SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

  • A Farmer Subduing a Fox

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    Ana

    When a farmer was weeding the fields, his wife took lunch to him in a pottery jug. After he finished eating, he put the jug in the field. In the evening, he found the left-over porridge in the jug was gone. Such strange things happened several times and the farmer grew suspicious. He kept…

  • About Caigentan

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    Juan

    Caigentan (菜根谭 in Chinese), often translated as Discourses on Vegetable Roots or Tending the Roots of Wisdom, composed in the late Ming Dynasty (c. 1590) by scholar-philosopher Hong Yingming (Zicheng), is a timeless classic of Chinese wisdom literature.

  • The fox spirit’s redemption in “Yatou”

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    Ana

    “Fox Spirit – Yatou” from Strange Tales from Liaozhai, a Chinese Studio, (Liaozhai Zhiyi) is a story centered around a “human-fox romance,” interwoven with themes of resistance by marginalized women, the duality of human nature, and the capriciousness of fate.

  • Yatou

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    Ana

    Wang Wen, a scholar from Dong Chang, was young and honest. Once he visited a region under the rule of the State of Chu as a tourist. After he crossed the river and checked into a hotel, he went out for a stroll.

  • The Mantis that felled the Serpent

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    Ana

    “The Mantis Seizes the Snake” is a short fable from Strange Tales from Liaozhai, a Chinese Studio, (Liaozhai Zhiyi). Through a vivid natural phenomenon, it reveals how the weak may overcome a powerful adversary through wisdom and courage. Though brief, the story carries profound symbolism.

  • The Fight Between a Mantis and a Snake

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    Ana

    A certain Mr. Zhang was walking in a mountain valley and heard a loud noise from the cliffs. He climbed up the cliffs and saw a huge snake as thick as a big bowl tossing in the trees, its tail beating the willows and breaking willow branches. Its desperate tossing and turning suggested that…