FILE PHOTO: An early edition of The Scarecrow by Ye Shengtao

The educational philosophy of Ye Shengtao, a Chinese writer and educator, was gradually formed against the background of the May Fourth Movement. His fairy tales are full of deep concern for life. In “The Adventure of Carp,” a school of carp live in a calm river, where they never encountered anything terrible, and so had never been terrified nor known how to protect themselves. One day, they attempted to make friends with a dozen cormorants on a fishing boat, but were caught by the cormorants and thrown into a wooden barrel on the boat. Finally, the carp escaped back to the river by filling the barrel with tears.

The story “A Stone Figure of An Ancient Hero” tells of a sculptor who carved a statue of an ancient hero with a giant piece of rock. The statue was then put in the center of a city. The arrogance of the piece of rock that formed the statue started to grow as it saw people paying respect to the statue, and it despised the remnants of the rock that were used to build the base. One night, the statue fell down and broke into pieces. People later decided to use those stone pieces to build a road. After the construction was completed, all the stones on the road smiled and said: “Now we are equal!”

Ye’s works not only depict happy life, but also sadness and troubles. In “Outside the Garden,” a boy from a poor family wanted to play in a gorgeous garden, but was told by his mother that they were not allowed to enter it. Several times the boy dreamed of playing in the garden, but upon waking, he realized he was still outside of it. Are stories of “adult’s sorrow” suitable for children to read? Zheng Zhenduo said: “It is necessary to let children know the sorrow of adults. They need to know the current situation of human society, just as they need to know geography and nature. We don’t need to and cannot deliberately prevent them from it.”