A smart daughter-in-law———–a folktale of the Miao who have unique silver necklaces
The Miao minority group in southwestern China fascinates the world with its beautiful silver necklaces, embroidery, and batik art. With a history of more than 5,000 years, Miao people are proud of their rich culture and numerous interesting folktales and silver necklaces. 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. Living together with his sons, the old man was in charge of the family. Year by year, the old man felt himself too old to be responsible for everything. So he hoped one of his daughters-in-law could take care of 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 which have red inside. You go to look for them now. Whoever finds them first will take my place as the head of the family.
The two daughters-in-law went out to look for those things, but how could they find the things that didn’t exist at all?” They felt helpless, and cried. A girl who lived close by heard their cry and asked them what’s going on. After hearing the two women’s explanation, the girl said, ” All these things are at your home, so you don’t need to go out to look for them?” “Are you kidding?” the two women were puzzled, ” What? How do we have these at home.” The girl then explained, “The turtles without feet are actually glutinous rice paste. The fishes without scale are actually new cloth shoes prepared for the new year. Eggs are white radishes with red inside. And a piece of burning charcoal is a pig’s foot that has a black bone.”
Enlightened by what the girl told them, the two women went home. Then they found all these things at home, and showed them to the old man. The old man was surprised, ” I feel happy that you have found these things. But did you find them by yourself, or did someone else tell you what they are? If you did it yourself, you will have 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 excited and happy to know this, so he asked, ” How old is the girl? I want you to go to ask her if she likes to marry my youngest son.” At the girl’s home, the two women told the old man’ s offer to the girl, who then answered, ” I would like to marry his youngest son, but he must let me manage the whole 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. If you can’t show me that in three days, I will confiscate all your property!”
The old man was very scared and asked his youngest daughter-in-law for help. The girl said, “Don’t be afraid of him. Tomorrow you go to ask him how much the mountain weighs, so we can give a pig’s head which weights as much 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 little while he replied, ” I give up the pig’s head. But now I want some wine, the same amount as that of the water in the river.” So the old man told this to his youngest daughter-in-law, who then said, ” Go to ask him how many bowls of water there is in the river, so we will offer 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. After a while he said, “OK, I give up the wine. But now I want you to give me a rooster that can lay eggs.” After learning this from the old man, the girl said, ” You stay at home tomorrow. I will go to meet that bad egg.”
The next day the girl went to the tyrant and said, “ Hey! About the rooster, my father-in-law haven’t started looking for it yet. Can you postpone for a few days?” The tyrant asked, ” Why didn’t he start searching for it yet?” The girl replied, ” Yesterday evening he gave birth to a baby. Now he needs to stay at home and get some rest.” The tyrant shouted, ” Nonsense! How can a man deliver a baby?” The girl said, ” Good question! so, how can a rooster lay eggs?”
Embarrassed at the question, the tyrant stopped asking for things from the old man since then.
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