Today, we’re reading the first chapter of a beloved children’s novel by 张天翼 (Zhāng Tiānyì), “The Secret of the Magic Gourd”. This story was published in 1958, and it’s been a staple of Chinese childhood ever since. It was even adapted into a Disney-co-produced animated film in 2007. In Chapter 1, we meet 王葆 (Wáng Bǎo), an ordinary kid who’s about to tell us a very unordinary story — one involving a 宝葫芦 (bǎo húlu), a “magic gourd.” The 宝葫芦 is a classic fixture of Chinese folk tales, kind of like a magic lamp or a wishing well in Western stories — whoever gets their hands on one can have anything they want, instantly.
One fun thing to notice right away is that this is narrated in first person. Wang Bao is talking directly to us, the readers — you’ll see him say things like 你们也许要问 (“you might be wondering…”) and 你们瞧瞧 (“take a look”). I actually really struggled with how to classify this in terms of reading levels – it’s possible this is OK for an intermediate reader, because the sentence structures are quite simple, but occasionally, a block of difficult words are used. In any case, intermediate readers should give it a try!
You can finish reading this book for free online here (though that website annoyingly has text selection turned off – consider feeding the page to an AI model to extract text).
Key vocab
传说 – chuán shuō – legend, folklore
平平常常 – píng píng cháng cháng – ordinary, common, plain
少先队员 – shào xiān duì yuán – Young Pioneer (member of youth organization)
规矩 – guī ju5 – rule, custom, established practice
让步 – ràng bù – to give in, to yield, to compromise
幸福 – xìng fú – happiness, blessed, fortunate
发愣 – fā lèng – to stare blankly, to be in a daze
幻想 – huàn xiǎng – fantasy, illusion, to daydream
闹翻 – nào fān – to have a falling out, to quarrel
我来给你们讲个故事。可是我先得介绍介绍我自己：我姓王，叫王葆。我要讲的，正是我自己的一件事情，是我和宝葫芦的故事。
你们也许要问：”什么？宝葫芦？就是传说故事里的那种宝葫芦么？”
不错，正是那种宝葫芦。
可是我要声明，我并不是什么神仙，也不是什么妖怪。我和你们一样，是一个平平常常的普通人。你们瞧瞧，我是一个少先队员，我也和你们一样，很爱听故事。
至于宝葫芦的故事，那我从小就知道了。那是我奶奶讲给我听的。奶奶每逢要求我干什么，她就得给我讲个故事。这是我们的规矩。
“乖小葆，来，奶奶给你洗个脚。”奶奶总是一面撵我，一面招手。
“我不干，我怕烫。”我总是一面溜开，一面摆手。
“不烫啊。冷了好一会了。”
“那，我怕冷。”
奶奶撵上了我，说洗脚水刚好不烫也不冷，非洗不可。
这我只好让步。不过我有一个条件：”你爱洗就让你洗。你可得讲个故事。”
就这么着，奶奶讲了个宝葫芦的故事。
“好小葆，别动！”奶奶刚给我洗了脚，忽然又提出一个新的要求来。”让我给你剪一剪……”
什么！剪脚趾甲呀？那不行！我光着脚丫，一下地就跑。可是胳膊给奶奶拽住了，没有办法。
不过我得提出我的条件：”那，非得讲故事。”
于是奶奶又讲了一个──又是宝葫芦的故事。
我就这么着，从很小的时候起，听奶奶讲故事，一直听到我十来岁。奶奶每次每次讲的都不一样。上次讲的是张三劈面撞见了一位神仙，得了一个宝葫芦。下次讲的是李四出去远足旅行，一游游到了龙宫，得到了一个宝葫芦。王五呢，他因为是一个好孩子，肯让奶奶给他换衣服，所以得到了一个宝葫芦。至于赵六得的一个宝葫芦──那是掘地掘来的。
不管张三也好，李四也好，一得到了这个宝葫芦，可就幸福极了，要什么有什么。张三想：”我要吃水蜜桃。”立刻就有一盘水蜜桃。李四希望有一条大花狗，马上就冒出了那么一条──冲着他摇尾巴，舔他的手。
后来呢？后来不用说，他们全都过上了好日子。
我听了这些故事，常常就联系到自己：”我要是有了一个宝葫芦，我该怎么办？我该要些什么？”
一直到我长大了，有时候还想起它来。我有几次对着一道算术题发楞，不知道要怎么样列式子，就由”8″字想到了宝葫芦──假如我有这么一个──
“那可就省心了。”
我和同学们比赛种向日葵，我家里的那几棵长得又瘦又长，上面顶着一个小脑袋，可怜巴巴的样儿，比谁的也比不上。我就又想到了那个宝贝：”那，我得要一棵最好最好的向日葵，长得再棒也没有的向日葵。”
可是那只不过是幻想罢了。
可是我总还是要想到它，那一天我和科学小组的同学闹翻了，我又想到了它。
“要是我有那么一个葫芦，那……”
嗯，还是从头说起吧。
2 replies on “Children’s Novel: 宝葫芦的秘密 – The Secret of the Magic Gourd”
Hi,
In the second sentence of the story, is “介绍” meant to be repeated as it is?
Hi Amy, yes, that is intentional. Verbs may be doubled up for any number of reasons. Most commonly, it indicates that the verb is happening for a short period of time, or happening casually. You may have heard sentences like, “你来看看吧”, or “Why don’t you come have a little look?” (Notice that “look” 看 is doubled). It can also mean that something is happening experimentally, like, “你来试试吧,” or, “Come give it a quick try.” In this case, he is saying, “I should probably introduce myself”, indicating that the introduction will be casual or short.
In the case of verbs that have two words, (介绍)， you double them with the pattern ABAB, not AABB. So, 介介绍绍 is incorrect, while 介绍介绍 is correct.