Chinese Fables and Folk Stories/A Little Chinese Rose
A LITTLE CHINESE ROSE
小梅女
One day Mai-Qwai (Little Rose) ran home angry to her mother saying, "Mü-Tsing, I do not want my name to be Rose any longer. I was in Dun-Qure's garden just now, and she asked me, 'Which flower do you like best of all in our garden?' and I said I liked my name-flower best.
"Then they all laughed and said, 'We do not. Do you not see the thorns on the roses? When we pass near we tear our dresses. When we touch them the blood flows from our hands. No, we do not like the roses. The baby cow does not like them either. They stick her nose when she tries to eat, and even mother can not pick them without scissors. Once when she had a large bunch of roses, little sister tried to get one and it stuck her hands and face so that she cried many hours. Other flowers do not make trouble like that, and we do not see why any one likes the rose best. We think it very foolish to like a trouble flower and be named for it.'
"I do not like my name-flower any more, Mü-Tsing, and I do not want to bear its name."
"Do not cry, dear child," said her mother, "and I will tell you some things about the rose. Do you like rose sugar?"[1]
"Yes, very much," Rose answered, her face growing bright.
"And rose oil?"
"Oh, yes, Mü-Tsing."
"I thought you did not like the rose. So you ought not to like the good things it makes."
"But, Mü-Tsing, tell me why did the rose god make the rose grow with so many thorns? Other flowers are not like that."
"Listen, dear child. If the rose tree were like other trees and still had its beautiful flowers, I think we should never have any for ourselves. They would be too easily gathered. The rose god was very wise and put thorns all around his beautiful flower. When he made it, he gave it an odor so sweet that all the gods stopped working on the day it was finished. The thorns mean, Honor the rose which grows forever. The cows can not touch it, and the pigs never go near it, and careless children or wasteful people can not destroy it. Do you see, dear, why the rose must have thorns?"
The next morning Rose found in her room a beautiful new rose pillow made of the sweet-smelling petals. When she laid her head on this fragrant pillow she said, "Mü-Tsing, I do not wish to change my name."
- ↑ A choice Chinese candy.