Title: Tale of the Daoist Farmer
General Information About Item:
- Oral folklore: Folktale
- Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
- Country of Origin: China
- Informant: James Yang
- Date Collected: May 21st, 2019
Informant Data:
- James Yang was born near the city of Jiyuan in Henan Province, China and lived there through his childhood. For generations, many members of the Yang family were farmers in Jiyuan. James is the youngest of four sons and one daughter and is the father of the folklore collector.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context
- The Yang family has been farming for many generations. Before immigrating to the United States, James was familiar with the operations of the farm and the lessons it provided.
- Many life lessons were taught through stories passed down from one generation to another, mostly by word of mouth.
- Cultural Context
- Daoism is a Chinese philosophical / religious ideology that has had profound influence on the country’s culture.
- One Daoist idea is to take life events with stride – being humble when good fortune befalls you, and also not to be hung up on misfortunes.
- The ups and downs in the story of the Daoist farmer is similar to the unpredictability of the weather, which can have a tremendous impact on the season’s crops.
Item: In the tale of the Daoist farmer, the story begins with the farmer, his son, and a horse. One day, the horse runs away. The farmer’s neighbors, observing this, said “How unlucky!”, but the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day, the horse returned to the farmer with another horse. The farmer’s neighbors exclaimed, “How lucky!”, but the farmer said again, “Maybe.” A week later, the farmer’s son was riding the new horse when it bucked and threw him off, and the son broke his leg. “How unlucky!” said the neighbors. The farmer only said, “Maybe.” A month later, officers from the army came to the farmer to take his son to the military. Upon seeing his broken leg, however, they left without another word. The neighbors could only marvel with, “How lucky!”
Collector’s Name: Richard Yang