Fancha and the Magpie

Long ago, north of Korea, a people called the Manchus lived on the cold desert plains as skilled horsemen and warriors.In time they grew strong enough to conquer China itself and rule over both Chinese and Koreans.But their new nobles worried that everyone would remember they had once been poor tent-dwellers who lived on mutton and wild nuts.

“What can we do to make the people respect us?” the Chinese Emperor asked his council of wise men.An old advisor named Green Lamps, famous for his huge green spectacles, suggested calling in an ancient storyteller named Mrs. Crinkles.She was said to be over a hundred years old and knew the oldest legend of their people’s heavenly birth.

Mrs. Crinkles told the court that three heavenly sisters once came down to bathe in a lake below the Ever White Mountains.The sisters loved the lake so much that they never returned to the sky, and they kept magpies as their sacred pet birds.One day a magpie flew down and dropped a bright red fruit onto the robe of the youngest sister.

She ate the sweet fruit and later gave birth to a son, whom she named Golden Family Stem, for she believed Heaven had sent him.After his mother died, the young man took the name Fancha, meaning “Heaven-born,” and sailed alone down the river in a small boat.When he landed among three warring tribes, his calm courage impressed them so much that they made him their chief.

Fancha ruled wisely and built a city, but years later he and all his sons but one were killed in battle.Enemies chased his last living son, who was also named Fancha, across the plains toward a dark forest.A magpie suddenly landed on the boy’s head and stood so still that his pursuers mistook him for an old dead tree stump.

The enemies searched the forest, saw only what looked like a broken branch, and gave up the hunt and went home.“That young Fancha,” Mrs. Crinkles finished, “was your own ancestor from seventeen generations ago, Your Majesty.”The delighted Emperor showered her with honors and gifts, and gave Green Lamps a jade button as a reward for finding her.