Sunday, August 06, 2006

Shooting the Tiger -a Chinese Fable

A man and his son went out hunting. They were walking through a clearing when suddenly a tiger leapt out from under a bush and took off with the elder in his mouth. The dutiful son took aim at the tiger as it was slipping out of sight into the thick forest.

The father called out to his son from the jaws of the beast, "Aim at the legs, don't damage the hide!"


Details: source The Illustrated Book of World Fables, collected by Yong Yap Cotterell, Book Club Associates, London, 1979.

Image: Detail of a bronze yu wine vessel, Shang (c. 1600-c. 1100 BC), Mussee Cernuschi. From The Treasures and Dynasties of China, Bamber and Christina Gascoigne, London, 1973. ISBN 0 224 00925 7


9 comments:

Jean-Luc Picard said...

An excellent story, Florence.

Here's an interesting one: two men come across a bear in the woods. They both run away. One says to the other "We can't run faster than the bear." The other says "I'm not trying to run faster than the bear, I'm trying to run faster than you,"

kenju said...

Florence, thank you so much for giving me the link to Crackle Mountain. I will definitely read here when I have a little extra time, and probably will pass on the link to my daughter-in-law and daughter, for their children.

Florence Forrest said...

JL, LOL. There are lot of funny fables too. I'll try and post some more when I find the right images :)

Kenju, Thanks so much for popping by, please feel welcome here.
xxx

Wayne Joseph Kington said...

Hi Florence. I enjoy your blog, and I love strange stories! It was one of the inspirations for my short story blog (which I see you found already!). Weren't you the one who told me that in this day and age, I just had to have a blog? Keep up the good work.

Florence Forrest said...

WJk, I found you out pretty quick didn't I:D good to see you in the bloggersphere. xx

Tramp said...

Hello Florence, you have created an excellent source of entertainment here. I have discovered you by accident, but your's is a site which merits many returns. I am going to promote your site as I feel you deserve it. Mine is a humor and freebie site with a skyrocketing following. This tells me that people are starved for quality entertainment*. You most certainly fill the bill. Thank you for that.


*Or maybe they just like the freebies!

merlyn said...

I think in this day and age of TV and fast entertainment the art of story telling has become something remarkably special.
I remember when I studied Folklore at MUN in Newfouldnad, there was a certain pride and joy taken in the art of folk tales etc... and Newfoundland like Ireland has a huge oral tradition ( recitations) they call it.
I love reading these tales,tehy are wimsical and magical and seem to speak of a time I think we are slowly allowing to slip through our fingers.

There is nothing like sitting around a campfire being told a story.

xxs and oos

Florence Forrest said...

Tramp, Thanks for the promo :D always appreciated. Thanks for your kind words too.

Merly, I wish I could've studied folklore at uni, but there's not one course on it in Australia (that I'm aware of anyway:(

You're so lucky to have had such a wonderful opportunity.

xxxs and ooos

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