The Man who was Changed into a Crow
Penniless after failing an examination, Yü Jung receives black clothes from Wu Wang that turn him into a crow; he takes Chu-ch‘ing as his mate and awakens in the temple after being fatally shot. Years later, he reunites with Chu-ch‘ing, now a Han river spirit, and uses the clothes to travel between her home and his mortal wife. They have three children, and their eldest son joins the childless mortal wife; Yü eventually moves his family to Han-yang, but after his first wife's death the eldest remains in Hu-nan while the twins return to their mother.
By Pu Songling · Genre: Supernatural Fiction, Short Story · 2,391 words
First lines
Mr. Yü Jung was a Hu-nan man. The person who told me his story did not recollect from what department or district he came. His family was very poor; and once, when returning home after failure at the examination, he ran quite out of funds. Being ashamed to beg, and feeling uncomfortably hungry, he turned to rest awhile in the Wu Wang[1] temple, where he poured out all his sorrows at the feet of the God. His prayers over, he was about to lie down in the outer porch, when suddenly a man took him and led him into the presence of Wu Wang; and then, falling on his knees, said, "Your Majesty, there is a vacancy among the black-robes; the appointment might be bestowed on this man. " The King assented, and Yü received a suit of black clothes; and when he had put these on he was changed into a crow, and flew away. Outside he saw a number of fellow-crows collected together, and immediately joined them, settling with them on the masts of the boats, and imitating them in catching and eating the meat or cakes which the passengers and boatmen on board threw up to them in the air.[2] In a little while he was no longer hungry, and, soaring aloft, alighted on the top of a tree quite satisfied with his change of condition. Two or three days passed, and the King, now pitying his solitary state, provided him with a very elegant mate, whose name was Chu-ch‘ing, and who took every opportunity of warning him when he exposed himself too much in search of food. However, he did not pay much attention to this, and one day a soldier shot him in the breast with a cross-bow; but luckily Chu-ch‘ing got away with him in her beak, and he was not captured. This enraged the other crows very much, and with their wings they flapped the water into such big waves that all the boats were upset. Chu-ch‘ing now procured food and fed her husband; but his wound was a severe one, and by the end of the day he was dead -- at which moment he waked, as it were, from a dream, and found himself lying in the temple.
Genres
- Supernatural Fiction — Black clothes transform Yü into a crow, and his marriage to a river spirit produces children who move between spirit and mortal households.
- Short Story — A compact prose narrative follows Yü's transformation, reunion with Chu-ch‘ing, and the subsequent lives of their children.
Tags
transformation · crows · river spirits · supernatural marriage · family life · examinations
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The Man who was Changed into a Crow 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: Supernatural Fiction, Short Story
- Length: 2,391 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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