The Chinese Fairy Book
This anthology gathers seventy-three stories that span the full spectrum of the Chinese imagination: Talking animals and treacherous ministers, enchanted fruits and vengeful ghosts, humble farmers who marry dragons and proud scholars who meet untimely ends. The tales move from the didactic fables of ancient courtiers to the wild ghost stories whispered by lamplight, fromorigin myths of the great rivers to intimate portraits of family life in the imperial era. Dr. R. Wilhelm assembled this collection in the early twentieth century, drawing on sources both scholarly and folk, creating a portrait of a civilization that wove morality into every narrative thread. The stories here do not flinch from darkness: there is greed punished, virtue rewarded, and the vast indifferent cosmos where mortals must navigate forces larger than themselves. Yet there is also humor, tenderness, and the particular charm of a rooster who outwits a fox or a faithful daughter who rescues her father from the underworld. For readers seeking to understand not just a culture but a way of seeing the world, these tales offer something rarer than entertainment: they offer a different architecture for wonder.
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“Then the tempest cleared away, and the blue sky appeared once more. Giauna had regained consciousness, and when she saw Kung lying dead beside her she said amid sobs: “He died for my sake! Why should I continue to live?” A-Sung also came out, and together they carried him into the cave. Giauna told A-Sung to hold his head while her brother opened his mouth. She herself took hold of his chin, and brought out her little red pellet. She pressed it against his lips with””
— Unknown
“by a thunderbolt. A heavy rain poured down in streams, and a storm wind arose which rooted up the tallest trees. Everything glimmered before his eyes and his ears were deafened. But he held his sword in his hand, and stood as firm as a rock. Suddenly in the midst of black smoke and flashes of lightning, he saw a monster with a pointed beak and long claws, which was carrying off a human body. When he looked more closely he recognized by the dress that it was Giauna. He leaped up at the monster and struck at him with his sword, and at once Giauna fell to the ground. A””
— Unknown
