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365 Successful Fables

Here is the publisher's description of this series on the web: Traditional Chinese with Zhuyin and English translation text are printed on the same page. There is Word Bank (Vocabularies) throughout the book and is printed in English and Chinese in a table at the beginning and the end of the book. Readers can review and learn these vocabularies over and over again while using this book. There is also Words of Wisdom on for every story.  12 Bilingual books (Mandarin and English Language), Suitable for Age 7 and above. 16 pages per book. The formula for this series seems to be "Slick printing and lively illustrations in bilingual pages with notes marking difficult vocabulary words." The publisher -- You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. -- can be found at www.168books.com.tw.  The series seems now to be out of print.   

Each volume has an accompanying disc, which I will keep with the pamphlet.  The first four tracks of each disc present the stories a paragraph at a time with alternating Chinese and English. The next four use only Mandarin. Tracks 9 through 12 present the four stories in English. Track 13 is a vocabulary and pronunciation exercise. The speakers tend to exaggerate throughout. There are plentiful sound effects along with a generous musical background. The discs are listed on the page of cds.

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Mice and the Cat. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 2

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Mice and the Cat"; "The Parasol and the Travellers"; "The Bird Learning to Neigh"; and "The Frogs and the God." BC has a curious moral: "Everybody's business is nobody's business" (4). The issue here is that they are all afraid and that thus no one would do it. The second fable marks the first time that I have seen a tree referred to as a parasol tree. I see that "Chinese parasol tree" is in Merriam Webster. "The Bird Learning to Neigh" is new to me but follows a regular fable theme, well summed up in the moral here: "Don't bite off more than you can chew" (12). The bird can imitate lots of birds but hurts his throat and loses his voice trying to learn to neigh like a horse which he admires. Aesop has the crow trying to be as white as the swan and so leaving the altars where he ate leftover sacrifices and instead swimming in the swan's lakes and rivers. He wastes away. The final fable is FK, with a monster as the second king. "An inch given, a mile taken" (16). The visual artist offers a good frightening monster!

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Golden Ax and the Silver Ax. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 4

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Golden Ax and the Silver Ax"; "The Lion and the Three Bulls"; "The Dog, The Rooster and The Fox"; and "The Maid and the Rooster." In the first fable, the place of Hermes or a water-spirit is taken by "an old man." Perhaps because every fable in this series is limited to four pages, the old man does not dive down for the woodcutter's iron ax. After two honest rounds, he simply gives the man the golden and silver axes. The key in the second fable is not geographic but persuasive; he is not rearranging the bulls physically but rather setting them against each other. To each of the three differently-colored bulls, the lion speaks ill of the other two. "The foolish believe rumors; the wise confirm them." Does not the fable show that the clever create rumors? The third fable hinges well on the question from the rooster to the fox: "Could you wake up my friend down there for me?" "Keep calm when you are in danger" is a surprising moral for this fable. The fourth fable reduces the two maids of the traditional fable to one. This is the fourth fable to use as a confusing moral "One could suffer for his wisdom" (16).

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Opportunistic Donkey. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 6

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Opportunistic Donkey"; "The Ant and The Dove"; "The Lion and The Bear"; and "The Fox Without a Tail." The donkey in the first fable falls into a pool deliberately but this second time he is carrying cotton and not salt. As in another fable, the moral uses "wisdom" but means something more like "bright idea": "One could suffer for his wisdom" (4). AD is well told but has this strange moral: "Don't be little yourself" (8). When the lion and bear exhaust each other, a fox takes away the deer over which they have been arguing: "When shepherds quarrel, the wolf has a winning game" (12). FWT has some foxes see the fox without his tail first; does that fact not undercut his appeal to others to part with theirs voluntarily? Here is a good moral: "Facts are most convincing" (16). The two-page spreads remain the most important part of the visual art here.

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Greedy Dog. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 7

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Greedy Dog"; "The Two Roosters and the Eagle"; "The Doctor and His Patient"; and "The Monkey and The Fisherman." In DS, the dog only barks at the dog in the water. The fable is nicely portrayed on 2-3. The moral is just as surprising as in its other use in this series: "Penny-wise and pound foolish." How is this dog penny-wise? In "The Two Roosters and the Eagle," two roosters compete for one particular hen. One of them even picks flowers for her. The two are pictured well on 6-7. Unfortunately, in this illustration the eagle seems to be swooping down on them even during the fight. The point in the text, as generally, is that, after winning, the victor flies high and celebrates and so makes himself into a victim. "The Doctor and His Patient" is new to me and somewhat confusing. A doctor explains that a pear is good for our teeth but bad for our spleen, while a jujube -- a Chinese date, I here learn -- is good for our spleen but bad for our teeth. The patient claims a good way to get the good and avoid the bad, namely to chew the pear but not to swallow it and to swallow the jujube straight down. How might this story lead to the moral "A little learning is a dangerous thing" (12)? The monkey tries to imitate the fisherman and gets tangled in the net. "Practice makes perfect" may miss the point, since practice without insight accomplishes nothing and the monkey seems to lack insight!

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Treasure in the Grape Grove. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 8

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Treasure In the Grape Garden"; "The Wolf and The Egret"; "The Host and His Friend"; and "The Crow and The Fox." The dying father in the first fable tells his sons "There is something precious under my grape garden." "My" is well said, but is "under" also well said? "There is no free lunch in the world" returns as moral from another fable. The second fable substitutes an egret for the usual crane. The wolf here is "chocked" by a bone. Might that be "choked"? The third fable is new to me. A man builds his house with the firewood next to the fireplace. A friend advises him to move the wood away from the fire. The host refuses to listen to him. A few days later, the house catches fire. Soon after putting out the fire, the host holds a feast to thank his neighbors for their help. He seats the most hurt closest to him. A wise neighbor says that he should honor most the friend who gave him the good but spurned advice, and the host agrees and feels ashamed. "Prevention is better than cure." The fourth fable has a botched condition for its final line and then a fine moral (16). "If you know how to think," the fox says, "you would be the king of birds." "A flattering friend is your worst enemy." All four of the two-page spreads offer good illustrations.

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Fox and the Food. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 9

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Fisherman and the Fish"; "The Fox and The Food"; "The Snobbish Monk"; and "The Wolf and the Lion." Surprisingly, the story after which the booklet is named comes second, not first. This version of "The Fisherman and the Fish" offers an explanation for the usually non-motivated expectation of the fisherman that fish would respond to his flute-playing. When he played, friends and neighbors came together to enjoy his music. He expected that fish would do the same. The moral for this version is "There is no free lunch in the world." "The Fox and The Food" starts with this unfortunate sentence: "A fix didn't found anything to eat after a long day" (5). This fox soon found a hole curiously placed "beside a tree" and crawled into it. Where did this hole lead? Usually in the fable it leads into a tree, where a shepherd has stored his lunch. The third story is not well told but is nonetheless a fine fable. A poor man visits a temple and is snubbed by a monk. While he is there, a rich man comes and the monk fawns all over him. Accosted then by the poor man for showing favor to the rich, the monk lies, saying that he inwardly respects the poor man. The latter hits him on the head with his cane saying "Good. And now I hit you because I respect you, too" (12)! "As you make your bed, so you must lie on it." The wolf in the fourth fable is impressed by the length of his own shadow and challenges the lion, who beats him soundly. "Empty vessels make the most sound" (16). The best illustration in this volume may be that of the monk winking while fawning on the rich man (10-11).

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Fox and the Crane. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 10

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Fox and the Crane"; "The Donkey and the Horse"; "The Deer and the Hunter"; and "The Farmer and the Eagle." This volume is among the most successful in its application of morals to its stories, which are themselves good. "Do as you would be done by" fits FC well, as does "Haughtiness invites ruin; humility receives benefits" the second story. This second story tells about the downfall of the proud warhorse with the golden saddle after being injured in a race. He is now the equal of the donkey working the fields. The third story tells of the deer eluding the hunter but then eating the grape leaves that had protected him. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." The final story speaks regularly, somewhat clumsily for American English, of the farmer's "headdress" and ends with an overly generic and grammatically incorrect moral: "Alls well that ends well." Is the story not about perceiving gifts? This last story also suffers from using the same basic illustration for all three phases of the story. More typical illustrations are on 2-3 and 10-11.

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Businessman and the Golden Lion. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 11

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Businessman and the Golden Lion"; "The Bird's Beauty Pageant"; Father and his Daughters"; and "The Fox and the Cicada." Again, the morals may not strike us as the most apt. For the first, the moral is "You share nothing; you gain nothing." The businessman who encountered the golden lion hesitated to think over whether he would get help. By the time he decided to try to get the golden lion for only himself, the golden lion was gone. I do not remember this fable as among the traditional Aesopic fables. The second fable is surprising in making the ostrich, not a crow, the central figure. A strong wind blows off all the feathers. The strange moral is "Murder will out." Who was murdered? Notice the typo in the second fable's title; more than one bird is involved in the pageant. Typical of the art is the double picture on 10-11: the first daughter makes a request that her father pray for rain for her husband's flowers. The good but awkwardly phrased ending to the last fable is "Well, Mr. Fox, you won't be cheated if you didn't cheat me first" (16).

2008? 365 Successful Fables: The North Wind and the Sun. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 12

The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: WS; "The Emperor and the Minister"; "The Donkey, the Dog and the Master"; and "The Lion and the Hare." The formula for this series seems to be "Slick printing and lively illustrations in bilingual pages with notes marking difficult vocabulary words." WS is told in the poorer version. The morals are surprising, to say the least. The moral for WS is "There is no limit if you look up." What?! For "The Donkey, the Dog and the Master" it is "One could suffer for his wisdom." Was that wisdom for which the donkey suffered? For the last fable the moral is: "Penny-wise and pound foolish." I think that the lion was neither penny-wise nor pound foolish! The second fable uses the performance of a trick to talk an emperor out of his autocratic and selfish wish to have a tall tower built for himself.