Hey everyone, so today’s old Chinese story is a bit of a comedy. I can’t tell you where or when this tale exactly did come from since I have no information on it other than the actual text itself. Correction I know one thing; this ancient Chinese story is over one thousand years old. Todays Ancient Chinese Stories Text is called “Buying Shoes.” Todays tale I will be translating the text from a modern version (bai hua) as opposed to the wen yan wen form.
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Once upon a time, there was a man who wished to buy a pair of shoes, he first measured himself his footsize, but when he left, he wnt in such a rush that he forgot to bring the measurments with him. Only after he got to the store did he realize that he left his size measurements at home. He said to the shopkeep, “I want to buy some shoes, and I already measured my foot size at home perfectly, but I forgot to bring the measurements with me, and I don’t remember the exact measuments. I must go back home first and bring the measurements with me.” Right after he said that, he ran back home to get the measurements. After he got his things and ran back to the shop, at that time, the shop already had closed. He traveked so far and in the end did not buy shoes, he was very upset.
One of his friends saw he had not bought the shoes and asked him, “What did you wish to buy the shoes for?” He then answered, “I wanted them for myself.” His friend then said, “You wanted to give them you’re shoe measurements, why did you not just use their measurements instead, did you really need to bring your own measurements?” After hearing his friends words, he said, “Even though I could have used their measurements was possible, I still believe my measurements were better.”
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You know, I thought about the Ancient Chinese dynasty known as the Qin (or Chin) dynasty. I thought of this because they did something great, they standardized all measurements making it much easier to be united. Now, obviously the story is a joke but the ancient tale does bring up a great point indirectly that one should follow standards when it comes to things such as this. This story shows how anywhere from the Ancient Chinese kingdoms to the modern world as we know today, people can be needlessly stubborn and have no trust in one another when they should have some more.
I am sorry that today I have no picture to appropiately address today’s ancient Chinese story, hopefully next time the ancient story I use will be able to work with one of my pictures rather well. Till the next Ancient Chinese Stories’ post everyone. As always, feel free to comment.
