Well known legends / fairy tales

[ansileran]

Hi everyone !

I'm looking for very well known Chinese legends or fairy tales, the kind of stuff most Chinese kids would know.

For example, everyone seems to know "niulang he zhinü" (sorry, can't remember the characters ), this story about the daughter of the sky's emperor who married a cow herder and they both ended up turned into stars. I think there even is a celebration for this in China (equivalent to Valentine's day).

I'm looking for this kind of legends, or tales equivalent to those portrayed in Disney's movies (Charles Perrault's, the Grimm's brothers' fairy tales and such). I know that in such a big country, there are bound to be different tales so I'm starting with Han culture (still vast, I know).

Oh, and I want to read them in Chinese, so if you have any link / book title, it would be great because, while I don't mind struggling with my dictionary to read a story, I really can't search information in Chinese on the net, still to difficult for me ^^

Thanks !

[skylee]

This thread is relevant -> Chinese fairy tales

[xiaocai]

Does 聊斋志异 count? I think you need an intermediate level of classical Chinese at least to read it comfortably though.

[ansileran]

Yes, I read it and am currently looking at some of the titles there. The few I recognised however were completely off topic : journey to the west and the "four classical novels"... Not to mention completely out of my league, except the children versions I already read (very cute by the way).

[ansileran]

eng... not sure of what it is and I probably am not advanced enough in Chinese to read it (haven't even started to learn classical Chinese yet) but I'll look at it (or ask a friend to tell me about it ). Perhaps there is a version for children ? Thanks for the suggestion.

I guess I probably didn't emphasize enough on the "kids" part. "Journey to the west" or "three kingdoms" come in picture books, in modern Chinese, which can be read by litlle children (early years of elementary school) or read to children by their parents. The legend I refered to ("niulang he zhinü") is also very easy to understand, at least the version I have home (looked up a few words like "zhinü", "tiandi" and such...).

Thanks !

[ansileran]

@Xiaocai :

Definitely a bit advanced for "light reading" for me, but I think it would be fine as something to work on (definitely more interesting than textbooks). I'll get to them slowly, perhaps as an introduction to classical Chinese...

[xiaocai]

Hmm, this is a selection of the famous pieces re-written into 白话 which you may be interested.

[Mindmaxd]

Here is a link http://www.docin.com/p-342555602.html 中国经典神话故事free online E-book

[Mindmaxd]

http://www.docin.com/p-342555602.html 中国经典神话故事

[russmeier]

The Tales and Traditions book series is fantastic and probably just what you are looking for.

See:

http://www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/tales_traditions

Hope that is useful to you.

Russ

[ansileran]

@ Xiaocai :

Thanks ! I can read them now and I am definitely going through these stories !

@Mindmaxd :

The first book appears to have been removed, I'll check the second one tonight (online viewer won't load on my work computer, so I can't tell if this is what I'm looking for or not).

@russmeier :

This appears to be quite what I am looking for, even if it isn't what I had in mind in the first place (I was thinking about those big books of tales from which my mom would read me every night - sadly there were no Chinese tales in them...). I went through the previews : the first two are quite easy to read, the third and fourth are a bit harder but I still managed to read the stories. And the historical notes are very interesting !

Thanks to you all !

[xiaocai]

Oh, and there is also 故事新编 by 鲁迅. All the stories are based on famous Chinese historical and mythological figures with his own political and literary touch. Kind of an unconventional choice but I think it is quite fun to read, plus it is written in 白话文. BTW, my favourite is 铸剑.