by Pu Songling
Together they took the head and pressed it back upon the fellow’s neck, a group of them holding it in place, while with a sound like the wind rustling slightly, they tested its movement, then left him. He checked out where he was and learned he was back in his hometown. Once the officials of Yishui heard that the man was back in town, they suspected him of having deserted from the army.
When they arrested the man and interrogated him, he described what had previously happened to him, but they didn’t trust him; then they examined his neck closely, without finding even the slightest sign of scarring, so they were right on the verge of torturing him for information.
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Yishui: A county in Shandong province.
Liaoyang: A city in Liaoning province.
The fellow told them, “If you won’t believe me, please just put me in prison. Cutting off my head might have been faked, but damage to the city wall wasn’t. If the walls of Liaoyang are safe and sound, then you can torture me all you want.”
Hence they agreed to his suggestion. After a few days’ investigation, a letter came from Liaoyang and reported that things had happened on the day of the attack just as he’d said, so the matter was closed.
345. Gongshi Zhang
Gongshi Zhang, from Anqiu, who’d been confined to bed by illness, was lying down. Suddenly he saw a little man, barely half a chi long, emerge from the area around his own heart; he wore a Confucian scholar’s cap and robe, as though in costume for some kind of performance.
The little man sang a melody from Kunqu opera with a perfectly clear tone, then he introduced himself by reciting details that included his name and birthplace. They corresponded exactly to Zhang’s own; then as he continued to sing, every part of his performance included things that Zhang had experienced in his lifetime.
After Four Acts of performance had concluded, the little man recited a poem and vanished. Zhang can still remember only the gist of the performance, but readily narrates it for others.
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Gongshi: A scholar recommended to the imperial court due to high scholastic achievement and exemplary moral character.
Anqiu: A county in Shandong province.
Chi: A length equal to 1/3 meter.
Kunqu opera: With a tradition over six hundred years old, this school of opera originated in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, growing out of melodies that were popular in Kunshan even prior to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). In the sixteenth century, those melodies were supplemented with formal theatrical elements such as staged performance and costuming.
346. Ainu
Scholar Xu, from Hejian, established a private school in En. Near the beginning of the last month of the year, he was returning to Hejian when he met an old man on the road, who looked closely at him, and said, “Master Xu, you’ve closed up your school. Where are you going to be teaching next year?”
“The same place as before,” he replied.
“My name’s Shi Jingye,” the old man told him. “I have a nephew for whom I’m trying to engage an enlightened teacher, and he’s relying on me to search the villages to the east, to engage the tutor Lü Zilian, but Master Lü’s already been engaged elsewhere. If you’ll consider it, sir, he’ll offer you double the tuition you charged at En.”
Xu used the excuse of being already engaged, in order to refuse the offer. “You’re a gentleman of integrity,” said the old man. “But since the new year is quite a long ways off, how about if we indicate our esteem by offering you one tael in gold, so you can stay and tutor my nephew for a short time, and then after the year begins we can negotiate things further?” Xu approved of the idea.
The old man dismounted and gave Xu the agreed upon sum, then continued, “Our village isn’t far from here. Our residence is located in an extremely narrow pass, and it’s difficult to find enough fodder for livestock there, so please send your servant and horses home, and we can get there easily.” Xu then did so, and put his luggage on the old man’s horse.
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Hejian: A county in Hebei province.
En: In ancient times, a county in Shandong province.
After they’d gone three or four li, and dusk was approaching, they arrived at the old man’s home, passing through decorated gates to a mansion that must surely belong to an aristocratic family. The old man called for his nephew to come out and pay his respects to Xu, and he turned out to be a boy of thirteen or fourteen. “My brother-in-law, Jiang Nanchuan, was a military commander in the old days,” the old man explained. “When he died, he left behind only this son, who’s certainly no dullard, but he needs a private tutor. Giving him a month of your masterful guidance will be better than ten years from someone else.”
Soon afterwards, they set up a banquet, preparing a lush spread; wine and food were brought around, all by female servants. One maidservant, holding a jug and waiting on Xu, appeared to be fifteen or sixteen and possessed a distinguished bearing that was uniquely charming, so Xu was secretly attracted to her.
After they’d finished their feasting, the old man gave instructions for a bed to be prepared for their guest, then he said goodnight to Xu and left. Before the sun was even up, the boy came to Xu’s room, ready to study. Xu got up then, and a maidservant arrived carrying a washcloth and basin—the same one who’d been holding the jug at the banquet. The maidservant appeared at all three meals that day; when night fell, she came to tidy up Xu’s bed.
“Why isn’t there a male servant?” he asked her. The girl smiled, but didn’t answer, spreading out a large quilt before leaving straightaway.
The next night, she came and did the same thing. When she entered his room, he tried to engage her in teasing conversation, but she just smiled and didn’t refuse his advances, so then he made love to her. Hence she told him, “Since my family has no sons, our business affairs are handled by my uncle. I’m called Ainu. Master Jiang’s wife is very proper and respectful of you, and since she worried that all of their maidservants were unchaste, she sent me to serve you. What we’ve done today needs to be kept secret, but I’m afraid that it’ll be detected, and both of us will lose face.”
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Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.
One night, they were sleeping together and forgot all about the pending dawn, thus when Shi’s nephew came and found them together, Xu felt so ashamed that he couldn’t relax. That night, Ainu arrived and reported, “Fortunately, my mistress values you quite highly, or else we’d be ruined! When master’s nephew came to report about us, mistress quickly covered his mouth, as though she was afraid you’d hear him. But she warned me that I mustn’t stay for long in your room.” When she’d finished speaking, she left.
Xu thereafter behaved quite uprightly. Yet if Shi’s nephew didn’t perform his lessons well, and was scolded for it, Jiang’s wife always interceded for him. At first, the lady always sent Ainu to carry messages back and forth from Xu; gradually, she came out herself to talk with Xu through the window which separated them, their conversations often provoking her tears to fall.
Every night, the lady required a report on the progress of the lessons with Shi’s nephew. When Xu really couldn’t bear it any longer, he appeared angry and cried, “Since you allow your son to be lazy, then come to demand high quality in his work, I find I just can’t do it! Please allow me to take my leave.” Jiang’s wife sent Ainu to apologize for the boy’s lack of diligence, and then Xu agreed to stay.
He reentered his lodgings then, but every time he came out to climb upstairs and look off into the distance, he felt restrained, like a prisoner. One day, Xu got drunk, feeling disgruntled and depressed, so he called Ainu and asked her why he should stick around. “For no other reason,” she replied, “than we’re afraid he’ll abandon his studies. You may want to go out, but please do so only at night.”
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Ainu: Literally, “beloved serv
ant.”
Xu grew irate and exclaimed, “I accepted the offer to do this for a few taels, but I never intended to be cooped up here! How can you advise me to flee when night falls? For a long time now, I haven’t taken any payment without achievement to show for it, and the original taels are still in my bags.” Accordingly, Xu took out some taels and set them on the table, then prepared to leave.
When Jiang’s wife came out, she and Xu looked at each other without speaking, then as she covered her face with her sleeve, her throat choked with emotion, she sent Ainu to return with even more taels, unlocked the doors, and saw him off.
Xu had to squeeze through a narrow gateway; as he walked several steps, daylight began streaming through and he found himself climbing out of a hole in the earth, bleak and desolate on all sides, which proved to be an ancient grave. Xu was terrified. But then he began feeling that perhaps he’d compromised his sense of honor, so he took the taels that he’d been given, sold them to plant trees around the grave, and left.
A year went by, and Xu happened to be passing through the area, so he decided to pay a visit to the site. In the distance, he spotted old Shi, who smiled warmly at him, eagerly inviting Xu to join him. Although the scholar realized that Shi was a ghost, he wanted to find out how Mistress Jiang was, so together they entered a village and bought some wine to share.
They paid no attention to the passage of time, till at dusk, Shi got up to pay for some more wine, commenting, “My house isn’t far from here, and my younger sister happens to be visiting, since it’s auspicious to make such a trip at the beginning of the year.” They walked several steps outside the village, and then once they’d gone about a li, they knocked at a cottage and went inside, holding candles to light their way as they walked in.
Presently, Jiang’s wife emerged from the inner rooms, and as Xu looked closely at her, he could see that she was a beauty about forty years old. Thanking Xu formally for coming, she declared, “Our family’s been in decline, its status falling, yet you honored these dead bones, and truly there’s no way to repay you.” By the time she finished speaking, she was weeping.
Subsequently, she called for Ainu, then slowly turned to Xu and said, “I love this maidservant dearly, and now I’m giving her to you as a present, to converse with you and comfort you whenever you’re lonely. When you have other needs, she can sense those a bit, too.” Xu was overjoyed.
In a little while, Shi and Jiang then left, and Ainu persuaded Xu to stay the night there. At cock’s crow the next morning, Shi arrived and urged them to pack up so he could see them off on their way; Jiang’s wife also came out, advising Ainu to be good to Master Xu. Then she told Xu, “From now on, you should be particularly cautious and attentive, for since our interaction is so unusual, I’m afraid that someone ill-intentioned will spread stories about this.” Xu promised they’d be vigilant and then left, riding off together with Ainu.
When they arrived at the housing he occupied as a tutor, there was one isolated room, so they settled in there. As other guests appeared, Ainu made no attempt to avoid them, for the other people couldn’t see her. It happened that whenever Xu thought of Ainu, she would appear to him. She was adept at witchcraft, and whenever Xu was uncomfortable, she would massage him, immediately making him feel better.
They returned to Ainu’s home for Qingming, and when they came to the gravesite, Ainu took her leave of Xu and climbed down into it. Xu enjoined her to express his gratitude to Jiang. “I will,” promised Ainu. Then she continued downward.
Xu returned there after several days, and just as he was about to visit the grave himself, he saw Ainu in colorful apparel sitting beneath a tree, waiting for him to come. All year round, they’d go and return, visiting like this quite often. But if he wanted to carry her away with him, the result was always the same—he couldn’t hold onto her.
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Qingming: The springtime festival (清明, “clear/clean and bright”) is also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, a day for honoring ancestors at their gravesites.
At the end of the year, Xu closed up the lodging he’d used as a tutor in order to return to his hometown, so they decided together when they’d meet later. Ainu walked with Xu, and when they came to the place where she’d been sitting before, she pointed to some stones piled there and told him, “This is my grave. My mistress wasn’t married at the time I began to serve her, and when I died not long afterwards, I was buried in this spot. When you come back, light some incense and hang it there, and I’ll be able to rejoin you.”
He left to go home, where he was filled with heavy thoughts, so he went to light incense at her tomb, and nothing was different from when they’d been together before. Then he went and bought a coffin, had it sent to Ainu’s grave mound, and was preparing to retrieve her bones and transport them home to be buried, since he loved and missed her so much.
When the grave was dug out and he stepped in, he found her looking like she was still alive. Her skin wasn’t decayed, though her clothes were rotted to dust; beneath her head he found jade jewelry and gold bracelets, all seeming like they were newly made. Then he looked at her waist, which was draped with gold and copper, as was her chest. Once he’d managed to loosen the robe that covered her corpse, he took her in his arms, carried her out into the woods, and hired a carriage to take them home; whenever they stopped along the way, he covered her up with an embroidered skirt, sleeping with her beside him, hoping that she might somehow revive.
Suddenly, as Ainu’s spirit came rushing back into her body, she exclaimed with a laugh, “There must be a grave robber here!” Xu, shocked and overjoyed, hugged her to comfort her. “I joined Mistress Jiang when she went to Dongchang,” Ainu explained, “and three days later when we returned home, the grave was already empty. You kept inviting me to join you, but I wasn’t willing to do so, because I’d received so much from Mistress Jiang and was so sorry to leave her. Now that you’ve brought me here, I have to be buried as soon as possible, which would really be an act of great kindness.”
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Dongchang: A prefecture located in Liaocheng county, Shandong province.
“A person dead a hundred years, then returned to life—now that your body’s as good as new, why should we bury you again?” asked Xu.
With a sigh, Ainu replied, “It’s fated to happen this way. The traces of our spirits drift through the world, and half of our experience is either imaginary or we forget about it. I want to be able to get up once more and walk around, so what’s the difficulty with being buried once more? I can’t be reborn again if I don’t go through with it.” Then her corpse immediately stood up, graceful and lovely, and opened her coffin, preparing to step into it.
When Xu touched her chest, he found it as cold as ice and snow. Just as she was about to return to the coffin and lie down again, Xu forcibly restrained her. “When I received Mistress Jiang’s favor,” Ainu told him, “Master Jiang came from that strange land, bringing a great quantity of gold, which I stole, yet I wasn’t really questioned about it. Later I became critically ill, and then because I had no relatives, they kept my body and buried it themselves. Mistress Jiang was anguished that I had died so young, so she took precious gems and placed them with my body in a coffin. As a result, my body didn’t decay, and as long as the gold and jewels were there, I kept breathing.
“But how long could I stay that way upon returning to the world of the living? Though you insist on my staying, I certainly can’t eat and drink; if I did, then my spirit would disperse, and I’d be left to wander aimlessly.” Xu carefully made a place for her, and then they slept together. They chatted cheerfully just like ordinary folks; but Ainu didn’t eat, didn’t breathe, and didn’t have contact with any other livings persons.
A year went by, till it happened that Xu, who had been drinking, was a little drunk, and there was still some wine in his cup, so he forced Ainu to drink it; at once, as she fell to the ground, thin blood began to sp
ill out of Ainu’s mouth, and in the span of a day, her corpse had already begun to decay. By the time she turned skeletal, it was too late to do anything, so Xu held a lavish funeral and buried her.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Lady Jiang wanted her son tutored, so it’s no different than in the mortal world that she treated the teacher quite respectfully; and wasn’t she deserving of respect, too! I’d say that it’s better to be a refined ghost than a beautiful corpse, but this poor scholar was too shallow, so he rashly put an end to the spirit’s being able to enjoy a longer existence—what a pity!”
Scholar Zhu, from Zhangqiu, who was always indomitable and hard to tolerate, was hired to serve as a tutor in a certain gongshi’s home. Every time he denounced his pupil, the mistress sent a maidservant out to beg for the boy to be forgiven. Zhu refused to listen.
One day, the mistress herself visited outside the window of his study, communicating with Zhu on the boy’s behalf. Zhu grew angry, grabbed a ruler and began beating her and yelling, driving her out. The woman at the window ran off in terror; Zhu pursued her, violently striking her on the buttocks and legs, making a horrible racket as it smacked her flesh. How ridiculous!
There was a certain Changshan resident, and whenever he wanted to hire a teacher, he paid the tuition fees for the entire year up front; then he recorded when the teacher was away from his teaching studio, and when he returned; at the end of the year, for each day the tutor was absent, he would take back that much from the tutor’s salary.
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Zhangqiu: A county in Shandong province.
Gongshi: This term serves either as a generic description of a scholar who’s passed some level of the imperial civil service examination, or someone who received a recommendation to the imperial court when young on the merits of his high scholastic or moral character.
Changshan: A county in Pu’s time, located in the southern part of Shandong province’s modern Huantai county.