Oriental Humour
Reginald Horace Blyth
Language: English
Pages: 644
ISBN: B001HXY212
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Classic and comprehensive English-language work on Japanese, Chinese & Korean humor from all periods (India is not included, although the introduction describes India as the chief origin of world humour.) Among the topics are Chinese classics and poetry, ghost stories, Liehtse, proverbs, Taoism, Zen, short stories, Korean humor and proverbs, Chinese influence on Japan, Japanese caricature, old and modern Senryu, Yanagidaru, and more. Illustrated with a color frontispiece, 26 rather striking inserted plates (7 in color).
lies in the unexpected similes. Young, a Kuanyin; old, a monkey. Then what is she in toto? What is woman that thou art mindful of her? [in ¥]f; rjh J--, #\~ X T. In the gambling ring,-no father and son. In the struggle for existence morality and filial piety play but a minor and intermittent role. if,jJi'3- ';pj ;1:=.. Everything in the world has its lord. This seems to involve a paradox. since in the last resort the lordship must be mutual, or go beyond this world. Taken mc,re
asked him what on earth he ·,vanted. The other replied, "I want to have your finger .. , This gr,-, Jiiless of human beings is their divine nature, their wish to be God hi:melf. 13orrowing Tea A man wanted to treat a visitor to a cup of tea, so he sent someone next door to borrow some. Before he came back the hot water had boiled. so he added some cold water. This happened several ticnes until the huge kettle was full of water. Still the tea had not come. The wife said to the husband, "\J<;l e
man too! If I say I won't come out, I simpIy won't! " Most courage, almost all virtue, all human beings are like this. The Wrong Person Died The mother of the wife of a certain man died, and he asked the master of a temple school to write a funeral address for him. The master looked up some old writings and copied out by mistake that for a wife, and gave it to him. The man thought there was something wrong about it, and when he asked him, the other said, "This writing is printed in a book and
Rascals throw a few grains of I ice into me and sell me under a different name." This is a satire on eating-houses, with their watery gruel and watery wme. Sour Wine The bill of fare of a certain wine-shop said: "Wine: one cup, a penny. Vinegar: one cup, twopence." Two men entered the shop and ordered some wine, but it was so sour one of them licked his lips, and knitting his brows said, "I've never tasted such sour wine! Didn't you bring vinegar by mistake?" The other pinched his leg and
reproof 1S precisely of this nature. All we are to do-and it is the most difficult thing in the world-when someone does something bad or foolish, is to forgive them. Living a Thousand Years A dependent once said to his patron, "Last night I dreamed that you lived for a thousand years!" The patron replied, "It Short Stories (from [644) 160 IS said that to dream of life presages death. What an ill omen!" The dependent hastily added, "No, no, that was a slip of the tongue. I meant to say