by Pu Songling
This upset Xi Sanlang so much that he found himself unable to sleep or to eat. The rest of his family, however, considered this a fortunate turn of events, so they tried to ease his sorrow with the assurance that they’d find him another wife; yet Sanlang took no solace from this. They waited a year, but still there was no news of A-Qian. Sanlang’s family kept reminding him of his responsibility to remarry, but he wouldn’t do anything about it, so they spent a large sum of money to buy him a concubine; yet they couldn’t get A-Qian off his mind.
Several years went by, during which time the Xi family gradually lapsed into poverty and at that point they began to think again about A-Qian.
A cousin of the Xi brothers, Xi Lan, who’d been traveling on his way to Jiaozhou, took a slight detour in order to stay overnight in the home of his friend, Lu Sheng. That night, he heard very mournful sobbing coming from a neighbor’s house, but because of his schedule, he didn’t have the leisure just then to ask anyone about it.
Returning to visit Lu’s home on his way back from Jiaozhou, Lan asked his host about what he’d heard. “Several years ago,” Lu explained, “a widow woman and her daughter started renting that place. Then last month, the old lady died, leaving the daughter all alone there, apparently because she has no other relatives, which is really a great pity.”
“What’s her name?” asked Xi Lan.
“It’s Gu,” said Lu. “She’s kept her doors closed ever since, and doesn’t associate with anyone in the village, so no one knows anything about their family background.”
Lan was shocked and exclaimed, “She’s my sister-in-law!” Accordingly, he went to pay her a visit.
A young woman, wiping away her tears, opened the door just a crack and asked, “What business does a visitor have here? There are no men in my family to receive you.”
Lan looked carefully at her and even from a distance he would’ve known that it was A-Qian, so he replied, “Sister-in-law, please open up, I’m from your husband’s family.”
When she heard this, she pulled open the door and allowed him to enter, then told him that she was all alone, isolated in her heartbreaking sorrow. Lan said, “My cousin, Sanlang, misses you so very much, and even if the two of you had some kind of disagreement, why’d you run so far away from him like this?” He offered to hire a carriage to take her home.
_______________________________
Jiaozhou: City in Shandong province, located northwest of Qingdao.
With sadness in her voice, A-Qian responded, “I left because people seemed to despise me for some reason, so I went into hiding with my mother; now if I return, aren’t they going to look down on me even more? If I were to go back, I’d have to live with the whole family; I’d rather take poison and die!” Upon returning home, Lan reported all this to Sanlang. That same night, Sanlang galloped away to see her. The couple were reunited amidst shared tears.
The next day, Sanlang introduced himself to the owner of the house where A-Qian was living. The owner, Xie Jiansheng, upon seeing the young woman’s beauty, had privately hoped to make her his concubine, so for several years he hadn’t collected what she owed him, frequently mentioning his intentions to old lady Gu, who always managed to stall him.
When A-Qian’s mother died, he’d figured on being able to pursue his plan, but then Sanlang suddenly arrived. Thus Xie proceeded to pressure him by bringing out his accounting of what he was owed for the years of rent. Sanlang’s family wasn’t very well off, so when he heard how much money Xie was owed, he became very worried.
“It’s not a problem,” A-Qian told him. She directed him to look into her storehouse, where he found some thirty dan of grain, which was more than enough to repay the landlord. Sanlang was overjoyed, and proceeded to inform Xie.
The landlord refused the grain, explaining that he would only accept money. With a sigh, A-Qian declared, “What the beast means is that he wants me!” Then she explained to Sanlang that Xie had been pursuing her for years.
Outraged, Sanlang prepared to file a suit with the county magistrate. His friend, Lu, stopped him, assuring him that he could sell the grain for him to various parties in the village and then turn the money over to Xie, so he proceeded to see the couple off as they took the carriage and returned home.
Sanlang explained everything to his parents and so they had Xi Shan create separate living spaces in the family residence for Sanlang and A-Qian. A-Qian took out some of her own money in order to have some granaries built, even though the family didn’t have a bit of grain to put in them, so they thought this pretty odd. But when they happened to look into the granaries about a year later, they found them absolutely full.
In just a few years, the family became quite wealthy; but Xi Shan continued to suffer the hardship of being poor. A-Qian moved her aged in-laws into her living area, so she could care for them; in addition, she thoughtfully saw to it that money and grain were provided for Shan, whenever necessary.
Sanlang happily remarked, “It’s nice that you don’t hold a grudge against him.”
“He only did what he did out of love for you,” she replied. “Besides, if I hadn’t met him, how could I have gotten to know his brother, Sanlang?”
After that, nothing very strange ever happened to them again.
403. Ruiyun
There was a famous courtesan in Hangzhou, named Ruiyun, whose renown for beauty and her range of skills was unequalled. When she was fourteen, her madame, a woman named Cai, prepared to send her out to entertain her first guests. Ruiyun told her, “Now that I’m ready to begin my career, I mustn’t just rush in. You decide on my price, and I’ll select my customer.”
“Very well,” said Cai. Then as soon as the madame determined that Ruiyun’s price would be fifteen taels, Ruiyun began seeing guests each day.
Those who specifically asked to see her had to bring a gift for her on the first visit: the ones who gave generous gifts were allowed to play chess with her, and then after they enjoyed some wine together, she’d make a painting for them; the ones who were stingy with their gifts were only allowed to stay for tea. Once Ruiyun’s reputation had grown for a long enough time, rich merchants and noblemen began appearing at her gate every day.
There was a scholar named He living in Yuhang, who’d long been well-known for his outstanding talent, yet his family had barely enough money to get by. He, too, was fascinated with Ruiyun, but he didn’t dare even dream of being intimate with her, so he used what little money he had to buy her a modest gift in hopes of gaining even a fleeting glimpse of her fragrant beauty.
_______________________________
Hangzhou: Capital of Zhejiang province.
Yuhang: Originally a county name, later made a district of Hangzhou.
He was privately afraid that since she’d examined so many men, she wouldn’t think much of a poor fellow like him; but when they actually met and spoke face-to-face, she treated him no differently than she would’ve treated a wealthy patron. They sat and conversed for a good long while, expressing their emotions with significant glances, then she composed a poem especially for the scholar:
What interest guides this supplicant
To knock at dawn for the azure bridge to be opened to him?
If he’s determined to seek the jade pestle,
All he needs to do is start right where he’s standing.
He was absolutely wild with joy. Just as he was intending to reveal how he felt about her, however, a little servant girl suddenly came in and announced, “Another guest has arrived,” so He was forced to make a hasty farewell.
After he returned home, he began reciting the poem Ruiyun had made for him, so infatuated with her that he could think of nothing else. A day or two went by till he couldn’t bear it any longer, so he prepared her a small gift and went to see her again.
Ruiyun was clearly very happy to see him. She moved to sit close to He and softly asked him, “Can you arrange for us to spend the night together?”
“I’m just a poo
r scholar,” said He, “and it’s only because my passion for you is so strong that I could manage even a small gift, in order to be close to you. That single piece of silk has already exhausted my shallow resources. I did it to draw close to your beautiful face, hoping that would satisfy me; I haven’t even dared to dream of being intimate with you.”
Ruiyun was saddened and distressed to hear this, so they just sat together without saying another word. He stayed like that for a long time without leaving, while Cai kept calling for Ruiyun to hurry up and send him away, till he finally went home.
Scholar He felt so depressed that he thought about selling everything in the house in order to secure a night of ecstasy with her—but then after that, how would he ever endure the realization that he couldn’t afford to see her again? With this in mind, all thoughts of a passionate encounter with Ruiyun were crushed and hence he pursued no further communication with her.
Ruiyun became very picky about her guests for several months, refusing to allow any of them to spend the night with her, which made madame Cai angry enough to bear a grudge against her and decide to take action that would limit her options. One day, a xiucai tossed Ruiyun a gift, sat and spoke with her for a little while, but when he got up to leave, he pressed his finger to her forehead, crying, “What a pity! What a pity!” Then he left.
As Ruiyun returned from seeing him out, people noticed a finger mark on her forehead that was as black as ink, and as she tried washing it off, it only grew bigger. Day passed, but the black stain continued expanding; after a year, it had spread to both of her cheeks. People who witnessed it always laughed at her, and patrons stopped coming to see her.
Cai took away her make-up and jewelry, then started using her as just another maidservant. Ruiyun was rather frail, not having been prepared for such work, so she grew thinner and more haggard each day. When word of this reached He and he went to see her, he found her with her hair disheveled, working in the kitchen, looking as hideous as a ghost. She raised her head to look at him, then turned her face to the wall, to hide it from him.
He took pity on her, telling the madame that he wanted to buy Ruiyun, to make her his wife. Cai agreed to his offer. He sold what land and possessions he owned, then paid the money from it for Ruiyun, and took her home.
As they entered his gate, she wiped away her tears with her robe, explaining that she couldn’t possibly live with him there as his wife, that she wished only to serve him as his concubine while waiting for him to marry another woman. “In life,” replied He, “the most important thing is to find someone who truly understands you: when you were at the peak of your desirability, you still valued me for who I am, so how could I possibly forget about you, now that your beauty has decayed!”
_______________________________
Xiucai: A successful candidate in the county level of the imperial civil service examination.
He married no one else after that. Everyone ridiculed him upon hearing about what he’d done, but He’s feelings for Ruiyun only grew stronger.
They’d been living together for a year when it happened that He had traveled to Suzhou, where he met a scholar named Huo who was staying at the same inn and who asked him on the spur of the moment, “There was a famous courtesan in Hangzhou named Ruiyun—whatever became of her?” He told him that she’d gotten married.
“Who’d she marry?” asked Huo.
“The man happened to be a lot like me,” replied He.
“If he’s like you,” observed Huo, “we can say that she got a good man. Do you happen to know how much he had to pay for her?”
“He was able to buy her cheaply,” explained He, “because she had a strange affliction. Otherwise, how could a man like me possibly afford to buy such a beauty?”
Huo then asked, “Couldn’t that man have actually been you?” This question seemed strange to He for some reason, so he pressed Huo to explain himself. With a laugh, he responded, “I’m not going to lie to you: When I made my own pilgrimage to witness her extraordinary virtues, I esteemed her as the most extraordinary beauty of her generation, and I felt it wrong for her to go through life without a proper mate, so I used a little magic to obscure her splendor, to make her an unpolished piece of jade, while she waited for a man who appreciated her many talents to take pity on her for her true self.”
_______________________________
Suzhou: City in Jiangsu province.
A scholar named Huo: Actually, the scholar’s name is He (和), which transliterates the same as the name of Ruiyun’s husband (贺); to avoid confusion, I’ve transliterated the character with another one of the pronunciations associated with it, even though it’s not technically a surname.
He quickly asked him, “If you could do that, could you also undo it?”
“Naturally, I could,” replied Huo with a smile, “but only if the man who valued her for herself came and asked me earnestly to do so.”
Standing up and bowing respectfully to Huo, He informed him, “I’m Ruiyun’s husband, I’m that man.”
Overjoyed, Huo told him, “In all the world, only a genuinely talented person can recognize someone’s true value, rather than simply distinguishing superficially on the basis of beauty or ugliness. If I may follow you home, I’ll be able to restore your beauty to you.” Thus they returned together.
Upon arriving, He prepared to have some wine brought out for them. Huo stopped him, explaining, “First, I should perform my magic, and once that’s accomplished, then there’ll be something to celebrate.” He called for a wash basin filled with water, made some passes over it with his hands while chanting, then handed it to He with the comment, “Have her wash her face in this, and she’ll recover. But she must come out and thank her doctor in person.”
Laughing joyously, He rushed off with the basin in both hands, then stood and waited while Ruiyun washed herself, with the result that she appeared bright and clean, just as extraordinarily beautiful as she had formerly been.
The virtuous couple then went out to offer Huo their heartfelt thanks, but their guest had already disappeared, and though they looked everywhere for him, he couldn’t be found—so mustn’t he have been an immortal?
404. Qiu Daniang
Qiu Zhong was from Shanxi, though I forget his prefecture and town. It happened that during a time of great social unrest, he was captured and taken hostage by bandits. His two sons, Qiu Fu and Qiu Lu, were both quite young then; his second wife, whose name was Shao, tried to raise the two orphans, and their father’s old business dealings had been successful enough to seem to ensure that they would stay warm and have enough to eat.
Unfortunately, their crops kept getting hit by natural disasters year after year, and unscrupulous local landowners took advantage of the situation to ride roughshod over the Qiu sons and Shao, till finally there was no guarantee that they’d be able to buy enough food to survive. Qiu Zhong’s uncle saw the opportunity to gain an advantage for himself, so he suggested that Shao should marry someone else, repeatedly urging her to say yes, but Shao absolutely refused to be unfaithful to her husband.
The uncle then secretly began preparing paperwork to betroth Shao to a particular man of wealth, with the intention of forcing her into the marriage; he began speaking to the man on her behalf with that goal in mind, without letting Shao or her sons know anything about it.
There was a crafty fellow in their village named Wei Ming, who’d long held a grudge against the Qiu family and was always watching for an opportunity to make them suffer. Since Shao was effectively a widow, he started circulating a rumor that Shao had done something to disgrace her family, and that’s why no one would marry her. When the rich man heard this, he declared that he’d have nothing to do with an unprincipled woman, and abruptly stopped the uncle’s marriage plans.
Some time later, the uncle’s plot to marry her off itself became the subject of rumors, and when Shao eventually found out about it, the injustice preoccupied her thoughts, causing her to weep from morning t
ill night so that her limbs gradually went numb and she became bed-ridden. Qiu Fu had just turned sixteen, and since there was no one to take care of household chores like mending their clothes, he quickly decided he’d better marry someone.
For a wife, he chose the daughter of xiucai Jiang Qizhan, who was said to be quite virtuous and capable, and who proceeded to take charge and manage all of the Qiu household affairs. From this point forward, through her actions the family came to acquire some wealth, enough that Qiu Lu could be sent to a tutor and taught to read.
Wei Ming was quite jealous of this success, but he pretended openly to be quite happy for the Qiu family, and frequently invited Qiu Fu over for drinks, with Fu erroneously believing that Wei was truly his friend. Wei seized one such opportunity to say, “Your mother is disabled by illness and can’t help you manage your farm produce; your younger brother eats without having to work for it, and contributes no labor to help you. How virtuous is it to make a husband and wife work like beasts pulling a cart! Besides, if your brother wants to take a wife, you’re the one who’s going to have to pay the big money for a marriage. I think it’d be better for you to split up the family, so only your brother has to deal with being poor, while you continue to prosper.”
When Fu returned home, he reported all of this to his wife; she responded with contempt to Wei’s supposed concern. Every day, however, Wei would sew the seeds of doubt in conversation with Fu, misleading him, till it was all he could think about, so he expressed his concerns to his mother. Shao angrily scolded him for harboring such thoughts.
_______________________________
Xiucai: A scholar who’s passed the imperial civil service examination at the county level.
Fu reacted scornfully and began squandering the family’s money and resources like they belonged to someone else. Wei exploited the opportunity that this presented by luring Fu into gambling, till soon the Qiu family’s storehouse of grain was emptied and though Jiang realized what was going on, she didn’t dare criticize him.