Chinese Folk-Lore Tales

Оглавление

John Macgowan. Chinese Folk-Lore Tales

I. THE WIDOW HO

II. KWANG-JUI AND THE GOD OF THE RIVER

III. THE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER OF LIU-KUNG

IV. THE FAIRY BONZE

V. THE MYSTERIOUS BUDDHIST ROBE

VI. THE VENGEANCE OF THE GODDESS

VII "THE WONDERFUL MAN"

VIII. THE GOD OF THE CITY

IX. THE TRAGEDY OF THE YIN FAMILY

X. SAM-CHUNG AND THE WATER DEMON

XI. THE REWARD OF A BENEVOLENT LIFE

Отрывок из книги

China is a land where the great masses of the people have to toil and struggle incessantly in order to obtain even the bare necessities of daily existence. Unnumbered multitudes never enjoy a sufficiency of food, but have to be contented with whatever Heaven may send them; and profoundly thankful they are when they can be sure of two meals a day to stave off the pangs of hunger from themselves and their children.

How many there are who cannot by the severest toil obtain even these two meals is evident from the organized beggar communities, which are to be found in connection with every great city in the Empire, and from the vast numbers of tramps, who wander over the country on the highways and byways with pale and sodden faces and with garments nearly falling to pieces, picking up a scanty livelihood from the benevolent as they pass from village to village.

.....

It was not mere robbery, however, that was in the mind of the man who had committed this great crime. He had bigger ideas than that. He had noticed that in personal appearance he very much resembled his victim, so he determined to carry out the daring project of passing himself off as Kwang-Jui, the mandarin whom the Emperor had despatched to take up the appointment of Prefect.

Having threatened the widow that instant death would be her portion if she breathed a word to anyone about the true state of the case, and having arrayed himself in the official robes of the man whom he had stabbed to death, the boatman appeared at the yamen, where he presented the Imperial credentials and was duly installed in his office. It never entered his mind that it was not cowardice which kept the widow silent, but the stern resolve of a brave and high-minded woman that she would do her part to see that vengeance should in time fall upon the man who had robbed her of a husband whom she looked upon as the direct gift of Heaven.

.....