- Origin
- China
- Source
- Zhong Guo Shen Hua -- Chinese Myths
- Edited by Zhang Hua
- Shan Bian: Hong Kong, 1987
- The Story
- A boy in Sih Chuan province, years ago, gathers fresh grass to sell in
the market in exchange of meager income to support he and his mother. One
year, when the village goes through a severe drought, he alone finds a patch
of lush grass which never diminishes in size no matter how much he's cut
it day in and day out. The finds a pearl buried near the patch and
brings it home to please his mother, and he also digs up the grass and
plants it near his house. The grass withers next morning, but the rice
jar where they keep the pearl in and only has little rice left the night
before is brimming with rice. They realize that it's the pearl that's
magical and from then on make use of the pearl and share their fortune
with other villagers. However, the greedy rich man in the village wants
to have the magic pearl. The boy, in protecting the pearl, swallows the
it. The pearl burns inside him and makes him incredibly thirsty. In order
to quench the burning and thirst, he drinks dry the river and turns into
a dragon. Angry and vengeful, the dragon summons the power of water to
flood the land of the rich man's. When the dragon
leaves the village, he looks back at his mother 24 times. Now the 24
riverbends along this river are called "Looking-back-at-mother bends"
(Wang Niang Tan)
- Comments
- This dragon is scaly, with antlers. It is vengeful of the wrong
doers. It has the power of bringing rain the causing flood.
Comparative Note:
| This retelling and Julie Lawson's The Dragon's
Pearl follows almost exactly the same narrative pattern. However,
unlike Lawson's telling, where Xiao Sheng brings the needed rain to the
village and is reveared as a god-like figure, the aspect of the dragon's
anger is stressed in this particular retelling. The villain in this
story is the traditional Yuan wai (more or less like a squire in the
English landlord tradition) figure and not the unidentified robbers as in
Lawson's version. Lawson also describes the physical features of the
dragon with more details than this
telling. |
|
|
Introduction/Index