Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 5

by Pu Songling

  When Guo uncovered the vessel and took a little sniff of its contents, the wine’s fragrance so suffused his senses that he took a drink. Suddenly he felt so extremely intoxicated that he went numb and passed out.

  Once he regained consciousness, he found someone lying on the pillow next to him. He reached over and touched the person, whose skin felt oily, as though it had been drenched in perfumed lotions, revealing that he was next to a woman. He asked who she was, but she didn’t answer him. Then they made love.

  When they were finished, Guo took his hand and touched the wall, which was entirely stone, while the air felt damp and cold, as oppressive as in a tomb. Terrified, Guo began to fear that he’d been enchanted by a spirit, so he asked her, “What goddess are you?”

  “I’m not a goddess,” she replied, “but an immortal. This is my mountain retreat. You were destined to come here, so you shouldn’t be surprised that we’ve met, but rather treat this as your home. If you go back out through the gate, you’ll come upon a place where there’s some light shining out, and if you need to, you can urinate there.” Shortly afterwards, the woman got up and left, closing the door behind her.

  A long while passed and Guo’s stomach began to feel hungry, thus a maidservant brought him some cakes and duck soup, telling him to use his sense of touch to distinguish the food items from each other. It was so dark in the room that he couldn’t tell whether it was day or night outside.

  Soon the woman arrived to sleep with him, so he assumed that it must be nighttime. “There’s no sunlight during the daytime, and no lamps are lit at night,” Guo commented, “and when I eat the roasted meats, I can’t even tell where my mouth is; in such cases, there’s no telling the difference between Chang’e and a demon, or heaven and hell!”

  The woman laughed and replied, “Since you’re a mere mortal, you glibly let these words slip, and that’s why I don’t want you to see me in my real appearance. Besides, in the dark, your caresses can’t tell you the difference between beauty and ugliness, so there’s no point in lighting a candle!”

  After Guo had been living there several days, he began feeling increasingly isolated and bored, and repeatedly asked if he might return home temporarily. “One of these nights, we’re going on a trip to the heavenly palace,” the woman informed him, “then you can leave for home.”

  The next day, a little servant girl suddenly entered, carrying a lantern, and told him, “My lady has been waiting a long time for you, sir.” Guo then followed after her. The stars were bright and he saw that there were many towers around them. They passed through several winding corridors decorated by paintings until they arrived at the entrance of a hall, where a beaded door curtain hung down, illuminated as brightly as day by a giant candle burning there.

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  Chang’e: The goddess who lives in a palace on the moon.

  As they walked inside, they found a beauty seated facing the south, stunningly made-up and appearing to be about twenty; her brocade gown dazzled the eyes, and strings of bright pearls hung down from the sides of her head; short candles were set up on the floor all around her, so the bottom of her skirt seemed to shine with light: she looked indeed like a celestial being. Guo was so bewildered that he couldn’t take it all in, and hence he just unconsciously knelt before her. The woman told a maidservant to help him up and bring him over to sit next to her.

  In moments, eight varieties of the most delicious foods were spread out before them. The woman served Guo a cup of wine, and encouraged him, “Drink this, and then I’ll see you off on your return home.”

  “If I’d just met you,” Guo said with a bow, “I wouldn’t know that you were an immortal. I’m genuinely upset and regretful about my previous responses; but if I can redeem myself with you, I hope you’ll accept that in my life there’ll never be anyone else for me, and you’ll be my one-and-only.” The woman turned to her maidservant with a little smile, then told her to set up a dinner for them in her bedroom.

  There were tasseled, embroidered curtains in the room, with a large quilt and a scented, soft mattress. The woman motioned for Guo to come near and sit next to her on the bed. With each drink of wine, the woman repeated to him, “You’ve been away from home for a long time, so if you return for a brief visit, that’ll be no problem.” She kept proposing the plan, but Guo didn’t say anything to suggest he’d been convinced.

  The woman then called for a maidservant to bring a light so they could see him off. Guo didn’t say anything, but pretended to be drunk and fall asleep on the bed, and when the woman shoved him, he didn’t move. She then directed all of her maidservants to stand him up and help him undress. As one of them glanced at his private parts, she remarked, “The man looks absolutely refined, but this thing doesn’t look very calm!” They lifted him up onto the bed with a big laugh and then left.

  The woman then moved closer to him on the bed. “Are you really drunk?” she asked him.

  “Why shouldn’t I be drunk!” he cried. “I’ve only seen an immortal, so I guess my state of mind’s a bit mixed up.”

  “This is the heavenly palace,” she informed him. “You should leave early, before dawn. If you don’t care to find yourself in a hole, disgruntled and bored, it’d be better for you to leave early.”

  Guo replied, “Now that someone like me gets to enjoy a beautiful flower like you, I can smell my flower’s fragrance and touch her stem, but it’s annoying that there’s no candle here so I can see her, so how can I bear it?” The woman laughed and agreed to permit him some light.

  Beams of brightness began to pierce the darkness when she called for a maidservant to bring some candles, so they gathered up Guo’s clothing and sent him off to his room. As he entered the darkness, Guo could see that the room had been covered with extremely fine red and white paint, and in the bedroom there was a fur-covered mattress topped with a soft, palm-filled cushion that was almost a chi thick.

  While Guo untied his sandals and prepared to go to bed, the maidservant began pacing, and wouldn’t leave. Guo stared at her, finding her appearance quite lovely, so he playfully asked her, “Are you the one who said I didn’t look very calm?”

  The maidservant giggled, fluffing up the pillows with her feet, then replied, “You’re supposed to be going to sleep! Don’t start up with a lot of talking again.” He noticed that her slippers were decorated with pearls the size of huge beans.

  He called her over and pulled her to his chest, but while they were subsequently making love, the maidservant groaned as though in pain. “How old are you?” Guo asked her.

  “Seventeen.”

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  Chi: A measure equal to 1/3 meter.

  “Were you a virgin, and unaware of what it would feel like?” he wondered.

  “I’m no virgin,” she replied, “but it’s been three years since I last made love.” Guo then began prying, trying to find out the immortal’s name, as well as her hometown and her birth order among her siblings. “Don’t ask!” exclained the maidservant. “Even though this isn’t heaven, it’s still a place for the celestials. If you were to learn the truth about her, I’m afraid you might have to die to keep it secret.” Guo didn’t dare ask anything more.

  The next evening, when the woman arrived, carrying a candle, it was merely for the purpose of eating and sleeping together, and henceforth they did this quite often. One night, the woman entered and declared, “I had hoped that we could be in love forever; but as it turns out, in the mortal world, one’s original desire is often thwarted, and now that we’re just about to clean out the heavenly palace, we won’t be able to stay together any more. Please take the wine vessel you were given and leave.”

  Guo’s tears fell, and he begged her to give him some of her body oils to remind him of her lovely fragrance. The woman wouldn’t allow it, but as a present she gave him a jin of gold, and a hundred pearls.

  Guo drained three small cups of wine, and suddenly passed out, drunk.
After he regained consciousness, his limbs felt like they were tied, trussed up in something thick, so he couldn’t stretch out his legs, nor could he poke his head out. Sparing no effort, he was able to shift his position, but he felt dizzy and fell down next to a bed. Once he was able to poke his head out, he could tell that he was wrapped up in some kind of brocade cloth bag, tied up with a slender cord.

  He raised himself into a sitting position, dazed, then noticed a bed and the window sill beside it, and realized that he was back in his own studio. It had already been three months since he’d left home, and his family members told him that they thought he had died. Guo originally didn’t dare to be frank with them, afraid of being punished by the female immortal, though they were suspicious of all the strange occurrences. Then when he secretly told a close friend about her, the friend didn’t know what to make of it.

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  Jin: A weight equal to ½ kilogram, or approximately 1.1 lbs.

  A quilt had been placed at his bedside, its fragrance filling the room; as they unfolded it and took a look inside it, they found a treasure trove of fine silk, perfume and powders. After certain high officials heard about this and questioned Guo, he replied with a laugh, “It’s the same story as with the Jia Empress. An immortal wouldn’t play around like this, would she? But you have to keep such a thing secret, for fear of one’s entire clan being destroyed if the truth came out!”

  A particular mage, who was often coming and going from the expensive residences of those high officials, listened to Guo describe the shape of the towers he’d seen before, and judged from the description that the towers closely resembled those of the house of Yan Donglou. When Guo heard this, he was quite shocked, so he picked up his family and fled. Before long, once Yan was executed for his crimes, they returned home.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “A woman’s room is located in the midst of numerous high towers, and filled with bedding and embroidery; a young maidservant rushes about her work, wearing pearls sewn onto her slippers: if it wasn’t for the excessive indulgences of powerful court officials, or the pride and extravagance of wealthy individuals, how could this be the case? The scheming court official indulges himself in sensual pleasures, but after paying for his female plaything, he ignores her, even though her mouth is still sensual and her body still responsive. An empty bed is a wound to her thoughts, and the candle burning next to it just illuminates her sense of loss. She frowns from her jade make-up table, staring helplessly into the room full of treasures.

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  Jia Empress: An empress during the Jin dynasty (265-420 C.E.), Jia Nanfeng dominated her husband, the eventual Emperor Hui, and jealousy killed several of his concubines when they became pregnant.

  Yan Donglou: Also known as Yan Shifang, son of corrupt Ming prime minister Yan Song (1480-1567), who made a fortune by selling government positions. Yan Song eventually was disgraced and died in poverty, while his son, who also grew wealthy by illegal means (and hence the allusion to sumptuous residence), was executed for his alliance with Japanese pirates. The suggestion is that the woman Guo met before was an apparently lonely concubine of Yan Donglou.

  “This vibrant woman is so lonely that she leads Guo in while the official is indulging in his wine and other beauties; and once Guo’s entered that soft and pleasant place, he begins to suspect she’s one of the celestials. The Yan family couldn’t be considered more graceless for allowing such a thing to happen, but this should also serve as a warning to such women not to wait complacently in their empty rooms while they age!”

  383. Qiao’s Daughter

  Scholar Qiao, from Pingyuan, had a rather ugly daughter: her nose was misshapen, and one of her legs was lame. She was twenty-five or twenty-six, and still she’d had no prospective husbands inquire about her. There was a scholar named Mu in their town who was forty years old and whose wife had died, and since he was too poor to find someone any better, he married Qiao’s daughter. Three years later, she gave birth to a son.

  Not long afterwards, scholar Mu died, and his family declined even further into poverty; they were so destitute that the daughter had to beg her mother for help. The mother, however, refused to assist her. The daughter angrily determined never to see her again and instead took up spinning and weaving, becoming self-sufficient.

  There was a scholar named Meng whose wife had died, leaving him with a son named Wutou, an infant only a year old who still needed to be nursed, so he urgently wished to find another wife; but while several matchmakers had brought offers, none of them satisfied him. Suddenly he caught sight of Qiao’s daughter, and fell in love with her, so he privately sent a go-between to convey his desire to marry her.

  The daughter declined the offer, explaining, “Given my difficult circumstances, marrying such a man would guarantee me warm clothing and ample food, so how could I possibly say no to him? Because I’m lame and ugly and vastly inferior to such a man, the only thing in my favor is my fidelity; so if I take a second husband, there’d be nothing then for this gentleman to respect about me!” Meng thought her all the more worthy for this and admired her greatly, so he sent a matchmaker bearing money and gifts to win over her mother.

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  Pingyuan: Located in Shandong province.

  Qiao’s wife was very pleased, so she visited her daughter to persuade her to accept the proposed marriage, but the daughter firmly maintained her position; in the end, no one could shake her loyalty to her deceased husband. Her mother felt shamed, so she tried to offer scholar Meng her younger daughter; Meng’s family members were all happy about this, but Meng himself would accept no one else as his wife. It wasn’t long after this that Meng contracted an illness and died, so Qiao’s daughter traveled to his home to offer her condolences and to lament his passing.

  Since Meng had very few relatives, following his death there were some scoundrels in his village who decided to take all that he had, so they carried away everything until the house was empty, then proceeded to divide up his possessions. His servants also grabbed whatever they could steal and left, till there was only one old woman among them remaining, weeping as she held little Wutou in her arms.

  Qiao’s daughter asked her what had happened and became mightily indignant as she listened. She’d heard that scholar Lin was a good friend to Meng, so she went immediately to his gates and told him, “To be man and wife, and to be friends, are vital human relationships. Because other people consider me ugly they despise me, and only scholar Meng appreciated me; even though I rejected his proposal, in my heart I’d already married him. Now that he’s dead, and his son is still an infant, naturally I want to assist as an intimate friend would.

  “But while it’s easy for me to comfort an orphan, I just can’t deal with thieves; if a person has no brothers or parents, yet we just sit by and watch while his son is killed and his household destroyed, doing nothing to rescue Wutou, then the lesson of the five Confucian relationships must not include friendship. I don’t have a lot to ask of you, only that you take a petition to the county magistrate; help to rescue this orphan, and there’s nothing I won’t do to care for him.”

  “I promise to do so,” replied Lin. Qiao’s daughter took her leave and returned home.

  As Lin was preparing the petition, the scoundrels found out and became infuriated, threatening to take their swords and confront him. Lin was so frightened to hear of this that he shut his doors and didn’t dare go out. A few days later, Qiao’s daughter hadn’t heard any sign of Lin taking action; when she went and asked him about it, she learned that Meng’s possessions had already been entirely removed.

  She became enraged and quickly went to take the petition to the magistrate herself. When the county magistrate asked what her relationship to scholar Meng had been, she replied, “Your Honor, to act on behalf of the county, a magistrate has to rely upon his reason. If this petition was unjustified, even if it was coming from a
relative, you wouldn’t allow the petitioner to escape punishment; but if it was justified, you’d want to pursue it even if it came from a complete stranger.” The magistrate found her bluntly honest response irritating, so he reproached her and expelled her from his office.

  Qiao’s daughter, angry at this injustice, didn’t give up on the matter, but instead complained tearfully at the gates of a variety of government officials and gentry. A certain gentleman heard her and decided her cause was a righteous one, so in her place, he presented the matter before the magistrate. Once the magistrate checked into it, he realized that wrongs had indeed been committed, so he had the scoundrels thoroughly interrogated, and in the end they had to return everything they’d taken.

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  Five Confucian relationships: Crucial to the Confucian concept of balance and harmony in society, these are relationships based on mutality: rulers’ benevolence towards their loyal subjects; upright husbands and obedient wives; sympathetic parents and filial children; courtesy in elder siblings, respect and humility in younger siblings; and between friends, caring behavior from elder friends, deferential behavior from younger friends.

  It was suggested that Qiao’s daughter could stay and live in Meng’s home with the scholar’s son, to care for the child; but she was unwilling to agree to this. Instead, she locked up his house and brought the old woman and Wutou home to live with her, where she had rooms set up for them. Whenever there was anything that Wutou needed, Qiao’s daughter always sent the old woman to unlock Meng’s house and take whatever was necessary, then bring it back; personally, however, she wouldn’t take even the smallest thing for herself and cared for her own son, having them live on the same poor provisions she’d always obtained for them before.

  Over the years, Wutou gradually grew up, so Qiao’s daughter engaged a tutor to teach him to read; yet she made her own son occupy himself with manual labor. When the old woman tried to persuade her to send him to learn to read, too, the daughter replied, “Wutou has the necessary fees, so that’s why he’s receiving lessons; if I used his money to have my own son tutored, how do you think that would look?”