Andrew
Folktale
In the large city of Shanghai, a young man named Yon Ying left his family in hope of a new life. His older brother stayed home because he was afraid that he might not be accepted.
The younger brother went away to Beijing to work for a Rich French man while the older brother stayed home and never got any job because he had no self-confidence.
The younger brother's employer died. So Yon Ying went home to Shanghai and met his brother, Yin Ying, and his mother and father.
Yon Ying was a lot taller and well fed because the French man had fed him well. Yin Ying was short and skinny, with no anticipation to leave. Even so the Younger brother went and asked the older brother to try to get a job. "No I am to scared to go. What if I don't get the job?" Said Yin Ying.
Yon Ying got a job on a junk and was sailing up and down the Yanzee River. He asked the older brother to come along but again he was too afraid to try.
The boat was exhilarating work to Yon Ying and he was a good helper on the junk. The junk he was working on was called the "Wise Glider." Yon Ying loved his job so. But one day the boat came to a rock under water that no one saw. The Wise Glider was sinking. The Brother was the only one to survive through the night.
He washed up on the shores of Hankow.
He had all or the money he had earned in the four years as a servant and two years as a sailor with him. He got a ride on a boat to Shanghai and went to his old home only to find that his parents had been dead for a year.
He was looking for a job and he failed three of the tests to be prepared for the job.
On the fourth interview he got a job just outside of Shanghai as a cook
For a British Architect who was building houses for young people whom wanted new houses and would help with the work and pay a smaller fee.
He ran into his older Brother, Yin Ying, and said, "Hello Brother. What happened to you?" Yin Ying said, " I have been on the streets ever since mother and father died. I tried to get a job but when I tried to get an interview no one would give me one." Yon Ying said "Why would any one? You have had no jobs all your life, you are fifty years old and you are weak.
You have been caterd to all your life and had all fun and no work. You would be hard to train. They could get a young and feeble worker that would be a fast learner. Why would a person even pick you as a coolie to take them down the block. You had your chance to have a good job but you were lazy
And never looked for a job."
Yin Ying was a beggar with no home for the rest of his short misrable life.
Yon Ying lived a long and happy life.
The Proverb this folktale is based
on is "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.