Húlí Yuán Quánzhuàn 狐狸緣全傳
The Complete Tale of the Fox’s Bond
by 醉月山人 (撰)
About the work
Húlí Yuán Quánzhuàn 狐狸緣全傳 is a Qīng vernacular supernatural novel (shénguài xiǎoshuō 神怪小說) in 22 chapters, attributed to the pen name 醉月山人 (Zuìyuè Shānrén, “Mountain-Man Who Is Drunk on the Moon”). The novel is set in the area of Qīngshíshān 青石山 outside Níngbō 寧波 (Zhèjiāng), and recounts the increasingly deadly attacks of a fox-spirit clan (yāohú 妖狐) on a young scholar’s household, culminating in an exorcism battle involving a Daoist master (Lǚzǔ 呂祖, i.e., the Immortal Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓) and heavenly troops sent by the Jade Emperor. It belongs to the tradition of fox-spirit (húlí jīng 狐狸精) fiction that developed from the Liáozhāi Zhìyì 聊齋志異 tradition but is oriented toward popular entertainment rather than literati aesthetics.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The novel opens with the death of retired official Zhōu Bīn 周斌 (a former Hánlín 翰林 academician, here called Zhōu Tàishǐ 周太史), who settles near Qīngshíshān outside Níngbō and dies there, leaving his eighteen-year-old son Zhōu Xìn 周信 (courtesy name Hóngnián 鴻年) alone with the faithful family servant Lǐ Zhōng 李忠 (known as “Lǎo Cāngtóu” 老蒼頭) and his son Yánshòu 延壽. When Zhōu Xìn goes to sweep his father’s grave at Qīngmíng 清明, he encounters the Jade-Faced Fox (Yùmiàn Hú 玉面狐), a powerful fox demon who takes the form of a beautiful young woman named Hú Xiǎojiě 胡小姐 and seduces the scholar. The fox’s vampiric dalliance (draining his vital essence, cǎi yáng bǔ yīn 采陽補陰) rapidly ruins Zhōu Xìn’s health (chapter 3).
The remaining chapters follow the escalating conflict between the fox-spirit clan based at Qīngshíshān and the Zhōu household. The loyal servant Lǎo Cāngtóu plays a key role in organizing resistance, consulting a series of exorcists and Daoist masters. The young Yánshòu 延壽 is killed by the foxes (chapter 4) and is later miraculously revived (chapter 22, 運玄機重生小延壽). The climax involves the Immortal Lǚzǔ 呂祖 (Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓) being summoned through ritual, sending heavenly troops (天兵 tiānbīng) to battle the fox demons at Qīngshíshān (chapters 17–20), burning the mountain and capturing the chief foxes. The Jade-Faced Fox herself is ultimately spared after repenting before Lǚzǔ on the Dharma platform (fǎtái 法臺) in chapter 16.
The structural formula — scholar seduced, household menaced, series of failed exorcists, final intervention of a supreme immortal — is a standard template for Chinese fox-spirit fiction of the Qīng period. The featured immortal Lǚ Dòngbīn is the patron of many exorcism narratives in this tradition. The setting in the Níngbō hinterland and the coastal Zhèjiāng milieu are unusual and may reflect local oral tradition.
The pen name 醉月山人 (Zuìyuè Shānrén) is unattested in standard bibliographies. CBDB contains no entry. A Qīng composition date in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century is probable.
Translations and research
- Huntington, Rania. 2003. Alien Kind: Foxes and Late Imperial Chinese Narrative. HUP. (The principal scholarly study of the fox-spirit fiction tradition; contextualizes Húlí Yuán within the broader genre.)
- Zeitlin, Judith T. 1993. Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. Stanford UP. (Background on Liáozhāi Zhìyì and the fox-spirit literary tradition.)
No translation of this specific novel located.
Links
- No Wikipedia or Wikidata article identified for this specific text.
- Wikipedia — Huli jing (fox spirit) (genre background)