One Hundred Allegorical Tales from Traditional China

Title

en_US One Hundred Allegorical Tales from Traditional China

Description

en_US Language note: Bilingual: English/Chinese

en_US Original language: chi

en_US Rewritten by Wei Jinzhi; Translated by Jan and Yvonne Walls

Creator

en_US Cheng, Shifa

Contributor

en_US Shifa, Cheng

Date

2016-01-25T19:38:39Z

en_US 1999-12

en_US 1982

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:38:39Z

Date Issued

en_US 1982

Abstract

en_US This is a good collection of yuyan or allegorical tales. The Walls' introduction points out that yuyan has sometimes been translated as fable, as by Gladys Yang in Ancient Chinese Fables (1957), but since these are not all animal tales, they are hesitant to use that term. Yuyan, according to Wolfram Eberhard, include tales, allegories, metaphors, and sometimes even…anecdotes (v). I have enjoyed the hundred collected here, presented bilingually, with Chinese on the left-page and English on the right-page. Among the best are Asking for a Snub I (9: it is not where people come from but where they are that may make them criminal); Asking for a Snub II (11: the quality of an ambassador sent depends on the quality of the state to which he is sent, so that only incompetent people are sent to you!); The Suspect (19: a man's manner is that of a thief when one looks like at him as a thief); Presenting Turtledoves (27: you damage many turtledoves when you catch a few to release in order to show your kindness); Waiting for More Rabbits to Bump into the Tree (61: though the farmer waited a long time, no rabbit ever bumped into that tree again); The Greedy King (89: the king of A sends a bell to the king of B, who widens all his roads to get the bell to the capital; the king of A soon marches through those widened roads to defeat the king of B); Marking the Boat Where the Sword Was Lost (101: when we dock at the shore, I'll use this mark on the boat to fetch the lost sword); A Holy Fish (175: a man drops a fish into a hole in a tree trunk and returns later to find it venerated as a holy fish); Breaking Arrows (177: breaking one versus breaking a bundle); Money More Important Than Life (179: a man sinks in a rushing river because of the 1000 coins he is carrying); The Donkey of Guizhou (181: a tiger becomes only gradually familiar with a donkey and then attacks and devours it); A Compassionate Gentleman (207: wants to eat a turtle but does not want to kill it himself, and so he creates an elaborate test of walking a pole over the boiling water); and Guarding the Willow Trees (233: a child guards the young willows by pulling them up every night and replanting them the next morning). At the end are notes, a type index, a list of sources, and references.

Identifier

en_US 9620401824

en_US 5516 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/81050

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Joint Publishing Company

en_US Hong Kong

Subject

en_US PN989.C5 W4313 1982

en_US Chinese

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole