| A scholar of Dongcang prefecture was traveling one night in open country
when he caught sight of a magnificent mansion. “This should be the
site of a family grave,” Dong wondered. “Where did this house come
from? Maybe it has been conjured up by foxes.” As he had read
many stories about a young scholar meeting and marrying a lovely fox-woman,
he expected the same to happen to himself and he slowed his pace.
After a while a team of carriages came up from the west, the people all
resplendently clad. A middle-aged woman lifted the window curtain
and pointed at the scholar, “That is a nice young man. We can invite
him in.” Stealing a glance into the carriage, the scholar was overjoyed
to see a maiden as beautiful as a fairy seated at the back. The carriages
drove into the house, and then out came two maids to the scholar with the
host’s invitation. Convinced that he was meeting a host of foxes,
the scholar entered without asking the host’s name. A sumptuous feast
was laid out, but the host did not appear at once. His heart pounding
with anticipation, the scholar waited anxiously for the moment to enter
the bridal room with the fox-maiden. In the evening the air was filled
with the sound of gongs and drums as well as wind instruments. Lifting
the door curtain, an old man came in a bowed to the scholar with clasped
hands. “The bridegroom has finally arrived. As a scholar you
must be familiar with the procedures of a wedding ceremony. My family
is honored to have you as the best man.” The scholar was sorely disappointed
on hearing this. Since no one had promised to marry the maiden to
him, he could find no excuse to refuse to be the best man, especially after
his carousing at the feast. After going through the wedding procedures
as fast as he could, he took his leave in low spirits. His family
was looking for him all over the place since he had failed to return for
the night. When he described what had happened to him indignantly,
the listeners all burst out laughing. One of them said, “You cannot
blame the foxes for playing a trick on you, for it was you who played a
trick on yourself!”
When Dong Qiuyuan finished his story, I told mine. A man named
Li Erhun, who could not make ends meet, left for the capital to make a
living. When he met a young woman riding a donkey along the way,
he went up to her and tried to make her talk by teasing and joking.
The woman did not look offended but simply ignored him. The following
day they met again on the road. Throwing a bundle wrapped with a
handkerchief, she called back, “I will stop in Gu’an County tonight.”
Li opened the bundle to find a few pieces of jewelry inside. He had
just run out of money to pay for his trip, so he took the jewelry to a
nearby pawnshop. It turned out that these had just been stolen from
the shop. Tied up and flogged, Li had no choice but to plead guilty
to the theft. At the end of the story, I remarked that Li Erhun was
indeed the victim of a hoax played by the fox. Dong Quiyuan disagreed.
“If he had not made passes at the young woman, would he have suffered such
consequences? I would still say he played the trick on himself.”
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