Chinese Fables and Folk Stories/The Hunter, the Snipe, and the Bivalve
THE HUNTER, THE SNIPE, AND THE BIVALVE
獵者獨得
Yung-Moi was one of the very wise men of China. He had lived in the mountains and studied the books of Confucius for twenty years, and afterwards he taught others.
He taught school for ten years, and because of his wisdom had many pupils—over two thousand in all. He was now sixty years old and greatly respected by many people.
One day he thought he would give a party for his scholars. So he sent them all word and asked that each one repeat a story at the party.
After he had invited his guests, bethought, "I, too, must have a story ready for to-morrow night. What shall it be?" And he walked down to the river, thinking.
There he saw two creatures in the edge of the river fighting. One was the great bivalve;[1] the other was a snipe that had been hunting for fish in the river.
They fought long and hard, until a hunter with a gun and net passed by and saw them. He made no noise and came close, close, but they were so busy trying to kill each other that they could not see him. So he caught them both and took them home in his net.
Yung-Moi, the wise teacher, thought deeply and said to himself, "There is meaning in all this," and he walked slowly back to his schoolroom.
He sat down at his desk and thought, and he stirred the ink in his ink-dish, not knowing what he did.
Then he wrote this story and said: "In my mind this is a strange thing. The snipe is a fine creature in the air. He has two wings and has great power to do for himself.
"Small fishes swim in the water and the snipe can take any one he wants, but he can not live in the home of the bivalve, or try to take life away from him without perishing himself.
"If he had power to go under the water and live, there would be no small fishes in the river, and if he were big, like the eagle or bear, there would soon be no fishes in the world. I am glad the Creator made him a small creature and not too powerful.
"The bivalve—he has great power to live under the water. Small swimming things can not escape if they pass by his door, but if he could move about like other fishes with his great power and his appetite for many fish, I think the mother of all fishes could not make enough for his greedy mouth, for now he opens his doors all day long and takes in the creatures that swim by.
"I had fish from the river last night for my evening meal, but I think they never passed the bivalve's house or he would have had them for his supper.
"When the bivalve and snipe fought together, each one thought, 'I have great power; I want what you have, and I will kill you and get it for myself.'
"The snipe saw the bivalve's door open and he thought, 'What nice white meat; I will have it,' and he picked at it. The bivalve shut his doors tight and held the snipe so that he could not get away.
"And they fought; each one trying to kill the other, until the hunter came and caught them both. Then the hunter took the snipe and the bivalve home and said to his wife, 'We will have a good supper to-night.' And his wife looked and was very glad to have two such savory things at one time. The hunter said, 'Cook the bivalve well done, and we will put some Tung-Ku[2] and Cho-Chen-Cho[3] with it. Save the shells and put them away carefully to dry, and I will sell them to the man who makes furniture, for inlaying his tables.
"'The pearls that were in this bivalve will bring me much silver from the jeweler. I will ask my mother to come here for supper. The bivalve is enough for us all, and my mother will be glad. She has never before eaten of a bivalve.
"'The snipe, I will not kill. I will keep him to show to my son and nephew. Give him rice to eat and some water to drink, and keep him in the cage. To-morrow I will give him some fish and in a few days I will take him to the school teacher. Then, when I train him to sing, I will take him to the market place and sell him for much silver.'"
At the party on the evening of the next day, all the pupils told stories. At last the teacher repeated the story of the fight between the swimming and flying creatures.
"Now, I will ask you a question," he said to the pupils. "If the snipe flies in the air, can man catch him? And if the bivalve stays under the cave in the river, can man injure him?"
And the pupils all said, "No, teacher."
"Well, it was sad that the snipe and the bivalve were caught yesterday. Can you tell me why?"
"We do not know," said the scholars.
And the teacher said, "They are happy and powerful creatures when they do no harm to each other. The snipe flies in the air, the bivalve swims in his home, the sea, and each has happiness according to his kind.
"Now you see these two creatures fought together, the snipe and the bivalve, and they did not succeed by fighting. The hunter is the only one that succeeded.
"It is so with the three nations now at war. They are like the hunter, the snipe, and the bivalve. They ought to live in peace. They are lost when they fight among themselves."
Then Yung-Moi drew a picture of the warring countries for his pupils.
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| (yot) one | (yee) two | (sarm) three[4] |
"One and Three represent two nations at war with each other. One asks Two's permission to pass an army through his country that he may fight Three. While the army of One is away from home, the people get in a fight among themselves and civil war follows. Number Two takes advantage of the situation and in the absence of Number One's army (who is trying to overpower Three), conquers Number One easily. Number Two then owns the nations One and Two, and with this added strength goes to the land of Number Three and conquers him, so that all three countries now belong to Number Two."
- ↑ A huge oyster about three feet square and weighing twenty pounds, which is said to have existed at that time (about one thousand years ago), but is now extinct.
- ↑ A Chinese sauce.
- ↑ A Chinese mushroom which grows in the forests. It is very rare and much larger than the ordinary variety.
- ↑ Yot, yee, sarm are Canton dialect words for one, two, three.