HE STRANGLED A TIGER TO SAVE HIS FATHER

搤虎救父 HE STRANGLED A TIGER TO SAVE HIS FATHER



晋。杨香年十四。常随父丰往田间获粟。父为虎曳去。时杨香手无寸铁。惟知有父而不知有身。踊跃向前。搤持虎颈。虎亦靡然而逝。父方得免于害。有诗为颂。诗曰

When Yáng Xiāng* of the Jìn dynasty was fourteen, he often followed his father Fēng into the fields to reap grain. His father [on one occasion] was dragged away by a tiger. Although at the time Yáng Xiāng had no weapon at hand, he thought only of his father and not of himself as he leapt quickly forward and grabbed tightly at the tiger's neck. The tiger left in defeat, and his father was able to escape injury. A verse praises him saying:



深山逢白额。努力搏腥风。父子俱无恙。脱身馋口中。

In the deep mountains a white forehead** reared, and

When it moved the wind was filled with the smell [of its dead prey];

The father and child have suffered no injury, [for he]

Has rescued his [father's] body from the greedy mouth.



*-Because the name Xiāng would today be a female one, some writers interpret Yáng Xiāng as female; others, as male. It is more likely that a son than a daughter would accompany a man to work in the fields, so I have considered the name male. Huáng Xiāng, the protagonist of tale 19, has the same Xiāng as a name, but is known from other sources to be male.



**-Some folktales maintain that a tiger who has eaten a hundred humans develops a white forehead.