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Overview

Giauna belongs to the family that befriends Kung, an impoverished descendant of Confucius. Her unnamed brother becomes his pupil and companion. When Kung develops a painful swelling, Giauna removes the diseased tissue and uses a small red pellet from her mouth to complete the cure. Although Kung is captivated by her, he marries her cousin A-Sung instead. Giauna later has a husband of her own; the two women are not interchangeable brides.

Her brother eventually tells Kung that the family are foxes endangered by thunder. Kung agrees to protect them with his sword. Their splendid buildings disappear, revealing a burial mound and cavern, and a violent storm rises. A long-clawed, pointed-beaked monster carries Giauna away. Kung strikes at it, freeing her, but a thunderclap kills him. Giauna presses her red pellet to his lips and breathes into him, restoring his life.

The survivors initially rejoice, but news follows that Giauna’s husband and his entire family have been killed by the thunder. Kung offers the surviving family a walled garden at his home. There Giauna and her brother continue to meet Kung and A-Sung for tea, chess and conversation. Kung’s son by A-Sung has a pointed, foxlike face. The ending preserves friendship and bereavement together; it does not marry Giauna to Kung or claim that every fox family escaped. The three thunder dangers mentioned in the attached note are a belief attached to this witness, not three separate ordeals narrated here.

Giles’s earlier1880 translation tells the corresponding story under the title Miss Chiao-no, naming the scholar K’ung Hsüeh-li and the fox household Huang-fu. Chiao-no is explicitly the young tutor’s sister, while Ah-sung is his cousin and becomes K’ung’s wife. In the first cure Chiao-no presses her gold bracelet around the swelling, removes it with a knife, then passes a red pellet over the wound before returning it to her mouth. Later her brother transports K’ung and Ah-sung home through the air while they hold his hands with their eyes closed. These additional narrated actions enrich this witness without making Chiao-no and Giauna separate fox women.

The two English witnesses should not be silently combined in every detail. Giles names Chiao-no’s husband Mr. Wu and has the news of the Wu household’s destruction brought by a servant; her resistance to departure beforehand concerns her parents-in-law losing their children. His ending names K’ung’s son Huan and describes a foxlike tendency to roam, whereas the Wilhelm/Martens account describes a pointed, foxlike face. Both preserve the rescue, K’ung’s restoration and the bereavement, but those distinct endings are not interchangeable anatomical evidence. Giles’s thunder note and Wilhelm’s note on repeated thunder dangers likewise remain their respective annotations; no independent Chinese-text comparison has resolved their wording.

Human appearance within an explicitly fox familyHealing red pelletRestores the man killed while rescuing her
01

Origins & earliest records

Chinese tales mediated by Richard Wilhelm and Frederick H. Martens

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale and its attached source note read in the retained1921-edition transcription.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    The Chinese Fairy Book

    Richard Wilhelm, editor; Frederick H. Martens, translator · 1921

    LXXI, Giauna the Beautiful, pp.265–275; New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company

  2. 02

    Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

    Pu Songling; translated and annotated by Herbert A. Giles · 1880

    Volume I, VIII, Miss Chiao-no, pp.33–46; complete story and electronic notes61–66.

Family, evolution & connections

Giauna and her brother — Wilhelm LXXI

The complete LXXI narrative and note, pp.265–275.

The youth’s explicit little sister and father’s only daughter designations. Father, brother and husband are unnamed. No mother or children of Giauna are supplied. A-Sung’s cousin relationship is explicit, but its maternal or paternal side is not. Kung’s like-a-brother friendship is excluded from the descent branches.

Wilhelm/Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book (1921), LXXI, Giauna, pp.265–275
Documented · canonical kinship

Giauna’s unnamed husband

The narrative says Giauna has married and introduces her husband. Later it reports his death with his family in the thunderstorm. No child of Giauna’s marriage is stated; A-Sung and Kung’s little son belongs to their separate marriage.

Wilhelm/Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book (1921), LXXI, Giauna, pp.265–275

Primary records and illustrations

Complete historical translated tale

Richard Wilhelm/Frederick H. Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book (Stokes1921)

Literary Fairy Tales. LXXI, Giauna the Beautiful, pp.265–275

Complete chapter, all narrative continuations and attached note read in wilhelm-LXXI.txt and29939.html. Individual identities and final outcome retained; no species anatomy or real-population ancestry inferred. Additional complete Giles1880 VIII33–46/all6notes read in giles-story-008.txt; full introduction/transcriber notice checked. Added bounded cross-witness comparison, retaining original3paragraphs. Wilhelm ending rechecked locally, no additional full-reread count. Huan roaming versus pointed face retained separately; Chinese not collated.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical translated taleWilhelm/Martens, The Chinese Fairy Book, Giauna the Beautiful, pp.265–275Research access: 2026-10-05
  2. Historical translated literary variantGiles1880, Miss Chiao-no, complete corresponding storyResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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