The Fighting Cricket by Pu Songling
Ch‘êng, an impoverished beadle, is beaten for failing to supply fighting crickets until a fortune-teller's picture helps him catch one. His son accidentally kills it and is found barely alive in a well; a replacement cricket defeats its opponents and wins imperial favor. The victories free Ch‘êng from service and bring him wealth, while his son later recovers and says he had been the cricket.
By Pu Songling · Genre: Short Story, Supernatural Fiction · 2,510 words
First lines
During the reign of Hsüan Tê,[1] cricket fighting was very much in vogue at court, levies of crickets being exacted from the people as a tax. On one occasion the magistrate of Hua-yin, wishing to make friends with the Governor, presented him with a cricket which, on being set to fight, displayed very remarkable powers; so much so that the Governor commanded the magistrate to supply him regularly with these insects. The latter, in his turn, ordered the beadles of his district to provide him with crickets; and then it became a practice for people who had nothing else to do to catch and rear them for this purpose. Thus the price of crickets rose very high; and when the beadle's[2] runners came to exact even a single one, it was enough to ruin several families.
Genres
- Short Story — A compact prose narrative follows Ch‘êng's search for a cricket, his son's accident, and the family's reversal of fortune.
- Supernatural Fiction — A fortune-teller supplies a picture that leads to a cricket, and the son's spirit animates another insect during his impaired condition.
Tags
cricket fighting · forced levies · divination · spirit possession · family poverty · imperial rewards
What this Textopian page supports
The Fighting Cricket is listed on Textopian as a short story by Pu Songling, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Short story
- Author: Pu Songling
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Short Story, Supernatural Fiction
- Length: 2,510 words
- Structure: 1 section, 8 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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