Chinese Stories/Printable version

Chinese Stories

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Introduction

China is an emerging country. With 5000 years filled with exciting events, terrfic tales and sad stories, China has all it has to offer in stories. From mythology to history, philosophers' fables to works of fiction, China provides a wide variety of stories for all to enjoy. This book will try not only to present the story, but also provide relevant information, such as its history, variations, etc.

And remember, this is a Wikibook, which means every single person on the planet can revise and edit it. If you find an inaccuracy somewhere, click on the 'edit this page' tab to edit it. If you have any trouble regarding the editing, you can always go to the talk page of the book, Talk:Chinese Stories, to ask a question. Alternatively, you can ask one of the authors personally. Of course, after making a significant change to this book, you should add your name to the authors page!

How to use this book

Every chapter contains the story first. The story is not necessarily told in a neutral, six-o'clock-news sort of manner, but in the traditional perspective, even if that perspective is biased or factually inaccurate. For example, most people despise Guy Fawkes and regard him in the Stuart perspective, so that perspective will be used. Alternative viewpoints will be mentioned in later sections, or in the footnotes at the end of each chapter. Many important Chinese stories have been made into idioms, so this and other miscellaneous pieces of information will also be included.

Pangu

Portrait of Pangu from Sancai Tuhui

Pangu (Traditional Chinese characters: 盤古; Simplified Chinese character: 盘古; pinyin: Pángǔ; Wade-Giles: P'an ku) was the first living being and the creator of all in Chinese mythology.

The story

In the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. However this chaos coalesced into a world egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy giant with horns on his head and clad in furs. Pangu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. This task took 18,000 years; with each day the sky grew ten feet (3 meters) higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and Pangu ten feet taller. In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the four most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon.

After the 18,000 years had elapsed, Pangu was laid to rest. His breath became the wind; his voice the thunder; left eye the sun and right eye the moon; his body became the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers; his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became the fish and animals throughout the land. Nüwa the Goddess then used the mud of the water bed to form the shape of humans. These humans were very smart since they were individually crafted. Nüwa then became bored of individually making every human so she started putting a rope in the water bed and lettings the drops of mud that fell from it become new humans. These small drops became new humans, not as smart as the first.

Origin

Three main views emerge to describe the origin of the Pangu myth. The first is that the story is indigenous, and developed or was transmitted through time to Xu Zheng. The evidence for this is slender.

Senior Scholar Wei Juxian states that the Pangu story is derived from Western Zhou Dynasty stories 1000 years earlier. He cites the story of Zhong and Li in the "Chuyu" section of the ancient classics Guoyu. In it, the King Zhao of Chu asked Guanshefu a question: "What did ancient classic "Zhou Shu" mean by the sentence that Zhong and Li caused the heaven and earth to disconnect from each other?" The "Zhou Shu" sentence he refers to is about an earlier person, Luu Xing, who is having a conversation with the King Mu of Zhou. King Mu's reign is much earlier and dates to about 1001 to 946 BC. In their conversation, they discuss the "disconnection" between heaven and earth.

An indirect but possibly more substantive conclusion is that China is unique in not "creating" its creator. In this view, Xu Zheng or a relatively recent predecessor, perpetuates the Pangu myth from other cultural influences.

Professor Qin Naichang, head of the Guangxi Institute for Nationality Studies proposes the myth originated in Laibin city, Guangxi, in the center of the Pearl River Valley. He believes that there are older stories of Pangu from this region and that they originally involved two people. He suggests China has no myth about the creation of the universe and that the Chinese mythology of Pangu had come from India, Egypt, or Babylon. Apparently, this story mingled in with the origin stories of other cultures, eventually changing into the later narrative more popular today.

This is Professor Qin's reconstruction of the true creation myth preceding the myth of Pangu. Note that it is not actually a creation myth:

A brother and his sister became the only survivors of the prehistoric Deluge by crouching in a gourd that floated on water. The two got married afterwards, and a mass of flesh in the shape of a whetstone was born. They chopped it and the pieces turned into large crowds of people, who began to reproduce again. The couple were named 'Pan' and 'Gou' in the Zhuang ethnic language, which stand for whetstone and gourd respectively.

Paul Carus wrote:

P’an-Ku: The basic idea of the yih philosophy was so convincing that it almost obliterated the Taoist cosmology of P’an-Ku who is said to have chiseled the world out of the rocks of eternity. Though the legend is not held in high honor by the literati, it contains some features of interest which have not as yet been pointed out and deserve at least an incidental comment.

P’an-Ku is written in two ways: one means in literal translations, “basin ancient”, the other “basin solid”. Both are homophones, i.e., they are pronounced the same way; and the former may be preferred as the original and correct spelling. Obviously the name means “aboriginal abyss,” or in the terser German, Urgrund, and we have reason to believe it to be a translation of the Babylonian Tiamat, “the Deep.”

The Chinese legend tells us that P’an-Ku’s bones changed to rocks; his flesh to earth; his marrow, teeth and nails to metals; his hair to herbs and trees; his veins to rivers; his breath to wind; and his four limbs became pillars marking the four corners of the world, -- which is a Chinese version not only of the Norse myth of the Giant Ymir, but also of the Babylonian story of Tiamat.

Illustrations of P’an-Ku represent him in the company of supernatural animals that symbolize old age or immortality, viz., the tortoise and the crane; sometimes also the dragon, the emblem of power, and the phenix, the emblem of bliss.

When the earth had thus been shaped from the body of P’an-Ku, we are told that three great rivers successively governed the world: first the celestial, then the terrestrial, and finally the human sovereign. They were followed by Yung-Ch’eng and Sui-Jen (i.e., fire-man) the later being the Chinese Prometheus, who brought the fire down from heaven and taught man its various uses.

The Prometheus myth is not indigenous to Greece, where it received the artistically classical form under which it is best known to us. The name, which by an ingenious afterthought is explained as “the fore thinker,” is originally the sanskrit pramantha and means “twirler” or “fire-stick,” being the rod of hard wood which produced fire by rapid rotation in a piece of soft wood.

We cannot deny that the myth must have been known also in Mesopotamia, the main center of civilization between India and Greece, and it becomes probable that the figure Sui-Jen has been derived from the same prototype as the Greek Prometheus.

Other Pangu myths

Pangu is also honored as the creator of the world in Buyei legend, but in addition, he is also honored as the ancestor of Buyei people. According to the Buyei legend, Pangu became an expert in rice farming after creating the world, and subsequently married the daughter of the Dragon King, and that was the beginning of the Buyei people. The daughter of the Dragon King and Pangu had a son named Xinheng but later, the son disrespected his mother, and the angry mother returned to heaven and never came down, despite the repeated pleas of her husband and son. Pangu was forced to remarry and eventually died on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar and Xinheng's nightmare had begun. The stepmother treated Xinheng badly and almost killed him, and the angry Xinheng threatened to destroy the rice harvest of his stepmother. Realizing her mistake, the stepmother made peace with Xinheng and since then, on every sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, they paid their respect to Pangu. The day became an important traditional Buyei holiday for ancestral worship. This legend of creation is one of the main characteristics that distinguishes Buyei from Zhuang.

Nüwa

Nüwa, Chinese creator goddess

The Bible says that God made people and a great big flood. In Chinese mythology, the goddess Nüwa also made people, but rather than making a big flood, she stopped one.

The story

Nüwa existed in the beginning of the world. She felt lonely as there were no animals so she began the creation of animals and humans. On the first day she created chickens. On the second day she created dogs. On the third day she created sheep. On the fourth day she created pigs. On the fifth day she created cattle. On the sixth day she created horses. On the seventh day she began creating men from yellow clay, sculpting each one individually, yet after she had created hundreds of figures in this way she still had more to make but had grown tired of the laborious process.

So instead of hand-crafting each figure, she dipped a rope in clay and flicked it so blobs of clay landed everywhere; each of these blobs became a common person. Nüwa still laboriously crafted some people out of clay, who became nobles.

There was a quarrel between two of the more powerful gods, and they decided to settle it with a fight. When the water god Gong Gong saw that he was losing, he smashed his head against Mount Buzhou , a pillar holding up the sky. The pillar collapsed and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. This caused great calamities, such as unending fires, vast floods, and the appearance of fierce man-eating beasts. Nüwa cut off the legs of a giant tortoise and used them to supplant the fallen pillar, alleviating the situation and sealing the broken sky using stones of seven different colours, but she was unable to fully correct the tilted sky. This explains the phenomenon that sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest, and that rivers in China flow southeast into the Pacific Ocean.

Houyi and Change

Look into any good Chinese calendar and you will find that one of the days is called Mid-Autumn Festival. As you may know already, there are three myths regarding this festival. We will talk about them in the three consecutive chapters.

Story

According to legend, Chang'e and her husband Houyi were immortals living in heaven. One day, the ten sons of the Jade Emperor transformed into ten suns, causing the earth to scorch. Having failed to order his sons to stop ruining the earth, the Jade Emperor summoned Houyi for help. Houyi, using his legendary archery skills, shot down nine of the sons, but spared one son to be the sun. The Jade Emperor was obviously not pleased with Houyi's solution to save the earth: nine of his sons were dead. As punishment, the Jade Emperor banished Houyi and Chang'e to live as mere mortals on earth.

Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to journey on a long, perilous quest to find the pill of immortality so that the couple could be immortals again. At the end of his quest he met the Queen Mother of the West who rewarded him with a pill for his heroic deeds of saving the realm from the scorching suns, but warned him that each person would only need half the pill to become immortal.

Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became too curious; she opened up the case and found the pill just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill. She started to float into the sky because of the overdose. Although Houyi wanted to shoot her down in order to prevent her from floating further, he could not bear to aim the arrow at her. Chang'e kept on floating until she landed on the moon. There is also another version, where someone wanted to steal the pills. Chang'e could not bear for another being to eat the pills, and she swallowed it. She floated away from Houyi to the moon.

While she became lonely on the moon without her husband, she did have company. A jade rabbit, who manufactured elixirs, as well as the woodcutter Wu Gang, also lived on the moon.

In another version of the story, Xi Wang Mu (Queen Mother of West) had given Hou Yi just enough immortal elixir for one person, and he did not wish to be immortal if his wife could not live at his side for eternity. Ultimately, Hou Yi decided to remain mortal and hide the elixir under his bed. Chang’e soon found the elixir under their bed and drank it to the last drop without knowing what it is while her husband was out for hunting . After coming back from the hunt, Hou Yi found her drifting into the night sky after realizing that his wife consumed the immortal elixir.

Hou Yi was so angry that he grabbed his bow and tried to shoot Chang’e down; but he missed every shot. As time went by, Hou Yi’s anger subsided and he began to miss his wife. He would often stare up at the moon and think about how lonely Chang’e must be. In the hopes that it might make Chang’e feel less alone (and to show that he was no longer mad at her), Hou Yi started leaving her favorite desserts and fruits out every night. He continued this practice until the day he died. This tradition continues today, as many people leave annual offerings to Chang’e during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Cultural symbol

This story was adapted in 2003 into a Chinese TV period drama titled Moon Fairy, starring Singapore actors Fann Wong and Christopher Lee. Chang'e appears in Wu Cheng'en's novel Journey to the West and also in TV adaptations of the novel. Her story was slightly changed in that she did not go to the moon on her first try but went to the heavens instead. She would later be rewarded by being allowed to live on the moon after an incident which involved her and Zhu Bajie. China's chairman, Mao Zedong, mentions Chang'e in his most famous poem, about his murdered wife Yang Kaihui. The legend of Lady Chang-O plays a prominent role in Amy Tan's children's book, The Moon Lady, retold from her more adult novel The Joy Luck Club.

The moon goddess was mentioned in the conversation between Houston Capcom and Apollo 11 crew just before the first moon landing:

Houston: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning there's one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-o has been living there for 4000 years. It seems she was banished to the moon because she stole the pill for immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is only standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not recorded.

Collins: Okay, we'll keep a close eye for the bunny girl.

In 2007, China launched its first lunar probe, named Chang'e 1 (Chinese: 嫦娥一号; pinyin: Cháng'é Yī Hào) in the goddess's honor.

References

https://wenku.baidu.com/view/aa345eff3d1ec5da50e2524de518964bcf84d2b6.html

Jade Rabbit

The Jade Rabbit, also called the Moon Rabbit, is a rabbit that lives on the moon. In Chinese folklore, it is often portrayed as a companion of the moon goddess Chang'e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her. However, in Japanese and Korean versions of the story, it is just pounding mochi or tteok.

The story

White Rabbit in the Moon making the elixir of immortality. From an 18th-century imperial robe embroidery

In the Buddhist story "Śaśajâtaka" (Jataka Tales: no.316), one of the Jataka Tales, a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit resolved to practice charity on the Uposatha, believing a demonstration of great virtue would earn a great reward.

When an old man begged for food, the monkey gathered fruits from the trees and the otter collected dead fish from the river bank, while the jackal wrongfully pilfered a lizard and a pot of milk-curd. The rabbit, who knew only how to gather grass, instead offered its own body, throwing itself into a fire the man had built. The rabbit, however, was not burnt. The old man revealed himself to be Śakra, and touched by the rabbit's virtue, drew the likeness of the rabbit on the moon for all to see. It is said the lunar image is still draped in the smoke that rose when the rabbit cast itself into the fire.

The Chinese version of the story the Jade Emperor replaces Śakra.

History

The earliest records suggesting that there is a rabbit on the moon appears in the Warring States period in ancient China. The Chu Ci, a Western Han anthology of Chinese poems from the Warring States period, notes that along with a toad, there is a rabbit on the moon who constantly pounds herbs for the immortals. This notion is supported by later texts, including the Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era encyclopedia of the Song Dynasty. Han Dynasty poets call the rabbit on the moon the Jade Rabbit or the Gold Rabbit, so in the days of old people also use the words "Jade Rabbit" and "Gold Rabbit" to refer to the moon.

Modern references

• The moon rabbit was mentioned in the conversation between Houston and the Apollo 11 crew just before the first moon landing; see the previous chapter for details.
• The American electronic music group Rabbit in the Moon gets its name from this legend.
• In the novel Watership Down the Grim Reaper in Lapine mythology is the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Inlé is the Lapine word for Moon.
• In the video game Destiny, there is a weapon called The Jade Rabbit, a semi-automatic rifle with a drawing of a white rabbit decorated on the magazine of the gun. The weapon even bears the Chinese characters for Jade Rabbit.
• In the music video of the BTS' song "Idol" there is a moon with a rabbit drawn on it.
• The Pokémon, Sylveon, was based on and designed around Chang'e, the Moon Goddess. And has rabbit ears to symbolise the Jade Rabbit.

Wu Gang

Wu Gang or Wu Kang, is a character in Chinese folklore and Taoism. who was set the task of cutting down a self-healing bay laurel tree on the moon. The story of Wu Gang has often been associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. The reason for this connection remains unclear, although different versions of the story offer several different explanations.

The Book of the Master of Huainan, from the Han Dynasty, records that when the moon waxes, the foot of an immortal grows into a laurel. However, Wu Gang is not mentioned in that book.

Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang records that the tree on the moon is over five hundred chi high, and Wu Gang of Xihe stands under it. It is also recorded that immortals are sent to the moon to chop down the laurel tree when they make a mistake.

In the earliest known version of the story as it exists now, Wu Gang's wife had an affair with Yandi's grandson and had three sons with him. Wu murdered Yandi's grandson in revenge. Consequently, Yandi ordered Wu to be banished to the moon, where he would cut down a laurel tree. However, the tree healed itself after each blow. Consequently, Wu was forced to spend eternity trying to perform a task that could never be completed.

In another version of the tale, Wu Gang wished to learn to become an immortal but he did not try very hard. The Jade Emperor was furious, and decided to punish him. The Emperor created a cherry bay tree on the moon. Wu Gang was asked to chop it down in order to become an immortal. Wu Gang tried to chop down the tree but, because of the tree's self-healing abilities, it was impossible. The shadows on the moon are said to be created by the cherry bay tree.

In yet another version, Wu wished to be taught the method of eternal life. He found a teacher in the mountains. When his teacher tried to teach him to heal, Wu gave up after three days. When Wu was taught to play Chinese chess, he gave up learning after two days. When Wu received lessons in the method of eternal life, he lost interest after a day. His teacher sent him to the moon to chop down a tree of unnamed species.

References in literature

Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, mentioned above, also includes Wu Gang's folklore.

The Battle of Muye

When (although this is more myth than history) Zhou of Shang became the King of China, he started flirting with Daji, playing in pools of wine and forests of meat with nude people running around in them. If anyone disagreed with him, he put them on a 'paoluo'. In this torturing method, the person to be punished has to walk on a red-hot beam with fire burning under it. If he makes it to the end, he lives. Otherwise, he drops into the fire and is burnt. When Mei Bo tried to tell him to stop, Mei ended up turned into a kind of bolognaise and the lords were forced to eat him. As this was not beneficial to the people, rebellions happened. And, like the Shang dynasty, it was the lords who revolted.

The story

A long time ago, the Zhous lived near the Wei River and built a strong state there. Although they belonged to the Shangs, they were getting more and more powerful and started to think of overthrowing the Shangs. The 'king' who thought of this was Wen of Zhou, but he failed to do so during his lifetime. His successor, Wu of Zhou, inherited his father's wishes. With the help of his father's assistant Jiang Ziya, he started plotting to topple the Shangs.

Wu swore against Shang at Muye. He motivated his army by reminding them of Zhou of Shang's cruelty. Then he raised the flag and started to dart towards the Shang army. At that moment, Zhou and Daji were watching dance shows, drinking wine and eating meat in his palace. When one of his men informed him of the Zhou army, he called his officials for an emergency meeting. Right then his army was trying to conquer the Dongyi tribe, so they could not be called back. So he decided to make his prisoners and slaves fight for him. That was the beginning of the Battle of Muye.

Although there were a hundred and seven thousand people in his army, most of them were prisoners and slaves who despised Zhou, and refused to fight. They dropped their spears and joined the Zhou army. (The Zhous' army, not Zhou's army.) Zhou of Shang knew that it was his last hour. He escaped to his palace and ate a lot. Then he ordered his men to burn the palace. He committed suicide and the Shang dynasty ended.

Historical significance

Wu of Zhou rushed to the palace, shot the dead Zhou a few times, stabbed the corpse with his sword, and cut off his head and put it on the flagpole. (The way Henry VIII did with his prisoners.) He announced that the Shang dynasty was over and that the Battle of Muye was won. He declared himself the King of China and set up the Zhou dynasty.

What, then, is so important about starting a new dynasty? The Zhou dynasty was the first dynasty to set up the fengjian, jingtian, zhongfa and liyue institutions. Fenjian is just like feudalism, but technically it is a kind of system where the lords, who are divided into dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons, had to pay tribute the king and fight for him. In return they would be allowed to rule over their land and divide up the land for their eldest sons. This system was later used in dynasties such as Western Han (partially), Xin and Western Jin. And of course, a similar system was used in Europe.

Tricking the lords

The tricking of the lords is an important Chinese story. It is very similar to the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and was 100 years earlier than Aesop as cited in the Records of the Grand Historian. However, the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips researched in 2012 in Tsinghua University in Chinese capital Beijing would dispute whether the story really happened.

The Story

You of Zhou (Yo of Joe) was a bad king. Despite the three major disasters that took place in his time, the late Western Zhou dynasty, he neglected his country and spent his whole life eating, drinking and flirting with women. His favourite of them all was the concubine Bao Si, whom he adored greatly. However, Bao Si never smiled, and You of Zhou was annoyed about this. He offered a huge reward on whoever made Bao laugh.

An obsequious official of You's, Guo Shifu, thought of a nasty idea. To defend China from the barbarious tribe Quanrong, about twenty beacons had been built on Lishan. When the Quanrongs attacked China, the first beacon would be lit. The second beacon would be lit at the sight of the first, and so on. When nearby lords, who owned land and power in the feudalist society, saw the lit towers, they would send an army to assist the king. Guo told You to light the beacons in order to trick the lords.

They did as planned. The lords, thinking that their country was in danger, brought their army to fight the Quanrongs. When they arrived at the 'battlefield', however, they heard little but a piece of music, leaving the noblemen dumbstruck. Amused by the palaver, Bao Si smiled. Her smile made You happy, but it also left the lords angry. Concealing their fury, the lords went away.

You of Zhou adored Bao so much, he decided to abandon Prince Yijiu and appointed Bao's son, Bofu, instead. Queen Shen, his Queen, was angry. So were the people, as this was against his ancestors, the Duke of Zhou and Wu of Zhou's institution. Queen Shen's father, the Marquis of Shen, decided to rebel against You. He allied with the Quanrongs and attacked the capital Haojing. The other lords, thinking that they were being tricked again, ignored the signals.

You was defeated and the Marquis of Shen declared Yijiu the king. Yijiu was made Ping of Zhou and moved the capital to Luoyi, as the Quanrongs had pretty much destroyed the whole of Luoyi, and they still posed a danger to the country. Luoyi was much smaller than Haojing, lowering the King's power, and the Eastern Zhou and Spring and Autumn period began.

Historical significance

This story is of particular historical significance as it has caused the beginning of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. After Ping moved to Luoyi, his popularity fell as he had killed his father, and because Luoyi was smaller. Some of the states started to brown-nose the king. Others turned against the king. Most were neutral. But they all shared one thing in common: They wanted to be a hegemon. They wanted power. This lead to years of battles, battles and battles, called the Spring and Autumn Period, until Jin fell apart, starting the Warring States period, which was worse. Had You not tricked the lords, all this may not have happened.

Calling a deer a horse

Background

When Qin Shi Huangdi died of illness in Shaqiu, there were three people with him: Li Si, Zhao Gao, and Ying Huhai. Li Si was the left hand man of Qin Shihuang, who had helped the emperor defeat his enemies and rule China. Huhai was the second son of the late emperor. Zhao Gao, a power-hungry eunuch, suggested killing Fusu by altering a letter from the late emperor naming Fusu as heir and crowning Huhai instead. Li Si, who was concerned whether Fusu would support him, accepted. Huhai, who was unwise, accepted as well. This is the story of how Zhao Gao came to power.

The Story

Zhao Gao was a man who was hungry for power. After declaring Huhai Qin Er Shi, the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty, he decided to control the entire government. The man brought a deer to a meeting. He showed that deer to the emperor and the officials, and said it was a great horse. The emperor, who regarded Zhao Gao as a teacher and therefore trusted him completely, thought it was a deer, and many officials thought so too. Some were afraid of Zhao Gao, but seeing that Qin Er Shi also regarded it as a horse, said nothing. Others agreed to its being a horse. Zhao Gao murdered the officials who remained silent or called it a deer.

Zhao Gao later killed Li Si with the method of execution that Li Si invented himself. Then Zhao Gao killed Qin Er Shi and declared Ziying emperor when Liu Bang arrived at the capital. When Xiang Yu arrived, Ziying killed Zhao Gao and surrendered, thus ending the reign of the Yings as well as Zhao's rule.

Idiom & Usage

In its traditional and modern usage, the idiom 指鹿為馬 is widely used to describe a situation where a person falsely identifies a situation in order to deceive others or saying the opposite of the truth to justify an action. This is an example sentence:

如果一個污敗之人講解自己的財富和支出為老老實實，通過咬牙困難以賺來的, 有多少人會不同意; 有多少人會控訴這為指鹿為馬之虚話?

Which translates to:

If a corrupted individual tries to explain his riches and expenditures as the result of honest and gruelling difficulties, how many would disagree; how many people would call his words a deception of "calling a deer a horse"?

The Feast at Hong Gate

The Feast at Hong Gate was a dangerous feast. It was the event that determined the certain failure of Xiang Yu. Here is the story.

The frog of the well

The frog of the well is a fable by Zhuāng Zǐ, sometimes known as Looking at a sky down in a well.

The story

"Have you not heard of the frog that lived in the well? It said to the turtle of the Eastern Sea, "I am so happy! I jump about the railings of the well, rest at the crack on the bricks; when I dive into the water, they support my arms and chin; when I scramble in the mud, they bury my feet and toes. I interact with crabs and play with minnows; nobody can compare to me. Furthermore, I dominate the water in this well, and enjoy the joy of being in the well. Isn't it wonderful? Why don't you come down and have a look?" The turtle of the Eastern Sea tried to get in the well, but before his left leg could even enter, his right knee was already stuck. So, it circled around and went back, and told the frog, "A thousand miles cannot describe its vastness; a thousand fathoms cannot measure its depth. In the time of Yu, there were floods nine out of ten years, yet the sea did not increase; in the time of Tang, there were droughts seven out of eight years, yet the cliffs did not decrease. The sea does not change with the passing of time or the amount of water it contains, this is the great joy of the Eastern Sea." When the frog in the well heard this, it was astonished and could not find words to reply."

The Chinese text is a parable known as "The Frog in the Well" attributed to Zhuangzi, a Taoist philosopher. The story has been used to illustrate various themes in Eastern philosophy and its central message is about narrow-mindedness and limited perspective. The frog, having lived its entire life in a well, has a limited perspective of the world, which is challenged when it encounters the turtle from the Eastern Sea.

This parable is widely used in Chinese culture to refer to someone with a limited perspective or a narrow understanding of things. The saying "a frog in a well" (井底之蛙, jǐng dǐ zhī wā) is often used to describe a person with a limited outlook who doesn't know the immensity of the world.

The characters 東海 (dōng hǎi) refer to the Eastern Sea, often used in Chinese literature to refer to the sea to the east of China. This vast body of water is used to contrast with the small well where the frog lives.

The Chinese language often resorts to indirect and metaphorical language, and this parable is rich in such language. For example, the phrases "支腋持颐" (literally "support the armpits and hold the chin") and "没足灭跗" (literally "bury the feet and extinguish the toes") describe the frog's movements in the well, making the small well seem quite comfortable for the frog.

However, when the turtle tries to enter the small well and finds it impossible, it reveals to the frog the vastness of the Eastern Sea, which remains unchanged despite fluctuations in weather over the years. The story concludes with the frog being stunned - a metaphor for someone realizing the limit of their knowledge or perspective. - H.E.S

Title

The names the frog of the bottom of the well (井底之蛙) and glancing at the sky from the bottom of the well (坐井觀天) were not original titles by Chuang-tzu. The philosopher has given the fable no title. Such titles have been made up by others. In fact, the common interpretation of a frog in a well is incorrect. Back then, the word 井 meant 'trap' (now written as '阱').

Nowadays, both titles have been used as an idiom. The former means a person whose knowledge is so limited that he or she has no idea about anything aside from the world of their own; the latter means the action of being the kind of person mentioned above. Here is an example sentence using both idioms:

他經常在人家面前賣弄地理知識，其實，他只不過是個井底之蛙而已。我還是勸他別坐井觀天好了。

Which translates to:

He always shows off his geographical knowledge in front of others, yet he is simply an ignorant frog of the bottom of the well. I guess I'll advise him to stop glancing at the sky from the bottom of the well.

List of characters

B

Bao Si

Concubine of You of Zhou

C

Chuang-tzu

Author of the frog of the well

D

Daji

Zhou of Shang's woman

Duke of Zhou

Regent for Cheng of Zhou

F

Frog

Lived in the bottom of a well and was happy about it

G

Guo Shifu

The official who suggested the tricking of the lords to You of Zhou

H

Huhai

See Qin Er Shi.

L

Li Si

The man who suggested the burning of the books and burying of Confucian scholars and alchemists. Was executed by Zhao Gao.

M

Marquis of Shen

Lord who defeated You of Zhou

P

Ping of Zhou

See Prince Yijiu

Prince Bofu

Son of You of Zhou and Bao Si

Prince Yijiu

Grandson of the Marquis of Shen, son of You of Zhou and Queen Shen, later Ping of Zhou

Q

Qin Er Shi

The second emperor of the Qin dynasty. Was stupid and let Zhao Gao take all the power. Zhao Gao killed him.

Qin Shihuangdi

Conquered the other countries and unified China. He died at Shaqiu.

Queen Shen

Daughter of the Marquis of Shen, former wife of You of Zhou and mother of Prince Yijiu (later Ping of Zhou)

S

Softshell turtle

The character who told the frog of the sea

W

Wen of Zhou

Father of Wu of Zhou

Wu of Zhou

Founder of the Zhou dynasty

Y

You of Zhou

Last king of the western Zhou dynasty

Ying Huhai

See Qin Er Shi.

Ying Zheng

See Qin Shihuangdi.

Z

Zhao Gao

A eunuch who made himself the chancellor of the Qin dynasty after Li Si's death. He killed Qin Er Shi, so Ziying killed him.

Ziying

Third emperor of the Qin dynasty. Was declared emperor by Zhao Gao. When Xiang Yu entered the capital he killed Zhao and surrendered. Xiang murdered him anyway.

Zhou of Shang

The last king of the Shang dynasty

Bibliography

This is a list of references of this book.

Mythology

Pangu:

• Xu Zheng (徐整; pinyin: Xú Zhěng; 220-265 AD), in the book Three Five Historic Records (三五歷紀; pinyin: Sānwǔ Lìjì), is the first to mention Pangu in the story "Pangu Separates the Sky from the Earth".
• Ge Hong (葛洪; pinyin: Gě Hóng; 284-364 AD), in the book Master of Preserving Simplicity Inner Writings (抱朴子内篇; pinyin: Baopuzi Neipian), describes Pangu (Werner, E.T.C. Myths and Legends of China (1922)).
• Ouyang Xun (歐陽詢; pinyin: Ōuyáng Xún; 557-641 AD), in the book Classified Anthology of Literary Works (藝文類聚; pinyin: Yiwen Leiju), also refers to Pangu.
• Carus, Paul (1852-1919) in the book Chinese Astrology, Early Chinese Occultism (1974) based on an earlier book by the same author Chinese Thought (1907).

Nüwa:

• Allan, Sarah (1991), The shape of the turtle: myth, art, and cosmos in early China, SUNY series in Chinese philosophy and culture, SUNY Press, ISBN 0791404609

Houyi and Change:

• Apollo 11 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription
• Onion-Club, Chang - e, About the Moon Festival

Jade Rabbit:

• Source: [1] (accessed: Saturday January 23, 2010)
• Kazumaro, Kanbe. "Buddhist sayings in everyday life - Tsuki no Usagi". Otani University. 2005. Retrieved on July 25, 2007.
• Varma. C.B. "The Hare on the Moon". The Illustrated Jataka & Other Stories of the Buddha. 2002. Retrieved on July 25, 2007.
• 「與月為伴 愉閱中秋」, Taipei Public Library. 2006. Retrieved on July 25, 2007.

Authors

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