Original Text
During the suppression of the Yu Qi rebellion, blood was shed like rain, and countless lives were lost. A villager named Li Hualong, returning from hiding in the mountains, happened upon government troops marching at night. Fearing that the soldiers would indiscriminately kill the innocent, he frantically searched for a place to hide but found none. In desperation, he lay stiffly among the corpses, pretending to be dead. After the troops had passed, he still dared not rise. Suddenly, he saw the headless and armless bodies standing up one after another, like a forest of trees. One corpse, whose severed head still hung from its shoulder, spoke: "The wild dog is coming—what shall we do?" The other bodies responded in a discordant chorus: "What shall we do?" A moment later, they all collapsed to the ground, and all was silent. As Li Hualong, trembling with fear, was about to rise and flee, a creature appeared. It had the head of a beast and the body of a man, crouching as it gnawed on human heads, one after another, sucking out their brains. Terrified, Li Hualong hid his head beneath a corpse. The creature approached him, nudging his shoulders and back, seeking his head. Li Hualong pressed himself deeper under the corpse, preventing the creature from finding his head. The beast then pushed aside the covering corpse, exposing Li Hualong's head. In sheer panic, Li Hualong groped beneath his waist and found a large stone, as big as a bowl, which he clutched in his hand. As the creature bent down to bite his head, Li Hualong suddenly leaped up with a loud cry and struck the creature's head with the stone, hitting it in the mouth. The creature shrieked like an owl, clutching its mouth in pain as it fled, spitting blood onto the road. Li Hualong went to examine the spot and picked up two teeth from the blood. The teeth were curved in the middle and sharp at both ends, over four inches long. He brought them home to show everyone, but none could identify what manner of creature it was.
Commentary
On the surface, this tale is a typical work of the strange and supernatural. It recounts how the villager Li Hualong encountered a "wild dog creature" with a beast's head and a human body, whose cry resembled that of an owl, whose eating habits were bizarre, and who specialized in devouring the heads of corpses, crouching to bite into human skulls and sucking out all their brains. By chance, he knocked out one of its teeth with a stone; it was curved in the middle with sharp ends, over four inches long, and when he brought it home to show others, none could identify what it was.
Upon careful analysis, it becomes evident that this is a profoundly critical work subtly reflecting the indiscriminate slaughter of innocents by the ruling class during the Yu Qi Rebellion. The story opens with eight stark words: "During the Yu Qi Rebellion, killings were as numerous as scattered hemp." These eight words heavily set the historical backdrop. The specific time of the tale follows: "As the imperial troops advanced by night, fearing the calamity of indiscriminate destruction like burning jade and stone, he found no place to hide in his haste, and lay stiff among the corpses, pretending to be dead." Li Hualong is surrounded by "headless and armless corpses, standing upright like a forest." The so-called "wild dog creature" emerges in this horrific and tragic setting. It can be said that without the typical era and environment of "killings as numerous as scattered hemp," such a monster that "crawls to bite off human heads and sucks out their brains" would not appear. Among the tales in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio that reflect the Yu Qi Rebellion, there is also "Gongsun Jiuniang" in the ninth volume; if read together, the impression gained would likely be clearer and more complete.