Yeh-Shen: a book club kit

Where it comes from. Duan Chengshi wrote this down in China about 1,200 years ago. He heard it from a man from the south, and it is one of the oldest Cinderella stories in the world.

In short (for the leader; it gives the ending away). Yeh-Shen is a kind girl who lives with an unkind stepmother, and her only friend is a golden-eyed fish. When the stepmother takes the fish, its bones give Yeh-Shen a feather cloak and golden shoes to wear to the spring festival. She loses one shoe, the king finds her by it, and she becomes his queen.

The lesson, in one line. Gifts are meant to help people in need, not to feed greed.

Reading plan, by the story's parts. Meeting 1: Part One, “The Golden-Eyed Fish”, pages 1–7 (about 4 minutes aloud); Meeting 2: Part Two, “The Festival” and Part Three, “The Golden Shoe”, pages 8–16 (about 5 minutes aloud). Each stop's own questions, which never give away what comes next: Yeh-Shen by chapter.

Questions to talk about

1. Where does Yeh-Shen come from?
   The story's answer: It is a Chinese folktale. The oldest written version we know is in Duan Chengshi's book Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, from the Tang dynasty in the 9th century. Duan lived from 803 to 863, and the book is dated around 850 or 860. The girl is called Ye Xian in Chinese, and the story is said to have been told to Duan by his servant Li Shiyuan, from what is now Nanning.
2. Is Yeh-Shen the oldest Cinderella story?
   The story's answer: It is one of the oldest known. Some sources call it the earliest written Cinderella story, but others usually name an older tale, Rhodopis, which the Greek writer Strabo described sometime between 7 BC and AD 23 and in which an eagle carries off a girl's sandal. Which is oldest depends on what counts as a Cinderella story.
3. What does Yeh-Shen have in common with Cinderella?
   The story's answer: Both stories have a kind girl treated badly by her stepfamily, a lost shoe, and a marriage after the shoe is tried on. Scholars say the Chinese tale resembles Cinderella mainly in the shoe test for marriage and the punishment of the stepfamily. The fish bones that grant wishes belong to this tale.
4. What does this story tell you about the place it comes from?
   Listen for: Food, weather, animals, how people live: anything the story shows.
5. Does it remind you of another story you know?
   Listen for: Many folk tales have cousins in other countries.
6. Who was the cleverest person in the story, and how did they show it?
   Listen for: Ask for the moment.

Did you know?

• The oldest written version we know is by Duan Chengshi, in his Tang dynasty book Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang (Youyang Zazu).
• The book was written in the 9th century, around 850 or 860. Duan lived from 803 to 863.
• The story is said to have been told to Duan by his servant Li Shiyuan, from what is now Nanning.

Activity: Tell it round the circle

Find where the story comes from on a map. Then retell it, one sentence each, round the circle, without the book.