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    Seven Stories of Ying and Yang
    Seven Stories of Ying and Yang
    Seven Stories of Ying and Yang
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Seven Stories of Ying and Yang

    By Francis Mattondo

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    About this ebook

    This book "Seven Stories of Ying and Yang" is a children's book meant for the 12 to 16 age group, although an adult would enjoy it as well (example, Harry Potter books). The seven stories concern a pair of magical goldfish who are sisters (Ying a red goldfish, Yang a blue goldfish) who live in a fishbowl that sits in the children's library of a small Japanese village. They secretly perform magical acts to teach the children wisdom from a Zen perspective. The stories and characters are linked, but can also stand alone as stories teaching a particular lesson in caring for others or in understanding the nature of life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateMar 21, 2018
    ISBN9781543925616
    Seven Stories of Ying and Yang

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      Book preview

      Seven Stories of Ying and Yang - Francis Mattondo

      During the time of the Old Kingdom there was a famous magician named Noboru. He lived in a tower on a mountaintop, with a few trusted students who cared for him as he cared for them. Noboru spent his days in study and meditation. His magical spells were legendary for their mysterious power; yet Noboru lived a strict life, with few pleasures beyond honey and rice he flavored with savory herbs and spices.

      In a large saucer of pure gold, Noboru kept a school of tiny red and blue fish. They swam in the cleanest water, over a bed of delicate periwinkle shells. Noboru never moved the saucer from his spell-casting room at the top of the tower. His tiny fish ate the finest food Noboru’s students could find, including wild mushrooms and finely chopped lotus leaves.

      One night, Noboru lit a candle and opened his most precious book of magical spells. When he found the spell he was looking for, he smiled and dropped a few grains of rice into the gold saucer. Watching his fish devour the rice made Noboru’s stomach growl. So, before casting a spell requested by one of the emperor’s sons, Noboru descended from the top of the tower to see what he could find for a late supper. He lit his way on the staircase with a torch, keeping the flame from the windy portals that overlooked dark mountains and a lake that shined like a black mirror.

      While descending the dusty steps of the tower, Noboru stopped suddenly. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief: an ocelot of extraordinary beauty stared up at him, blocking his way with stern but glittering eyes. The ocelot was a rare creature in the kingdom. Caged, it would be a great prize in the markets, but almost impossible to tame. Noboru was convinced this ocelot had arrived in the Old Kingdom only after a long journey across the ocean in a royal sailing ship. With some fear in his voice, Noboru held the torch closer and welcomed the cat to his humble tower. The ocelot looked up at him, unmoved. Then, strangely, the ocelot dipped its head, as if gesturing for Noboru to return to his place of meditation.

      At that moment Noboru smelled something burning. He turned and rushed upward, climbing the old steps like a man sweating with fever.

      All evening the wind had been whistling through a stone portal near the book of spells. Noboru’s fish swam to the edge of the saucer and saw a corner of the old spell book burning: the candle had tipped over from a gust of wind. The tiny fish quickly began to splash water on the book by waving their red and blue fantails. All the fish worked as one to save their master’s book from being reduced to ashes.

      When Noboru reached the room, he immediately understood what the fish were doing and was amazed. He cupped his hands and finished the job with a handful of water taken from the golden saucer. The spell book was saved; only the corners of the old book were singed black.

      Noboru looked down into the saucer and spoke words of thanks to the fish. They swam in a circle to celebrate, and Noboru smiled, sprinkling more rice over the school.

      Later that night, in gratitude, Noboru cast a spell on the fish in the gold saucer. Forever afterward, all the red and blue fish that were spawned within the confines of the castle would be magical fish, capable of speaking and wishing magic upon anyone who needed their help.

      When Noboru’s spirit finally left the mountaintop, his fish were set free. Ying and Yang became the most famous of these fish. And all agreed, they were magical beyond words.

      There were many great libraries in the kingdom of Shimo. A wise emperor who reigned during the Old Kingdom greatly valued reading and study, so he decreed that every town and village, no matter how small, must have a place for his people to read and make music. He favored simple homes and meeting places. All the libraries were built with red roofs and contained no bookshelf higher than the height of the tallest person in the village.

      Even the small village of Kichi possessed a modest library of some forty books. In a window of the Kichi library sat a large fishbowl decorated with white sand and a branch of pink coral. Floating in this bowl were the two residents of the library: a red goldfish named Ying and a blue goldfish named Yang. The children of Kichi loved Ying and Yang. They considered them people, like themselves, with ideas and even dreams. Often, a child would hold an open picture book up to their bowl, so Ying and Yang could see what the children were reading.

      One of the secrets of Kichi was that Ying and Yang sometimes stuck their snouts above the water and spoke. In the eyes of the village elders, this was a foolish legend. But the children knew it was true, like the legend of Ying falling into a bowl of amaryllis petals and turning red, or Yang falling into a jar of blueberries and turning blue.

      The village of Kichi could not pay for a true librarian. Nevertheless, the fish were prized and cared for by the library’s keeper, Satoshi. Satoshi was an old man who came every afternoon with an iron pot filled with tea. Satoshi knew that Ying and Yang could speak, but he had long ago decided to keep their secret.

      One afternoon when the children of Kichi arrived at the library, they saw Satoshi and two other men on ladders nailing the library windows shut. Satoshi swung down on a rope like a grey-haired monkey. He told the children a storm was on the way. It might not be bad, Satoshi said, but they had to be prepared.

      Satoshi brought the children into the library, so they could bring books home with them. Water ruined paper, he explained, and not every house in Kichi would be flooded. By spreading the books out among the families of the village, some books would survive.

      Two of the children, Yuki and Jun, went to the fishbowl and looked down into the water. Ying and Yang swam to the surface, smiling. Ying poked her snout out of the water. She was already frightened by all the activity around their bowl.

      Where can we go? We love water, but too much water is not good. We will be swept away and lose our home.

      Yuki was the flute-maker’s daughter. She was a great reader with long black hair and a singing voice the elders considered a

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