A long time ago, cricket fight ing caught on in the im pe rial court, with the em peror lead ing the fad. A lo cal magis trate in Huayin, who wanted to win the favor of the mon arch, tried in ev ery way to get him the best fight ing crick ets. He had a strat egy for doing so: He man aged to get a cricket that was very good at fight ing. He then made his sub or dinates go to the heads of each vil lage and force them to send in a constant sup ply of fight ing crickets. He would send to the im pe rial court the crick ets that could beat the one he was keeping.

The o ret i cally, everything should have worked smoothly. How ever, as the mag is trate was ex -tremely zeal ous to please the em peror, he meted out harsh pun ish ment on any vil lage heads who failed to ac com plish their tasks. The vil lage heads in turn shifted the bur den to the poor vil lag ers, who had to search for the crick ets. If they failed to catch them, they had to pur chase them from some -one else, or they had to pay a levy in cash.

The small in sects suddenly be came a rare com mod ity. Specu la tors hoarded good crick ets, buy -ing them at a bar gain and selling them for an ex or bi tant price. Many vil lage heads worked hand in hand with the spec u la tors to make prof its. In so do ing, they bank rupted many a fam ily.

Cheng Ming was one such vil lager. The head of his vil lage del egated part of his du ties to him because he found Cheng Ming easy to push around. Cheng Ming did not want to bully his fel low vil -lag ers as the vil lage head did him, so he of ten had to pay cash out of his own pocket when he failed to col lect any com pe tent crickets. Soon the little proper ties he had were drain ing away, and he went into a se vere de pres sion. One day, he said to his wife that he wanted to die.

“Death is easy, but what will our son do without you?” asked his wife, glancing at their only son, sleep ing on the kang. “Why can’t we look for the crick ets our selves in stead of buy ing them? Per haps we’ll strike some good luck.”

Cheng Ming gave up the idea of sui cide and went to search for crick ets. Armed with a tiny bas -ket of cop per wires for catching crick ets and a num ber of small bamboo tubes for holding them, he went about the te dious task. Each day he got up at dawn and did not re turn un til late in the eve ning. He searched beneath brick de bris, dike crev ices, and in the weeds and bushes. Days went by, and he caught only a few me di o cre crick ets that did not mea sure up to the mag istrate’s stan dards. His wor -ries increased as the dead line drew closer and closer.

The day for cricket de liv ery fi nally came, but Cheng Ming could not pro duce any good ones. He was clubbed a hundred times on the buttocks, a form of corpo ral pun ish ment in the ancient Chi -nese ju di cial sys tem. When he was re leased the next day, he could barely walk. The wound on his buttocks con fined him to bed for days and fur ther delayed his search for crick ets. He thought of com -mit ting suicide again. His wife did not know what to do.

Then they heard about a hunchbacked for tune-teller who was visiting the vil lage. Cheng Ming’s wife went to see him. The for tune-teller gave her a piece of pa per with a pic ture on it. It was a pa vil ion with a jiashan (rock gar den) be hind it. On the bushes by the jiashan sat a fat male cricket. Be side it, how ever, lurked a large toad, ready to catch the in sect with its long, elas tic tongue. When the wife got home, she showed the pa per to her hus band. Cheng Ming sprang up and jumped to the floor, forget ting the pain in his but tocks.

“This is the for tune-teller’s hint at the lo ca tion where I can find a per fect cricket to ac com plish my task!” he ex claimed.

“But we don’t have a pa vil ion in our village,” his wife re minded him.

“Well, take a closer look and think. Doesn’t the tem ple on the east side of our vil lage have a rock gar den? That must be it.” So say ing, Cheng Ming limped to the temple with the sup port of a make shift crutch. Sure enough, he saw the cricket, and the toad squat ting nearby in the rock gar den at the back of the tem ple. He caught the big, black male cricket just be fore the toad got hold of it. Back home, he care fully placed the cricket in a jar he had pre pared for it and stowed the jar away in a safe place. “Ev ery thing will be over to morrow,” he gave a sigh of re lief and went to tell his best friends in the village the good news.

Cheng Ming’s nine-year-old son was very cu ri ous. Seeing his fa ther was gone, he took the jar and wanted to have a peek at the cricket. He was re mov ing the lid care fully, when the big cricket jumped out and hopped away. Pan icked, the boy tried to catch the flee ing cricket with his hands, but in a flurry, he ac ci den tally squashed the insect when he fi nally got hold of it.

“Good heav ens! What’re you go ing to say to your fa ther when he comes back?” the mother said in dis tress and dread. With out a word, the boy went out of the room, tears in his eyes.

Cheng Ming be came dis traught when he saw the dead cricket. He could n’t be lieve that all his hopes had been dashed in a sec ond. He looked around for his son, vow ing to teach the lit tle scoun drel a good les son. He searched inside and outside the house, only to lo cate him in a well at the cor ner of the court yard. When he fished him out, the boy was al ready dead. The father’s fury in stantly gave way to sor row. The grieved parents laid their son on the kang and la mented over his body the en tire night.

As Cheng Ming was dress ing his son for burial the next morn ing, he felt the body still warm. Im me di ately he put the boy back on the kang, hop ing that he would re vive. Grad u ally the boy came back to life, but to his par ents’ dismay, he was un con scious, as if he were in a trance.

The par ents grieved again for the loss of their son. Sud denly they heard a cricket chirp ing. The cou ple traced the sound to a small cricket on the door step. The ap pear ance of the cricket, how ever, dashed their hopes, for it was very small. “Well, it’s better than noth ing,” Cheng Ming thought. He was about to catch it, when it jumped nim bly on to a wall, cheeping at him. He tip toed to ward it, but it showed no sign of flee ing. In stead, when Cheng Ming came a few steps closer, the lit tle cricket jumped onto his chest.

Though small, the cricket looked smart and ener getic. Cheng Ming planned to take it to the vil -lage head. Un cer tain of its ca pa bil i ties, Cheng Ming could not go to sleep. He wanted to put the lit tle cricket to the test be fore send ing it to the vil lage head.

The next morning, Cheng Ming went to a young man from a rich fam ily in his neigh bor hood, having heard him boast ing about an “in vin ci ble” cricket that he wanted to sell for a high price.When

the young man showed his cricket, Cheng Ming hes itated, be cause his lit tle cricket seemed no match for this gigan tic insect. To fight this mon ster would be to con demn his dwarf to death.

“There’s no way my lit tle cricket could sur vive a con fron ta tion with your big guy,” Cheng Ming said to the young man, hold ing his jar tight. The young man goaded and taunted him. At last, Cheng Ming decided to take a risk. “Well, it won’t hurt to give a try. If the lit tle cricket is a good-for-noth ing, what’s the use of keep ing it any way?” he thought.

When they put the two crick ets to gether in a jar, Cheng Ming’s small in sect seemed trans fixed. No mat ter how the young man prodded it to fight, it sim ply would not budge. The young man burst into a guf faw, to the great em bar rass ment of Cheng Ming. As the young man spurred the lit tle cricket on, it sud denly seemed to have run out of pa tience. With great wrath, it charged the gi ant op po nent head on. The sud den burst of ac tion stunned both the young man and Cheng Ming. Be fore the lit tle crea ture planted its small but sharp teeth into the neck of the big cricket, the ter ri fied young man fished the big in sect out of the jar just in time and called off the con test. The lit tle cricket chirped vic -toriously, and Cheng Ming felt ex ceed ingly happy and proud.

Cheng Ming and the young man were com ment ing on the lit tle cricket’s ex traor di nary prow ess, when a big rooster rushed over to peck at the lit tle cricket in the jar. The little cricket hopped out of the jar in time to dodge the at tack. The rooster then went for it a sec ond time, but sud denly be gan to shake its head vi o lently, scream ing in ag ony. This sud den turn of events baf fled Cheng Ming and the onlook ers. When they took a closer look, they could not be lieve their eyes: The lit tle cricket was gnaw ing on the rooster’s bloody comb. The story of a cricket fight ing a rooster soon spread through -out the vil lage and beyond.

The next day, Cheng Ming, along with the vil lage head, sent the cricket to the mag is trate and asked for a test fight with his mas ter cricket, but the mag is trate re fused on the ground that Cheng Ming’s cricket was too small.

“I don’t think you have heard its rooster-fight ing story,” Cheng Ming pro claimed with great pride. “You can’t judge it only by its ap pear ance.”

“Non sense, how can a cricket fight a rooster?” asked the mag is trate. He or dered a big rooster brought to his office, think ing that Cheng Ming would quit tell ing his tall tales when his cricket be -came the bird’s snack. The bat tle be tween the lit tle cricket and the rooster ended with the same re sult: The rooster sped away in great pain, the lit tle cricket chirping tri um phantly on its heels.

The mag is trate was first as ton ished and then pleased, think ing that he fi nally had the very in sect that could win him the em peror’s fa vor. He had a golden cage man u factured for the little cricket. Plac ing it cau tiously in the cage, he took it to the em peror.

The em peror pit ted the lit tle cricket against all his vet eran com bat ant crick ets, and it de feated them one by one. What amused the em peror most was that the little creature could even dance to the tune of his court mu sic! Ex tremely pleased with the magic little crea ture, the em peror re warded the mag is trate lib er ally and pro moted him to a higher po sition. The mag is trate, now a gov er nor, in turn exempted Cheng Ming from his lev ies in cash as well as crick ets.

A year later, Cheng Ming’s son came out of his stu por. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, to the great surprise and joy of his par ents. The first words he ut tered to his ju bilant par ents were, “I’m so tired and hungry.” Af ter a hot meal, he told them, “I dreamed that I had be come a cricket, and I fought a lot of other crick ets. It was such fun! You know what? The great est fun I had was my fight with a couple of roost ers!”