Serpent Lust - The Marvels of Leifeng

A young man lends his umbrella to a beautiful stranger sheltering from the rain. Soon he is welcomed into an elegant house, offered marriage, and given a precious gift. Then the gift proves to be stolen, and the house is discovered in ruins.

Tanaka Kōtarō’s supernatural narrative pairs a retelling of Ueda Akinari’s “Serpent Lust” with the Chinese West Lake tale that he identifies as its antecedent. In “The Marvels of Leifeng,” the young pharmacy manager Xu Xuan is pursued across cities by a mysterious woman whose explanations repeatedly overcome his fear. Arrest, exile, and troubling glimpses of her true form lead him toward a confrontation with the Buddhist monk Fahai.

Preserved in a 1928 parent collection, this work brings two related traditions together through a story of desire, deception, and perilous attachment. The complete English translation retains the source’s unusual details, including the companion revealed as a fish, and offers concise notes on names, religious customs, and differences within the narrative.