Hello and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales, this is Beibei.
In the last episode we got to know You Chao or Mr Handyman, who invented tree houses for ancient Chinese.
People's living conditions were greatly improved, but that still wasn't the most important invention.
There is a saying in Chinese, that is, 民以石为天。
Shi is food, and Tian is sky.
The meaning is of course, food is of paramount importance.
Or a more literal translation would be, food is like the sky for the people.
At the time of You Chao, Mr Handyman, People might have treetop houses, but they were still surviving on wild berries and bloody raw meat, if they were lucky.
People didn't even know that food could taste better until Mr. Courageous came along.
Well, let's just call him that for now.
Mr. Courageous was tall and strong, possibly very handsome too.
Why not?
He led the people on hunting trips to supplement their fruity diet.
People used up every bit of whatever they caught.
They used the skin of the animals for clothing, meat for food, and bones for making tools.
Having sashimi might be a pricey treat for us today.
But bloody ones full of parasites day in and day out?
That's a different story.
Every meal might be their last.
No one had any idea that food could be cooked.
And that's what today's story is about.
On one stormy day, Mr. Courageous stayed home in his treehouse and watched the spectacle outside.
Guess people were still pretty far from knowing that one should stay away from trees in rainstorms.
Rain poured down and the sky crackled with lightning.
Suddenly, a streak of light struck the tallest tree in the forest.
This tree was so tall that it even had a name, the King of Trees.
Poor King of Trees started smoking at the top and before people could realize what was happening, the tree was on fire.
From far away, it looked like a fire-spitting dragon had encircled the tree.
The tail of the dragon brushed against the smaller trees around it, and set them aflame too.
That's not very good for people who lived on top of trees.
Time for action, Mr. Courageous.
He shouted for people to gather and run for their lives.
But pretty soon, drops of rain came down and chased the fire dragon away.
The forest quieted down.
Mr. Courageous couldn't wait to check out the king of trees.
What had just happened there?
When he got close to the king tree, his nose cringed from a strange smell.
He saw that the king of trees, once the tallest in the forest, was now lying on the ground, white smoke rising from its charcoal black body.
The smaller trees and plants in the surroundings have been leveled too.
Bits of strange orange light danced on the ground, like little eyes blinking in the dark.
Many animals in the forest fell victim too.
Their bodies turned stiff and dark.
Ghost!
Ghost!
This must be the work of a ghost!
The people who came with him shouted, But Mr. Courageous got his name for a reason.
He went forward and picked up a burned rabbit.
He pulled off some of its meat and popped it into his mouth.
Hmm, surprise, surprise.
It tastes amazing.
Mr. Courageous then picked up a little twig and walked toward the dancing lights on the dark ground.
What are you doing?
The others shouted No worries, said Mr Courageous, as he put the tip of the twig onto some burning ember.
Soon the tip of the twig started smoking, and a moment later a small red light danced on his twig too.
That's right, it caught the fire.
The tiny flame grew quickly and the twig started burning for real.
My goodness, throw that away.
That's from the ghost.
People around him was terrified, but not Mr. Courageous.
He laughed as he approached the others with the burning twig.
This is our treasure, he said as he waved the twig around.
With this, we will have real food.
One curious man gathered up his courage to come forward and touched the flame.
Ouch!
Yep, wrong way to be brave.
Mr. Courageous laughed and said, It's hot, but it will keep us warm when the days get cold.
The people named this strange hot thing fire or huo in Chinese.
Later, people moved their nests on top of trees to under the trees, and every family kept a small fire in front of their door.
They noticed that people were not the only ones who were afraid of the flame.
The wild beasts were afraid of it too, and they stayed away from the human houses.
After tasting the cooked rabbit, people all started cooking their food with fire.
As savory as sashimi is, enough is enough.
Life was so much better with cooked food and heat in the winter.
But there was one problem.
What if the fire went out?
It's not like a tree gets struck by lightning before every meal.
One day Mr Courageous walked past the burned-down king of tree again and he heard a pecking sound.
He followed the sound and found a woodpecker pecking at the tree with all its might.
No such thing as a concussion for woodpeckers.
Mr. Courageous stared at the woodpecker and something curious started happening.
A thin wisp of white smoke started drifting from where the woodpecker was pecking.
That's strange and very exciting.
Mr. Courageous found what he had been looking for, a way to light a fire.
He found a thin stick and started drilling on a piece of dry log.
He drilled and drilled, and a long time later, smoke emerged.
Mr. Courageous fed some dry grass to the smoke, and boom, he's got himself a little flame.
It was not an easy way to start a fire.
But people didn't have to worry day and night about the fire going out again.
Mr. Courageous taught the others how to start fires.
And ever since then, it was as if man had been given divine power from heaven.
Discovering fire was a major contribution to human progress.
And Mr. Courageous was given the title Sui Ren Shi, the legendary ruler who discovered fire.
He was so important that there was another legend about Sui Ren Shi.
There was once a magical land called the Kingdom of Sui Ming.
There was no day or night there. since light from the sun and moon couldn't reach it.
But it wasn't dark at all.
In fact, it was brilliant all the time.
How was it lit?
Not in any ordinary way, of course.
It turned out that there was a huge tree in this kingdom, and it was named the flint tree.
The branches of the tree formed a dome in the sky.
That's how big it was.
Bits of light burned all over these branches and lit up the whole kingdom.
That was a long time before people started worrying about the impact of burning wood on the environment.
Sui Ren Shi, or Mr Courageous as we know him, found this tree and saw that countless little birds were pecking on it, lighting up the branches with bits of fire.
Poor tree!
The birds pecked and pecked and from far away, all the small lights came together and the tree looked like one big torch on fire.
Some say this was how Sui Ren Shi learned of the way to light a fire.
So, six episodes into our show, we now have houses, fire, and cooked food.
Life was so much better now.
But as we know now, more than ever, There were endless more discoveries to be made.
Let's continue in our next episode.
We'll see you then.
Bye for now.
Please feel free to contact us via email at podcast at cricomcn or find us on Twitter.
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