The Miao minority group in southwestern China fascinates the world with its beautiful silver necklaces, embroidery, and batik art. With a history of more than 5,000 years, Miao people have colorful culture and lots of funny folktales. A Smart Daughter-in-Law is one of the old stories that have been passed down for centuries.

An old man had three sons, and two of them had got married. Living together with his sons, the old man was in charge of the family. Year after year, the old man gradually felt himself too old to manage the family. So he planned to let one of his daughters-in-law manage the family. But to find out who was the smarter of the two, he would have to put them to some tests.

When the Miao new year was coming, the old man told his two daughters-in-law: “We will need a few things to prepare our ancestor worship ceremony: two turtles without feet, two crucians without
scale, two pigs’ feet with black bones, and two white radishes which have red inside. You begin to search for them now. Whoever finds them first will be in charge of the family instead of me.

The two daughters-in-law went out to look for those things, but how could they find the things that didn’t exist at all?” They felt helpless, and cried. A girl who lived nearby heard their cry and asked them what happened. After hearing the two women’s explanation, the girl said, ” All these things are at your home, so you don’t need to go out to look for them?” “Are you kidding?” the two women said, “We don’t have those things at home.” The girl then explained, “The turtles without feet are actually glutinous rice paste. New cloth shoes prepared for the new year are in fact the fishes without scale. Eggs are white radishes with red inside. And a piece of burning charcoal is a pig’s foot with a black bone.”

Enlightened by what the girl told them, the two women went home. Then they found all these things at home, and showed them to the old man. Surprised, the old man said, “I am glad that you have found all these things. But did you find them by yourself, or did someone else tell you what they are? If you did it yourself, you will have more tests. If someone helped you, you should tell me who.”

The two daughters-in-law didn’t want any more test, so they told him the truth. The old man was very happy to know this, so he asked, ” Do you know the girl’s age? Please go and ask her whether or not she would like to marry my youngest son.” In the girl’s home, the two women repeated the old man’s offer to the girl, who then said, “I can marry his youngest son only if he agrees to let me take charge of the whole family.”

The old man agreed. Soon the girl brought her beautiful pure silver necklaces, and got married to the youngest son. She took the responsibility of managing the whole family. The family prospered under her management.

Seeing the wealth of the family grew so rapidly, a local tyrant became jealous. He told the old man, ” I learnt that the wife of your youngest son is very clever, who can build wealth out of nothing. Now, I want a pig’s head which is as big as a mountain. If you can’t show me that in three days, I will confiscate all your property!”

The old man was very scared and asked his youngest daughter-in-law for help. The girl said, ” Don’t be scared by his words. Tomorrow you go to ask him how much the mountain weighs, so we can give a pig’s head which weights as much as the mountain.”

The next day the old man went to the tyrant and asked him, “ I have many pig’s heads at home. Please tell me how much your mountain weighs, so I can give you one with the same weight.”

The tyrant was dumbfounded by the question. Some time passed before he could reply, “OK, I give up the pig’s head. Now I want wine as much as the water in the river.” After the old man told this to his youngest daughter-in-law, the lady said, ” Ask him how many bowls of water there is in the river, so we will give the same amount of wine to him.”

And the old man went to see the tyrant and told him what his daughter-in-law said. The tyrant was dumb again. After a while he said, “OK, I give up the wine. But now I want you to show me a rooster that can lay eggs.” After learning this from the old man, the girl said, ” You stay at home tomorrow. I will go to meet that bad egg.”

The next day the girl went to the tyrant and said, “ Hey! About the rooster, my father-in-law haven’t started looking for it yet. Can you wait for a few days?” The tyrant asked, “ Why didn’t he start looking for it yet?” The girl replied, ” Yesterday evening he gave birth to a baby. Now he needs to have some rest at home.” The tyrant yelled, ” Full of bullshit! How can a man have a baby?” The girl said, ” if a man can’t have a baby, how can a rooster lay eggs?”

Embarrassed at the question, the tyrant stopped asking for things from the old man since then.

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