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A seventeeth-century man of letters named P'u Sung Ling collected many such legends of the fox people from all parts of china. The world is in his debt, for stories of the sort, which he retold tend to be related by the hearth or around the campfire, orally. All too seldom are they written down.
Among P'u Sung Ling's strangest legends was one concerning a farmer who owned a stack of straw the size of a small barn. A fox made its home in the straw. The fox used to show itself to the farmer in the form of a old man. In that guise it would draw the farmer in among the straw, where they had many a long gossip together.
One evening, as they were talking, the farmer asked the old fox were he vanished at night. "I go to drink in a tavern," the creature replied. "come along and see." With that, it laid a trembling paw upon the farmer's arm. A wind arose, which whirled them both away to a strange town. They entered a tavern arm in arm. A feast was in progress. The pair ensconced themselves on a kind of balcony overlooking the banquet table. At that remove, they took part in the happy uproar. The fox man would occasionally n** down the stairs to fetch a pot of wine or a raw fish dish from the great table.
No one seemed to notice him at all. After an hour or so of this, the farmer happened to look down and saw a dignified person in crimson costume setting a platter of kumquats on the table below.
"Those look good," he said to his companion. "Won't you ask him for some?"
The fox shook his head. "I am not permitted to approach a person of such integrity."
At that moment the scales fell, as it were, from the farmer eyes. "In seeking the companionship of a fox," he thought, "I have lost my own integrity long since."
The farmer felt terribly dizzy. Toppling from his chair, he fell onto the banquet table below. The revelers were much astonished. They asked were he had come from. For answer, the farmer pointed up toward the balcony. But there was no balcony. It seemed he must have fallen from one of the large roof beams above.
His former friend nowhere to be seen. As best he could, the farmer explained what had happened. The people at the party were delighted by his story, which soon spread far and wide. They took up a collection to pay his traveling expenses home again. This was necessary because home proved to be a thousand miles away