The Giant Rat: True Strength Does Not Rush to Strike
Grandevity Studio presents The Giant Rat, Pu Songling’s complete original text set to cinematic Mandarin noir R&B with controlled baritone vocals.
Some retreats are not acts of fear.
Some silences are not signs of weakness.
A person, or an animal, who truly understands the situation may feel no need to prove strength immediately. Instead, they wait: for the opponent to exhaust itself, for a weakness to appear, and for the exact moment when one decisive action will be enough.
The Giant Rat is a Mandarin male-vocal work that sets the complete original text of Pu Songling’s short tale “Da Shu” from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio to music.
The lyrics contain no modern expansion, rewriting or additional lines. The song uses 100% of Pu Songling’s original Chinese text, allowing instrumental space, rhythmic interruption and narrative arrangement to transform a remarkably concise classical fable into a cinematic confrontation inside the imperial palace of the Wanli era.
The rat is as large as a cat.
Every skilled mouser brought into the palace is devoured.
Then a foreign tribute mission presents a lion cat whose coat is white as snow.
The cat does not attack immediately.
It climbs onto a table, jumps down and repeatedly withdraws while the rat pursues.
The observers conclude that it is frightened and incapable.
But the cat is not fleeing.
It is waiting.
It was not afraid. It was waiting for the rat to become exhausted.
Only when the rat’s movements slow and its enormous belly begins to heave does the white cat suddenly descend and end the struggle.
Pu Songling, however, does not allow the tale to remain a simple account of successful pest control.
He closes with a cold and unexpected question:
What difference is there between this rat and the common man who reaches for his sword?
At that moment, the giant rat becomes more than an animal.
It becomes an image of human impulsiveness: aggression mistaken for courage, movement mistaken for control, and brute force unleashed before the situation has even been understood.
Watch the MV: 🎬 The Giant Rat | Official Music Video
Headphones recommended. Enter the moonlit inner palace of the Wanli era, where torn grain sacks, enormous paw prints and a vast rat shadow announce an unnatural threat. Follow a snow-white lion cat through repeated retreats and sudden silences, as patience is mistaken for cowardice, until one precisely timed strike reveals who has controlled the contest from the beginning.
A Qing-Dynasty Tale Set in the Wanli Palace
“The Giant Rat” appears in Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.
Although the author belonged to the Qing dynasty, the story is set within the imperial palace during the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty:
During the Wanli era, there was a rat in the palace, as large as a cat, and the harm it caused was extremely severe.
Pu Songling offers no explanation of where the animal came from or why it has grown to such an unnatural size.
The threat is established through one concise comparison:
The rat is equal to a cat.
An ordinary infestation is unpleasant.
A rat as large as its natural predator overturns the expected order of hunter and prey.
The palace searches throughout the country for excellent cats capable of subduing it.
The result is always the same:
Each was devoured.
Every new cat enters as a possible saviour and becomes another victim.
The giant rat’s confidence therefore comes not only from its body, but from repeated victory.
It has learned to pursue.
It expects every cat to retreat.
It assumes that physical dominance has already settled the matter.
“Its Coat Was White as Snow”: Strength Without Display
The turning point arrives with a foreign tribute:
A foreign country happened to present a lion cat, whose coat was white as snow.
Pu Songling does not describe roaring, bared fangs or exaggerated ferocity.
He gives the cat no theatrical entrance.
The defining image is simply whiteness.
Its calm, immaculate appearance stands in sharp contrast to the coarse and destructive force of the palace rat.
The cat is placed inside the chamber.
The doors are shut.
The palace attendants secretly observe through the gap.
They expect immediate proof of power.
Instead, the cat withdraws.
Retreat as Strategy
The original text describes a simple repeating pattern:
The cat retreated and climbed onto a table. The rat climbed up as well. The cat then jumped down.
The white cat rises.
The rat follows.
The white cat descends.
The rat continues the pursuit.
This occurs not merely several times, but close to a hundred.
To the observers, the cat appears to remain permanently on the defensive.
It does not confront the rat directly.
It does not satisfy the expectation that courage must be immediately visible.
The attendants therefore conclude:
Everyone said that the cat was afraid and believed it incapable of doing anything.
This is the central misjudgement of the story.
Human observers often interpret movement as courage and withdrawal as weakness.
Yet the visible direction of pursuit does not reveal who truly controls the encounter.
The rat believes it is hunting the cat.
In reality, the cat has determined the rhythm from the first movement.
The Rat’s Heaving Belly: Victory Before the Attack
After the repeated pursuit, the balance changes:
Before long, the rat’s jumping gradually slowed. Its enormous belly seemed to pant. It crouched on the ground for a short rest.
The rat’s movements lose speed.
Its great abdomen rises and falls.
It lowers itself to recover.
This is the moment for which the cat has been waiting.
The cat never accepts battle while the rat is at full strength.
It does not allow provocation to determine the terms of engagement.
Instead, it uses the rat’s aggression against it.
The rat’s pride demands pursuit.
Its anger prevents restraint.
Its own momentum becomes the mechanism of its exhaustion.
By the time the cat attacks, the decisive work has already been completed.
“The Cat Immediately Rushed Down”: The Tale’s Only True Explosion
Pu Songling suddenly accelerates the prose:
The cat immediately rushed down, seized the hair upon the rat’s head with its claws, bit the head and neck, and the two rolled and cried out in struggle.
The words “immediately” and “rushed” transform the tempo.
Every earlier retreat now reveals its purpose.
The cat controls the rat’s head with its claws and bites the vital junction of head and neck.
The cat growls.
The rat shrieks.
When the palace attendants open the door and rush inside, they discover that the rat’s head has already been crushed.
There is no prolonged contest between equal opponents.
The long part of the conflict was the calculation before the attack.
The attack itself is brief.
“It Was Not Afraid”: The Distance Between Patience and Cowardice
Only after the outcome do the observers understand:
They then realised that the cat’s retreat was not fear. It had been waiting for the rat to become exhausted.
This sentence provides the tale’s essential reversal.
The cat does not change its plan because others misunderstand it.
It does not need to demonstrate courage at the earliest opportunity.
It does not enter a disadvantageous fight merely to protect its reputation.
It is concerned only with the actual conditions of victory.
Its method is a disciplined intelligence:
- When the opponent advances, it withdraws.
- When the opponent withdraws, it advances.
- It does not fight where the opponent is strongest.
- It does not confuse visible motion with real control.
- It uses rhythm to consume strength.
- It waits for exhaustion to reveal the opening.
Pu Songling reduces the whole method to one concise conclusion:
It used this intelligence, nothing more.
“What Difference Is There Between Him and the Rat?”
If the story ended with the cat’s strategy, it would remain an elegant animal fable.
Pu Songling instead concludes:
Alas! What difference is there between this rat and the common man who reaches for his sword?
To “reach for the sword” is to prepare for an immediate violent response.
It describes someone who, when challenged, answers first with anger, threat and force.
Such a person may appear brave.
Yet Pu Songling compares him directly with the exhausted rat.
Both are driven by provocation.
Both mistake aggression for mastery.
Both believe that pursuing an opponent proves control.
The more urgently they attempt to demonstrate strength, the more completely they surrender their rhythm to someone else.
The story therefore does not condemn physical power itself.
It condemns power without judgement.
It does not celebrate timidity.
It celebrates disciplined restraint.
Cinematic Mandarin Noir R&B: Making Rhythm Part of the Cat’s Strategy
The final production style of The Giant Rat is built around Premium Cinematic Mandopop Noir R&B, at approximately 78 BPM in 4/4 time, using a through-composed narrative structure.
The arrangement features:
- A warm, controlled Standard Mandarin male baritone, with clear classical-Chinese diction and no shouting or theatrical operatic delivery.
- Ominous guqin harmonics and dry pipa plucks, opening the palace night with sparse, hard-edged sound.
- Distant palace ambience, providing architectural depth and an atmosphere of concealed danger.
- Fender Rhodes, creating dark modern harmony beneath the classical text.
- Deep Neo-Soul bass, moving like a shadow near the floor.
- Brushed drums, rim clicks and subtle wooden percussion, establishing a restrained pulse of pursuit.
- Low strings, slowly increasing pressure beneath critical phrases.
- Stop-start vocal lines and sudden silences, mirroring the cat’s repeated ascent, descent and withdrawal.
- Rapid pipa tremolo, tightened drums and sharp string accents, withheld until the line “the cat immediately rushed down.”
- Near silence after the rat’s head is found crushed, allowing the result to fall into a vacuum.
- A reflective closing section, keeping “it was not afraid” intellectually calm before ending darkly upon the comparison between the swordsman and the rat.
The lyrics are never repeated to extend the duration.
Pu Songling’s text is sung once.
The longer narrative space is created through the 38-second introduction, instrumental pursuit passages, strategic pauses and the final outro.
The MV: A White Cat, a Giant Rat and the Human Witnesses
The MV places the entire tale inside the inner court of the Forbidden City during the Wanli era.
Its visual language is cinematic and realistic, built from deep vermilion, ink black, aged gold and cold blue-grey.
Moonlight and candlelight create an Eastern noir atmosphere.
The snow-white lion cat is consistently depicted as a large adult long-haired cat with amber eyes, a naturally broad face and a full, flowing tail.
The giant rat is nearly equal in size, with coarse dark-brown fur, a black dorsal stripe, a notch in its left ear, pale whiskers, a long grey tail and an unnaturally swollen abdomen.
The MV introduces a thirty-eight-year-old palace eunuch as the principal human observer.
He does not alter Pu Songling’s plot, and no lyrics are added for him.
His role is visual: he discovers the damage, watches through the door, witnesses the attendants’ misjudgement and gradually understands the cat’s method.
A young palace guard later hears the disturbance and impulsively reaches for his sword.
The eunuch raises a hand to stop him.
In the final philosophical image, the guard’s human shadow overlaps with the silhouette of the giant rat upon a vermilion wall.
The closing sentence is therefore transformed from commentary into a visible metaphor.
During the outro, the guard releases the sword hilt.
The white cat leaves the chamber.
The palace enters the final blue hour before dawn.
The cat does not look back or celebrate.
Wisdom has already left the scene.
Reflection remains with the human beings at the doorway.
📜 Complete Original Text with English Translation
[Pu Songling, “The Giant Rat”: Complete Original Text]
萬曆間，宮中有鼠，
During the Wanli era, there was a rat in the imperial palace,
大與貓等，為害甚劇。
as large as a cat, and the harm it caused was extremely severe.
遍求民間佳貓捕制之，
Excellent cats were sought throughout the country to capture and subdue it,
輒被啖食。
but each was devoured.
適異國來貢獅貓，
A foreign country happened to present a lion cat as tribute,
毛白如雪。
whose coat was white as snow.
抱投其中，
They carried it and placed it inside,
闔其扉，
closed the door,
潛窺之。
and secretly watched.
貓避入登几上，
The cat retreated and climbed onto a table;
鼠亦登，
the rat climbed up as well,
貓則躍下。
and the cat then jumped down.
如此往復，
They continued back and forth in this manner,
不啻百次。
no fewer than a hundred times.
眾咸謂貓怯，
Everyone said that the cat was afraid,
以為是無能為者。
believing it incapable of doing anything.
既而鼠跳躑漸遲，
Before long, the rat’s jumping gradually slowed,
碩腹似喘，
and its enormous belly appeared to pant.
蹲地上少休。
It crouched upon the ground for a short rest.
貓即疾下，
The cat immediately rushed down,
爪掬頂毛，
seized the hair upon the rat’s head with its claws,
口齕首領，
and bit the junction of its head and neck.
輾轉爭呼。
They rolled and struggled, crying out.
貓鳴嗚嗚，
The cat growled,
鼠聲啾啾。
and the rat shrieked.
啟扉急視，
They opened the door and hurried to look,
則鼠首已碎矣。
and found that the rat’s head had already been crushed.
然後知貓之避，
Only then did they understand the cat’s retreat:
非怯也，
it was not fear,
待其惰也。
but waiting for the rat to become exhausted.
彼出則歸，
When the rat advanced, the cat returned;
彼歸則出，
when the rat returned, the cat advanced.
用此智耳。
It used this intelligence, nothing more.
噫！
Alas!
匹夫按劍，
The common man who reaches for his sword:
何異鼠乎！
what difference is there between him and this rat?
A Song with No Expanded Lyrics and No Need for Them
The Giant Rat does not add a modern chorus, contemporary commentary or newly written philosophical lines.
Pu Songling’s original already contains a complete dramatic arc:
The rat establishes the threat.
The lion cat introduces hope.
Repeated retreat creates misjudgement.
Exhaustion produces reversal.
The final image of the hand upon the sword turns the animal encounter toward humanity.
Additional lyrics could easily weaken this concise and sharply controlled structure.
The production therefore preserves the original text in full and allows music alone to extend duration, atmosphere and psychological tension.
The words are not repeated.
The moral is not rewritten.
The cat’s patience, the rat’s aggression, the observers’ error and the final cry of “Alas!” remain entirely Pu Songling’s own.
💿 Credits
- Song Title: The Giant Rat
- Chinese Title: 大鼠
- Classical Source: Pu Songling, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio: “Da Shu”
- Literary Period: Qing Dynasty
- Narrative Setting: The imperial palace during the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty
- Original Text / Lyrics: Pu Songling
- Expanded Lyrics / Adaptation: None
- Lyrics Format: 100% of Pu Songling’s complete original text; no rewriting, expansion or additional lyrics
- Composition / Arrangement: Suno AI / Grandevity Studio
- Vocals: Suno AI Standard Mandarin male baritone
- Music Production: Grandevity Studio
- AI-Assisted Visuals: ChatGPT Images
- Video Editing / Art Direction / Creative Production: Grandevity Studio
- Released by: Grandevity Limited
- Production Year: 2026
Final Music Style and Mood:
Premium cinematic Mandopop noir R&B, 78 BPM, 4/4, through-composed narrative, warm controlled Standard Mandarin male baritone, ominous guqin harmonics, dry pipa plucks, distant palace ambience, Fender Rhodes, deep Neo-Soul bass, brushed drums, rim clicks, low strings and subtle wood percussion, tense stop-start cat-and-mouse pulse, sudden silences, restrained climax, reflective and dark ending.
⚖️ Copyright Notice
Pu Songling’s Qing-dynasty text “The Giant Rat” is a public-domain classical literary work.
This song uses 100% of Pu Songling’s original text as its lyrics. It contains no modern expansion, rewriting or additional lyrical material.
The musical composition and production, sound recording, arrangement, mixing, mastering, MV imagery, cover artwork, video editing, copywriting, subtitles, storyboard design, art direction and overall creative concept were produced or lawfully licensed by Grandevity Limited / Grandevity Studio and are protected by copyright and related rights to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Unauthorized re-uploading, redistribution, reproduction, editing, sampling, commercial use, public broadcasting, platform distribution, AI training, dataset use, remixing, or use in any other audiovisual work is strictly prohibited.
Licensing Contact:
About the Project
The Giant Rat is part of Grandevity Studio’s Classical Literature Reimagined in Music series.
The project seeks to bring classical Chinese prose beyond textbooks, annotation, translation and memorised moral summaries, allowing it to re-enter contemporary rhythm, sound, imagery and emotional experience.
More than three centuries ago, Pu Songling used a contest between a cat and a rat to remind his readers:
Retreat is not necessarily fear.
Advance is not necessarily courage.
Noise is not necessarily power.
A hand upon the sword is not necessarily strength.
We still live in a world that easily mistakes speed for ability, anger for conviction and immediate retaliation for bravery.
Before reaching for the sword, may we first ask whether we are the white cat waiting with intelligence, or the giant rat being led by its own fury until all strength is gone.