Chinese Fables
Selected and Retold by Mary W. Ng
The Maple Ridge Times says:
Chinese fables teach life lessons
Mary Ng believes that ancient fables, thousands of years old, can tell us about our modern lives. In her newly published book, Chinese Fables, she has collected 90 fables from the Chinese culture - many of them dating back to the 4th century BC - intending to bring them to a wider audience. To Ng, these fables tell people about many values, including “duty, contentment, patience, perseverance, hard work and keeping one’s word.”
One of the fables, called The Traveller, tells about a man who is travelling to the State of Chu. When told by a passerby that he is going in the wrong direction to get to Chu, the traveller responds: “I have fast horses.”
When the passerby tells him that this won’t help him in getting to Chu if he is still going in the wrong direction, the traveller responds: “I have plenty of travel money.”
When the passerby again tells him “you may have plenty of travel money, but you are not going in the right direction” he responds with “I have a capable driver.”
Finally, the passerby gives up on the man, saying “the better equipped you are, the further from the State of Chu you will be.”
Many modern people, overflowing with technology and busy lives, no doubt would ask themselves whether they too are going in the wrong direction. To Ng, “Knowing one’s goal or destination is not enough. One must go in the right direction.”
Ng admits that she could have used this fable earlier in her life. After spending a large amount of time earning a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, she decided that she did not want to pursue a career in her field. Now, she likes to write.
With Chinese Fables, Ng hopes that people will benefit from the fables’ wisdom in their own lives. She sees the potential readers of her book as being a wide group, including people interested in learning about Chinese culture, parents who want to use the stories to discuss values with their children and talk about what is important in life, teenagers, or people studying academic subjects, among others.
While Chinese Fables is not available in bookstores it can be purchased from Aim Publishing by calling 466-3926. Excerpts from the book are also available online at www.aimpublishing.com.
published on 05/23/2006
Source: The Maple Ridge Times