SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

Chang’e

  • Hou Yi

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    Hou Yi (后羿), also known simply as “Yi,” is traditionally regarded as the chieftain of the Youqiong tribe of the Dongyi people during the Xia Dynasty (夏代东夷有穷部落), renowned for his exceptional archery skills. He once overthrew the rule of Tai Kang of the Xia Dynasty and seized the throne, but was ultimately killed due…

  • Osmanthus Chestnut Soup

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    In the ancient city of Hangzhou, where the West Lake shimmers like a mirror and the hills are cloaked in a veil of mist, autumn arrives with a double blessing: the ripening of chestnuts and the blooming of osmanthus flowers. The air fills with a fragrance so intoxicating that locals have found a way…

  • Butterfly Loves Flower – In Reply to Li Shuyi [Mao’s Poems]

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    –Mao Zedong, May 11, 1957 I lost proud Yang; you lost brave Liu,Their souls like willow-catkins soar to heaven’s height anew.We ask Wu Gang: “What have you?”He brings sweet osmanthus wine, pure and true.

  • Myth

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    Myth is a literary genre that conveys the ancient people’s primordial understanding of the origin of the world, natural phenomena, and social life through narratives involving deities or divinized heroic figures.

  • Chang’e Flies to the Moon

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    Long ago, when the world was in great danger, ten suns appeared together in the sky. The intense heat burned crops, dried rivers, and made people suffer terribly. Many died from hunger and heat.

  • Frost and Moon [Tang Poems]

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    — Li Shangyin No cicadas trill when I first hear wild geese cry; The high tower overlooks water blending with the sky. The Moon Goddess and her Maid of Frost are cold-proof; They vie in beauty in moonlight over frosty roof.

  • The Raksasas and the Ocean Bazaar

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    Ma Ji, also known as Dragon Messenger, was a merchant’s son. He had striking good looks and in his untrammeled youth gave himself up to the pleasures of singing and dancing. He frequented the Pear Garden, where he amused himself in the company of the actors. Wrapping his head in a brocade turban he…

  • Jiaona

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    Scholar Kong Xueli, a descendent of the sage, Confucius, was a man of forbearance and well-versed in poetry. His good friend, a magistrate of Tiantai County in Zhejiang Province, wrote to him, inviting him to be his guest.

  • The Taoist Priest of Laoshan

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    There used to live in the county a scholar named Wang who was the seventh child in an official’s family. Ever since he was a boy, he’d had great admiration for the miracles Taoist priests perform. When he heard there were many immortals up on Laoshan Mountain, he shouldered his book bag and off…