Week 7 Storytelling: The Castle of the Moon

Once upon a time, there was a young child who was infatuated with the moon. When he wasn't at school, he was either learning about the moon from the local scholar or telling his widowed mother about the moon. At night, he spent hours gazing through the telescope, hoping one day he might visit the spectacle. One night as counted the number of craters he could discern, he noticed a rather odd thing. At the bottom of the wall of a crater, a small tree was blossoming.

Running to his mom, he found her quietly reading a book. Before he could announce his findings, he noticed the book his mom was reading was about the moon. "Mother, have you become as curious as I am about the moon?"

"No, not as quite. I know how bad you would like to visit the moon, and I heard from a soothsayer that it was possible! She handed me this book and told me the way to the moon was inside. I figured I entertain her folly. Maybe you'd like to explore the book yourself?"

"I would love to, mother!" And with that, the child grabbed the book and ran into his room.

For years, he poured over every line of the book, holding on the hope that he might visit the moon. His mother soon had gotten over the childishness of his interest and began to push his to find a wife. Resisting, he would leave the house with the book hidden in his satchel so that his mother would think he was socializing with the women of the town.

One day, he passed a small shop hidden between imposing building. "This must be the soothsayer my mother saw years ago!" Entering the shop, he made his way towards the back where he heard some noise. Passing through a curtain, he found a small chamber where an old woman was studying ancient books and scrolls.

"Hello, I believe my mother visited you years ago about visiting the moon!"

"Why yes, I remember her. Did she ever make it?"

"Well, no. But she was actually inquiring for me. Every since I was tiny, I all ever wanted to do was visit the moon."

"And why haven't you? I told her the way was in the book."

"Well, I wasn't sure what that meant. Regardless, I've recently been pressured by my mother to find a mate, so my attention hasn't been fully on the book in quite a while."

 "If the moon is what you still seek, wait until the next full moon, and gaze upon the cover in an open field."

"But I don't want to disappoint my mother by being alone the rest of my life!"

"If you make it to the moon, build a castle of unparalleled beauty. Then you must wait, and a woman will come to you. She will live in the castle and be yours for as long as you live."

. . .

The full moon had finally arrived. The man now sat alone in the field miles away from home. Gazing at the cover, he soon grew tired. He began to nod off, only to jolt himself awake. Looking around, he was unsure of his location. "Have I been kidnapped," he wondered. Glancing up, he immediately knew where he was. Earth rested above him. He had made it to the moon!

Traversing the surface of the rocky body, he wondered where he was going to build his grandiose castle. He journeyed for a week before deciding he had found the place. Down the side of the crater, he saw the very tree from when he was little. And just like him, it had grown much larger. "What a beautiful tree," he clamored. He then worried that it might rival the appearance of the castle he was ready to build. "I will chop this down immediately so that my wife will come!"

He began building. Years passed, and soon, centuries. As he built, he would rest under the shade of the tree that had been regrowing. At the make of a thousand years, he decided the tree was back to the beauty before he chopped it down. So again, he chopped it down. A further two-hundred years later, the castle was complete. So under the tree, he sat and waited until the day his wife would arrive.

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Author's Note: In the original story of The Lady of the Moon, a prince named Hou was given the herb of immortality, which he hid in his home. Later, his wife ate of the herb, and she floated through the clouds all the way to the moon. Here, she found a castle built by the man in the moon and lived there. I wondered why there was already a man there, and why he built a castle. This story served as a backstory to man and castle on the moon.

Bibliography: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921) 

Image: Illustration from the book

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

(Twin Dragons, Luck)

Reading the first story The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck, I first found it weird that it described the beggar as having dragons crawling through his ears and nostrils. Maybe this is another way of saying something like "a fly"? Or maybe the dragons were a sign of his good fortune. Interesting description nonetheless. I also wonder how the merciless father reacted to the fact that his daughter was now an empress and that the beggar was now an emperor. For him to have such strong feelings towards his daughter's actions, it seems odd that it doesn't touch on him later. This would be a good place to expand the story.

For Cave of the Beasts, I found it odd that the father suffered no consequences of his action. The whole time I expected the daughters to get revenge on him for abandoning them. When he was reunited with them, I also expected for him to have been divorced. Throwing in a divorce to the fold would be a good way to expand on the story.

The Panther reminded me of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It does make me wonder how a Little Red Riding Hood story would play out if it were the grandma visiting the granddaughter, like the mother visiting the daughters in The Panther.

Reading The Lady of the Moon, I wonder who built the castle on the moon. It seems weird for it to already exist, unless it was the man on the moon who built it. But then I wonder what the purpose of the project was. This could be a good way to expand the story.

I also noticed that many of the stories began with the common "Once upon a time." In addition, many stories seem to be about luck and fortune. These Chinese fairy tales have really strange ways of "explaining" nature, like in The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess. Overall, I find the Chinese fairy tales to be very imaginative and exactly something I would expect to hear as a child.

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The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921)