If you raise a fox ...

曲沃縣尉孫緬家奴，年六歲，未嘗解語。後緬母臨階坐，奴忽瞪視。母怪問之，奴便笑云：「娘子總角之時，曾著黃裙白裶襦，養一野狸，今猶憶否？」母亦省之。奴云：「爾時野狸，即奴身是也。得走後，伏瓦溝中，聞娘子哭泣聲。至暮乃下，入東園，園有古冢，狸於此中藏活。積二年，後為獵人擊殪，因隨例見閻羅王。王曰：『汝更無罪，當得人身。』送生海州，為乞人作子。一生之中，常苦饑寒，年至二十而死。又見王，王云：『與汝作貴人家奴，奴名雖不佳，然殊無憂懼。』遂得至此。今奴已三生，娘子故在，猶無恙有福，不其異乎？」

In the household of Sun Mian, District Defender of Quwo,[1] there was a six-year-old servant who never spoke a word. Later, it so happened that the servant suddenly stared at Sun Mian’s mother when she was sitting by the steps. The mother found it strange and asked him why, whereupon the servant smiled and said, “Madam, you raised a wild fox when you were a little girl with double topknots, wearing a yellow skirt and white tunic. Do you still remember?” Sun’s mother did recall the incident. The servant said, “The wild fox back then, that was me. After running away, I crouched in the channel between roof tiles and heard you weeping. I only came down when dusk fell and entered the eastern garden. I found an ancient graveyard there and lived in hiding. Two years later, I was killed by a hunter and then, as was customary, had an audience with Yama, King of the Netherworld. King Yama said, ‘You have committed no crime and should be granted a human body.’ [So I] was sent to be born in Haizhou[2] as the son of a beggar. Having suffered from a life of constant hunger and cold, I died at the age of twenty. Upon my second audience with King Yama, he said, ‘I will grant you [a life as] a servant in a noble family. Although a servant is not highly regarded, you will hardly have any worry or fear.’ That is how I had the opportunity to come here. I am now living my third life, and yet, madam, there you are, still sound and blessed. Isn’t it extraordinary?” 

* From Dai Fu 戴孚 (fl. 8th century), Guangyiji 廣異記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992), 155.

[1] A county located in the south of today’s Shanxi province.

[2] A prefecture located in today’s Jiangsu province.

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One of the foxes that frequents my friend's garden every evening