ENG
In the shadows lurks a fiend with nose and mouth askew,
Fangs sharp, poison thickly drips, a wicked brew.
Ears jut out in grotesque display, forehead broad and low,
Eight eyes gleam with malevolent light, in darkness they glow.
Long ago, a woodcutter lived deep in the hills. One day, he went down to the market fair and saw a puppet show. He loved it and yearned to see it again.
One day, as he cut wood, he heard shouts of glee in the mountains. He followed the sounds and saw a mob of yaoguais reveling together. Despite his fear, curiosity urged him to climb a rock to watch them from afar. The guais were gathered in a circle, watching an acrobat show. Too far to see well, the woodcutter could only discern a red-clad guai whirling twin blades in dazzling spins and flips.
Entranced, the woodcutter crept closer. He saw the acrobatic guai had legs tied behind its back, strings dangling from its feet. In a flash, he knew it was a puppetry trick. He climbed a large tree for a clearer view.
The guai had an ugly, comical face. To the woodcutter, this spectacle was even more amusing than the finest plays at the market fair. He watched, spellbound. A chill on his neck jolted him out of the reverie. Reaching up to check, he found his fingers coated in green spittle. Looking up in horror, he was greeted by a myriad of eyes staring down at him. There, in the treetop, dangled a violet spider, its legs threaded with silk, tugging the distant puppet guai to and fro.
The woodcutter yelped and fell from the tree. At that, the spider paused, and the gathering of yaoguais turned as one to glare at him. Stricken with terror, the woodcutter fled and, upon returning home, fell gravely ill. No remedy could ease his suffering. He wasted away and soon died.
The opening lines describe a dangerous creature: a crooked-faced fiend with sharp, dripping fangs, jutting ears, a low forehead and eight eyes that glow in the dark. The poem sets up that this is not a normal animal but a venomous, many-eyed predator—later shown in the story as a violet spider.
The human at the center of the story is a woodcutter who loved puppet shows. After enjoying a market puppet performance once, he kept thinking about them and wanted to see another. That craving for spectacle is what leads him into the mountains.
While cutting wood one day he heard a celebration and followed it. He found a mob of yaoguais (supernatural or monstrous beings) gathered to watch an acrobat. From a distance he could only see a red-clad guai spinning twin blades in dazzling moves, and he assumed it was a skilled performer. He crept closer and climbed a tree to get a better view.
From the tree he noticed the acrobat’s legs were tied behind it and strings dangled from its feet—so the “acrobat” was actually a puppet. Above him in the treetop was a violet spider, its legs threaded with silk and attached to the puppet’s feet. The woodcutter checked his neck, found his fingers coated in green spittle from the spider, and then saw the spider’s many eyes staring down at him. He fell from the tree; the spider paused and the yaoguais all turned to glare at him, terrified, he fled.
After getting home he became gravely ill from whatever the spider’s spittle or venom had done to him. No remedy helped; he wasted away and died. The full story is a clear warning: the yaoguais’ entertainment was actually a puppet manipulated by a poisonous many-eyed spider, and the woodcutter’s curiosity exposed him to the spider’s venom, which proved fatal despite attempts to cure him.