You Xian Ku


You Xian Ku is a famous Chinese story from the "Legends of the Tang Dynasty" written by Zhang Zhuo. In English, its title roughly translates as "Journey to the Fairy Grotto."

The Story

Zhang Zhuo, bestowed the honorary name of Wen Cheng, was a Tang Dynasty Jinshi, a former imperial censor, and a native of Luze, Shenzhou.
"You Xian Ku" is a story of the author's first-hand account visiting Heyuan, passing through Jishi mountain. "The days turn to nights, and the road is far. The horse is weary and the man tired". He stayed in the fairy grotto and met two women by chance: Cui Shi Niang and Wu Sao, a widow. There they drank wine, wrote poetry, and joked around.
The entire text is written in Four-Six Pianwen, mixed with Bianwen, with rhymes and leisurely in style. Shi Niang writes vividly and lively :
天上無雙，人間有一。
依依弱柳，束作腰支；
焰焰橫波，翻成眼尾。
才舒兩頰，孰疑地上無華；
乍出雙眉，漸覺天邊失月。”
Some people called it a "new form of novel".
"You Xian Ku" is the Tang Dynasty's earliest romance novel, based on the wanton lives of prostitutes first met by Tang scholars. It has had a profound influence on the love stories written by later generations. Although "You Xian Ku" had been lost in China for over a millennia, its popularity in Japan has never ceased. According to the Old Book of Tang, every time Japan sent an envoy to china during the Tang dynasty, they had to pay a lot to buy copies of the book. In the late Qing dynasty, the book was copied, reprinted in Japan and sent back to China.
In Bai Xianyong's novel "Crystal Boys" the chapter "Journey to the Goblin Cave" is parodied off "You Xian Ku."

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