A Rustic Cuts Bamboo 野人破竹

Rustic Huang lived on Luofushan in Huizhou. In recent years someone lost their way in the hills, and saw a small thatched cottage where an elderly villager in leggings and headscarf was wielding a knife, slicing bamboo for weaving; he had no idea that this was an immortal. The lost traveller announced that he was famished. It was then the tenth month, in winter, and the rustic picked plums for him to eat. He ate several, and their flavour was sweet and fragrant, but not like that of a plum. On returning home he found he could refrain from eating grain without feeling hunger. Moreover, he had been sent back with some lengths of weaving bamboo, and on arriving and opening these, they were seven or eight zhang (i.e., 20-25m) in length, without joins. He then realized that the spirit he had encountered was Rustic Huang.

Anon., Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 後1.136 (Tale 240):

野人破竹

黃野人，在惠州羅浮山中。近年有人入山失路，但見一小茅廬，一村翁裹布巾，操刀破竹篾，不知其為仙人也。失路者告飢，時冬十月，野人摘梅子與之喫。喫數枚，其味甘香，又不似梅子。歸家能辟穀不飢。又以竹篾數條遺之，歸開其篾，長七八丈而無節。方知所遇即仙人黃野人也。

Yuan Haowen 元好問, Chang Zhenguo 常振國 (ed), Xu Yijian zhi 續夷堅志 (Continued Records of the Listener), and Anon., Jin Xin 金心 (ed.), Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi 湖海新聞夷堅續志 (Continuation of Records of the Listener with New Items from the Lakes and Seas) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986).

A Strange Serpent Spits Light 異蛇吐光

In Huizhou, among the peaks facing the river old serpent lived in secret; it was several zhang in length (a zhang is c.3.3m), and none knew its age. Whenever the year of the Song court’s civil examination arrived, it spat out a thing emitting a strange light. When this was a single glowing ball, one person would pass the examinations; if there were two then two would pass. The scholars of Hui would make a special trip and spend the night at a riverside building, to check the number of snake lights, to verify their exam success in the coming year.

Anon., Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 後2.258 (Tale 468):

異蛇吐光

惠州對江山中，有老蛇隱於其間，其長數丈，莫知年數。宋朝科舉年則夜吐異光。若光一團，則主一人登科；若光二團，則二人登科。惠之士人專以夜宿於江樓，望蛇光之有無，以為次年科舉之驗也。

Yuan Haowen 元好問, Chang Zhenguo 常振國 (ed), Xu Yijian zhi 續夷堅志 (Continued Records of the Listener), and Anon., Jin Xin 金心 (ed.), Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi 湖海新聞夷堅續志 (Continuation of Records of the Listener with New Items from the Lakes and Seas) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986).