History of Yeh-Hsien
Probably the first recorded version (c. 850-960 C.E. [1]) of a Cinderella tale, Yeh-Hsien was first written down by Tuan Ch'eng Shih[2], though the story itself appears to come from aborigines in the extreme south. Surprisingly, the story was largely ignored until 1911, when attention was drawn to it by Japanese folklorist K. Minakata [3].
In contrast to many other early folklorists, Tuan Ch'eng Shih not only made no effort to 'literise' tales but also went to great effort to preserve the authenticity of his collections. In the case of Yeh-Hsien, this has provided a clean text, though it must be noted that in other tales he has 'corrected' stories, believing that later versions, even those collected from a different region, are bastardisations of earlier, 'authentic' tales.
But Ch'eng Shih's Cinderella is particularly interesting, providing more motivations and explanations etc. than common, more detail about Yeh-hsien (good at making pottery on the wheel) giving her more character (consider today's modern, snappy one-lining protagonists) than our modern cinderellas...[more]
Probably the first recorded version (c. 850-960 C.E. [1]) of a Cinderella tale, Yeh-Hsien was first written down by Tuan Ch'eng Shih[2], though the story itself appears to come from aborigines in the extreme south. Surprisingly, the story was largely ignored until 1911, when attention was drawn to it by Japanese folklorist K. Minakata [3].
In contrast to many other early folklorists, Tuan Ch'eng Shih not only made no effort to 'literise' tales but also went to great effort to preserve the authenticity of his collections. In the case of Yeh-Hsien, this has provided a clean text, though it must be noted that in other tales he has 'corrected' stories, believing that later versions, even those collected from a different region, are bastardisations of earlier, 'authentic' tales.
But Ch'eng Shih's Cinderella is particularly interesting, providing more motivations and explanations etc. than common, more detail about Yeh-hsien (good at making pottery on the wheel) giving her more character (consider today's modern, snappy one-lining protagonists) than our modern cinderellas...[more]
