request to God in consequence." It then broke the great gate of the palace, advanced to the gate of the State chamber, and entered. The duke was afraid and went into a side-chamber, the door of which it also broke. The duke then awoke, and called for the witch of Sangtian, who told him everything which he had dreamt. "What will be the issue?" asked the duke. "You will not taste the new wheat," she replied. After this, the duke became very ill, and asked the services of a physician from Qin, the earl of which sent the physician Huan to do what he could for him. Before he came, the duke dreamt that his disease turned into two boys, who said, "That is a skilful physician; it is to be feared he will hurt us; how shall we get out of his way?" ...

Duke Ling of Jin conducted himself in a way unbecoming a ruler. He levied heavy exactions, to supply him with means for the carving of his walls, and shot at people from the top of a tower to see how they tried to avoid his pellets. Because his cook had not done some bears' paws thoroughly, he put him to death, and made some of his women carry his body past the court in a basket. Zhao Dun and Shi Hui saw the man's hands, appearing through the basket, and asked about the matter, which caused them grief. Zhao Dun was about to go and remonstrate with the duke, when Shi Hui said to him, "If you remonstrate and are not attended to, no one can come after you. Let me go first; and if my remonstrance does not prevail, you can come after." Accordingly, Hui entered the palace, and advanced, through the first three divisions of it, to the open court before the hall, before he was seen by the duke, who then said, "I know my errors, and will change them." Hui bowed his h...

In winter, in the twelfth month, on Jimao, Chong'er, marquis of Jin, died. On Gengchen, they were conveying his coffin to place it in the temple at Quwo, when, as it was leaving Jiang, there came a voice from it like the lowing of an angry bull. The diviner Yan made the great officers do obeisance to the coffin, saying, "His lordship is charging us about a great affair. There will be an army of the west passing by us; we shall smite it, and obtain a great victory." Now Qi Zi had sent information from Zheng to Qin, saying, "The people of Zheng have entrusted to my charge the key of their north gate. If an army come secretly upon it, the city may be got. Duke Mu of Qi consulted Jian Shu about the subject, and that officer replied, 'That a distant place can be surprised by an army toiled with a long march is what I have not learned. The strength of the men will be wearied out with toil, and the distant lord will be prepared for them;—does not the undertaking seem ...

Duke Xian of Jin married a daughter of the House of Jia, who had no child. Afterwards he committed incest with his father's concubine Qi Jiang, by whom he had a daughter who became wife of duke Mu of Qin, and a son Shensheng, whom he, after his father's death, acknowledged as his heir. Subsequently he married two ladies from among the Rong, the one of whom, called Hu Ji of the great Rong, bore Chong'er, and the other, who was of the small Rong, bore Yiwu. When Jin invaded the Li Rong, their chief, a baron, gave duke Xian to wife his daughter. Duke Xian had wished to make Li Ji his wife, and consulted the divination. The tortoise-shell indicated that the thing would be unlucky, but the milfoil pronounced it lucky. The duke said, "I will follow the milfoil." The diviner by the tortoise-shell said, "The milfoil is reckoned inferior in its indications to the tortoise-shell. You had better follow the latter. And moreover, the oracle was:— 'The change made ...

At an early time, duke Zhuang of Lu built a tower near the residence of the Zhang family, from which he got a sight of Meng Ren, and followed her; but she shut the door against him. He then said he would make her his wife, when she consented to his desires, cutting at the same time her arm, and with the blood making a covenant with him. She afterwards bore a son to the duke, who was called Ban. In thirty-second year of his reign, when the duke Zhuang of Lu was ill, he consulted his half-brother Shuya about who should be his successor, and Shuya said, 'Qingfu has ability." Qinfu was Ya's own full brother, he wanted to raise Qingfu to the lordship. The duke also asked his full brother Jiyou, who replied that he would support Ban to the death. "A little ago," said the duke, "Ya mentioned the ability of Qingfu." On this Jiyou sent a messenger with the duke's order to command Shuya to wait in the family of the officer Qianwu, where he made Qianwu's...

Zhai Zhong monopolized the government of Zheng, to the great trouble of the earl, who employed Zhong's son-in-law, Yong Jiu [this Yong Jiu had come to Zheng with Tu from Song, and married a daughter of Zhai Zhong] to kill him. Jiu proposed doing so at a feast which he was to give Zhong in the suburbs, but Yong Ji [Jiu's wife, and Zhong's daughter] became aware of the design, and said to her mother, " Whether is a father or a husband the nearer and dearer? " The mother said, " Any man may be husband to a woman, but she can have but one father. How can there be any comparison between them? " She then told Zhai Zhong, saying, "Yong is leaving his house, and intends to feast you in the suburbs and there kill you; I got him to tell me by guile." On this Zhai Zhong killed Yong Jiu, and threw away his body by the pool of the Zhou family. The earl took it with him in his carriage, and left the State, saying, " It was right he should die, who commu...

The king deprived the earl of Zheng of all share in the government of the kingdom, and the earl in consequence no more appeared at court. In autumn the king led several of the princes to invade Zheng, when the earl withstood him. The king drew up his forces so that he himself was in the centre, while Linfu, duke of Guo, commanded the army of the right, having the troops of Cai and Wei attached to him, and Heijian, duke of Zhou, commanded on the left, having the troops of Chen. Ziyuan of Zheng asked the earl to draw their troops up in squares, on the left opposed to the armies of Cai and Wei, and on the right to the men of Chen. "Chen," said he, "is at this time all in confusion, and the people have no heart to fight. If we attack them first, they will be sure to run. The king's soldiers seeing this will fall into disorder, and the troops of Cai and Wei will set them the example of flight without making any resistance. Let us then collect our troops and fall upon ...

Years back, the wife of Mu, marquis of Jin (B. C. 811—84), a lady Jiang, gave birth to her eldest son, at the time of the expedition against Tiao, and on that account there was given him the name of Qiu (enemy). His brother was born at the time of the battle of Qianmou, and he got with reference to it the name of Chengshi (grand success). Shifu said, "How strange the names our lord has given to his sons! Now names should be definitions of what is right; the doing of what is right produces rules of what is proper; those rules again are embodied in the practice of government; and government has its issues in the rectification of the people. Therefore when government is completed in this way, the people are obedient; when this course is changed, it produces disorder. A good partner is called Fei (consort); a grumbling partner is called Qiu (enemy):—these are ancient designations. Now our lord has called his eldest son Enemy, and his second son Grand Success;—this is an early omen of ...

Confucius was a descendant of the Shang, and his ancestors were priests through the Dukes of Song. During the 10 years of duke Shang's rule in Song, he had fought 11 battles, so that the people were not able to endure the constant summonses to the field. Kongfu Jia was the minister of War, and  Huafu Du was the premier of the State. One day, Huafu Du happened to see the wife of Kongfu Jia on the way. He gazed at her as she approached, and followed her with his eyes when she had passed, saying, "How handsome and beautiful." Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the people, Du first set on foot a report that the constant fighting was owing to the minister of War. The next year, Du attacked the Kong family, killed Kongfu, and carried off his wife. The duke was angry, and Du, in fear, proceeded also to murder duke Shang. Immediately after, he called duke Zhuang (the prince Gongzi Ping) from Zheng, and raised him to the dukedom;—in order to please Zheng, bribing a...

Duke Wu of Zheng married a woman of the house of Shen, called Wu Jiang, who bore two sons, duke Zhuang and his brother Duan of Gong. Duke Zhuang was born as she was waking from sleep, which frightened the lady so that she named him Wu Sheng [born in waking]. She hated him, while she loved Duan and wished him to be declared his father’s heir. Often did she ask this of duke Wu, but he refused it. When duke Zhuang came to the earldom, she begged him to confer on Duan the city of Zhi. "It is too dangerous a place," was the reply. "The younger of Guo died there, but in regard to any other place, you may command me." She then requested Jing, and there Duan took up his residence and came to be styled Tai Shu [the Great Younger] of Jing city. Zhong of Ji said to the duke, "Any metropolitan city, whose wall is more than 3,000 cubits round, is dangerous to the state. According to the regulations of the former kings, such a city of the first order can have i...

In the second year of King P'ing (527 B.C.), Fei Wu-chi was sent to go to Ch'in to accept a bride for Chien, the Heir. The girl was becoming. When she had set out for Ch'u, but before she had arrived, Wu-chi returned and advised King P'ing, saying, "The girl from Ch'in is becoming. Your Majesty can marry her yourself, and seek another bride for the Heir." King P'ing listened to him and in the end married the girl from Ch'in himself, and married another woman to the Heir. At this time Wu She was the Grand Mentor of the Heir, Wu-chi was the Lesser Mentor. Wu-chi was not favored by the heir, and he often spoke ill of Ch'ien, the Heir. Chien at this time was fifteen years old. His mother was a woman from Ts'ai and was not favoured by the king. The King gradually became more and more estranged from Chien. In the sixth year (523 B.C.), Chien, the heir, was sent to reside at Cheng-fu to guard the border. Wu-chi again day and night slandered Ch...