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THE
CHINESE FAIRY
BOOK
EDITED BY
DR. R. WILHELM
TRANSLATED AFTER ORIGINAL SOURCES BY
FREDERICK H. MARTENS
![Logo--Frederick A Stokes ca 1922.png](../I/Logo--Frederick_A_Stokes_ca_1922.png.webp)
WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY
GEORGE W. HOOD
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1921, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the U. S. of America
PREFACE
The fairy tales and legends of olden China have in common with the "Thousand and One Nights" an oriental glow and glitter of precious stones and gold and multicolored silks, an oriental wealth of fantastic and supernatural action. And yet they strike an exotic note distinct in itself. The seventy-three stories here presented after original sources, embracing "Nursery Fairy Tales," "Legends of the Gods," "Tales of Saints and Magicians," "Nature and Animal Tales," "Ghost Stories," "Historic Fairy Tales," and "Literary Fairy Tales," probably represent the most comprehensive and varied collection of oriental fairy tales ever made available for American readers. There is no child who will not enjoy their novel color, their fantastic beauty, their infinite variety of subject. Yet, like the "Arabian Nights," they will amply repay the attention of the older reader as well. Some are exquisitely poetic, such as "The Flower-Elves," "The Lady of the Moon" or "The Herd Boy and the Weaving Maiden"; others like "How Three Heroes Came By Their Deaths Because Of Two Peaches", carry us back dramatically and powerfully to the Chinese age of Chivalry. The summits of fantasy are scaled in the quasi-religious dramas of "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" and "Notcha," or the wierd sorceries unfolded in "The Kindly Magician". Delightful ghost stories, with happy endings, such as "A Night on the Battlefield" and "The Ghost Who Was Foiled," are paralleled with such idyllic love-tales as that of "Rose of Evening, or such Lilleputian fancies as "The King of the Ants" and "The Little Hunting Dog". It is quite safe to say that these Chinese fairy tales will give equal pleasure to the old as well as the young. They have been retold simply, with no changes in style or expression beyond such details of presentation which differences between oriental and occidental viewpoints at times compel. It is the writer's hope that others may take as much pleasure in reading them as he did in their translation.
Fredrick H. Martens.
CONTENTS
PAGE
v |
NURSERY FAIRY TALES
CHAPTER
I | 1 |
II | 4 |
III | 6 |
IV | 9 |
V | 10 |
VI | 11 |
VII | 13 |
VIII | 17 |
IX | 20 |
X | 24 |
XI | 27 |
XII | 28 |
XIII | 29 |
XIV | 30 |
LEGENDS OF THE GODS
XV | 35 |
XVI | 37 |
XVII | 42 |
XVIII | 44 |
XIX | 53 |
XX | 55 |
XXI | 56 |
XXII | 58 |
XXIII | 61 |
XXIV | 62 |
XXV | 64 |
XXVI | 66 |
TALES OF SAINTS AND MAGICIANS
XXVII | 71 |
XXVIII | 73 |
XXIX | 75 |
XXX | 76 |
XXXI | 82 |
XXXII | 84 |
XXXIII | 88 |
XXXIV | 90 |
XXXV | 95 |
XXXVI | 99 |
XXXVII | 102 |
XXXVIII | 107 |
NATURE AND ANIMAL TALES
XXXIX | 119 |
XL | 124 |
XLI | 125 |
XLII | 127 |
XLIII | 130 |
XLIV | 131 |
XLV | 137 |
XLVI | 142 |
XLVII | 151 |
XLVIII | 161 |
GHOST STORIES
XLIX | 165 |
L | 168 |
LI | 174 |
LII | 177 |
LIII | 180 |
LIV | 184 |
LV | 186 |
LVI | 189 |
LVII | 196 |
LVIII | 199 |
LIX | 201 |
HISTORIC LEGENDS
LX | 209 |
LXI | 212 |
LXII | 215 |
LXIII | 218 |
LXIV | 220 |
LXV | 223 |
LXVI | 231 |
LXVII | 235 |
LXVIII | 240 |
LXIX | 243 |
LITERARY FAIRY TALES
LXX | 251 |
LXXI | 261 |
LXXII | 271 |
LXXIII | 280 |
LXXIV | 288 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"The crows come flying and form a bridge over which the Weaving Maiden crosses the Silver River"
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Original: | ![]() This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1927. The author died in 1930, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. |
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Translation: | ![]() This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1927. The author died in 1932, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. |