NEIL ARNOLD: Chinese Monster Tales Part Two

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippy who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older....

From ‘..Chinese Tales of the 3rd – 6th Centuries’, ‘The Serpent Sacrifice’.

In the province of Minchung in Tungyueh, Mount Yungling towers many miles into the air. In its north-west corner there used to live a huge serpent, seventy to eighty-feet long and so thick that it too a dozen men to encircle it. The local people went in terror of it, and many officers of Tungyeh, capital of Tungyueh, and other adjoining districts were killed by it. Though they sacrificed oxen and sheep, they had no peace. Then someone dreamed, or some oracle predicted, that this serpent demanded virgins of twelve or thirteen. The authorities were dismayed, but since the serpent continued to make trouble they began supplying it with local girls, especially from families of criminals. So every eighth month they made a morning sacrifice, setting down the girl at the mouth of the serpent’s cave. And the serpent would come out to eat her.

This went on year after year until nine girls had been sacrificed in this way. But when the order came down the tenth time, no virgin could be found. Li Tan of Chianglo County had six daughters but no son, and his youngest daughter Chi offered to go. Her parents would not agree.

“My unhappy parents have six daughters only and no son”, said Chi. “So they have no real descendant. We are not like To Yung in the Han dynasty who offered to serve as slave in place of her father. Since we cannot work to support our parents, but are simply a burder to them, the sooner we die the better. Besides, my sale will bring in some money for the old folk. Surely this is best!”.

Still her parents could not bear to let her go. But in spite of this, Chi left home secretly. Having procured a sharp sword and a dog which could catch snakes, early on the first day of the eighth month she went and sat down in the temple, taking her sword and her dog. As she put several large rice cakes soaked in honey at the mouth of the cave, very soon the serpent came out. Its head was the size of a bin, its eyes like bronze mirrors two feet in diameter. When it smelt the fragrant cakes and started eating them, Chi loosed her dog to worry it while she cut and wounded it several times from behind. The serpent fled, writhing with pain, but did not get far before it died. The Chi went into the cave and found the skeletons of the nine other girls. She carried them out and said sadly:

“Because you were timid, the serpent ate you, poor creatures.”

Then she made her way leisurely home.

When the prince of Yueh heard of this he made her his queen, appointed her father magistrate of Chianglo, and richly awarded her mother and her sisters. Since then there have been no more monsters in Tungyeh, and the local people sing her praises to this day.

See also Part one of this series