Top 5 most famous Chinese stories
I heard these stories when I was 3 or 4 years old. These stories are so classic that they make me want to share. Have you heard of these stories? If you have other ideas, please share them with us.
1. Mulan Joining the Amy
One thousand-five hundred years ago, Mulan was a girl living in the North Wei Kingdom. In the north of China, people like practicing martial arts. When she was young, her father trained her as a boy. She practices this daily and reads her father’s old book, “Art of War”. Finally, she is good at horse riding, shooting arrows, and using weapons.
During that time, Mulan’s kingdom was always invaded by the nomadic tribe, so the government ordered every family to provide a man as a soldier. However, in her family, her father is too old, and her brothers are too young, so she is determined to be a soldier for battle instead of her father.
Fighting in the war is so tough. Moreover, she must hide her female identity and fight with her fellows. She fights so bravely and skillfully that all the other soldiers respect her and honor her as a hero.
After the war, the government granted her the chance to be a general. She refuses because she wants to return home and look after her parents. When she returns home, she takes off the man’s clothes and makes them up, and all of her fellows are so surprised that she is a pretty girl.
2. Meng Jiangnu Cries the Great Wall
More than 2000 years ago, a couple, Fan Xiliang and Meng Jiangnu, married. On their wedding day, the government comes to their home and takes Fan away for the labor force to build the Great Wall.
Meng loves her husband so much that she overcomes so much difficulty and finally finds part of the Great Wall where her husband worked. At the same time, she hears the bad news that her husband is dead because of exhaustion to build the Great Wall. She is so desperate and cries for three days on the Wall. Suddenly, the Wall collapses 800 kilometers, and she can see her husband’s bones.
The first emperor in Chinese history, Qinshihuang, hears that and feels very angry, so he captures Meng and brings her to see him. When the emperor sees her, he finds her to look very beautiful, so the emperor wants her to be his concubine. Meng agrees with him, but with three conditions, which are to build a huge bridge between the Wall and the sea, to build a tomb for burying her husband, and to hold a memorial ceremony for her husband.
The emperor achieves all her conditions, then demands Meng to be his concubine; Meng cries, “You are too greedy for your people! I will never be your girl!” Carrying the box of her husband’s bones, she jumps into the sea and commits suicide.
3. The Story of a Pair of Butterfly Lovers
A long time ago, there was a 16-year-old girl called Zhu Yingtai. She wants to study in school, but in ancient China, females is not allowed to go to school. So Zhu gets an idea; she puts on a man’s clothes, pretends to be a boy, and goes to study.
During the three years she studies in the school, she falls in love with a classmate, Liang Shanbo. However, Liang never recognizes her as a girl and treats her like a good fellow. After these 3 years, she returns home; her father wants to marry her to a wealthy official called Ma Wencai. But she refuses and tells her father she loves someone else. Her father is very angry, so he locks her daughter at home for a long time.
After Liang hears Zhu is a girl and loves him so much, he comes to her home and wants to see Zhu, but her father refuses. At her home, they can only see each other outside and upstairs. When Liang goes back home, he is too upset, gets a disease, and dies.
Zhu goes to Liang’s graveyard, sees her dead lover, she cries. Suddenly, she jumps into Liang’s graveyard. A miracle happens. They become a pair of butterflies, flying together and living together forever.
After more than 1000 years, this true love story has never been forgotten, so classical music called “Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai” is composed by musicians, and the melody has been widespread in China for hundreds of years.
4. Mr. Stupid Move Away Mountains
In ancient China, there was an old man called Mr. Stupid. In front of his house are two great mountains, Taihang and Wangwu. He thinks the two mountains are terrible barriers to people’s traveling. So he assembles his family members to carry the earth and rock of the two mountains away to move these two mountains elsewhere.
Mr. Clever comes to see Mr. Stupid and says, “You are so stupid; you are old; how many mountains can you carry away based on your family’s energy?” Mr. Stupid replied, “I have sons, my sons have grandsons, all of us will carry it from generation to generation, but the mountain never grows. Why will it not be achieved?” Mr. Clever has no idea how to reply.
Finally, God sees that, and the spirit moves him; he moves Mountain Taihang and Wangwu away with his mighty power.
5. Chang E Flying to the Moon
The sky had ten suns in ancient times, so the land was extremely hot. A God, Hou Yi, shoots arrows at 9 of them, so only one sun is left in the sky, and then the land turns to normal. So people look up to him so much.
Hou Yi’s wife, Chang E, is a pretty and kind girl who usually relieves poor people, so everyone likes her very much. Hou Yi has an elixir; whoever eats it will never die. A student of Hou Yi, who is called Feng Meng, wants to get this elixir. After Hou Yi has left home, he asks Chang E for this elixir. At that moment, Chang E ensures she cannot escape, so she eats this elixir to avoid going to Feng’s hands.
After eating it, Chang begins to fly, and she flies across the window and to the moon. When Hou Yi returns home, he sees his wife smiling at him and holding a rabbit on the moon, but he can never take her back.
From then on, every Mid-Autumn Day, Chinese people returned home to meet their family members and went out to see the full moon for the sake of Hou Yi and Chang E’s story. Everyone eats Chang E’s favorite food, the Moon Cake, to remind her husband that she is a hero.
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