Chinese Fairy Tales

These fairy tales from China, a land where wonders have never ceased, are different, in the complete way that China is different, from the tales that are told to European children. Here are no happy-go-lucky youngest sons alighting upon astounding good fortune. Here are no sets of three impossible tasks which much be performed if the Emperor's daughter is to be won; no ugly sisters, no witches. Instead, there are tales which have the clear freshness of immense antiquity, tales of romance and adventure, of luck, of marvelous happenings, of strange and almost lovable beasts like the Nung-guama and the Wang hiang (perhaps the original of the Abominable Snowman.) The very titles are strange and exciting -The Girl in the Green Tree, The White Snake Lady, The Man who Sold Thunder, The Dark Maiden from The Ninth Heaven. Here, for the child, in these exquisite stories, is a new world-the Old World of Ancient China.