Chinese Fables and Folk Stories

Title

en_US Chinese Fables and Folk Stories

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US By Mary Hayes Davis and Chow-Leung

Creator

en_US Chow-Leung See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Yin-Chwang Wang Tsen-Zan (introduction)

Date

2016-01-25T19:03:16Z

en_US 1998-06

en_US 1908

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:03:16Z

Date Issued

en_US 1908

Abstract

en_US The thirty-seven stories here include many more fables than I thought. Put it better: many of these stories are much more fables than I had thought they would be. The book makes a proud boast that it is the first to bring Chinese fables into English. As Yin--Chwang Wang Tsen-Zan says in the introduction, This is the first book of Chinese stories ever printed in English that will bring the Western people to the knowledge of some of our fables, which have never been heretofore known to the world (7). Though they are somewhat longer than most Western fables and though they often have a legendary quality, using frequent proper names, still they do mostly what fables do. Several particularly good fables include The Evergreen Tree and the Wilderness Marigold (27), The Snail and the Bees (31), The Proud Chicken (37, very much like our The Two Cocks), The Man Who Loved Money Better than Life (66), The Proud Fox and the Crab (141), The Lion and the Mosquitoes (176), and The Thief and the Elephant (181), which features confession by fear. The version of SM here (136) results in death. La Fontaine's fable of the acorn and pumpkin shows up here as that of the fig and watermelon (203). Maybe the most touching story in the book is that of Confucius' contemplation of two trees, which helps him to find purpose in a wintry world of rejection (128). Most of the illustrations are signed by a chop with a star over the letter B. The tone of these stories is heavily didactic.

Identifier

en_US 4256 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79532

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US American Book Company

en_US New York

Subject

en_US PN989.C5 D37 1908 See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole