by Pu Songling
At midnight, a young man appeared, wearing an austere cap and gown. Figuring he might be some member of Weng’s family, Shi got up and asked him who he was. “I’m a ghost,” replied the young man. “The Weng family members are all foxes. I happened to find myself attracted to Weng’s daughter, Hongting, so I stuck around here for awhile. If ghosts become sexually involved with foxes, they do so without causing them any injury, so why’re you opposing this relationship by defending her? Her elder sister, Changting, is uniquely gorgeous. That incomparable piece of jade I left intact, reserved for someone worthy of her. If she agrees to marry you, then you can practice your protective magic; if you wait till then, I’ll leave on my own.” Shi agreed to his proposition.
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Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.
That night, the young man didn’t return, and Hongting suddenly regained consciousness. The next morning, Weng was overjoyed to discover this and invited Shi to come in and see for himself. Shi burned the talisman he’d previously made, then sat down to examine the girl. He noticed that there was another young lady seated beside an embroidered curtain, whose beauty was like that of a celestial being, and he realized that she must be Changting.
When he was finished examining Hongting, he asked for some water to sprinkle on her bedsheet. The young lady quickly handed him a bowl of water, moving with her small steps like a goddess floating across the room. While observing her, Shi thought only of Changting—not about the ghost at all.
He took his leave of Weng on the pretext of needing to go concoct some medicine for Hongting, but after several days, he still hadn’t returned. The ghost became even more depraved and with the exception of Changting alone, all the family’s daughter-in-laws, maidservants, and female relatives were violated sexually. When a servant on horseback was dispatched to summon him, Shi gave the excuse that he was unwell and hence unable to come.
The next morning, Weng went to see him personally. Shi pretended that his leg was injured and supported himself with a cane as he came out to see the old man. When Weng was through paying his respects, he inquired about what was wrong with Shi’s leg. “This is what comes from being a widower, living alone!” Shi lamented. “Some nights ago, my maidservant was climbing over my bed when she lost her balance and tripped, spilling boiling water that scalded both of my feet.”
“After being alone for so long, why haven’t you remarried?” asked Weng.
Shi told him, “I’d hate to settle for a wife from any family less worthy than the Wengs.” The old man fell silent and left the room.
Shi walked out with him, assuring him, “As soon as I’ve recovered from my injury, I’ll come to see you, so you needn’t trouble yourself to walk here to summon me.” But after several days, Weng came again, and Shi limped out to see him.
The old man sympathetically made a few inquiries about Shi’s progress in recovering, then remarked, “I’ve just had a discussion with my wife and if you drive the ghost away, making it possible for our household to sleep in peace, we’d be willing to send our other daughter, Changting, who’s seventeen, if you wish, to attend to all your needs.”
Shi, overjoyed, in gratitude bowed and pressed his forehead to the ground. Then he told Weng, “If this is your intention, how dare I continue fussing over my own body’s afflictions.” They immediately went out through his gate and rode off together.
After he was finished examining the ghost’s victims, Shi began to worry that Weng might go back on his offer, so he asked to confer with Weng’s wife, hoping she would prove to be an ally. She hurried out to see him, declaring, “Sir, have you seen any reason to doubt us?” She took a golden hairpin that belonged to Changting and gave it to him as proof that he could trust them.
Shi bowed respectfully to her, then gathered the family members together to conduct a ritual for avoiding further disaster with all of them. Changting alone refused to emerge from hiding; thus he wrote a talisman for her to wear at her waist and had someone take it to her.
That night, everything was still, the apparition apparently eradicated, and Hongting alone continued moaning until Shi flung some charmed water on her, which instantly ended her affliction. Shi wanted to say goodbye and take his leave, but old Weng cordially detained him.
As it grew late, dishes of meat and nuts were spread out, while Weng enthusiastically toasted Shi with wine. A couple hours later, the old man said goodnight to his guest and went to bed. Just as Shi, too, was preparing to go to sleep, he heard an urgent knock at his door; when he got up to see who it was, Changting entered and shut the door, her expression panicked, as she cried, “My family intends to come after you with swords to hurt you, so you must run away quickly!” After speaking these words, she turned back and retreated the way she’d come.
Pale, trembing in fear, Shi hurriedly scrambled over the wall to flee. He spotted the glow of a fire in the distance, and as he rushed towards it, he found some of his fellow villagers out for a night hunt. He was greatly relieved. He waited while they concluded their hunting, then walked along with the group as they returned home.
Shi was furious about the treatment he’d received, but there was nothing he could do about it, so he thought about going to Bian, to look for Wang Chicheng. But he was caring for his elderly, disabled father at home, so he pondered his options day and night without getting any closer to a solution.
Suddenly one day, when a pair of carriages entered his gates bearing the Weng couple and their daughter, Changting, Weng’s wife asked Shi, “That night you returned home, why didn’t you talk things over with us?” Upon seeing Changting, Shi’s anger and resentment completely disappeared, so he hid his feelings and said nothing about the warning she’d brought him that night.
Weng’s wife urged the two of them to kneel in the courtyard and complete the wedding ritual. Just as Shi was about to have a celebratory dinner set up, the old woman declined, explaining, “I haven’t the leisure time just now, so I can’t stay and sit to enjoy your tasty treats. My husband is becoming increasingly senile, and hence if anything untoward has happened, I hope for your love of Changting that you’ll overlook it, which I’d consider most fortunate indeed.” Then she climbed back up into her carriage and rode away.
Originally, the old lady had heard nothing about the plot to have son-in-law Shi killed; when the men who’d been dispatched to hunt him down were unable to find him and returned, she began to realize what had been intended, finding this so intolerable that she cursed and reproached Weng every day. Changting, too, became so upset that she wouldn’t eat. The old lady became fiercely insistent on taking Changting to Shi, despite Weng’s resistance to the idea. It wasn’t until Changting entered his home and Shi was able to ask her about it, that he came to realize all of this.
After two or three months had gone by, the Weng family decided they wanted Changting to come home for a visit. Concerned that she might not return after such a trip, Shi forbade her from leaving. From that point forward, Changting began bursting into tears at various times.
A year later, she gave birth to a son whom they named Hui’er, so she hired a wetnurse for him. However, the boy was prone to crying at night until he was allowed to sleep with his mother.
One day, the Weng family sent a carriage with the message that Changting’s mother missed her very much. Since Changting became even sadder, Shi couldn’t bear to hold her back yet again. She wanted to take Hui’er with her, but Shi wouldn’t allow this, so Changting returned home alone.
At the time she departed, she set a month as the length of time she’d be away, but after six months, there had been no news from her. Shi dispatched a servant to go find out what was delaying her, only to learn that the house the Wengs had been renting had been empty for a long time.
Two more years passed, with Shi continuing to hope for her return, before it became clear that his wishes were all in vain; but Hui’er kept crying for her every night, his sobs cutting Shi like a knife. After Shi�
�s father fell ill and passed away, his misery felt many times worse; consequently, he became weakened by exhaustion to such an extreme degree that he was unable to receive the visitors and friends who came to comfort him while he was mourning.
Then at dusk one day, as he was he lying there dispirited, suddenly he heard the sound of his wife’s weeping enter the room. He looked up, and there, wearing hempen clothes and a sash of mourning, was Changting. Shi’s grief was so great that he suddenly lost consciousness. His maidservant cried out in panic and his wife began sobbing anew, but Changting consoled him lovingly for a long time, until he finally began to revive.
Assuming that he must actually be dead, he told her that now they could be together in the underworld. “You’re not dead,” she assured him. “I couldn’t bring myself to be a filial daughter by obeying my father’s stern commands, so he kept me with him for three years, which is why I failed to return to you, my love. It happened that one of my family members was traveling this direction from the east coast, which is how I learned of your father’s death. I abided by my father’s strict orders and cut myself off from you, but I dare not follow his irrational dictates any longer and fail to do a daughter-in-law’s proper ritual observance for her father-in-law. Thus I’ve returned now—my mother aware of my action, but my father unaware of it.”
While she was speaking, Hui’er flung himself into her arms. Finishing her comments, she hugged him, tearfully remarking, “I have a father, but my son has no mother!” Hui’er began wailing along with her as they filled the room with their sobbing.
Changting then stood up and began managing the household chores, placing offerings neatly in containers before the coffin of Shi’s father, which greatly comforted Shi. But since he’d been ill for so long, he couldn’t yet get out of bed, even though he was eager to do so.
Changting then prevailed upon Shi’s cousin to receive and entertain visitors who wished to offer their condolences for the death of Shi’s father. By the time the funeral obsequies were concluded, Shi was finally able to use a cane to stand up, and thus he was able to make the arrangements for his father’s burial.
Once the burial had been accomplished, Changting wished to return home, where she would face her father’s censure. But her husband pulled at her arm, while her son cried pitifully, and thus she acceded and stayed.
Before long, a man arrived and announced that Changting’s mother was ill, so she turned to Shi and told him, “Since it was for your father that I came back, won’t you let me leave to see my mother?” Shi acquiesced. Changting had Hui’er’s nurse pick the boy up and carry him to his room, then she walked out the family’s gates, sobbing, and left.
Several years elapsed, but Changting never returned. Shi and Hui’er eventually stopped thinking about her.
One day, as he was opening his door at daybreak, Changting floated in through it. Astonished, Shi started asking her questions, so she sat down on his bed, seemingly exhausted, and with a sigh, remarked, “When I was growing up, coddled in my bedroom, traveling even one li seemed like a long distance; now, in a single day and night, though tired, I ran almost a thousand li!”
As he tried questioning her in detail, she seemed to want to say something, but then stopped. He kept reiterating his questions until she started crying and replied, “If I explain everything to you now, I’m afraid it’ll just make me miserable, though it’ll please you. A few years ago, we moved our home to the border of Shanxi province, where we rented a place to live in retired government official Zhao’s mansion. We were on excellent terms with master Zhao, so he was offered Hongting to be his daughter-in-law. But the son of the master often neglected her and wandered away from home, gambling and visiting a brothel, which disrupted the household.
“Hongting told our father about it; he detained her at home for six months, and wouldn’t let her return. Master Zhao’s son resented this indignantly, and I don’t know from where, but he contacted a wicked man to come and use some magical bonds to shackle our father, then after binding him, he took him away. The whole household was shocked and in moments everyone scattered in all directions.” When Shi heard this, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
Changting angrily exclaimed, “He may be heartless, but he’s still my father. For years, you and I have lived in harmony since we’ve been in love, which is why there’s only happiness and no worries between us. Today my father has been lost and my family overthrown, a hundred mouths left to wander aimlessly, and though you find my father’s misfortune appropriate, I would’ve expected you to commiserate with me! But when you heard about it, you were happy enough to dance for joy and didn’t offer even the slightest word to comfort me—what an injustice!” She shook her sleeves in displeasure and left the way she’d come.
Shi chased after her to apologize, but she’d already vanished. Disappointed and full of self-recrimination, he worried that this time they might be parted forever. However, after two or three days had passed, Changting returned with her mother and Shi, overjoyed, conveyed his sympathy for what they’d suffered. The two women then proceeded to prostrate themselves before him.
Surprised, he asked why they were doing this and they responded by breaking into tears. “Although I left in a fit of anger,” Changting said, “now how can I remain adamant when I intend to beg you for help, and how can I maintain my dignity!”
Shi replied, “Your father had been monstrous; yet your mother was kind, and you have loved me, so I can’t forget about that. But I heard of your father’s misfortunes and laughed at the news because that’s just the way people react, so why can’t you forgive my brief insensitivity?”
“A little while ago,” Changting responded, “I ran into my mother out on the road, where I learned who bound my father—it was your Daoist master.”
“If that’s really so,” replied Shi, “then taking care of this should be a very simple matter. While your father’s being held, you’ll have to remain separated from him; but I’m worried that when he’s allowed to return home, he’ll bring grief and suffering to Hui’er and me.” Weng’s wife swore that she would make her own position clear to him, and Changting pledged to report Shi’s intervention to her father.
Shi then immediately made preparations to head off to Bian, where he asked directions to the Temple of the Dark Emperor and was told that Wang Chicheng had just returned not long before. He entered and paid his respects to the Daoist, who accordingly asked him, “Why have you come to see me?”
Noticing an elderly fox in Wang’s kitchen, tied up with a rope that was threaded through a hole in its leg, Shi said with a smile, “I’ve come on account of this malicious old demon.” Wang asked him why, and he replied, “Because he’s my father-in-law.” Then he proceeded to tell his master the whole story. The Daoist explained to him that the fox was crafty and deceitful, so he couldn’t just set him free. But after Shi begged him insistently, he finally relented.
Shi consequently reported all of Weng’s deviousness, and when the fox heard him, it hid itself under the kitchen stove, as though in shame. Daoist Wang laughed and said, “It’s ashamed of its evil deeds, so maybe it won’t have to be destroyed.” Shi got up and led the fox outside, where he took out a knife to cut the rope, then began drawing it out of the creature’s wound.
At the limits of its pain tolerance, the fox flashed its teeth at him. Shi didn’t pull the rope out all at once, but did so in increments, pausing periodically, and smiled as he asked, “If it’s too painful, father Weng, would you prefer me not to pull it out?” The fox blinked its eyes evasively, as though extremely irritated with him. Once he set it free, it shook its tail, then quickly ran away from the temple grounds.
Shi said farewell to Daoist Wang and returned home. Three days before he arrived, someone had already gotten word to Weng’s wife of the old man’s release, so she went on ahead to meet him, while Changting remained at home to wait for Shi. When he arrived, she rushed out and prostrated herself before him.
Shi helped her up and declared, “Just never forget our love, and you’ll have no need to feel indebted to me.”
“Since we’ve moved back near your home to a neighboring cottage,” she informed him, “nothing can interfere with our exchange of news. Now when I want to go home for a visit, I’ll be able to return within three days. Will you trust me to do this?”
He answered her, “After our son was born, he was raised without a mother around, yet this didn’t harm him. Day after day I lived as a widower till I managed to become used to it. Now, rather than behaving like master Zhao, I’ve acted with kindness, so I’ve done all that I can for you. Considering that it would be most ungrateful of you not to return, that your parents’ home is so close, and that I won’t ask you for any additional information when you come home, how could I not trust you to do so?”
Changting left the next day, then returned two days later. “Why such a quick trip?” he asked her.
“Father took great offense with you at Bian for making fun of him and couldn’t put it out of his mind,” she explained, “so he kept blathering on and on about it; I didn’t want to hear any more, which is why I left early.” From then on, Changting and her mother continually visited back and forth between their homes, though it’s said that Weng and his son-in-law, Shi, made certain to stay out of each other’s way.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “The fox’s feelings kept shifting, which proves just how extremely deceitful he was. He reversed his position towards both of his sons-in-law, affecting both of his daughters, and from this we can see his conniving nature. However, by tricking Weng into taking him as his son-in-law in the first place, Shi invited Weng’s eventual repudiation of the marriage. Yet out of his love for Changting, Shi rescued her father and he might have been able to eliminate his father-in-law’s past resentment through this benevolent action; instead, he treated him rudely at a critical point, so it’s no wonder that the old fox wouldn’t forget about wanting to sink his teeth into him! The world is full of fathers-in-law and sons-in-law like this who can’t get along.”