Included within The Magic Paintbrush is a wonderful message about being kind to others and putting generosity over greed. Good triumphs over evil, and Ma Liang makes his community a better place. This is an important lesson to inspire your young children with, and is a common theme in many great books you might be reading in class or at home.

Ma Liang had the last laugh as he rode away on a white horse that he had drawn with the magic paintbrush. But the landlord and his men were not far behind, chasing him with swords drawn. Ma Liang calmly drew a bow and arrow with the brush and shot the landlord in the throat, killing him instantly. Ma Liang then galloped away and eventually arrived in the next village, safe and sound. The Fairy Tale of The Magic Paintbrush After the emperor’s death, the story of Ma Liang and the magic paintbrush spread far and wide. But no one knew where Ma Liang went. Some said he returned to his hometown, while others claimed he travelled far and wide, using his magic paintbrush to help the poor wherever he went. The mountain is on the other side of the sea.” replied Liang. “I’ll show you.” Liang drew the golden mountain on the other side of the sea. The rich man wanted to show off his power so he invited some friends to his house. He drew a lot of pictures, but not one picture became real. The rich man figured there must be some special secret that he didn’t know about, so he sent for Liang. When Liang stood before him he said, “If you draw some pictures for me and they become real, I will let you go free.” There was once a young boy named Ma Liang. He lived in a small village in China. He was poor and friendly, and he loved to draw. His love for painting was too much so he drew paintings all over the place.

Navigation menu

From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever people needed help. When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river and the river came to life. People could bring water from the river to the field and save a lot of time and energy. But a few days later, the rich man whom Ma Liang helped heard that the magic paint brush could turn everything to life. He was a bad man so he had an idea to steal the paint brush from the young man. He knew that he could make a lot of money by turning things to life and keeping them, so he sent some people to the Ma Liang's home and took him to the prison. He got the magic paintbrush and felt very happy. He was overjoyed when he finally got his hands on the paintbrush, and he brought his pals around to see his new acquisition. He drew many pictures, but none of them seemed to come alive for him. I’ll draw you a boat to get to the mountain,” said Liang. And he drew a golden dragon boat that was even bigger and more beautiful than the emperor’s boat. The rich man climbed aboard the boat and stood in the bow facing the golden mountain. He said to Liang,” Now draw me a wind to take the boat to the mountain.” Liang began to draw a wind, and the boat set sail. The rich man stretched his arms out to grab the golden mountain. “Make the wind stronger so I can get there faster,” he said to Liang. Liang kept drawing and the wind got stronger. Soon the wind became a terrible gale and the rich man’s beautiful boat sank beneath the sea and took him down with it. The moral lesson of “ The Magic Paint brush “ is that one should use their talents and abilities for the benefit of others , rather than just for personal gain .

We bought this book when Katie was 2 years old and I think she was too young for it then, she would listen to it and look at pictures, but I don't think she had much of an understanding of the story. I would say that you could start around 3 years old and that pretty much every 5 year old would understand it well, while it would remain attractive to children up to at least 8-9 years old, maybe older? In fact, I liked it a lot myself! The young man smiled quietly and drew a big ship. The rich man jumped into the ship and set off to find the gold but when the ship sailed to the middle of the sea, Ma Liang drew a large wave which destroyed the ship and the rich man was never seen in the village again. If you'd like to plan even more lessons exploring this folktale, you'll want to take a look at these activities. If you have a child of pre-school or early school age it's likely you would have at least heard of Julia Donaldson, who, in her partnership with the illustrator Axel Scheffler has created several best-selling books for young children, including the most popular Gruffalo which spawned a true cult. Magic Paintbrush is also a Julia Donaldson's book, and it's also written in rhyme as most of her others, but it's not illustrated by Axel Scheffler and it's a different kind of book.

The Moral Lesson of “The Magic Paintbrush”

I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs.

People say that Liang married a beautiful girl from his village and had a big family, and they were happy all their days. The emperor laughed and asked Ma Liang to draw a boat so they could shake the money tree. So Ma Liang drew a big wooden boat and the emperor and his guards boarded it. One night Liang dreamed that an old man gave him a paintbrush. The man said it was a magic paintbrush and Liang should use it to help people. When Liang woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that he had a beautiful paintbrush in his hand. Liang was hungry, so he painted a bowl of rice. Suddenly the rice became real, and he ate it. Now he felt happy, so he drew a bird. The bird came to life and flew away.The story is about a girl called Shen who is given the amazing gift of a magic paintbrush. She is told never to paint for rich people but to use it to help the poor. But the emperor hears about Shen and decides he will use her gift to add to his already enormous wealth. Shen of course refuses and is thrown into jail by him. As her paintings come to life she finds a way to get herself out of jail and get rid of this horrible Emperor once and for all. Because Shen is a beautiful person she decides against it but finds a way for the whole village to live happily ever after.