Week 7 Story Planning: The Panther

The Panther:

• Characters: The mother, the son, two daughters, the panther, needle-vendor, scorpion-catcher, egg-seller, dealer in turtles, man who sold wooden clubs

  

  The Panther: WebSource

• Summary: This story was very much like little red riding hood. In this story, a mother and a son went to visit their grandmother, upon their journey in the woods they came across a panther. The panther would not leave them alone and eventually convinced the mother to rest  a while, upon resting, the panther convinced the mother to let him "brush" her hair. This led to him pulling out chunks of skin and eventually eating her and her son, placing the sons small bones in a basket the mother had with her. The panther then stole the mother's clothes. He decided to dress up like the mother and return to her home. When he returned he knocked on the door, but the daughters were questioning him about how he looked different. They first said, Our mothers eyes are not as large as yours, the panther replied that he had saw hens laying eggs at the grandmothers and he was pleased. Then they said that their mother did not have spots on her face. The panther replied that the grandmother had not spare bed so he had to sleep on peas. The girls then said our mothers feet are not that big. Frustrated at this point, the panther said it was from walking for so long. He had an explanation for everything and eventually the two daughters decided it had to be their mother. As soon as they opened the door, they knew it was not so. Later on, they saw the panther eating and asked if they could have some. You see, the panther had saved the little brothers bones for later and that is what he was eating. He gave the daughters a small finger and they immediately knew what had happened. They escaped the house and climbed a tree. They lured the panther out by saying they were watching a neighbors wedding. The panther said he could not climb, so they decided to throw him a basket. When the panther was in the basket on the way up, the girls started rocking the basket and hitting the tree. This caused the panther to fall out and this revelaed his true identity. He then ran away. The girls were terrified and knew he would be back to eat them. They did not climb down from the tree until morning. The next morning, the sat on their door step sobbing, when a needle-vendor passed by. When he saw the distraught girls, he asked them why they were sad. When they told him, he gave them needles to place in the cushions of the arms chair. Next a scorpion-vendor can by and after hearing what had happened he gave them a scorpion and told them to place it next to the torch. Next an egg-seller came along and after hearing their story gave them an egg and told them to put it in the ashes. Next came long a turtle-dealer and when hearing their story he gave them a turtle and told them to place it in a water bucket. Next came a man who sold wooden clubs, when hearing their story he gave them clubs and told them to hang them over the door to the street. When the wolf returned he first sat in the needles, which poked him, when he ran to grab a torch the scorpion stung his, when he looked down into the fire the egg exploded blinding him, he then ran to the trough where the turtle bit him, and when he ran out the door the clubs fell on his head and killed him.
   
• My idea: For this story, I want to retell it in the panthers perspective. I want to know what made him choose the mother and her son. Were they the first humans he came across? Why did he decide to go to the house? Was he starving and in need of a lot of food or was he just pure evil. I also may change the story ending. Maybe make the panther learn his lesson and make him friends with the daughters. But could they ever trust him? Could the panther ever go against his instincts? Why could he not just eat animals? I am not sure which way I would go with, but we will see
• Research: 
• The Panther: As in most stories, animals have a meaning, so to begin my research I started by looking up the meaning of panther in Chinese culture. I found this quite ironic, in Chinese culture, the panther typically represents taming of cruelty. In this story, the panther was anything but tame. He devoured a mother and a son, and then tormented the daughters. Knowing this information, I could retell the story and maybe make this the story where the panther earns his representation. Maybe in the story, the family's love for one another could have been so prevailing that the panther decided to swear off eating humans, causing this to be taming of cruelty.
• Chinese Folklore: From researching chinese folklore, I learned that most folklore is relating to human nature, love, historical events, the supernatural and stories explaining natural phenomenon. This makes perfect sense. All the stories I read this week from the chinese fairy tales unit involved these things. I believe that this unit did a really good job of portraying all the variety of story types that can be told.
• Bibliography: 
• Wilhem, R. Chinese Fairy Tales Unit: The Chinese Fairy Book: The Panther. 1921.
• “Animal symbolism in Chinese art 兽 shòu.” Symbolism of Animals in Chinese Art.
• “Chinese folklore.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Oct. 2017.

Week 7: Chinese Fairy Tales Unit Reading B:

How the River God’s Wedding Was Broken Off

• Story: In this story, witches and sorcerers of a certain area told all of the residents that the river-god looked for a bride each year, and if he did not find one, the river-god would bring wind and rain in improper season, causing famine and failure of crops. Then, when a girl came of age in a wealthy family, the witches and sorcerers would tell the family the girl has been chosen, but the family would offer to pay large sums of money for their daughter to be spared and eventually they would find a family who could not pay and they would have to sacrifice their daughter. See the bride of the river-god was a sacrifice, but more importantly, it was just a scam that the witches and sorcerers told to make money. Si-men, the ruler in charge at the time, caught wind of this and he decided that he would check out the next wedding of the river god. Upon his arrival he insisted on arriving before the bride to let the river god know she was coming, the witches and sorcerers said no and he cast them one by one into the river, until they begged for mercy, that was the end of the marriage of the river god.

• My idea:  I would change this by putting it into the "bride's perspective". This would make the narrator not know everything, so when seeing what the leader does, how would the townspeople feel? Was this really a scam? Would the ruler help them if it was true? Would there maybe be a secret love connection between the king and the "bride"? Is that why he decided to check out the rumor? I think making a love connection would be an interesting twist to the story. Also, what if the curse was real and the ruler was the narrator but did not want people to make him out to be the bad guy if the curse was true? There are a lot of options for this story.  

• 

  River Landscape: Web Source

• Bibliography: Wilhem, R. Chinese Fairy Tales Unit: The Chinese Fairy Book: How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off. 1921.

Week 7: Chinese Fairy Tales Unit Reading A: The Panther

The Panther:

• Characters: The mother, the son, two daughters, the panther, needle-vendor, scorpion-catcher, egg-seller, dealer in turtles, man who sold wooden clubs

  

  The Panther: WebSource

• Summary: This story was very much like little red riding hood. In this story, a mother and a son went to visit their grandmother, upon their journey in the woods they came across a panther. The panther would not leave them alone and eventually convinced the mother to let him "brush" her hair, this led to him pulling out chunks of skill and eventually eating her and her son. The panther then stole the mother's clothes. He decided to dress up like the mother and return to her home, hoping to find more food. When he returned he knocked on the door, but the daughters were questioning him about how he looked different. He had an explanation for everything and eventually the two daughters decided it had to be their mother. As soon as they opened the door, they knew it was not so. Later on, they saw the panther eating and asked if they could have some. You see, the panther had saved the little brothers bones for later and that is what he was eating. He gave the daughters a small finger and they immediately knew what had happened. They escaped the house and climbed a tree. They lured the panther into a basket and revealed his true identity and he ran away. The girls were terrified and knew he would be back to eat them. The next morning a needle-vendor was passing by when he saw the distraught girls. He asked them why and when they told him, he gave them needles to place in the cushions of the arms chair. Next a scorpion-vendor can by and after hearing what had happened he gave them a scorpion and told them to place it next to the torch. Next an egg-seller came along and after hearing their story gave them an egg and told them to put it in the ashes. Next came long a turtle-dealer and when hearing their story he gave them a turtle and told them to place it in a water bucket. Next came a man who sold wooden clubs, when hearing their story he gave them clubs and told them to hang them over the door to the street. When the wolf returned he first sat in the needles, which poked him, when he ran to grab a torch the scorpion stung his, when he looked down into the fire the egg exploded blinding him, he then ran to the trough where the turtle bit him, and when he ran out the door the clubs fell on his head and killed him. 
• My idea: For this story, I want to retell it in the panthers perspective. I want to know what made him choose the mother and her son. Were they the first humans he came across? Why did he decide to go to the house? Was he starving and in need of a lot of food or was he just pure evil. I also may change the story ending. Maybe make the panther learn his lesson and make him friends with the daughters. But could they ever trust him? Could the panther ever go against his instincts? Why could he not just eat animals? I am not sure which way I would go with, but we will see.
• Bibliography: Wilhem, R. Chinese Fairy Tales Unit: The Chinese Fairy Book: The Panther. 1921.