Original text to respond:
“I am a young woman–one of many, and although I know the place our man-made society has assigned to me, I am eager to challenge exactly that. There is a role only someone like me can fill, but no one else like me is willing to. So, with all my bravery, selflessness, and dexterity, I intend to take on this role and present it with a challenge. Since, in reality, it means nothing that I am female except that I am, I know I can do what needs to be done, and that my femininity does not hinder me. Many others like me who have failed in this role, were simply “pitiful” victims of their own “timidity” (Young). But my understanding of the simplicity of the situation allows me to be the first and last to overcome it. I may have been disobedient, which must have caused chaos in my home and worried my parents. But the chaos was for good, and the whole kingdom would soon find this out for itself. The balance I achieved through my disobedient-risk-taking and selfless-bravery, has now brought my family and I great longevity.”
Instructions for respond:
Clarify what story and religion you think they are describing as well as WHY you understand it to be that particular religion, what gave it away. Your RESPONSE must be a minimum of 250 words. Use 1 or 2 quotes/references from the original story.
“LI CHI SLAYS THE SERPENT”
The following tale can be read as a Taoist satire of the Confucian attitude toward woman:
a young girl, while mouthing Confucian views about daughters, demonstrates great physical
courage and ingenuity.
In Fukien, in the ancient state of Yueh, stands the Yung mountain range, whose peaks sometimes reach
a height of many miles. To the northwest there is a cleft in the mountains once inhabited by a giant serpent seventy or eighty feet long and wider than the span of ten hands. It kept the local people in a state of constant terror and had already killed many commandants from the capital city and many mag¬istrates and officers of nearby towns. Offerings of oxen and sheep did not appease the monster. By enter¬ing men’s dreams and making its wishes known through mediums, it demanded young girls of twelve or thirteen to feast on. Helpless, the commandant and the magistrates selected daughters of bondmaids or criminals and kept them until the appointed dates. One day in the eighth month of every year, they would deliver a girl to the mouth of the monster’s cave, and the serpent would come out and swallow the victim. This continued for nine years until nine girls had been devoured. In the tenth year the officials had again begun to look for a girl to hold in readiness for the appointed time. A man of Chianglo County, Li Tan, had raised six daughters and no sons. Chi, his youngest girl, responded to the search for a victim by volunteer¬ing. Her parents refused to allow it, but she said, “Dear parents, you have no one to depend on, for having brought forth six daughters and not a single son, it is as if you were childless. I could never compare with Ti Jung of the Han Dynasty, who offered herself
as a bondmaid to the emperor in exchange for her father’s life. I cannot take care of you in your old age; I only waste your good food and clothes. Since no use to you alive, why shouldn’t I give up my life a little sooner? What could be wrong in selling me to gain a bit of money for yourselves?” But the father and mother loved her too much to consent, so went in secret. The volunteer then asked the authorities for a sword and a snake hunting dog. When the appointed day of the eighth month arrived, she seated herself in the temple, clutching the sword and leading the dog. First she took several pecks of rice balls moistened with malt sugar and placed them at the of the serpent’s cave. The serpent appeared. Its head was as large as a barrel; its eyes were like mirrors two feet across. Smelling the fragrance of the rice balls, it opened its mouth to eat them. Then Li Chi unleashed the snake-hunting dog, which bit hard into the serpent. Li herself came up from behind and scored the serpent with several deep cuts. The wounds hurt so terribly that the monster leaped into the open and died. Li Chi went into the serpent’s cave and recovered skulls of the nine victims. She sighed as brought them out, saying,’ “For your timidity were devoured. How pitiful!” Slowly she made her way homeward. The king of Yueh learned of these events and made Li Chi his queen. He appointed her father magistrate of Chiang Lo County, and her mother and elder sisters were given riches. From that time forth, the district was free of monsters. Ballads celebrating Li Chi survive to this day.
[From Sou Shen Chi in Chinese Fairy Tales Fantasies, pp. 129-131.]