Chinese Fables and Folk Stories/A Boy Who Would Not Tell a Lie
THE BOY WHO WOULD NOT TELL A LIE[1]
童不説謊
Si-Ma-Quong lived in the Province of Sze-Chuen. When he was young (about six years old) he played with a dog and a cat, but they hunted all night long for food in the wilderness, and his mother feared he might get the devil-sickness from them. So one day his father paid much silver for Wa-Na-Juch, a bird with a beautiful song, for his son to play with.
Wa-Na-Juch hopped on Si-Ma-Quong's lap and shoulder and ate from his hand. He was a very handsome bird, and he sang all day long.
One day he flew out to the lake to bathe, and Si-Ma-Quong was very happy watching him. Then he ran and told his mother, "Mü-Tsing,[2] I saw the bird bathe in the lake. I think the water is too cold for him. Give him a good hot bath, as you give me."
His mother said, "In winter you have a warm bath, but not too hot."
When she bathed Si-Ma-Quong, she showed him why the water must not be too hot for the bird, and he seemed to understand. But the next day when his mother went out, Si-Ma-Quong said to his bird, "Wa-Na-Juch, do you want a bath?" And the bird said, "Chi-Chi," which the boy thought meant "Yes, Yes."
He put some clean hot water in a dish, and called the bird, but it would not even go near the water.
This made Si-Ma-Quong angry. "You tell me a lie, and that is very bad," he said to the bird. "You said, 'Yes, Yes,' when I asked if you wanted a bath. Now, I will bathe you as Mü-Tsing bathes me."
He then put the bird in the hot water, but it chirped loudly and tried to get away. "Do not cry and be a bad bird," said Si-Ma-Quong. "I cry sometimes, too, when Mü-Tsing bathes me," but in two or three minutes, the bird lay still and he put it on the table to dry.
When his mother came, he said, "Mü-Tsing, my bird is cold. He is on the table. I think he wants some clothes. Give him my fur jacket and make him warm, so he will stand up and sing."
His mother did not know about the bath, so she said, "Oh no, the bird needs no jacket. He wears a feather jacket."
She then went into the room and saw the bird lying on the table, and she said, "He is dead. Who did this, Si-Ma-Quong? He is wet. Did he go to the pond? I think you killed him. If you did, your father will surely beat you, and he will never bring you another bird."
And Si-Ma-Quong cried and said, "Yes, I did it. I put him in hot water. I bathed him just as you bathe me. At first he would not go in, but I made him." Then he cried, 'Chi-Chi-Chee.' Will you tell my father? I think he will forgive me, if I tell him the truth. He did the last time I did wrong."
When time came for the evening meal, his mother called him, but he would not eat. He said, "I am sorry about Wa-Na-Juch, and I can not eat food. Wait until my father comes, so that I may tell him all I have done."
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Once Si-Ma-Quong and two other boys were trying to peel fruit that grew in a neighbor's garden, but the peach skins were tight and the boys were not skilled. Their task seemed not likely to be finished, when a man passing by said, "I will tell you how to peel the peaches. Get boiling water, drop the peaches in and take them out in a very little time, and then you can pull off their skins easily."
The man whose peaches they were peeling came soon, and saw that the task was finished. He looked at the fruit and said, "I never saw fruit peeled with so little waste. How did you do it?"
They showed him the hot water and he said, "You are very wise to know first this way of peeling fruit. I will give a piece of silver to each of the boys who made the discovery."
He asked the other two, "Did you?" and "Did you?" and they both said, "Yes." He then gave them the silver, but Si-Ma-Quong said, "No, I do not want the silver. We did not ourselves know how to remove the peach skins. A strange man showed us."
Now these two things happened when Si-Ma-Quong was very young; and he lived seventy-two years and served his emperor and his nation wisely. He did many great things, because he was true in the little things. So history says that this man, who never spoke falsely as a child, youth, or man, was one of the greatest men in the Chinese nation.
