All Stories
Browse our complete collection of folk tales, Panchatantra stories, and moral stories from around the world.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Mysterious Buddhist Robe
Two shabby strangers bring a fairy robe for the priest who will lead an emperor’s service for the dead, and the priest is sent west with a fiery monkey guide.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Night on the Battlefield
A merchant caught in a storm shelters at a roadside inn full of soldiers, and through a crack in the door watches their general take himself apart.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Panther
A panther disguised as their mother fools two sisters into opening the door, but the girls escape up a tree and a string of helpers sets a trap.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Punishment of Greed
A schoolteacher breaks open a glowing coffin hoping for jewels, and the young man lying inside sits up and chases him all the way home.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Queen of Heaven
A devout Fukien girl becomes the Queen of Heaven, guardian of sailors, who calms storms with her sword and pulls a lost ship out of the Black Whirlpool.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Reward of a Benevolent Life
A fairy monk warns kind-hearted Chung of a coming flood, and the animals he rescues prove far more grateful than the drowning man he saves.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge
A sorcerer who catches every trick his pupils play on him is finally arrested, but a giant on the mountain road changes the whole story.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Spirit of the Wu-Lian Mountain
A storm monster snatches a scholar by the hair and carries him through the sky until a golden-armored guardian god forces it to drop him on a temple tower.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Spirits of the Yellow River
The Yellow River’s Golden Dragon-King appears as a tiny snake who loves plays, and anyone who mocks his size soon sees how big he can grow.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Talking Silver Foxes
A talking fox on Tower Mountain teases travelers and plays tricks for a hundred years, until a farmer’s ox-whip and an archer’s arrow end its fun.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Three Evils
A wise new mandarin tells the district bully about its three evils, a dragon, a tiger and the bully himself, and the young man sets out to end all three.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Three Rhymsters
At a birthday feast two learned sons-in-law mock the farmer’s clumsy poem, until his clever wife steps out and shows how his lines beat theirs.