Chinese Myths: Captivating Chinese Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales

Chinese mythology has all of those things and more, presenting a rich tapestry of the doings of human characters who sometimes win the princess and great wealth, or are the cause of their own downfall, or manage to attain immortality-whether through their own efforts or by accident-or find themselves having to deal with divine beings beyond their experience and comprehension. However, even the divine beings who populate these stories can be fallible, getting into trouble or even causing it, and then having to extract themselves and deal with the aftermath.

Some Chinese myths are the creatures of folk tradition, connected to the religions of Taoism and Buddhism-both of which are important to Chinese history and culture-or political myths aimed at bolstering a dynasty's claim to power. But whatever the origin of these tales, they remain captivating stories with the power to enchant us centuries-or even millennia-after they were first told.

Here is a little introduction to some of the characters you will meet in this volume:

• the fox spirit who instead of being the trickster becomes the tricked
• the poor student who impresses the king of the lake and weds the king's daughter
• the lonely ghost who becomes the lover of an unsuspecting poor scholar
• the nine-headed bird who kidnaps princesses and keeps a dragon king's son captive
• the dragons who stole all the water from the district around Beijing, and the brave soldier who made them give it back
• the young woman who gave her life to save her father and whose voice can be heard in the peal of a bell
• the god Nezha, who as a child caused no end of trouble for his parents and the neighboring dragon king
• the Eight Immortals, who embody Taoist virtues and have merry adventures together
• and much, much more!