Book Review: The Seven Chinese Brothers

The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng, Scholastic, New York, 1990.  This is a fascinating Chinese story about what happens to a bad emperor.  Not to be confused with "The Five Chinese Brothers" which is very similar in its theme.  In this case each of the brothers has a special gift: hearing, seeing, strength, iron neck, legs that grow, resistance to fire, and crying tears like a river.  The first six brothers always wanted to keep the seventh brother from crying.  Te strong brother helps to alleviate suffering by repairing a hole in the great wall.  However the emperor is jealous, and has him captured as he is too strong.  He is sentenced to die next die by chopping off his neck, but the next brother trades places, and so it goes, until the emperor orders death by arrows.  At this all the brothers agree to face the emperor and die together, which causes the seventh brother to cry a river, and washes the emperor away.  This is a cute story with a good moral.