Uncle Bird, the Jade Mirror, and Other Tales now available on Amazon

 Hi, everyone. 

My second collection of folktales and legends adapted as plays for reader's theater is now available on Amazon. The plays in this volume are based on folktales and legends from the beautiful island of Taiwan. 

The Head That Wept Actual Tears (Atayal)

Note: The names of the characters have been changed. In addition, this gruesome and disturbing legend is not suitable for young readers. The names of the main characters have been changed. 

Years ago in Taiwan, Wei, a young member of an Atayal community, was left with a severe dilemma. 

For the past two years, he and Lu, a lovely young woman considered as beautiful as a wild orchid, were an "item." They were in love, and Wei certainly expected to marry Lu. There was a problem, however, that had been slowly smoldering, threatening these marriage plans, and this problem had driven a wedge between the two young lovers, forcing them to meet in secret so that Lu and her family would not be subjected to ridicule.

The problem was this: Wei did not have a warrior's headhunting tattoo on his forehead as opposed to virtually all the other desirable young men of the village. That meant Wei totally lacked the prestige and potential to be the great husband all parents would desire for their daughters. Such young men as Wei were looked down upon as weak and unmanly. What's more, Wei, having grown up in this environment, just didn't have it in his heart to kill any stranger for the latter's head. It just wasn't in his nature. Lu knew this and was frank with Wei. She told him clearly that either he become recognized as a headhunter with the telltale tattoo or that they would have no future together despite her love for him. 

Wei had to make a very difficult decision: to join in the next headhunting campaign and to bring back someone's head or to forever lose his chance to marry Lu. 

He gnashed his teeth in anguish and finally decided to go against his own nature: he would take part in the next headhunting expedition. 

Wei's father, whose other two sons had already taken heads, was overjoyed. He had long given up on Wei's ever ascending to real manhood by becoming a headhunter, but now it appeared that Wei had had a reawakening. 

"Yes!" said the father. "My good son! Excellent! We will have an expedition very soon, and I'll be leading it. Now, let's get busy. We have some preparations to make."

There would be several steps before such an expedition could be launched. A lucky day would have to be selected. Prior to leaving on this lucky day, the members of the expedition would have to report any dreams. A disturbing or unlucky dream, an out-and-out nightmare, would disqualify the person from the expedition. 

Early in the evening the night before the expedition was to start, Wei's father approached him and asked, "Well, Son, have you had any bad dreams lately?"

"No, Father." He looked his father straight into the older man's eyes. 

That was, however, a lie. For the past several nights, Wei had been plagued by endless nightmares. For Wei to have had nightmares but still go on a headhunting trip with his group would be a gross violation of a taboo. Wei knew, however, if had told the truth he would have been kicked out of the group and then he'd never have a chance at marrying Lu. His reputation, such as it was, would also be stained forever. 

"That's good, Son. Now, since you are the only one in the group that hasn't gotten a tattoo yet, you will be accorded the honor of taking the first head back to our people! You'll kill and decapitate the enemy! What do you think of that?"

"Thank you, Father," said Wei. The first head . . . The reality hit home for Wei. I will be killing another person and taking his head . . . he thought. It's really going to happen now, and there's no way out of it--not for me . . . not for the sake of Lu . . . They couldn't be content with my just being a member of the team, could they?  . . . I have to do the killing . . . the decapitating . . . 

"Soon enough, Son, you'll be getting a tattoo just as all the other fellows in the village have! How great is that! Now, get some sleep. It's getting dark, and we'll need to get started before dawn."

"Yes, Father . . ."

Once again, Wei entered the world of disturbing dreams. As he slept fitfully on his mat, he dreamt of a green field bordered by a bamboo forest. Next to some bamboo was a large collection of freshly severed heads in a tall pile. Not far from the heads were his father and the young men of the village, and Wei discovered he too was standing among them. 

Soon came the sounds of voices, and before long three people--a father, a mother, and a small boy of about four or so--came into view. Immediately, the men of the hunting party aimed their arrows at the three and let their arrows fly, hitting all three, who fell to the ground, moaning. 

The headhunters rushed over to them and preceded to cut their heads off.

"No, no, no, please don't do this!" cried Wei. "This is so cruel!"

Wei then suddenly woke up with a shudder. He relaxed again somewhat when he realized it had all been a dream. 

By now the early morning daylight streamed through the window. His father had entered the hut and told Wei to get ready to go. 

The headhunting party assembled. Relying on the lucky omen of a bird, Wei's father said, "All right, we're going in this direction!"

The group moved off, with everyone but Wei in great spirits, for most of the young men had had very encouraging dreams about successful headhunting. Wei, silent, moved on, hoping no one would notice his trembling legs. 

Please, Evening, Wei thought, you can't arrive early enough . . . 

After a long march, Wei's father announced, "We're here! This is the place . . ."

Wei's father recited a verbal formula to expel bad luck. The headhunters then performed a simple ritual to ensure success for today's expedition. Wei's father then assigned each headhunter, including Wei, to his hiding place. Wei's appointed location would face the path the human prey would take as he, she, and/or they headed towards the bamboo grove. 

"Wei! Wake up and focus!" said Wei's father, noticing his son's slowness in following orders. 

Wei slunk into his assigned place in the grove. He turned his head and saw a brilliant field of tall green grasses. 

Haven't . . . I . . . been . . . here . . . before . . . ? he asked himself. Then it hit him: he had seen this very greenery in his dream the night before. 

"All right, Wei," said his father. "Listen. Keep your eyes and ears open. Once the enemy shows up, we'll shoot him. Then, once he has been totally subdued and is on the ground, you must quickly rush out and decapitate him. Now, don't worry! We'll all be here for you and have you covered . . . "

Wei nodded and continued to lie in wait behind the bamboo, his legs continuing to shake wildly. 

It wasn't very long before someone, actually three people, came into view--a man, a woman, and a small child, the very people he had seen in his dream. 

Towards the grove the three walked, holding hands, talking, and laughing . . . 

The three came closer and closer . . . still laughing, talking . . . 

Wei was ready to pass out right on the spot. 

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Arrows flew through the air. 

The three members of the small family fell upon the ground, screaming and writhing in pain. 

The headhunters lunged forward, each one wanting to be the one to cut the heads off, but they held back. 

"Wei, what are you doing?" barked the father. "Get over there and do what you are supposed to do!"

Wei just stood there, frozen with fear and other emotions. 

When Wei refused to move, his father drew his knife, shook his head in disgust and anger, marched over to the three people on the ground, knelt, and cut off each one's head. He then picked up the three heads, with blood dripping all over him,  and deposited them at his son's feet. 

"All right, Wei," said his father with anger resonating in his voice, "we'll be heading back. You shall be at the head of the procession, and you will be carrying those heads to demonstrate that now, finally, you are a worthy member of our community. Don't be such a damn coward and let everyone down!"

But Wei just stood there, paralyzed. 

"So you can't even pick those heads up?" asked his father. "In that case, you are no son of mine. You are no longer an Atayal like the rest of us! You're just an outright coward, and no doctor can cure you of it!"

Wei thought about his father's words, and his thoughts immediately darted to Lu. Gnashing his teeth, he finally mustered up the courage to pick up the three heads. His father softened up a bit at his son's change of heart and smiled to give him some encouragement. The other headhunters gave Wei a loud cheer. 

The group marched to a nearby stream, where one of the headhunters showed Wei how to wash the heads. Next, he helped Wei shave part of each head and drill a hole into it after which a thin but sturdy vine was inserted into the heads so that they could more easily be carried together. 

Wei was still anguished and afraid that he would just freeze up and be unable to make it back to the village. He somehow pushed himself to move, wishing every second this ordeal would quickly end, that he could just be back in the village with his beloved Lu. 

The headhunting group, with Wei in the front carrying the heads, finally arrived back in the village in the afternoon, and they were met by ecstatically cheering villagers lining the path to the village. The villagers were particularly enthused seeing Wei carrying those three heads. 

"Wei severed three heads!" the headhunters chanted as they marched along the path. 

Wei saw Lu smiling broadly. 

Yes . . . Wei said to himself, I guess it was all worth it . . . 

Carrying a "warrior's suit" created by her own mother's efforts on the loom, Lu approached Wei and proudly handed the suit to Wei to put on. 

The celebrations throughout the village continued. 

Wei's father constructed a special open cabinet, a "trophy cabinet,"  in front of the house to display the three heads, signifying that this was a house where successful headhunters lived. Villagers crowded in front of Wei's home to watch his father anoint the heads with rice wine. 

Early that morning at around three, the celebrations were still going on. Wei and Lu were doing their own celebrating, drinking rice wine. Wei thought that he would now ask for Lu's hand in marriage. He was beginning to distance himself from the day's gruesome activities, to excuse himself from what had already happened. After all, he told himself, it wasn't as if he himself had shot the three with arrows and cut off their heads . . . 

"Wei!" shouted his father. "Come on over to the trophy cabinet here and stand in front of it!"

His father had inserted some chunks of grilled chicken into the mouths of the three heads. He next inserted a stalk of grass into the woman's mouth. He followed this by sticking some pork into the child's mouth. 

"Now, Wei," said the father, "eat whatever is in their mouths!"

This was a custom among these headhunters, and it was designed to instill courage among those who would have to maintain headhunting as regular practice. On one level, Wei, of course, knew this, but on another level, he had caused himself to forget that he too would have to engage in this ritual. 

"Umm . . . what's that?" asked Wei. 

His father's eyes narrowed as Lu looked on, expecting Wei to follow the custom. 

"You heard me, Wei . . ."

If cutting off heads wasn't disgusting enough, Wei now had to eat the food from all those dead lips. What could he do? He thought of Lu and how all he wanted was just to make a life with her . . .

He approached the three heads, knelt, and placed his mouth on the that of the dead man. He then began to use his teeth to pull out the food that had been stuffed in there and started to eat it. 

He suddenly stopped when he felt a sharp pain on his lips. Had the dead man's mouth bitten his lips? He looked at the head; the dead man's face was contorted in obvious rage. The chanting villagers standing nearby seemed not to notice the expression on the dead man's face. 

After he had managed to finish eating what was in the mouth of the male head, his father shouted, "Wei, you're doing a great job! Don't stop now! You have two more!"

Wei gathered up his courage and turned to the next head, the one that belonged to the woman. Everybody there reacted with deafening cheers of approval. 

Ready to eat the stalk of grass and meat inside her mouth, Wei looked at the face. 

The villagers continued with their shouting, chanting, and dancing . . . 

Tears from the eyes of the woman's head began to trickle down her face . . . 

Wei backed away, stood up, pointed to the woman's head, and shouted, "Everybody! Everybody stop for a moment! Take a look! Look!"

The noise and celebrating continued unabated. 

"Would you all just please look?" Wei was desperate now. "Look! Look at her eyes! She's crying!"

The noise decreased somewhat while some continued to chant, scream, and dance. There was no doubt, though, that they had heard Wei's words. 

The villagers could see wet tracks of tears on the face of the dead woman's head. Were they her tears or something else? many wondered. No one could be sure, but the celebrations persisted, though not quite as festively as before. 

Wei was now able to step away from the heads and the need to eat what was in their dead mouths. No one said anymore about it; instead, the celebrations continued for a few more days and nights. 

Since the beginning of the celebrations, Wei had been visited nightly by the three headhunting victims. They would approach him and stand near him with looks of disgust on their faces. 

Finally, when he could no longer stand these visitations, Wei knelt before the trophy cabinet and offered his apologies to the three heads, promising never again to take part in a headhunting expedition. 

The ghostly visits then totally ceased.

Wei went on to wed Lu and lived the rest of his life as a humble farmer, not as a swaggering headhunting warrior.  

 from 

Taiwan shandicun guiying chuangchuang 台灣山地村鬼影幢幢 [The flickering of apparition shadows in Taiwanese Indigenous villages]. Li Meng. Taipei: Xidai, 1995: pp. 10-34 

This legend comes from an anthology of ghost stories from Indigenous Taiwanese communities. The main character in the story, "Wei,"  was purported to be still alive when this book was first published, in 1995. The story itself supposedly took place in the early 1930s, during the Japanese occupation era. I created single names for each character so as not to identify the families of those involved in this tale. 

The Atayal, along with other Indigenous peoples, engaged in the practice of headhunting or, to use a euphemism translated from Chinese, "to weed, to eradicate weeds" [出草]. Separate research done by anthropologists Julian Baldick and Lars Krutak suggests that the heads of interlopers on tribal lands were taken to propitiate the gods to ensure a good harvest, to honor ancestors with these heads, and to serve as an initiation ritual (rite of ordeal) to establish the headhunter as a true warrior, a worthy member of the community, and thus a worthwhile, eligible marriage choice. Those who came back from headhunting expeditions/campaigns with heads were each entitled to a tattoo, depending on the tribe, on the chin and/or forehead. Such a tattoo was an indispensable ticket in seeking a wife. More heads would allow the headhunter to have a special tattoo on his back. Whose head would be taken? The intended quarry could be a different tribe member encroaching on tribal land, a Han Taiwanese, or a Japanese. As indicated by this story, a woman could lose her head as well as any male outsider. (See Julian Baldick's Ancient Religions of the Austronesian World [London: I. B. Tauris, 2013]  and Lars Krutak's "Losing Your Head Among the Tattooed Headhunters of Taiwan" from www.larskrutak.com/losing-your-head-among-the-tattooed-headhunters-of-taiwan. 

Motifs: cE231.5, "Ghost returns to murderer, causing him to confess"; F1001, "Extraordinary heads act as living objects"; H106.2, "Severed head as proof of killing"; H335.4.1, "Suitor task: to bring enemy's head"; M302.7, "Prophecy through dreams"; P555.2.1., "Heads of slain enemies displayed"; S139.2.1.1, "Head of murdered man taken along as trophy."

Interestingly, in the world of folktales, myths, and legends, with flying and talking heads, I was unable to locate an existing motif for something like "severed head cries tears." Perhaps further research will reveal such a motif. 

The White-Nosed Cat (Taiwan)

A long time ago, somewhere in the south of Taiwan, a wealthy couple were blessed with the birth of a son, their only child. However, this boy, called Ah Fu, grew up to be a lazy good-for-nothing, for his parents spoiled him shamelessly. He became more and more indolent as his mother and father refused to discipline him and turned their eyes away from his shortcomings, which were many. By the time he was a young adult, he was unable to master even the most basic of chores, such as survival skills like simple bookkeeping or cooking, all because he couldn't be bothered staying out of bed long enough to learn them.

Ah Fu remained lazy and generally worthless, and his doting parents persisted in not seeing just how lazy their only son was.

Then came the day when he was all alone in the house his ancestors had built. His mother and father were now gone, but life went on much the way it always had--days and nights of sleeping, eating, and more sleeping. However, money doesn't generate more money unless one plans for it, and so one day Ah Fu found himself in a small brick house furnished with only a grass mat and a blanket. The big house had been sold to pay debts, the servants had all been dismissed, and the family fortune was now but a memory.

Under these circumstances anybody with a bit of sense would go out into the world to make a living, but not Ah Fu. He preferred, as he always had, to lie on his mat and sleep. As expected, the longer he slept, the weaker he became because he no longer had money to buy food.

He had lain on his mat for three days now. He knew that he was dying; an inner voice had told him so. He summoned up every ounce of strength left to him, stood up and staggered out of his brick hut, leaving the door ajar. He headed for the local temple of the God of Wealth.

He made it to the temple altar and collapsed upon the flagstone floor. Again, he managed to summon some strength to prop himself up on his elbows.

"Please," he prayed to the god, "grant me a string of gold coins so that I may live and not starve. I don't want to die of hunger; I don't want to turn into a wretched, wandering hungry ghost . . . "

Immediately he found himself in the spectral realm of the God of Wealth. Before him was seated the god himself. Above Ah Fu was standing a giant of a man with muscles rippling in all directions. The man held an iron whip in his right hand. He cracked the whip right before Ah Fu's eyes.

"Ah Fu!" snarled the giant. "You useless, miserable bag of bones! You deserve to become a hungry ghost, the most wretched one there is! You dare ask for money without doing any kind of honest labor?"

"Have mercy . . . have mercy . . . " Ah Fu said, almost inaudibly.

"Have mercy?" The giant's voice boomed into Ah Fu's ears. "Why do you of all people deserve any mercy?"

Ah Fu, too afraid to look up, managed to say, "I don't want to die a despised pauper! I'm not such a bad man, a little lazy perhaps . . ."

"Silence!" roared the giant. "The God of Wealth wishes to speak!"

The giant then stepped over to the throne of the God of Wealth and spoke to his master. After a minute or so, the giant returned to where Ah Fu lay helpless upon the floor.

"Ah Fu! The God of Wealth is truly merciful. He has agreed to spare your unworthy life by giving you a string of gold coins. You shall receive them provided that you agree to mend your greedy, slothful ways. You must use the money wisely to feed yourself so that you may have the energy to seek employment! Do you agree to the terms?"

Ah Fu nodded weakly. The giant then cracked his whip on Ah Fu's head. Excruciating pain split his skull, and for several seconds brilliant bolts of lightning pierced his eyeballs.

"Aiioh!" he cried. "I'm dead!"

He opened his eyes slowly. He was lying on his back on his own straw bed. He was back in the small brick hut and he was alive. The trip to the temple and the journey to the court of the God of Wealth had all been a dream. But had it? Was it not true that the gods often communicated with mortals through dreams?

Ah Fu began thinking. The bizarre experience had been too real for a mere dream. He lay very still and thought about it.

Yes, he thought, I've been rescued. I will get a string of gold coins from the God of Wealth!

He then went to sleep while planning what he would do with the money, the money that would be in the palm of his hand when he awoke. He fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Ah Fu died in his sleep three days later.

The next time he awoke, he found himself in the Land of the Dead, the domain of King Yanluo. This was a far different place than the court of the God of Wealth.

"What's this? I've been tricked!" cried Ah Fu.

"Yes, that's what many say," said King Yanluo's keeper of the Book of Life, that huge volume which lists the names, life spans, and fates of all those born into the world of mortals.

"No! You don't understand!" insisted Ah Fu. "I've really been tricked! The God of Wealth promised me gold, and he never delivered it!"

"The God of Wealth? Hmm," said the keeper of the Book, "that's a pretty serious charge."

Ah Fu protested so much that his complaint was relayed to King Yanluo, who, in turn, reported it to the God of Wealth. Soon, Ah Fu was summoned to King Yanluo's throne room to appear before both gods.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Ah Fu?" roared stern King Yanluo. "The Book of Life clearly states you were to starve to death. "

"But the God of Wealth promised me a string of gold coins so that I might live and turn my life around!" Ah Fu replied.

The God of Wealth would not stand idly by. "Ah Fu!" he said. "Four or five times did one of my messengers knock on your door. Each time he received no answer. Had you bothered to get up to open your own door, you would have gotten your gold!"

Ah Fu looked down at his feet. "I . . . fell . . . asleep . . . " he said.

King Yanluo looked at Ah Fu and chuckled, "It's hard to dislike you, Ah Fu, because you are not really a bad person. Your laziness has been your downfall, but I can see how you might have thought your gold was to come to you in a different manner and why you were not ready for it when it finally did arrive.

"Because of all this and owing to the fact that an ancestor of yours had performed a meritorious deed, I am giving you another chance. I will allow you to be reborn as a human in any future occupation you desire. Now tell me, Ah Fu, what would you like to be in your next life? A merchant perhaps? How about an imperial chamberlain?"

Ah Fu thought a moment and then said, "I would like to be reborn as a white-nosed cat."

King Yanluo couldn't believe his ears. "What!" he roared. "Are you trying to be funny now?"

"No, Your Majesty."

"Then explain yourself. Why do you wish to be reborn as a white-nosed cat?"

"Well, Your Majesty," said Ah Fu, "such a cat wouldn't have to work for food as hard as a man does or even search for mice as hard as an alley cat. Mice would mistake its white nose for grains of rice. Such a cat could then feed itself without moving practically a muscle. Mice would just leap into its jaws!"

"So you'd really rather be reborn as a white-nosed cat instead of a person?" asked the astonished King of the Dead. "Did I hear you correctly?"

"Oh, yes. People have to work much too hard to stay alive!"

"So be it!" said King Yanluo. "Ah Fu, you are hereby destined to be reborn as a white-nosed cat in your next life!"

And with those words, a white-nosed kitten was instantly born into a litter of kittens somewhere in our world. It was a very lazy kitten and eventually grew into an even lazier cat. It could afford to be lazy, for it always had its fill of mice just by lying still and allowing all the mice around to crawl up to its white nose and waiting jaws!

Notes

from Qiu Jie, pp. 6-9.

Cats have a rather sinister reputation in China. It is said that if a cat jumps over a corpse or coffin, the dead will soon become reanimated and terrorize the living, a tradition known also to other cultures (Ong Hean-Tatt, 228). In southeastern China, including Taiwan, dead cats have often not been buried but hung from trees to prevent their spirits from becoming malevolent after death (Wolfram Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, 58-59). Cats are also regarded as lazy, a notion that befits the cat in this story. Thus, it may not be a total surprise that the cat did not make it into the Chinese zodiac, though the tiger is represented. 

Motifs: D142, "Man transformed to cat"; E722.2.10, "Soul taken away by a god"; M201.0.1, "Bargain with a god."

The Filial and the Unfilial (Taiwan)

The ancients said it best: "If one is not a member of the family, one shouldn't enter through the family gate."

Long ago, there were two brothers. The older brother was terribly unfilial. Not only did he not listen to his parents but he was also lazy, shiftless, undependable. The younger brother, on the other hand, was totally different. He was a model son who did his utmost to show his love for his parents, to comfort them in their old age, and to make them proud. He was known far and near for being a filial son.

And just as people say, "Fish gather with other fish; shrimp gather with other shrimp," the two brothers each married a woman just like himself in character. Thus the aged parents gained a wonderful honorable daughter-in-law with the younger son's wife; with the older brother's wife, this was much less true.

Now it happened that the father fell sick and was confined to bed. The younger son and his wife stayed by the bedside around the clock, doing their best to comfort and to aid the stricken old man. As for his older brother and sister-in-law? They did what they normally did--they ate and fooled around.

In time the father's conditioned worsened. Sensing the end was near, he summoned his two sons and said, "You, my older son, have been a perfect disappointment. I've waited in vain for you to mature and to assume your duties. I had some hope that once you married that would happen. Now I am afraid that once you receive your inheritance, you will only waste it.

"In any case, you are still my older son, and I will not deny you an inheritance. After I am gone, you and your younger brother are to divide my property and money evenly between the two of you. As for your mother, my wife, once I am gone, you, my younger son, will take care of your mother."

He died not long after and was buried.

Then it came time to divide up the property.

"All right, " said the older brother to his younger brother, "this is how it shall be. I am older and now the head of the family. I am taking full ownership of the house and the land. I will, when I'm ready, give you some of the money, but for now, this is how it shall be. Do you understand?"

The younger brother smiled and nodded. He didn't argue.

So that is how it went. The two couples and the widowed mother still had their own rooms, and everybody lived under the same roof. The older brother was loud, lazy and abusive with his new power, but his younger brother said nothing. He accepted it all, though it was far from a happy situation. He just contented himself by working hard. He purchased a wheelbarrow, went up the mountain, chopped firewood, and sold it for cooking oil, salt, rice and other grains.

Now one day he was up on the mountain, gathering wood when from afar he could see two people approaching. They came closer and closer. Then he saw not who they were but what they were--a green ghost and a red ghost. The younger brother was frightened out of his wits. He climbed all the way up the nearest tree, a kujian tree. He hid himself at the top as the two ghosts approached, each one carrying a bulging sack. To his relief, they walked right by him and the tree, muttering something to themselves as they passed. They then stopped at a nearby boulder lying against the side of the mountain.

The younger brother watched them carefully.

The red ghost turned and faced the boulder. Then he shouted, "Ha!"

One side of the boulder slowly moved away from the side of the mountain, like a door, to reveal a cave. The ghosts then carried their sacks into the cave. Minutes later, they left the cave with their now empty sacks. The green ghost turned to the boulder and shouted, "Ha!" The boulder then slowly swung shut. The two ghosts then left on the same path that had brought them up the mountain.

The younger brother waited until he made sure the two ghosts were gone. He climbed down the tree and crept over to the boulder. He faced it and shouted, "Ha!" As expected, the boulder slowly opened to expose a cave entrance. The younger brother walked up to the cave entrance and peered inside. He nearly fainted, for from where he stood, he saw nothing but precious jade, pearls, agate, coral and silver and gold--mountains of priceless objects!

Well, he dumped his wheelbarrow of firewood and instead loaded up on the treasures of the cave. He shouted the magic word to close the cave and made it back home, where he showed his riches to his mother. He recounted in detail exactly what had happened.

"You are a filial son," his mother said. "Old Heaven has eyes; it has rewarded you!"

The younger daughter-in-law was also overjoyed. In fact, she was so delighted she immediately went to her brother-in-law's to borrow his scale to see just how much the gold and silver weighed.

"Why do you need to borrow my scale?" asked the older brother-in-law.

The younger wife immediately told him the whole story of how her husband, his younger brother, had spied on the red ghost and the green ghost, how they had opened up the entrance to a cave of riches, and so on.

The very next day, the older brother went up the mountain with his own wheelbarrow right to the spot just beyond the kujian tree. Not only that, he also intoned the magic sound, "Ha!", entered the cave and then closed the entrance behind him. All the jewels and riches lay before him. He had just begun planning how he would cart everything away when the boulder slowly swung open. Standing in the entrance were none other than the red ghost and the green ghost, each carrying a sack.

"Well, well, well!" said one of the two ghosts. "Look who's here! The same disgusting lowlife scoundrel who was here yesterday and who stole some of our wealth! You've got a lot of nerve, my friend, returning here for some more!"

"No, no, wait!" said the older brother.

Right away the two ghosts were upon him and throttled him to death. They then dragged the dead older brother's body out by the kujian tree and left it there underneath its branches.

Hours later, the older daughter-in-law, out looking for her husband, found his body. There was no sign of any cave entrance anywhere.

And so the older brother, who, true to his father's fears, had never amounted to much, caring more about eating, sleeping and other pursuits rather than respecting his elders or working hard, was buried. The younger brother-in-law and his wife invited the widowed older sister-in-law to live with them, which she did.

Now one day, relatives were having a wedding celebration and feast. The mother was too infirm to attend, so the younger daughter-in-law decided to leave the party early to take a platter of the sumptuous wedding food back to her mother-in-law.

"Now there goes a true honorable daughter-in-law!" someone said. "She could have stayed and had even more to eat, but she thought about her mother-in-law!"

"Yes," said another, "she is indeed a model of what we call 'filial.'"

The younger daughter-in-law was happy to take some food back to her husband's mother. She was thinking about how happy her mother-in-law would be when, due to the rain, she suddenly slipped, allowing the food to fall upon the ground, some of it in a puddle.

Now what could she do? Arrive home empty handed? Go back to the party and ask for more? She thought quickly and looked at the food. Some of it hadn't touched the ground; some of that which had landed in the puddle could be rinsed and salvaged; the rest could be thrown away. So that is what she did: she separated the edible from the now inedible, making sure any dirt and grit had been washed away before happily presenting the food to her mother-in-law.

The aged woman beamed with joy when she saw the food her daughter-in-law had brought her and ate it all up! However, not long after, dark clouds gathered over the town; thunder and lightning boomed, shaking the house and rattling the windows.

Immediately the younger daughter-in-law thought: "I caused this. The God of Thunder has seen what I have done, to feed my own husband's mother dirtied food. He's going to punish me with thunder and lightning! Let me be the one, not Mother!"

She immediately looked up to the ceiling and cried out: "I am unfilial! I fed my own mother-in-law bad food! Please punish me! I am ready!"

She ran to the front door, threw it open and ran outside into the thunderstorm. She stopped before a large tree and faced heaven.

Instantly a large fireball shot down from the clouds, rocketed past her and split the tree right behind her. She was unharmed but the tree was totally cleft, revealing inside a hidden cache of gold, silver and pearls.

She gathered the treasure up and took it home.

Very soon, the older daughter-in-law learned of the younger daughter-in-law's bonanza and how it came about; she became very jealous.

That's absolutely unfair! she thought. I am the older daughter-in-law, the widow of the first-born son! I am entitled to as many, if not more, riches!

She waited for the right chance. Then, one day, it came.

There was another relative's wedding party. When the mother once again excused herself from attending, the older daughter-in-law sprung at the chance to bring food home for Mother.

"Let me bring food home for you this time, Mother!" she said. "Just rest and I'll soon be home with some delicious food!"

The mother-in-law nodded.

The older daughter-in-law selected some nice food from the banquet, wrapped it up and excused herself to take it back to her beloved mother-in-law.

The older people all beamed at this display of filial love and watched her leave.

When she was good and far from the banquet hall, the older daughter-in-law headed over to a puddle and dropped the food in. She then separated the edible from the inedible and wiped clean the food she felt could still be eaten. She then headed directly home with her mother-in-law's dinner.

"Wonderful!" said the mother-in-law. "Very, very nice food!"

The mother-in-law continued to eat as the sounds of distant thunder rumbled. The older daughter-in-law looked outside. As expected, dark, menacing clouds had gathered in the sky.

"Eat up, Mother!" said the older daughter-in-law.

Only when the house was buffeted by thunder and lightning crackled outside did the older daughter-in-law abruptly stand up, look up at the ceiling, and cry out, "What have I done! I have fed my own blessed mother-in-law polluted food! God of Thunder, punish me!"

She ran to the front door, pushed it open and charged into the lightning storm. She ran to the nearest tree and stood with her back to it. She raised her arms up, looked to heaven, and said, "Here I am! Punish me!"

Immediately a lightning bolt split the woman in two.

Notes

from Shi Cuifeng, pp. 22-26

Filial piety is the Confucian concept that teaches each child to respect and to love his/her parent. It suggests unquestioned obedience and loyalty to members of the older generation, and its commands extend to the parents, who must offer utmost respect and love to their own parents as well. By extension, rulers are likewise loved by their local subjects. The pyramid reaches all the way to the top, to the emperor, loved, respected and obeyed by everyone else. The respect accorded to parents continues after the parents' deaths; there are then regularly scheduled memorial rites to be observed and to be picked up, eventually, by the grandchildren. And so the cycle continues. I think the best exposition of filial piety can be found in the classical Chinese statement, Daxue, "The Great Learning."

Filial piety is a defining characteristic of being a Chinese. What has it contributed? It has taught generations of children the need to be grateful to their parents and to excel in their studies, for doing the latter is a sign of devotion to the family in general and to the parents in particular. Many, if not most, go on to become highly devoted to their parents for the remainder of their parents' lives. Virtually all my students of Chinese descent from fifth grade on up already know the Chinese term for "filial piety": xiaoshun [孝顺]. I wonder how many non-Chinese youngsters know the term or a close cognate. I certainly was not aware of it until I took the late Professor Laurence G. Thompson's Chinese civilization course at USC so many years ago. Thank you, Professor Thompson.

Motifs: J2415, "Foolish imitation of lucky man"; N455.3, "Secret formula for opening treasure mountain overheard" ("Open Sesame"); and Q272, "Avarice punished."

Now up on Amazon: Sly Fox Maidens and Some Friends: Folktales and Legends From China Translated and Adapted for Reader's Theater

 Hi, everyone!

I'm very pleased to tell you that my book Sly Fox Maidens and Some Friends is available on Amazon. 

I've taken ten tales and adapted them for reader's theater. What is reader's theater? It is a story retold in a simple script form and designed to be performed without the need for costumes and props. Reader's theater scripts are perfect as classroom activities and allow everyone, even the shyest person, a chance to perform as a character in a fun and epic tale. No one is left out! The stories can also be read directly and enjoyed as they are. All the tales come with a pronunciation guide, a list of motifs, and cultural notes. 

Please check it out!

All the best, 

Fred Lobb

Hai'ou and Baijuan (Xisha/Paracel Islands)

Hello, everyone. It's been a while, and I hope all are well. I have the pleasure of presenting a Chinese-language folktale from the Paracel or Xisha Islands (西沙群岛), which, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, are 250 miles east of central Vietnam and 220 miles south of Hainan, China. It's a contested region of around 130 small islands currently under Chinese control, with China's governance disputed by claimants Vietnam and Taiwan.  In any case, I'm not going to delve into geopolitical details regarding the Paracel Islands. I might hesitantly suggest that the tale below might be the first English translation of a folktale from this region. I sincerely welcome any reader or researcher to correct me if I am mistaken. 

Long, long ago, on the East Island (perhaps Lincoln Island), there lived fishing a couple well into their fifties. They were missing something that would have made their lives perfect: children of their own. You might say as a couple they were very happy together, but there was no denying that they were also very lonely and longed for the company of at least one child to call their own. 

The reality was, though, they were past childbearing years, so they prepared themselves for a future without the joys of having a child or children. 

One morning the husband and wife set out in their boat to fish. They cast their net nine times without so much as one fish. Then, at noon, they decided to cast the net one more time before calling it a day. Just as they did, a big wave hit their prow, rocking the boat. The couple quickly hauled in the net, which, this time, had a telltale weight to it. 

Had they suddenly made a huge haul of fish? They hurriedly hauled the net back onto the boat and unraveled the net to see what they had landed. 

What did they see? 

A creature with the head of a fish and the armless body and legs of a woman, both covered with fish scales!

Before the dumbstruck husband and wife could speak, the creature said, "I'm a mermaid from the Southern Sea! I was out playing in the ocean when a malevolent dragon chased me, threatening to eat me. I swam from him as fast as I could and accidentally found myself in your net. Would you kindly help me return home? My mother is waiting for me back home right now!"

The mermaid then began to weep. 

"Of course we will help you!" said the wife. 

"Show us the way!" said the husband. 

The mermaid guided them to the area where she wished to be dropped off. 

Once she had reached the area and lowered herself back into the water, she turned to the couple and asked, "How can I ever repay your kindness? What would you like to have? Just tell me, and I will tell my mother. I guarantee we'll make you both very happy!"

"Well, since you asked," said the wife, "we are childless. What we want most in the world would be to have a boy and a girl as our children." 

The mermaid nodded and replied, "All right. Note this spot and be here tomorrow at noon. Bye for now!" 

And then she slid into the sea and was gone. 

The next day just before noon, the couple arrived at the designated spot. The mermaid promptly arrived to greet the couple, and she placed two very large eggs onto their boat close to the prow. 

While the husband and wife marveled at the huge eggs, the mermaid said, "Here are our gifts to show our deep gratitude to you both. My mother told me to tell you to keep these eggs hidden in the hold of the boat. Farewell!"

And with that, she was gone. 

The couple returned to the island, moored their boat,  and carefully placed the eggs in the hold. 

That night the couple lay on their bed in their hut and listened to the sound of thunder accompanied by lightning. After one particularly loud boom, they soon heard the unmistakable waa . . . waa of babies crying. They rushed over to the boat, and there, down in the hold, were a pair of newborns, a boy and a girl, hatched from the two eggs! 

With their long unfulfilled dream finally becoming reality, the overjoyed couple named the boy "Hai'ou," or "seagull," and the girl, "Baijuan," "white and graceful." 

Hai'ou grew up to be a very strong, able young man and superb fisherman, and as for Baijuan, she became a very lovely young woman and one who was very capable of steering the boat. Both of them, along with their attractiveness and other pleasing qualities and talents, became the talk of the settlement, filling many with some envy but also others with happiness for the couple who were able to have children at such a late stage in their lives. 

Eighteen years had now passed, and by this time the mother and father were no longer around. Hai'ou and Baijuan buried their remains on the island. The brother and sister took over their parents' occupation of fishing, with Hai'ou throwing out and pulling in the nets and Baijuan navigating the boat. They lived happy lives every day, even on those occasions when they would return to the island with an empty net. 

Now, lording over the islands was a tyrant called by all Yu Batian（渔霸天）,  an obese bully whose girth and great fortune largely stemmed from his squeezing the money out of all islanders. In time Yu Batian caught a glimpse of Baijuan and decided right then and there to make her one of his wives. He sent one of his lackeys with gifts and a demand for Baijuan to marry Yu Batian the next day. 

None of this went over well with Baijuan and Hai'ou. Baijuan kicked the gifts into the sea, and Hai'ou roundly insulted Yu Batian. 

The tyrant's helper laughed and said, "Well, you can very well go ahead and kick the gifts into the water, but, mark my words, one way or another, my master is going to have you as next wife tomorrow. See you tomorrow!" 

He then left. 

Hai'ou and Baijuan, faced now with a threat they had never foreseen, both began to cry and shout in anguish until the tears just couldn't flow anymore and their throats had become raw with pain. It was now the evening, and suddenly they heard a woman's voice from outside address them. 

"There's something you can do!" said the voice. "Go into the hold of the ship where you'll still find the eggshells from which you had hatched. Carry the shells to the front of the boat, climb into the shells, and kneel down, and the shells will rebuild themselves into unbroken eggs with you inside!"

The brother and sister went outside and beheld the mermaid their parents had met so many years before. 

"Who are you?" asked Hai'ou and Baijuan.

"I am she who laid the eggs from whence you came," said the mermaid. "Now, act quickly!" 

The brother and sister watched her slip back into the sea. They then did exactly what she had said. Once they had placed the shells at the front of the boat, both climbed into the shells. The broken shells flew up and reformed themselves into smooth, unbroken eggs, all without the slightest crack, with Hai'ou in one shell and Baijuan in the other. 

The next day Yu Batian and his lackeys arrived at the hut where the brother and sister lived. 

"Find them both!" thundered the tyrant. 

His men searched the hut and scoured the grounds. They then climbed aboard the boat and scoured the small vessel.

One of the men called shouted to Yu Batian, "Master, they're nowhere to be found anywhere, not in the hut or on this boat, but there are two large eggs here right above the prow. Do you think it might be possible that they're somehow hiding inside these eggs?"

"Break those eggs open now!" screamed Yu Batian.

The men began hitting the eggs with clubs. Once the eggs began to crack, there was an earsplitting sound of thunder as fire and lightning burst out of the broken eggs, blasting everyone there, including Yu Batian, to smithereens. 

Hai'ou's spirit became a seagull, while Baijuan became the beloved white parrot that flies over the east island and that guides the boats of the fishing families, enabling them to avoid any trouble lurking at sea.  And the seagull? It always flies alongside the white parrot as a companion. You can still see them flying together to this very day!

from 民间故事：白鹦鸟和海鸥_腾讯新闻

The story follows a familiar course: a lovely supernatural woman appears; a local mandarin, king, despot, etc., decides to have her all to himself; supernatural aid is invoked; and the villain and his underlings meet a grisly end. 

The name "Yu Batian" might be translated as "Fisherman who lords over all."

I am not sure in primarily which dialect this story has been told; knowing this would perhaps lead us to the tales on which this one is based. 

The description of this particular mermaid was very interesting and perhaps, in my opinion, more startling than the way mermaids are usually depicted. 

Motifs: B81, "Mermaid"; B300, "Helpful animals"; B375, "Release of animal (mermaid) by hunter/fisher"; D150, "Transformation: Person to bird"; D493, "Spirit changes to animal (bird)"; E613, "Reincarnation as bird(s)"; F420.4.4, "Water spirits are grateful"; F815.0.2, "Helpful water spirits"; Q40, "Kindness rewarded";  Q210, "Crimes punished"; cQ552.1, "Death by thunderbolt as punishment"; T542, "Birth of human being from an egg"; cT548.1, "Child(ren) born in answer to prayer." 

Right to the Bone (Han & Hui)

 There was once a young man who had married a young woman, but, unfortunately, shortly afterward both of his parents passed away. 

Now this young man, not exactly the most handsome groom around, was addicted to gambling and drinking, and, at the same time, he was averse to working. He would often leave his wife for two or three days to attend gambling parties. 

Probably needless to say, his wife was extremely upset over all this. 

One day, the wife was out by the river doing the laundry. A hunter with a rifle slung across his back and with a dog in the lead approached. The wife could see his visage in the reflection on the water. 

Oh, she thought, that is definitely one handsome man! To be together with a man like that, even for but a day, would be worth it!

She totally lost her interest in washing the clothes and instead just watched the hunter disappear into the forest. 

She returned home and lay down on the bed, where she sank into a near coma-like state, not eating or drinking so much as a drop of water. This went on for days, and nothing passed her lips, not even herbal medicine that had been brought to her. She also began to lose her eyesight. 

She called for her husband. 

"Husband," she said, "my time is nearly up. After I go, don't bury me. Instead, place my body in the cave overlooking the cliff and have the entrance sealed up. In time, a man will come by the house and offer to buy my bones for a good price. Take him up on the offer. Do you hear me?"

"Yes," he replied. 

And so it was done. 

Three years passed by. 

A stranger in the neighborhood showed up at the house and asked the young widower if he had any antiques to sell. The latter didn't have any because being the gambler he was, he had already long before sold off nearly all the belongings left to him by his parents. He did have something, though. 

"I don't have any antiques," he said, "but would you be interested in buying some bones?"

"Human bones?"

"Yes." 

"I might be," asked the buyer. "I'll tell you what. Do this: show me a finger bone and I'll let  you know."

The widower went up to the cave, unsealed the entrance, and fetched one of his wife's finger bones. He brought it back to show the buyer. 

When the buyer showed interest in this single finger bone, the widower asked, "How much would you pay me for the entire skeleton?"

"Three hundred ounces of silver."

It was a deal. When it came time for the buyer to take the skeleton away, the widower suddenly held up his hand to stop him from leaving. 

"Just a moment!" he said. 

"Hold on," said the buyer. "Are you trying now to back out of the deal? I gave you your silver,  didn't I?"

"No, no," I'm not trying to back out of our deal. I simply wanted to ask why on earth anyone would want human bones. I'm just curious. That's all."

"I see. Very well. In my family, for the past seven generations, we have collected human bones to concoct a remedy for lovesickness. It's critical that the bones, like the ones I purchased from you, are the so-called 'engraved' bones." 

"Oh? And what are these 'engraved' bones you are talking about?"

"Each person who dies while longing for another person has an image of that person engraved upon his or her bones. Here, take a look at one of these bones you sold to me . . ."

The widower took a look. Sure enough on the bone itself, he could see the faint outline of what appeared to be a man with what appeared to be a rifle on his back. 

How could this even be? thought the widower. 

from

[刻骨] See the post for 8/8/18 for full citation.

To "engrave the bone" ［刻骨］means "to remember something indelibly." It suggests that the memory, love, or hatred for somebody or something is incised in that person's very being, something deep-rooted, if you will. We reveal a similar concept in English when we say of someone that "beauty is skin deep, but ugly/ugliness is to the bone." 

Motifs: D1812.2.4, "Dying woman's (man's) power of prophecy"; F1041.1.4, "Death from longing"; M391, "Fulfillment of prophecy"; T11.5, "Falling in love with (someone's) reflection in the water"; T15, "Love at first sight"; T24.1, "Lovesickness"; T81.2, "Death from unrequited love"; T211.4.1, "Wife's corpse kept after death"; T271, "Neglected wife"; W111.4, "Lazy husband." 

The Phantom Postman (Hong Kong)

 This story and its variants made the rounds back in the 1960s.

It was very late at night one evening. A fully uniformed mailman with a mailbag was seen walking down Queen's Road in the same manner as any postal carrier would in the middle of the day away from the former Wanchai post office.

 His body language did not suggest he was off duty, relaxed, and now on the way home. No, carrying his mailbag, he walked down the street with the professional determination of one who has a job to do. 

To see a mailman on duty so late at night was odd enough; this wouldn't be, however, the strangest aspect of the story. The most bizarre details were yet to come. 

Some who passed by him on the street stated the mailman was devoid of facial features; others said his eyes emitted light. 

Those who received mail late that night opened the ordinary appearing and properly addressed envelopes only to find, according to some sources, either a blank sheet of folded paper or a bill of paper money. It is said that most of these recipients of the letters regarded all this as some kind of prank. 

Sadly, those who passed by him and saw his face and those who received letters from him would all have something in common--each individual would pass away within three days. 

When news of this became known, it caused many, of course, to be greatly afraid. So, some unnamed residents contracted the services of a ghost catcher or exorcist from nearby Hung Shing Temple [洪聖廟] in Wanchai. The powers of the spirit that had manifested itself as a mail carrier were admittedly very formidable, and the holy man charged with ridding Hong Kong of this specter was unable to extinguish the menace completely. However, in the end, the exorcist succeeded in at least keeping the spirit at bay in some kind of limbo, thus making it unable to continue its rounds as long as he, the holy man, lived. 

In time, the holy man passed away, and his son took his place in making sure the threat posed by the deadly being remained neutralized. According to one version, the son of the holy man said to the spirit, "Until the day I die, you shall not return to plague this area!" 

At the time this is being written, the son of the holy man is still said to be alive, and so the frightful presence remains inactive . . . for now . . . 

from 

Fan Qicong & Shi Zhiming. Xianggong Dushi Chuanshuo Da Baike 香港都市傳說大百科 [The Big Encyclopedia of Hong Kong Urban Legends], Chunghwa Book Company, 2021, pp. 76-82.都市传说香港鬼邮差 - Google Search

Fan Qicong and Shi Zhiming suggest that the ghostly mail carrier might be a modern manifestation of a being from ancient Chinese mythology, the ghost courier, or psychopomp, that escorts the dead to the underworld. They specifically cite Ox-Head [牛頭] and Horse-Face [馬面], two of the most famous examples of such couriers as possible inspirations.

Motifs: F159.4, "Demon guide on otherworld journey"; M341, "Death prophesized."  

The Legend of Guo Ziqi: A Case of Spirit Possession (Chaozhou)

 Guo Ziqi of the Qing Dynasty came from Beimen in Jieyang County. He came from a scholarly family with a younger sister who was herself an accomplished writer. Ziqi himself was still in the process of preparing for his exams. 

Ziqi decided to ask a well-regarded local fortuneteller about what his future would hold.

Now, the fortuneteller could foresee that Ziqi would become an official, but he did not outright tell the younger man that. Instead, the fortuneteller said, "If you really want to know what you shall do in the future, bump into your sister."

"Pardon me?" asked Ziqi. "Did I hear you correctly? I need to 'bump into' my sister?"

"That's correct, young man. Do so and your future shall be revealed to you. Good day."

That night, when his younger sister was bringing Ziqi's dinner into his study, Ziqi abruptly stood up from his desk, colliding with her and upsetting the tray of food, causing it to fall onto the floor. 

"GeGe! How could you be so clumsy?" she said. 

"Uh . . . it's the narrowness of this room that caused this to happen," he offered as an excuse. 

"Oh, please!" she replied. "Eight men carrying a sedan chair could come through here without any problem!"

Then it dawned on Guo Ziqi. He would become a mandarin who would be carried by eight porters in a sedan chair!

In time, his essay passed and he became a jinshi, the highest level of candidate in the imperial exam system. He became a top official at the emperor's court in Beijing. Before long, he married a local young woman. 

Flash forward now ten years. 

 A terrible thing occurred: Ziqi's wife fell gravely ill. A number of doctors were summoned, but not one could find a cure for the wife. When it appeared she was taking her final breaths, Ziqi ordered the purchase of a coffin and made the burial arrangements. 

Almost immediately, his wife rallied and, to everyone's sheer joy, made a complete recovery! However, the strangest thing was that his wife now talked like Ziqi's young sister--same voice and mannerisms. Soon there came a letter from back home: Ziqi's young sister had passed away from an illness--the same time that Ziqi's wife had recovered from being ill. 

Ziqi put two and two together. His wife's soul had been swopped, so to speak, for his sister's. 

Ziqi requested a leave of absence and took his wife back to his old home in Jieyang County. 

Once there, his wife, seeing the almond tree the late younger sister had planted and lovingly taken care of, remarked in Ziqi's sister's voice,  "Look at that! It's been ten years since I last saw this tree, and it is as tall and sturdy as ever!"

Then, when Ziqi's wife came face-to-face with the memorial tablet for Ziqi's sister upright on a table, she suddenly fell ill. It wasn't very long before she passed away. 

It is for this reason that in Chaozhou, ever since then, if an unmarried younger sister dies before getting married, her memorial tablet is not placed inside the home. Another location, perhaps inside a temple, is located for the tablet in case the spirit inhabiting a body sees her own memorial tablet. 

from

Chaozhou Minjian Gushi 潮州民間故事 [Chaozhou Folktales]; pp. 43-44. (See 6/17/22.) 

In his monumental book Gods, Ghosts, & Ancestors: Folk Religion in a Taiwanese Village (1975),  Professor David K. Jordan mentions that in some areas of Taiwan, families keep the altar (i.e., memorial) tablets of deceased unmarried daughters in seclusion in rooms where the tablets are not likely to be seen (p. 142). In the same book, Jordan provides the reason why these tablets are hidden away and why, at least in earlier times, the spirits of these unmarried females were wed in so-called "hell marriages" [冥婚]. Han Confucianist commentator Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (A.D. 127-200), writes Jordan, stated that deceased unmarried women, not leaving behind children, could not be venerated in ancestral rites; for any family member to do so "would . . . be a breach of proper behavior" (pp. 151-152). (For a complete citation of the Jordan book, see the posting for 12/31/16.) Thus, this legend of spirit possession might be a contrivance to reinforce the need to isolate the tablets of unmarried daughters, just as many urban legends have risen up to reflect anxieties like stranger abduction, going to places where one had been warned not go, violating social norms, and so on. 

This story and "The Tale of Duke Tiantou" (5/31/22) share an interesting motif: A character dies only after visibly witnessing proof of his or her death. Duke Tiantou, having been first decapitated and then with his head reattached to his neck,  only dies when his mother reminds him that naturally an organism dies when it loses its head. Mrs. Guo (or the spirit of Guo's sister that inhabits her body), dies when viewing the memorial tablet to Guo Ziqi's sister. It is implied in both stories that the characters might have continued to live if they hadn't stumbled onto evidence that they should be, by all rights, already dead. 

Motifs: C300, "Looking tabu"; C900, "Punishment for breaking tabu"; C920, "Death for breaking tabu"; E722, "Soul leaves body at death"; E725, "Soul leaves one body and enters another"; E726, "Soul enters body and animates it"; M312, "Prophecy of future greatness for youth."

Forest Vampire -- a Legend from Chaozhou, Guangdong

 In a rugged, forested, and mountainous area called Leiling, someone had once left a coffin with a dead body inside. Into that body eventually entered some miasma, some airborne evil spirit, infecting that corpse, turning it into a jiangshi, a vampire. 

And so, in the darkness of night, the vampire would venture out of its coffin and seek out humans who happened to be out in the forests of this hill country. It would appear behind them and envelop them with its arms, hugging and, thus, killing them, all this being accomplished in mere seconds. 

Despite the ruggedness and remoteness of the terrain, more than a few people fell victim to this vampire.

Now, it so happened that a man in the area had arranged with another family for his son to marry their daughter. Early one evening, he had a bridal sedan chair carried by two porters show up at the bride's house to escort her to the home of the groom. The bride climbed up into the sedan chair, one of the porters closed the curtains to her compartment, and the porters picked up the sedan chair to head for their destination. 

The path would take them through the forest. 

Once in the forest, the porters suddenly felt the need to relieve themselves. They gingerly put the sedan chair down and headed off into the bushes to take care of nature's business. They came back to the sedan chair as soon as they could, hoisted the chair, and quickly completed the journey, arriving at the groom's house. 

The groom eagerly came out of the house to greet his bride. He pulled back the curtains . . .

There sat his bride; from seven gaping holes in her lifeless pale body trickled blood . . .

What was supposed to have been a day of joy now turned into one of unspeakable tragedy. The family members and friends of the bride and groom had the two porters arrested and hauled into the yamen.  The county magistrate heard the case. He knew that a vampire had been responsible for murdering the unfortunate bride. He also reasoned the two porters would not have likely killed the bride and then still delivered her corpse to the groom's family. He came to the conclusion that the vampire had killed her while they, the porters, had been preoccupied with relieving themselves in the bushes. 

The county magistrate next had his men comb the area where the vampire had likely been. Its coffin was located, and the vampire was still inside it. The magistrate's men attacked the vampire with all the weapons they had. The vampire, though, as stiff as a log, extended its arms in an attempt to hug its attackers. 

The magistrate ordered the men to destroy the coffin to prevent the vampire from having a sanctuary to which it could return. With the rigid vampire now on the ground and under the watchful eyes of some of the armed men, the other men burned the coffin. The vampire rose and turned towards a tree and embraced the tree. The magistrate then ordered the tree, along with the vampire, to be burnt as well. 

The vampire would not plague this area ever again. 

from

Chaozhou Minjian Gushi 潮州民間故事 [Chaozhou Folktales], Chen Di, ed.; pp. 48-49.  (See 7/22/07 for complete citation.) 

One wonders why a bridal party would deliberately take a route through a part of the forest frequented by a vampire, but then again this is folklore, where ironies and inconsistencies with logic abound. Greater "truths," however, remain: the forest is a cold, unwelcoming place that is the home to beings whose very existence is adverse to humans. In addition, unburied corpses that are not provided the proper rites accorded to other decedents could very well be reanimated to curse any unlucky person who crosses their paths. 

For another story about a vampire, see the post for 4/9/22. 

Motifs: E20, "Malevolent return from the dead"; E250, "Bloodthirsty revenant"; E251, "Vampire"; cE363.1.1., "Ghost (vampire) substitutes for bride on her wedding journey." 

The Tale of Duke Tiantou (Jing)

 Tiantou was a very energetic and studious young man, and he also happened to possess a remarkable thousand-li horse. Not only that but he knew a fair amount of magic tricks. 

In time Tiantou married a wonderful, beautiful, and clever young woman. With her encouragement, he studied very hard for his examination. Her support--her delicious meals and her being available to help him by making sure that items like the lamp wick and inkstone were ready for use--enabled him to study well and to obtain the highest score, zhuangyan, thereby allowing him to become a noble at the emperor's court. 

His future would be secure! He would now be known as "Duke Tiantou." 

However, it would mean that he would have to leave his wife's side and live at court, where he would need to be constantly on duty. 

Tiantou deeply loved his wife and could not bear to be without her, and so he would mount his thousand-li horse and fly off to the emperor's court before daybreak every day, secretly returning late in the evening. 

All this was highly contrary to imperial orders; however, this is what he did, and for the time being, it worked very well. He got to be an official throughout the day and much of the evening and be with his wife in the early hours of the morning. 

He took steps to make sure that no one at the court, especially the emperor, knew he was secretly leaving the palace each evening for fear of losing his head on the chopping block.

Before long, the young wife revealed to Tiantou that she was pregnant. Now, Tiantou believed he had all the more reason to make the risky late evening/early morning return trip home. 

Tiantou's mother, now aware of her daughter-in-law's pregnancy, was still unaware of her son's completely illegal and dangerous nightly returns home on the flying horse. So, one day, she remarked to her daughter-in-law in a snarky tone: "Barren trees won't produce fruit."

Tiantou's wife mulled over her mother-in-law's words. She absolutely wanted anything but a "barren" marriage, so she contrived an idea to get Tiantou to stay with her, her child-to-be, and her mother-in-law. So, late that night, upon Tiantou's return, she fed him a dinner made up of his favorite foods: prawns, crab, and fish. She also plied him with rice wine as he eagerly devoured his dinner. 

With dinner now over, Tiantou, as drunk as a skunk, staggered to bed without taking off his clothes. He was sound asleep as soon as he fell upon the bed. Once he was good and asleep, his wife pulled off his court boots, footwear issued to all members of the court, and hid them where he'd never find them. 

Early that next morning, Tiantou woke up to the cawing of the roosters. He had gotten up too late, and his boots were gone! Where could they be? He looked everywhere for them, including under the bed. He tried waking up his wife, who, after what seemed like forever, finally turned her head, groggily denied knowing where the boots were, and suggested he buy another pair as she immediately fell back asleep. 

Tiantou tried waking her up, but it was no use. Panicked, knowing that there would be a very real possibility that he could be executed, Tiantou went outside and smeared the darkest mud over his feet and halfway up his pant legs to mimic the appearance of wearing court boots. He also used his magic power to stop the sun from rising, thus silencing the roosters. 

He climbed onto his horse and took off for the court. He landed, hid his horse, and rushed to the palace, allowing the sun to rise just before entering the court. 

The emperor had noticed how strange it was that the sun had come up so late that day and shared this observation with a trusted councilor. 

"Your Imperial Majesty," said the councilor, "a renegade is surely at work! Anyone who can stop the sun from rising and the roosters from crowing is a rebel and poses a danger to the court!"

The emperor mulled over this. He issued an order for his guards to find if any courtier had been engaging in suspicious behavior. When Tiantou showed up with his muddy pant legs and shoes, the emperor decided he had found the court traitor. 

The emperor ordered his guards to take Tiantou out to the chopping block. Tiantou was thus beheaded. However, instead of that being the end of the story, he calmly got up from the ground, bent down to pick his head up, and repositioned his head back on his neck. He left the execution grounds, went back to his horse, and flew back to his home. 

Flying back home, he spotted a boy herding cows not far from his house. He landed the horse and spoke to the boy.

"Say, young fellow," said Tiantou, "allow me to ask you a question."

"Sir?"

"That grass your cows are munching on. Once it's gone, it grows back doesn't it?"

"Oh, yes, Sir!" replied the boy. "It grows back as soft and munchy as ever!"

Good, he said to himself. 

He got back on his horse, took off, and continued flying until he saw below a young woman picking some wild onions. Once again, he landed his horse, dismounted it, and approached the girl. 

"Young lady," said Tiantou, "I'd like to ask you something."

"All right," said the young woman, without bothering to look up.

"Those onions you're picking. They will eventually grow again, won't they?"

"Ha," she said, still not looking up, "what a silly question. Of course, they'll grow back! With some fertilizer and water, they'll grow back quite nicely, thank you." 

Wonderful! he said to himself. He was now feeling very happy and encouraged. 

He got back on his horse and flew back to his house. He tethered his horse and entered the house. His mother, holding a dead chicken, was surprised to see him 

"Son!" she said. "It's wonderful you're back already. We slaughtered some chickens for tonight's dinner." 

She prepared to cut the chicken's head off when Tiantou asked a question.

"Mother, if a chicken's head is cut off, will it still live?"

"Aiyo!" said the mother, cutting her fingertip by accident out of surprise from the question she had just been asked. "When the head is cut off, Son, the chicken dies!"

As soon as Tiantou had heard that, he became very still. His head then fell right off his neck, and he collapsed upon the floor, dead. 

Needless to say, Tiantou's mother and wife were deeply shocked and saddened. They had his body washed and wrapped in coarse linen before being placed in a coffin. A priest performed a ceremony, and the family performed three days of funeral rituals before having the body and coffin interred. 

Tiantou was gone. Now, his widow would have to live in the dark, quiet house. A few nights after her husband's death, she saw him in a dream. 

"My dear wife," he said. "Do this: slaughter a chicken every day for 360 days. Let each carcass soak in a tub. All of this will be helpful!"

The widow was about to ask him why, but Tiantou immediately disappeared. 

She carried out the instructions her husband had given her in the dream. Nearly one year later, the tub was overflowing with the stinkiest, most disgusting maggots imaginable. The mother-in-law poured boiling water on the maggots to kill them.

That night Tiantou reappeared in his widow's dream.

"My dear wife," he said, "use the tub of maggots and chicken remains to fertilized the field in front of our house."

With tears in her eyes, the widow did exactly that. Within two days, two sturdy bamboo trees now grew in the field. 

A few days later, who should come by the area but the emperor himself, riding regally in his sedan chair, taking an inspection tour. When the emperor and his party were passing the house, the handles of his sedan chair suddenly snapped, and he hit the ground, with his rear end taking the brunt. 

"You idiots!" he shouted at the porters. "Fix these handles at once if you wish to keep your worthless heads!" Then, turning his head towards the bamboo trees in the field, he said, "Over there! In the field! There are two bamboo trees. Perfect! Chop them down and use them for handles. Hurry!"

The porters did as they had been told, of course. With the sedan chair repaired, the party moved on. 

"Perfect!" said the emperor. "Everything's just perfect for me! The weather, the views, the bamboo! Everything is just perfect in my land for me!"

The porters were taking the emperor across a narrow bridge, and just as the emperor had said, "Everything is just perfect in my land for me!", the handles of the sedan chair once again broke, and this time the emperor tumbled far down into the river below. 

That was the end of the emperor. 

All this happened on August 15 on the lunar calendar many, many centuries ago. The Jing people still honor Duke Tiantou on that date every year. 

From

京族民间有什么故事？京族民间故事大全_汉程民俗

The Jing (京族 or Gin or Kinh) people are ethnic Vietnamese who live in China's Guangxi Province. A friend from Vietnam told me that "Kinh" is the name Vietnamese people give to the majority ethnic group in Vietnam. For two other Jing tales, see the post for 5/24/14. 

The lesson of this magic tale seems to be that there is a limit to one's power, whether it might be supernatural powers like Tiantou's or earthly, imperial power like the emperor's. For all his ability, Tiantou could still not prevent his own death. Here was a man with a flying horse who could conceal or otherwise stop the sun itself and even remain alive (for a while, anyway) after being decapitated. Yet, he also depended on his wife so that he could put all his energy to use for studying. One might add that Tiantou's very power, like that of a Greek hero, led to his eventual downfall. 

Motifs: A721.1, "Theft of sun"; B41.2, "Flying horse"; D1810.8.2, "Information revealed through dream"; E321, "Dead husband's friendly return"; cE720.1, "Soul(s) of the human being(s) seen in dreams"; F961.1, "Extraordinary behavior of sun"; Q200, "Deeds punished"; cQ211.0.3, "Emperor punished for many murders"; Q411, "Death as punishment"; Q428, "Punishment: Drowning." 

The Dog That Became a King (Dai)

There was once a cast-off mangy, hungry dog, so starved that his rib bones were clearly visible. The wondrous monk Laxi took pity on this dog and took him in, caring for him so that before long the dog became healthy and active once again. Not only that, the dog became incredibly brilliant while under Laxi's skillful and magical tutelage. 

One day Laxi asked the dog, "If you could, would you like to become a person?"

"I don't only wish to become a person," replied the dog. "I would like to become the king!"

"Very well," said Laxi. "Come and jump through the hoop in my staff!"

The dog did so, and when he had touched the ground again, he instantly turned into a man. The man bowed and thanked Laxi. 

Patting the man's head, Laxi said, "Your name henceforth shall be Maxi'xiang!"

Now, it so happened at this time that the kingdom of Menghuidihai had recently suffered the death of the king, and there were no suitable heirs to the throne. It would be an understatement to say the kingdom was in a complete uproar as to what to do. Councilors carrying lanterns went out into the night and combed the area, searching for anyone who could possibly become the next king. 

Eventually, they came to the renowned Laxi for his help and suggestions. Maxi'xiang just happened to be with the monk, too. 

"Gentlemen," said Laxi, "you need not search any longer. This is Maxi'xiang. He can be the next king!"

On the spot, Maxi'xiang provided an audition, if you will, by demonstrating his advanced ability, thanks to Laxi, in martial arts and by reading aloud ancient texts on the science and art of being a ruler. 

The councilors looked at each other and nodded. Yes, they thought, this is the right man for the job. They escorted Maxi'xiang back to the palace, where he was thereupon made king. 

So, Maxi'xiang had now become king and wore the regal robes and crown. He sat on the throne with councilors by his side, with everything at his bidding just by the snap of his fingers. 

Yes, he had everything he could possibly want but one thing--a sense of security. He knew he had once been a dog, and he feared the day would come when this secret would be made known to everyone in the kingdom. But how could this secret ever come to light? Who could possibly give the game away? Only one name came to mind: Laxi! Laxi, the man who had saved his life and who had enabled him to become a human and king. 

King Maxi'xiang decided then and there that Laxi had to die. 

He issued an arrest warrant for Laxi on a trumped-up charge and ordered his guards to seize and to kill his former benefactor.

When the guards showed up at Laxi's residence, the wise and powerful monk was waiting for them. He came out to speak to them, and none of them, seeing him there before them, in all his powerful presence, felt able to approach him, let alone to kill him.  

"Who has ordered you here to do me harm?" he asked them. 

"The . . . king . . ." one of them answered. 

"Well, you go back and tell your king that I still have plenty of magic power to teach him," said the monk. "Kill me now and that power will be lost forever. The day may come when the king will realize this and blame you for having killed me. So, go back and tell him I still have many things to teach him, which I will very willingly do. If he's not interested, you can always return here to carry out his order. You know where to find me."

The guards scurried back to the palace and told the king what Laxi had said about teaching him further magic. The king thought about what Laxi had told the guards. Yes, he decided, there was still a lot for him to learn. The only way he'd ever be able to defeat Laxi and thus preserve his legacy would be to learn all the magic powers Laxi had. Only then, with Laxi gone forever, would he be able to rule with confidence and the dignity supported by abundant confidence. 

King Maxi'xiang left the palace and went directly to Laxi's home. There, he humbly apologized for his actions and intentions. Laxi just smiled. 

"You were correct, Master," said the king. "I have still much, much to learn! Would you still graciously teach me all your powers?"

"I shall teach you if you are able to squeeze through the hoop in my staff," said Laxi. 

"Hmm . . . all right . . ." said the king. 

The king squeezed through the hoop and touched the ground, whereupon he instantly turned back into the mangy starving dog with protruding ribs. 

And so, Maxi'xiang, once the king, was now again a dog. 

from

Daizu minjian gushixuan 傣族民间故事选 [An Anthology of Dai Folktales]; Fu Guangzi, Yang Bingli, Feng Shouxuan, Zhang Fusan, eds; Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, 1992; pp. 250-251.

For another Dai folktale, see the posting for 1/1/09. For another story about a dog that was transformed into a man, see 7/26/12. 

The staffs carried by monks may have large loops at the top; however, the story implies that either the loop in this story is particularly wide and accommodating or Maxi'xiang, in both his animal or human form, is adept at squeezing through openings. (A Google image search for "monk's staff" will result in many photographs of different staffs with loops at the top.) 

Laxi (腊西) is presented just matter-of-factly without any background information, leading me to believe he might be a legendary or cultural hero of the Dai people, someone without the need for an introduction. 

Motifs: B211.7, "Speaking dog"; B300, "Wise Animal"; cD22, "Transformation: common man to exalted personage"; D141, "Transformation: man to dog"; D341, "Transformation: dog to person"; D1254, "Magic staff"; K2061, "Treacherous plan of hypocritical animal detected & prevented"; N848.0.1, "Holy man as helper"; Q261.1, "Intended treachery punished"; R165, "Rescue by saint (holy man)." 

Moving Ahead (Han)

 A young traveler, a man, was hurrying through the night, desperately searching for shelter.

By the path was a lone house seemingly with all the lanterns lit. From the house emanated the sounds of people laughing and the telltale sounds of an ongoing card game. 

He decided to take a chance and ask for permission to spend a night. And so, in that past day and age when strangers could ask to spend a night in one's house, this young man knocked on the door. 

"Yes? Who is it?" asked a voice from within. 

"I'm just an exhausted traveler. May I request your permission to spend a night inside your house?"

The door opened and a man appeared. "Absolutely!" he said. "Please come on in." The man beckoned the traveler to enter and showed him to a room, passing by the table of merry card players. 

The traveler lay down on the bed and quickly drifted off to sleep . . . 

He hadn't slept for long when he suddenly woke up with a start to the sound of sha . . . sha . . . sha . . .   Somebody was in the same room, which was now lit with a lantern.  

He looked up and turned his head. 

An incredibly beautiful young woman was seated at a vanity table, brushing her long hair. And then she lifted her head right off her neck and held it in her hands, all the while remaining seated in front of the mirror . . . 

The traveler leaped off the bed and ran stumbling down the hallway to the table of card players. 

"Hey!" he cried, interrupting the game. "I just saw something that scared the life out of me!"

"What was it?" asked one of the men at the table. 

"I saw a woman who lifted her own head off her neck and held it in her hands!"

"That scared you? Really? Why, that's nothing!" said another at the table. "Take a look at this!"

One by one, each person at the table calmly lifted his head off his neck and placed the head right on the table. 

The young traveler dashed right out of the house and didn't stop running until he had reached a street in a town far from the house he had just fled. Daylight was now breaking, and people were busily setting up their shops and stalls for the day's commerce. Someone must have noticed how he was out of breath. The traveler told this person about the solitary house with people who could take their heads off.

"Oh, that house . . ." said the man in the town, shaking his head. "That house is on land that used to be an execution field. You just encountered the headless ghosts that still haunt the area . . ."

from

Chinese Folktales, pp. 148-149. (See the posting for 4/9/22.)

This story is very reminiscent of "Mujina," a story from Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan. 

The tale doesn't explain in which province all this takes place. An execution field would have been where people, of course, had been decapitated.

Motifs: E281, "Ghosts haunt house"; E402.1, "Noises caused by ghost(s)"; E410, "The Unquiet Place"; E411.10, "Persons who die violent or accidental deaths cannot rest in grave"; cE419.7, "Person with missing bodily member cannot rest in grave"; E422.1.1, "Headless revenant"; E422.1.1.3, "Actions of headless revenant"; cE422.1.1.4, "Headless ghost carries head under arm"; E577.2, "Dead persons play cards." 

The Flying Vampire (Han)

 Long, long ago, in a small village there lived a mother and her two sons. The father had died some twenty years before. 

One day, a man delivered a letter to their home. The letter read: "Sons, I, your father, really need your help. I am the owner of a pharmacy in a town in Anhui Province. Business is really booming, but I need more help in the pharmacy, especially from people I can trust. Could you please come over and help me out behind the counter?" 

Needless to say, the mother and sons were astounded. 

"Mother, is possible Father is still alive?" asked the sons. "Every year, we visit the tomb and tidy it up. How could he still be alive?"

The mother didn't have an answer. After the three thought about it for a while, they came to the conclusion that someone was playing a cruel prank on them. By and by, they forgot about the matter. 

Six months passed. 

One day, a man from Anhui came to the house and presented the mother and sons with three hundred silver coins and yet another letter purported to be from the father. 

"Sons," the letter read, "I waited and waited, and neither of you showed up. I am really desperate at this point, so I have entrusted a gentleman to deliver to you three hundred silver coins as a sign of good faith and as your first payment for wages. Please don't disappoint me! I am depending on you to come to Anhui to help me!"

"Mother," asked one of the sons, "how can you explain this now? We two kids were very small when Dad passed away. Is there any way possible that he could still be alive? Somebody is writing letters and signing them as our father, and now this person has delivered to us three hundred silver coins! Could he still be alive?"

"This has to be a joke!" said the mother. "When a person dies, that's it for that person's time on earth!"

The three then discussed the matter for what seemed like hours before the older brother said, "Mother, I have an idea. You still have some of Father's letters. Let's compare the penmanship in those letters to this letter that came with the silver coins. If our father really wrote this letter, the penmanship in this letter and the old letters should match!"

"Mother, Older Brother has a great idea!" cried the younger brother. "Let's do that!"

The mother agreed and fetched an old letter the father had written. The three compared the two letters. 

The penmanship was a perfect match. 

"Father . . . is still . . . alive . . ." said the older brother. 

"I don't believe it," said the mother. "I remember things you don't, like his passing and burial. There's something really fishy about all this . . ."

The two brothers had already made up their minds to journey to Anhui and work with their father in the pharmacy. They began to argue that only one of them should go. 

"I need to go! I'm the first-born son!" said the big brother. 

"Excuse me but as the older brother you need to stay and look after our mother," the younger brother responded. 

The mother observed this and knew it would be of no use trying to keep them both at home.

"You both can go if you must," she said. "After all, the letter requested the two of you to go. I shall be all right. I still can take good care of the home by myself. All of this is too extraordinary to make sense. So, all I ask of you before you leave is to take care and to be very wary in case some evil person is preparing to trick you!"

"Yes, Mother!" the two sons responded. 

The next day they set off for their supposed father's town in Anhui. In those days, traveling was very difficult, and so it took the boys a month to reach the town. The evening they arrived, they passed by a Buddhist temple. They decided to ask the monk there if they could spend the night. The old monk inside welcomed them, showed them to their quarters for the night, and invited them to eat dinner with him. 

They chatted during the meal and told the monk the purpose of their journey. 

The monk became alarmed and said, "This all sounds very suspicious. I am certain a vampire is involved. If you go to the pharmacy unprepared, there's a huge chance neither of you will survive."

"What should we do, then?" asked one of the brothers. 

"You should be all right there during the daylight hours," replied the monk. "If it's a vampire we're dealing with, he won't appear there in the daytime. It's way after dark that I am concerned about. You will be shown a bedroom in or near the pharmacy. You must not actually sleep there. I suggest you somehow get ahold of two fresh pigs that have been totally plucked of all their hairs. Some time before midnight, place the dead pigs under the blankets of the bed, dress them in your clothing, and then make sure you stay out of that bedroom for the rest of the night! If you find yourselves in danger, immediately return to this temple. I have methods of dealing with evil beings."

The brothers thanked the monk for his advice and help, spent the night in the temple, and early the next morning presented themselves at the pharmacy. They were welcomed by a senior employee. 

"Is our father here?" one of the brothers asked.

"No, he isn't," replied the employee. "He doesn't really show up here in the day. He spends the day in his room in prayer and to study religious texts. You'll see him tonight. I've been instructed to see to all of your needs in his absence. I'll show you to your room, and you may let me and my assistant know whatever you need!"

Not present in the daytime . . . thought the brothers. To them, this confirmed what the old monk had said. 

"Could we have your assistant go to the market for us and purchase two pig carcasses that have been totally plucked?" asked the older brother. 

"Of course!" the senior employee replied. "It's as good as done. Now, allow me to show you your room."

The brothers were taken to a room in the same building. Before long, the junior assistant arrived with two pig carcasses. Once the assistant had left, the brothers placed the pigs under the blankets of the bed and dressed them in their clothes. They then bided their time until nightfall.

"It's time to leave," the older brother whispered to his younger brother. 

They exited the bedroom and hid in a nearby closet. From time to time, they looked through the crack in the doorway to see if anything was going on in the bedroom. They weren't totally sure that their father was now a vampire, but they remained wary just in case. 

Around midnight, they heard a strange wind sweep through the building and sensed how this wind blew into the closed bedroom. They tiptoed to the closed door and looked through the crack. They saw inside the bedroom a frightful-looking being with a wild shock of long, bushy hair and long, crooked fingernails. The figure picked up one of the dead pigs dressed in clothing and ripped its skin off. He next tried to unfurl the pig's skin and stick it to his own body, but it refused to stick since it was not the skin of his own son. 

With great anger and frustration, the wicked being violently searched through the room before literally jumping out of the room and going on a frantic search for his sons. 

The two brothers, however, were long gone, having fled for the temple. 

"Master! Master!" they cried. "Save us!"

The old monk was still up and rushed out to receive them at the entrance to the temple. 

"Quickly make your way to the main hall and hide in there!" he told them. "I'll handle the vampire."

The brothers did as they were told as the monk headed for the gate. 

Soon enough, the flying vampire appeared at the gate.

"Noxious creature," said the monk, "you have no business here! Pretending to read the sutras in the day while committing evil at night, you are here to harm your own two sons! They're under my protection! Now cease whatever you are trying to do!"

The vampire leapt towards the monk, his claws extended. The monk calmly stood his ground and spat at the vampire. The evil creature instantly dropped to the ground and dissolved into a puddle of coagulated blood and hair. 

The vampire was no more. 

"Boys," said the monk, having reentered the temple, "the danger is over. The vampire has been neutralized. You are free to leave!"

The brothers profusely thanked the monk and then returned to the pharmacy, where they took over as the owners. 

from

Zhongguo minjian gushi 中國民間故事 [Chinese folktales], Meng Zhongren, ed., Hanxin, 1994, pp. 140-146. 

The traditional name for Chinese vampires is jiangshi [僵屍] ("stiffened corpse"). The original story states that the dead father had somehow become a vampire twenty years after his death and that he could appear in the visage of an old wealthy merchant. Thus, this vampire could also shapeshift. It also explained early on that his plan was to kill his sons, drink their blood, and attach their skin to his body. The story does not explain,  however, why the vampire had targeted his own sons or how the he was able to amass the sizable funds to purchase a pharmacy and hire assistants since he would not be available during the day. (Regarding the former point, in traditonal belief, the walking dead, revenants, are considered by their very nature to be inimical to anything good or decent, so perhaps a vampire who would kill his own sons is not such a big stretch.) Finally, the tale does state that one of the pharmacy employees was in on the secret that the boss was a vampire. 

In his Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, Wolfram Eberhard mentions that spittle is a potent apotropaic weapon to ward off evil. 

Motifs: D42.2, "Spirit (vampire) takes the shape of man"; D1001, "Magic spittle"; D1381.2, "Saint's (monk's) spittle protects fugitive(s) from attack";  D1402.14.1, "Magic charmed spittle kills"; D2050, "Destructive magic powers"; E220, "Dead relative's malevolent return"; E251, "Vampire"; E251.1, "Vampire's power overcome"; E251.3, "Deeds of vampires"; E261.4, "Ghost (vampire) pursues men"; E443.2.4, "Ghost (vampire) laid by priest (monk)"; E541.2, "Ghost (vampire) eats living human beings"; E557, "Dead man (vampire) writes"; K500, "Escape by deception"; K525.1, "Substituted object (pigs) left in bed while intended victim(s) escape(s)."