Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  The old man invited them to accompany him to his place, where he made some tea and offered it to his guests: after only two small cups, Sheng could tell that it was special, superior to all other tea. His fellow visitor explained to the old man, “This is my disciple, a merchant who’s traveled a thousand li to pay his respects to the celestials at their temple, so I’d like to beg a little gift for him.”

  _________

  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  The old man then ordered a boy servant to bring out a dish of white stones that were shaped like sparrow eggs, sparkling and as crystal-clear as ice, then told Sheng to take some. Sheng thought that he might carry a few home with him to commemorate the number of cups of tea that he’d enjoyed, so he picked out six of them. His companion thought that Sheng was just being politely restrained, so he picked up another six of the stones and handed them to Sheng to put in a bag.

  Urging him to keep the bag secured to his waist, the man put his hands together in respectful salute and told Sheng, “That should be enough.” They then took their leave of the old man and departed, once again feeling themselves transported through the air by something underneath them, till in moments they were back on the ground.

  Kowtowing to his companion, Sheng proceeded to ask him what his celestial conveyance was called. Smiling, the man replied, “I happen to call it my cloud somersault.” Sheng suddenly realized that his companion had been the great sage himself, so he begged for his protection. “Since you’ve been granted a bit of wealth,” he observed, “represented by the profits you’ll receive from those twelve stones you were given, there’s no need for you to beg protection.”

  Sheng then prostrated himself in obeisance, but by the time he got up again, the man was already gone.

  After he returned home, he gleefully told his elder brother about the stones. But when they untied the bag in order to look at its contents, they discovered that the stones had all melted. Once the merchant brothers finished selling off their merchandise and returned home, they realized that their profits for the trip were several times greater than what they’d anticipated.

  _________

  Cloud somersault: Clouds become the mode of transport favored by Sun Wukong, the handsome monkey king, in Journey to the West.

  From then on, they frequently made trips back to Fujian and were always sure to offer their prayers at the temple of the great sage. Other people would offer prayers there, but there weren’t always responses to them; whenever Xu Sheng prayed there, however, his prayers invariably were answered.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Once upon a time, a scholar who was passing a temple went in and painted a pipa on one wall, then left; when he checked on it later, its spiritual power was considered so outstanding that people had joined together there to burn incense to it. A god certainly doesn’t have to exist in order to be considered powerful in this world; if people believe it to be divine, it will be so for them. What’s the reason for this? When people who share the same beliefs gather together, they’ll choose some creature figure to represent those beliefs. It’s right that an outspoken man like Sheng should be blessed by the god; who else could believe for real that he’s protected by someone who keeps an embroidery needle inside his ear, who he can transform one of his hairs into a writing brush, or who ascends via cloud-somersault into the cerulean sky! In the end, Sheng’s mind must have deluded him, for what he saw simply couldn’t be true.”

  _________

  Pipa: A lute-like musical instrument.

  An embroidery needle . . . cloud-somersault: All of these talents are attributed to Sun Wukong in Journey to the West.

  417. The Frog God

  In the region of the Han River in Hubei, it was common to treat the frog god with the highest reverence. No one knows how many thousands of frogs there were in the frog god’s temple, some of which were the size of a large chest.

  If the frog god was made angry by someone’s actions, the offending individual’s family was inevitably subjected to strange experiences: frogs would hop onto tables and beds, and even when clambering up slippery walls, the frogs—which all looked different from each other—wouldn’t fall down, with the result that the family suffered terrible misfortunes. People became so afraid that they made sacrifices in supplication until the god was sufficiently pleased and stopped the frog visitations.

  In Chu, there was a man named Xue Kunsheng who was young, kind-natured, and quite handsome. When he was sixteen or seventeen years old, an old serving woman came to his home, explaining that she’d been sent by the frog god to communicate its desire that Kunsheng marry its daughter.

  Xue’s father, who was sincere and unaffected in personality, elegantly expressed his position that he couldn’t approve of the marriage, citing Kunsheng’s youth as his rationale. Even though his intention had been simply to reject the frog god’s proposal, he subsequently didn’t dare pursue wedding plans for Kunsheng with any other families.

  _________

  Han River: The longest tributary of the Yangzi River.

  Chu: An ancient capital that was situated in modern Hubei province.

  As years went by, Kunsheng gradually grew up, till he ended up being engaged to a family named Jiang. In response, the frog god announced to the head of the Jiang family, “Xue Kunsheng is my son-in-law, so how dare you interfere with what’s mine!” Jiang was so terrified that he returned all of the Xue family’s betrothal gifts.

  Kunsheng’s father became worried, so he went to the frog god’s temple and made offerings of food and wine, explaining that he didn’t dare match his son to the god’s daughter. When he finished his obeisance to the deity, he observed maggots emerging from all of his offerings, making a mess of them with their wriggling; he poured out and discarded everything, apologizing for what he’d said, and then returned home. He felt even more full of dread, but decided for the time being just to keep his ears open.

  One day, Kunsheng was walking along the road when he was met by a messenger with greetings from the frog god, inviting Kunsheng to come see him. Having no alternative, Kunsheng followed the man.

  They entered a red-lacquered gate that led to a magnificent tower. There they found an old man, who must’ve been seventy or eighty years old, seated in a hallway. Kunsheng prostrated himself respectfully. The old man ordered servants to help his guest to his feet, then offered Kunsheng a chair next to him.

  Soon, a crowd of maidservants gathered to look at Kunsheng, filling the room all around him. The old man turned to them and declared, “Go inside and say that Master Xue has arrived.” Several maidservants hurriedly left to deliver the message.

  Moments later an old woman came out, leading a young lady of sixteen or seventeen who was beautiful beyond compare. The old man pointed at her and announced, “This is my daughter, Shiniang, and I’ve expressed my sentiments that you two would make a lovely couple; your father, however, saw fit to reject the match because we are from different species. Marriage is an important event, and your parents only control half of the decision, so the rest of it is up to you.”

  When Kunsheng fixed his eyes on Shiniang, he fell in love with her, leaving him speechless, unable to respond. The old woman told him, “I can tell that you favor this match. If you’ll please return home first, I’ll accompany Shiniang to follow immediately after you.”

  “I’ll do as you say,” he replied.

  He hurried home and told his father what had transpired. The elder Xue didn’t have any particular strategy to draw upon, so he just instructed his son in what to say by way of apologetically declining, then sent him to return and refuse the proposed marriage—but Kunsheng simply would not do so.

  While Kunsheng’s father was scolding him for disobeying, Shiniang had already arrived at the family’s gate with a considerable group of servants, and proceeded to enter. She continued to the family hall. There she humbly paid her respects to her parents-in-law, who were both quite pleased upon seeing her. That nig
ht they were married, and they lived together in complete harmony.

  From this point forward, the frog god and frog goddess periodically dropped in to visit their household. If the deities happened to be wearing red clothing, happy events would follow, and if they were wearing white clothing, money was forthcoming—which meant that the Xue family became more prosperous each day.

  After the family became related to the frog god through marriage, frogs began appearing all over their household—at the gates, in the halls, on the walls and in the bathroom, and when they came in, no one there dared to revile them or kick them out. Even though he was just a headstrong young man, Kunsheng refrained from harming the frogs when he was in a good mood, but when he was in a bad mood, he’d stomp them to death, showing no concern whatsoever for them.

  Although Shiniang seemed modest and docile, at this provocation she proved to be irascible, growing very angry at what Kunsheng had done; but Kunsheng paid no attention to her and refused to curb his actions. When Shiniang chided him, he angrily replied, “How can you let your father and mother bring calamity down on people? I’m not afraid of frogs!”

  Shiniang hated the word “frog,” and spitefully exclaimed, “Since I entered these gates, your family’s farmland has increased production and your business profits have similarly grown. Now that both the old and the young in your family are warmly dressed and well-fed, you’re like a young owl that’s finally developed enough strength to fly on its own and suddenly wants to peck out its mother’s eyes!”

  Kunsheng became even more irate and fired back, “I suspect that everything we’ve gained has been tainted, so I couldn’t possibly consider bequeathing it to my descendants. It’d be better if you’d please just leave.” Then he chased Shiniang away.

  By the time Kunsheng’s parents heard about what had happened, Shirniang was already gone. They scolded Kunsheng, telling him to run after Shiniang and bring her back. Kunsheng, however, haughtily refused to do so.

  As night approached, Kunsheng and his mother both fell ill, feeling so dizzy and constricted that they couldn’t eat anything. His father became frightened, so he went to the frog god’s temple to apologize for Kunsheng’s actions, claiming that his son was really very ardent in his love for Shiniang.

  Three days passed, then Kunsheng and his mother began to recover from their illness. Shiniang also came back, and once again the couple lived together harmoniously as they had in the beginning.

  Shiniang spent her days just sitting around, without doing any of the women’s work, so if any mending had to be done on Kunsheng’s clothes or shoes, his mother had to do it all. Annoyed one day, his mother cried, “Even though my son’s married, I still have to take care of him! In other people’s homes, the wife takes care of her mother-in-law, but in my household, the mother-in-law takes care of the wife!”

  Happening to overhear this, Shiniang in a fit of pique entered the main hall and declared, “In the morning I serve your breakfast, and at night I tuck you into bed, so in what sense can you claim I’m not taking care of you? In short, no matter what I do on your behalf, I can’t meet your expectations.” Kunsheng’s mother had nothing to say to this, weeping to herself, ashamed and abashed.

  Kunsheng entered and upon seeing streaks of tears on his mother’s face asked her what was wrong, then angrily reproved his wife. Shiniang disputed his words and refused to concede any wrongdoing. “Rather than marrying a wife who can’t please my parents,” he exclaimed, “it would’ve been better not to have one at all! Even if my offenses do make the old frog god angry, the most I can suffer is some catastrophe and death!” Once again, he drove Shiniang away. She also turned angry, storming out the family gates and down the road.

  The next day, the Xue home suffered a disaster as a fire spread to several rooms, igniting tables and beds, reducing all of them to ashes. A furious Kunsheng went to the frog god’s temple where he uttered numerous curses and cried, “You raised a daughter who can’t tend to her parents-in-law, who, in summary, hasn’t been properly instructed by her father, and yet you turn a blind eye to her shortcomings! A god is supposed to be unbiased, yet you’ve taught me to live in fear of my wife! Moreover, in a family dispute, I should determine what is done regarding my wife—it should have nothing to do with my parents. If you’re going to execute some kind of violence on someone, direct it at me; otherwise, I’m going to set fire to your temple, just to pay you back.”

  Once he’d finished speaking, he carried in kindling and stacked it in the temple, like he wanted to light it on fire. When some of the locals began gathering and pleaded with him not to do it, he became even more incensed about it and finally just went home. His parents turned pale in fear when they heard about this.

  That night, the frog god appeared in the dreams of people in a nearby village, directing them to build a home for his son-in-law, Xue Kunsheng. The following morning, workers from that village joined together to perform the construction for Kunsheng, though he tried repeatedly to stop them from doing so; each day, a few hundred men gathered at the site; thus it wasn’t long before a brand new house appeared, entirely furnished with furniture, curtains, and utensils all ready to be used.

  Once the construction had been completed, Shiniang came back and entered the family’s hall, where she apologized with gentle words for her shortcomings. She turned with a smile to face Kunsheng, and the whole family exchanged conflict for happiness. Thus it was that Shiniang’s personality became even milder, and for a couple of years there were no unkind words exchanged.

  Above all other things, Shiniang loathed snakes, so Kunsheng playfully put some small snakes in a box, then teased her until she opened it up. Shiniang’s happy expression changed instantly as she began berating Kunsheng. His smile then also turned to a frown as they engaged in mutual recriminations. “This time I don’t have to wait for you to drive me away,” declared Shiniang; “please take this as my severance of our relationship.” With that, she marched right out the family’s gates.

  Kunsheng’s father was quite upset by this, so he beat Kunsheng till he agreed to make humble apology to the frog god. Fortunately, no misfortune resulted from his actions, for the frog god remained silent about what had been done.

  As the year went by, the regret-stricken Kunsheng couldn’t stop thinking about Shiniang, so he went to pay a visit to the frog god’s temple for he missed her terribly and at that point he hadn’t heard the slightest response from her. Soon thereafter, he learned that the god had betrothed Shiniang to someone from the Yuan family, which caused him to despair, since this obliged him also to look for another spouse; but after meeting with several families, none of their daughters could measure up to Shiniang, prompting Kunsheng to think about her all the more.

  When he went out to learn what he could about the Yuan family, he discovered that their walls had been whitened, their courtyard all washed clean, and they were awaiting the arrival of Shiniang’s sedan chair. Feeling ashamed and angry with himself since he couldn’t change matters, Kunsheng stopped eating and fell ill. His parents became worried and apprehensive, but didn’t know what do do about it.

  Suddenly one day, while Kunsheng was deep asleep, someone came to him and exclaimed, “Such a man of fortitude and courage—you kept wanting to sever your ties with me, but now you’re acting like this!”

  When he opened his eyes, he saw that the voice belonged to Shirniang. Overjoyed, he leapt up and cried, “What’re you doing here?”

  “With you treating our marriage so disdainfully,” she answered him, “I had to follow my father’s orders to remarry, so I left you. Indeed, I received betrothal gifts and money from the Yuan family quite some time ago, but after thinking about it over and over again, I decided I couldn’t go through with it. Tonight had been selected as an auspicious time for the marriage, and my father refused to have anything to do with returning the gifts, so I had to bring them and give them back. It happened as I was walking out my family’s gate, my father accompanied me, sayi
ng, ‘Foolish girl! If you don’t listen to me, you’ll end up maltreated once again by the Xue family, so even if you die as a result, don’t come back here!’”

  Kunsheng was so moved by Shiniang’s loyalty that his tears began to fall. His servants were all happy to see her and ran to tell Kunsheng’s father and mother. Upon hearing the news, his mother didn’t wait for the couple to come see her, but rushed into her son’s living quarters to see Shiniang, sobbing as she grabbed her daughter-inlaw’s hands.

  From this point forward, Kunsheng’s loyalty to Shiniang remained constant and he played no more cruel practical jokes on her, with the result that his love for her grew stronger than ever. Shiniang told him, “I formerly thought that you were just capricious and vascillating, and that we could never live together through old age, hence I didn’t want to bring any children into the human world; now that you’ve shown your love for me, I’d like to have a family with you.”

  Not long after they’d been living together as a couple again, the frog god and his wife, dressed in red robes, condescended to visit their home. By the next day, Shiniang was pregnant and proceeded to give birth to twin boys. Following this, the frog god and goddess frequently visited their home.

  If local residents happened to offend the frog god in some way, they always came first to beg forgiveness from Kunsheng; then they’d send their wives, dressed in their best attire, to pay their respects to Shiniang, and if she smiled at them, everything was settled.

  The Xue family proceeded to produce many offspring, so people took to calling them “the Xue frog family.” None of the locals dared to say this to their faces—only strangers living elsewhere called them this.