SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

hardship

  • Bean Porridge and Barley Rice: The Hardship That Forged an Emperor [Eastern Han]

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    Juan

    This article recounts Liu Xiu’s desperate flight from the false emperor Wang Lang. Starving and homeless, he survived on bean porridge and barley rice, relying on loyal followers like Deng Yu and Feng Yi. Through courage and wit, he escaped danger and found a base at Xindu, laying the groundwork for Eastern Han’s rise.

  • Caigentan 90. Defying heaven’s design

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    Juan

    If Heaven has not granted me enough happiness I keep increasing my store of virtue to supplement this small portion.

  • Caigentan 5. Adversity as the path to resilience

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    Juan

    To constantly hear words that grate upon the ear and to always encounter matters that unsettle the heart—this is the whetstone for cultivating virtue.

  • The cricket and son

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    Ana

    “Cricket” is a short story from the collection Strange Tales from Liaozhai by the Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling. Through a story about a cricket, it profoundly reflects the hardships of life and social injustice endured by the lower classes in feudal society.

  • The Taoist Priest of Laoshan

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    Ana

    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…