Cut Sleeve

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_Sleeve

"Cut Sleeve" (Chinese: ; pinyin: Hung Jilng) is a short story by Pu Songling first
published in the third volume of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. The story features He
Shican, a homosexual studio owner who becomes smitten with Huang Jiulang, a fox spirit, and
their subsequent lives as a reborn government official and the lover of another gay official,
respectively. "Cut Sleeve" is notable for being a full-length narrative on homosexuality in China; the
title alludes to Emperor Ai of Han's same-sex relationship with Dong Xian.

Background

Pu Songling was a Qing dynasty author active in the seventeenth century. Homosexuality in China,
though commonplace, was regarded as a taboo and "off-centre" practice. Chinese society saw
homosexuality as an "illness (...) (or) addiction ( ) over which one does not have control" that
stemmed from "sexual frustration or sense of inferiority".

An oft-used euphemism during Pu's time for male homosexuality was "cut-sleeve", a reference to
"the passion of the cut sleeve" between Liu Xin, better known as Emperor Ai of Han, and Han
politician Dong Xian.

Plot

A mule-riding middle-aged woman and a young man pass by a studio. Its owner He Shican (
), a homosexual, straight away falls in love with the boy, whom he describes as "a quite
extraordinary personal beauty". The next day, a besotted He bumps into the boy, who later on
introduces himself as Huang Jiulang ( ). The two develop a friendship and upon inviting him
into his residence for a drink, He makes known his affection for Huang. However, He's sexual
advances towards Huang are unsuccessful and the latter leaves. He is crestfallen and becomes
emaciated. Huang soon learns of this; revealing that he too is gay, he reluctantly agrees to
copulate with He, on the condition that he procures some medicine for Huang's ailing mother.

He Shican's condition improves, but he learns from his doctor that he has been possessed, with
his life on the line. Huang confirms that he is a fox spirit but He remains incredulous. Shortly after
He's health deteriorates rapidly and he dies, leaving Huang devastated. Simultaneously, court
censor Gong commits suicide with his wife, in fear of the corrupt Provincial Treasurer of Shaanxi,
Wang, whom he was a fierce critic of. He's spirit occupies the dead official's body; incidentally,
Gong was also He's childhood familiar. Wang, now Governor, learns of this resurrection and starts
to hound him. He Shican desperately returns to Huang, wanting to rekindle their romance. Huang
refuses and instead refers He to his female cousin, whom he instantly takes a liking to.

Yet the threat of the Shaanxi governor remains and He beseeches Huang to help him out, upon
learning that Wang is homosexual as well. The governor receives Huang and is "utterly
captivated"; he begins to obsess himself with Huang and his health is slowly sapped. Eventually he
dies, and Huang inherits much of his wealth. Meanwhile, his cousin and He, apparently having
become heterosexual, tie the knot. Complementing the tale is a "Jesting Judgement" by Pu
Songling; the poem echoes Mengzi's belief that "(t)he coming together in sexual congress of man
and woman is one of the great natural bonds in human relations."