Modern Aesop Finds Wisdom in Stories for Children

Sun Jianjiang is an established scholar of literature for children. I have read his books on children’s fairy tales. But he is more than a scholar who looks into the theoretical aspects of fairy tales for children. Like his famous Greek predecessor Aesop， Sun also writes fables and fairy tales.

His first collection of fairy tales was published more than ten years ago. His collection of fairy tales entitled “The Gourmet’s Hunt” won an excellence award at the fifth national competition for best children’s literature works.

It is said that Chinese fable writers are a dwindling group over the past decades， as testified by the fact that the excellent award in fable category was not issued for several times at the national children literature excellence awards. Sun Jianjiang belongs to the dwindling group of writers who see it their mission to write wisdom fables for young readers.

These writers believe fables convey wisdom. Fables are neither fairy tales nor short stories. They are wisdom clothed in stories.

Following the footsteps of historical writers such as Czech writer Karel Capek (1890-1938)， Sun also writes aphorisms. He argues that these aphorisms are one-line fables which contain complete stories. These succinct aphorisms relate wisdom Sun wants to convey to young readers. I like these one-sentence fables very much.

Here are some examples:

The Tumbler: My philosophy: the uttermost important thing in life is to stand.

The Scarecrow: Use your brain to handle the stupid.

The Milu: Thank you for all the studies on me. But I don’t understand why I should look like other creatures.

The Puppet: I am loved because I don’t have the mind.

The Duckweed: What knock at levity? Without it， I can’t keep myself up all the time.

The Vine: One needs to learn how to depend on someone else before one can lead an independent life.

Sun’s aphorisms suggest various ways to examine ordinary things in everyday life. Some people might challenge these aphorisms as fables. How can they be fables if they don’t tell stories? To answer this question， Sun wrote a three-paragraph fable on the base of an aphorism by Karel Capek， suggesting convincingly that the story comes from the aphorism. Sun explains that stories don’t need to resemble real life.

I like Sun’s literary works partly because his fables and fairy tales display his profound knowledge of culture and literature and partly because he is a very skillful writer. His works are enlightening. □