Special 390 Chinese Fables Postage Stamps

To promote teenager's knowledge of Chinese classics and to introduce to them the beauty of Chinese literature, the Directorate has chosen to make a set of four stamps based on the following fables: "A Frog in a Well," "The Fox Borrows the Tiger's Ferocity," "Adding Legs to a Drawing of a Snake" and "The Snipe and the Clam are at a Deadlock."

The Chinese term "yuyen," or fable, came from Chuang-tzu, and it meant "writing that offers sustenance." Later it came to mean all kinds of speeches that use stories as metaphors. Various schools of philosophers in the late Chou dynasty used this form to expound and promote their ideologies. It was also a rhetorical method employed by the lobbyists of the Epoch of the Warring States to persuade rulers, ministers and generals of their positions. In order to ease understanding, fables often used in stories about animals to comment on the affairs of the human world, giving their listeners indirect advice and warnings in the hope of educating them, dissuading them from acts of folly, and encouraging them to make proper reforms. Worthy of glorifying and promoting, these fables are brief, to the point and philosophical, and their titles have become idioms used in everyday life: "a frog in a well" means a man of very limited experience, "the fox borrows the tiger's ferocity" means bullying people by flaunting one's powerful connections, "adding legs to a drawing of a snake" means ruining an effect by adding something superfluous, and "the snipe and the clam are at a deadlock" means it's the third party that benefits from the tussle.

1.首日封 每個新臺幣 2元 
2.貼票卡 每張新臺幣 6元 
3.護票卡 每張新臺幣 8元 
4.活頁集郵卡( 連護卡套)每張新臺幣 8元 
以上均自民國87年9月23日起開始發售。
5.預銷首日戳低值封 每個新臺幣7元 
6.預銷首日戳套票封 每個新臺幣43元 

以上均自民國87年9月25日起開始發售