Chinese Folk Tales

In the past few episodes, we've talked about some magical creatures in Chinese mythology, have you ever wondered if there were any magical plants? Today, I will introduce two fascinating plants that I hope had really existed. Actually, I wish they were still around.

After stories of evil monsters, I would like to introduce a nice and good one called “Xie Zhi”. The mythical creature looks a bit like a goat, or at least initially it did, except that it has only one horn. Xie Zhi loathes liars, and his horn was reserved for people who did bad things and then lied about it, basically criminals.

What do you say to a gold-stuffed piggy bank? Yes, please! That's what I would say. There was such a monster according to Chinese folk tales. Its name is Pi Xiu and it didn't look quite as cute as a pink pig.

I'm not sure if other cultures have their symbols for greediness, in China, we have the monster named Tao Tie, the two characters also stand for a "big feast"! I guess you can make that connection. So what's he like?

Monsters come in all shape and sizes, but you probably haven't heard of one like this! With a name of Hun Tun, or Chaos, the monster can't be good.

Sure you've heard of the magical bird that arises from ashes, yes, the phoenix. But that's the ancient Greek species. In this episode, we will talk about the Chinese phoenix and also another kind of giant bird. Intrigued?

Today we turn our attention from emperors and giants to magical creatures in Chinese history. The one leading the way is of course the dragon. Hard to say whether or not they actually existed, but it's certainly a crucial symbol for the Chinese people. Have you ever thought about keeping a dragon as a pet? Someone did.

Thirty-one episodes into our podcast we are approaching the end of the ancient part of Chinese history and the start of the first known dynasty in China, called Xia. The founder of the Xia Dynasty was the son of the Great Yu and he was born out of a rock. How did that happen?

Great Yu spent years of his life taming the floods, only to have his work eaten up by a monster with nine heads...of snakes! Would it help to chop off those heads? Yes, but that led to problems of another kind. How did the Great Yu deal with all this?

The great man Yu is so important in Chinese history that we are devoting three episodes related to him. Today's story is about how he tamed the floods and how he passed his own house three times and never went in. Why didn't he?