The King of the Ants

Once there was a scholar who wandered far from home and came to the village of Emmet. In that village stood a house that people said was haunted. But it was in a lovely spot with a beautiful garden around it, so the scholar rented it.

One evening, as he sat over his books, a few hundred horsemen came galloping into his room. They were tiny. Their horses were about as big as flies, and their hunting hawks and hounds were the size of gnats and fleas. They rode to his bed in the corner of the room, and there they held a grand hunt with bows and arrows. He could see every bit of it plainly. They brought down a huge amount of birds and game, and none of the game was bigger than a grain of rice.

When the hunt was over, a long procession marched in with flags and banners, swords at their sides and spears in their hands, and halted in the northwest corner of the room. Behind them came several hundred servants carrying curtains and coverlets, tents and tent-poles, pots and kettles, cups and plates, tables and chairs. After them hundreds more brought in all kinds of fine food, the best that land and water could give. Hundreds of others ran back and forth without a pause, guarding the roads and carrying messages.

Little by little the scholar grew used to the sight. Small as the people were, he could make out every detail clearly.

Soon a brightly colored banner appeared. Behind it rode a great lord in a scarlet hat and purple robes, surrounded by an escort several thousand strong. Runners went ahead of him with whips and rods to clear the way. Then a man in an iron helmet, holding a golden axe, called out loudly, “His Highness is graciously pleased to view the fish in the Purple Lake!”

At that the lord in the scarlet hat got down from his horse and, with a train of several hundred followers, walked over to the saucer the scholar used for his ink. Tents went up along the saucer’s rim and a banquet was laid out. Crowds of guests sat down at the tables, and musicians and dancers stood ready. Robes of purple and scarlet, crimson and green mingled in a bright jumble. Pipes and flutes, fiddles and cymbals played, and the dancers danced. The music was very faint, but every tune could be heard clearly. So could every word spoken: the table-talk and the orders, the questions and the calls.

After three courses, the lord in the scarlet hat said, “Quickly! Get the nets and lines ready for fishing!” At once nets were cast into the saucer of water where the scholar rinsed his brush, and they hauled out hundreds of thousands of fish. The lord himself was content to drop a line into the shallows of the saucer, and he caught thirteen red carp. He ordered his head cook to prepare the fish, and all sorts of dishes were made from them. The smell of sizzling fat and spices filled the whole room.

Then, in his arrogance, the lord in the scarlet hat decided to have some fun at the scholar’s expense. He pointed at him and said, “I know nothing whatever about the writings and customs of the sages and wise men, and yet I am a king held in high honor! That scholar over there wears out his whole life over his books, and still he stays poor and gets nowhere. If he would agree to serve me faithfully as one of my officials, I might let him share our dinner.”

That made the scholar angry. He picked up his book and swatted at them, and they all scattered, wriggling and crawling out through the door. He followed them and dug up the ground where they had disappeared. There he found an ants’ nest as big as a barrel, swarming with countless green ants. So he built a big fire and smoked them out.

Where this story comes from

“The King of the Ants” is chapter XLI of Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921), among his “Nature and Animal Tales.” Wilhelm’s note calls it a charming tale and names its source as the Tang Dai Tsung Schu.

Martens’s preface groups it with “The Little Hunting Dog” as one of the book’s “Lilliputian fancies.” The narrative withholds the tiny people’s identity until the scholar digs up the ground, although the title gives readers an advance clue.

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

Best for ages 9–12 with an adult — an elaborate miniature court ends with the scholar attacking its members and burning out their nest.

Reading the story closely

The scholar tolerates an army occupying his room until its ruler mocks his learning and poverty. The change is therefore about wounded status as well as intrusion. His book, first an object of study, becomes the weapon with which he strikes the visitors.

Draw the room at two scales: bed as hunting country and saucer as lake. Then locate the moment observation turns into retaliation. The king’s boast is rude, but the attack reaches the whole court and nest, not just the speaker. That difference makes the ending more troubling than a neat punishment of one proud ruler.

Questions to ask

• What everyday things on the scholar’s desk become the “Purple Lake” and the royal hunting ground?
• Why does the tiny king’s speech make the scholar so angry?
• When did you first guess who the little people really were?

More stories like this

• The Little Hunting Dog — the next chapter in Wilhelm’s book, another tiny visitor
• The Flower-Elves — small magical folk in a scholar’s garden
• The Spirit of the Wu-Lian Mountain — another Wilhelm nature tale with a haunted surprise