"Li Ji Kills the
Snake" was a tale in a collection of
ghost stories from the Western
Jin Dynasty (265-316 C. E.). The Li Ji of the title is a
young woman who lives in a village that has been paying tribute to a gigantic
serpent for nine years. Each year, the
daughter of a
criminal or servant is selected to be devoured by the snake. Li is the daughter of a respectable family; she volunteers although her parents forbid it. She is not a mere noble
suicide, though: she has a
plan, employing both
intelligence and
ferocity. Li takes a snake-hunting
dog, some sweet
rice-balls, and a
sword with her to a
cave near the valley of the snake. She lures the
creature into the cave with the
treats, releases the dog while the
monster is preoccupied with the
food, and then leaps onto the serpent, slashing it with her
blade until it crawls back into the valley to
die of its
injuries. In the
fairy tale ending, the
king is so impressed that he makes her his
queen. Most striking, however, are Li's words when she recovers the
skulls of the nine
girl victims. "For your
timidity," she scolds them, "you were
devoured. How
pathetic!"
Li Ji is
cool.