The Story of the Fisherman and the Monster in 1001 Arabian Nights is popular all over the world. Actually China has a story that is very similar to it. This version of a well-known story is called “Mr. Dongguo and the Zhongshan Wolf.”
The story comes from the Biography of Dongtian written by Ma Zhongxi in the Ming Dynasty (1644-1911) of China. As the story goes, there was a pedantic scholar named Mr. Dongguo who was a bookworm but who read books in a mechanical way. One day, he mounted his donkey, loaded it with a bag of books and rode to a place named “Zhongshan State” to seek an official position. All of a sudden, an injured wolf jumped out in front of him and humbly and pitifully addressed him thus,“Sir, I am fl eeing from a hunter who has wounded me with one of his arrows. I was nearly killed. Please help me and hide me in your bag and I will repay your kindness later.” Mr. Dongguo certainly knew that wolves often harm people, but he felt sorry for this particular wolf. He had a think and then said, “If I help you, I would offend the hunter. But now that you have begged me, I will surely find some way to save you.” Mr. Dongguo had the wolf curl itself into a ball, tied it with a length of rope, and made its body small enough to be put into the bag which was used to hold the books.
A moment later the hunter appeared. He asked Mr. Dongguo, “Sir, have you seen a wolf? Where did it run?” Mr. Dongguo replied, “I have not seen any wolf. There are many roads that fork off this road. Maybe it fled down one of those.”The hunter believed Mr. Dongguo’s words, and immediately headed off in another direction. After hearing the hunter’s horse fade into the distance, the wolf addressed Mr. Dongguo, saying, “Sir, please let me out and I can make my own escape.” Mr. Dongguo, being of a merciful disposition, could not resist its sweet words and let it out. Unexpectedly the wolf howled, “If you help somebody once, you should help him completely. Now I’m hungry. Help me again and let me eat you!” And as he said this, he pounced on Mr. Dongguo.
As Mr. Dongguo was bare-handedly struggling with the wolf, he shouted to it, “You are an ungrateful wretch!” Just at that moment, an old peasant with a hoe over his shoulder came up. Mr. Dongguo grabbed the peasant’s arm and told him how he had saved the wolf and how the wolf wanted to eat him in return for his kindness. But the wolf wouldn’t admit that Mr. Dongguo had saved his life. The peasant thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t believe you. How could such a big wolf fit in a bag that size? I won’t believe it unless I see it with my own eyes.” The wolf agreed. It lay on the ground, curled up, and was once again trussed up with the rope by Mr. Dongguo and put into the bag. The peasant tied up the mouth of the bag and said to Mr. Dongguo, “You cannot change the fact that it is a wolf’s nature to eat people. You have been merciful to this wolf, and that was very foolish of you!” Then, he raised his hoe and beat the wolf to death.
Mr. Dongguo was suitably humbled and much appreciated the peasant’s saving his life. Now, “Mr. Dongguo” and “Zhongshan Wolf” are set phrases in Chinese. “Mr. Dongguo” refers to those who cannot tell good people from bad, and who give sympathy to those who will take advantage of it. “Zhongshan Wolf” refers to ungrateful people who return good with evil.
