Original Text
There was a scholar named Dong, styled Xiasi, who lived west of Qingzhou. One winter day, as night fell, he spread his bedding on the bed and replenished the charcoal fire. Just as he was about to light the lamp, a friend happened to call him to go drinking together, so he locked the door and left. At the friend's house, there was a physician among the company who excelled in the art of reading pulses according to the Taishu method to discern a person's nobility or baseness, longevity or early death, and he examined each guest in turn. Finally, he fixed his gaze on Wang Jiusi and Dong Xiasi and said, "I have seen many people, but none have pulses as peculiar as yours: on the surface, they bear the signs of noble rank and long life, yet beneath, there are omens of lowliness and early death. The reasons for this are beyond my daring to fathom. However, Mr. Dong's condition is even more severe." Everyone was startled and pressed him for an explanation. The physician replied, "My art extends only this far; I dare not make rash conclusions. I only hope that both gentlemen will be cautious." At first, the two were greatly frightened, but later, thinking the physician's words ambiguous, they set the matter aside and paid it no further heed.
In the middle of the night, Dong Xiasi returned home and saw the study door slightly ajar, which filled him with suspicion. In his drunken stupor, he thought to himself that he must have been in such a hurry when leaving that he forgot to lock it. Entering the room, without bothering to light a lamp, he reached into the bedding to feel if it was still warm. As soon as his hand went in, he felt someone lying naked inside. Startled, Dong Xiasi withdrew his hand. He quickly lit a lamp to look, and there was a beautiful woman, young and lovely, like a celestial maiden. Overcome with wild joy, he teasingly touched her lower body, but felt a long, furry tail. Terrified, he was about to flee. At that moment, the beauty awoke and reached out to grab his arm, asking, "Where are you going?" Dong Xiasi grew even more frightened, trembling all over, and begged the immortal for mercy. The woman smiled and said, "What did you see that made you think I was an immortal?" Dong Xiasi replied, "I fear not your head but your tail." The woman laughed again and said, "You are mistaken. What tail is there?" With that, she took his hand and forced him to touch again, and her thigh was smooth as oil, with the tailbone bare. Then she laughed again, saying, "Well? Drunk and confused, you don't know what you saw, yet you slander me so!" Dong Xiasi, already enamored of her beauty, was now even more captivated, and blamed himself for his momentary mistake. Still, he doubted her origins. The woman said, "Do you not remember the yellow-haired girl from your eastern neighbor? Counting on my fingers, it has been ten years since we moved. At that time, I was a girl not yet of age to wear hairpins, and you were a boy with hanging hair." Dong Xiasi suddenly realized and said, "You are Zhou Asuo, aren't you?" The woman said, "Yes." Dong Xiasi said, "Now that you mention it, I seem to recall. I never thought that in ten years you would have grown so slender and beautiful! But why have you come here so suddenly?" The woman said, "I married a dull-witted man, and after four or five years, my in-laws passed away one after another, leaving me a widow. Alone and without support, I remembered that the only one I knew from childhood was you, so I came to seek you out. When I arrived, it was already dark, and just then the one who invited you to drink came, so I hid myself to wait for your return. But waiting so long, my feet grew cold, my body covered in goosebumps, so I borrowed your bedding to warm myself. I hope you will not be suspicious." Dong Xiasi was overjoyed, and taking off his clothes, he slept with the woman, feeling greatly pleased.
After more than a month, Dong Xiasi gradually grew thin and emaciated, and his family, puzzled, asked him the reason, but he said he himself did not understand. As time passed, his complexion became even more haggard, and only then did he become frightened, so he again sought out that physician skilled in pulse diagnosis. The doctor said, "This is a demonic pulse. The omen of death that appeared before is now about to be fulfilled; your illness is beyond cure." Dong Xiasi wept bitterly and refused to leave the clinic. The physician, having no other recourse, could only insert needles into his hands, apply moxibustion to his navel, and give him medicine, instructing him, "If you encounter anything, you must resolutely refuse it." Dong Xiasi, now aware of his own peril, returned home, where the beautiful woman teased and flirted with him, seeking intimacy, but he angrily said, "Do not pester me any longer; I am nearly dead!" He turned his head away and avoided her, not even glancing at her. The woman, greatly embarrassed, also said in anger, "Do you still wish to live?" That night, Dong Xiasi took his herbal decoction and slept alone; as soon as he closed his eyes, he dreamed of coupling with the woman, and upon waking, he had already emitted semen. He grew even more terrified and moved to sleep in the inner chamber, with his wife keeping watch by lamplight, but whenever he dreamed, the same scene recurred. When he opened his eyes, the woman had vanished without a trace. After a few more days, Dong Xiasi vomited more than a peck of blood and died.
Wang Jiusi was in his study when he saw a woman enter. Enamored by her beauty, he engaged in sexual relations with her. When he asked where she came from, the woman said, "I am a neighbor of Dong Xiasi. He was once intimate with me, but unexpectedly he was bewitched and killed by a fox spirit. This creature's demonic aura is terrifying; scholars should be cautious and on guard." Wang Jiusi admired her even more, and so they enjoyed each other's company in harmony. After a few days, Wang Jiusi became listless and emaciated. One day, he suddenly dreamed of Dong Xiasi, who said to him, "The one you are with is a fox spirit. She killed me and now seeks to kill my friend. I have already lodged a complaint in the underworld to vent this grievance. Within seven days, at night, you must light incense outside your house—do not forget." Wang Jiusi woke up startled and said to the woman, "I am gravely ill and fear I may soon die. Someone has advised me to abstain from sexual relations." The woman replied, "If fate grants a long life, indulgence will still allow survival; if fate decrees a short life, abstinence will not prevent early death." With that, she sat beside him, teasing and laughing. Wang Jiusi's heart wavered like a restless monkey, unable to control himself, and he again engaged in relations with her. Afterwards, though he regretted it, he could not bear to break away.
When evening came, incense sticks were inserted at the door. The woman arrived and, upon seeing them, plucked them out and cast them aside. That night, Wang Jiusi again dreamed of Dong Xiasi, who reproached him for violating his instructions. The following night, Wang Jiusi secretly instructed his household to stealthily light the incense after he had fallen asleep. The woman, while in bed, suddenly started in alarm and said, "Why are the incense sticks lit again!" Wang Jiusi replied, "I know nothing of it." The woman hastily rose, found the incense, broke it, and extinguished it. Entering the room, she demanded, "Who told you to do this?" Wang Jiusi answered, "Perhaps it was my family, worried about my illness, who trusted in a shaman's words to drive away calamities and evil spirits." The woman grew sullen and displeased. The household, noticing the incense had been put out, relit it and replaced it. Suddenly, the woman sighed and said, "Your blessings and fortune are truly great. I wrongfully harmed Xiasi, and now I have come to you—this is indeed my fault. I shall go to the underworld to confront him in judgment. If you do not forget our former intimacy, do not destroy my mortal form." With lingering reluctance, she descended from the bed, fell to the ground, and died. When a lamp was brought near, it was revealed to be a fox. Wang Jiusi, fearing it might revive, hastily summoned his household, skinned the fox, and hung it up.
Wang Jiusi fell gravely ill, when he saw the fox spirit approaching and saying to him: "I have already lodged a complaint with the Law Court, and the judge ruled that Dong Xiasi, upon seeing a woman's beauty, gave rise to wanton thoughts, and his death was well-deserved. Yet I was rebuked for seducing mortals, my golden elixir of cultivation was confiscated, and I was ordered to return alive. Where is my physical body now?" Wang Jiusi replied: "My family, unaware of the circumstances, have already flayed the skin." The fox spirit said mournfully: "I have killed too many; even dying today would be too late. But you, too, have been cruel!" The fox spirit departed in resentment. Wang Jiusi's illness nearly cost him his life, and it was only after half a year that he recovered.
Commentary
The title of this tale is Dong Sheng, but in truth it recounts the stories of two men—Dong Sheng and Wang Sheng—who were both enchanted by fox spirits, though the narrative primarily focuses on Dong Sheng.
Both Scholar Dong and Scholar Wang were seduced by fox spirits, yet their fates diverged: Dong met an untimely death, while Wang, blessed with abundant fortune, escaped calamity. Though the tale separately recounts their destinies, it weaves them into a seamless whole through an opening gathering of friends, a physician's prophecy of their life and death, Dong's posthumous visitation to Wang in a dream, and the fox maiden's later recounting and confrontation over Dong's ordeal, blending the two stories into a unified narrative.
"Story of Scholar Dong" gathers another type of interaction between foxes and humans in folklore, namely the pattern where a fox transforms into a beautiful woman to seduce: the target is a young man, lured by illusory beauty, drained of his vital essence through sexual acts to refine her inner elixir, causing the young man to wither and die. Therefore, although "Story of Scholar Dong" is structurally complete and meticulously plotted—for instance, the opening describes Scholar Dong "on a winter evening at dusk, spreading his bedding on the couch and burning charcoal. Just as he was about to light the lamp, a friend invited him for a drink, so he locked the door and left," thus foreshadowing the later encounter with the fox in a peculiar setting; the plot is vividly and amusingly depicted, such as the dialogue between Scholar Dong and the fox, witty and literary, and the fox, in dire straits, even hopes for pity from her victim, Scholar Wang, revealing the author's extraordinary imagination—yet because the story itself lacks emotional power, the fox is heartless, and the man merely "moved by beauty," the impression it leaves is fleeting and superficial.