Week 6 Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

These are my notes from the Chinese Fairy Tales unit.

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck: The Princess throws her ball to a beggar. The ball is to be caught by the man who will be her husband. Of course, her father is angry. The beggar becomes her husband, sets out to seek his fortune, and disappears for 18 years. He becomes Emperor and because she remained faithful, he took her as Empress. Of course, she was a child of ill luck and died 18 days later.

The Cave of the Beasts: This is about a family with seven daughters. The father finds seven wild duck eggs but wants to eat them himself, except his wife gives them to the children. Being angry, the father decides to lead them away and abandon them for death. Only the youngest daughters went. After a while, the father goes to find them again and realizes his daughters stumbled upon wealth in the cave.

The Panther: A panther stops a woman with her son and asks her to rest. He ends up eating her and her son. He dresses up as the mother and returns home where the two daughters had stayed, pretending to be the mom. This is basically little red riding hood as a panther but the daughters are able to drive him away.

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies:  The dog and cat belong to a family. The family owns a golden ring that they sold for money to eat. In order to get it back, the dog and cat scheme together. The dog ends up doing the hard physical work and the cat brings the ring back to the owners because she is faster. The cat gets the reward while the dog gets scolded.

Yang Oerlang: Yang married the second daughter of the Ruler of Heaven and she ends up with a son, Oerlang. He was gifted and able to turn invisible and shape-shift and move elements. He rescued his mother under the hills but her magic ran out and she was destroyed by the sunlight. Oerlang wanted to destroy the last sun but he becomes a true god.

The Lady of the Moon: Prince Hou I shot down nine of the ten suns of the sky. He is given an herb of immortality but his wife Tschang O eats it and floats away to the moon. The emperor ends up on the moon as well and returns home with gifts and songs.

 The Girl with the Horse's Head or the Silkworm Goddess: The father leaves his daughter behind with just a horse. Promising to marry the horse if he finds her father, he takes off and brings her father back. The horse is killed to protect the girl, but it eventually kidnaps her even in death. She turns into a silkworm in the horse hide cocoon and her silk is expensive. 

The God of War: Guan Di, or Guan Yu, and his friends made a pact to protect their country. He was a great general and unbeatable. He falls into an ambush with his son, and they both die. His ghost was seated upon the ghost of his horse along with the other ghosts. He wants his head back and is a god in the afterlife. 

The Miserly Farmer: A priest asks a pear farmer for a pear, but he refuses to give it. An artisan buys one for him. Turns out the priest has his own pears but needs seeds so he wanted one. He plants the seed and it magically turns into a pear tree. The priest had stolen all the farmer's pears and the farmer's axle was broken. The priest pulled some fast magic over on him.

The King of the Ants: There is a haunted house in Emmet village. There was a sight where hundreds of ants came into the room with hunting banners and game. It was as if the ants were a civilized colony, baring dishes for dinner and more. The scholar gets used to it, but eventually the King of the ants decides to poke fun at the scholar. He asks him if he will serve him then he will allow him to partake in their meals, but the scholar gets angry and smokes all the ants out.