3 Beautiful Chinese Fables

Almost all Chinese fables, especially the oldest ones, are little stories that contain great teachings. They have been passed down from generation to generation and many of them survive today, running by word of mouth or, as in this case, from article to article.

Chinese fables are a form of popular literature. Many of them have not been written, but circulate through oral tradition. They represent a didactic way of transmitting the main values ​​of oriental culture to the new generations.

This time we bring three traditional Chinese fables. Each of them focuses on showing with an example how values ​​or the lack of them leads to certain consequences. Here they are for you to enjoy.

1. The seagull and kindness, one of the most beautiful Chinese fables

It is said that in an old kingdom there was a wealthy and powerful man who loved seagulls. Every morning he would get up and look out to sea, which was near his mansion. He would stay for hours, ecstatic, contemplating those white birds that amazed him.

One ordinary day he found a seagull on the terrace. Shocked by the finding, he carefully approached her and noticed that she was injured. With the greatest gentleness he took her in his arms and ordered his doctors to heal her. The wound was not very deep and the seagull healed  very quickly.

Ecstatic with her, the man wanted to entertain her. He had the best meals prepared for her … Pheasant, exotic meats, delicious fruits and delicacies of all kinds. However, the seagull did not eat anything. The man tried to convince her, but she would not agree. Thus three days passed, after which the seagull died.

This is one of the Chinese fables that teach us how sometimes love is not really love, but selfishness. The man in this story believed that the seagull would be pleased by what pleased him, not what she needed.

2. The man who saw no one

In the ancient kingdom of Qi there was once a man who had an insatiable thirst for gold. Unfortunately he was very poor and his work did not allow him to obtain great wealth. He barely had enough to survive. Still, he was completely fascinated by the idea of ​​obtaining gold.

This man knew that in the market there were several merchants who put beautiful gold figures in their stalls. Such objects rested on a beautiful velvet cloak. The rich men of the city would go there and take them in their hands to observe them. Sometimes they bought them and sometimes they didn’t.

The man in our story devised a plan to get hold of one of those figurines that glowed in the sun. So one day she put on her best clothes and her best ornaments. Then he went to the market and pretended to look at the gold pieces. Then, without thinking twice, he took one of them and ran off. He didn’t go more than two blocks when he was caught.

The guards asked him how he had thought to steal the gold like this, in broad daylight and with hundreds of witnesses around him. The man replied that he hadn’t thought of any of that. He only thought of the gold and saw nothing else. This is one of the Chinese fables that tells us about the blindness that accompanies greed.

3. The Lord Who Loved Dragons

This was a man named Ye, who had an obsessive fondness for dragons. I admired their shape, the way they looked. He was ecstatic when he saw the pictures that represented them throwing fire from their mouths and subduing all the enemies they faced.

His admiration for dragons was such that he knew all the legends that mentioned them. He also had gigantic dragons painted in his house, both on the walls and on the ceilings. His house looked like a temple dedicated to dragons.

One night, when he least expected it, a dragon’s head burst through one of the windows. Without giving him time to react, he began to throw fire from his jaws and the dragon-loving man ran and screamed everywhere. Mr. Ye only managed to flee as best he could and almost went crazy from the shock. This is one of the Chinese fables that teaches us to love concrete realities, not those that are in our mind.

Chinese fables have and will have an incomparable charm. They are the sample of a millenary culture, in which since ancient times great importance has been given to the most social values.