A tiger once caught a fox and was about to eat it, when the fox, using all his wits, tried a bluff. “I am the King of Beasts,” said the fox, “sent here by the Lord of the Heavens. You cannot eat me.” The tiger looked at him again, marveled at the little animal’s size, and said, “I find it hard to believe that the Lord of the Heavens would choose such a small animal to be king.”

“Nevertheless,” said the fox, “it is so, and I can prove it to you. Come with me through the forest and see whether all the animals are afraid of me or not.”

The tiger thought that would be a fair test. And off they were, the fox walking straight ahead and the tiger following close behind him. And when the animals in the forest saw the tiger coming, they all fled for their lives.

“There,” said the fox, “you see, they are all afraid of me.”

“Yes, they really are. All of them ran away as soon as they saw you. I guess you are indeed the king.”

There are dozens of animal fables with that sort of characterization such as fox fables, lion fables, even elephant fables. The Chinese fable above is exactly the same as the Aesopic form. There are some characters, however, that are unique to the Chinese fables. Dragons occur in some tales in the European tradition, but they are not like the Chinese dragon. They, too, have stereotypical qualities and behavior traits. Chinese dragons are shape changers and powerful, but they can be grateful and helpful, or outfight dangerous and not to be toyed with. It is not surprising, then, that dragons play an important role in Chinese fables.

The famous Shi Tsi-kao was a lover of dragons. He had every room of his house painted with dragons, and all the columns were engraved with dragons. When the Dragon of the Heavens heard about this, he was very curious, came to the house, and put his head into a window on the south, while his tail came in a window on the north.

As the master of the house saw this, he nearly died of fright. He was not a real dragon lover. He only loved them as paintings and as engraved designs, not in real life.

Dragons, too, it seems, must live in the real world.