Story: "Hsü Yen’s Strange Encounter or Lovers within a Lover"

In the first story in Traditional Chinese Tales, a merchant on the way to market to sell his geese encounters a mysterious stranger, who goes for a ride in the merchant's goose cage; soon we discover that not only is the man able to fit into small spaces, he also has fitted many other objects and people into his body.

Who is the man, and how has he attained his special abilities? The story leaves this question unanswered, and seems, based on its narrating style, aimed mainly to amaze, and to amuse. There is not really a moral to the story.

UPDATE: The text of the story is available on a Wikisource version of Wu Jun's 吳均 Xu Qi xie ji 續齊諧記, a work that Prof. Wang writes in 1943 as being lost except for passages preserved in the Song dynasty collection Taiping guangji.

陽羨許彥，於綏安山行，遇一書生，年十七八，臥路側，雲腳痛，求寄鵝籠中。彥以為戲言。書生便入籠，籠亦不更廣，書生亦不更小，宛然與雙鵝並坐，鵝亦不驚。彥負籠而去，都不覺重。前行息樹下，書生乃出籠，謂彥曰：「欲為君薄設。」彥曰：「善。」乃口中吐出一銅奩子，奩子中具諸餚饌，珍饈方丈。其器皿皆銅物，氣味香旨，世所罕見。酒數行，謂彥曰：「向將一婦人自隨，今欲暫邀之。」彥曰：「善。」又於口中吐一女子，年可十五六，衣服綺麗，容貌殊絕，共坐宴。俄而書生醉臥，此女謂彥曰：「雖與書生結妻，而實懷怨。向亦竊得一男子同行，書生既眠，暫喚之，君幸勿言。」彥曰：「善。」女子於口中吐出一男子，年可二十三四，亦穎悟可愛，乃與彥敘寒溫。書生臥欲覺，女子口吐一錦行障，遮書生。書生乃留女子共臥。男子謂彥曰：「此女子雖有心，情亦不甚，向復竊得一女人同行，今欲暫見之，願君勿洩。」彥曰：「善。」男子又於口中吐一婦人，年可二十許，共酌，戲談甚久。聞書生動聲，男子曰：「二人眠已覺。」因取所吐女人，還內口中。須臾，書生處女乃出，謂彥曰：「書生欲起。」乃吞向男子，獨對彥坐。然後書生起，謂彥曰：「暫眠遂久，君獨坐，當悒悒邪？日又晚，當與君別。」遂吞其女子，諸器皿悉內口中。留大銅盤，可二尺廣，與彥別曰：「無以藉君，與君相憶也。」彥大元中為蘭台令史，以盤餉侍中張散。散看其銘題，雲是永平三年作。