A long time ago, a prime minister named Cui Peng died. His wife, Madam Cui, and daugh ter, Cui Yingying. es corted his cof fin back to his home town, hun dreds of miles from the capi tal. Among the en tou rage was Yingying’s maidser vant, Hongniang. As they ap proached the town of Puzhou, they heard that an army of Read the rest of this entry »

There once lived, in the same neighbor hood in a village south of the Yang tze River, a Meng fam -ily and a Jiang fam ily. Both were el derly cou ples with out chil dren. Be ing good neigh bors, they helped each other when in need. As their ages ad vanced, their de sire for chil dren grew stronger and stron ger. They knew that even tu ally they would be too old to take care of them selves, let alone one an other. Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time there was a young man, hand some, diligent, and hon est. Or phaned in his early teens, his wicked big brother and his sis ter-in-law drove him out of the house, giv ing him no other pos ses sion than a weak, old buf falo. The buf falo, how ever, proved to be very loyal to its young owner, try ing its best to re lieve him of the toil in the paddy fields. The two be came in sep a ra ble friends. Gradually people be gan to forget his real name, Dong Yong, instead call ing him Cow herd. Read the rest of this entry »

On a gloomy morn ing, a car riage rolled along a coun try road. Sit ting in it was a young woman, sad but stoic. Fol low ing the car riage was a young man on horse back, sob bing with grief. They had been a happily mar ried cou ple un til the young man’s mother forced them to sep a rate. They were now head ing for the home of the Read the rest of this entry »

Long ago, there lived in Cen tral China a scholar named Chen Shimei. Liv ing with him were his in valid, el derly par ents; his lov ing, car ing wife Qin Xianglian; and their two young chil dren, a boy and a girl. While Chen Shimei de voted him self to study ing for the com ing im pe rial ex am i na tion, Xianglian took care of the fam ily. Life was hard, but she looked for ward to the day when her hus band would have passed the examination and re turned home with fame and for tune. Read the rest of this entry »