Original Text
Li Zhijun, a provincial graduate from Changshan County, was traveling to Qingzhou when he encountered six or seven people on the road whose accents sounded like they were from Hebei. Observing them closely, he noticed that each had a scar on both cheeks, as large as a copper coin. Curious, Li asked if they had all suffered from the same ailment. They replied: "Last year we went to Yunnan, and as night fell, we lost our way, entering a vast mountain range with deep ravines and sheer cliffs from which we could not escape. In the valley stood a giant tree, its branches several feet long, drooping down and covering over an acre of ground. Seeing no other recourse, we tethered our horses, unpacked our baggage, and rested beneath the tree. Deep in the night, tigers, leopards, and owls howled incessantly; we hugged our knees, facing each other, not daring to sleep. Suddenly, a giant appeared, several zhang tall. We huddled together, prostrate on the ground, holding our breath. The giant approached, grabbed a horse with his hand, and devoured it, and in a short while, he had eaten all six or seven horses. Then he broke off a long branch from the tree, seized our heads, and pierced our cheeks with the branch as if threading fish. After doing so, he lifted the branch and took a few steps, but the branch snapped with a crisp sound. Fearing we might fall off, he bent both ends of the branch together and pressed them down with a huge stone before leaving. Once we felt he was far away, we drew our knives, cut the branch, and fled in pain. But after a few steps, we saw the giant returning with another giant. Terrified, we crouched and hid among the thickets and grass. The second giant was even larger; he came to the tree, paced back and forth as if searching for something, but found nothing. Then he made a chirping sound, like a giant bird, his expression furious, seemingly angry that the first giant had deceived him. He slapped the first giant across the face with his palm, and the first giant bent over submissively, not daring to argue. Soon after, they both departed."
Only then did they flee in panic. They scurried through the desolate mountains for a long time, until far off they saw a light atop a peak, and they all rushed toward it. Drawing near, they saw a man dwelling in a stone house. They crowded into the stone chamber, knelt in a circle before the man, and recounted the sufferings they had endured. The man raised them up, bade them sit, and said, "This creature is particularly hateful, yet I cannot subdue it myself. When my younger sister returns, we may consult with her." Before long, a woman entered from outside, carrying two tigers over her shoulder, and asked the guests what business they had. They knelt and kowtowed to her, explaining the cause. The woman said, "I have long known that those two wretches were committing evil, but I never imagined they were so vicious and obstinate! They should be eliminated at once." She fetched a bronze hammer from the stone house, weighing some three or four hundred catties, and vanished through the door. The man boiled tiger meat to entertain them, but before the meat was cooked, the woman had already returned, saying, "When they saw me, they tried to flee. I pursued them for several tens of li, broke one of their fingers, and came back." She cast the finger to the ground; it was thicker than a shinbone. They were all terrified and asked the woman her surname, but she did not answer. Soon the meat was done, yet their wounds pained them so that they could not eat. The woman applied a medicinal powder to their injuries, and the pain ceased at once. At daybreak, the woman escorted them back to the tree, where their baggage lay intact. Each shouldered his pack and walked for over ten li, passing the site of the previous night's struggle. The woman pointed it out to them; the stone hollow still held a basin's worth of congealed blood. Only when they had left the mountains did the woman bid them farewell and return.
Commentary
The narrative core of "The Giant" bears some resemblance to "The Black Beast" in Volume Three, as both depict a certain creature capturing prey, inviting friends to share the feast, only to find the prey vanished without a trace, thereby incurring punishment.
The difference is that "The Black Beast" focuses on the "Historian of the Strange's" commentary as a vehicle for expressing opinions, whereas this tale is purely a record of the bizarre, specifically recounting the terrifying story of a giant encountered in the mountains by a traveler residing in Yunnan, as witnessed and narrated by Li Xiaolian of Changshan. How immense was the giant? Besides the opening description of it being "measured in zhang," and how it "seized horses with its hands and devoured them, consuming six or seven in an instant. Then it broke a long branch from a tree, pierced a man's head through the cheeks, stringing them like fish," the ending specifically depicts a woman bravely fighting the giant, severing one of its fingers, which turned out to be "larger than a shin bone!"