World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Beauty and the Beast
美女与野兽
Beaumont's fairy tale in 23 chapters, set in France in the 1700s. A rich merchant loses all his ships, and only Beauty, his youngest daughter, makes the best of their poor life in the country. Lost in a snowy forest, he finds an empty palace and picks one rose for her. Its master, a huge Beast, wants his life for that rose, and Beauty goes in his place.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — Tells Beaumont's French fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast.
- Beauty · 美儿 — The merchant's youngest daughter, about seventeen: cheerful, hard-working and honest, she loves books and her father.
- Father · 爸爸 — A gentle, timid merchant with three sons and three daughters, who loses all his ships.
- Eldest Sister · 大姐 — Beauty's eldest sister, proud and vain, who will marry no one less than a duke or a count.
- Second Sister · 二姐 — Beauty's second sister, lazy, loud and greedy, who sleeps till ten and follows the eldest in everything.
- Eldest Brother · 大哥 — The eldest of Beauty's three brothers, loyal and hot-headed, who speaks for them all.
- The Beast · 野兽 — The huge, frightening master of a palace deep in the forest, with scales and a trunk like an elephant's, who loves his roses.
- The Young Man · 年轻人 — A young man with kind dark eyes, in a green coat with silver buttons.
- The Good Fairy · 仙女 — A tall lady with silver hair under a pale-blue veil and a grave, kind face.
23 chapters in 5 parts
Part 1: The Rose 玫瑰花
Chapter 1: The Lost Ships
船都没有了
Beauty would rather read and stay with her father than marry a rich man. Then one day her father comes home with terrible news.
Free to read
Chapter 2: Just One Rose
我只要玫瑰花
The letter sends Father on a trip, his daughters each ask for a gift, and Beauty asks for the smallest one, but the road home is long and cold.
Free to read
Chapter 3: The Beast in the Garden
花园里的野兽
Father follows the light through the snow. Someone has left him a fire, a hot meal and new clothes, but no one answers when he calls.
Free to read
Chapter 4: A Life for a Rose
用命换的玫瑰花
Caught with the rose, Father begs for his life, but the Beast hates fine words and has a terrible price in mind.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 5: The Road to the Palace
去宫殿的路
That night Father finds a secret he can show only Beauty. Then comes a goodbye full of tears, and not all of them are real.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Part 2: The Young Man in the Dream 梦里的人
Chapter 6: That Night
那天晚上
The Beast is waiting for Beauty's answer, and her father is shaking. One word from her, and there is no going back.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 7: Beauty's Room
美儿的房间
Alone in the palace, Beauty counts her hours. A door with her name on it, a book with gold letters and a big mirror show her more than she ever expected.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 8: Supper with the Beast
和野兽吃晚饭
The Beast asks for the truth about his face, and Beauty never lies. Then, as he turns to go, he has one more question.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 9: Who Is He?
他是谁？
Beauty must answer the Beast's question, the young man comes back to her dreams that night, and in the morning a room full of mirrors holds a surprise.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Part 3: Nine O'Clock 九点
Chapter 10: Where Is He?
他在哪儿？
Beauty wears the bracelet and sets out to find the man in its picture. At nine the Beast asks his question again, and that night a new fear keeps her awake.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 11: The Talking Birds
会说话的鸟
Beauty opens door after door in search of the young man, and the palace has surprises waiting. At nine the Beast asks again, and that night someone visits her dream.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 12: Nine O'Clock
九点
Three months on, Beauty counts the hours until nine, and tonight, after his question, she tells the Beast the truth.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 13: The Ring
戒指
The Beast has asked her to promise she will never leave, and Beauty's face is red. What will she tell him?
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Part 4: I'll Come Back 我会回来的
Chapter 14: Home Again
回家
Beauty falls asleep in the palace with the Beast's ring, and in her dream the man by the water asks her a question that hurts.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 15: Two Sisters
两个姐姐
At Father's house Beauty chooses a dress from the chest of gold, and that afternoon her two sisters come to see her.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 16: Kind Sisters
好姐姐
Eldest Sister stops crying: she has an idea. Soon Beauty's sisters are kinder to her than ever, and her week at home flies by.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 17: Don't Go Back!
不要回去！
Tonight Beauty must go back to the palace, as she promised. Her sisters have one evening to stop her, and Beauty has a question for Father about her dreams.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 18: The Tenth Night
第十个晚上
A dream takes Beauty back to the palace garden on her tenth night away. Someone is crying by the water, and morning may come too late.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Part 5: Beauty's Answer 美儿的回答
Chapter 19: Back at the Palace
回到宫殿
Beauty opens her eyes in the palace, puts on her finest dress for the Beast and counts every hour until nine.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 20: By the Water
在水边
Beauty searches every room of the silent palace for the Beast, until she remembers where her dream showed him.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 21: Beauty's Answer
美儿的回答
By the dark water, Beauty begs the Beast not to leave her, and at last she listens to her heart.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 22: Long Ago
很久以前
Beauty wants her Beast, not a handsome stranger. But the stranger by the water has a story from long ago to tell her.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Chapter 23: The Lady of the Dreams
梦里的女人
In the great hall, the lady of Beauty's dreams has kind words for Beauty, and very different words for her two sisters.
SayMei Stories Unlimited
Key words in Beauty and the Beast
Behind the story
Beauty and the Beast (美女与野兽) is a French fairy tale. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve published a long version of it in 1740. In 1756 Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont told it again, much shorter, in Magasin des enfants, a book for children. This book follows Beaumont's telling in simple Chinese.
Some of the palace's wonders come from Villeneuve, through Andrew Lang's English version of her tale in The Blue Fairy Book (1889). So does the Beast's look: he is huge and covered in scales that clank when he moves, with a trunk like an elephant's. Neither writer names a country, so this book sets the tale in their own country, France (法国, Fǎguó), in the 1700s.
In Beaumont's French the youngest daughter is called by a word for “the beautiful one”, because she was so beautiful as a child. Her sisters are jealous of the name. In Chinese she is 美儿 (Měi'ér), from 美 (měi), “beautiful”. The Beast is 野兽 (Yěshòu), “wild beast”: his name and what he is.
Did you know?
- The Chinese title, 美女与野兽 (Měinǚ yǔ yěshòu), means “the beautiful woman and the wild beast”.
- Chinese families often call brothers and sisters by their order of birth. Beauty calls her sisters 大姐 (dàjiě), “eldest sister”, and 二姐 (èrjiě), “second sister”, and the eldest of her three brothers is 大哥 (dàgē), “eldest brother”.
- 玫瑰花 (méiguīhuā), “rose”, is one of this book's story words. Beauty asks her father for one rose, because no roses grow where they live now.