All Stories
Browse our complete collection of folk tales, Panchatantra stories, and moral stories from around the world.
Chinese Folk Tales
Rose of Evening
Drowned at the Dragon Junk festival, the boy acrobat Aduan dances for the Prince of the Dragon’s Cave and falls in love with the dancer Rose of Evening.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Sam-Chung and the Water Demon
On his way to the land of the Immortals, the pilgrim Sam-Chung finds a village forced to feed its children to a river demon, and his helpers fight back.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Sky O’Dawn
A foundling who talks to the stars grows up to amaze Emperor Wu with magic dew, a horse of the gods, and tales of lands beyond the sun.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Bird with Nine Heads
A youth slays the bird with nine heads to free a princess, is betrayed and left in the cave, and wins a magic gourd from a grateful sea-dragon.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Cave of the Beasts
Abandoned in the mountains by their father, two young sisters find a cave of jewels owned by a wolf and a fox, and outwit the beasts by morning.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Constable
A constable shares a pipe with a stranger who turns out to be the Underworld’s constable, sent to fetch a man who betrayed his friend.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Dangerous Reward
Hu-Wu-Bau carries a mountain god’s letter to the river court, wins green shoes that never tire, then learns why living and dead must stay apart.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Disowned Princess
A failed scholar carries a letter from a dragon-king’s mistreated daughter to her father’s palace beneath the sea, and her furious uncle takes revenge.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Dragon after His Winter Sleep
On a rainy day a scholar finds a glowing little creature scorching his book, bows to it in his ceremonial robes, and watches it fly off as a dragon.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Eight Immortals (I)
Wilhelm's portraits of the Eight Immortals include Li of the Iron Crutch, Lü Dung Bin and Ho Sian Gu, with magical transformations and contrasting tests.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Eight Immortals (II)
Told in a dream to beg the Eight Immortals for help, a homeless man follows lame Li Tia Guai to a tower by the sea but loses his nerve at the leap.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Fairy Bonze
After a generous merchant's ruin and death, his son discovers the purpose of a monk's buried tiles and reunites with the woman who chooses him.