"How Chang Kuo Lau Obtained A Donkey"

After their parents' death Zhang Nan and his younger brother worked their small farm near the village of Chung Ts'iao Shan in Shansi province. They had always been happy in each other's company but all this changed when Zhang Nan decided to marry. Zhang Nan's wife found fault with everything her brother-in-law said or did and she eventually succeeded in turning the two brothers against each other. The quarrels became so bitter; it was impossible for all three to share the same house. Zhang Guola was forced to leave his home and take his meager share of his inheritance - a well-worn quilt, one broken hoe, two wooden bowls and three earthenware dishes.

Zhang Guola made a new home in a disused hut, a day's donkey ride from his old home. He enjoyed the peace and solitude of his old home and spent most of his days picking wild fruits and mushrooms and growing sweet potatoes. Two months after settling in, Zhang's sweet potatoes began to go missing. At first one or two were taken but eventually half the field was taken.

One night Zhang, carrying a wooden stick, lay in wait for the thief. Shortly after midnight, an enormous black rabbit entered the field and began to nibble on his sweet potatoes. Zhang sprang out of his hiding place and charged toward the rabbit but he didn't move quickly enough. The rabbit had already bounded across the field and through a hole in the hedge. Zhang pursued the rabbit as fast as his legs would allow. The chase seemed to be endless. They pounded up and down three mountains, splashed across nine streams and trampled through thirty fields. Eventually the rabbit tried to make his escape into a large grotto and Zhang followed him. When his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he looked around him. Someone had made the grotto their home. One room was furnished with a straw mattress; a second room was filled with wood, cooking oil, rice, chopsticks, pottery bowls, a small stove and another straw mattress. A voice said:

"Welcome to my house. Make yourself comfortable. I have prepared some tea and buns for you." Zhang swung around but all he saw was a big, black rabbit.

"Don't be startled. This is my home and I have brought you here to live with me."

Zhang hesitated for several moments and then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. No, the rabbit was real and he was talking but the last thing Zhang would want to choose was a life with a thieving and talking rabbit. Zhang declined the rabbit's suggestion.

"Please don't turn me down so carelessly," begged the rabbit. "I admit that I have been a thief. I have stolen everything you see here but I will change, I promise you. If you come to live with me, I will give up my life of crime and help you hunt in the forest. I know you are a poor man but I always knew that one day you would come here to live with me. That's why I led a life of petty crime. I did it for you."

Zhang mulled over the rabbit's words for several minutes and saw the rabbit was right. He was a poor man and had nothing to lose. He replied, "I trust you my friend and I will come to live with you."

Zhang moved into the grotto immediately and that evening he received another surprise. While he was eating sinner, opposite the rabbit, a white mist slowly descended over the table and Zhang could barely see his chopsticks. He was unprepared for the sight when the mist cleared.

The black rabbit had changed into a fearsome, threatening black wolf. Zhang let his rice bowl and chopsticks fall to the floor. The wolf smiled, lifted its paw and laid it gently upon Zhang's shaking hand. The wolf was his friend, not his enemy. Zhang named the wolf `the Big Black One' and together they hunted in the forests. The wolf was fearless and strong.

It was not long before Zhang's brother and sister-in-law heard tales of their brother's hunting success and were soon consumed with jealousy. They spent hours plotting and scheming against the wolf and Zhang and eventually decided to poison them. But the wolf was not so easily fooled. He heard them approach and then run away quickly. They had left some poisoned buns outside the door. When they were gone, the wolf emerged from the grotto and dropped the poisoned buns in the pigsty. The next morning three of Zhang Nan's pigs were dead.

When Zhang Nan and his wife discovered what had happened, they seized sharp knives and set out for the wolf's grotto. They arrived after midnight and as they approached the entrance to the grotto the wolf pounced from the darkness. Zhang Nan ran for his life but his wife was not so lucky. The wolf's teeth dug into her cotton jacket and trousers and ripped them from her back. Zhang was awakened and bumped into his embarrassed sister-in-law desperately trying to hide her nakedness. She pulled some fronds from a nearby tree, held them behind her and ran screaming from the woods.

After this second unsuccessful murder attempt, Zhang Nan and his wife spent every waking hour plotting their revenge and eventually hit upon a solution. They visited the town judge and told him that Zhang had purposefully and violently murdered their pigs. They demanded justice and bribed the judge. The corrupt judge did not even try to discover the truth. He declared Zhang guilty, summoned him to the court and punished him with 40 lashes of the whip. Zhang stumbled back to the grotto so the wolf could bathe his bloody wounds. But when he got to the grotto he found the wolf had been murdered by Zhang Nan and his wife.

Zhang collapsed in tears at the sight of the wolf and over the next three days he rarely slept or ate. On the fourth evening, when he had fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion, the wolf spoke to him in a dream.

"Zhang, don't cry. I have come to help you, so listen carefully to my words. In Hung Wen Mountain there is a unicorn, which can run a 1000 miles a day and 800 hundred miles a night. If you can catch this unicorn you will become immortal."

Zhang woke from the dream with a start and ran swiftly from the grotto to Hung Wen Mountain where he saw a unicorn grazing on the hill slopes. Its body was covered in golden scales and its curled horn was more than two feet in length. Zhang crept toward the unicorn, but the alert creature heard his footsteps and bolted. Zhang chased after it but the unicorn ran as fast as a meteor. Zhang soon gave up and vowed never to waste his energy again until he could match the unicorn's speed.

Each day Zhang spent 14 hours in intensive running and jumping. Within two months he had worn out 9,900 pairs of straw shoes. The skin on his feet was lined with three inches of hard-calloused skin so he decided to make a pair of iron shoes and went in search of a skilled blacksmith.

"Old master, could you make me a pair of iron shoes," he asked an old blacksmith.

The old blacksmith nodded and smiled knowingly. "You are Zhang Guola, aren't you? The black wolf promised you immortality if you could catch the unicorn. That is why you want the iron shoes?"

"But how did you know this?" Zhang Guola asked in surprise.

"I have telescopic eyes and catching wind ears. I can see and hear everything. If you acknowledge me as your master I will give you a priceless gift."

Zhang fell to his knees and called out "Master" time and time again. The blacksmith took a slip of paper in the shape of a donkey to Zhang who drew back from the gift. "Master, a donkey runs slower than an ox, and a paper donkey can't even run an inch," said Zhang in disbelief.

The old blacksmith old Zhang, "I will tell you a secret. This donkey can run as fast as the unicorn. Watch me carefully."

The old blacksmith placed the donkey on the floor and clapped his hands. The paper donkey rolled on the floor and up jumped a real donkey shaking its mane and pawing the ground in anticipation. Zhang had never seen such a graceful and powerful donkey. While he stood there admiring its strength the donkey gave a huge roar and galloped out of the workroom. Zhang dashed after him and when he caught up with the donkey he took a great leap on to his back. Unfortunately the donkey changed direction at that very moment and Zhang ended up clinging onto the donkey but facing his tail instead of his head. He had no time to change his position; he simply grasped the donkey's rich coat of hair and held on for dear life.

The donkey raced across the mountains and fields in search of the unicorn. They spied the unicorn in the forest undergrowth. When the donkey reached a sheer drop at the edge of a cliff it rose gracefully into the air. It was too late for Zhang to stop the donkey so he shut his eyes tightly, wrapped his arms around the donkey and prayed to the gods. But the donkey didn't crash to the rocks below, he just flew like the wind after the unicorn. They flew to the moon but just as they caught up with the unicorn he landed in a fruit tree and changed in a lunar fruit. The exhausted donkey and the disappointed Zhang abandoned the chase at the foot of the fruit tree. Zhang collapsed against the tree trunk and buried his head in his hands. He couldn't believe how close he had come to immortality. While he sat lamenting his bad fortune, a deep and gentle voice called his name, "Zhang Guola lift your head proudly. You will achieve immortality."

Zhang lifted his head in surprise. Before him stood the Jade Emperor, resplendent in golden robes. The Jade Emperor raised his arm and plucked a ripe lunar fruit from the tree and offered it to a dumbfounded Zhang who accepted it graciously. The minute Zhang bit into the fruit, his body was filled with surging energy and he knew he had gained immortality.

Zhang rested on the moon for three days before returning to earth on his donkey. But nothing had prepared him for the shock of his return. His hair had turned white and decades had flown by in its absence. Zhang was now an old man. And he still hadn't learnt to ride his donkey properly. In fact he only knew one way to ride it, and that was backwards.