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Overview
The Frog King, worshipped beside the Yangtze-kiang, arranges a marriage between his tenth daughter and Sia Kung-Schong. Her father appears as an elderly man, and she is introduced as a beautiful young woman. Their marriage brings prosperity, while frogs fill the household. The narrative gives her a frog-family identity but does not describe her changing into a frog or supply an amphibian body for her human appearance.
Sia’s habit of killing frogs provokes the first separation; after sickness strikes the household, his father’s prayers bring reconciliation. A later quarrel over household work leads to another expulsion and a destructive fire. Sia confronts the god, who then directs villagers to rebuild the house, and the princess returns. After two peaceful years, Sia frightens her with a hidden snake. She leaves once more, and this time no disaster immediately follows.
More than a year later, as Sia falls ill with remorse, she returns despite having been promised to another man. She has personally returned that family’s wedding gifts and chooses to remain with Sia. Their relationship improves, she asks heaven for children, and they have two sons. She and her husband later intercede for people who have angered the Frog King. The closing nickname for their descendants is linked by the edition’s note to a derogatory regional expression; that gloss is not evidence that a real regional population descends from frogs.
Origins & earliest records
Chinese tales mediated by Richard Wilhelm and Frederick H. Martens
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and its attached source note read in the retained1921-edition transcription.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Chinese Fairy Book
LXXII, The Frog Princess, pp.275–283; New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company
Family, evolution & connections
Frog King, princess and two sons — Wilhelm LXXII
The complete LXXII narrative and note, pp.275–283.
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- Frog King
- Their two unnamed sons (collective group)
Explicit father/daughter introduction, completed marriage and two-son ending. The princess is called tenth daughter, but other daughters are not separately rendered. The sons are unnamed. The rejected Yuan marriage is excluded. The closing real-population identification is a prejudicial editorial claim, not verified biological descent or ethnography.
The Frog King
The Frog King introduces the princess as his tenth daughter. Other daughters are not individually named or portrayed here; no wider frog-species genealogy is inferred.
Sia Kung-Schong
The princess marries Sia and later returns to him after repeated separations. She returns the Yuan family’s gifts and declines that proposed marriage, so the Yuan suitor is not recorded as a second husband.
Her two sons with Sia Kung-Schong
After the couple reconcile, the narrative says they have two sons. Neither son receives a name or individual biography. The closing claim about a regional population is editorial prejudice, not verified descendant genealogy.
Primary records and illustrations
Richard Wilhelm/Frederick H. Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book (Stokes1921)
Literary Fairy Tales. LXXII, The Frog Princess, pp.275–283
Complete chapter, all narrative continuations and attached note read in wilhelm-LXXII.txt and29939.html. Individual identities and final outcome retained; no species anatomy or real-population ancestry inferred.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translated taleWilhelm/Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book, The Frog Princess, pp.275–283Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.