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Li Ji Slays the Giant Serpent

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"Li Ji Slays the Giant Serpent" (traditional Chinese: 李寄斬蛇; simplified Chinese: 李寄斩蛇; pinyin: Lǐ Jì Zhǎn Shé) is a Chinese tale first published in the 4th-century compilation Soushen Ji[1][2] attributed to the Jin-dynasty official Gan Bao (or Kan Pao). The story concerns a young heroine named Li Ji (or Li Chi) who bravely rids her village of a terrible snake.

Alternate names

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Alternate English names for the tale are: "The Girl-Eating Serpent";[3] "Li Chi Slays the Serpent";[4] "Li Ji Slays the Great Serpent";[5] "Li Ji Hacks Down the Snake";[6] "Li Chi Slays the Great Serpent";[7] "Li Chi, the Serpent Slayer";[8] "Li Ji, the Serpent Slayer";[9] and "The Serpent Sacrifice".[10][11]

Synopsis

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The story is set in Jiangle County (Chiang-lo), Minzhong Commandery, Eastern Yue (or Dongyue[12][13]) Kingdom, when southeastern China was still fragmented into small kingdoms and territories.[14] In the Yong (Yung) mountains there lived a serpent that "demanded" (through people's dreams and wu shamans[6]) the sacrifice of maidens from the village below. The town officials, afraid of the creature, give in to its horrible requests and send the daughters of slaves and criminals to the cave's opening.[15] These sacrifices repeat eight more times, always during "the first week of the eighth lunar month".[16]

One day, Li Ji (or Li Chi), the youngest daughter of Li Dan (or Li Tan), offers herself to be the sacrifice, since her mother and father have five other daughters and no son.

She goes to the mountains to face the serpent, armed with a sword and accompanied by a snake-biting dog. Li Ji puts a basket of sweet-smelling rice cakes to draw the serpent out of its hideout, and while it is distracted by the food, unleashes the dog on the animal. The serpent retreats to the cave, but the girl follows after it, always hitting and striking its body with the sword, until it dies. Li Ji sees the skeletons of the nine sacrificed maidens and either laments they were devoured or that they let themselves be devoured by the beast.[17]

The King of Dongyue learns of Li Ji's bravery and marries her. Her father also becomes the Magistrate of Jiangle.[18][19][20]

Analysis

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Tale type

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Chinese folklorist and scholar Ting Nai-tung [zh] established a second typological classification of Chinese folktales (the first was by Wolfram Eberhard in the 1930s). In his new system, he indexed the story of Li Ji as the Chinese type 300, "The Dragon-Slayer".[21] Ting's type corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 300, "The Dragon-Slayer": the hero fights against a dragon with the help of his dogs in order to rescue a maiden offered as a sacrifice.[22]

Interpretations

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The tale shares similarities with tales about dragonslaying around the globe. However, in this tale, a serpent takes the place of the dragon.[23]

Some scholars interpret the tale as a contrast of Li Ji's bravery against the ineffectualness of the male village officers, who preferred to obey the serpent instead of trying to fight it.[24]

The tale has also been interpreted under an anthropological lens: the snake would be linked to female sexuality and fertility.[25]

It has also been suggested that the snake foe (a python with supernatural powers, in some accounts) may represent an old local deity with serpentine form, and the sacrifice of virginal maidens merits comparison to fertility rites.[26] As a new belief system was being diffused through the country, the old animal-shaped divinities were subject to a process of religious reformation that demoted them to adversarial roles of the newcomer human-like deities.[27][28] In the same vein, the tale could be related to a phenomenon researcher Wu Chunming named "suppression of the snake", brought about by "Sinnitic immigrants to the region".[29]

Hugh R. Clark also identifies the tale as belonging to traditions from "the Min River valley" and, by extension, reflective of the Yue culture.[30] Similarly, ancient Chinese scholars once associated the culture of Min with snakes, which is further reinforced by the fact that folktales collected in Fujian show snakes as vicious enemies to be vanquished.[31]

Professor Biwu Shang also cites another tale about serpent-slaying, “The Great Serpent”. According to him, in this tale of the zhiguai genre, a similarly named heroine Li Ji slays a human-killing serpent.[32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Maeth Ch., Russell. “El Cuento De Li Ji.” Estudios De Asia y Africa, vol. 25, no. 3 (83), 1990, pp. 537. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40312235. Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.
  2. ^ Seal, Graham. Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes. ABC/CLIO. 2001. pp. 151-152. ISBN 1-57607-718-7
  3. ^ Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Edited by Karl S. Y. Kao. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1985. p. x. ISBN 0-253-31375-9.
  4. ^ Bush, Laurence C. Asian Horror Encyclopedia: Asian Horror Culture in Literature, Manga and Folklore. Writers Club Press. 2001. p. 92. ISBN 0-595-20181-4.
  5. ^ Wang, Robin R. Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period through the Song Dynasty. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company. 2003. p. 205. ISBN 0-87220-652-1.
  6. ^ a b Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Fan Pen Li Chen. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 2017. p. 31. ISBN 978-14384-6-7078.
  7. ^ Gan Bao. In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record, translated into English by Kenneth J. DeWoskin and James Irving Crump. Stanford University Press, 1996. pp. 230-231. ISBN 0-8047-2506-3.
  8. ^ Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Edited by Karl S. Y. Kao. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1985. p. 105. ISBN 0-253-31375-9.
  9. ^ Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations. Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty. Edited by John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau. New York: Columbia University Press/Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. 2000. pp. 663-664. ISBN 0-231-09676-3.
  10. ^ The Man Who Sold a Ghost: Chinese Tales of the 3rd-6th Centuries. Translated by Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang. Peking: Foreign Language Press. 1958. pp. 50-51.
  11. ^ Shang Biwu. Unnatural Narrative across Borders: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives. Routledge/Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. 2019. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-138-31130-5
  12. ^ Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations. Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty. Edited by John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau. New York: Columbia University Press/Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. 2000. p. 663. ISBN 0-231-09676-3
  13. ^ The Man Who Sold a Ghost: Chinese Tales of the 3rd-6th Centuries. Translated by Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang. Peking: Foreign Language Press. 1958. p. 50.
  14. ^ Kendall, Carol; Li Yao-wen. Sweet and Sour: Tales from China. New York: Clarion Books. 1980. pp. 33-38. ISBN 0-395-54798-9
  15. ^ Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Edited by Karl S. Y. Kao. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1985. p. 105. ISBN 0-253-31375-9.
  16. ^ Maeth Ch., Russell. “El Cuento De Li Ji.” Estudios De Asia y Africa, vol. 25, no. 3 (83), 1990, pp. 538. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40312235. Accessed 24 Mar. 2021.
  17. ^ Dennys, Nicholas Belfield (1876). The Folk-Lore of China: and its Affinities with That of the Aryan and Semitic Races. London: Trübner & Co. pp. 110–111.
  18. ^ Seal, Graham. Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes. ABC/CLIO. 2001. p. 152. ISBN 1-57607-718-7
  19. ^ Wang, Robin R. Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period through the Song Dynasty. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company. 2003. pp. 205-206. ISBN 0-87220-652-1
  20. ^ Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Edited by Karl S. Y. Kao. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1985. p. 106. ISBN 0-253-31375-9
  21. ^ Nai-tung Ting. A Type Index of Chinese Folktales in the Oral Tradition and Major Works of Non-religious Classical Literature. FF Communications, no. 223. Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1978. p. 47 (entry "Kan Pao").
  22. ^ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 88-90.
  23. ^ Seal, Graham. Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes. ABC/CLIO. 2001. p. 152. ISBN 1-57607-718-7
  24. ^ Personal Salvation and Filial Piety: Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and her Acolytes. Translated and with an introduction by Wilt L. Idema. Kuroda Institute. Classics in East Asian Buddhism. A Kuroda Institute Book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 2008. pp. 40-41. ISBN 978-0-8248-3215-5
  25. ^ Jing Anning. The Water God's Temple of the Guangsheng Monastery: Cosmic Function of Art, Ritual, and Theater. Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill. 2002. p. 138. ISBN 90-04-11956-6
  26. ^ Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Edited by Karl S. Y. Kao. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1985. p. 106. ISBN 0-253-31375-9
  27. ^ Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Fan Pen Li Chen. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 2017. pp. 30-31. ISBN 978-14384-6-7078
  28. ^ Personal Salvation and Filial Piety: Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and her Acolytes. Translated and with an introduction by Wilt L. Idema. Kuroda Institute. Classics in East Asian Buddhism. A Kuroda Institute Book. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 2008. pp. 40-41. ISBN 978-0-8248-3215-5
  29. ^ Brindley, Erica Fox. “Performing Hua-Xia, Inscribing Yue: Rhetoric, Rites, and Tags”. In: Ancient China and the Yue: Perceptions and Identities on the Southern Frontier, C.400 BCE–50 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. pp. 176-177. ISBN 978-1-107-08478-0
  30. ^ Clark, Hugh R. The Sinitic encounter in Southeast China through the first millennium CE. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. 2016. pp. 97-98. ISBN 978-0-8248-5160-6.
  31. ^ Clark, Hugh R. The Sinitic encounter in Southeast China through the first millennium CE. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. 2016. pp. 96-97. ISBN 978-0-8248-5160-6.
  32. ^ Shang Biwu. Unnatural Narrative across Borders: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives. Routledge/Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. 2019. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-138-31130-5
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