THE COMMUNITY OF FOXES

Liao Zhai zhi yi (Strange Stories from a Lonely Studio) and Yue Wei Cao Tang Bi Ji (The Notes of Yuewei Cottage), two renown Classical Chinese novels of the Qing Dynasty, contain many stories about foxes. The former contains more than 70 such stories and the latter contains more than 130. Foxes in these stories vary greatly in terms of their types. More importantly, a noticeable phenomenon in these stories is that, just like human beings, foxes’ dwellings can be identified as rural and urban, domestic and wild. In other words, foxes from different communities bear overt differences concerning their characters and behaviors. For example, Liao Zhai zhi yi is skilled in delineating rural foxes with pastoral temperament, who frequently escalate their emotion and lust. On the other hand, Yue Wei Cao Tang Bi Ji is adept in rendering urban foxes with intellectual men, who often show their nurturing and wisdom. And this phenomenon reveals the differing life experience, social statuses and cultural visions of the two authors. Concomitantly, it also betrays the different folklore sources utilized by the two authors.