Humorous illustrations, captions, and sidebars describe the toil and suffering involved in building the Great Wall of China during the third century B.C.
When the eldest son fell in the well and most of the time getting help was spent pronouncing the name of the one in trouble, the Chinese, according to legend, decided to give all their children short names.
To help her arrange her paper cut-outs of the animals in the Chinese zodiac in the proper order, a young girl's grandmother tells her the story of the race in which each animal secured its place.
Chen Ping's honesty in his encounter with a stranger causes his ax to acquire magic powers, while his greedy master's attempt to reap the same reward comes to a different end.
In the early days of the world, when the sun refuses to come out for fear of a skillful archer's arrows, a small rooster saves the day by coaxing the sun out with his crowing.
