Fox-Fire

A strong young farmer was walking home from market late one evening. His road took him past the gardens of a rich gentleman, where several tall buildings stood among the trees. Suddenly he noticed something glowing in the air above the garden, shining like a crystal ball.

Curious, he climbed the wall to look. There was no one about. All he could see, some way off, was an animal like a dog sitting with its face turned up to the moon. Each time it breathed out, a ball of fire came out of its mouth and floated up toward the moon. Each time it breathed in, the ball sank back down and it caught it in its jaws. Out and up, in and down—over and over without stopping.

The farmer understood then that this was a fox, and that it was making the elixir of life.

He crouched in the long grass and waited. When the fireball drifted down to about the height of his head, he jumped out, snatched it, and swallowed it whole. He could feel it burning all the way down his throat into his stomach.

The fox glared at him in fury. But the farmer was big and strong, and the fox did not dare to attack him. It slunk away, angry.

From then on the young man had strange powers. He could make himself invisible. He could see ghosts and devils, and he could talk with the spirit world. When sick people lay unconscious, he could call their souls back to them, and when someone had done wrong he could plead for them before the spirits. People paid him well, and he became rich.

When he turned fifty, he gave it all up and would not use his arts any more.

One summer evening he sat in his courtyard enjoying the cool air. He drank several cups of wine and by midnight was fast asleep. All at once he woke up feeling sick. It was as if someone were patting him on the back—and before he knew what was happening, the ball of fire jumped out of his throat. A hand reached out and caught it, and a voice said:

“For thirty long years you kept my treasure from me. You were a poor farm boy, and it made you a wealthy man. Now you have enough, and I would like my fireball back.”

Then the man knew what had happened. But the fox was already gone.

Where this story comes from

“Fox-Fire” closes the nature and animal tales in Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated into English by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921). It is one of the shortest stories in the book, just a few paragraphs long, so this page tells it complete.

Wilhelm’s note describes this tale’s supernatural premise: foxes make the elixir of life from their own breath, letting it rise toward the moon, and anyone who stole that elixir would gain supernatural powers. Here the fox waits patiently for thirty years before it takes its treasure back.

Read the original: Wilhelm and Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 6–8 — a short, spooky moonlit story with a surprise ending.

Reading the story closely

The farmer’s wealth begins with a theft, not a gift. His strength keeps the fox away, but it does not make the fireball his. At the end the fox speaks of its own treasure, changing our view of the farmer’s successful career. The story gives the fox back its possession without taking away the money the farmer earned with it.

Draw the fireball’s route: fox, farmer, fox. Under each transfer, write whether the owner agreed. Then discuss why the final recovery feels different from the first seizure. The spirit cures and swallowed fireball are fantasy, not descriptions of medicine or something to imitate.

Talk about it

• What is the fox doing with the ball of fire?
• What powers does the farmer get after he swallows it?
• Do you think the fox was fair to take the fireball back? Why?

You may also like

• The Talking Silver Foxes — more Chinese fox spirits
• Giauna the Beautiful — a fox family with a magic red ball
• The Dragon After His Winter Sleep — another very short Chinese animal tale