兒時記趣 (Childhood story) is a famous piece of writing by an author (沈復) of the Ching Dynasty and is often taught in the Chinese Language Art textbook in junior high school.  It is an example of classical Chinese.  I had never heard of it before, as I left Taiwan after fifth grade.  Nevertheless, since it is on the 7th grade first semester CLA textbook we received as a hand-me-down from a relative in Taiwan, I thought it would be good for DD#2 to study a couple of short passages such as this.

「兒時記趣」

作者：沈復 (1763-1825)

余憶童稚時，能張目對日，明察秋毫。見藐小微物，必細察其紋理，故時有物外之趣。

夏蚊成雷，私擬作群鶴舞空，心之所向，則或千或百，果然鶴也；昂首觀之，項為之強。又留蚊於素帳中，徐噴以煙，使之沖煙飛鳴，作青雲白鶴觀；果如鶴唳雲端，為之怡然稱快。

又常於土牆凹凸處、花臺小草叢雜處，蹲其身，使與臺齊；定神細視，以叢草為林，蟲蟻為獸；以土礫凸者為丘，凹者為壑，神遊其中，怡然自得。

一日，見二蟲鬥草間，觀之，興正濃，忽有龐然大物，拔山倒樹而來，蓋一癩蝦蟆也。舌一吐而二蟲盡為所吞。余年幼，方出神，不覺呀然驚恐。神定，捉蝦蟆，鞭數十，驅之別院。

 

Here is DD’s read-aloud:

 

Here is an educational video on it:

 

Supposedly the following last paragraph is omitted and not taught since it is not rated G, more like PG, 🤣.

年長思之，二蟲之鬥，蓋圖奸不從也，古語云：「奸近殺。」 蟲亦然耶？貪此生涯，卵為蚯蚓所哈，腫不能便，捉鴨開口哈之，婢嫗偶釋手，鴨顛其頸作吞噬狀，驚而大哭，傳為語柄。此皆幼時閑情也。