by Pu Songling
He thought to himself that Lang might be coming back at any time. Hence he sat quietly for a long while, waiting without hearing sounds of anyone coming, till he began to sense a delicate fragrance filling the room and his internal organs began to glow, making it possible for him to enumerate his many veins and arteries.
Suddenly he heard a harsh rubbing sound, like a cat scratching an itchy place, and when he peered out the window, he saw a tiger crouched beneath the building’s eaves. The instant he spotted it, he was terrified; then he recalled his Daoist master’s words and collecting his thoughts, he sat placidly in complete concentration. The tiger reacted as though it realized someone was observing it, so it entered Jia’s room in search of the observer and approached his bed, breathing heavily, and sniffed at his legs.
Presently, it heard an agitated squawking from the courtyard, like a chicken had been caught and trussed up, so the tiger quickly hurried back outside. Then after Jia had been sitting there for a few moments, a beautiful woman entered, exuding a rare herbal fragrance, and moved straight for him, quietly settling onto the bed and leaning near enough to whisper to him, “I’m here.” More of the rare fragrance accompanied her words as they left her lips. Jia shut his eyes tight and didn’t move a muscle.
Then she whispered again, “Are you asleep?” The voice sounded just like that of his wife, so he shifted slightly. But then he thought to himself, “This is all just my master testing me with his magic.” Thus he shut his eyes just like before. The beauty giggled and said, “The mice are running around!”
At home, Jia and his wife shared their room with a maidservant, so whenever they wanted to make love, but were afraid the maidservant might hear, they used a private code to communicate their desire: “The mice are running around, so they must be having a good time.”
Upon hearing these very words, Jia unconsciously rolled over, opening his eyes to stare at her and saw that she truly seemed to be his wife. “How’d you get here?” he asked her.
“Scholar Lang was afraid you’d feel lonely and think about going home,” she explained, “so he sent an old woman to guide me here.” In the course of their conversation, she remarked on Jia’s having left home without saying anything to her, purging her resentment as she snuggled up to him. Jia consoled her for a good long while and then they happily made love together.
By the time they’d finished, night had already turned to day, and they heard the sound of the old man’s scolding voice gradually drawing near the courtyard. Jia’s wife quickly got up, but couldn’t find anyplace to hide, so she climbed over a short wall and hurried away.
Moments later, Lang followed as the old man entered the room. The old man proceeded to strike Lang with his cane and then, indicating Jia, ordered Lang to drive him away. Lang led Jia over to the short wall outside and told him, “My hopes for you were too extravagant, so I couldn’t resist trying to hurry you along; unexpectedly, you were unable to sever the relationship to your family, and now I’ve been beaten for my efforts. For the time being, follow your wife home, then we’ll meet together some other day.” He pointed out the road that would take Jia home, then gestured farewell with folded hands, and went back inside.
Jia looked down the mountain below at his village, which appeared the same as always. He reasoned that his wife must be walking slowly, so she’d catch up with him later. Thus he hurried on to the village, soon arriving at his home’s gate, where he saw that the walls of the house had collapsed—which was certainly not the way he’d left it—and none of the villagers, young or old, recognized him, all of which he found quite shocking.
Suddenly he thought about Liu Yiqing’s story about Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao returning from Tiantai and felt that the same thing must’ve happened to him. He didn’t dare enter his gate, so instead he sat down to rest.
After he’d been there a good long while, an old man came by with the aid of a walking-stick. Jia bowed politely with his hands clasped in respect, and asked him, “Where can I find the house of a man named Jia?”
The old man pointed to Jia’s residence and replied, “This one is it. Since you asked, would you like to hear about the strange business associated with him? I know all about it. The story goes that this gentleman had just heard about his success in the civil service examination, and inexplicably decided to run away; at that time, his son was just seven or eight years old. When he reached the age of fourteen or fifteen, his mother suddenly fell into a deep sleep from which she wouldn’t awake.
“As long as he lived, the son took care of dressing her in appropriate clothes whenever the weather turned hot or cold; after he died, Jia’s two grandsons became poverty-stricken, so they tore down the house, using the original wooden framework to build a protective covering for their grandmother. Just last month, Jia’s wife suddenly awakened, to learn that a hundred years had gone by.
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Liu Yiqing’s story about Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao: Zhu (3:1356n35) identifies Liu’s youming lu (Tales of the Immortals) as the source of this other story about individuals returning, Rip Van Winkle-like, to their vastly-changed homes after having spent what seemed to them a brief time in the presence of an immortal.
“People all around began to hear about the weird occurrences, so everyone started coming here to see the place for themselves, and it’s only in the last few days that they’ve stopped coming.”
The truth suddenly dawned on Jia, who blurted, “What you don’t know is that I’m that same Jia Fengzhi.” The old man, utterly amazed, turned around and ran home to report the news to his family.
By this time, Jia’s eldest grandson had already died; his other grandson, Jia Xiang, was over fifty years old. The fact that Jia looked so young made Xiang suspect that he was an imposter. After a little while, Jia’s wife came out, and she recognized him. Tears poured from their eyes as they called for their other family members, and they all went inside together.
Facing the reality that he no longer had his own home to live in, Jia temporarily moved into Xiang’s house. Adults and children, men and women, all of Jia’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren rushed to be near him, most of them wretchedly poor and uneducated. Wu Shi, the wife of Jia’s eldest grandson, bought some wine and cheap coarse grains; then she arranged for her youngest son, Jia Gao, and his wife to share a room with her, so she could give their room to Jia Fengzhi and his wife.
When Jia entered the house, the stink of cooking smoke, dust, and the children’s urine in the air assaulted his nose. After he’d been living there just a few days, he just couldn’t take it any more. He alternated taking his meals with the families of his two grandsons, though the food in both cases was particularly unappetizing. Once people in the village heard about Jia returning home, they began inviting him out for food and drinks, day after day; his wife, meanwhile, continually had to go without getting enough to eat.
Wu Shi, who was the daughter of a scholar, was quite refined and educated, always unfailingly obedient. Xiang, on the other hand, began gradually diminishing the provisions he gave his grandfather and even got to the point of barking orders at him. This made Jia angry, so he took his wife and left, setting up a place east of the village where he began tutoring. He often told his wife, “I’m really sorry I returned to all this, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. I have no alternative but to take up my old profession once again, and if I’m absolutely shameless, becoming rich and famous shouldn’t be difficult at all.” They lived thus for a year and throughout that time, Wu Shi kept supplying them with food, while Xiang and his children never came to see them.
That year, Jia took the local civil service examination. The county magistrate attached a great value to his essays, rewarding him with generous gifts, and from thence forward, Jia’s family became moderately wealthy.
Xiang gradually decided that it would be advantageous to become closer to Jia. Jia summoned him, then settled their accounting of expenses formerly incurred, taking out money
to pay Xiang—before proceeding to tell him off and then ordering him to leave. Jia then purchased a new residence and moved Wu Shi in to live with them.
Wu had two sons and the elder son supervised the family’s business affairs; the younger son, Gao, was quite intelligent, so they sent him to become one of Jia’s students.
When Jia returned home from the mountain, his state of mind was bright and discerning, thus he was able to succeed and become a jinshi. Then after several years, he served as an imperial censor for eastern and western Zhejiang, achieving a glorious reputation, receiving rewards of private performances and elaborate houses, a time of great accomplishment for him.
Jia conducted himself as a truly upright and honest man, not intimidated by wealthy individuals or high officials from the imperial court, some of whom jealously attempted to destroy his reputation. He repeatedly petitioned the emperor without receiving a decree of consent regarding his desire to withdraw into a simple life, so it wasn’t long until disaster struck.
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Jinshi: A successful candidate in the highest level of the imperial civil service examination.
Xiang had six sons, all of whom were rogues, and though Jia avoided contact with them, they conspired to exploit his considerable influence for their own benefit, flagrantly seizing land and residences, forcing villagers to flee. There was a certain man named Yi, who had just been married, and Xiang’s second son kidnapped Yi’s wife, intending to make her his concubine. Yi began condemning his adversary publicly, and upon hearing about his wrongs, all the other villagers collected money for Yi to use in making a legal claim against the kidnapper and his family.
Jealous court officials took advantage of the opportunity to attack Jia. Since they saw to it that he wasn’t given the chance to present his case at court, Jia was sentenced to jail for a year. Xiang and his second son both eventually died in prison.
Upon his release, Jia received a court mandate to join the army in Liaoyang. By then, Jia Gao had already been a xiucai for some time, having gained a reputation for being generous, kind, and virtuous. Jia Fengzhi’s wife gave birth to a son who was sixteen by that time, so he was sent to study with Jia Gao, while the couple took one manservant and an old woman with them, and left.
En route to the army post, Jia told his wife, “For ten years we’ve experienced wealth and rank, thinking for the longest time that it was like a dream. Now I’ve come to realize that the glories of the examination hall are all just another part of the hell of existence, and I regret comparing myself to Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao, for my disaster is the result of succumbing to power’s seduction.”
After several days, they arrived at the sea coast, where in the distance they spotted a gigantic boat approaching, accompanied by resplendent drumming and music, while those in command of the boat all looked like immortals. Once the boat had drawn near them, a man stepped off it, smiling and inviting the former censor to come aboard for a brief rest. Jia, pleasantly surprised, leapt up onto the boat, though the servants accompanying him didn’t dare do likewise.
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Liaoyang: A county in Pu’s time, part of Liaoning province.
His wife ran towards the vessel, wanting to follow her husband aboard, but in no time it was already far away, so in frustration she flung herself into the sea. She’d drifted no more than a few body lengths when she saw someone lower a silk rope into the water from a small boat so she could grab it and be rescued. A servant then gave orders to the boat’s punter to head back to the big boat, hollering as they pursued it, while the sound of the drums on board became thunderously loud till the sound was replaced by the roaring of the waves, and in the blink of an eye, they all disappeared.
Jia’s servants recognized the man shouting in the rescue boat as scholar Lang.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “For decades, Chen Dashi continued toiling in the examination halls, and after finally achieving recognition for his essay skills, he recited three or four of his past essays, then sighed, ‘Who’ll ever be able to recognize their value!’ Then he discarded or revised those past examination essays, as though they were inferior even to those written in his spare time for practice.
“Scholar Jia was ashamed of his writing and fled, which suggested that he had the potential to become someone who ascended to the realm of the immortals through his own efforts. When he returned to the mortal world, he followed convention, degrading himself to provide living expenses—and here it should be said that poverty remains the great scourge of scholars!”
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Chen Dashi: Zhu identifies Chen Dashi, also known as Chen Jitai, as an individual who finally achieved the title of jinshi at the age of sixty (3:1357n63).
401. Yanzhi
A man from Dongchang named Bian, a humble animal doctor, had a daughter called Yanzhi, who was talented, kind, and quite lovely. Her father treasured her, so he wished to help her escape their family’s poverty through an advantageous marriage, but influential families had no respect for a poor and lowly family like Bian’s, so they disdained any suggestions of a marriage contract and thus by the time she was fifteen, she hadn’t been betrothed.
Just across from the Bian home lived the family of a man named Gong and his wife, Wang, a frivolous and disrespectful woman who enjoyed teasing people, and who often came over to chat with Yanzhi.
One day, Yanzhi was accompanying Wang as she left, when they spotted a young man passing by, dressed all in white, and possessed of an extremely elegant demeanor. Yanzhi was quite taken with him, so she smiled pleasantly at him to attract his attention. The young man, however, simply lowered his head and hurried on his way.
Even after he’d gone quite a ways, Yanzhi continued to stare at him from a distance. Wang realized what this meant, so she teasingly remarked, “With your talent and beauty, you’d make a great match for such a man, so he couldn’t possibly say no to you.” Yanzhi’s cheeks blushed, and she was so amorously tongue-tied that she couldn’t say a word. “Do you know this fellow?” asked Wang.
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Yanzhi: The title character’s name means “rouge,” the title under which the story is best known in English, largely due to the translation of Stanley Kwan’s 1987 extremely loose film adaptation of the story under that same name.
“No,” Yanzhi replied, “I don’t know him.”
“He’s a xiucai from the lane south of here,” Wang explained, “named E Qiusun, the son of a successful scholar. We used to be their neighbors, so I know him well. In all the world there’s not a more kind gentleman, and now he’s dressed in white because he’s mourning his wife who recently died. But if you’re interested, I could send him word to have a matchmaker negotiate a marriage contract.” Yanzhi didn’t respond, so Wang departed, smiling.
After several days there was still no word from E Qiusun, so Yanzhi first began to suspect that Wang hadn’t had a chance to go speak with his family, then she suspected that E’s relatives were unwilling for him to marry someone whose social status was lower than his. She paced, disheartened, her thoughts preoccupied with him, till she gradually began to refuse to eat, and finally had to be confined to bed, unable to breathe easy, exhausted by her worries.
When Wang Shi happened to come by to see her, and learned of this, she inquired into the causes of Yanzhi’s malady. “I don’t know,” the girl replied. “But since you were here the other day, I’ve felt restless and unwell, thinking of that young man day and night.”
Wang whispered, “My husband has been away on business and hasn’t returned home yet, so I still haven’t sent anyone to sound out Master E. Is this what has caused your discomfort?” Yanzhi’s face brightened considerably. “Given that you’re already in such a dire state with your illness,” Wang teased, mischievously, “what point is there in any further scruples? If you invite him to spend the night with you, how could he possibly refuse?”
With a sigh, Yanzhi said, “Since it’s come to this, I guess I can’t afford to be so shy any more. As long as he doesn’t look down on me for being poor, you can have him send a matchmaker and I’m sure I’ll get better; but as for a secret rendezvous, I absolutely refuse to consider it!” Wang nodded, then left.
When she was much younger, Wang became involved intimately with her neighbor, a scholar named Su Jie, and even after she was married, Su would watch to see when her husband was out, then would always come to her and resume their old relationship. The same night that she’d spoken to Yanzhi, Su came to her, so Wang told him about Yanzhi’s predicament for laughs, then playfully started coaxing him into contacting E Qiusun on Yanzhi’s behalf. Su had heard about the beautiful Yanzhi for a long time, so when Wang made her suggestion, he was secretly overjoyed to receive a lucky opportunity to exploit the joke.
Just as he was about to head to Yanzhi’s house, he began to fear that Wang might become jealous so he acted like he wasn’t really taking her words seriously, but then inquired where Yanzhi lived and where exactly her room was located. The next night, he climbed over the Bian family’s wall and entered their courtyard, finding his way to Yanzhi’s room, then rapped on her window.
“Who’s there?” she asked.
“It’s scholar E,” said Su.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” Yanzhi told him, “but I want to love you for a lifetime, not just for one night. If you truly love me, then you should send a matchmaker as quickly as you can; but if all you want is intercourse, I cannot go along with your wishes.”
Su accordingly promised he would do so, but pled pathetically for her to let him hold her hand as a token of her affection. She couldn’t bear to refuse him so she quickly got up and opened her door. Su hastily entered and threw his arms around Yanzhi, clearly intending for her to submit to him sexually.