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| One often reads about foxes with a flair for poetry, but
fox painters are a rare phenomenon. The following story is told by Li Yanting,
a native of Haiyang. Toward the end of the Shunzhi reign and at the beginning
of the Kangxi reign, a scholar named Zhou Xun made frequent tours in Hunan
and Henan. Famous for his paintings of pine trees, Zhou was once invited
by a scholar to paint the wall of his studio. In the finished work the
pine tree had its roots in a corner of the west wall, its trunk sweeping
across the north wall, and the top branches brushing the east wall by a
foot or two. A look at the picture made one feel cool and fresh, as if
being bathed in a gentle breeze. The scholar invited some friends to a
feast to appreciate the painting together.
The guest were standing before the wall gesticulating and uttering cries of admiration when one of them clapped his hands and burst out laughing. In the next moment the whole room was rocking with laughter. What they saw was a pornographic picture under the pine tree depicting a large wooden bed covered in a long mat. In this bed lay a naked couple in passionate love-making while exchanging amorous glances. Two young maids, also stark naked, stood beside the bed to wait on the couple, one waving a fan to keep off flies and mosquitoes, the other putting her hands on the pillow of her mistress to prevent it from being shaken to the floor by the vigorous movements of the couple. These were none other than the scholar with his wife and concubines. The guests went up to take a closer look and found the portraits extremely lifelike; even the servants recognized the characters and covered their mouths to hide their smiles. Furious, the scholar looked up into the air and flung a string of abuses against some evil fox. Suddenly they heard laughter on the eaves. "You are such a rude man," the voice said. "Mr. Zhou's expertise in painting pine trees reached my ears long ago, but it was not until last night that I finally had a chance to feast my eyes on this masterpiece. I sat before the painting unwilling to leave, so I did not avoid you in time, but neither did I throw bricks or tiles at you. Your rude remarks came as a gratuitous insult, so I got my own back by playing this prank on you. If you do not repent and go on giving yourself airs like that, I will draw that little picture on your gate to amuse the passersby. Think about it carefully." It turned out that the scholar, carrying lit candles, had come to the studio with a servant the night before to get some vessels ready for the feast when a dark creature jumped up and scurried out the door. Knowing it must be a fox, the scholar had hurled abuses at it. With the guests acting as mediators, the fox was invited to join them at the table. A chair was brought for the fox who remained invisible, although people could hear its voice. It downed the wine cup in one gulp whenever it was filled, but it did not touch any dish, saying it had abstained from meat for over four hundred years. When the feast was coming to an end, the fox said to the scholar, "You are such a clever man that you tend to be proud and insolent because of your ability. This is harmful to the cultivation of virtue and self-preservation. Take what happened today, for instance. It is lucky for you to have met me. If it had been a fox as easily offended as you are, you would have got yourself into an endless string of troubles. Only knowledge can transform a person's disposition, so please strive for improvement in that respect." By this time, the fox's painting had vanished without a trace. The following day there suddenly appeared on the east wall of the studio several sprays of peach blossoms in a backdrop of black moss and green grass. The blossoms were not dense. Some were in full bloom, some still in petals, some scattered on the ground, and some on the point of withering. Especially vivid and enchanting were about eight or nine petals floating in mid-air and dancing in the wind. Two lines by the early Tang poet Yang Shidao were inscribed on the painting: Among fragrant grass untrodden by man, Petals are falling in the empty hill. No signature was found on the painting, which must have been done by the fox in return for the previous day's feast. At the sight of the painting Zhou Xun gasped in admiration. "The use of ink and brush strokes is perfectly natural! In comparison,my works look affected and lacking in sincerity." |
