Reading Notes: China, Part B

"The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge" tells the tale of, surprise, a sorcerer who is a part of the White Lotus Lodge. He is known to deceive many people and has many students learning the ark arts from him. One day before going out, he put a bowl down and covered it with another bowl. He ordered his pupils to watch the bowl and not touch it. They of course open it to find water and a small boat, which they play with. The sorcerer returns angry that they disobeyed him, telling them his ship capsized at sea. Another night, he lit and candle and told his students to make sure it does not go out. They get tired and go to bed before he returns. The candle had gone out, so they relit it. The sorcerer returns mad and tells them he had to walk in the dark for fifteen miles. When one of the pupils insults the sorcerer, the sorcerer says nothing. Soon after, he sends the pupil to feed the pigs and turns the student into a pig when he enters the sty. The sorcerer sells him to a butcher. The student's father asks where his son is and the other students tell him what happened. The father tells the district mandarin what happened, and he then informs his supervisor. Thousands of soldiers surround the sorcerer's house and arrest him, his wife, and their child. As they are being transported to the capital, a giant which the sorcerer calls the mountain spirit blocks the road; he says his wife can get him to leave. The giant swallows her when she tries, their son is also swallowed when he tries. The sorcerer himself says he will try to fight the giant and is eaten. The soldiers then realize that they have been tricked.

I think I would like to retell this story by having it set at a boarding school. When the father showed up, it made me think of a teen mystery or murder case.

White Lotus by Engin_Akyurt

Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

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