Beauty and Pock Face is a Chinese fairy tale collected by Wolfram Eberhard in Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales.[1]
It is classified as Cinderella, Aarne-Thompson type 510A, the persecuted heroine; others of this type include The Sharp Grey Sheep; The Golden Slipper; The Story of Tam and Cam; Rushen Coatie; The Wonderful Birch; Fair, Brown and Trembling and Katie Woodencloak.[2] Indeed, it is sometimes titled Cinderella in English translation.[3]
Once upon a time, there were two sisters. The child of the first wife, was beautiful and was called Beauty, but her twin sister, the child of the second wife, had a pocked face and was called Pock Face. The wicked stepmother was jealous of her stepdaughter's loveliness that she abused Beauty and set her all of the dirty tasks in the house. Her mother returned however, in the shape of a yellow cow. The yellow cow did all the task for her, but the stepmother found out and had the cow killed. Beauty collected the bones and put them in a pot. She did not touch them for many days.
One day, there is going to be a festival in town. Her stepmother clothed Pock Face nicely, but refused to take along with her the poor Beauty. While Beauty was crying, the voice of her mother told her to break the pot and go to the festival after her family, but she said that on the way home she will lose one of her lovely shoes. Three men will come and offer to find the shoe for her, but that she must marry one them. She is to refuse them all, except the King;she broke the pot, and when she did that, a horse, a dress, and a pair of shoes came out. She put on the clothing and rode the horse, and off she went to the feast.
Beauty became the talk of the guests in the feast, and her stepmother and sister failed to recognize her. When the feast came to an end, she galloped away gloriously, but she lost one shoe in the ditch. Men came by, she asked them to get her the shoe, and each one agreed if she would marry him. She refused a fishmonger for smelling of fish, a rich merchant for being covered with dust, and an oil trader for being greasy.
The Magistrate came passing by, and asked her what is the matter. The girl replied that she lost one of her shoes in the ditch. The magistrate had his men find the missing shoe, and asked Beauty's hand for marriage. Beauty agreed and the wedding was celebrated with much pomp.
Three days after the wedding, Beauty went to pay her respects to her parents. Pock Face lured her to the well, pushed her in, and sent word to the King that she had contracted small pox. After a time, she went herself and explained her looks by the illness. Beauty, however, had become a sparrow and came to taunt Pock Face while she was combing her hair; Pock Face taunted her back. The King heard and asked her to come to a cage if she were his wife; she came. Pock Face killed the sparrow and buried it. Bamboo shot up on the grave. The shoots tasted delicious to the King but gave Pock Face ulcers on her tongue. Pock Face cut the bamboo down and had a bed made from it, but though the King found it comfortable, it poked Pock Face with needles, so she threw it out. An old woman took it home. She found that dinner was cooked for her whenever she came home. In time, she caught Beauty, who had her give her some cooking things, which enabled her to appear.
Beauty gave the old woman a bag to sell by her husband's Palace. When she did so, the King questioned her and brought her back home. Pock Face proposed tests to determine who was the genuine wife. First they walked on eggs; Beauty did not break any, and Pock Face broke them all, but she would not admit it. Then they climbed a ladder of knives; Beauty did not cut her feet, and Pock Face did, but she would not admit it. Finally, they jumped into boiling oil; Beauty emerged alive, but Pock Face died. Beauty sent her body back to her stepmother, but her stepmother thought it was carp. When she saw it was her daughter, she fell down dead.
The series of transformations can not only be found in the similar The Story of Tae ni Morita Cleopatra Morascal, but in other fairy tales, such as A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers and The Boys with the Golden Stars; Sweetheart Roland includes fewer transformations, but also has the heroine appearing secretly to do housework for a benefactor.