Kunlun Nu (, "The Kunlun Slave" or "The Negrito Slave") is a
wuxia
( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted ...
romance written by Pei Xing (裴铏, 825–880) during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
. The hero of the tale is a
Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the O ...
slave who uses his extraordinary physical abilities to save his master's lover from a court official's
harem
Harem ( Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A har ...
.
Plot
It takes place during the ''Dali''
reign era (766-80) of
Emperor Daizong of Tang
Emperor Daizong of Tang (9 January 727 According to Daizong's biography in the ''Old Book of Tang'', he was born on the 13th day in the 12th month of the 14th year of the Kaiyuan era of Tang Xuanzong's reign. This date corresponds to 9 Jan 727 i ...
and follows the tale of a young man named Cui who enlists the aid of Mole, his negrito slave, to help free his beloved who was forced to join a court official's
harem
Harem ( Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A har ...
. At midnight, Mole kills the guard dogs around the compound and carries Cui on his back while easily jumping to the tops of walls and bounding from roof to roof. With the lovers reunited, Mole leaps over ten tall walls with both of them on his back.
[Liu, James J.Y. ''The Chinese Knight Errant.'' London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967 ()]
Cui and his beloved are able to live happily together in peace because the official believes that she was kidnapped by
youxia
''Youxia'' () was a type of ancient Chinese warrior folk hero celebrated in classical Chinese poetry and fictional literature. It literally means "wandering vigilante", but is commonly translated as "knight-errant" or less commonly as "cavalier", ...
warriors and does not want to make trouble for himself by pursuing them. However, two years later, one of the official's attendants sees the girl in the city and reports this. The official arrests Cui and, once he hears the entire story, sends men to capture the negrito slave. But Mole escapes with his dagger (apparently his only possession) and flies over the city walls in order to escape apprehension. He is seen over ten years later selling medicine in the city
Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang ...
, not having aged a single day.
[
]
Daoist influence
Mole's gravity defying abilities and agelessness suggests the fictional character is a practitioner of esoteric life-prolonging exercises akin to xian
Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqin ...
, or immortals. According to a tale attributed to the Daoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...
adept Ge Hong, some hunters in the Zhongnan Mountains saw a naked man whose body was covered in black hair. Whenever they tried to capture him he “leapt over gullies and valleys as if in flight, and so could not be overtaken."[Campany, Robert Ford. ''To Live As Long As Heaven and Earth: Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002 ()] After finally ambushing the man, the hunters learned it was in fact a 200 plus year old woman who had learned the arts of immortality from an old man in the forest.[ Still, it was popular in folktales for immortals to sell medicine in the city, just like Mole does. The hagiography of the immortal ''Hu Gong'' (Sire Gourd) says he sold medicine in the market place during the day and slept in a magic ]gourd
Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the ear ...
hanging in his stall at night.[
]
How the Kunlun Slave Became an Immortal
The late Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
bibliographer and playwright Mei Dingzuo (梅鼎祚, 1549–1615) wrote a play entitled "How the Kunlun Slave Became an Immortal" (昆仑奴剑侠成仙). The play expands upon the story in several ways. For instance, Mole explains to Cui that despite his wonderful abilities, he "is a slave because of an obligation from a past life." During the ten year interval between his escape and when he is spotted selling medicine in the market place, Mole cultivates immortality through Daoist practices and befriends many immortals. A woodblock print
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...
of the play appearing in ''Assorted Plays from the High Ming'' (盛明雜劇, 1629) portrays Mole as a large-framed man with characteristic foreign features such as large eyes, a thick beard, and foreign dress.
Other media
Film
*'' The Promise'' (2005). This is a very loose film adaptation of The Kunlun Slave. Instead of being called Mo Le, the slave is simply called “Kunlun” and he is portrayed by Korean actor Jang Dong-gun.
*''Kunlun Nu Yedao Hongxiao'' (昆仑奴夜盗红绡, "The Kunlun Slave Steals Hung-siu by Night") (1956).KUNLUN NU YEDAO HONGXIAO
/ref>
See also
*Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the O ...
*Magical Negro
The Magical Negro is a trope in American cinema, television, and literature. In the cinema of the United States, the Magical Negro is a supporting stock character who comes to the aid of white protagonists in a film. Magical Negro characters, w ...
* Noble savage
*K'un-lun po
K'un-lun po (also called Kun-lun po, Kunlun po, or K'un-lun bo) were ancient sailing ships used by Austronesian sailors from Maritime Southeast Asia, described by Chinese records from the Han Dynasty. In the first millennium AD, these ships co ...
References
{{reflist
Short stories by Pei Xing
Slavery in China
Short stories set in the Tang dynasty
Works set in the 8th century
Wuxia short stories
Short stories set in Shaanxi
Stories within Taiping Guangji