December/The Magic Paintbrush

Since, according to my calender, it's December now, and December is the Holiday season, I will from now until January be uploading fables on giving. You know. Giving. The main theme of Christmas. A part of the holiday season. In fact, ONE of the holidays of the holiday season. Any hoo.

The Magic Paintbrush (A Chinese Myth)

A little boy named Ma-Liang wants to be a painter when he grows up. But he's poor, so he cannot afford a brush.

How much were brushes back then?!!

One night, he dreams that an old man gives him a brush, and tells him to paint from his heart.

Ooooooooookay.

When he wakes up Ma-Liang finds the brush beside him. He paints a rooster, and all of a sudden, the drawing practically comes to life.

Wow! If he paints that good then he should become an artist.

The rooster hops off the page and goes into a nearby farmyard.

Can I borrow that paintbrush. I'd like to gives my house some decorating.

Later, Ma Liang happens upon some fishermen who are poor like him and haven't caught anything. He draws fish on the floors of their boats, and the fish become real. A goatherder's goats have been stolen, so Ma-Liang draws him another herd. A farmer doesn't have a cow to help him plow, so Ma Liang draws him one. In this fashion, Ma Liang helps people.

He needs a theme song. He's like a super hero. I can imagine it now: It's a bird! It's a plane! And now Artist-Boy is drawing a dog!

The evil Emporer hears of Ma Liang's brush, and commands him to paint a mountain of gold. Ma Liang refuses, and is put in prison. That night, he draws a door and leaves the prison.

I totally saw that coming. A monkey with only 1/4 a brain could have seen that coming.

The Emporer hunts down Ma-L. and commands him to paint the mountain. Out in the middle of the ocean, Ma L. draws an island made enirely of gold. The Emporer gets on a ship and begins going to the island. Ma L. draws a tidal wave that pushes the ship into a whirpool Ma L. also drew as the boat is returning.

Smart kid.

Ma L. runs away to a far way land, where he gets a job for the emporer painting dragons. He never dotted the dragons eyes, for the thought that they would become real if he finished them. From then on, whenever a peice of art looking unfinished, it would be said in China, "Wa Lawng, Dohn Jhin", meaning, "Draw Dragon, Dot Eyes".

Wow. So he even got a saying.