by Pu Songling
It happened that his friend the minister arrived just then, and upon viewing the orchids, he exclaimed in shock, “Why do they so closely resemble my family’s flowers!”
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Dan: A measure of grain equal to one hectoliter.
Hu: A measure of grain that can vary between five and ten pecks.
“We must have purchased some of your surplus,” Zhao answered, “and besides, we didn’t realize you were coming. But when you left home just now, were your orchids still there or not?”
“In truth, I hadn’t yet been to my study,” noted the minister, “so I couldn’t say for sure. But how did these come to be here?”
Zhao looked at Lu, who answered, “This is easily explained: some of the pots belonging to the minister’s family had become damaged and were being repaired here; this pot’s no longer cracked.” Upon examining it, the minister apparently began to believe him.
That evening, Lu told Zhao, “All along, I’ve said that my family has many such flowers, so now I’d like to ask a favor of you, to come visit my family. But nobody must know of this, except for A-Ya, who’s harmless.” A-Ya was one of Zhao’s long-time servants, from back when he was Supervisor of the Household of the Heir Apparent.
Thus they were able to take a trip. By the time Zhao stepped outside, there were already four men carrying a sedan chair, who were resting, waiting to take him. Zhao got in, and they sped off more quickly than galloping horses.
In no time, they entered the mountains, where they experienced an exotic fragrance that penetrated to their very bones. They came to the abode of a mountain recluse, where they witnessed buildings with magnificent roofs, in widely different styles from all over the world; there were marble structures set up everywhere, displaying flawless pots containing beautiful plants, their fragrance spreading under the moonlight. As the men approached and could tell that they were orchids, they contracted for several dozen pots of them, as they were of invariably luxuriant quality. When they’d completed their visit, they returned the same way that they’d come.
Lu served Zhao for more than ten years. After that, Zhao died peacefully, not from an illness, and Lu left with A-Ya, but no one knew where they’d gone.
334. Court Historian Jiang
Court Historian Jiang Chao could remember being a monk on Mt. Emei in a previous life, and in several dreams he was living in a Buddhist monastery, washing his feet by the edge of a large pond. Jiang comported himself honestly and sincerely, living according to the texts of the Buddhist canon from the Tiantai School, and though he’d already been accepted into the imperial academy, he’d often longed to leave the world behind.
He took an official leave to return home to the area south of the Yangzi River, but when he arrived at Qinyou, he no longer wanted to return home. His son tearfully tugged at him to come along, but Jiang refused to listen.
He proceeded on to Sichuan then, where he took up residence in Chengdu’s Golden Sands Monastery; after a long time, he moved on to Mt. Emei, where he stayed in the Hidden Tiger Monastery, and later, the Buddhists say, he passed away from illness.
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Mt. Emei: Located in Sichuan province, Mt. Emei is the tallest of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism.
Tiantai School: Originating on Mt. Tiantai (“Heavenly Terrace”) in Zhejiang province, its name is supposedly derived from the six stars of Ursa Major, “under which it is supposed to be, but more likely because of its height and appearance” (Soothill and Hodous 144). Founded by a Buddhist monk named Zhikai (538-97 C.E.), its teachings are based on the Indian Lotus Sutra’s scriptures.
Leave the world behind: To pursue contemplation as a Buddhist hermit.
Qinyou: Located in modern Jiangsu province’s Gaoyou county.
He wrote these Buddhist chants:
I am a Buddhist who should leave the world of attachments,
While inexplicably I remain there.
Living in the world is like trying to avoid the heat in a soup pot,
So I wonder how to be free of this endless hardship.
In the world I was like a puppet, chasing fame and wealth, Until my wife and children were a pile of bones.
There are only the master and my parents whom I cannot repay,
So I will pray for them to be protected for generations.
335. Shao Shimei
Jinshi Shao Shimei was from Jining. While he was teaching in Dengzhou, two old men who had passed the county level of the civil service examination paid a call on him—when he’d first seen their names on the list of successful candidates, it seemed like he already knew them; he’d been lost in thought for a quite some time when suddenly he realized that he’d known them in his previous life.
He asked one of the staff members working at his school, “Do these two scholars live in this village?” When the staff member described their appearance and manner, they seemed identical to the men he’d known in his previous life.
At that moment this pair of scholars entered, holding hands, and began chatting away with Shao, like they’d all known each other their entire lives. In the course of the conversation, Shao Shimei also asked the other two about someone named Gao Donghai.
“He died in prison over twenty years ago,” replied the two scholars, “but there’s a son of his still around. He’s nobody in our village, so how could you know him?”
Shao smiled and answered, “He’s a relative of mine from way back.”
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Jinshi: A successful candidate in the highest level of the imperial civil service examination.
Jining: City in southwestern Shandong province.
Dengzhou: A prefecture located in modern Shandong province’s Penglai county.
Originally, Gao Donghai had been a habitual rogue; yet he was forthright by nature, and unselfishly generous. There was a fellow who’d been behind in his rent, and was going to have to sell his daughter, so Gao gave him all the money in his pocket.
Gao was the private friend of an old woman who was secretly a robber, so when the authorities caught on and moved quickly to arrest her, the old woman fled for protection to Gao’s house. The authorities learned her whereabouts, took Gao into custody, and prepared him for a flogging, but in the end he refused to tell them where she was, and thus he eventually died in prison.
The day of his death coincided with Shao’s birthday. After Shao went to Gao’s village, he began taking care of Gao’s wife, while people everywhere who learned about it found it very strange.
This was told by Gao Shaozai, whose son was Gao Jiliang, who passed the imperial examination the same year as Shao Shimei.
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Gao Shaozai . . . Gao Jiliang: Gao Shaozai (1612-97) was from Shandong’s Zichuan county, as was Pu Songling. Gao Jiliang became a juren (passed the provincial level of the civil service examination) in 1654, and a jinshi in 1661 (Zhu 2:1150n7-51n8).
336. Scholar Gu
Scholar Gu, from Jiangning, was visiting in Jixia when his eyes became painfully swollen, leaving him groaning round the clock, but no medicine had an effect on it. After more than ten days, the pain began to subside a bit. Then when he could finally open his eyes, he kept seeing an enormous residential estate: altogether there were four or five courtyards, and their gates were completely wide open; in the innermost one, there were people coming and going, but he couldn’t see anyone he recognized.
One day, as he was watching attentively, he suddenly felt his body enter the estate and pass successively through three gateways, the place devoid of any signs of people. There was a government office facing north and south, its floors covered with red carpeting. As he peered inside, he saw a room filled with so many babies, some sitting up, some lying down, some crawling on their knees, that he couldn’t estimate how many there were.
He felt stunned and disoriented till someone came out from behind a building, saw him, and rema
rked, “The little prince said that there’d be a visitor from far away at the gate, so you’ve been expected.” Then he invited Gu inside. Gu, however, didn’t dare enter, but following strong encouragement, he went inside.
“What is this place?” he asked.
“This is the residence of the Ninth King’s royal heir,” explained the man. “The crown prince has just recovered from malaria, and today relatives and guests have come to offer their congratulations, therefore your fate must be connected to his.” By the time he’d finished speaking, people were arriving quickly, so he urged Gu to hurry along with him.
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Jiangning: An ancient name for Nanjing, in Jiangsu province.
Instantly, they came to an ornately engraved pavilion with red railings, with a hall facing north that had nine pillars. They climbed the stairs to the upper level, where guests had already filled the seats. Gu saw a young man sitting on the north side, and realized that he must be the prince, so he prostrated himself on the floor of the hall. Everyone in the packed hall rose to their feet.
The prince pulled Gu up, and then had him sit on the east side of the hall. Wine was passed around while music was played, accompanied by the beating of drums, and all the female entertainers in the hall stood and performed the song “Congratulatory Wishes.” Once they’d completed three verses, the host and servants in the inn where Gu had been staying came to his bedside, and repeatedly asked him to come for the midday meal.
Gu heard them quite clearly, and felt worried that the prince might hear, so he excused himself on the pretext of needing to go to the toilet, and went outside. He looked up, noticing the sun, and as he saw servants standing before his bed, he began to realize that he’d never left the inn where he’d been staying.
He urgently wanted to go back, so he sent all the servants away. As he started to close his eyes, he could see the palace buildings he’d observed previously, so he quickly followed the paths and went inside. As he walked, he passed through the place where he’d found all the babies, but they were gone, and instead there were several dozen hunchbacked old women with disheveled hair, sitting and lying down there.
When they spotted Gu standing in the distance, they started crying out abuse: “Whose family has such a good-for-nothing son, that he comes like this to stare at us!” Gu was scared and didn’t dare try to defend himself, so he swiftly moved past their area and ascended to the hall, where he took a seat.
He saw that below the prince’s chin there was now a beard that was nearly a chi in length. When the prince noticed Gu, he smiled and asked, “Where’d you go? The singers have already performed seven verses.” As punishment, Gu had to take a large drinking vessel and drain it, then show that he’d emptied it.
Before long, the women reached the end of their song, and offered to perform something else. Gu chose “Peng Zu Takes a Wife.” The singers brought him a container that looked large enough to hold about five dou, full of wine. Gu stood up to take his leave from the banquet, apologizing, “I’ve been suffering from an eye inflammation, and I dare not allow myself to become drunk.”
“Regarding your eye affliction,” the prince replied, “I have the imperial physician here, and thus he can examine you.” One of the guests seated on the east side of the hall left his seat and came over, then with two fingers held open each of the corners of Gu’s eyes; taking a jade hairpin, he applied a dot of a white, grease-like substance, then advised Gu to go shut his eyes and take a little nap.
The prince ordered a servant girl to lead Gu back to his room and have him lie down; immediately upon lying down, Gu felt the soft curtain surrounding his bed and so fell into a feverish sleep. He hadn’t been resting long when he suddenly heard the banging sounds of gong and drums, startling him awake.
He began to think that the palace entertainments hadn’t yet concluded; opening his eyes to take a look, there was a dog in his room licking grease from a shallow pan. But his eyes were no longer swollen. When he closed and reopened his eyes, the entire palace setting was no longer there.
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Chi: Length equal to 1/3 meter.
Peng Zu: Mythical figure, said to have attained the age of 767 by the end of the Yin dynasty (1123 B.C.E.). A proto-Daoist, considered by some to prefigure (as an early incarnation) Laozi (Mayers 188), author of the daodejing (The Classic of the Virtue of the Dao).
Dou: A measure that can vary greatly and be used variously for dry or wet substances, here probably signifying about 1-1½ gallons.
337. Chen Xijiu
Chen Xijiu lived near the Pi River. His father, Chen Ziyan, was a well-known scholar in their town. A certain Zhou, from an affluent family, admired Chen Ziyan’s prestige and concluded that their families should be joined in marriage. Chen Ziyan worked hard, but he kept failing the imperial civil service examinations, and his family’s property was in decline, so he traveled to Qin—but then for several years, there was no word from him.
Zhou privately began to regret the earlier arrangement. He married his younger daughter to xiaolian Wang, whose wife had recently died; Wang sent the family a sumptuous betrothal gift of servants all mounted on horseback. Hence Zhou began all the more to detest Chen Xijiu for being poor, and became adamant about breaking the engagement; but when he asked his daughter to go along with his plan, she refused.
Infuriated, he had her dressed in ugly clothing and adornments, then sent to Xijiu’s home, to marry him. Though the Chen family often lacked even sufficient food for meals, Zhou was completely unsympathetic towards them.
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Pi River: Located in modern Pixian county, Jiangsu province. Qin: A short name for Shaanxi province.
Xiaolian: An unofficial reference to successful candidates at the prefectural or provincial level of the civil service examination recruitment process (Hucker 237).
One day, Zhou sent an old maidservant to take food and drink to his daughter, and when she entered the family’s gate, she turned to Chen Ziyan’s wife and said, “My master has sent me to see whether his daughter is starving to death or not.” The daughter was afraid that this would shame her mother-in-law, so she began laughing uproariously at the maidservant’s words.
The old servant then began taking out the dishes and pastries, arranging them in front of Xijiu’s mother. Then she stopped and taunted, “I suppose you don’t need this! Since the young mistress entered your home, have you offered anything in exchange for her, even just a cup of warm or cool water? These things are from our family, so we’ll just see if you have the nerve to remain silent and gobble them up.”
The voice and face of Chen’s mother completely changed as she filled with hate for the woman. The old maidservant didn’t stop there, but continued intruding with her vicious slander. The chaos continued awhile until Xijiu came inside and asked what was going on, then, exploding in anger when he learned what the maidservant had been saying, he grabbed her by the hair and slapped her cheek, then beat her and chased her out the gate till she ran off.
The next day, Zhou arrived to take his daughter away, but she refused to go home; the day after that, quite a few more people showed up, all talking at once, like they were spoiling for a fight. Chen’s mother strongly advised her daughter-in-law to return home. The girl tearfully did obeisance to her mother-in-law, then climbed into a carriage and left.
When several days had passed, some men were sent to force Chen into signing divorce papers, and his mother made him do so. She hoped that Ziyan could then return, so they could go somewhere else. But when the Zhou family dispatched some servants to Xi’an, they learned that Ziyan was dead, and Chen’s mother, overcome by sorrow and anger when she found out, fell sick and died.
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Xi’an: The capital of Shaanxi province.
In the midst of his own anguish, Xijiu continued to hope that his wife would return to him; but after a long time without the slightest
word from her, his grief and indignation pained him even more deeply. He sold the few mu of low-yield farmland that he owned to pay for the burial of his mother. Once the funeral was concluded, he begged for food en route to Qin, where he planned to search for the grave of his father.
When he came to Xi’an, he made inquiries all over among the local people. Someone told him that a few years earlier, a scholar had died at a particular inn, and had been buried in the eastern outskirts of the city, but now the grave mound was no longer visible. Xijiu didn’t know what to do, so in the mornings he begged for food in the market area, and in the evenings he’d sleep in a rustic temple, hoping eventually to find what he was seeking.
One night as he happened to be passing an unkempt burial ground, several men blocked his way and demanded that he give them money to buy food. “I’m a stranger here, begging for food near the city walls, so how could I pay to buy you something to eat?” asked Xijiu. The group became angry, seized him, and then held him down on the ground while they took filthy baby diapers and stuffed them in his mouth. Weakened by his attempts to resist, Chen Xijiu found himself in great danger of dying.
Suddenly something startled the brutes, and they cried, “It’s the officials!” They let go of Xijiu to escape, and the area quickly became still. Seconds later, a carriage and men on horseback appeared, and someone demanded, “Who’s that man lying there?”
Several men accompanying the carriage dismounted from their horses. The man inside it exclaimed, “It’s my son. What vengeful demons would dare do this! Grab them all and tie them up, so no one gets away.” Xijiu felt someone pull the diapers from his mouth, and after a bit he became more aware of his surroundings and realized that his father was there.
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Mu: An area equal to 1/6 acre.
Sobbing loudly, he declared, “I’ve taken great pains to locate your body, father. Now I find that you’re still alive!”
“I’m no longer part of the living world,” replied his father, “I’m the underworld official in charge of Taihang. I’ve come here on your behalf, son.” Xijiu wept even more piteously. His father spoke reassuringly to console his son. Xijiu tearfully told him that his in-laws had forced him to divorce his wife. “Don’t worry,” his father answered, “your bride is with your mother now. Since your mother misses you so very much, you can go see her for a little while.” Then Xijiu joined him in the carriage, and it sped away as swiftly as wind and rain.