fables?

[tibetan empress]

Five years ago and one month now, my boyfriend and I moved to China to take a teaching job, right after I finished university. We are still living in the south of China and see new things every day. One of my favorite things about the Chinese culture is the amount of stories or fables that are still used today. This is a cute one…
Originally, the rat and the cat were very good friends, and rat was the same size as the cat. One day, they were playing along the river and rat wanted some fish, he asked cat to dive into the river to catch some. Cat did so, but could not come out of the water.  Rat did not save the cat, but ran away.
Finally, the cat was saved by a human. From then on, cat started to hate rat very much and decided to catch the rat.  Since then, the rat had to hide to avoid being caught by cat. And from hiding so much overtime rat’s size became smaller and smaller.
I was wondering in your culture, country, or even city or town do you have any fables or stories that you still believe in today?

[jewelrygirl]

One fable that I remember was the tortoise and the hare. They were having a race, the tortoise was slow but steady and the hare was showing off and ended up losing because he got too cocky.
Do you have any other Chinese fables that you could share with us?

[tibetan empress]

another interesting fable my friend told me is called the Rat Wedding.

One night a year there is a rat wedding day. People are supposed to go to bed early, the less they disturb the rats the less they will be a pest the rest of the year. Five hundred years ago a sleek rat lived in a cave in the hills. The rat slowly changed into a woman. The rat woman soon got tired of being by herself. She went to a hut on the hillside. A man answered the door and was amazing to see a woman way up in the hills. The rat lady offered to cook the man dinner. He sat nearby and watched. The man noticed claw marks on the dumplings and looked closer at her hands. He discovered she had no fingers, just rat claws. He thought this was very strange and grabbed the meat cleaver and chopped off one of her hands. Instantly the rat woman disappeared. The man followed a blood trail to her cave, but he saw nothing inside. The man went home, but was worried the woman would want revenge. He then prepared huge amounts of food for the rats all day and every year on this day afterward. The rat woman’s daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters celebrated and feasted on the amazing food each year on what is now known a rat wedding day.


Have you heard this story before?

[parulsharma]

Hmmmm that is really interesting stories i like them i want  to read more stories please continue to post here.

[Stella]

i remember that of crow and fox..... A crow was flying with a piece of cheese in his mouth ... he sat on the branch of  a tree to eat that piece. there comes a fox; she was hungry and was finding something to eat. she saw the crow with the cheese. she started to praise his voice. the Crow was so overwhelmed with the praise that the moment he opened his mouth to sing; the cheese fell down. The fox grabbed it and ate it..

[RawrViking]

Nice stories. Smart fox And what a cowardly rat >.<

[saavi]

I love fables and one i remember that was clever fox and a crow..
A Crow, having stolen a bit of meat, sat in a tree and held it in her beak. A hungry Fox, seeing this, envied the crow and wished to have the meat for himself. So he came up with a cunning plan.
“How gracious you are,” he exclaimed, “how beautifully your feathers shine! Oh, if only your voice were equal to your beauty, you would deserve to be called the Queen of Birds!”
The Crow was really flattered by these words, so, anxious to be called the Queen of Birds, she gave a loud caw and dropped the meat. The Fox quickly picked it up, and thus addressed the Crow:
“My dear Crow, you have a nice voice, indeed, but I’m afraid you have no wits.”