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The Magic Fish
Retelling of ancient Chinese fables, by Shen Ji
20 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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June 6, 2009
This is a collection of three old Chinese fables: "The Magic Fish", "To Suspect Someone of Stealing an Axe", and "Orangutans". The morals in the second and third stories are especially relevant.
In "To Suspect Someone of Stealing an Axe", the man misplaces his axe and then assumes that his neighbor's son is responsible. He begins to see everything that this boy does as being just how a thief would do it, until one day the man finds that he had misplaced his axe on a mountain. Suddenly, the characteristics of his neighbor's son do not appear so dastardly to the man. Ultimately, this story cautions against pre-judging a person, as one can be very wrong in many cases.
In "Orangutans", it is the hedonistic behavior of the orangutans that leads to their own destruction. Scorning the tact of giving a wide berth to potentially wrong behavior, it is the resulting overindulgence that causes their downfall.
Of the first three of these six storybooks, I would say that this volume so far is the best.
In "To Suspect Someone of Stealing an Axe", the man misplaces his axe and then assumes that his neighbor's son is responsible. He begins to see everything that this boy does as being just how a thief would do it, until one day the man finds that he had misplaced his axe on a mountain. Suddenly, the characteristics of his neighbor's son do not appear so dastardly to the man. Ultimately, this story cautions against pre-judging a person, as one can be very wrong in many cases.
In "Orangutans", it is the hedonistic behavior of the orangutans that leads to their own destruction. Scorning the tact of giving a wide berth to potentially wrong behavior, it is the resulting overindulgence that causes their downfall.
Of the first three of these six storybooks, I would say that this volume so far is the best.
Displaying 1 of 1 review