Author Archives: Xingyu Chen

Fox Pranks

My friend who took Japanese Literature last semester contributed this story, since one of the chapters was all about Japanese folktales. She admits this story fits her impression on most of the fox stories they read on class – the foxes love pulling pranks on people – for pleasure or for their own good, but with no intention of hurting anyone. 

Story:

”

A yin-yang master moved in to a haunted house. He began his move in an unusual way by taking only a straw matt with him. He dismissed all the servants and asked them to bring the carriage back the next day.  The house was old and huge, and the interior was all warped and torn. The yin-yang master cleaned up a corner and set up the matt to lay down. He soon fell asleep, but was awaken in the middle of the night by a sound of rustling from the ceiling. There are faces everywhere, but when he calmed himself and look again, they all disappeared.

Next, a closet door opened and a tiny lady came out, with dark hair covering all over her body, and a red fan hidding most of her face. Her forehead was white and the eyes were beautiful, though the way she looks at the yin-yang master was sinister. The yin-yang master thought she would have a beautiful face, but as she moved the fan aside, her nose was bright red, and a pair of long fangs stuck out from the corners of her mouth! The yin-yang master was a little bit shocked but she crawled back into the closet.

It was nearly dawn now, but the yin-yang master was still lying there, alert and untroubled. An old man came from the garden outside, knelt in front of him and bowed. He told the yin-yang master with respect that, what he encountered was a little pranks held by the youngster in the fox tribe to demonstrated their fury at someone invading their home. The yin-yang master answered that this house is meant for human and it is only normal that people buy and use this property. The old man apologized and asked for advice, so the yin-yang master told him that he can lead his tribe to move to this vacant lot in such such place. The old man agreed and left. From then on, nothing supernatural ever happened again in that house.

”

Thoughts:

In this particular tale, fox is represented as mischievous and magical, which is fairly common theme in many of the fox tales, but there are other entries of fox tales I got from both this friend and others served for comparisons. Since fox is often sly and hard to catch, mischievous and evil are the tags people often associate it with.

Fox’s revenge

A friend of mine, who’s an international exchange student from Japan now currently studying in China, contributes this story. She says she could not remember where she heard of this story, but this story left her a deep impression because protecting animals from abuse is always her thing. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story:

”

A retainer was heading home one day at night when he saw a fox. He chased it down and shot at it with an arrow and hit it in the back leg. The fox screamed in pain and rolled into the brush. As the retainer went to retrieve the arrow the fox appear in front of him, but when he tried to shot it again, the fox disappeared in the air. The retainer then continued heading home. When he’s almost there, he saw the fox running ahead with a flaming branch in its mouth. As the fox got to his house, it transformed into a human and set the retainer’s house on fire, and changed back into a fox right after and got away. The house burned down.

”

Thoughts:

In this particular tale, fox is is a powerful creature, but there are other entries of fox tales I got from both this friend and others served for comparisons. This tale also serves to teach people a moral lesson that never disturb the animals let alone to abuse them, and that what you did others would eventually come back and bite you.

Fox as Protector God

A friend of mine, who’s an international exchange student from Japan now currently studying in China, contributes this story. Since she always says fox is her spirit animal, this story about a fox protector god is her favorite to share. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story:

”

A healer were once called to get rid of the spirit that was making someone ill. The spirit then turned out to be a fox. The fox explained that he did not causing anyone sick intentionally but was only hoping to find food. The fox then took out a little white ball (foxes often have one, according to the setting of the tale), tossing it around and playing it, but a young man quickly grabbed the ball from the fox. The fox cried and pleaded for the man to give it back to him, saying if the man did not give it back to him, he would be his enemy forever but if he did, he would be the man’s protector god. The man took the deal and returned the ball to the fox.

Sometime later the man went on a trip and when he was on his way home at night, he got lost. He was scared because the neighborhood was known to be dangerous. He suddenly remembered the fox’s promise and called “Fox! Fox!”. In an instant, the fox came to him. The man asked the fox to stay with him so the fox did, and he even went ahead to lead the way, avoiding all the usual paths. Both of them kept quiet and cautious. When they were passing a fence, the man overheard a group of men planning to commit their robbery on the usual path for the travelers, while the fox led him a way that no one else would expect him to go. The fox disappeared once the man was safe. The fox stayed to his words and often rescued the man later. Touched by the fox’s royalty, the man was glad that he chose to return the ball.

”

Thoughts:

In this particular tale, fox is naughty but is not bad, and even a royal animal, but there are other entries of fox tales I got from both this friend and others served for comparisons. Though most fox tales portray fox as a sly animal, royal fox is actually not an uncommon theme in East Asian tales.

Loving fox

My friend who took Japanese Literature last semester contributed this story, since one of the chapters was all about Japanese folktales. She personally thinks this story is quite weird but since I specifically asked for fox stories (for comparison purpose), this is what she remembered.  

Story:

”

A man was walking at night along the street in Tokyo when he encountered an extraordinary beautiful woman. He took the chance and started a conversation with her, only later the conversation developed to luring her into a one night stand. The woman, however, tried to hold him off, saying that even she’d love to do this, having sex with her would result in his death. The man, however, was too excited to thought through and kept pressing himself on her that she finally gave in. She said since she could not refuse the man, she would die in his place, but only begged him to copy Lotus Sutra for her as a gesture of gratitude. The man was not taking her seriously, and eventually got what he wanted. At dawn the woman got up and asked the man for his fan before leaving. She told him that she’s gonna die for him, and if he did not believe her, just go to this place [some place in Tokyo that the informant could not recall] and he’ll see.

During the day, the man went to that place and found a dead fox lying there with his fan over its body. He was extremely sorry and copied Lotus Sutra for her. Days after, he dreamed of the fox in the woman’s form, telling him that thanks to him, she is now born in the Heaven.

”

Thoughts:

Upon some research, I learned that fox has always been an important figure in East Asian folklores, especially in China and Japan. These tales of fox represent the culture of animal worship, or more specifically, fox worship. Since fox loves to reside near or in human’s household, while being sly and seems to appear and disappear mysteriously, human tends to interpret fox as an animal with supernatural power. In China, fox, along with weasel, snake, hedgehog, and mouse, are known as five gods. All of these five animals can be easily found near human households, can do harm to people’s properties such as livestock and stored goods, but at the same time are hard to catch. Over time, people began to worship them, in hope of if showing enough respect, they would not do any damage and in turn bring prosperity. Another theory of fox worship is that fox would hunt field mice that damage the crops, and thus helps farmers. In fact, in Japan, fox is believed to be the massager of Inari Ōkami, a god of fertility and rice. However, as foreign religions such as Buddhism become more and more popular in East Asia, these regional religions of animal worship are oppressed. Fox is then given the characteristic of evil, while before that fox is only a magical animal that would bring prosper and good luck.

In this particular tale, fox is represented as a kind and loving animal, but there are other entries of fox tales I got from both this friend and others served for comparisons.

In addition, it is fairly common in East Asian fox tales that foxes transformed into beautiful women and seduce / fall in love with human men.

Sparrow’s gift

A friend of mine, who’s an international exchange student from Japan now currently studying in China, contributes this story. She read this story from a Japanese traditional story book, but she says this story is actually quite well-known. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story:

”

There were two poor old women living as neighbors in the village. One day, one of the old lady found an injured sparrow in her yard, so she took in the sparrow and took good care of it. Everyone in her family as well as the neighbors laughed at her for “seeking for troubles”, but she ignored them. She fed the sparrow rice and water every day, and tended its wound with great care. Days after, the sparrow was fully healed and the old lady let it flew away. However, the sparrow came back a while later with some seeds in its mouth. The sparrow left the seeds to the old lady and took off again. The old lady took the seeds and planted it in her yard. The next morning, where she planted the seeds now there has fully grown trees of countless gourds. Each gourd was as huge as a human head. The old lady took a gourd and opened it — the gourd was full of rice! The overjoyed lady then shared the rice and her amazing story with the neighbors and friends.

The other old woman of course learned the story. Since her family blamed her for not able to do anything for them while the lady next door get herself and her family trees of rice, she decided to do the same thing — tend for the sparrows and get the seeds. For the next few days, she threw stones at the sparrows stopped by in her yard and successfully hit one. However, to make sure she would get the magical seeds, she continued to do so till she got three injured sparrows in total. She then tends for the wounded sparrows just as her neighbor did, and let them go once they were healed. The three sparrows did come back with seeds, and the old woman planted them in her yard as well. The next day, just as she expected, there grew trees of huge gourds. She took gourds inside with her family and cut them open, excited to store all those rice for themselves. However, it was not rice in it but poisonous snacks and bugs. The woman and her family were all bite and died.

”

Thoughts:

Animal tales seems to be popular i Japan. In fact, this informant shared several animal tales with me, and every each of these tales were seemed to aim at teaching people a moral lesson through animals — this story would be a lesson of not to be jealous and greedy but to be kind. The ending of the story seemed to be a bit extreme but I think only through exaggeration the folklore could send out the message and warn people. A funny thing is, there is a similar Chinese folklore that every thing is the same except the old women were brothers in the Chinese version.