How Molo Stole the Lovely Rose-Red

This legend, set in the days of the Tang dynasty, describes three kinds of master swordsmen. The greatest were the saints of the sword, who could change their shape at will and struck like lightning, but they kept out of the quarrels of the world. Next came the sword heroes, who punished the wicked and helped the weak. They could fly over roofs, run up walls and come and go without a trace. The lowest were hired killers. Molo, the hero of this story, was a sword hero.

At that time there lived a young man named Tsui, whose father was a high official and a friend of a certain prince. One day his father sent him to visit the prince, who was ill. Tsui was young, handsome and clever. In the prince’s palace three beautiful slave girls heaped rosy peaches into a golden bowl, sprinkled them with sugar and served them to him. When he left, the prince told one of the girls, Rose-Red, to walk him to the gate.

As they went, Tsui kept turning to look at her. She smiled and made signs with her fingers. First she held up three fingers. Then she turned her hand round three times. Last of all she pointed to a little mirror she wore on her chest. As they parted she whispered, “Don’t forget me!”

When Tsui got home his thoughts were in a muddle, and he sat as still as a wooden rooster. Now he had an old servant called Molo, who was no ordinary man. “What’s the matter, master?” asked Molo. “Won’t you tell your old servant?” So Tsui told him everything, including the strange signs.

“The three fingers mean she lives in the third court of the palace,” said Molo. “Turning her hand three times means three times five fingers: fifteen. And the mirror means the full moon, round like a mirror. On the fifteenth, at midnight, you are to come for her.”

Tsui was overjoyed, but then he grew gloomy again. “The prince’s palace is shut in as if by an ocean. How could anyone get inside?” “Nothing easier,” said Molo. “On the fifteenth we will wrap ourselves in dark silk, and I will carry you. But a fierce dog guards the girls’ court. It is as strong as a tiger and as watchful as a god. It must be dealt with first, and no one in the world can do that but me.”

When the day came, Tsui gave Molo meat and wine, and the old man took a chain-hammer and vanished. In less time than it takes to eat a meal, he was back. “The dog is dead,” he said. “Nothing stands in our way now.”

At midnight they wrapped themselves in dark silk, and Molo carried Tsui over the ten walls around the palace. The gate of the third court stood ajar. They saw the glow of a small lamp and heard Rose-Red sighing. The whole court was silent and empty.

Tsui lifted the curtain and stepped inside. Rose-Red looked at him for a long time, then took his hand. “I knew you were clever enough to understand my signs,” she said. “But what magic brought you here?” Tsui told her how Molo had helped him, and she called the old servant in and gave him wine from a jade cup.

“I come from a good family far away,” she said. “I was brought here as a slave by force, and I long to leave. I eat with jasper chopsticks and drink from golden cups, and I am surrounded by silk and jewels, but they are all chains to keep me here. Dear Molo, you have magic powers. Please rescue me, and I will never forget it.”

Molo was willing. First he carried away her belongings in sacks and bags, making three trips. Then he took Tsui and Rose-Red on his back and flew with them over the steep walls. None of the palace guards noticed a thing. At home Tsui hid Rose-Red in a faraway room, and she became his wife.

When the prince found that a slave girl was missing and his dog had been killed, he said, “This must have been a powerful sword hero.” He ordered everyone to keep quiet about it and had the matter looked into in secret.

Two years went by, and Tsui forgot to be careful. One spring, when the flowers were blooming, Rose-Red went for a drive in a small carriage by the river outside the city, and one of the prince’s servants saw her. The prince sent for Tsui, who could not hide the truth and told him the whole story.

“Rose-Red is to blame, not you,” said the prince. “Since she is your wife now, I will let it rest. But Molo must pay for this.” He sent a hundred armoured soldiers with bows and swords to surround Tsui’s house and capture Molo at any cost.

But Molo drew his dagger and flew up onto the high wall, where he looked around like a hawk. The arrows flew at him as thick as rain, and not one of them touched him. In a moment he was gone, and no one knew where.

Ten years later, one of Tsui’s servants came across him in the south, selling medicine. He looked exactly the same as he had ten years before.

About this story

This tale is in Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book (English by Frederick H. Martens, 1921). Wilhelm compares its secret sign language, understood by the hero’s companion, with motifs in Indian fairy tales. This is his comparison, not proof that the tale originated in India.

The tale’s opening lines about the three kinds of swordsmen come from Wilhelm’s text and set Molo among the heroes who help the oppressed.

Read the original: Richard Wilhelm, The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: older children with adult discussion. Includes enslavement, killing a guard dog and an armed pursuit. Rose-Red explicitly asks to escape; luxury does not make her captivity voluntary.

Reading the story closely

The title calls the escape a theft, while Rose-Red calls the palace a prison. Her speech changes the meaning of the peaches, jewels and silk introduced as signs of wealth. Molo supplies both interpretation and physical rescue; Tsui benefits from skills he does not possess, and the prince directs punishment at the helper.

Decode the three signs on paper, then compare three accounts of the same event: Rose-Red’s escape, Tsui’s marriage and the prince’s loss of a slave. Which words recognize her choice, and which treat her as property?

Questions to ask

• What did Rose-Red’s three signs mean?
• Why does Rose-Red want to leave the palace, even though she has jewels and silk?
• How does Molo escape the prince’s soldiers?

More stories like this

• The Monk of the Yangtze-Kiang — another Wilhelm tale of adventure
• The King of Huai Nan — Chinese wonders and magic arts
• The Renowned Maing — a clever Chinese tale