Year of the Tiger

This is a transcript for the We're All Stories podcast. the episode can be heard in its entirety here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1685008/10018874

Wow. I cannot believe an entire year has gone by. For those of you who have been around, you may recall that my very first episode that started this whole journey was the legend of the Chinese zodiac in honour of Chinese New Year last year and what an adventure it has led us on! We've been through a lot together in these crazy times we live in and I feel, have really grown and matured in this time. I just want to take a moment and say thank you to all of you, listeners new and old. Let's make this year even better than the last!

As I said, my first episode was the story behind the chinese new year, so if you haven't heard it and want to know what this whole holiday is about, give it a listen! This year we're about to kick off is the year of the tiger so we're all about tigers today!

Tigers have been an intrinsic figure in Chinese culture for at least 7,000 years. Which is a lot of years.

Tigers are the king of the natural world and long ago were taken as protectors of mankind. They are the protectors of the good and are anathema to evil. They ward off the three disasters, fire, thieves and ghosts as well as disease.

Tigers are the natural enemies of demons. Often chinese homes, temples and businesses feature an image of a tiger to frighten away misfortune carrying demons from entering inside and as the enemy of demons and evil spirits, graves are guarded by a depiction of a tiger in a tradition going back at least seven thousand years.

Parents make tiger hats and shoes for children to protect them from illness and misfortune and may give them nicknames that translate to 'tiger boy' or 'tiger girl' in the hopes that the strength and courage of the tiger will rub off on them by association, causing them to grow up to become strong, powerful, wealthy leaders.

If someone is seen to embody these tiger traits, those who show strength, courage and power are referred to as tigers, such as tiger warriors, generals or rulers. Speaking of warriors, tigers are a common motif in ancient chinese weapons and armor so that the tiger will lend its strength and courage to their side and terrify any who stand against them.

The tiger is the third year of the Chinese zodiac and those born in the year of the tiger are leaders of men with all the strength and courage of the tiger.

Tigers are so powerful that some say a person killed by a tiger are not only killed, but their spirit becomes enslaved to the tiger until such a time as they are replaced when the tiger makes a fresh kill and the previous spirit is released from its servitude.

Tigers are said to live for a millenia and are one of the four wise animal spirits.

Tigers use their strength to defend all good people but despite their wisdom, they can sometimes get it wrong.

Once, long, long ago, there lived a poor, young wood cutter and his widowed mother. The young man, despite his poverty, was a good soul, doting on his mother, taking care of her as well as possible while the mother in turn did the same. Everyone knew of the poor young woodcutter and the love and care shared between mother and son.

One day, with a festival coming, the young man wanted to present to his mother a special meal, as rich as he could so he set out early to go cut wood to bring back but he never arrived home.

When her son did not return that night, the mother was worried but after all, perhaps he had lost track of time in his labours and night had fallen, preventing his return.

When her son did not return the next day, she knew something was not right and went into a full blown panic, begging for help. Knowing of the special bond shared between them, a sympathetic neighbour took it upon himself to search the mountainside where the boy would often go to collect his wood. For a long time the kind neighbour found nothing but he persisted and at last stumbled on a horrible sight. He found the young woodcutter's tools on the side of the trail next to a pile of firewood he had prepped for sale. Beside this there were signs of a struggle and the man found the boy's torn clothing and there was blood everywhere. In the carnage, the man found a Tiger's tracks leading away.

With a heavy heart the kindly neighbour walked back to the village and told the poor woman what had become of her one and only son, the sole cause for her existence, all she had in the world. With a wordless cry of grief the wail of the woman could be heard across the countryside. Amidst her cries of despair the woman violently beat herself with her tiny, frail fists and tore out her hair such that everyone who saw her thought the news had caused her mind to break and many feared she would not survive the night because her grief was so great.

Expecting to find her corpse the next morning when they awoke the villagers were surprised to find she had cleaned and dressed herself and was hobbling painfully on her crutch, on her way to the city. All those who saw her pitied the poor woman who had lost everything and with nothing left was heading to the city, presumably to beg for a means to survive.

She did hobble her way to the city, but instead of begging for spare coins, the women went to the public hall where the local Mandarin, a powerful government official or bureaucrat, was hearing cases brought before him by his people and passing judgment.

The woman presented herself before him, telling of her grief and demanding that justice be served. By law, anyone who kills another must be sentenced to death themselves, then, the balance restored, the spirit of the slain could rest in peace.

The Mandarin was baffled. Yes, those who spill the blood of their fellow man must in turn have their blood spilled by law but this was no man who had murdered her son, this was a tiger. He told the woman as much and bade her leave but she was resolute. She would not be moved and simply went about wailing ever louder and causing a great disruption.

To get the crazy old woman to leave, the mandarin told her that he would call the tiger to account but she must leave, returning home and not coming back to bother him until he sent for her when the deed was done.

Seeing the Mandarin's ruse for what it was, a vague promise of appeasement to shut her up, the woman wailed the louder and told the Mandarin she would not leave until she had seen the decree with her own eyes, ordering the tiger be brought to the building where the Mandarin sat in judgement to be put on trial for the murder of her son.

Pitying the poor woman before him, the Mandarin decided to acquiesce and asked his attendants for a volunteer to take on this task.

Not wanting anything to do with this futile and dangerous endeavour, all those in the service of the Mandarin stepped back in refusal, all except a guard named Li'Neng who was nursing a wicked hangover and was still more than a little inebriated, who was leaning against the wall, half asleep. The guard next to him nudged Li'Neng in the ribs with his elbow to wake him up but the hapless Li'Neng, thinking his friend had woken him because the Mandarin was calling for him, steps forward and bowing, says 'I Li'Neng will do as you command.'

I think with a deep sense of relief, the Mandarin says very well, and hands the drunk man before him the warrant. Satisfied, the old mother thanked the Mandarin for his kindness and left.

Still not realizing what he had volunteered for, that night Li'Neng's friends gathered around him, saying: 'You drunken fool! Do you even know what you just agreed to?'

Li'Neng, drink in hand just said 'meh, it's just some trifling matter for the Mandarin, who cares, let's party and I'll do it tomorrow.'

His friends exclaimed: 'you idiot, you just agreed to catch a man eating tiger and bring him back to stand trial in court. Say goodbye to your parents because they will never see you again.'

To which Li'Neng replies: 'yeah, good one guys. Gān Bēi!' (Gone bay, cheers in chinese)

The next morning, after he had slept off the alcohol, Li'Neng at last reads the order from the Mandarin and with mounting horror, Li'Neng realizes his friends had not been pulling a prank on him, he had actually, literally agreed to arrest a tiger and bring it back alive to stand trial.

Li'Neng, thinking the order was just to mollify that noisy old crone who had interrupted his nap returns to the Mandarin and is like, 'good one boss. That finally got that old lady to shut up. (Laughs) imagine, arresting a tiger… (lol) i 'searched' for that tiger all night at the bar and you know what, I don't think I can find him' and, laughing at the joke, begins to walk away

But the Mandarin wasn't in a joking mood. He tells the guard in no uncertain terms that this was not a joke and orders Li'Neng to get to it, reminding him that he was the one who accepted the task and promised to catch the tiger and the Mandarin had in turn given his word to the poor mother that justice would be meted out for her son.

Li'Neng was like 'wait a second, I was drunk, you can't seriously expect me to do this. Want someone to arrest a man, sure, I'm your guy but a tiger? Seriously?! I'm no hunter, get someone else.'

The Mandarin just says 'no take backs. You promised now get out there and do it. I don't care how you do it but you have five days to bring the tiger before me or you will be beaten severely, then sent back out with another five days.

Seeing there was no getting out of it, Li'Neng rushes out andbgires the beat hunters in the land and they comb the mountain. Despite using their largest combs, at the end of the five days, Li'Neng had combed the whole mountain and didn't find crap.

He dutifully returned to the Mandarin and reported his failure, accepting his punishment of fifty heavy blows. This went on for six weeks and Li'Neng was in despair. He could not survive much more of this. If the beatings continued, he would surely die.

His friends all shook their head behind his back whispering that Li'Neng was 'drawing near to the wood' meaning it wouldn't be long before their friend found himself in a coffin. They all encouraged him to flee, saying that if he skipped town, the Mandarin probably wouldn't pursue him very far…

But Li'Neng could not leave his parents behind and feared that the Mandarin would surely catch him and kill him if he left and so he picks himself up and heads back out into the wild.

The hunters all give up and head home, leaving Li'Neng on his own, alone on the mountain. One night, he finds himself at a temple on the mountain. Li'Neng throws himself on the ground before the tiger deity of the shrine weeping and praying for his life.

As he is praying, he hears a rustling behind him. Startled, Li'Neng turns to find a tiger standing there staring at him from the entrance to the temple.

No longer afraid of this tiger, Li'Neng looks the animal in the eye and tells him, ' you have a lot of explaining to do! You killed that boy, didn't you? Well he was the only son of a poor old woman with not a soul left to care for her now and the Mandarin has ordered you come in to face judgment. I have received four hundred beatings because you've been hiding up here like a coward, I thought tigers were supposed to be brave! Now get over here, we are going back to town and that's all there is to it, I'm sick of getting punished on your account and I'm done with it!'

The tiger had listened to the man's tirade solemnly and lowered his head in acceptance for Li'Neng to collar him and he went meekly along to face judgment.

When they arrived in town, the people of the city were wild with excitement exclaiming about the tiger coming forward to go on trial. This would be one to tell the grandkids!

Li'neng led the tiger to the court where he entered and sat solemnly before the Mandarin and the boy's mother.

'Are you the tiger that killed the woodcutter?'

The tiger nods.

The woman interjects: 'yes, this is him!'

The Mandarin: order in the court!

Li'neng: I'll take general Tso's and crab rangoon…

Mandarin: (ignores the idiot and the shrieking mother, continuing to address the defendant) you murdered this woman's son and sole supporter, now there is no one to take care of her and her death is your responsibility as well. The law is a life for a life but I am not cruel. If you agree to take on the care of this woman in her son's stead, I will call your debt paid. Do you agree to these terms?

Tiger: nods again in agreement.

Woman: Objection! This is crazy!

Mandarin: Overruled! (Bangs Gavel) court is adjourned!

The woman is ticked off. Sure, this guy went and caught the tiger, then just sets him free. How is a tiger going to take the place of a son? That's just crazy! Because taking tigers to court is an everyday thing. But the Mandarin just sends them on their way and orders the woman to never return to bother him again and the tiger was set free to promptly run off into the wild.

When she returned to her village, the Woman's neighbours shook their heads in pity for her. She was just a frail old woman, all alone in the world with no one to care for her. She would surely soon die.

To everyone's surprise, when the woman awoke the next morning, she found a large deer carcass killed cleanly and left neatly on her doorstep. The woman rejoiced, going to the market and selling much of the meat easily with plenty leftover for her to eat. Those at the market had all heard of the tiger who was caring for the old woman and didn't want to be the one to bargain too harshly and rip the old lady off.

The following week the tiger returned with a bolt of expensive cloth for his new foster mother and a pouch full of money.

The tiger kept returning frequently to see to the needs of the old woman and saw that she was well taken care of. The woman came to love her new tiger son and began to see the wisdom of the Mandarin's decision and the tiger, for his part, loved the old woman. The villagers would see them sitting together watching the sun go down, the old woman scratching behind his ears while the tiger purred loudly.

They went on like this for a number of years until the old woman, at last, dies. The villagers bury her with great honour and erect a large tombstone with the whole story inscribed on it for all to read from then to now.

The Tiger, lay on her grave every day, wailing like a lost child to return to the empty cottage to search for her in vain.

After a month of mourning, the tiger one day disappears, never to be seen again. Some say he is living in mourning to this day in the same cave he had hidden in before while others say the gods, touched by the love of this tiger for his adopted mother and they took him away to the western heaven as a reward for his life of service to live as a spirit, reunited with the old woman and her son. They are there now, living together in harmony, and they will continue to do so for all time.

Despite killing the boy, the tiger had gracefully taken responsibility for his crime and had lived out his life to make up for it.

May the spirit of the zodiac tiger watch over us all, keeping us safe from fear and evil and protect us from disease. May we take on the wisdom and the courage and strength of the tiger and work together to make this year worthy of the name the year of the tiger