Beard Gu. In western Yunnan there is a village where all the men wear faces full of curling beards and raise gu in them. At the age of sixteen, one must walk naked through the forest and allow insects and snakes to burrow into the beard and make their homes there before one is counted an adult. From that day onward one never shaves again. After years of feeding on human blood, the beard-gu takes on the color of flesh, invisible to all but the clansmen. Whoever is infected and touches family or friends kills the touched person at once.
Secret Digits. I had a credit card from a certain bank and lost the slip on which the PIN was written before I had time to change it. I was just about to call customer service when Aunt Bao from Black Province took the card, ran her index finger along the magnetic stripe, and recited the password at once. I tested it. It was correct. Everyone was astonished.
Naozhou Cat. North of Black City, where it borders Rehe, lies Naozhou. In the Jinhe years of the Red Dynasty, many men of letters kept Naozhou cats. People of the time said: “The gentlemen keep Naozhou cats, and raise reclusive households.” Naozhou cats are fierce of nature; medicines and sterilization alike are impossible with them. One gentleman, enraged, declared: “Where one may scratch a Nao person, one should scratch a Nao person.” In those days the saying spread everywhere.
Pine and Orchid. On Little Tianxi Street there is a pleasure quarter, and all who pass in and out of it are famous courtesans. In the shade of the rockery of the inner court hangs a stone couplet: “Aoi Pine: not flower, not grass, not tree. Mutou Orchid: no leaf, no pistil, no bloom.” The line owes its fame to the names of actresses from the Eastern Isles.
Whisked Tea. At Stone Scripture Temple there is a tea house said to have stood since the Five Dynasties. The tea master brews by an old method, pouring water upon the tea surface so that images of fish, insects, flowers, and grasses appear in the foam, changing from moment to moment without pause. On the first and fifteenth of the month, he can even write a guest’s name in the tea bowl. This art of whisked tea is recorded in the Qingyi Lu of the early Song, and is now extinct.
Chisel Teeth. In a certain place in Liangshan there is a beast the size of a pig, with teeth a foot long, shaped like chisels, growing sharper the more they are worn down. It may be trapped by baiting with Shejue Cepu, and once tamed it is as docile as a dog. This beast is called the Chisel-Toothed One. The Classic of Mountains and Seas notes that among the local villagers, too, the front teeth are unusually long.
Southward Return. Qiao Bei of Sichuan lived for a time in the north. In the eighth month he contracted a vicious illness and died within days. On his sickbed he asked those attending him: “All my life I have faced north. In my next life, will I be born a northerner or a southerner?” Those beside him answered: “North is not so good as south.” Qiao Bei closed his eyes and departed. In the tenth month there was a great drought in Sichuan, yet before the graves of Qiao Bei’s parents alone the soil stayed wet as though splashed with tears.
Snake Swallowing. A certain man loved snakes and kept a flower python, which grew thicker and longer by the day. One day the python abruptly refused food. Thinking it sick, he asked a veterinarian to examine it, but the beast seemed normal. The veterinarian asked, “Has it shown any strange behavior?” The man thought and said, “It used to lie coiled. Now it lies straight.” The veterinarian answered, “Get rid of it at once. The python is measuring its own length to test whether it can swallow you.” The man did not believe him and kept raising it as before. Within days he was injured by the python.
Shu Millet. A man surnamed Qin from Qionglai owned three mu of thin fields, all planted in millet. In autumn a strange rain fell, and the grain that came up was black in color and sweet in taste, suitable for cooking coarse rice. But whoever ate it found beard and hair growing long, the complexion turning sallow with age, until one looked like a middle-aged uncle. Eat chestnuts bought from the neighboring town of Luo, however, and one’s appearance returned to normal.
Bright Days. Tihu says: all men, each month, have several days on which body and mind are vexed, they do one embarrassing thing after another, and earn the laughter and curses of others. These are called bright days. Brew one qian of rhodiola, two qian of goji berries, and two chrysanthemum blossoms together, and one may keep the heart calm and the temper even.