Animals in court: Swallow vs. Sparrow and Rat vs. Cat

The animal fable and the animal epic have played a major role in many literary traditions from Southeast Asia to Northwest Europe. In China, however, the true animal fable featuring talking animals never became a major genre in high literature despite the numerous translations of Buddhist jataka. The major reason for this absence of true animal fables in high literature probably has to be sought in the aversion to fiction in high literature. In more popular genres of Chinese literature, animal tales are not so rare and often the narrative is structured by a law case. Following a brief discussion of the rhymed versions of the case of the swallow and the sparrow known from Dunhuang, I will continue by a discussion of the case of the rat against the cat, argued in the underworld before King Yama as judge. In the nineteenth century (and the first half of the twentieth century) this tale was popular all over China and written up in a wide variety of local genres.