Original Text
Yang Tianyi once recounted that he had seen two mice emerge from a hole, one of which was swallowed by a snake, while the other glared with eyes as round as peppercorns, seemingly filled with fierce indignation, yet it could only watch from afar, not daring to approach. The snake, having eaten its fill, slithered back into the hole. Just as half of the snake's body had entered, the mouse swiftly dashed over, biting hard on the snake's tail. Enraged, the snake retreated out of the hole. The mouse, being naturally agile and swift, immediately scampered away as soon as the snake emerged. Unable to catch it, the snake returned to its original spot. As it was about to re-enter the hole, the mouse came back again, biting the snake's tail just as before. Whenever the snake entered the hole, the mouse would bite; whenever the snake came out, the mouse would flee. Thus, the two struggled for a long time. In the end, the snake, having no other choice, came out of the hole and spat the dead mouse onto the ground. The other mouse approached, sniffed it, and then chirped mournfully, as if in lament, before carrying the dead mouse away. My friend Zhang Liyou wrote a piece titled "The Righteous Mouse" on this account.
Commentary
This is a tale recounting the bravery of a mouse in battling a snake.
In the natural food chain of living creatures, rats are prey for snakes, and snakes are the natural enemies of rats. Under ordinary circumstances, a rat would never attack a snake. What makes this tale novel is its sheer strangeness—a rat actually took the initiative to attack a snake, employing tactics reminiscent of guerrilla warfare, "striking when the snake entered, retreating when it withdrew," and finally forcing the snake to disgorge its dead companion. Yet the story identifies this rat as a "righteous rat," imposing human emotions upon it.
Although this tale of small creatures is brief, it is well-structured. Notably, while the author refers to the little mouse as a "righteous mouse," he refrains from inserting commentary or judgment into the narrative, instead embedding his verdict within the storytelling itself. The text merely objectively describes the cause, process, and outcome of the mouse's struggle with the snake, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. The little mouse leaves a truly profound impression.
In contrast, the novel mentions that Pu Songling's friend Zhang Liyou wrote "The Righteous Mouse" in poetic form, earnestly depicting how the little mouse embodied "moral righteousness," interweaving narrative with commentary and adorning it with many lofty phrases of virtue, yet this left a less profound impression on the reader.