The haunting illustrations of Eva Bednarova: Chinese Fairly Tales.

Here is another fabulously illustrated book I would like to share with you: Dana and Milada Stovichkova’s “Chinese Fairy Tales” illustrated by Eva Bednarova. This is a treasure of a book.mirror_crop

Some of the stories are funny, some pretty, some hauntingly beautiful, and some tragic. One of my favorites is “The Red Maple Leaf”, about young Jade Blossom who is traveling with her lover Shih-t’un. She drinks from a strange red stream, and so comes to the attention of the Red Faced Ghost who wants her for his wife. Here is an extract from the story:

“When the sun rose, the horses stopped by a well in the grass. Shih-t’un and Jade Blossom were astonished to see that its calm surface shone as red as a ruby. From it flowed a spring of clear crimson water, and around it grew a carpet of small red flowers, filling the air with a heavy scent.

Jade Blossom sighed in wonder and Shih-t’un lifted her off her horse, setting her down amidst the red flowers. “It is time to take a rest,” he said.

For a while Jade Blossom watched the hungry horses crop the red flowers, then she walked to the well and stood looking down into the crystal-clear red water. She bent down, scooped up handfuls of water and drank her fill. The water tasted delicious and made her glow inside with a pleasant warmth; all weariness was forgotten.

Jade Blossom smiled at her husband, who marveled at the sudden glow turning her cheeks to peach blossoms. Just then one of the horses gave a cheerful whinny; Shih-t’un turned round and started in surprise. Instead of the skinny nags, now fiery horses were standing amidst the red flowers and briskly tossing their manes. Shih-t’un was seized by a shudder. He could see that Jade Blossom was just as alarmed. “I dont like this,” he whispered. “We must leave here at once.”

The story has a happy ending, but somehow a sad one too. And here is a illustration from another of my favorites, San – lang and the Dragon Princess:

Chinese FluteChinese Flute 2

San-lang is a poor boy who is plays the flute so well that “even the stone lions weep”. He gets thrown into the sea by jealous neighbours, but is rescued by Mrs Octopus, the nurse of the Dragon Princess who lives under the sea. He learns how to create gold fish, and in the end gets to marry the Dragon Princess and teaches his jealous neighbours a good lesson.

Eva Bednarova’s pictures work perfectly with the text. I cannot tell what the medium is. They look like monoprints or lithographs on fine paper, or paintings on silk. Here is an image of the “Maids in the Mirror”, a story of three brothers who go out into the world to find wives:


Maids in the Mirror2Maids in the Mirror

Many of the stories are very sad. The most tragic is the story of Meng Ch’iang-nu whose husband is captured and is forced to help build the Great Wall of China. She follows him, traveling with only a crow for company, but he dies before she can find him.


Meng Ch’iang-nu

And then there is this story, called “Tears”, which tells of a poor peasant boy called Wen P’en, who lives under the harsh rule of a man called the Black Tiger. Wen P’en is rewarded for his mercy to a remarkable talking fish, and is given a great black pearl as a gift. The pearl brings great luck and fortune to Wen P’en and his family, but when the Black Tiger hears of it, wants it for himself. Wen P’en hides the pearl in his mouth, and accidentally swallows it.

I can’t quench this terrible thirst” he cried, rushing towards the river. His mother ran after him, wringing her hands and weeping. The boy reached the bank and flung himself to the ground. He drank and drank until he had emptied half the river. All at once black storm clouds covered the sky and a sharp wind arose. hte woman stiffened with fear, because suddenly, before her eyes, Wen P’eng was turning into a dragon.

“My son!” she shouted, catching hold of his foot. But it was too late. The boy had become a dragon with one human foot. “Where are you going, child? ” She wept. “Must you leave me? ”

“Oh Mother, I must. It is not in my power to stay”, whispered the dragon in a voice hoarse with pain. Another gust of wind rose and bore the dragon hight in the air. “Look back, my son! Look at me once more” cried the unhappy mother. The dragon looked back and a hot tear dropped from his burning eye, falling by the side of the river.

“My Son, look back once more! ” implored the woman. And another tear dropped to the ground. Four and twenty times the mother called, and four and twenty times the dragon turned round, dropping a tear each time. And that is why to this day there are four and twenty small lakes in the bends of the river, and why people call them tears.

Dragon TearsDragon Tears 2

14 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. Jendeis
    May 31, 2008 @ 21:17:17

    Gorgeous illustrations – I love the play of the colors. Here from NaComLeavMo.

  2. Sam
    Jun 01, 2008 @ 00:51:48

    Amazing! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful book.

  3. Trish
    Jun 01, 2008 @ 03:30:28

    hi
    I’m here from NaComLeavCom
    Interesting blog – if you are an artist you might be interested in Kim @ Laketrees blog – she is one of the top Australia blogs too.

    My Little Drummer boys
    warm regards
    Trish

  4. Tanya
    Jun 02, 2008 @ 20:26:22

    I can’t recall the last time I read an illustrated book (beyond Dr. Suess). I’d forgotten how much the illustrations add to the story.

  5. Yameng Li
    Jun 18, 2008 @ 12:26:32

    Nice article. I really enjoyed it .
    I also love illustrated children’s books and have also kept all my books. We should do a book club!

  6. masha
    Jun 18, 2008 @ 12:53:39

    🙂 Children’s book club for people who never grow up!

    Just think of what the eats would be.

  7. Claudia Dawe
    Nov 27, 2009 @ 17:31:44

    I have just bought this book from a charity shop, 1969. Its nice to see the illustrations on the screen as well. Do you know if the book is a limited edition.

  8. mashadutoit
    Nov 27, 2009 @ 18:50:35

    Hi Claudia – what a lucky find 🙂 The copy I have was published in 1969 – apparently the first edition – I’m not sure if its a limited edition though.

  9. Trackback: Eva Bednarova « inspiration in mind
  10. Noe
    Jul 04, 2014 @ 00:49:26

    I see a lot of interesting articles on your blog.
    You have to spend a lot of time writing, i know how to save you a lot of time, there
    is a tool that creates unique, google friendly posts in couple of seconds, just search in google – laranita’s
    free content source

  11. delhi packers
    Jul 12, 2014 @ 04:53:08

    Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that
    it’s really informative. I am going to watch out for brussels.
    I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Many people will be
    benefited from your writing. Cheers!

  12. movers n packers in delhi
    Jul 15, 2014 @ 06:17:18

    Pretty! This was a really wonderful post. Thanks for
    supplying these details.

  13. http://www.yespersonalinjuryclaims.co.uk/
    Jul 17, 2014 @ 17:04:19

    We’re a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
    Your web site offered us with valuable information to work on. You have done a
    formidable job and our entire community will be thankful
    to you.

  14. Randi
    Aug 21, 2014 @ 01:49:03

    This is one of the harsh methods incorporated with the
    negative aspects of dog training shock collar?
    It is understandable that sometime you tend to make sure that your pet
    with his efforts, he said. Pamper your pet is done until the adult no children are allowed in the dog learns to
    automatically sit calmly every time.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: