| Chinese Fable Stories | |
A Fond Dream of Nanke
In Tang Dynasty, there lived a person called Chun Yufen, who thought himself a wise man but
was not recognized by people then. So he often felt sad and drank down to pass
his time.
One day, he was drinking under an old pagoda tree, to the south of his house.
he soon fell asleep and had a dream.
In his dream, Chun Yufen met with an atomy who introduced himself to Chun
Yufen that he came to invite him to the great
Kingdom of Pagoda. Chun Yufen gladly went there with him. He found himself
into a fairy world with many red gates, magnificent palaces, luxuriant pavilions
and beautiful gardens; in a word, it couldn't be found in the real world.
The king appreciated him very much so that he was named the head of Nanke.
Soon after, he married the king's pretty daughter.
Chun Yufen was so happy with the life there that he totally forgot
his hometown and his family.
But it was not long before the kingdom was invaded by another country and Chun
Yufen had to lead the troops to hold out the enemies. Unfortunately his
troops were defeated and his wife died. Chun Yufen
was badly hit and he felt very disappointed to himself, so he decided to leave
the Kingdom of Pagoda. In the end, he was sent home by the atomy. As soon as he
arrived home, he woke up to realize what had happened was just a dream, which only took him a
short time to have. There lay the half glass of alcohol on the ground in front
of him. And there was an ant creeping on one of his feet. Looking down from the
little creature he found an ant nest in the old pagoda tree. "Oh, it must
have been the ant nest that I entered and took for that kingdom in my dream." he
murmured.
The story is often used to say that someone is very happy about something not
based on reality. For an example, someone thought he won a lottery and was very happy about it,
but actually he did not win anything.
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