Renditions
No. 7 (Spring 1977)
Sou-shen chi
The Girl-Eating Serpent
Translated by Kenneth DeWoskin
MOUNT YUNG-LING is situated in Min-chung Province in Tung-yueh (present day Fukien). It is over twenty li high. In a crevice on its northwest side there lives a giant serpent, between seventy and eighty feet long and more than ten feet around. The local people lived in constant terror of it, and commanders from the Tung-chih garrison as well as local officials from the surrounding towns had perished in substantial numbers. Oxen and sheep were sacrificed to the serpent, but to no avail. Either from someone's dreams or from a sorceress it was learned that serpent would only be satisfied if it were given nubile girls to devour. The commander and local officials agonized over this prospect, but the baneful influences continued unabated.
As a result, they sought out daughters born to slaves &.nd daughters born to criminals and reared them to the age of puberty. On the first day of the eighth month, they conducted a ceremony and sent one young girl off to the mouth of the serpent's cave. The serpent emerged and gobbled her down; and so it continued for several years until pine girls in all had been consumed.
But one year they began their preparations for the event, and discovered in their search for the young girl, that there were none to be found. The family of Li T'an, which lived in the prefectute of Chiang-lo, had six, daughters and not a single son. The youngest girl, named Chi, wanted to answer the call and go off, but her parents would not hear of it. She argued, "Father and Mother, you have been accursed, six children you have begotten but not a single son. You have offspring, but it is as though you have none at all. Lacking the virtue of T'i-ying,J I cannot feed and look after you. There is no point in your wasting food and clothing on me; my life is of benefit to no one, and the sooner I die the better. Now, if you were to sell me, it would mean a little money which you could well use to support yourselves. Wouldn't that be for the best?"
Her mother and father were altogether too fond of her to do that, and to the end they were not willing to let her go. But Chi slipped out on her own accord, and they were powerless to stop her. Chi requested from an official a well-sharpened sword and a dog which would attack snakes. On the 11fSt day of the eighth month, she went to the serpents' shrine and sat down inside. Chi had prepared in advance several measures of steamed rice balls, soaked with a mixture of honey and coated with roasted barley flour. She placed these in front of the serpent's cave, and it emerged. Its head was as large as a grain bin, and its eyes were like mirrors, a full two feet across. The serpent picked up the scent of the rice balls first and went to eat them. That was the moment Chi released the dog. He leaped forward and sunk his teeth into the creature. Chi attacked from behind, striking again and again with her sword. The pain from the wounds was so severe that the serpent squirmed out, slithered as far as the shrine, and died.
Chi went into the cave and found the bones of the nine girls. She gathereed them up and carried them outside. "Because you were timid and weak, you were devoured by the serpent," she cried. "It is really a great pity!" And then she made her way home in a leisurely fashion.
When the King of YUeh heard this tale he summoned Chi to be his queen, appointed her father governor of Chiang-lo, and bestowed gifts upon her mother and sisters. From that time on, Tung-chih was never again bothered by spirits or wierd things. A ballad about Chi's exploit is still sung today.
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Research Centre for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.