Today I want to share with you a very interesting traditional Chinese story, The Monkey Grabs the Moon. The story tells of a group of monkeys who saw the reflection of the moon in a well and thought that the moon had fallen into the well. So they worked together to try to fish the moon out.
The setting of the story
Once upon a time, behind a beautiful little village, there was a high mountain. The mountain was covered in all kinds of flowers and trees, and there were also many strangely shaped big rocks. Many little animals lived here, such as cute little rabbits, cunning foxes, and a group of naughty monkeys.
The moon has fallen into the well!
One night, there was a big, round moon in the sky. The monkeys were jumping around and playing in the mountains and forests, having a great time.
Suddenly, one little monkey noticed a well. Curious, it ran to the edge of the well and leaned over to look inside. What? There was a big, round moon in the well! The little monkey screamed in fright, “Oh no! The moon has fallen into the well!”
Hearing the little monkey’s cry, a big monkey hurried over to take a look and shouted, ”Oh no! The moon has really fallen into the well!” Then an old monkey also came running, heard the commotion, looked into the well and shouted, “Oh no, something terrible has happened! The moon has fallen into the well!”
Soon all the monkeys had gathered. They looked into the well and sure enough, there was a big, round moon. The monkeys chattered and discussed the situation, panicking.
Trying to fish the moon out
“The moon has fallen into the well, what are we going to do?” one monkey asked.
The old monkey thought for a moment and said, ‘Let’s quickly fish the moon out!”
The big monkey agreed, ’Yes, otherwise when it gets dark on the way home, we won’t be able to see the way.”
At that moment, the little monkey saw a tree by the well and had a bright idea. He said, ”We can hang upside down from the tree like a chain, one after the other, and fish the moon out!”
The monkeys all thought this was a great idea and set to work immediately.
The monkeys’ “moon fishing operation”
The oldest monkey was the first to hang upside down from the tree. The other monkeys then grabbed the legs or tails of the monkey in front of them, one after the other, forming a long ‘monkey chain’ that extended all the way down into the well.
The little monkey at the bottom reached up to grab the moon, excitedly saying, “I can reach it! I can reach it!” But when it reached into the water, the well water was stirred, and the moon in the well shattered into many pieces.
The little monkey screamed in fright, “Oh no! I’ve broken the moon!”
The old monkey heard this and gasped in panic, ”The moon is broken, what are we going to do?”
The older monkey scolded, “You’re so stupid, you can’t even do something as simple as this!”
After a while, the water in the well returned to its normal state and a big, round moon appeared again. The younger monkey shouted happily, ‘Great, the moon is round again!’ So it reached down again to grab it, but all it managed to do was make a splash.
Discover the truth
The monkeys hung upside down for a long time and were exhausted. Some of the monkeys complained, “My arms are so sore!” while others shouted, “My tail hurts so much, I can’t hold on any longer!”
Just then, the old monkey looked up at the sky and was surprised to see that the big, round moon was still hanging in the sky!
The old monkey let out a sigh of relief and said to everyone, ”Children, don’t bother fishing! There’s no need to fish! The moon is still in the sky, and what you see in the well is just its reflection.”
The monkeys heard this and climbed down from the trees. They looked up at the moon in the sky and couldn’t help but smile.
What can we learn?
Although the little monkeys didn’t succeed in fishing the moon, children, their spirit of cooperation and teamwork is worth learning from! At the same time, this story also tells us that sometimes what we see is not necessarily real. We need to learn to observe carefully and think about things in order to discover the truth.
I hope you enjoy this interesting story!
