by Pu Songling
The next day, the older women and their female companions together made sacrifices on their way to the widow’s home. The girl was fed up with the annoyance they were causing the widow, so regardless of their social station, rich or poor, she wouldn’t interact or speak with any of them; she simply sat in silence for the duration, listening as they paid their respects. Young men throughout the vicinity heard about the girl’s beauty, stirring their interest in her. The widow prevented any further visits.
There was a scholar surnamed Fei, who was something of a literary celebrity in town, and he liquidated his estate so he could offer a huge bribe to entice the widow into proposing him as a husband to the girl. The old woman agreed to do so, then went to ask the girl her thoughts on the matter.
It turned out that she already knew about it, and reproachfully demanded, “Are you trying to sell me?” The widow immediately prostrated herself in apology. “You’re so greedy for his bribe, and I was already moved by his infatuation,” she declared, “so I’ll agree to meet him once. But it will end our relationship.” The widow then began kowtowing.
The girl made an appointment to see scholar Fei the next day. The scholar was overjoyed when he heard this, so at the appointed time he lit some incense and entered the widow’s gate, making a low bow with his hands clasped. The girl, speaking to him from the other side of a curtain, wondered aloud, “Why is it that you’ve bankrupted yourself just so you can see me?”
“Truly,” replied the scholar, “I don’t deserve you, and it may have been somewhat in vain. The only reason is that Wang Qiang and Xizi are merely characters in stories, and I’ll never have a chance to see them; if you don’t mislike me, I shall extend my vision to you, and all my wishes shall be satisfied. My sorrows and joys have been decided by fate, so I don’t have to worry about anything else.”
Suddenly he saw inside the curtain, as a slight opening exposed a beauty’s eyebrows and cherry red lips, so there was no mistaking that they belonged to the girl, and it was as though there was no longer any curtain hiding her. The scholar was dazzled as his thoughts fastened upon the girl, and he unconsciously got down on his knees to begin doing obeisance to her.
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Wang Qiang: Also known as Wang Zhaojun, one of the Four Great Beauties of traditional Chinese culture. She lived during the first century B.C.E.
Xizi: Nickname for Xi Shi, a famous beauty of the Warring States (475-221 B.C.E.) period, another one of the Four Great Beauties.
When he was finished, he got up and the curtain reappeared, such that he could hear some sounds, but couldn’t see the girl. Frustrated and disappointed, he was secretly angry that he wasn’t able to see her body; presently he saw a pair of embroidered slippers sticking out from underneath the curtain, but they were so slim that it didn’t seem there could be any toes in them. The scholar began doing obeisance again.
From behind the curtain, a voice cried, “Just take your body home! I’m tired!”
The widow tried to stall the scholar in another room, making some tea and feeding him. To fit the tune of “Child of Nanxiang,” the scholar wrote the lines,
A faint image viewed
in front of the curtain,
Three cun of beautifully petite toes;
The delicate lotus petals fell on that spot of ground,
And now you have the power to take pity on me.
With those flowers curved into your phoenix-head slippers,
If one were to touch them they would surely feel soft as silk;
Yet if you willed them to change into butterflies and flutter away,
The scent of your lingering fragrance would remain, pervasive and sweet.
After finishing the poem, he left.
Displeased as she read it, the girl informed the widow, “I’m telling you now that our predestined affinity has come to an end, and there’s no way to avoid it.” The widow prostrated herself on the ground and humbly apologized.
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“Child of Nanxiang”: In the Tang dynasty (618-907), a standard song used to train musicians and singers, later employed as a tune to which poets might attach their own lyrics (Zhu 3:1220n21).
Three cun: A length equal to just less than 4 inches.
“You’re not guilty,” the girl replied. “I’m the guilty one, for I occasionally become degenerate, attracted to human affection and the appearance of the human body, and that’s how I find myself in the position of being insulted by these filthy words—I’ve brought this on myself, so you have nothing to be sorry about. If I don’t leave soon, I’ll become permanently involved in this world of affection and find it hard to go.” Then she grabbed all of her clothing and ran off.
In the twinkle of an eye, as the old woman chased after her to draw her back, the girl disappeared.
364. The Dutch Carpet
In the past, an agreement was made to allow Holland to engage in trade with China. But as a local leader on the mainland saw the hordes of foreigners arriving, he wouldn’t allow them to come ashore. The Dutch insistently implored, “We’ll just need to roll out a carpet in order to be able to land.”
The leader thought that they certainly couldn’t all come ashore on a single carpet, so he allowed them to bring it ashore. It only took two of the Dutchmen to place the carpet down on the shore; then it took four or five men to roll it out; as they worked at it, more men came ashore to help, till the carpet was quickly almost a mu in size, and there were already a hundred men working at it.
Because the men on shore weren’t armed, the Dutch unexpectedly pulled out their blades, proceeded to plunder the vicinity for several li, and then sailed away.
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Holland . . . trade with China: In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company brought various pressures into play to try to force trade relations with China, which remained skeptical of the Hollanders’ ultimate intent, even preferring to trade with pirates rather than the Dutch (see, e.g., Andrade 415-44).
Mu: An area equal to 1/6 acre.
Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.
365. Drawing Out the Intestines
A certain fellow in Laiyang, who was taking a daytime nap, happened to see a man take a woman by the hand and enter his room. The woman’s waist seemed bloated as the fellow looked up at it, and she seemed quite uncomfortable. The man with her tried to hurry her up, urging, “Come on, come on!”
It occurred to the fellow from Jiayang that they might be intending to have sex, so he pretended to be asleep while observing them. Once the couple had entered, it was as though they didn’t notice that someone was lying on the bed. The other man then urged her, “Hurry up!” The woman consequently responded as directed, exposing her stomach, which was as large as a drum.
The man grasped a butcher’s knife, and with all his strength plunged it into her, then began noisily sawing from her heart down to her navel. The Laiyang fellow was utterly horrified, but didn’t dare even gasp. Yet the woman simply frowned stoically as she endured it, without uttering even the slightest groan.
The man then placed the knife between his teeth and stuck his hands into her stomach, seizing upon her intestines until they were hanging out over his elbows; the more he pulled out, the more he left hanging there, until in moments they completely covered his arms. Then he took his knife and cut them off, set the mass on a table, and went back to pull out some more.
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Laiyang: A county located in Shandong province.
After the table was completely filled, he started hanging the intestines on chairs; when the chairs were full, he carried off several dozen armloads on trays, like a fisherman picking up offal to cast it away, tossing the guts onto the Laiyang fellow’s head. The fellow was overcome by a burst of steaming hot, fishy smell as his face, throat, and upper chest were covered by the pressing intestines, without any space between them.
When he couldn
’t bear it any longer, the man from Laiyang took his hands and shoved the intestines off, screaming loudly and jumping up to run away. As the intestines fell down beside the bed, the fellow’s feet felt like they’d been bound, becoming entangled and causing him to topple over. His servants hurried to see what had happened, but what they witnessed was his body completely wrapped up in viscera; after they entered the room and looked around, they couldn’t find the owner of the intestines.
All of the servants declared that they felt so horror-struck by the sight, they couldn’t make anything out clearly. As they drew near so the Laiyang fellow could describe what he’d seen, they began to realize just how strange it all had been. In the room, there were no vestiges of anyone else’s presence, yet for several days the stink of fishy-smelling blood wouldn’t go away.
366. Zhang Hongjian
Zhang Hongjian was from Yongping. By the age of eighteen, he was a well-known scholar in his prefecture. At that time, in Lulong there was a certain magistrate named Zhao, a corrupt, violent man, who oppressed the people of southern Hebei. It happened that a scholar named Fan had been beaten to death by Zhao, and the man’s fellow scholars, outraged by this injustice, were just about to take their fury to the magistrate’s office, so they implored Zhang to draft a legal paper on Fan’s behalf that he could then join them in discussing with the magistrate, and Zhang agreed to do so.
When Zhang’s wife, whose surname was Fang, and who was beautiful and virtuous, heard about their plan, she warned Zhang, “In general, by working together, the scholars can potentially share a victory together, but not a failure: if the plan is successful, everyone will contend to be the leading voice, but if it doesn’t succeed, everything will fall apart and they’ll no longer work together. In this litigious world, it’s hard to judge whether right or wrong will prevail; you’re alone, so if everything goes wrong, who among the scholars will care about you!”
Zhang was persuaded by her words, regretting the agreement he’d made, so he informed all the scholars that he was declining the discussion offer and then just drew up some legal papers. Once the matter was looked into, there was no way any of the scholars could deny their part in it. Zhao hurried to deliver a large sum of money to higher officials, so the other scholars, who’d come to meet with the magistrate to discuss Zhao’s guilty actions, were arrested and someone was sent to apprehend the man who’d drafted the legal papers.
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Yongping: A prefecture situated as part of modern Hebei province’s Lulong county.
Fengxiang: A prefecture in Pu’s time, now a county in Shaanxi province.
Zhang was scared, so he fled. By the time he arrived at the border of Fengxiang, he’d spent everything he had with him on travel expenses. The day was drawing near sunset, and Zhang was uncertain about what to do about being stuck out in the open, lacking the resources to pay for lodgings or to return home.
Suddenly he spotted a small village, so he hurried towards it. An old woman came out, closing her door behind her, and when she saw Zhang, she asked him what he wanted there. When Zhang told her the whole truth, she replied, “Food, drink, and a bed are all trifling matters; but there aren’t any men in my family, so it would be improper for me to take in a guest.”
“I dare not hope for such generosity,” Zhang said, “but if you could allow me to stay just inside your gate, that would be sufficient for me to avoid the wild animals.”
The old lady told him to come in and shut the gate, then showed him how to make a bed of straw, advising him, “I pity you that you can’t go home, so I’ll allow you to stay the night, but you must leave before daylight since I’m afraid that if the young woman in my family learned of your presence, she’d complain about it.”
When the old woman left him, Zhang leaned up against her wall and fell asleep. Suddenly, accompanied by the radiant light from a lantern, he saw the old woman leading a young woman outside, so he quickly slipped into the shadows, and when he took a peek at her, he could see she was a beauty of about twenty. As they approached the gate, she spotted his bed of straw, and asked the old lady about it.
Once the old woman had told her the truth about Zhang, the girl angrily replied, “The gate’s already weak, so what are you doing letting in a criminal!” Then she asked, “Where’d the man go?” Afraid, Zhang came out from his hiding place beneath the steps.
Then while the young woman carefully questioned him about his background, her expression lightened considerably as she remarked, “It’s fortunate that you’re a refined scholar, so there’s no harm in allowing you to stay for awhile. But my old servant had no idea who you were when she hastily offered this solution, though we’ll take care of you properly now.” Then she ordered the old woman to lead their guest inside.
In moments, she set out some wine, and Zhang noticed that everything was extremely clean; afterwards, she laid out a brocade mattress on a bed for him. Zhang was very grateful to her, and thus he made a point of asking the old lady her surname. “My family name is Shi,” she told him, “and when the head of this household and his wife both died, they left behind three daughters. As you can see, she’s the first daughter, Shunhua.” Then she left.
Zhang saw that lying on the table was a copy of the lessons of Zhuangzi, so he picked it up, then went over and laid his head on a pillow, reclining on the bed to read it. Suddenly, Shunhua pushed open the door and entered. Zhang stopped his reading to search for his cap and shoes.
The girl approached his bed, pressed him to stay seated, and said, “There’s no need, no need at all!” Then she drew near enough to the bed to sit on it and languorously informed him, “I take you to be a distinguished man of talent, and I want to marry you, thus I came to see you at the risk of provoking rumors. You wouldn’t actually reject me, would you?”
Anxious, Zhang didn’t know what he should do, thus he replied, “Since I won’t lie to you, I have to tell you that I already have a wife in my home.”
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Zhuangzi: The Daoist philosopher Zhuang Zhou (c. 369-286 B.C.E.), or Zhuangzi, is responsible for many of the most revered narrative lessons in Daoist tradition.
“I can see your sincerity reflected in this,” she smiled, “and indeed, I don’t mind. Since you’ve decided you don’t loath me, tomorrow I’ll trouble you to send for a matchmaker.” Once she finished speaking, she intended to leave. Zhang reached out, pulling her into his arms, and the girl allowed herself to be detained.
Before dawn, she arose, offered Zhang some gold, and told him, “You can use this money to afford some travel; after dark, you can come back, since I’m afraid otherwise someone might see you.” Zhang did just as she suggested, leaving before daylight and returning late at night, and for six months he did this quite regularly.
Then one day, he returned rather early, so that when he arrived at her place, the cottage wasn’t there at all, which he found very puzzling. As he was pacing back and forth, he heard the old woman say, “Why’d he arrive so early!” When he glanced in the direction of where the courtyard had been previously, he found himself already inside the house, which was even stranger.
Shunhua came out to meet him, and said with a laugh, “Do you still find me suspicious? It’s precisely as you said: I’m a fox fairy—and you’re fated to have a relationship with me. If that bothers you, please feel free to try to find someone else.”
Zhang loved her for her beauty and serenity. That night, he declared to her, “You’re already an immortal, and you can travel a thousand li in the space of a breath. I’ve been away from home for three years, and I can’t stop thinking about my wife and children, so can you take me home?”
“The one whom you love most,” she replied, appearing displeased, “must, I think, be me; but while you stay here, missing the other one, even though I’m close to you, my presence turns out to be in vain!”
Zhang expressed his gratitude to her and declared, “I must respond to your words.
As the saying goes, ‘It takes a day to become husband and wife; then for a hundred days, they’ll love each other.’ In the days ahead, when I return home and think about our time together, I’ll feel as strongly as I do today. But if I were to forget an old love for my new love, would you still accept me?”
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Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.
The girl then smiled, and said, “I’m narrow-minded and impatient: I don’t want you to forget me; but I want you to forget others. However, if you want to go home for a little while, it won’t be difficult at all: your house is quite near.” Then as the two stepped outside her gate, all Zhang could see was a darkened road, so he hung back and didn’t go any further.
The girl pulled at him to walk with her, shortly thereafter cajoling him, “Come on. Once you’re back home, I’ll just leave.” As soon as Zhang started moving his feet even a little, he could see his family’s gate. He walked past a collapsed wall and entered through the gate, where he saw that there were still lights burning in the house.
He approached and tapped on the door with two fingers. From inside, a voice asked who it was, so Zhang gave an account of how he’d come to be there. Then, holding a candle, someone opened the door—and indeed, it was Fang. The couple were overjoyed and amazed to see each other, clasped hands, and went inside.
When Zhang saw his son lying in bed, he exclaimed with deep feeling, “When I left, the boy was barely as tall as my knees, but now he’s almost grown up!” The couple thus was reunited, and it was at though it had all been a dream. Zhang proceeded to tell Fang about everything that had happened to him.
He asked her about the status of the lawsuit against him, and when he learned that all of the scholars had either died or had moved far away, he became even more convinced of his wife’s ability to predict the future. Fang leapt up into his embrace, and said, “You have a happy marriage, but you don’t think about sleeping with me any longer, or shed any tears over me!”