Stories and Narrative: Anonymous Chinese Stories 1

Anonymous Chinese Stories 1

Complete digital texts

Kuichú's donkey

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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A donkey had never been seen in Kuichú, until the day an eccentric, eager for novelty, had one carried by boat. But since he didn't know what to use it for, he released it in the mountains.

A tiger, seeing such a strange creature, took it for a divinity. He watched him hide in the forest, until he ventured out of the jungle, always keeping a prudent distance.

One day the donkey brayed for a long time and the tiger started to run in fear. But he turned and thought that, despite everything, that divinity could not be so terrible. Already accustomed to the donkey's braying, he approached her, but without risking too much.

When he gained confidence in him, he began to take some liberties, touching him, giving him a push, bothering him at every turn, until the donkey, furious, kicked him. "So this is what he knows how to do," said the tiger. And jumping on the donkey, he tore it to pieces and devoured it.

Poor donkey! It seemed powerful for its size, and fearsome for its braying. If he had not shown all his talent with kicking, the ferocious tiger would never have dared to attack him. But with his kick the donkey signed its death sentence.

END

The hidden deer

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

A woodcutter from Cheng came across a frightened deer in the field and killed it. To prevent others from discovering it, he buried it in the woods and covered it with leaves and branches. Shortly after he forgot the place where he had hidden it and believed that everything had happened in a dream. He told it, as if it were a dream, to all the people. Among the listeners there was one who went looking for the hidden deer and found it. He took him to his house and said to his wife:

-A woodcutter dreamed that he had killed a deer and forgot where he had hidden it and now I have found it. That man is a dreamer.

-You must have dreamed that you saw a woodcutter who had killed a deer. Do you really think there was a lumberjack? But since here is the deer, your dream must be true -said the woman.

"Even supposing I found the deer in a dream," replied the husband, "why worry about finding out which of the two dreamed?"

That night the woodcutter came back to his house, still thinking of the deer, and he really dreamed, and in the dream he dreamed of the place where he had hidden the deer and he also dreamed who had found it. At dawn he went to the other's house and found the deer. Both argued and went before a judge, to resolve the matter. The judge told the woodcutter:

-You really did kill a deer and you thought it was a dream. Then you really dreamed and believed it was true. The other found the deer and now he disputes it, but his wife thinks that he dreamed that he had found a deer that someone else had killed. Then no one killed the deer. But since here is the deer, it is best that they divide it up.

The case came to the attention of the King of Cheng, and the King of Cheng said:

- And that judge is not dreaming that he distributes a deer?

END

The charm

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Ch'ienniang was the daughter of Mr. Chang Yi, a Hunan official. She had a cousin named Wang Chu, who was a smart and handsome young man. They had grown up together, and since Mr. Chang Yi was very fond of the boy, he said that he would accept him as his son-in-law. They both heard the promise, and since they were always together, the love increased day by day. They were no longer children and came to have intimate relationships. Unfortunately, the father did not notice. One day a young official asked for the hand of her daughter, and Mr. Chang Yi, forgetting her old promise, consented.

Ch'ienniang, having to choose between love and respect that she owed to her father, she was about to die of grief, and the young man was so upset that he decided to leave the country so as not to see Ch'ienniang's girlfriend. he married another. She invented a pretext and told her uncle that she had to go to the capital. Since her uncle could not dissuade him, he gave her money, gifts, and gave her a farewell party. Wang Chu, in desperation, spent the entire time of the party pondering, telling himself that it was better to leave and not engage in an impossible love.

Wang Chu embarked one afternoon and had sailed a few miles when night fell. He told the sailor to tie up the boat and to rest, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not fall asleep. Around midnight, she heard footsteps approaching. He got up and asked:

-Who is there at this time of night?

-It's me, I'm Ch'ienniang.

Surprised and happy, Wang Chu ushered her into the boat. She told him that her father had been unfair to him and that she could not resign herself to being separated from him. She, too, had feared that Wang Chu, in her despair, might be driven to suicide. That's why she had braved the anger of her parents and the disapproval of the people and she had come to follow him wherever he went. Both, very happy, continued the trip to Szechuen.

Five years of happiness passed, and she bore him two children. But there was no news from the family and she, Ch'ienniang, thought more and more of her father. This was the only cloud in her happiness. She did not know whether her parents were alive or not, and one night she confided her grief to Wang Chu.

"You're a good daughter," he said, "five years have passed and their anger must have passed." Let's go home.

She ch'ienniang she rejoiced and they prepared to return with the children.

When the boat arrived at her hometown, Wang Chu told Ch'ienniang.

We don't know how we will find your parents. Let me go first and find out.

Spotting the house, he felt his heart beating. Wang Chu saw her mother-in-law, knelt down, bowed, and begged for forgiveness. Chang Yi looked at him in amazement and said:

-What are you taking about? Five years ago, Ch'ienniang has been in bed and unconscious. He has not gotten up once.

"I don't understand," said Wang Chu, "she is perfectly healthy and she is waiting for us on board."

Chang Yi did not know what to think and sent two maidens to see Ch'ienniang.

They found her sitting in the boat well dressed and happy. Amazed, the maidens returned and Chang Yi's astonishment increased.

Meanwhile, the sick woman had heard the news and she seemed to have been cured: her eyes shone with a new light. She left the bed and dressed in front of the mirror. Smiling and without saying a word, she headed for the boat.

The one on board was going towards the house: they met on the shore. They embraced and the two bodies merged and only one Ch'ienniang remained, young and beautiful as always. Her parents rejoiced, but ordered the servants to keep quiet, to avoid comment.

For more than forty years, Wang Chu and Ch'ienniang lived together and were happy.

END

Note: This tale is from the Tang Dynasty era: 7th-10th centuries

The Chinese mirror

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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A Chinese farmer went to town to sell his rice crop and his wife asked him not to forget to bring her a comb.

After selling his rice in the city, the farmer met with some companions, and they drank and celebrated for a long time. Later, a bit confused, when he returned, he remembered that his wife had asked him for something, but what was it? He couldn't remember. He then bought the first thing that caught his attention in a women's store: a mirror. And he returned to the town.

He gave the gift to his wife and went to work in her fields. The woman looked in the mirror and began to cry uncontrollably. Her mother asked her the reason for those tears.

The woman gave him the mirror and said:

-My husband has brought another woman, young and beautiful.

The mother took the mirror, looked at it and said to her daughter:

-You do not have to worry, she is an old woman.

END

The chest mirror

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Returning from a business trip, a man bought a mirror in the city, an object that until then he had never seen, nor did he know what it was. But precisely that ignorance made him feel attracted to that mirror, because he thought he recognized the face of his father in it. Amazed, he bought it and, without saying anything to his wife, kept it in a chest they had in the attic of the house. From time to time, when he felt sad and lonely, he would go "to see his father."

But his wife found him very affected every time she saw him come back from the attic, so one day she spied on him and she found that there was something in the chest and that she was looking inside it for a long time.

When the husband went to work, the woman opened the chest and she saw in it a woman whose features were familiar to her but she could not tell who it was. From there a great marital fight arose, because the wife said that there was a woman inside the chest, and the husband assured that her father was there.

At that moment, a monk who was highly revered by the community passed by, and when he saw them arguing, he wanted to help them bring peace to his home. The spouses explained the dilemma to him and invited him to go up to the attic and look into the chest. The monk did so and, to the surprise of the couple, he assured them that at the bottom of the chest who really rested was a Zen monk.

END

The man who plays the heavenly flute

[Story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Many, many years ago, at the foot of the Five Finger Mountains, there lived a man who played the bamboo flute beautifully. He played it so well that the oriole did not dare to compete with him, the blackbird did not sing such beautiful melodies and not even the lark trilled with such rich sonority. When he began to play the flute, the birds stopped in mid-flight, the peasants who tilled the land stopped their chores; the elderly felt rejuvenated and the children jumped for joy... And his music was so beautiful that people believed that he had come down from heaven, for which they nicknamed him "Man who plays the heavenly flute".

One day, the Dragon-King of the South Sea entertained the divinities with a banquet on the beach. Eight thousand geniuses in rich exotic clothing chatted and enjoyed drinking around the host, who wore a habit cinched with a jade belt. And precisely that same day of the festival, after having walked ten days and ten nights, the "Man who plays the heavenly flute" arrived at the beach to fish. He spread the net over the calm sea, sat down on a clean, smooth stone and began to play the flute. At that very moment, as the Dragon-King raised his glass to toast his guests, he heard a sound as wondrous as he had ever thought to hear. Each and every one of the gods stood in suspense, even forgetting about the tables laden with delicacies and dropping their jade goblets. The man with the flute did not know nor could he imagine that, at that moment, so many divinities were listening to how he played his flute. And the gods, for their part, were convinced that whoever touched her thus must surely have descended from the upper heaven to the human world.

The Dragon-King liked the sound of that flute so much that he wanted to find the player to teach his son to play the instrument. And, following the direction from which the sound came, he found the man, who gathered up his net, tucked the flute into his broad belt, and followed the Dragon-King to his palace.

Three years had already passed and the King's son had learned to play the bamboo flute, so the piper, who missed his family and his people very much, begged the father to let him come home. The grateful King granted it to him and told his son to accompany the teacher to choose two gifts-the ones he wanted-from the royal treasury. There were red, yellow, blue precious stones…; glittering gold bars, and hundreds of thousands of extremely valuable items. The flute player took a long look at the Dragon King's treasure room and, seeing a cylindrical basket made of bamboo strips, he thought: "This utensil can be used to store the shrimp and fish that I catch." He took it and attached it to his belt. Later, in a closet, he discovered a rain cape and reflected: "With this cape I can go to the beach to fish even on rainy and windy days." And this was the second and last gift he chose.

As he left the treasure room accompanied by the son of the Dragon-King, the latter, very intrigued, asked him:

-Why have you chosen these simple objects among piles of gold and silver, pearls and precious stones?

The teacher replied with a smile:

-Gold and precious stones wear out and disappear. Instead, with this bamboo basket and rain cloak, I can go fishing every day, and with the fish I catch, I will never go hungry.

But when he returned to his house and went fishing for the first time, he discovered that those two gifts were really wonderful objects. When he returned from fishing, the bamboo basket was always overflowing with glittering fish, and the cloak, unfurled, carried him flying to the South Sea, to the place of fishing.

In this way, with the bamboo basket and the rain cloak, he flew to the Five Finger Mountains and, as soon as he played his flute, the sound spread through the sky and the whole world was filled with joy and joy. .

END

The angry monk

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Two Zen monks were crossing a river. They met a very young and beautiful woman who also wanted to cross, but she was afraid.

So a monk put her on her shoulders and carried her to the other shore.

The other monk was furious. He didn't say anything but he boiled inside. That was forbidden. A Buddhist monk was not supposed to touch a woman and this monk had not only touched her, but he had carried her on her shoulders.

They traveled several leagues. When they arrived at the monastery, as they entered, the monk who was angry turned to the other and said:

I'll have to tell the teacher. I will have to report on this. Is prohibited.

-What are you talking about? What is prohibited? the other told him.

-You have forgotten? You carried this beautiful woman on your shoulders -said the one who was angry.

END

The white monkey

[Story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

In the year 545, under the Liang dynasty, the emperor sent an expedition led by the general Lin King to the south. Arriving at Kuelin, the general engaged the united rebel forces of Li Che-ku and Tchen Tche, while his lieutenant Euyang Ho pushed into Tchangle, clearing all the caverns of enemies and entering dangerous terrain.

It turns out that the Euyang woman, who had a delicate white complexion, was ravishingly beautiful.

"General," her men told her. Why have you brought such a beautiful woman here? In this region there is a god who boasts of kidnapping all the girls, and especially of not sparing the most beautiful. The guard must be redoubled.

Deeply alarmed, Euyang that night arranged for her guards to surround her house, and hid her woman in a secret room, locking her in with a dozen servants whom he charged to protect her.

The night was very dark, and a gloomy wind blew; however, all remained quiet until dawn. Finally, tired of watching, the guards began to doze. Suddenly they thought they perceived the presence of something unusual. Startled, they woke up and jumped off the ground, but the woman had already disappeared. The door remained closed and no one knew how she was able to get out of it. They dashed outside, searching the jagged mountain in front of them, but the night was so dark that nothing could be seen within a step, and it was impossible to continue their search. Daylight came and no trace was found either.

Deeply indignant and sorrowful, Euyang swore that he would never return alone, and that he would find his wife first. Under the pretext that he was sick, he made his army camp there, and every day he set out to search in all directions, delving into the deepest and most dangerous ravines. A month later, thirty leagues from the camp, in a bamboo grove he found one of his wife's embroidered shoes, which, although soaked by the rain, was easy to recognize. More heartbroken than ever, Euyang continued his search for him. With about thirty of his most seasoned men, he spent the night sleeping in the caves or simply in the open air. After marching ten more days, and moving some sixty leagues from the camp, he discovered to the south a sinuous mountain covered with forests. Arriving at the foot of the mountain, he found it surrounded by a deep river. The crossing was made on an improvised raft. In the distance, between precipices and through the emerald bamboos, they perceived the reddish glow of silk dresses, and heard female voices and laughter.

Helping themselves with ropes, clinging to the wild vines, the warriors climbed the precipices. Up there, sumptuous trees were lined up, alternating with pictures of strange flowers, and enchanting meadows stretched out. Everything looked calm and cool like a retreat off the terrestrial world. To the east, under a portal dug into the rock itself, dozens of women, luxuriously dressed, passed and passed again with gestures of amusement, laughing and singing to the best of their ability. When they saw the men, they were as if paralyzed. They let them come closer, and then the women asked: -Why did they come here?

Hearing Euyang's answer, the women sighed and looked at each other:

-Your wife has been with us for more than a month. She is now sick and she is bedridden. Come and see her.

Passing the wooden gate of the gate, Euyang saw three spacious rooms arranged like a great hall. Along the walls were rows of beds covered with silk cushions. There was her wife, lying on a marble bed, covered in luxurious blankets, and all kinds of exotic foods were displayed in front of her. As Euyang approached, she turned to him, recognized him, but she briskly waved him away.

"Among us there are those who have been here for ten years," the women told him. Here lives a man-killing monster. Even with a hundred well-armed waiters. They won't be able to do anything. They'd better turn back before our master returns. But bring us two tons of good wine, and ten dogs to serve as bait, and a few dozen kilos of hemp, and then we can help you kill him. They must come back in ten days, right at noon, and by no means earlier.

The women begged them to leave as soon as possible, and Euyang immediately withdrew.

Euyang returned on the appointed day with excellent liquor, hemp, and dogs.

"The monster is a great drinker," the women told him. He often drinks himself drunk. Once drunk, he likes to gauge his strength. He asks us to tie him hand and foot to his bed with silken cloth. Then it is enough for him to take a leap to break all the ties. But when we tie him with a triple loop of silk, he in vain strives to free himself. This time, if we tie him up with the hemp hidden in the silk cloth, we are sure that his efforts will be useless. His entire body is hard as iron, but we have observed that only one part is always protected, a few centimeters below the navel. Surely he is vulnerable there.

Then, showing him a cave next to the house, they told him:

-There is his pantry. Hide inside and quietly watch for him. Leave the wine with the flowers and let the dogs loose in the forest. When we have fulfilled our plan, then we will call them and they will come out of hiding.

Euyang and his men did as they were told, holding their breath and waiting. About noon something like a long piece of white silk fell from the top of a neighboring mountain, landed on the ground, and entered the cavern. From there, a moment later, a man with a handsome beard, six feet tall, dressed in a white robe, emerged. He advanced with a cane in his hand, surrounded by his women. Seeing the dogs, surprised, he pounced on them, tore them to pieces and devoured them to satiety. And all the women competed in the charming and smiling way in which they offered him wine in jade cups. When he drank several pints of liquor, the women helped him into his house. They continued to hear some female laughter. Moments later the women came out to warn the warriors. They entered with sword in hand, and found a great white monkey, all four limbs tied to the bed. Seeing the strangers approaching, and unable to break free, he cringed and rolled his glowing eyes. In unison, all weapons were brought down on him, but found only a body of iron and stone. Finally digging below the navel the blades entered directly into his body. Abruptly, blood began to flow. Then the white monkey began to moan and said:

-If I die it is because heaven wanted it that way. You guys don't have enough strength to kill me. As for your wife, she is already pregnant. Do not kill her son, who will in time serve a great monarch and make her family more prosperous than ever.

As soon as he uttered these words, he died.

The warriors then dedicated themselves to looking for the monster's goods. They found heaps of precious objects, and on the tables immense quantities of good things to eat. There were all the known treasures of the world, including several gallons of exotic essences and a pair of excellent swords. There were thirty women, all of them of incomparable beauty, and some had been there for ten years. They said that when a woman grew old or withered, they took her they didn't know where. The white monkey enjoyed only his women and an accomplice was never known.

Every morning he washed, put on his hat. Winter and summer he wore a white silk robe with a collar of the same color. Her entire body was covered in white hairs, several inches long. When he stayed at home, she liked to read wooden tablets, with writings that seemed indecipherable hieroglyphics, and when he finished reading them he would hide them in a hiding place in the rocks. Sometimes, when the weather was good, he practiced with his two swords, making them trace glowing circles, which surrounded him with a luminous halo, as if he were the moon. He drank and ate the most diverse foods, particularly fruit, nuts, and above all dogs, whom he liked to suck their blood. At noon he flew away, disappeared over the horizon. In only half a day he made a journey of a thousand leagues. He used to come home every night.

All his wishes were immediately fulfilled. He never slept at night; he passed her from bed to bed, enjoying all the women. Very erudite, he spoke with a magnificent and penetrating eloquence. However, in terms of his physique, he never stopped being some kind of gorilla.

That year, at the time when the leaves begin to fall, the white monkey, sad and dull, lamented:

-I finish being accused by the divinities of the mountain and I will be sentenced to death. But I will ask other spirits for protection, and perhaps I will escape the sentence.

Just after the full moon, his hideout caught fire and all of his tablets were destroyed. So he considered himself lost.

-I lived a thousand years without parents. Now I am going to have a child. It means that my death is near.

Later, contemplating all his women, he cried for a long time.

-This mountain is inaccessible. No one could ever get here. From its height I could never see a single axeman, since below it is full of tigers, wolves, and all kinds of ferocious beasts. How can men get here if not by the will of Heaven?

Euyang returned home taking jades, jewels, and all kinds of precious things. He also led all the women, some of whom still remembered his families.

After a year, Euyang's wife gave birth to a creature that resembled a monkey in every way. Euyang was later executed by Emperor Wu, under the Tchen dynasty. But his old friend Kiang Tson, who was very fond of Euyang's son because of his extraordinary intelligence, sheltered him under his roof. Thus the child was saved from death. Growing up he became a good writer and an excellent calligrapher. In short, he was a famous person in his time.

END

The crumbling wall

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Once upon a time there was a rich man in the Kingdom of Sung. After a downpour the wall of his house began to crumble.

"If you don't repair that wall," his son told him, "a thief could get in there."

An old neighbor gave him the same warning.

That same night a large sum of money was stolen from the rich man, who praised his son's intelligence, but distrusted his old neighbor.

END

The Miracle Denier

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Chu Fu Tze, denier of miracles, was dead; His son-in-law watched over him.

At dawn, the coffin rose and hung in the air, two-quarters above the ground. The pious son-in-law was horrified.

"Oh, revered father-in-law," he begged, "don't destroy my faith that miracles are impossible."

The coffin then slowly descended, and the son-in-law regained his faith.

END

The landscaper

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

A very talented painter was sent by the emperor to a distant, unknown, recently conquered province, with the mission of bringing back painted images. The emperor's desire was to know those provinces in this way.

The painter traveled a lot, visited the corners of the new territories, but returned to the capital without a single picture, without even a sketch.

The emperor was surprised, and even angry.

Then the painter asked to be left with a large wall painting of the palace. On that wall he represented the whole country that he had just toured. When the work was finished, the emperor went to visit the great fresco. The painter, stick in hand, explained to him all the corners of the landscape, the mountains, the rivers, the forests.

When the description was finished, the painter approached a narrow path that left the foreground of the fresco and seemed to lose itself in space. The assistants had the sensation that the painter's body was gradually entering the path, that it was advancing little by little in the landscape, that it was getting smaller. Soon a curve in the path hid it from his eyes. And instantly the whole landscape disappeared, leaving the great wall bare.

The emperor and the people around him returned to their chambers in silence.

END

The dream of the creepy fly

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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Li Wei dreamed that a creepy fly was hanging around his room, inopportunely interrupting one of his deep meditations. Annoyed, he started chasing her trying to smack the unpleasant buzz from him. He was carrying in his hand, for this purpose, the first edition of With the glass of wine in my hand I interrogate the moon, an epic poem by his close friend Li Taibo. He ran and ran tirelessly between the small space of those four walls, shaking his arms as if he were a fly himself. This company was of little use to him. The fly, perched on the frame of the portrait of his beloved, was looking at him with bored indifference.

Exhausted from the chase, Li Wei woke up in a flurry. On the bedside table was perched, distracted, the annoying insect. With a manly slap, the philosopher ended the short life of the sad fly.

Li Wei will never know if he killed a fly or one of his dreams.

END

The Spear and Shield Seller

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

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In the Kingdom of Chu there lived a man who sold spears and shields.

"My shields are so strong," he boasted, "that nothing can get past them." My spears are so sharp that there is nothing they cannot pierce.

-What happens if one of your spears collides with one of your shields? someone asked.

The seller did not know what to answer.

END

The fox that harnessed the power of the tiger

[Short story - Full text.]

Anonymous: Chinese

A tiger caught a fox.

"You can't eat me," said the fox. The Emperor of Heaven appointed me king of all animals. If you eat me, the Emperor will punish you for disobeying his orders. And if you don't believe me, come with me. You will see how all the animals run away as soon as they see me and no one approaches.

The tiger agreed to accompany him and as soon as the other animals saw them arrive, they escaped. The tiger thought that they were afraid of the fox and did not realize that they were escaping through him.

END

Fearful man