Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

My favorite stories from unit A of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit by R. Wilhelm are:

The Cave of the Beasts. I put this story here because of its unique ending (but I didn't like it). I didn't see the ending coming at all. A man, his wife, his seven daughters, a wolf, and a fox are the characters. The father does a really bad thing. He plans to get his daughters killed and carries out his plan. They survive and help the father, who comes back, become rich. I didn't really get the point in rewarding a bad behavior. But the story was told beautifully. I liked the dialogues.

Duck eggs picture from: 

The Cave of the Beasts.
Photo by P. Williams.

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies. This was a such an awesome story. This was my favorite because I love cats and dogs. This provides a background into how dogs and cats became enemies. I liked how the story was structured and how other characters were added to add to the description of the story. It was interesting to note how it was the cat that stayed quiet and didn't help the dog out, because dogs are always looked at as the more loyal type. 

The Miserly Farmer. This was a really funny story. It had one great lesson: learn to give to the poor. A farmer declined to give a single pear to a priest. The priest cunningly takes every pear from him through the use of an illusion. The story had a great ending. The way it was told made it my favorite for this unit.