The White Dragon once flew down to earth and changed himself into a large fish and swam about in a large lake. Then a fisherman saw him and shot him with his arrow and lifted him out of the water to take him home. The White Dragon then complained to the Lord of the Heavens about his treatment at the hands of the fisherman.

The Lord of the Heavens then asked: “What form had you taken when the fisherman shot you?”

The White Dragon answered: “I had changed myself into a fish.”

“Then why do you complain?” answered the Lord of Heavens. “The catching of fish is the right of fishermen.”

A somewhat more critical attitude toward dragons is reflected in:

There lived in the south a man named Jou P’ing-man, who went to study the art of killing dragons. He studied for three years and the course of study cost him his entire fortune.

But he never saw a dragon and was therefore never able to use his newly acquired talents.

Chinese fables are widely loved and are still being produced today. The classic stories are as well known and enjoyed as traditional fables are, both in China and in other lands. China knows fables from other traditions; it also shares in the fables from India found in the Pachatantra as well as a large set of Aesopic fables. The classical Chinese fables, however, are set apart from these other sets of traditional stories, as something uniquely Chinese. And so, of course, they are.

Pack Carnes is associate professor of Japanese studies and folklore in the department of Modern Languages at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Carnes has published numerous books and articles on language and folklore, especially on the fable, the joke, and other short folk narratives. His latest works include Fable Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography (New York: Garland Publishing, 1985), and Proverbia in Fabula: Essays on the Relationship of the Proverb and the Fable (Bern: Peter Lang, 1988).