The Miao minority group in southwestern China fascinates the world with its beautiful silver necklaces, embroidery, and batik art. With a history of over 5,000 years, Miao people boast their splendid culture and numbers of interesting folktales. Among these folk stories, a Smart Daughter-in-Law is one of the most popular one.
An old man had three sons, and two of them had got married. They lived together, and the old man took the responsibility of managing the whole family. Year by year, the old man felt himself too old to be responsible for everything. So he wanted one of his daughters-in-law to manage the family. But to find out who was the smarter of the two, he would have to put them to some tests.
With the Miao new year’s coming, the old man told his two daughters-in-law: ” We will have to find something for our ancestor worship ceremony: two turtles without feet, two fishes without
scale, two pigs’ feet with black bones, and two white radishes with red inside. You go to look for them now. Whoever finds them first will take my place as the head of the family.
As they went out to seek for those things, they talked to each other: ” Where to get these things that don’t exist?” Frustrated, they sat on a stone, starting to cry. A girl who lived nearby heard their cry and asked them what happened. After learning their story, the girl said, ” You have all these things at home, Why did you go out to seek for them?” ” Are you making fun of us?” the two women said, “We don’t have those things at home.” The girl then explained, “The turtles without feet are actually glutinous rice paste. New cloth shoes prepared for the new year are in fact the fishes without scale. White radishes with red inside are eggs. And a piece of burning charcoal is a pig’s foot with a black bone.”
Enlightened by what the girl told them, the two women went home. Then they got all the items at home and showed them to the old man. Surprised, the old man said, “I am glad that you have found all these things. But did you find them by yourself, or did someone else tell you what they are? If you did it yourself, I will continue to give you some more tests. If someone else helped you, you should tell me who this person was.”
The two daughters-in-law didn’t want any more test, so they told him the truth. The old man was obviously very happy to know that a girl could be this smart, so he asked, “How old is this girl? You can go to ask her if she would like to marry my youngest son.” In the girl’s home, the two daughters-in-law told what the old man said to the girl, who then answered, ” I can marry his youngest son, but he must agree to let me manage the family.”
The old man agreed. Soon the girl brought her beautiful pure silver necklaces, and got married to the youngest son. She was in charge of all things in the family. The family prospered under her management.
A local tyrant was jealous of the wealth of the family. He told the old man, ” I learnt your youngest daughter-in-law is very smart, who can conjure all these wealth out of nothing. Now, I want you to give me a pig’s head which is just as big as a mountain. You must show me that in three days, otherwise I will confiscate all the things you have!”
The old man was very scared and asked his youngest daughter-in-law for help. The girl said, “Don’t be afraid of him. You go to ask him how much the mountain weights, so we will give him a pig’s head which weights exactly the same as the mountain.”
The next day the old man went to the tyrant and asked him, “ I have many pig’s heads at home. Please tell me how much your mountain weighs, so I can give you one with the same weight.”
The tyrant was dumbfounded by the question. After a while he said, ” OK, I give up the pig’s head. But now I want some wine which is exactly the same amount as that of the water in the river.” So the old man went home and repeated the question to his youngest daughter-in-law, who then said, “Ask him how many bowls of water there is in the river, so we can give him the same amount of wine.”
And the old man went to see the tyrant and told him what his daughter-in-law said. The tyrant was dumb again. Then he said, ” I give up the wine. But now I want you to show me a rooster that can lay eggs.” After hearing the question from the old man, the girl said, “ You stay at home tomorrow. I will go and meet that bastard.”
The next day the girl went to the tyrant and said, “ Hey! My father-in-law didn’t go to look for the rooster. Can you wait a few days?” The tyrant asked, “ Why didn’t he start looking for it yet?” The girl answered, “ Last night he gave birth to a child. Now he needs to stay at home and get some rest.” The tyrant yelled, ” Full of bullshit! How can a man have a baby?” The girl said, “ You know that a man can’t have a baby, but why you don’t know that a rooster can’t lay eggs?”
Embarrassed at the question, the tyrant stopped asking for things from the old man since then.
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