Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies

by Moss Roberts (Translator, Editor)

This fresh and elegant translation of one hundred tales from twenty-five centuries of Chinese literature opens up a magical world far from our customary haunts. Illustrated with woodcuts.

With black-and-white drawings throughout
Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Mythology, Folklore, Fiction, Short Stories, China

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 1980

About the author

"MOSS ROBERTS Came to NYU as Assistant Professor of Chinese in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literature (now Near Eastern Studies) after serving for two years as assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. Professor Roberts has translated the classic novel Three Kingdoms, published by University of California Press in both unabridged (California, 1991, 2000, copublished with Foreign Languages Press) and abridged (California, 1999) editions. He is also the editor and translator of Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (1979).

Ph.D. 1966 (Chinese), Columbia
M.A. 1960 (English), Columbia
B.A. 1958, Columbia

Areas of Research/Interest
Classical Chinese language, literature and philosophy, Modern and Contemporary History."

Reviews

[Jerjonji · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Missing Axe

A man whose axe was missing suspected his neighbor's son.

This boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief.

But the man found his axe while he was digging in the valley,

and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any child.

Lieh Tzu

hmmm.....

Our perception of people comes from our past experiences and encounters. This is our cultural lens. Only by knowing what has influenced us can we begin to change our perception. Perception is one of the most difficult things to change about ourselves.

This book is full of countless gems that will make you think... a long long time!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a treasury. I liked the numerous short fables even better than the stories. And the introduction, that gives just a bit of historical context, esp. re the rivalry between the Confucians and the Taoists, is helpful.

My favorite is one of the very shortest:

"The Missing Axe

"A man whose axe was missing suspected his neighbor's son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the man found his axe while he was digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any other child."

I also particularly liked "The Fish Rejoice" in which two amateur philosophers debate how effectively anyone can truly empathize with another. I don't know whether I agree with the conclusion that we can indeed feel another's joy, or pain, without experiencing what they're feeling. But that does seem to be the conclusion. Maybe it's a Chinese thing.

Speaking of Chinese things, I think maybe there should have been a map and timeline for better context... I mean, it's a big country that has a long history; did all its people really draw on the same cultural traditions?

Also, I want to find out more by, and about, this philosopher Yen Tzu. He seems awfully sharp, able to cut straight into the center of a knotty problem, for example.

[Eadweard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few of them were Pu Songling stories that I had read before, others were excerpts from Liezi, Zhuangzi, the longest was a chapter from "The Scholars", the rest were by authors I hadn't read before. Overall, they were a lot of fun, filial piety, animal transformations, immortals, ghosts, all the good stuff.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit inaccurately named. Many legends and anecdotes, generally with magic or ghosts or other uncanny business, quite a few without. Many moral tales, many tales of Taoist masters, tales of fools or tricksters.

[Hayden Ellington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have so many books at home I could read, but of course my friend asks me to go to the library with her and of course I had to say yes... Why wouldn't I, I mean hello -plenty of books! I was in my usual section, the section where I found Lolita, and was browsing, not really searching for something except maybe a future read... Yet I found three books I couldn't put down and ignore until a better time. I had to take them. This is one of the three books and I'm proud of myself for taking it -yes even if I don't need to go to the library because, yes I have that many books to read at home.

On to the review of this book: the 100 tales are not exactly the typical westernized (read Walt Disney) fairy tales and because I had no expectation except having fun reading cute and fun stories: I was in no point disappointed. I had never read full original fairy tales before, those that are not edited by Walt Disney or even retold fairy tales from talented authors. I do have a book of original fairy tales (monstrous actually!) but I still haven't found the time to read it. Because of that, I have no basis of comparison to critic if these were better or not than my other reads on the same subject.

For a first read on original fairy tales, I loved it. I really-really did. Some of them were cute, some a little less so, yet always as good. I don't believe women have as much as a place in those than in our stories, even if there was a full sections on women. Most of them, if correctly remembered, were about men and with a secondary character that was female and sometimes the woman was absent from the story all together. The tales were more like lessons people should learn... Like that section on greed, which was maybe my favorite of them all, maybe. I'm not quite sure because the book was full of great interesting stories.

[Aria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.

I'm unable to express the entirety of my thoughts here in only English, so forgive me for the few, seemingly random Chinese words. A different language just doesn't seem to convey the same depth of intention and meaning, and I realize that even more so after reading this collection.

To put it bluntly, reading Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies in English is boring. I don't know how true the translations are to the original language, but as I translate them again into Chinese (Mandarin to be exact), I find them infinitely more interesting and poetic. Now, this might just be my choice of words when translating, but I also can't help thinking that the translation might have stripped away too much of the beauty of the original language.

I'm not unfamiliar with Asian folklore, myths and such so this collection containing a lot of 道理 (principles/reasoning) and 道德 (morals) isn't odd. However, it can be rather repetitive and at some parts, silly (which, to be fair, isn't unexpected). I didn't care for many of the shorter pieces too. So yeah, this collection wasn't all that enjoyable or interesting to me.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful! There were a few things lost in translation or cultural differences, but for the most part, these stories were very rewarding.

Like all folklore and fairytales, some were amusing, some absurd, and some poignant and wise. These last I liked the best.

[Sassafras Patterdale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't a giant fan of this book - I'm glad I read it, the stories were interesting but none of them really stood out / connected with me. I don't think it's a book I'm likely to re-read anytime soon but I'm glad that I read it.

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The translations were lacking a little something. Also would have liked some footnotes or comments for some of the texts to have a better cultural understanding of them.

[Remy]

You know I love a good story.

The Cricket: an official goes through several life-stopping crises including getting whipped and having his son stay unconscious for a whole year because of said cricket. a cricket

The Waiting Maid's Parrot: a parrot plays matchmaker. it's also a reincarnated girl trying to help her sister.

Sea Prince: this gives off the vibes of the Assia Wevill hair dye commercial

A Girl in Green: Alexa play Thnks Fr th Mmrs by Fall Out Boy

Butterfly Dreams: you either are a butterfly or you aren't

Suited to Be a Fish: fish-kinning episode goes horribly wrong (not clickbait)

Li Ching and the Rain God: also known as the importance of following someone's god damn instructions

Jade Leaves: an artisan is famed for making leaves out of jade that are so perfect and look so real but the moral is how this is ultimately a waste of time. anyway this is how people talk to me after they find out I'm in uni for an arts degree

The Wizard's Lesson: strangely epic and tragic. But also love can and WILL stop you from achieving everything you want

The Priest of Hardwork Mountains: this is the perfect allegory for what I feel is going to happen after going to uni for an arts degree and then trying to apply it in the real world

White Lotus Magic: always have a contingency plan. Even if the plan is to get you and your whole family eaten by a giant

The Peach Thief: Alexa play 魔术先生 by Jay Chou

[Alastair Hudson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of lacklustre translations has no fairies and is a bit short on the fantasy.
Reading the authors introduction reminded me that whilst academics can know a subject inside out they are not the ones you want for create engaging translations; accurate and comprehensive maybe but totally lacking any literary charm.
Thankfully this beautiful edition has the charm provided by the illustrations. But despite that this is certainly not a collection of tales for children (as mine kept reminding me...).

Reading between the lines of the introduction I understand that many of these tales were originally written as a form of sedition; short sarcastic pieces that poked fun at the ruling classes, be they Confucian, Buddhist, etc. or just plain old rich and powerful. You have to understand quite a lot about Chinese culture to appreciate the jokes herein and often they completely eluded me.

Our bedtime story reading finally reached the penultimate tale; a bittersweet ending as the title of this longest-story-in-the-book did not bode well for entertainment value. But we were surprised by the best story in the collection. Certainly a different translator and a good tale to match. Saved from oblivion, we left the book happier than we'd hoped.

But: If this hadn't been a very nice folio edition it would have been charity shop fodder; beware.

[branewurms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not really what I was looking for. I expected something more fantastical from the title. None of the few Chinese fairy tales I already know were in here, and that's probably because this wasn't so much a collection of fairy tales as a collection of animal fables, anecdotes, and a few ghost stories, rather than "fairy tales" as I think of them. I am also interested in these kinds of stories and like to read them, but what I'm really here for are stories like Ye Xian, The Princess and the Cowherd, Madame White Snake, and stories involving mythical creatures and gods and the like. There were a very few stories that sort of fell into that category, but only sort of?

Basically, I'd have preferred this volume to be about twice as large and for the stories currently included to have been the padding to the "bigger," more magical and mythic stories that most interest me.

[Lex]

Folklore and mythology inspires many narratives, from the ancient tomes to the modern day paperback. As I typically consume British and American media, I am familiar with a lot of Western folklore and Western forms of storytelling. With this collection, I wanted to branch out into the East to learn more about Chinese styles of storytelling and fairytales. (And yes, I am aware that my ability to do this is limited by the fact that I am reading the translated versions and therefore a Westernised depiction of the folklore).

While they are works of fiction, or fictional spins on real life events, folklore taps into civilisation’s history and imagination. The stories in this collection illuminate Chinese social order, and is underpinned by the philosophical battle between the Taoist’s belief system and the Confucian Order.

But the great thing about these short tales are that they can also be appreciated just by the stories they tell. No deeper understanding or analysis is required, making them a great read for people struggling to concentrate (*raises hand*) during the pandemic and the Christmas rush!

[Lucio Constantine: has left this site for YouTube · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies is collection of various fairy tales, fantasies, and commentaries within the realm of Chinese authors or its resembling features.

On page 31 of a story titled: 'The Wizard's Lesson' we get an archetypal story that involves a character named Tzu-ch'un who lived during the great Sui Dynasty foundation setting. Moreover, it is referenced how this character named Tzu-ch'un doesn't want to accept responsibility over his life. "Friends and relations to whom he turned for help only scored him for neglecting his responsibilities' (p.31, Li Fu-yen) In mythological telling, this character is of child like innocence who does not yet want to take his fathers place in the throne and bear the responsibility that comes with being a ruler or Emperor. Eventually, one has to realize that one cannot remain in a child like state forever and that one should accept not only their fate but the responsibilities that come along side with it.

If you are a mythology student or a fan of Jung/Peterson then you will like these stories. I found great lessons in them and enjoyed reading them.

[Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, I didn't complete this book. I've read so many good fairy tales and folk tales with my kids over the past few years and these were flat out boring to read. I'm sure that the magic was lost in translation (in fact there was a native Mandarin speaker who wrote that same perspective on another review). But, I have owned this book for a number of years and as I'm introducing my children to the culture and continent of Asia, I thought it would be good for me to finally get around to reading it. I tried, I really tried. But, instead I think that I'll be donating it to the library. I'll free up some space on my bookshelf and if I ever decide to try again, I'll just check it out. But, again in honesty, that likely isn't going to happen.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this because I love fairytales. Thought I'd branch out into Asian fairytales, since the ones I've read was the Western ones like Grimm's & Han Andersan's.

It wasn't really as great as I'd hope it'd be. I was expecting some of the myths/legends/folktales that I've read when I was younger. Such as Hou Yi and the Ten Suns, Tale of the White Snake, Butterfly Lovers, and more.

Though the stories do contain moral teachings, but the way the stories were written/translated are somewhat dry. I think some sarcasm/humor that was portrayed by the original authors, got lost in translation.

[♥︎quinn *editing reviews & shelves* · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of fairy tales in particular were filled with alluring details in aspects such as the imagery; the ones that stood out the most had meaningful plots tied into morals. There was a range of length in the stories, some of them were longer and some of them were shorter. I believe, the more simplistic ones were more outstanding in their take-aways or themes, (yet I still enjoyed it! (: ). There was coherently a lot of effort put into this whole compilations of stories, each one holds unique symbolism and thoughtful ideas!

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the first half more than the latter, probably because it held all the magic and animal tales.

My favorite was this quick bit on Nature by Chang Hua:

The ground is held in place by the major mountains. It has the rocks for bones, the rivers for veins, and the vegetation for its coat. Its flesh is the earth—the top two and a half feet of soil that things grow in. Beneath lies the ground itself.

(The rest of the collection reads more like your typical fables and fairy tales though.)

[Aaron Cliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

As compared to other folktale compilations, the Chinese focus is slightly different. The european folktales delve deep into the human psyche, the chinese delve deep into morals and social commentary. Many of these stories have more to say about the corruption of their overlords than how to self actualize, although there are of course a few stories that focus on this. I quite enjoyed the read, especially coupled with readings of chinese history, the analacts and the tao te ching.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book! Well compiled and translated in a way that didn't feel dry, but also didn't seem to lose the original intent. I find with some translated texts I read, while they can be a technically good translation, there's no style and so the text can end up feeling somewhat dry as a result, which makes it harder for me to get into. I didn't have that problem here though! I got this out of the library, but I'm definitely going to be getting a copy of my own.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel bad for the Chinese youth having to listen to these pathetic fairy tales. Many of these stories weren't even fairy tales. Several were hearsay and what I would describe as sayings with no story behind it whatsoever. Total waste of time. Not a single memorable tale in the bunch. If you want fairy tales, go with the Native American ones, those guys know how to tell a story.

[Kyrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was different. Okay, d'uh, it's a culture very different from my own, so of course it was different. Some of the stories were quite gory. Some were amusing. A few I wondered why they were considered "tales" and were included. I think I need to have more of a grasp of both the history and the culture of China to fully appreciate these stories.

[Youssouf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite reads this year; from the introduction which set the scene to the last story, the book has so many perspectives and ancient wisdom to offer. We all probably heard about the Confucian philosophy, but maybe less about the Taoism. This book gave voice to master storytellers, allowing them to put more light upon Taoist philosophy, something that I greatly enjoyed.

[Magpie6493 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection. The stories and sections flow together really well and I really feel like I got something out of reading this. Esspecialky since there's a few stories in here that at least to my knowledge are the origin of a few saying in Chinese.

I would definitely recommend this.

[K. Ley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these types of books

Sometimes you just want some quick reading material. I also have other myth books in this series. I find it fascinating that similar stories exist all over the world.

[Arina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strolling North Park, San Diego. Anish is a dirty cheat in Mortal Kombat.

[Holly Bloomdahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry, but a lot of these stories were interesting and fun.

[Leena-Maaretta Dixon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried, but lost interest after halg way and now that I'm moving away, just giving this up to unhaul my shelves.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book, with nice drawings.

[Lilith · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. This was not very interesting .Some stories were only a page long. If a book doesn't hook me if the first few chapters I choose to move on. This book was not for me.