Reading Notes: Horse's Head or Silkworm Goddess, Part A

I decided to give Chinese Fairy Tales a try this week for extra credit. I usually read Russian stories as extra credit, but I have been reading this book called The Poppy Wars by author R. F. Kuang who studies Chinese history and wrote the fantasy fiction in a very similar light to Chinese history (it's an awesome book so far FYI). Off topic - this is the first book I have read where the author is younger than me (she's only 22!)

China: The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess

The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

An old man went away leaving behind his daughter and white horse, who fed the horse everyday in his absence. One day she told the horse if it brought back her father she would marry the horse. As soon as she uttered the words, the horse ran and brought back her father. 

During the travel back, the father thought something was wrong to be seeing the horse. He tried feeding the horse but it would not eat. When the horse returned, it tried to bite the girl. Confused, the father asked why and the girl explained what she had asked of the horse. She was very embarrassed so the father killed the horse and went back on his journey. 

Another day after all this happened, the daughter was out walking with a friend and scolded what was left of the horse for wanting to marry a human. As she taunted the dead hide, the horse hide wrapped around the girl and ran away with her. Her friend was horrified and ran home to tell her father what had happened. The neighbors all looked for the girl but never found her. 

One day, they found her hanging from a tree branch still wrapped in horse hide and she turned into a silkworm, weaving herself a cocoon. Her friend took her off of the tree and helped her out of the cocoon and took the silk for profit. 

The girl's relatives missed her so much. The girl rode through the sky in the clouds and told her family she was assigned the duty of watching over the silkworms, and that they should not miss her anymore. 

Her family built a temple to her and every year sacrificed and made offerings in her name asking for protection. She is known as the silkworm goddess but also the girl with a horses head. 

After Thoughts

Okay - weird origin story. So she turns down the idea of bestiality, only to be kidnapped and then turned into a goddess of silk but she has a horse face. Why does this remind me of BoJack Horseman?

BoJack