Original Text
A man named Liu from Changshan County was corpulent and addicted to wine. Whenever he drank alone, he could always finish an entire jar. He owned three hundred mu of fertile land near the outskirts of the city, and always used half of it to plant millet for brewing; because his family was very wealthy, drinking never became a burden. A monk from the Western Regions saw Liu and told him that he had a peculiar ailment. Liu replied, "I have none." The monk said, "Do you never get drunk from drinking?" Liu answered, "That is true." The monk said, "This is because you have a wine worm." Liu was greatly startled and begged the monk to cure him. The monk said, "That is easy." Liu asked, "What medicine is needed?" The monk said none at all, and only instructed Liu to lie face down under the scorching midday sun, with his hands and feet bound, and place a jar of fine wine half a foot from his head. After a while, Liu felt his mouth and throat parched, and an intense craving for wine arose. Then the aroma of the wine assailed him, and his craving burned ever more fiercely, yet he was tormented by his inability to drink. Suddenly, he felt an intense itch in his throat, and with a retching sound, he vomited something that fell directly into the wine. When untied, Liu looked and saw it was a piece of red flesh about three inches long, wriggling like a swimming fish, complete with a mouth and eyes. Astonished, Liu thanked the monk and offered him money, but the monk refused it, asking only for the flesh worm. Liu asked, "What use is this worm?" The monk replied, "This is the essence of wine. Fill a vat with clear water, put the wine worm in and stir it, and it will immediately become fine wine." Liu asked him to demonstrate, and it was indeed so. From then on, Liu loathed wine and regarded it as an enemy; his body gradually grew thin, his family's wealth declined day by day, and in the end, he could not even support himself with food.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: Drinking a full measure of wine daily does not hinder one's wealth; abstaining from even a single cup only deepens poverty—could it be that one's consumption of food and drink is predetermined by fate? Some say, "The wine worm was Liu's blessing, not his affliction; the monk merely tricked him with his craft." Is this indeed the case?
Commentary
In ancient China, due to the underdevelopment of medical science, certain abnormal physiological phenomena could not be properly explained, and thus were attributed to external mysterious forces. In Tang Dynasty Zhang Du's "Xuanshi Zhi" Volume One, there is a story titled "Lu Yu," which records the tale of the Noodle-Digesting Worm: "From childhood, Lu Yu was fond of noodles; the more he ate, the thinner he became." A group of foreigners came to his door carrying wine and food, and said, 'Sir, do you enjoy eating noodles?' He replied, 'Yes.' They continued, 'It is not you who eats the noodles, but a worm in your belly. Now I wish to give you a pill; if you take it, you will vomit out the worm. Then I will buy it from you at a high price. Is that acceptable?' Lu Yu said, 'If such a thing truly exists, why would it not be acceptable?' Shortly after, the foreigner produced a pill of purple luster and bade him swallow it. After a while, he vomited a worm about two inches long, green in color, shaped like a frog. The foreigner said, 'This is called the Noodle-Digesting Worm; it is truly a rare treasure of the world.' Lu Yu asked, 'How do you recognize it?' 'This worm is born from the balanced qi of heaven and earth, hence it loves noodles. Since wheat is sown in autumn and ripens only in summer of the following year, it receives the full qi of the four seasons, thus it craves that flavor. You should feed it noodles, and you will see.' Lu Yu then placed over a peck of noodles before it, and the worm devoured it all instantly. Lu Yu asked again, 'What use is this worm?' The foreigner said, 'All rare treasures of the world are endowed with balanced qi. This worm is the essence of that balance. To grasp the root and take the branch—is that not far off?' Then he placed the worm in a box, locked it in a golden casket, and bade Lu Yu keep it in his bedchamber, saying, 'I will come again tomorrow.'" This is likely the earliest source of such tales.
In the fifth year of the Taisho era, the Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa expanded upon this tale and published a story of the same name, "The Wine Insect," in the fourth issue of the first year of the journal "New Thought," noting: "The Wine Insect is adapted from 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,' and differs little from the original."