Two Sides of the Coin: A Chinese Parable

Lions and Legends

Host Rebecca Shear presents an ancient Chinese parable titled 'Two Sides of the Coin' to illustrate how seemingly good and bad events are deeply interconnected. The story follows farmer Cy and his son

Key takeaways

• Host Rebecca Shear introduces the Chinese proverb 'Sai wong sha ma,' explaining its meaning as a lesson on unpredictable fortune.
• Farmer Cy and his son Sean rely entirely on their workhorse Ginger to plow fields and sell grain in the city market.

Main topics

• Chinese folklore and proverbs
• Patience and emotional resilience

Notable quotes

"Good things do come to those who wait."

Conclusion

The episode delivers an accessible moral lesson for young audiences about

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) Before we start our story, exciting news. Tickets are on sale for our first ever live tour. Join me, Rebecca Shear, composer Eric Shimalonis, and a bevy of brilliant actors for live Lions and Legends recordings in New York City on October 11th, Chicago on November 21st, and Los Angeles on December 12th. If you're in our League of Lions club, you're invited to a meet and greet with me and Eric after each show. Join the club and grab your tickets today at lionsandlegends.org. Speaker 1 (0:36) I'm Rebecca Shear, and welcome to Lions and Legends. Speaker 2 (0:42) That is our Speaker 1 (0:43) League of Lions, the nine faithful felines helping me bring you fun, fantastical retellings of myths, legends, folktales, and fables from around the world and the valuable lessons they teach. Today, we're joined by League member, Patience. Can Speaker 4 (1:00) I just tell you how glad I am that our listeners pressed play on this episode? I've been sitting inside this podcast player since yesterday. just waiting for them to turn it on. And here we are. Good things do come to those who wait. Speaker 1 (1:20) Indeed. That said, how do we know if things are necessarily good or bad? Speaker 4 (1:27) Come again? Speaker 1 (1:29) Have you heard the expression, things aren't always what they seem? Speaker 1 (1:36) How about every cloud has a silver lining? Speaker 4 (1:40) Yes. Speaker 1 (1:43) How about a blessing in disguise? Speaker 1 (1:49) How about, sai wong sha ma? Speaker 4 (1:52) Yeah, no. But it sounds like Mandarin Chinese. It Speaker 1 (1:58) is. It's an old proverb or saying from China that means, the old man lost his horse. The old man lost his horse. Yes. And like the other expressions we just mentioned, it's about how so-called bad things might not actually be so bad. Speaker 4 (2:19) I see. But who is this man? What happened to his horse? And how did this proverb come to be? I'm glad you Speaker 1 (2:30) asked, Patience. The answer lies in the parable we're about to hear. A parable is a short story that teaches a smart lesson about how to live. And this parable from China goes back over 2,000 years. Speaker 4 (2:43) That's a lot of years. Though I could wait for something that long, provided I had snacks. Speaker 1 (2:52) I'm sure you could. So, let's go roaring, shall we, into the Chinese parable that we're calling Two Sides of the Coin. Speaker 1 (3:12) In a far-flung village in the countryside, where the flat plains of farmland gave way to the giant Sawtooth Mountains, there lived an old farmer named Cy. Cy had a tiny house with mud brick walls, packed dirt floors, and a wooden thatched roof that never failed to leak after a storm. He shared the house with his son, Sean. Cy and Sean didn't have much, save for the clothes on their back, the grain in their field, and the trusty workhorse in their ramshackle stable, Ginger. The reddish copper mare spent her days helping Sai and Sean plow their field and bring their harvest of millet and wheat to the market in the city. Speaker 3 (4:00) Atta girl, Ginger. You're pulling our cart so quickly, Sean and I might be the first sellers at the market today. Speaker 2 (4:10) And if we're the first sellers, we'll get the first customers, and we'll sell a whole bunch of grain. Goodness knows we could use the cash. Speaker 1 (4:20) Si smiled, his wrinkled cheeks bunching up like a blanket. Speaker 3 (4:25) You and I work hard, Sean. As hard as we possibly can. We're doing Speaker 2 (4:32) our best. Then why does our house still have a leaky roof? Why does our land produce barely enough grain to eat and sell? Why is Ginger stable on its last legs? You heard how Rebecca Shear described it before. She said it was crumbling. I'm Speaker 1 (4:52) sorry. Can we hold the music? Thanks. Um, I don't mean to interrupt, but I didn't say that Ginger's stable was crumbling. Oh, Speaker 2 (5:02) did you say it was rickety-crickety? No. Tumbledown? Speaker 1 (5:07) No, though I am fond of those words, as fans of my last storytelling podcast may know. Fans of your what? It's not important. The word I used to describe the stable was ramshackle. Oh, right. Come to think of it, I used that word a lot in my last storytelling podcast, too. Anyway, what were you saying? I was saying... Speaker 2 (5:32) Uh, what was Speaker 3 (5:33) I Speaker 2 (5:33) saying? Speaker 3 (5:34) You were saying how much you and I are struggling to make ends meet. That's another Speaker 1 (5:40) term I've used a lot. Well, we are struggling, Dad. See this? Sean reached into his pocket and fished out a dull copper piece. Speaker 2 (5:49) This copper piece is my entire life savings. I don't have two coins to rub together because I only own one. And that's WITH Ginger helping us on the farm! Speaker 1 (6:03) If Speaker 2 (6:03) we lost this horse, you and I would be sunk! Speaker 3 (6:08) Don't you think? I think, son, that it's a coin. Speaker 1 (6:16) Sai took the coin and flipped it, front to back and back to front. Sean wrinkled his brow. Uh, yeah, it's a coin. Speaker 2 (6:27) But