Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales Part B

I definitely enjoyed part B of the readings from Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921) better than part A.  I felt more inspired by these stories to come up with a story of my own.  Here are some notes:

Fox Fire

Again, I'm very surprised at how nonviolent this story is; I really predicted it was going to take a turn for the worst, but it didn't.  This was a pretty mild story, but it still gave me some ideas for stories.  I'd probably write this story in a sort of poem style, where each little stanza/paragraph would begin the same way.  It would probably be about the powers of the fire.  I could then use two or three lines to tell the story (maybe even less?).  I want it to be repetitive.  I may also add on to the ending of this story.  I don't think the man should be brutally punished, but he stole the fox's powers, and I think he got off a little too easy.  It would be a pretty indirect punishment, like after the fox takes the fire power back, the man actually needs it to save his wife or kids. He didn't seem to need it before, and just used it to make money, and that's pretty wrong - I can fix it though!

The fox in the story took mercy on the man, but I won't! Courtesy of PixelCrazy on Flickr

The Maiden Who was Stolen Away

This may be a little harsh, or even weird, but I kind of want to rework this tale into a story about a mail-order bride.  She wants to be able to come to America from her terrible home country so badly, but she can only accomplish this by becoming a mail order bride to a miserable yet wealthy man.  He's very possessive of her, so she can't even do what she dreamt of in America, but she is well taken care of otherwise, as far as food and shelter goes.  She is conflicted, and doesn't know whether she was more content when she was destitute but had her free will, or spoiled with food and material things, but can't follow her passions.  

The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge

The beginning of this story really caught my attention; the way that the pupil's unknowingly affected the travels of their sorcerer teacher.  I think I'd write this into a story about a child or children playing with (magical) toys, but little do they know, how they play with the toys affects people in real life.  For instance, like in the story, if the boy is playing with a toy boat in the bath, and has it tip over and sink, a boatful of people in a different part of the world suffer a similar fate.  Perhaps it could be about a cursed town or village, or even just an individual?  I like this concept a lot, but I think I'd have to narrow it down more in order to keep it within the limits of the storytelling posts.