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Zusatztext “These tales from China are richly underscored by an ancient philosophical battle—the Taoist challenge to the hierarchical rigidity of the Confucian order—which gives the stories an edge and power uniquely their own. An enthralling collection.” — Los Angeles Times “Brimming with magic and mortals! these enchanting legends and myths bring to mind familiar fables! yet possess an aura that is wholly Chinese . . . Enlightening and enjoyable reading.” — Booklist Informationen zum Autor Moss Roberts Klappentext This collection of tales opens up a magical world far from our customary haunts. Ghost stories, romances, fables, and heroic sagas: the forms are familiar, but the characters we meet surprise us at every turn. For those who know and love the tales of the Grimms and Andersen, the universal themes of fairy tale literature emerge in these classic stories, but with a sophistication that is uniquely Chinese and altogether entrancing. With black-and-white drawings throughout Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library The Cricket During the Ming reign, known as Pervasive Virtue, cricket fighting was very popular at court, and each year the populace had to supply crickets for the noblemen to test in battle. In Floral Shade, out county in western Shensi, the cricket is not common. But our magistrate wanted to curry favor with his superiors, and he managed to find them one that proved to be a mighty warrior. As a result, Floral Shade was appointed a royal supplier of crickets to the court. Naturally the magistrate then shifted the responsibility down to the neighborhood heads, and crickets became rare and valuable in the county. In hopes of pushing the price up, the young bloods in our towns often hoarded the outstanding specimens they caught. Cunning local officials were quick to use cricket hoarding as an excuse for searching people’s houses. And whenever they looked for cricket collections, they confiscated so many other goods that they ruined several families at a time. In Floral Shade there lived a man called Make-good. He had spent years as a candidate for the lowest degree, but it still eluded him. Make-good was somewhat pedantic and unassertive, and crafty officials maneuvered him into the post of neighborhood head. Once there, he was stuck in the job; a hundred schemes and tricks would not have extricated him. When he could not extort enough taxes from the people, he had to make up the money out of his own pocket. Within a year the whole of his property was exhausted. The same thing happened when it came time to collect crickets: Make-good could not bring himself to take them from his neighbors, even though he could not fill the quota set by the higher-ups. Trapped in this frustrating situation, he wanted to die. “What good will dying do?” his wife asked. “Go out and look for crickets yourself. Maybe you’ll have some luck.” To this Make-good agreed, and day after day he left home early and returned late. Carrying his bamboo tube and brass wire cage, he searched among crumbling walls and clumps of wild grass. He probed every rock and flushed every hole, but nothing came of it. Although he managed to find a few specimens, they were inferior and weak, far below the standard. The magistrate, however, held Make-good strictly to schedule. After ten days the unlucky man could furnish no crickets and had to face the punishment of one hundred strokes. He was beaten until the blood ran down both legs and he could have moved to catch a simple worm. Tossing on his bed, he wished only to make an end of himself. It happened then that a hunchbacked fortune teller who could read the future came to the village. Make-good’s wife took some money for a fee and went to consult her. Crowds thronged the fortune teller’s door; Make-good’s wife ...
