History Literature / YehShen

%%* RagsToRoyalty
%%* SpiritAdvisor

%%* TheGirlWhoFitsThisSlipper

* AmbiguousGender: Probably not intentionally so, but whether the fairy is male or female is lost in translation, even to modern Chinese. [[http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_73afff960102vo5x.html One Chinese picture book from the 1950's notably divides the being into two fairies]], [[DecompositeCharacter one male and one female]]. English translations nearly always make the character male, implying him to be an incarnation of her dead father.

''Yeh-Shen'' (or ''Yè Xiàn''; 葉限/叶限) is a Chinese FairyTale known to be one of the oldest variations of "Literature/{{Cinderella}}". The story first appears in ''Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang'' ("酉阳杂俎"; ''Youyang za cu'')by Duan Chengshi around 850 AD, in the late UsefulNotes/TangDynasty.

''Yeh-Shen'' (or ''Yè Xiàn''; 葉限/叶限) is a Chinese FairyTale known to be one of the oldest variations of "Literature/{{Cinderella}}". The story first appears in ''Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang'' by Duan Chengshi around 850 AD, in the late UsefulNotes/TangDynasty.

Ye Xian (or Yeh-Shen) is the daughter of a scholar with two wives, when her mother and then her father die from a local plague, Ye Xian is forced to become a lowly servant and work for her father's other wife (Ye Xian's stepmother) and her half-sister. She is soon overjoyed to find her mother reincarnated as a large fish in a nearby lake watching over her, though learning of this the stepmother has the fish captured and served to herself and her own daughter.

** Jun-Li is completely spoiled and lazy, and her hateful jealousy is fuelled upon realizing she does not have the same gifts or virtues as Yeh-Shen.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Yeh-Shen.
** Reversed with Jun-Li (who is said to be far less than beautiful and completely amoral).
* CheatersNeverProsper: Many ways by Jin and Jun-Li. First, Jin -- perhaps sensing that Yeh-Shen is more beautiful than Jun-Li, and thus will get the most desirable, richest man -- bans Yeh-Shen from going to the festival to meet a potential suitor, but it fails to stop Yeh-Shen from going. Later, when Yeh-Shen is revealed (in Jin's presence) to be the owner of the golden slipper (left behind at the festival), Jin appeals to the king that the slipper had been stolen from another maiden, but the king is neither fooled nor amused and has both Jin and Jun-Li banished from the kingdom. (In the end, these cheaters get their just deserts, being crushed to death when their cave is demolished in an earthquake.)
* DeathByOriginStory: Yeh-Shen's real parents.

* LostInTranslation: The story opens saying that Yeh-Shen's father had two wives. While this is usually translated to imply he was in a polyamorous marriage with Yeh-Shen's real mother and stepmother, it's possible this was meant to mean "he was married twice."

** The stepmother and stepsister ultimately die by "flying stones." Whether this means they died in a rock slide or the king ordered them stoned to death is up for debate.
* ParentalFavoritism: Jin clearly favors Jun-Li and doesn't even consider Yeh-Shen a person.

%%* RagsToRoyalty

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: "You are the most beautiful creature on earth," is what the King, enchanted by Yeh-Shen, tells her (at least on the ''CBS Storybreak'' animated version) while dancing with her at the Spring Ball.
** The original story trumps this by saying Yeh Shen looks like a being from Heaven in her festival clothes.

Donna Jo Napoli's young adult novel ''Bound'' is a retelling of this story. The story later became familiar with modern audiences as an animated adaptation on ''CBS Storybreak''. Titled "Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China," the story originally aired in April 1985 and was narrated -– in its original airing -– by Bob Keeshan (formerly ''Series/CaptainKangaroo''). Ten years later, Series/ThePuzzlePlace retold the story in the episode "Going by the Book".

* AmbiguousGender: Probably not intentionally so, but whether the fairy is male or female is lost in translation, even to modern Chinese. [[http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_73afff960102vo5x.html One Chinese picture book from the 1950's notably divides the being into two fairies,]] [[DecompositeCharacter one male and one female.]] English translations nearly always make the character male, implying him to be an incarnation of her dead father.