During the Warring States Period (475-221BC), there was a man called Yue Yangzi in State Yue. One day he saw a piece of gold on the road and picked it up. He took it home and gave it to his wife. But his wife was not happy. The virtuous woman said, "I hear that a man of morality doesn't drink a thief's water and a man of probity refuses to accept alms. What do you think of the action of picking up another's lost valuable and possessing it for one's own?"
Yue Yangzi, feeling ashamed, sent the gold back to where he found it.
the next year, Yue Yangzi felt that he should go out and visit scholars to enrich his knowledge. So he set off.
A year later, he came back home suddenly.
"Why have you returned?" asked his wife in surprise, "You've only spent one year studying with scholars."
"I come back because I missed you very much."
Without saying anything, his wife took a pair of scissors and went to the loom at which she had worked. Pointing at the half done brocade, she proclaimed : "This brocade is woven from the finest silk. I wove one strand after another to produce the brocade. Now if I cut it, all my previous work will be wasted. It's the same with your studies. You can acquire knowledge only through diligence. Now, you've stopped halfway. Isn't it the same as cutting the brocade on the loom?"
Yue Yangzi was moved by what she said. He again left home to visit scholars. Several years later he became a learned man.
A young shoemaker left his village. Along the way, he found some ants, who were very sad because a bear had destroyed their anthill(蚁冢,人群密集的地方) . The shoemaker helped them rebuild it, and the ants offered to return the favor.
The shoemaker followed his way and found some bees with the same problem as the ants. The young man also helped them, and the bees promised to help him in the future.
Further along, the shoemaker learned that the king’s daughter was in the castle of a witch(巫婆,女巫) . The young man decided to rescue her. But the witch locked him up in a stinking(发恶臭的,非常讨厌的) dunge on with a sack of sand mixed with poppy(罂粟) seeds and told him that if he wasn’t able to separate the two, she would cut off his head at dawn.
The young man thought about his death. But his friends the ants came and helped him pass the test. The witch was astounded. Then she took him to a room where there were thirteen maidens with their faces covered: the shoemaker had to discover which one was the princess.
The young man became discouraged but he saw a bee that landed on... the sweetest one, the true princess. When the shoemaker uncovered her face, the witch was changd into a crow(乌鸦) . The young people fell in love and lived surrounded by animals and poppies.
A boy found an eagle's egg and he put it in the nest of a prairie chicken. The eagle hatched and thought he was a chicken. He grew up doing what prairie chicken do-scratching at the dirt for food and flying short distances with a noisy fluttering of wings. It was a dreary life. Gradually the eagle grew older and bitter. One day he and his prairie chicken friend saw a beautiful bird soaring on the currents of air, high above the mountains.
"Oh, I wish I could fly like that!" said the eagle. The chicken replied, "Don't give it another thought. That's the mighty eagle, the king of all birds-you could never be like him!" And the eagle didn't give it another thought. He went on cackling and complaining about life. He died thinking he was a prairie chicken. My friends, you too were born an eagle. The Creator intended you to be an eagle, so don’t listen to the prairie chickens!