【Kaoru of the South Wind】Interestingly said that the "Nine-tailed Fox" | Li Rong

Stills from The Strange Talk of the Heavenly Book (1983).

Mr. Lu Qinli edited the three volumes of "Poems of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Pre-Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties", and occasionally turned a few pages in his free time. This time I read the famous "Tu Shan Song" in the pre-Qin poem.

According to the "Lü's Spring and Autumn" text quoted in the "Art and Literature Cluster" compiled by Mr. Lu:

"Yu Chinese New Year's Eve unmarried, and he traveled to Tushan Mountain, fearing that he would lose his heir at dusk. Words: My marriage must have a response. It was made of the White Fox nine tails. Yu Yue: The white one, I serve also; the nine-tailed one, its testimony also. So tushan people sang: Sui Sui White Fox, Nine-tailed Pang Pang (a work "庬庬"). Becoming a family room (a work of "becoming a family into a room"), I am all (one as another) Chang. So he married Tu Shannu. ”

Regarding the marriage of Dayu and Tu Shannu, those knowledgeable gentlemen who believe in ancient times, doubt ancient times and archaeology may have various mysterious topics and topics that can be studied and discussed on issues such as the in-laws between the tribes and whether the two finally "taste different". Unfortunately, I am a layman in these aspects, and only notice the nine-tailed fox of "Sui Sui White Fox and Nine-tailed Pang Pang" above and below the quotation. According to the accumulation of reading that I am not a little bit of drowning, it seems that I remember that there is a big "history of change" before and after this nine-tailed fox.

There are nine-tailed foxes in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and in its "Nanshan Classic", Yun: "Three hundred miles to the east, the mountain of Qingqiu ... There are beasts, whose shape is like a fox and nine tails, whose voice is like a baby, who can eat people, and who eaters do not cheat. This is exactly the ancient and strange "primitive flavor" of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the nine-tailed fox beast barks harmlessly and gently like a baby, but fierce enough to eat people. And once it is eaten by someone in turn, it can make the person who eats it no longer be seduced by evil things.

But in the eyes of Guo Pu (Jing Chun), the most famous of the Notes on the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the nine-tailed fox is a strange beast. Guo Pu's "Nine-tailed Fox Praise" quoted in the "Art and Literature Cluster" says: "Qingqiu Strange Beast, Nine-tailed Fox." There is a way to see, out of the book. Do Rui Yu Zhou, to mark the spirit rune. "Guo Pu's Jin Dynasty is already a relatively late dynasty, and for a long time before the Jin Dynasty, especially in Han and Wei, the Nine-tailed Fox was regarded as the beast of Xiangrui. There is tao, there is virtue, the world is peaceful and smooth, "the king of the law is cultivated, the three talents are obtained", then the nine-tailed fox as a beast of auspicious rui will appear and become the "spirit rune" of the prosperous world. In the books of the past dynasties, the records of the Four Seas Qingming "Nine-tailed Fox To" and "Nine-tailed Fox Sacrifice" are all eye-catching. From this, looking back at the passage between Dayu and Tu Shannu from the "Tu Shan Song", "White Fox Nine Tails" "White Man, I Serve Also." The Nine-Tailed One, whose testimony is also", is based on the lofty status of the Nine-tailed Fox as the Beast of Xiangrui. The White Tiger Tong Feng Zen chapter is more detailed: "What is the fox nine tails? The fox died on the first hill, not forgetting Benye, and Ming'an did not forget the danger. Who must be the Nine Tails? The nine concubines have their place, and their children and grandchildren will also flourish. Where is the tailer? Ming Hou Dang Sheng also. "Then, the nine-tailed fox of Xiangrui, one is virtuous, the second is the reproduction of descendants, and the third is the prosperity of all generations."

However, what is strange is that later, the nine-tailed fox of this "auspicious beast" unconsciously evolved towards a completely opposite extreme evolution. I remember that when I was a child, I flipped through the books randomly and took out the Ming and Qing Chapters and Novels collected by adults as "snacks" to read, of course, there were few gods and journeys to the west. There is the face of the nine-tailed fox, and the impression is completely "villain role", especially in "Fengshen Yanyi", there are three demons, three karmic obstacles, "creating evil for no reason, mutilating living beings, eating people without boredom, and sending the soup world clean... Instigate the king to make cannons, kill loyal advisers, cure the people of the palace, build deer and gather the wealth of the world, kill the wine pond, the meat forest, the inner palace, and even knock on the bones to see the marrow, and examine the fetus; such a tragic evil, the sin cannot be blamed, the heavens and the earth are angry, although they eat meat and sleep on the skin, they are not enough to do their best." Among those three demons, there were nine-tailed fox spirits, "in Enzhou, su daji was killed, and he took shape by trick to confuse the heavenly son." This is the image of a completely adulterous demon, where is there the slightest shadow of the former "Beast of Good Fortune"? Not only is it lascivious, it can be called the "Nine-tailed Fox Spirit", and the adulterous and evil is also the "Nine-tailed Fox". There is one in the Song "Nine Dynasties Chronicle Preparation":

(Chen Pengnian) Min zhi Qiang Ji, good etiquette to make criminal names of the study, su treacherous, the number nine-tailed fox.

Sometimes I think that the nine-tailed fox experienced such a "big ups and downs" of the history of change, the end is all on that "nine tails". Originally, the ordinary normal fox was just a tail. Of course, there are many more nine tails than one tail, but "many" sometimes has to be analyzed in detail. Adding "more" to the good is better, that is ideal. But it is also difficult to ensure that "more" is added to the bad and worse. Therefore, it is better to think of the tail of "nine tails" as just an ordinary number word, and the nine-tailed fox is just nine ordinary foxes with only one tail each. This may be more reliable.

[Kaoru of the South Wind] is Li Rong's column in pen

Author: Li Rong

Editor: Qian Yutong

Editor-in-Charge: Shu Ming

*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.