The Crown Prince Replaced by a Cat (Chinese: Limao huan taizi) is a famous Chinese story attested in the literary work The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. It is related to the international cycle of the calumniated wife and to tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.
Translations
The tale has been variously translated to English as The Prince replaced by a Cat, "Cat in Exchange for a Prince"; The Baby Prince who was replaced by a Cat, Palace Plot, Exchange a Leopard Cat for the Crown Prince, A Cat Replaces the Crown Prince; and Exchanging a Leopard Cat for a Prince.
Summary
In this tale, recorded by Bao Zheng, Consort Li was an equal of Consort Liu when she gave birth to Emperor Renzong. Consort Liu plotted with eunuch Guo Huai to secretly swap the infant with a skinned Chinese wild cat. Outraged by the "monster baby" and believing her cursed, Emperor Zhenzong demoted Consort Li to the forbidden palace. Meanwhile, Consort Liu ordered her maid Kou Zhu to murder the infant and dump the body, but Kou Zhu gave the infant to eunuch Chen Lin, who hid him in a box and carried him to emperor's brother Eighth Prince, who took his infant nephew in as one of his sons. Later, Consort Liu persuaded Emperor Zhenzong to have Consort Li killed. Eunuch Yu Zhong volunteered to die in her place, and with the help of another eunuch Qin Feng, Consort Li finally escaped from the palace. Several years later, as an old blind woman in a poor village, she found the opportunity to tell the story to the good official Bao Zheng. Finally the hidden secret was unearthed and the crown prince, now Emperor Renzong, eventually accepted his birth mother. A maiden named Kou Zhu rescues the prince from drowning.
Analysis
Tale type
According to Wilt Idema, Chinese scholars classify the tale as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.
According to Sinologists Idema and Boris L. Riftin [ru], the tale is very popular in China, both as a folkloric account and a literary work. Riftin suggested that the tale was first written down between the 12th and 14th centuries.
Motifs
Chinese folklorist and scholar Ting Nai-tung [zh] established a second typological classification of Chinese folktales (the first was by Wolfram Eberhard in the 1930s). In his new system, tale type 707, "The Three Golden Sons", shows the rivalry between the king's other wives; the number of children vary between stories, and the animal that replaces the children "is often a dead cat".
Variants
Chinese-Americans
In a tale collected from a Chinese-American source from California, titled The Long Lost Mother, a king is childless, but his queen promises him a boy. When his son is born, a guard who hates the royal couple replaces the boy for a slain cat. The queen is accused of infidelity and banished from the palace. She ends up in poverty and finds a lonely child in a small house. She decides to adopt the baby as her son. Despite its origin as literary tale, Chinese scholar Ting Nai-Tung acknowledged that its oral variants "clearly belong" to tale type ATU 707.
Dungan people
Riftin published a similar tale from the Dungan people with the title "Limo huan tei" (狸猫換胎), translated into Russian as "Подмена новорожденного кошкой" ("Replacing a newborn cat"), first collected from a Dungan source in 1962. In this tale, an emperor and his wife, the empress, have no children, until some time later she feels she is ready to give birth to the imperial heir. While the emperor is away, she gives birth to the prince, but evil courtiers plot against her: they place a skinned cat in the baby's cradle and cast the boy in the water in a box. when the emperor returns, he sees the animal instead of a human child, and exiles the empress from the palace, while the baby prince is rescued and raised by a fisherman. Later, regretting his actions, he sends a friend to search for the empress, who has been banished to a desert island. The man recognizes her as his sister and brings her home with him. Back to the emperor, he decides to remarry, but, remembering the former empress, decides to potspone the wedding and goes to his friend's house. Once there, he finds the friend's sister, who he does not recognize as his former wife, and marries her. The emperor's new wife, who is the formerly disgraced empress, reveals the whole truth to him. The emperor, then, punishes the evil courtiers and takes his son and adoptive parents to his court. According to Riftin, the tale refers to the period of the reign of emperor Dzhen-tszuna (Ren-zong) (1022-1063).
Lahu people
In a tale from the Lahu people with the title The King's Three Children who had to Suffer, a king has seven wives and declares he will make his major wife the one that gives birth to a male heir. The king's seventh queen becomes pregnant, and the other six queens, feeling threatened, take the boy as soon as he is born and cast him in the river in a raft. The same destiny befalls the seventh queen's next children (a boy and a girl). The three children are saved and raised by a poor childless couple. Years later, after their adoptive parents die, the boys grow up as fine hunters, while their sister stays at home. One day, a person comes to their house and says they lack the eternal water (Lahu: ika ti), the tree of life (Lahu: napfuh law ceh) and a talking bird (Lahu: taw yaw pui ve nga eh).
See also
References
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- Tales of empresses and imperial consorts in China. Compiled by Shang Xizhi. Translated and Edited by Liang Liangxing. Hong Kong: Hai Feng Publishing Co., 1996. pp. 178-184.
- Idema, Wilt L.; Olof, Allard M. The Legend of Prince Golden Calf in China and Korea. Cambria Press, 2021. pp. 180-181. ISBN 9781621967019.
- Idema, Wilt L.; Olof, Allard M. The Legend of Prince Golden Calf in China and Korea. Cambria Press, 2021. p. xvii. ISBN 9781621967019.
- "Дунганские народные сказки и предания" . Составители : Махмуд Хасанов, Ильяс Юсупов. Moskva: Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1977. p. 514.
- Mouse vs. Cat in Chinese Literature: Tales and Commentary. Translated and introduced by Wilt L. Idema. Foreword by Haiyan Lee. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019. pp. 69-70.
- "Дунганские народные сказки и предания" . Составители : Махмуд Хасанов, Ильяс Юсупов. Moskva: Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1977. p. 514.
- Nai-tung TING. A Type Index of Chinese Folktales in the Oral Tradition and Major Works of Non-religious Classical Literature. FF Communications, no. 223. Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1978. p. 118.
- Lee, Jon. Radin, Paul, and United States. Work Projects Administration (Calif.). Chinese Tales Told In California. San Francisco, 1940. pp. 69-73.
- Idema, Wilt L.; Olof, Allard M. The Legend of Prince Golden Calf in China and Korea. Cambria Press, 2021. p. 209 (footnote nr. 12) ISBN 9781621967019.
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- "Дунганские народные сказки и предания" . Составители : Махмуд Хасанов, Ильяс Юсупов. Moskva: Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1977. pp. 514-515.
- Pun, Angela; Lewis, Paul White. 49 Lahu Stories. White Lotus Press, 2002. pp. 52-57. ISBN 9744800186.