Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine — Volume 25

Aesop's Fables

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Barzoye visited the court of the most powerful king in India and at last obtained copies of not only that book but of many others. Fearful that the Indian king would take back the books, he quickly made copies and translated the works into Persian, or Pahlavi. On returning to the royal court in Persia Barzoya recited the works aloud to the King and court, who were so delighted they became Persian classics. Thus began the travels of the Panchatantra, which would be brought to Paris in the 's translated from the Persian into French, and from thence into all the modern European languages.

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The Panchatantra, or "The Five Principles," is ascribed in India to a legendary figure, Vishnusharma, and is the most celebrated book of social wisdom in South Asian history. It is framed as a series of discourses for the education of royal princes, though like the Fables of the Greek Aesop, it utilizes the odd motif of talking animals--animal fables. Thus the core ethical problems of human existence such as the nature of trust and the limits of risk are entrusted to the wisdom of the beasts. One of the most famous of the Aesopian animal fables of the Panchatantra is that of "The Turtle and the Geese.

The geese resolve to fly away to a large lake and come to say good-bye to Kambugriva.

If you love me, you should rescue me from the jaws of death. For you when the lake dries up you will only suffer some loss of food, but for me it means death. What is worse, loss of food or loss of life? We will take you with us: So the geese brought a long stick and said to the turtle: We will then hold the two ends in our beaks and fly you through the air to a large beautiful lake far away. Looking up the townspeople saw the two birds flying, carrying the hanging turtle and exclaimed: It looks ridiculous, like a large cartwheel!

The raciness, dangerous ambiguity and rampant wit of some of his tales led sometimes to the disfavour of Louis, but the purity and grace of his style led to his election to the Academie Francaise. His first edition of verse "Fables" was modeled on Aesop, but in later editions he turned to oriental sources, of which a French translation by Pilpay of the Indian "Panchatantra" from the Persian and Arabic was one. Its moral had survival value in the treacherous world of the French court at Versailles, particularly in its invocation to keep one's wits about you in a crowd and learn how to hold one's tongue: Republics, kingdoms, you will view, And famous cities, old and new; And get of customs, laws, a notion, — Of various wisdom various pieces, As did, indeed, the sage Ulysses.

A nice machine the birds devise To bear their pilgrim through the skies. It made the people gape and stare Beyond the expressive power of words, To see a tortoise cut the air, Exactly poised between two birds. There goes the flying tortoise queen! Imprudence, vanity, and babble, And idle curiosity, An ever-undivided rabble, Have all the same paternity. Each story purports to tell of a previous life of the Buddha in which he learned some critical lesson or acheived some moral attainment of the "Middle Path" in the course of the vast cycle of transmigration and reincarnation that led to his Buddhahood.

The story of "Prince Five Weapons" represents one such prior life of the Buddha. The core of the story is the account of a battle against an adversary upon whose tacky and sticky body all weapons stick, a symbolical case study of a nemesis of the Buddhist virtue of "detachment. Then Buddha tells the story of his past life: A Prince was born to a great king. The Queen, seeking a name for him asked of Brahmins for a name. Then she learned that the King would soon die and the baby Prince would become a great king, conquering with the aid of the Five Weapons.

Sent to Afghanistan for martial arts training in the Five Weapons, on his return he encounters a great demon named "Hairy Grip" with an adhesive hide to which all weapons stick fast. He uses his sword, spear, and club but all stick uselessly. Then he uses his two fists, his two feet and finally butts him with his head, all of which stick uselessly to the hide.

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Finally, hopelessly stuck to the the monster, the demon asks if he is afraid to die. The Prince answers that he has a fifth weapon, that of Knowledge which he bears within him, and that if the monster devours him the monster will be punished in future lives and the Prince himself will attain future glories. The monster is taken aback by the spirit of the Prince and, becoming a convert to Buddhism releases him, after which the Prince fulfills his destiny of becoming a great King, and in a later life, the Buddha.

Thereby, the backslider is counseled to persevere and end his backsliding, with the moral: Like the Amerindian "Trickster" tales or the cartoon series the "Roadrunner and the Coyote," or "Bugs Bunny" they often focus on how the smart and wily Brer Rabbit outthinks and tricks Brer Fox who constantly seeks to catch and eat him.

The most famous of these stories is that of "The Tar Baby" in which Brer Fox covers a life-like manniquin in sticky tar and puts it in Brer Rabbit's path. The rabbit becomes angry that the Tar Baby will not answer his questions and losing his temper strikes him, causing his hand to stick fast. Then in turn he hits, kicks and head butts him until his whole body is stuck fast to the "Tar Baby. These two competing theories, "Monogenesis and Diffusion" vs "Polygenesis" remain competing explanations.

Further research documented how the Pali Jataka had, like the "Panchatantra" been translated into Persian, then Arabic, then into African dialects in Muslim-influenced West Africa, where many American slaves hailed from. Polygenesis Theory also gained some competing support from C.

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Jung's theory of "Archetypes" and the "Universal Collective Unconscious" which would provide a psychological force and source for the continuous regeneration of similar stories and dreams throughout the world. The two theories continue to compete and complement each other as explanations of cultural diffusion and similiarity.

He won the King's favor and retired on a generous pension from the finance minister Colbert. He was associated with the argument between two literary factions which became known in England as "The Battle of the Books" after Swift, and which focused on the question of whether the modern writers or the ancients were the greater. Perrault argued in favor of the moderns, but Louis XIV intervened in the proceedings of the Academie and found in favor of the ancients.

Perrault persisted,however, in trying to outdo Aesop in his "Mother Goose" collection of folk and children's tales. One of the most famous was that of "Donkey Skin," a kind of variation on the better-known Cinderella theme, in which a Princess, fearful of the attempt of her own father to an incestuous marriage, flees, disguising herself as a crude peasant-girl clothed in a donkey-skin.

Arriving at the neighboring kingdom she works as a scullery maid until the Prince observes her in secret dressed in her most beautiful royal gown. Falling in love with her the Prince is unable to establish her true identity but finds a ring from her finger and declares he will marry the girl whose finger fits the ring.

As in the case of Cinderella's glass slipper, all the girls of the kingdom attempt but fail to put on the ring, until the very last, Donkey-Skin succeeds.

At the marriage it is discovered that she is really a Princess and she is reconciled with her father, who has abandoned his incestuous inclinations. The story is partially a satire on Louis XIV, who himself took as a mistress Louise de la Valliere, a simple girl with a lame foot while surrounded by the most elegant beauties of Paris. This tale was embodied in Indian lore which passed into China with the coming of Buddhism and was later incorporated into the classic novel by Wu ChengEn. In Southwest North America this often took the form of the Coyote.

In the lustful tale "The Coyote as Medicine Man" the trickster gets all he desires. The Coyote walking along a lake sees an old man with a penis so long he must coil it around his body many times like a rope. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts 1 We have not used OCR Optical Character Recognition , as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

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Cashback will be credited as Amazon Pay balance within 10 days. If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts 1 We have not used OCR Optical Character Recognition , as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

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