“The fox has never apologized for it.”
A Moon immortal of The Shanhai Wilds
3 known connections · an open question
Of Mount Qingqiu: nine tails like nine banners, a cry like a human baby, and a beauty the Classic of Mountains and Seas warns about in the driest possible language. Taste of her, says the Classic, and be warded from evil — which has not stopped a single poet from falling in love with her instead. Daji wore this shape once, and brought down a dynasty in it. The fox has never apologized for it.
She is moving through the Qingqiu mists right now, nine tails trailing like banners, while a poet on the mountainside below writes verses he will regret. She is not hurrying. She never hurries.
One day a poet will write the verse that finally describes her truly — all nine tails, the baby's cry, the whole dangerous beauty — and she will read it, and nod, once, and the Classic will have to add a footnote. She has been waiting three thousand years for an accurate review.
“It has dictated 11,520 demons' names and weaknesses without hesitation — the whole census, in one sitting. Last month a traveler asked it, politely, for one more name: the name behind the four blank tablets. The Baize went silent, which it has never done. Then it said, also politely, that some entries are not in the census. The traveler did not ask twice.”
The Baize was asked for a name, and declined to answer.
The old bestiary, personified: nine-tailed foxes, torch dragons, the faceless dancer Hundun, the rain-bringing Yinglong, the white sage-beast Baize. Every strange thing about them is in the ancient books — nothing made up.
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“the old ones say: the gem cannot be polished without friction — thunder only strikes what stands tall enough to be noticed.”
