The Treasure of Sun Mountain
故事全文
Once, there were two brothers. Dawu, the older brother, was greedy and miserly. But Xiaowu, the younger brother, was honest and kind. When it was time to divide the family inheritance, Dawu took everything in the house, leaving Xiaowu with nothing. A few days before the Lunar New Year, Xiaowu’s wife told him, “Please cut down the large camphor tree in front of the house and sell it, or we will not have enough money for the New Year.” Xiaowu took his axe to the foot of the tree.
Just as he was about to swing his axe, an eagle on the tree said, “Please do not cut this tree, or my babies will lose their home.” Xiaowu sighed and said, “I don’t want to cut down this beautiful old camphor tree, but we have no money and have no choice but to do so.” The eagle replied, “I will carry you to Sun Mountain to get some treasure, in exchange for not cutting this tree.” They decided to go at night to avoid the hot sun.
When they arrived at Sun Mountain, Xiaowu saw trees withered by the sun everywhere, and there was a lot of treasure under the trees. Xiaowu wasn’t greedy, so, he only took a golden mill and some jewels. Then, he quickly went home on the eagle’s back before the sun came out. When they got home, Xiaowu’s wife sold the jewels for rice. When Xiaowu used the golden mill to grind the rice, it turned into golden sand! From that day on, Xiaowu and his wife never had to worry about money again, and led a blissful and contented life.
When Dawu heard about this, he too went to the camphor tree with an axe, and the eagle had no choice but to take him to Sun Mountain as well. Upon seeing so much treasure, Dawu became too greedy. He kept taking more and more treasure, even when his bag was full. The eagle warned him, “The sun will rise soon, we really need to leave now!” So, Dawu got onto the eagle’s back reluctantly. As his bag was too heavy the eagle could not fly at all. However, Dawu stubbornly refused to let go of his treasure. The eagle had no choice but to leave Dawu behind. When the sun rose at daybreak, Dawu, the greedy brother, was killed by the heat of the sun while still clutching onto his treasure.
