Geography Reference
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in which he lived, and in order to gain the reader's interest, Pu often infused his stories
with the supernatural, and rarely failed to keep his plots full of mystery, intrigue, and
even horror. It was neither stylistic nor effective to be overly concrete or realistic. Thus,
his animal characters, even those retaining elements of their zoological nature, were
always stand-ins for human characters who were more freely portrayed in the abstract,
or for concepts that required some kind of physical incarnation. His animal spirits were
not the only quasi-humans inhabiting his stories; he also animated flowers, rocks, and
musical instruments. His fairy foxes, at times playful and seductive, at times malevolent
and sinister, had nothing to do with species of the genus
Vulpes
and everything to do with
the protagonists' internal conflicts between their desires (often erotic) and their notions
of propriety.
43
Thus, although I must confess ignorance as to just why Pu chose the oddly
virtuous wolves to be the hero's savior in “Mao Dafu,” it seems doubtful that he had any
intent to either reflect or encourage a more positive view of real wolves. (Other stories by
Pu include wolves in their more familiar role as ruthless predators, anthropomorphized
to act as stand-ins for corrupt officials who “preyed” on peasants.) Pu's view of wildlife
and nature (or lack thereof) does not even merit mention among the English-language
analyses of his work.
44
Despite his frequent use of ghosts and a panoply of zoological
oddities, Pu's attention was focused squarely on people.
As for the peculiar preindustrial animal liberation movement described by Joanna Smith,
she herself avows that much of this nonkilling actually had to do with moralistic human-
to-human behavior, with liberated animals serving as metaphors for weaker members
of society requiring help and compassion.
45
In his review of early Han attitudes toward
nature, Sterckx concluded that “The scattered references to practices which approximate
a notion of 'compassion' toward animals need to be read with the knowledge that such
compassionate attitudes were thought to benefit human nature rather than the welfare of
the animals themselves.”
46
Finally, to the degree that scholars or rulers expressed such lofty sentiments toward
nature, it does not necessarily follow that they reflected attitudes held by common people,
or acted on by almost anybody. In fact, such entreaties to act sensitively toward the natu-
ral world may have been primarily a reaction to the very lack of that sensitivity seen in
everyday life. The historian of the Chinese environment Mark Elvin has written that “The
restraint preached by the environmental archaic wisdom found in certain Chinese classi-
cal texts is both familiar and in all likelihood commonly misunderstood: it was probably
not a symptom of any ancient harmony but, rather, of a rational reaction to an incipient
but already visible ecological crisis.”
47
What people wrote, indeed what people may have believed in their most contemplative
moments, may not have been reflected in the decisions they made regarding themselves
and the natural world. To quote Elvin:
A paradox thus lay at the heart of Chinese attitudes to the landscape. On the one hand
it was seen . . . as a part of the supreme numinous power itself. Wisdom required
that one put oneself into its rhythms and be conscious of one's inability to reshape
it. On the other hand the landscape was in fact tamed, transformed, and exploited
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