Question

Many years ago there lived two brothers named Liu

Ch’en and Yuan Chao.

One day they went into the hills to get water. It

was in the middle of spring. The hills were full of

red and green flowers. The boys were excited by the

beauty of the scene. They put down their pails by the

stream and set off for a walk. The country became

more and more lovely as they wandered from hill to

hill. Finally the path came to an end and they found

themselves at the entrance to a cave. There was an

enormous stone on each side of the cave. Two fairies

were seated on stones and playing chess.

The two boys stood at the mouth of the cave and

watched the game silently. At the feet of the fairies

a white hare was springing up and down. They were

excited to see that each time it sprang up the fl owers

bloomed at the entrance to the cave. Each time it lay

down the flowers faded.

When the game was finished, the fairies looked

around and saw the boys. They asked when the

boys had arrived. “A few hours ago,” they both

answered, and turned to leave. But the fairies said

to them, “Stay here in our cave and don’t go home.

No one will recognize you.” But they did not

understand what the fairies meant, and said fi rmly,

“No! No! We must go home.” Then, the fairies

gave them each a piece of reed, saying, “If you fi nd

everything changed at home, come back here and

point the reed at the cave, and it will open.”

They took the reeds and returned to the stream by

which they had left their poles and buckets. All they

found was decayed earth and tall pines growing on

each side of the stream. Earlier there had been open

ground.

With great confusion they entered the village, but

there they could fi nd no trace of their homes. They

saw two old white-haired men sitting in a meadow.

They asked the old men where the house of Liu

Ch’en and Yuan Chao was. The two old men replied,

“Liu Ch’en and Yuan Chao were our ancestors. Weare their descendants in the seventh generation. Why

do you young fellows talk about them in this casual

way?”

This was still more confusing, because how could

two young men have descendants in the seventh

generation? Perhaps the white hare jumping about

in the fairy cave represented the seasons, and the

afternoon they had spent in the cave had lasted for

four or fi ve hundred years. When the two children

heard the words of the old men, they said, “But we

are Liu Ch’en and Yuan Chao!” This made the old

men so annoyed that their beards waggled to and fro.

They called out to other people, who came up and

beat the two boys.

“You young rascals,” they cried, “How dare you

come and bother old men!”The boys fl ed back to the cave, but the doors were

closed tight. Then they remembered their reeds. They

could not recall where they had left them. They did

not dare to go back and look for them for fear the

people would beat them again. They knocked and

knocked, but there was no answer. In their grief they

banged their heads against the wall and died.

The ruler of heaven took pity on their sad fate,

and appointed Liu Ch’en the god of good luck and

Yuan Chao the god of ill luck.



1. What were the names of the two brothers?

2. Why did they go into the hills?

3. Whom did the two brothers see at the cave?

4. What were they doing?

5. What happened when the white hare sprang

up and down?

6. What did the fairies tell the two brothers?

7. What did they give them?

8. What did the boys see when they returned to

the village?

9. What did the white-haired men tell the boys?

10. What is possibly the reason for the confusion?
11. What did the people of the village do to the

boys?

12. What happened after the boys went back to

the cave?

13. What were the two boys fi nally appointed as?

Can You Tell?

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Answer 1

Answer only

1) the name of two brothers was Ch’en and Yuan Chao.

2) they have gone into the hill to get water.

3) the two brothers see the faries

4) they are sitting enormous stone on each side of the cave and they are playing chess