Original Text
Mu Sheng was a man from Changsha, living in poverty, without a padded coat in winter. One evening, as he sat alone at home, a woman entered the room, dressed in splendid attire, but her face was dark and ugly. Smiling, she said, "Are you not cold?" Startled, Mu Sheng asked who she was. The woman replied, "I am a fox spirit. Taking pity on your solitude, I wish to share your bed and warm your covers for you." Mu Sheng, both fearing she was a fox spirit and loathing her ugliness, cried out loudly. The woman produced a silver ingot and placed it on the table, saying, "If you will be intimate with me, I will give you this ingot." Delighted, Mu Sheng agreed. The bed had no bedding, so the woman used her robe as a substitute. At dawn, as she rose, she instructed, "Take the silver I gave you and quickly buy some soft silk to make bedding; with the remainder, buy cotton for clothes, and also some grain and vegetables—that will suffice. If you can remain with me forever, you need never worry about poverty." With these words, she departed. Mu Sheng told his wife of this, and she too was overjoyed, so they bought soft silk to make bedding. That night, when the woman came and saw the new bedding, she said happily, "I have put your wife to much trouble!" She left some silver as a token of thanks. From then on, she came every night, and each time she left, she always left some silver behind.
After more than a year, Mu Sheng's house was neat and tidy, and his family was all dressed in fine new clothes, making him a wealthy man. The silver the woman had left gradually dwindled, and Mu grew to detest her, inviting a sorcerer to draw talismans at the door. The woman came, bit the talisman off and threw it away, then entered and pointed at Mu, saying, "Your ingratitude and faithlessness have reached the utmost! What can this do to me? If you despise me, I will leave of my own accord. But now that our bond is severed, you must return everything you have gained from me!" With that, she left in fury. Mu, terrified, told the sorcerer. The sorcerer set up an altar to perform his arts, but before it was ready, he suddenly fell to the ground, his face covered in blood—one of his ears had been cut off. The crowd panicked and fled, and the sorcerer ran away clutching his ear. Inside the house, stones as large as basins flew about, smashing doors, windows, pots, and pans without mercy. Mu crawled under the bed, curled up in fear, drenched in cold sweat. After a while, he saw the woman enter carrying an animal with a cat's head and a dog's tail. She set it down before the bed and urged it, saying, "Hee hee! Bite that scoundrel's feet!" The animal bit Mu's shoe, its teeth sharper than a knife. Mu was terrified and tried to pull his foot back, but his limbs were paralyzed. The animal gnawed at his toes, crunching loudly. In agony, Mu cried out for mercy. The woman said, "Bring out all your gold, silver, and jewels—do not hide anything." Mu agreed. The woman said, "Heh heh!" and the animal stopped biting. Mu, unable to rise, told her where the valuables were hidden. The woman searched herself and found only jewelry and clothes, along with a little over two hundred taels of silver. Dissatisfied with the amount, she urged the animal again, saying, "Hee hee!" and it resumed biting Mu. Mu begged and pleaded for forgiveness. The woman gave him a ten-day deadline to produce six hundred taels as compensation. Mu agreed, and only then did she leave, carrying the animal. After a long time, the family gradually came to Mu's room and dragged him out from under the bed. His feet were dripping with blood, and he had lost two toes. Looking around the room, all the valuables were gone, leaving only the old tattered quilt. They covered Mu with it and let him rest in bed to recover. Fearing the woman would return in ten days, he had to sell his maidservants and clothes to scrape together the six hundred taels. When the deadline arrived, the woman indeed came; he hastily gave her the silver, and she left without a word. From then on, she never returned.
Mu Sheng's foot injury took half a year to heal, yet his family remained as impoverished as before. That ugly woman later married a man named Yu from a nearby village. Yu was a farmer, and his household was not wealthy either. Within three years, however, by following the customary practice of purchasing official rank through donations, his family acquired a row of houses, and the fine clothes they wore were mostly items that had once belonged to Mu Sheng's household. Mu Sheng saw this but dared not inquire. One day, Mu Sheng happened to encounter the woman in the wilderness; terrified, he knelt by the roadside. The woman said nothing, but wrapped five or six taels of silver in a white handkerchief, tossed it to Mu Sheng from a distance, and then turned and left. Later, Yu died young, and the woman would still visit his house from time to time; whenever she came, the gold and silver possessions of the Yu family diminished. Yu's son, upon seeing her arrive, would kowtow and bow to her, pleading from afar: "Though my father has passed away, we children are all as your own offspring; even if you have no pity for us, how can you bear to see us suffer in poverty?" The woman departed and never came again.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: When a malevolent being enters one's home, it is only right to slay it with clear conscience; yet if one has accepted its favors, even a ghost or demon must not be betrayed. To rise to wealth and then kill one's benefactor—like Duke Ling of Jin slaying Zhao Dun—would surely draw reproach from all worthy men and heroes. If the person is not one's true beloved, how could a fortune of ten thousand gold pieces stir the heart? Observe how Mu Sheng's face lit up at the sight of silver—was he not one who would sacrifice his very body and virtue for wealth? Alas, such a greedy man ultimately brought ruin upon himself and his name!
Commentary
Scholar Mu was never fond of the ugly fox, but being greedy for money, he accepted her. After growing wealthy through her, he grew to detest her and drove her away, only to be punished and pursued by her—truly undeserving of pity. The tale concludes with the ugly fox arriving at the Yu household, enriching them greatly. When Master Yu passed away, his children prayed to the ugly fox, and she did not reclaim their wealth. This can be seen as an afterwave of Scholar Mu's story, illustrating the fox's reasonableness. This fable primarily satirizes Scholar Mu's greed and betrayal of virtue, mocking the worldly pursuit of wealth with broad implications that provoke deep reflection.