Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 5

by Pu Songling

  Xi Fangping’s father, Xi Lian, lived to be ninety years old before he died.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Everybody claims to follow the teachings of Pure Land Buddhism, but they don’t seem to realize that life and death are separated by another world, or that their thoughts don’t all exist continuously between realms, and hence they don’t realize why they’ve arrived in the other world or why they’ve left it; didn’t this man die and then die again, live and then return to life again? Dedicated to being loyal and filial, steadfastly determined through countless ages, Master Xi was strange indeed—what a man of mighty will!”

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  Pure Land Buddhism: The Pure Land sect’s “chief tenet is salvation by faith” in the Amitābha Buddha. It was established in China by Hui Yuan during the Jin dynasty (Soothill and Hodous 357).

  399. Suqiu

  Yu Shen, whose courtesy name was Jin’an, was the son of a long-established family in Shuntian. When he went to take an examination in the capital, he arranged for lodging in a cottage just outside the city. It happened one day that he noticed, just outside his doorway, a young man who was quite strikingly handsome. Yu felt himself drawn to him, so he gradually started approaching to speak with him, noticing how matchlessly refined the young man seemed.

  Greatly pleased, he took the gentleman by the arm and invited him to his cottage lodging, where they shared a meal and conversation together. When Yu asked the young man his surname, he replied that he was a poet from Jinling named Yu Chen, whose courtesy name was Xunjiu. When Yu Shen heard that they shared the same surname, he felt even more closely in tune with his guest, so they agreed that the young man would treat Yu Shen like an elder brother; the young man also requested that Yu Shen call him by his birth name, Chen.

  The next day, while coming to visit Chen, Yu Shen noticed through the window that Chen’s study was spotlessly clean; yet there were no attendants at the front entrance or the courtyard, nor any servants at all outside.

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  Shuntian: A prefecture established around Beijing (then known as Beiping) in the fourteenth century.

  Jinling: Ancient name for Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.

  As Chen led Yu Shen inside, he called for his younger sister to come out and pay her respects—she turned out to be thirteen or fourteen years old, her skin perfectly unblemished, with a complexion like pale jade rather than white.

  In a little while, she brought out some tea for her brother’s guest, for there were no maidservants in the house. Yu Shen thought this odd, exchanged several words with her, and then she left the room.

  From this point, the friendly affection between Yu Shen and Chen became even more like that of actual brothers. Not a day went by without Chen visiting Yu Shen, yet when Shen invited him to stay overnight, Chen declined by explaining that his sister was alone at home.

  “You live a thousand li from my home,” Yu Shen noted, “you have no boy servant to answer your door, plus you and your sister are too fragile for manual labor, so how can you provide for yourselves? I think it’d be better for you to come live with me, where you’d fit in and we could all stay there together—how about it?” Chen was very pleased by the idea, and they planned to combine their households following the examination.

  When the examination was concluded, Chen sought out Yu Shen and told him, “It’s the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon will be shining as bright as day, and my sister, Suqiu, has some vegetable dishes and wine ready for us, so don’t ruin her plans.” When he finished speaking, he started to pull Yu Shen along to enter the house with him. Suqiu came out, casually chatted with Shen, then went back inside the house and shut the curtain behind her while she prepared the meal.

  In a little while, she came out again bringing dishes of food. Yu Shen stood up and declared, “Sister, with all this running around, how can I stand to see you working so hard!” Suqiu smiled, then retreated into the house.

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  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  Mid-Autumn Festival: Held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, during the autumnal equinox, when the moon is indeed full and bright.

  Soon a maidservant pulled aside the curtain and came out, carrying a jug; then an old woman joined her, bearing planks of wood with roasted fish on them. “Where’d these people come from?” asked Yu Shen in surprise. “Earlier, why didn’t they come out to help your sister when she was so busy?”

  Chen gave a little chuckle and replied, “Suqiu was just playing a trick on you.” When Yu Shen heard the sound of stifled laughter from inside the curtained area while he and Chen were eating, he didn’t understand the reason for it.

  Later, when they’d finished their feasting, the maidservant and the old woman were removing the dishes as Yu Shen happened to cough and a little spit landed on the maidservant’s clothing; as soon as it touched her, she fell to the ground, breaking bowls and splashing food around.

  By the time they could examine her, she was nothing more than a piece of silk cut by scissors in the shape of a little woman, only about four cun in size. Chen found this hilarious. Suiqiu came out, laughing, picked up the silk cutout, then went back inside. Presently, the maidservant emerged once again, hurrying to clear away things just like before. Yu Shen found it all very strange.

  Chen explained, “Ever since my sister was an infant, she’s always had a bit of talent for divination and magic.”

  Yu Shen consequently asked him, “Since you and your sister have grown up together, why haven’t either of you married yet?”

  “When our father died, things were left very uncertain for us,” Chen explained, “which is why we’ve been slow to consider marriage.” Then they settled on a date for the brother and sister to move to their new residence with Yu Shen, when Chen would bring Suqiu, and they’d all head west.

  After they’d arrived at Yu Shen’s home, he set aside rooms for Chen and Suqiu; then he sent a maidservant to take care of them. Yu Shen’s wife, the niece of assistant minister Han, seemed particularly attached to Suqiu, so they often ate together.

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  Cun: A measure equal to 1/3 decimeter.

  Yu Shen was similarly close to Chen. But Chen proved the smarter of the two and was now such a fast reader, and performed so well on examination-style, eight-part essays, that even a veteran scholar couldn’t have competed with him. Yu Shen advised him to go take the civil service examination.

  Chen replied, “For now, the only reason that I’m writing essays is because I’m interested in sharing ideas with you. When I reflect on the matter, I find that I couldn’t stand being an official; besides, a person who follows that path can’t help but worry about successes and failures, so for that reason I’d just rather not do it.”

  They lived together there for three years, and then Yu Shen failed the civil service examination again. Chen felt greatly anguished on his behalf, so he fervently exclaimed, “Why is it so difficult to place on the list of successful examination candidates! Originally, I didn’t want to face the prospect of successes and failures, preferring to remain disengaged from the examination process. It burns me up now when I see that your talents haven’t been brought to light, and as a mature young man of nineteen, I’m willing to dedicate myself to helping you reach your objective.”

  Yu Shen was cheered by this, so he sent Chen to attend the tests for younger men. Chen achieved the highest score on the county and prefectural level exams. His successes convinced him to study even harder with Shen. A year passed and they both became champions in the exams offered at the county and prefectural levels.

  Chen’s reputation caused quite a clamor, with families far and near contending in offering their daughters for him to marry, though Chen turned all of them down. Yu Shen strongly encouraged him to reconsider, but he refused, using the excuse that he needed to wait until the end of the provincia
l level civil service examination.

  Before long, the examination was concluded and Chen’s admirers were eager to copy his essay and spread it around; Chen also felt that after this, he couldn’t possibly come in second place after anyone else. Yet when the list of successful examination candidates was released, the two learned that they’d both been failed.

  At the time the news reached them, they were having a drink together and Yu Shen forced himself to laugh in reaction; but Chen turned pale and his wine cup fell from his hand as he collapsed under the table in front him. Yu Shen helped him to his bed, for the news had rendered Chen almost unconscious.

  Suddenly Chen called for Suqiu to come, then opened his eyes wide and told Yu Shen, “We two have felt as close as siblings, though in truth we don’t share the same surname. I’ve already been entered in the underworld register of the dead. I’ve gratefully cherished our friendship, and though we can no longer be together, Suqiu’s all grown up and since your wife has received her into your home with loving arms, I hope you will take her as your concubine.”

  “You must truly be out of your head with fever to tell me such things!” Yu Shen exclaimed. “To believe that, I’d have to be some kind of beast that only appeared to be human!” In response, Chen’s tears began to run down his cheeks.

  Yu Shen proceeded to take out a large sum of money and purchased a superior-quality coffin for Chen. Directing the household servants to raise him and prop his body up, Chen then urged his sister, “After I’m gone and placed in my coffin, don’t let anyone open it and look inside.” Yu Shen still wanted to speak with him, but Chen’s eyes had already closed.

  Wounded by sorrow, Yu Shen responded as though he was mourning his own brother. Yet he secretly felt that Chen’s comment to his sister had been a strange one, so he waited until Suqiu had gone out, then opened the coffin and looked inside where he discovered that Chen’s robe had been sloughed off like a carapace shed by a cicada; when he lifted it up, he discovered a bookworm that resembled a silverfish, about a chi in length, underneath it, lying there as though dead.

  As he cried out in astonishment, Suqiu ran in, sadly remarking, “Why would my brother have kept this a secret from you? He did so not to avoid telling you the truth, but for my sake; he was afraid that if word of this got around, I wouldn’t be able to stay here long.”

  “Behavior accords with affection,” replied Yu Shen, “so where affection exists, what difference is there really between kinds of creatures? Don’t you understand my heart, sister? I won’t leak any word of this, so you have nothing to worry about.” He then immediately consulted an oracle, to determine an auspicious day to hold a lavish funeral for Chen.

  Originally, Yu Shen wanted to consult with Suqiu and discuss her marriage to someone in a very affluent family, but Chen didn’t want him to do so. After Chen died, Yu Shen spoke with Suqiu about the matter and she didn’t want to leave his family. “You’re already twenty years old,” he told her, “you’ve been here for a long time, and no arrangements have been made for you to marry, so what will people say about me?”

  “If you’re concerned about that, I will listen to you, brother,” Suqiu responded. “Because I was once advised that my face didn’t reflect a good fortune ahead, I don’t wish to enter some nobleman’s family, but instead will be satisfied to live with a humble scholar.”

  “As you wish,” Yu Shen said. Not many days later, Yu Shen contacted a matchmaker about finding a husband Suqiu would consider suitable, but was unsuccessful.

  Before all this, Han Quan, the brother of Yu Shen’s wife, had arrived to mourn with them, and when he happened to glance at Suqiu, he fell in love with her and wanted to purchase her to be his concubine. Han told his sister about his intentions, but she warned him not to say anything about it, fearing how Yu Shen might react upon finding out.

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  Chi: A measure equal to 1/3 meter.

  When Han finally left, having been unable to express his wishes to his brother-in-law, he entrusted a matchmaker to convey his interest to Yu, including in the betrothal proposal a sizeable bribe that Yu could give to his examiner at the next civil service examination. When Yu Shen heard this proposal, he grew furious and reviled Han, right on the verge of slapping the matchmaker and chasing her out his gate, then he subsequently proceeded to sever all contact with Han.

  It happened that the marriage date for a certain high official’s grandson, named Jia, was approaching when his intended wife suddenly died, so Jia also sent a matchmaker to speak with Yu. Jia’s estate was huge, with many large and tall buildings, and Yu was familiar with it, yet he wanted to see Jia himself because of the agreement he’d made with Suqiu, so he invited Jia to pay a personal visit.

  In preparation for the visit, Yu had prepared a curtain for Suqiu to sit behind, then at the proper time planned to call for Suqiu speak with him. Jia arrived, accompanied by the kind of escort one would associate with a nobleman returning to his home village to show off his success; people thought him to be as handsome and elegant as a virginal young man.

  Yu Shen was quite pleased to see how everyone was praising Jia, but Suqiu was unwilling to agree to a marriage. Yu refused to listen to her and in the end went forward with the marriage arrangements, yet when Shen prepared Suqiu a make-up case filled with fine cosmetics of seemingly incalculable cost, she firmly refused to accept it and required nothing but an old maidservant to wait on her after her marriage to Jia. Yu Shen wouldn’t hear of this, so she finally had to accept Shen’s generous gift.

  After Suqiu and Jia were married, they lived together in complete harmony. However, Yu Shen and his wife often felt concerned about Suqiu and each month they invited her to come back to visit them. She would always arrive with jewels and embroidered adornments in her jewelry case, as well as a variety of other valuable items, which she then handed over to Yu’s wife for safekeeping. She had no idea why Suqiu insisted on doing this, but she went along with it anyway.

  Jia’s father died when he was young, so his widowed mother had always doted on him excessively and when some dishonest men starting approaching him one day, gradually luring him into indulging in lewdness and gambling, Jia had to sell off some of his art collection, including calligraphy, paintings, and sculpted vessels, to repay his gambling house and brothel debts. But Han Quan involved himself in the matter, inviting Jia out for drinks to find out more details, then expressed his interest in offering Jia five hundred taels in exchange for Suqiu.

  At first, Jia was unwilling even to consider it; but Han remained firmly insistent in his offer till Jia started to waver, though he was afraid that Yu Shen would be quite upset with him. “I’ll handle him, since he’s kin,” said Han, “but she isn’t actually part of his family and she’s your business now, so how can he do anything about it; if he tries anything, I’ll take care of it. You have your own home, so why be afraid of whether my brother-in-law approves or not!”

  Then two splendidly dressed women brought them some wine and Han remarked, “If you proceed with our agreement, your servants will look like this, too.” Jia was lured into agreeing, so Han set a time to finalize the agreement, and then left.

  When the appointed day arrived, Jia considered how Han was taking advantage of him, but that night he waited beside the road until a carriage arrived and one of its curtains was lifted to signal that it was the anticipated one, then leading the way, Jia conducted one of Han’s servants back to his study. The servant took out five hundred taels and handed them over as part of the agreed-upon exchange.

  Jia subsequently rushed into Suqiu’s room and lied, “Master Yu’s had a sudden attack of violent illness, and he’s called for you.” Suqiu was too preoccupied to put on make-up as she hastily ran out.

  After the carriage departed, accompanied by men on horseback, the servant driving it became confused due to the dark night, unable to tell where they were, and though they traveled for a long time, covering quite a distance, they were unabl
e to determine whether they were close to arriving. Suddenly they saw that they were approaching two enormous lights, and Suqiu felt relieved, thinking they could ask for directions there.

  Before long, the carriage and entourage arrived at the source of the lights—a giant python with eyes like blazing lanterns. Terrified, the men on horseback fled, abandoning the carriage by the roadside. They waited to return until the sun began to rise and consequently found the carriage empty.

  Thinking that the giant python had surely already devoured Suqiu, the men returned home and reported the incident to Han, who could do nothing but hang his head in mourning, disappointed.

  After several days, Yu Shen sent a servant to pay a visit to Suqiu, and upon learning that certain villains had kidnapped her, his suspicions that Jia was untrustworthy were confirmed. He picked up the maidservant who’d been caring for Suqiu and returned home with her, then made detailed inquiries into the facts of what had happened, till he began to get a glimpse of the truth.

  Furious, he brought a lawsuit against Jia before the county magistrate. This frightened Jia, who went and begged for help from Han. Han was so miffed at the loss of money and concubine that he declared he’d offer absolutely no assistance.

  Jia felt like a fool for trusting Han and realized he had to revise his plans and find a way to cancel the documents filed against him, which meant gathering everything he could manage to offer as bribes that would exempt him from punishment. Within a month, his money, jewelry, and other personal adornments had all been distributed.