Wisdom & Cleverness
Resourceful escapes, sharp observations, advice and ingenious tricks shape these tales. Look beyond who wins: what information did a character use, whose help mattered and who was harmed? Comparing an effective trick with a well-judged decision makes room for different readings of cleverness and wisdom.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Monk of the Yangtze-Kiang
A rain-dragon loses a bet and his head, and the guilt-stricken emperor sends a monk who was set adrift as a baby to bring sutras back from India.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away
A whirlwind carries a girl to the top of a towering pagoda, where a polite student who is secretly a winged ogre keeps her until her brother comes.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Magic Cask
A farmer digs up a jar that copies whatever falls into it, grows rich on coins, then loses everything through the way he treats his grandfather.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Kingdom of the Ogres
A merchant shipwrecked among ogres wins his life by cooking for them, marries an ogre-girl, and years later his son brings the whole family home.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The King of Huai Nan
Eight old men who can turn into boys teach a Han prince their magic arts, and when rebellion comes they carry him off to immortality.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Herd Boy and the Weaving Maiden
A golden cow flies a poor herd boy to the Sea of Heaven, where he marries the Weaving Maiden until she draws the Silver River across the sky.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Halos of the Saints
A peeping mandarin is blinded by the God of War’s red halo, and a fox tells a proud scholar that his head shows nothing but black fog.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Great Flood
A boy adopts a beggar-woman as his grandmother, and her gifts of a pearl jar and a tiny boat carry him through a flood to a royal wedding.
Chinese Folk Tales
The God of the City
A drowned spirit renounces gaining freedom through another death, then becomes a city god in a story that tests mercy against collective punishment.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess
A daughter's promise to a horse, her father's response and a magical transformation form this troubling legend of silk's origin.
Chinese Folk Tales
The Ghost Who Was Foiled
Camping outside an old temple, a soldier follows a pale ghost in a red gown into a village and catches her trying to lure a young mother to her death.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Flower-Elves
On a moonlit night a hermit scholar hosts four lovely sisters and their eighteen gusty aunts, then learns who his guests really are when a storm comes.