A scholar named Shang, of Mount Tai, lived alone in a quiet study. One autumn night, with the Milky Way shining high and a bright moon in the sky, he was pacing in the shadows of the flowers, his thoughts far away. Suddenly a girl came over the wall. “What are you thinking about so deeply, licentiate1?” she said, laughing. Shang went up to look at her: she was as lovely as an immortal. Amazed and delighted, he took her in his arms and led her inside, and there was no intimacy they did not share. She told him, “My family name is Hu2, and I am called Sanjie3.” When he asked where she lived, she only laughed and said nothing. He did not ask again; they simply promised to love each other always. From then on, not a night passed without her coming.

One night she sat knee to knee with him by the lamp, behind the bed curtains. Shang loved her so much that he could not take his eyes off her. She laughed. “Why do you stare at me so?” “To me you are like a red peony or a jade-peach blossom,” he said. “I could look at you all night and never tire of it.” “I am plain,” said Sanjie, “and still you favour me like this. If you saw our fourth sister, who knows how you would lose your head.” Shang was more stirred than ever. Longing for one sight of her face, he went down on his knees and begged. The next evening Sanjie did indeed bring Sijie. She was just fifteen, like a pink lotus hung with dew, like apricot blossom moist in the mist; she smiled sweetly, lovely beyond words. Shang was wild with joy and drew her to a seat. Sanjie laughed and chatted with him, but Sijie only toyed with her embroidered sash and kept her head down. Before long Sanjie rose to leave, and her sister made to go with her. Shang caught hold of her and would not let go. “Do put in a word for me, my dear,” he said to Sanjie. Sanjie laughed. “The madman can’t wait! Little sister, stay a while for his sake.” Sijie said nothing, and her sister left. The two of them took every pleasure together. Afterwards, with his arm for her pillow, she told him all about herself, keeping nothing back. She told him she was a fox4. Shang was too taken with her beauty to hold it against her. Then Sijie said, “My sister is vicious. She has already killed three men. Whoever she bewitches dies. You love me so dearly that I can’t bear to see you destroyed. You must break with her soon.” Shang was afraid and asked what he should do. “Though I am a fox,” said Sijie, “I have learned the true arts of the immortals. I will write a charm to paste on your bedroom door. It will keep her away.” And she wrote it. When it was light, Sanjie came, saw the charm and drew back. “The faithless little wretch!” she said. “Her heart is all for her new man, and she has forgotten who made the match. You two were meant for each other from a former life, and I bear you no grudge. But why go this far?” And she went straight off.

A few days later Sijie went away somewhere, promising to come back the night after next. That day Shang happened to step out of his gate to look around. At the foot of the hill there had long been an oak wood, and out of its dark tangle came a young woman, quite charming herself. She came up to him and said, “Why must the licentiate dote day after day on the Hu sisters? They can’t give you a single cash.” And she handed him a string of cash5. “Take this home first and buy some good wine,” she said. “I’ll bring a few dishes and we’ll have a merry time.” Shang put the money inside his robe, went home, and did as she told him. Soon she came, as she had said, and set on the table a roast chicken and a salted shoulder of pork. She drew a knife and sliced them thin. She poured the wine and teased him, and they got on wonderfully well. Then they put out the candle and went to bed, and their play was wanton in the extreme. Only at daybreak did they get up. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding her foot to put on her shoe, when they heard voices. As they listened, the speakers were already inside the bed curtains: it was the Hu sisters. The moment the woman saw them she fled in a panic, leaving a shoe on the bed. “Rank fox6!” the two girls shouted. “How dare you share a bed with a human!” They chased after her and only came back after a while. Sijie scolded Shang. “You are hopeless, pairing off with a rank fox! I can never come near you again!” And she made to leave in a huff. Shang threw himself at her feet in terror and pleaded with her piteously. Sanjie spoke up for him. Sijie’s anger eased a little, and from then on they were as loving as before.

One day a man from Shaanxi rode up to the gate on a donkey. “I have been hunting an evil thing,” he said, “not for a day or two but for a long time, and only now have I found it.” Shang’s father thought this strange and asked what had brought him. “I spend my days drifting on misty waters, roaming in all directions,” he said. “Of the ten-odd months in a year, eight or nine I’m away from home. An evil thing bewitched my younger brother to death. When I came home I grieved and raged, and swore to hunt it down and destroy it. I have travelled thousands of li7 and found no trace of it. Now it is in your house. If it isn’t rooted out, someone will die after my brother.” By then Shang and the girl were very close, and his parents had begun to suspect something. Hearing what the stranger said, they were terrified. They invited him in and had him work his magic. He brought out two bottles and set them on the ground, and spent a long time on charms and spells. Four clouds of black mist appeared and went into the bottles. “The whole family is here!” cried the stranger, delighted. He tied pig’s bladder over the mouths of the bottles and sealed them very tight. Shang’s father was delighted too and pressed the stranger to stay for a drink. Shang was sick at heart. He crept up to the bottles to peep, and heard Sijie speaking inside. “You sit and watch and won’t save me? How can you be so heartless?” Shang was more moved than ever. He hurried to undo the seal, but the knot would not come loose. “No need for that,” said Sijie. “Just knock over the flag on the altar and prick a hole in the bladder with a needle, and I’ll get out.” Shang did as she said. Sure enough, a thread of white vapour came out of the hole and rose away into the sky. The stranger came out and, seeing the flag lying on the ground, cried out in alarm. “Escaped! The young master must have done this.” He shook the bottles and bent his ear to them. “Lucky that only one got away,” he said. “That one was not fated to die. It can be spared.” And he took his bottles and left.

Later Shang was out in the fields overseeing the hired men at the wheat harvest when he saw Sijie in the distance, sitting under a tree. He went over to her, took her hand and asked how she had been. “Ten springs and autumns have passed since we parted,” she said, “and now I have completed the Great Elixir8. But I have not forgotten my longing for you, so I have come to pay my respects once more.” Shang wanted her to come home with him. “I am not what I was,” she said. “I must not be stained by worldly passion. We will meet again later.” With that, she was gone, and he could not tell where. More than twenty years after that, Shang happened to be alone when he saw Sijie come in from outside. He was overjoyed and talked with her. “My name is now on the register of the immortals,” she said. “I ought never to set foot in the dusty world again. But I am moved by your love, and I have come to tell you, with respect, the day your zither will be put away9. Settle your affairs in good time. And do not grieve: I will bring you across to become a ghost immortal10, and there will be no suffering in it.” Then she took her leave. On that day, just as she had said, Shang died. He was a relative and close friend of my friend Li Wenyu, who had seen him in person.