A Chinese folklore tale where a clever woman outwits a troublesome fox spirit by trapping it in a bottle.
In a village called Wancun, there was a daughter-in-law in the Shi family who was troubled and harmed by a fox spirit. Although she despised it greatly, she couldn’t get rid of it. Behind her house, there was a bottle, and every time the woman’s father-in-law came in, the fox spirit would hide in the bottle. After the woman had secretly observed this behavior of the fox spirit several times, she came up with a plan in her heart but didn’t reveal it to anyone. One day, the fox spirit crawled into the bottle again, and the woman quickly stuffed the bottle’s opening with cotton and placed it in a pot. She heated the water in the pot to boil it. As the bottle heated up, the fox spirit cried out, “It’s too hot! Please don’t play tricks on me!” The woman ignored it. The fox spirit’s cries became more urgent, but after a while, there was no more sound. The woman removed the bottle stopper to check, and inside, there was only a pile of fox fur and a few drops of blood.
《狐入瓶》
万村石氏之妇，祟于狐，患之，而不能遣。扉后有瓶，每闻妇翁来，狐辄遁匿其中。妇窥之熟，暗计而不言。一日，窜入。妇急以絮塞其口，置釜中，燂汤而沸之。瓶热，狐呼曰：“热甚！勿恶作剧。”妇不语。号益急，久之无声。拔塞而验之，毛一堆，血数点而已。