Chinese Fairy Tales: Reading Diary A

Twin Dragons, Luck

• To choose a husband, the child of ill luck threw a ball of red silk.
• She basically chose the beggar and royally pissed her father off
• He was gone for 18 years?  Wayyyyy too long.  At least she had the mother to help her.
• Her death seemed totally pointless.
• The dad wants to leave his daughters to the wolves for eating his eggs?  Harsh
• What on earth was the moral of that story?
• Is the tale of the panther supposed to be like little red riding hood?
• A lot of these remind me of tales that I know
• The dog and cat fight because of the ring, but what about the mouse?
• Interesting that there were originally supposed to be 10 suns.
• Mothers seem particularly important
• There is more than one tale about the reason for having only one sun?
• The cassia tree is more beautiful than the moon
• I wonder what the connection between horses and silkworms is
• What is the importance of white horses?
• The farmer does not seem too generous
• Though the farmer was not willing to share one pear, the bonze was willing to share all of his pears.
• Why did he cut down the tree?  That seems like a lot of work for a tree that he just grew
• Tiny knights.  Very interesting
• The ants were rude to the scholar and the scholar smoked them out.  Nice

Essay: Unheroic Hero

Enoshima

The tale of Yamato really stuck out as being very male-centric.  Many times, it is the women who are doing huge deeds, yet they tend to get little to no credit for their efforts.  Yamato is seemingly the hero of the tale, but it seems that the women are the ones that have most of the qualities and virtues that would be desirable.  Often, he seems foolish and rash.  In fact, the tale refers to him as reckless.  Not only that, but almost as soon as the story starts, it calls Yamato “fickle.”  For a tale that is supposedly about his heroic deeds, it oddly admits his shortcomings.  Though the tale admits this, it still overlooks the women continuously.  

The siren, for example, uses her mind to best the “hero.”  Of course, she gets no credit for this.  The siren in the story actually tricks Yamato.  Though she is most definitely an antagonist, it is completely skimmed over that she outsmarted him in a sense.  Her cleverness is never mentioned.  Instead, it is mentioned the Yamato finally realizes that she has been using him. It is almost as if he is getting credit for being duped.  

Even more so than the siren, there is Tacibana.  She is so extremely devoted to Yamato, yet he treats her horrible, once again demonstrating how much a hero he is not.  The three most commonly used words in regard to Tacibana are devoted, faithful, and brave.  Somehow, though, Yamato seems to be the one labeled a hero and the one to get most of the glory.  She saves Yamato numerous times until she finally dies for him, sacrificing her life for his.  It is not until the end of the tale that he starts to respect her and treat her right.  Unfortunately though, it was too late.

The tale of Yamato from the Japanese Mythology unit

Storytelling: Devoted

Empress Jinju Goes to War

My husband was a great warrior and adventurer in his time.  In fact, he is still revered throughout all of Japan.  He was not, however, a good husband.  I have had centuries upon centuries to think about my life.  The only real regret that I have is that I was so devoted to that jerk.  I was so devoted to him that I died to save him.  What a waste.  In the moment, I didn’t think about all the crap he had put me through.  All I thought was, “oh no, I can’t let my husband die!”  It was really stupid of me. 

The fool had been cheating on me with a siren.  Not only that, but the siren was only using him and he never suspected a thing!  The creature put him through many trials.  First off, there was this boar.  Then there was this evil deer thing.  I mean, really, having an evil deer as one of your great trials?  Come on, that’s pathetic.  There was even this great fire that almost killed him.  Not only that, but his own horses almost trampled him to death as well.  If it wasn’t for my dumb butt saving him and all his men, he would have been dead meat.  To make matters worse, I received extreme burns while saving him from the fire.  Did I get even a small thanks?  No!  Instead, he told me that I was hideous and he told me to stay hidden away until my burns healed and my scorched hair grew back.  Screw him. 

Somehow, he got the Goddess of Love and Mercy to help him on his journeys too.  I’ll never understand that one.  The man didn’t know the first thing about love.  Soon, he realized the siren had fooled him.  As soon as he figured it out, he just had to go and confront her.  The creature wrapped him up and almost drowned him.  She refused to give him up.  It was only through my devotion to him that he was saved.  I helped him and then got attacked by some dragon.  That definitely was not my day. 

After my husband woke up, he defeated the dragon.  Thankfully, things eventually settled down.  I thought, finally, that maybe things could get back on track and we could repair our relationship.  Nope.  He just had to go on one last adventure, then he swore that we would live in peace.  I should have known better.  I mean, history doesn’t lie.  So he went on his “final” adventure.  Turns out he was going to fight the siren’s dad.  Not only was it the dragon he thought he defeated, but he was the God of the Sea!  What a stupid idea it was to take on that type of creature!  The dragon almost killed him.  He would have died for sure if I hadn’t jumped in the water and sacrificed myself instead.  I was such an idiot.

Author’s note:  The story I focused on was the tale of Yamato.  While reading it, I was really irritated with how terrible Yamato was to his wife and how often she had to save him.  Despite that, he got all the glory and she was still crazy devoted to him.  I wanted to write my story about her realizing how terrible he actually was.  I made sure to include all the main points and adventures that Yamato goes through, because I think it was an important part of the story.  .

Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Japanese Mythology: Reading Diary B

Illustration from the Romances of Old Japan

• “the fickle Yamato”  Interesting description of him
• ““Mortal, behold Benten, Goddess of Deathless Love,” sang the mermaid.”  The names of these gods and goddess are really interesting.  Is deathless love the same as undying love?
• “Suddenly she cast him from her: “To win my love thou must dare death,” she demanded imperiously.”  Does this play into her name, deathless love?
• I like how so much of this tale seems to be either songs or poetry
• I wonder why, of all birds, he asks the stork to help him?
• One of the labors is the demon boar
• “Here the chieftains welcomed Yamato with feigned hospitality, inviting his warriors to a deer-hunt upon the moor.”  Why was it feigned?
• Yamato kind of reminds me of Odysseus
• Yamato is a huge jerk to Tacibana
• Wait, Susa-no-wo is evil?
• The part with the siren kind of reminds me of Lanval.
• A demon deer?  That seems a little odd.  I’ve never heard of deer being anything other than gentle.
• He finally wants Tacibana?  Bleh
• Seriously, what is up with all the serpents?  It’s like every story I’ve read this far has had one.
• Tacibana is the one to save Yamato from the siren
• “Reckless Yamato, thou hast adventured upon my ever-verdant Sea Plain and defied my father, the God of Ocean. Therefore shalt thou perish, else another victim be granted me.”  I feel like reckless is a very accurate description of Yamato
• Tacibana died to save Yamato

Japanese Mythology (Reading Diary A)

Izanagi and Izanami at Taka-jinja Shrine

• “High in the uttermost realms of the limitless chaos above”
• Izanami is generous to mankind.  She gave them many things and knowledge
• “At the same time there fluttered downward from the heavenly firmament a night-blooming flower, which slowly unfolded its translucent petals and became the Moon.”  Such beautiful imagery. 
• Why is it bad for women to speak first?  And did he just randomly and at that moment decide to marry her?
• The eight islands of Japan came from the two
• Yamato
• Tsukushi
• Iyo
• Tsushima
• Ahaji
• Shikoku
• Oki
• Lado
• “To these she gave eternal dominion over the fairest of lands and bestowed upon them godlike powers: Wisdom, Valour and Craft, Justice, Mercy and Love.”  It is interesting that the text refers to these qualities as godlike powers
• Susa-no-wo wants a human to be his wife?
• Why did the daughter get turned into a comb?
• Interesting how there always seems to be a serpent in the origin stories
• He and his bride wed in the province of Izumo
• The pheasant seems to have an important job
• Apparently Amewaka has an evil heart?
•  “When thou givest this to thy brother spit thrice thereon and hand it to him with averted face saying, ‘‘Tis a hook of poverty, of ruin, and of downfall.”  That’s kind of what the older brother deserves for being so rude and cruel
• “If thy brother be wroth, bring forth the Jewel of the Flowing Tide, and the waters shall drown him. But if he craveth thy forgiveness do thou display the Jewel of the Ebbing Tide and the waters shall sudden recede and therewithal thou shalt save him.” Justice to the extreme

Thoughts About Comments

So far in the semester, I’ve gotten a lot of comments.  From my perspective, the comments on my storytelling posts have been particularly helpful.  More than anything, the comments that point of the highlights of my work and also point out what could be improved help a lot.  Those types of comments help me figure out what I’m doing right and help me keep moving in that direction.  I really like it whenever the comments get really specific as well.  If a comment is too broad, I can get the general sentiment, but I can’t really fix anything or I don’t know what to focus on.  These are all things that I try to keep in mind when writing my own comments for other people.  I try to pick out one or two things that really stick out to me and write about them.  To improve, I could be a little more specific.  

Essay: Twenty-Two Goblins

The story of the Twenty-Two Goblins operates on a very interesting plot twist.  The goblin, who originally seems to only be interested in causing the king mischief, is actually stalling the king in order to protect him.  Throughout the course of the story, the goblin seems to be the main source of conflict, especially within the frame story. In fact, it is through the constant trials that the goblin puts the king through that it becomes obvious that the king’s most prominent virtues are patience, determination, and perseverance. 

 The monk, who initially appears as a good person who is in need of the king’s help, is actually sending him on a quest to help the monk being a ruler.  It is not until the end of the story, when the goblin has told the king all of his riddle-like stories, that it is revealed the goblin is actually a force of good and the monk is a force for evil. 

Interestingly enough, the tales that the goblin uses as riddles seem to only further the virtues of the king in the frame story.  Though the king’s answer never seems satisfactory to the goblin, after each time the goblin returns to the tree the king still seems more and more virtuous than before.  Throughout the entire story, the goblin seems to be something of a trickster.  He often antagonizes the king, though it does nothing to break the king’s resolve.  To a reader, it becomes seemingly obvious that the goblin is the antagonist, or the “bad guy.”  In the end, however, the goblin reveals why he gives the king all those seemingly insignificant riddles and forces him to trek back to the tree in order to retrieve the body again.  It is because of the goblin’s cleverness that the king is able to defeat the monk and good wins.  It is the plot twist, that something that was perceived as bad was actually good, that makes the story.  

Twenty-Two Goblins

From the Twenty-Two Goblins unit of the UnTextbook