"Another Wutong Spirit" () is a short story by

Pu Songling Pu Songling (, 5 June 1640 – 25 February 1715) was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty, best known as the author of '' Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio'' (''Liaozhai zhiyi''). Biography Pu was born into a poor merchant family from Z ...

first published in ''

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio ''Liaozhai zhiyi'', sometimes shortened to ''Liaozhai'', known in English as ''Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio'' or ''Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio'', is a collection of Classical Chinese stories by Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling, ...

'' and whose titular antagonist first appears in another ''Strange Tales'' story titled "

The Wutong Spirits "The Wutong Spirits" () is a short story by Pu Songling first published in ''Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio''. It follows locals in Southern China who are terrorised by one of the Wutong Shen, a group of five malevolent spirits. The antagonis ...

". In "Another Wutong Spirit", a scholar falls in love with a dragon princess and enlists her help to get rid of a sinister spirit tormenting his niece.

Plot

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

scholar named Jin () is visited one night by a beautiful lady named

Xia Xia (Hsia in Wade–Giles) may refer to: Chinese history * Xia dynasty (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC), the first orthodox dynasty in Chinese history * Xia (Sixteen Kingdoms) (407–431), a Xiongnu-led dynasty * Xia (617–621), a state founded by Dou Ji ...

() and her housemaid. Lady Xia offers to keep Jin company but he declines because he is both fearful that she might be a demon and worried that his reputation would suffer if she were a neighbour's daughter instead. After the housemaid takes her leave of her mistress, Lady Xia cajoles Jin into making love with her. The maid later returns to fetch her and the duo exit into the forest; henceforth, Lady Xia visits Jin nightly. One night, Jin tries to stalk her home, by following the light emitted from her luminescent pearl bracelets, but she manages to shake him off her tail. While en route to Huaibei on horseback, Jin's

horse harness Horse harness is a device that connects a horse to a vehicle or another type of load. There are two main categories of horse harness: (1) the "breaststrap" or "breastcollar" design, and (2) the collar and hames design. For light work, such as ho ...

comes loose just as he is approaching the

Huai River The Huai River (), Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...

. A violent wind then knocks him off balance, throwing him into the river where he loses consciousness. He awakens to find himself at the other end of the river and his horse harness as good as new. At night, Jin is rebuked by Lady Xia for insinuating that she had orchestrated the strange incident; he decides to confide in her about his niece, who is married but under the influence of a Wutong spirit. Lady Xia suggests that the spirit might one of her father's slaves, and promises to intercede on Jin's behalf. The following night, Xia's housemaid tracks the Wutong spirit down and

castrate Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceut ...

s him. Thereafter, Jin does not hear from his lover for close to a year; he decides to close his school near the Huai River and return to his hometown. As he is leaving for good, the lady suddenly returns to bid him a proper farewell. She reveals that her father is the Golden Dragon King (); whereas her maid took the fall for castrating the Wutong spirit, Lady Xia is now attended to by an elderly servant and no longer can move about as freely as before. Nonetheless, she tells Jin that they are fated to be together and that they will be reunited in three decades. Some three decades later, Jin — now a sexagenarian — notices a lady atop a large water lily while out at sea. Recognising her as Lady Xia, he eagerly jumps onto the lily which then floats away until it vanishes from sight. The author notes that both Jin and Zhao Hong lived in the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

but it is unknown if Zhao's encounter with the Wutong spirits preceded that of Jin; if so, Lady Xia's maid would have had neutered the sole remaining Wutong spirit, ensuring that he could no longer harm women.

Publication history

Written by

and first published in his short story anthology, ''

'', the story was originally titled "You" (; literally "Again") because it appears on the heels of another story concerning the Wutong spirits. While a distinct ''Strange Tales'' entry on its own, Pu likely paired the two stories due to their similar natures, as he did " The Frog God" and " Another Frog God Tale". Sidney Sondergard translated into English both Wutong stories which included in the fifth volume of ''Strange Tales from Liaozhai'' published in 2008.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wutong Spirit, Another Stories within Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio