Original Text
There was an old man surnamed Sun, who was the uncle of my relative Qingfu and had always been bold. One day, while lying in bed resting during the day, he suddenly felt as if something had climbed onto the bed, and his body began to sway as if riding clouds and mist. He thought to himself, could this be a mischievous fox spirit? Peeking secretly, he saw a creature as large as a cat, with yellow fur and a green mouth, slowly creeping forward from his feet, as if afraid of waking him. It cautiously crawled onto his body; when it touched his foot, the foot went numb, and when it touched his thigh, the thigh grew weak. Just as it reached his belly, Old Man Sun suddenly sat up, grabbed it with his hand, and tightly seized its neck. The creature shrieked urgently but could not break free for a moment. Old Man Sun quickly called for his wife, who bound its waist with a belt. Then, gripping both ends of the belt, he laughed and said, "I hear you are skilled at transformations; now I am watching you—let's see how you change." As soon as he spoke, the creature suddenly contracted its belly, shrinking it as thin as a tube, nearly slipping away. Startled, Old Man Sun hastily tightened the belt. Then it swelled its belly, becoming as thick as a bowl, extremely hard, so the belt could not cinch it. When Old Man Sun relaxed slightly, it shrank again. Fearing it would escape, he told his wife to kill it quickly. Flustered, she looked around frantically, not knowing where the knife was. Old Man Sun turned his head to the left, indicating where the knife lay. When he looked back, the belt was like an empty ring in his hand, and the creature had vanished without a trace.
Commentary
Connected to "Bitten by a Ghost," "Catching a Fox" is also a story about nightmares.
The difference is that "Bitten by a Ghost" writes of a ghost in a nightmare, while "Catching a Fox" writes of a fox in a nightmare.
In "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," the conflicts between humans and ghosts or fox-spirits often differ greatly: from a human perspective, ghosts are associated with death, giving them an advantage, and people often fear them, relying on sheer courage when confronting them; in battles between humans and fox-spirits, as "man is the most intelligent of all creatures," humans possess a sense of superiority, thus they can despise and toy with fox-spirits, winning more through cunning. Compared to "Biting the Ghost," "Catching the Fox" is clearly much lighter and more cheerful in its storytelling, even carrying a hint of playfulness, with a prose style that is airy and nimble. The tale describes the fox as "shrinking its belly, thin as a pipe," and "swelling its belly, thick as a bowl," while after escaping, "the snare remained in the hand like a ring," a string of witty phrases, light and free, bringing a smile to the reader's face.