When the Qing-dynasty writer Pu Songling authored Liao Zhai (one of China's best known collections of short stories), he was remembering the stories he had heard from business travelers. The Iliad and the Odyssey were inspired by popular ballads, and Grimm's Fairy Tales were adapted from Rhenish folklore.
例如《聊齋》的故事就是作者蒲松齡自行旅商人口中點點滴滴聽來，而希臘的經典文學《奧狄賽》、《伊利亞德》來自民間的英雄傳奇彈唱，孩子們熟悉的《格林童話》也是來自德國萊茵河的民間故事改編而成。