Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 5

by Pu Songling

When Shen heard this, her tears started falling as she cried, “How can I stand to face my daughter-in-law!” Yu then called for Shanhu. Holding back her own tears, Shanhu came out and prostrated herself on the floor. Shen was filled with shame and self-recrimination, but Yu strongly advised the women to start over again, so Shen and Shanhu became closer than they’d ever been before.

  Ten days later, the two returned home together, where they worked the few mu of poor farmland that the family owned, though they couldn’t produce enough food there to feed themselves, so they had to depend on Dacheng to earn some money by copying documents for others while Shanhu did sewing for hire. Ercheng had more than enough for himself, but Dacheng wouldn’t beg him for assistance, and Ercheng kept his living quarters quite apart from Dacheng’s.

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  Mu: A measure of area; one acre is equal to 6.07 mu.

  Zanggu looked down upon her sister-in-law since she’d been sent away, while she in turn resented Zanggu’s ill-humored demeanor and stopped talking to her, and when Zanggu went into one of her tyrannical rants now and then, the family did their best to hide from her. She treated everyone with equal maliciousness, whether it was her husband or her maidservants. One of those maidservants finally was driven to commit suicide by hanging herself.

  The maidservant’s father filed a suit against Zanggu, and though Ercheng testified on her behalf, he received a beating as punishment and Zanggu was still taken into custody. Dacheng sought to have the charges against her lessened, but in the end his efforts had no effect. Zanggu had a torture device attached to her ten fingers that tore off her flesh. The greedy, corrupt officials in charge of the case demanded lavish bribes before relieving her suffering. Ercheng mortgaged his land in order to borrow money, and when he’d brought in the agreed-upon sum, Zanggu was finally released to return home.

  But Ercheng’s creditors began repeatedly demanding repayment that he was unable to provide, so he was forced to sell his good farmland at a fraction of its value to an old man in the village named Ren. Realizing that half of this land should have belonged to An Dacheng, Ren wanted the scholar to sign the document of transfer in a public office.

  When Dacheng arrived to do so, he abruptly spoke up: “I’m xiaolian An. Who’s this Ren who dares to buy my property!”

  Then the old man turned a familiar face to him and said, “The underworld has been moved by the filial piety of you and your wife, so I’ve been sent back briefly to offer you a bit of help.”

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  Xiaolian: A successful candidate in the imperial civil service examination at the provincial level (Hucker 237).

  Dacheng sobbed tearfully, “Father—if you have the power, I beg you, please help Ercheng!”

  “My unfilial son and his shrewish wife are not worth worrying about!” exclaimed the ghost of Dacheng’s father. “Return home and quickly put together the money to buy back what our family worked hard to earn.”

  “But mother and I can barely make enough to keep us alive,” said Dacheng, “so how could we possibly come up with that kind of money?”

  “There’s some money hidden under the crape myrtle tree,” replied his father, “so you can dig it up and use it.” There was more Dacheng wanted to ask him, but the old man who was Ren had suddenly gone mute; in moments he seemed to awaken, as though he’d previously been unconscious.

  An Dacheng went home and told his mother what had happened, but she found it unbelievable. Zanggu by that point had already led some servants to go start working at the site, digging a hole four or five chi deep, and when they stopped to look, they found nothing but bricks and stones, no money at all, so they gave up and left.

  When Dacheng heard that they were digging for the hidden money, he warned his mother and Shanhu not to go look yet. But after she’d verified that the others hadn’t found anything there, Shen secretly crept out to sneak a peek, but found only bricks and stones stewn over the ground, so she went back inside. When Shanhu came out to see for herself, she saw the ground covered with what appeared to be silver; calling for Dacheng, they took a closer look, and sure enough, it was silver.

  Dacheng assumed that the money had been left there by some ancestor and hence he didn’t feel right about keeping the matter secret, so he called for Ercheng to divide the silver up equally with him. Accordingly, they split in two what they picked up, each putting his portion in a bag, then went back inside.

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  Crape myrtle: A shrub (Lagerstroemia indica) valued for its flowers.

  Chi: A length equal to 1/3 meter.

  When Ercheng and Zanggu went to examine their portion together, they opened their bag and were amazed to discover it full of nothing but rubble. Suspecting that Ercheng had been duped by his older brother, Zanggu sent him to go spy on Dacheng, who had laid out his silver on a table and was celebrating together with his mother.

  Once Ercheng told his brother what had happened to his share of the silver, Dacheng gave it all to him. This made Ercheng very happy, so he went and paid back the money he’d borrowed, extremely grateful to his brother.

  Zanggu told him, “This is even greater proof that your brother tried to swindle you. If he wasn’t ashamed of his actions, then why did he first split the sum with you, then later offer you the whole amount?” Indeed, Ercheng wasn’t sure whether to suspect or to trust his brother.

  The next day, his creditors dispatched their servants to demand repayment for the counterfeit silver he’d given them and were just about to drag him before an official. Ercheng and Zanggu both turned pale. “What did you think would happen!” cried Zanggu. “I warned you that your brother’s supposed kindness would turn out like this, and now he’s right on the verge of ruining you!”

  Ercheng was so frightened that he went and complained to the creditors that he’d been tricked; but the creditors angrily refused to release him from his debts. Ercheng had to give the deed for his land back to the creditors so they could oversee its sale, then they gave him back the phony silver and he left for home.

  Upon looking closely at the silver, he saw from two broken ingots that they were really bronze that had been thinly silver-plated. Zanggu proposed a plan to Ercheng; namely, that they hold back the two broken ingots, but give all the others back to Dacheng.

  Thus Ercheng told his brother, “You’ve repeatedly offered to help me out of kindness, but I really can’t bear to keep this all myself. I’ll just hold onto two of the ingots, in honor of your generosity. In terms of what we have to live on, we’ll be in the same position as you. We don’t need a lot of land, so since we’ve already lost the property, I’ll leave it to you to buy it back or not.

  Dacheng had no idea what his brother was up to, so he refused to take the silver ingots back. But when Ercheng remained vehement in his intentions to return them, Dacheng acquiesced. He subsequently weighed the silver and found it to be five taels less than what he’d need to redeem the land, so he asked Shanhu to add some of the jewelry from her dowry to make up the missing amount and then he carried it all to the creditors. They were suspicious that this was more phony silver, so they took scissors and scraped them against the side of an ingot to test it, but found that it was nothing but pure silver and thus they took it in exchange for the land deed.

  After Ercheng returned the silver to his brother, he was certain that Dacheng would get into trouble with it; hence he thought it very strange to hear subsequently that his brother had already used it successfully to redeem the land. Zanggu suspected that when Dacheng had originally dug up the silver, he’d hidden the real silver somewhere, so she angrily went to see her brother-in-law and started cursing viciously at him.

  Dacheng finally realized why Ercheng had given the silver back to him. Shanhu calmed her fuming sister-in-law with a smile as she said, “Now that the farmland’s back, what’s there to be angry about?” Dacheng then handed the deed over to Zanggu.

  Ercheng had a drea
m one night that his father came to chastise him, saying, “You’re unfilial to your parents and an ingrate to your brother, hence the underworld has already determined the date of your death and the fact that you’re not to own even a tiny piece of land, so what’s the point of trying to occupy others’ resources!” When he awoke, he told Zanggu that he wanted to give the deed for the land back to Dacheng. Zanggu sneered at him for acting like a fool.

  At the time, she and Ercheng had two sons—one seven years old and the other three years old. Soon, the older boy fell victim to smallpox and died. Zanggu finally began to fear the seriousness of her husband’s dream, so she sent Ercheng to give the land deed back to his brother. He tried to do so, over and over again, but Dacheng refused to accept it.

  Before long, Ercheng’s younger son also died, which frightened Zanggu so much that she took the deed and gave it directly to Shanhu. Since by then spring was almost past and the farmland was too overgrown with weeds to be cultivated, Dacheng had no alternative but to take charge of it himself.

  Zanggu changed her ways after this, deciding to behave like a filial daughter-in-law to Shen; she was also respectful towards Shanhu. Not six months later, Shen fell ill and died. Zanggu wept in such genuine grief that she couldn’t bring herself to eat or drink a thing. She told people, “Now that my mother-in-law has died, I can’t take care of her any longer, so how can I ever do enough to redeem myself before heaven!” She proceeded to have ten miscarriages, until finally she was allowed to adopt one of her brother-in-law’s children as her own.

  Dacheng and Shanhu both lived long lives. Of their three sons, two of them attained the status of jinshi, and people said it was all because of their being filial and devoted to their parents.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Someone who hasn’t encountered the misery of dealing with a domineering family member might not understand what a gift it is to have a gentle, loyal one instead, but the An family could certainly appreciate the difference. A shrewish wife was transformed, but her mother-in-law died, and though the daughter-inlaw demonstrated her filial devotion to her, she was no longer able to exhibit sufficient virtue to prevent her own subsequent suffering. Zanggu brought this bad fate on herself and while she claimed that heaven didn’t allow her a chance to redeem herself, if she wasn’t able to recognize the truth, how can she make such a claim? By all rights she should have died all of a sudden, so since she actually lived a long life, it was a sign that heaven had already pardoned her wrongs. Life is filled with suffering, as her husband certainly found out!”

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  Jinshi: A successful candidate in the highest level of the imperial civil service examination.

  408. The Wutong Spirits

  South of here, they have the Wutong spirits, which are similar to our northern fox spirits. However, in the north, an evil fox spirit can be driven away by a hundred different methods; whereas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, parents and sons dare not interfere with a Wutong as their beautiful daughters and wives are seized and raped, suffering heinous injury.

  There happened to be a man named Zhao Hong, from Wu county, who was a pawnbroker by trade. His wife, Yan, was quite striking in appearance. One night, a mighty figure of a man burst into her room, wielding his sword deftly all around him, as her maidservants ran away in terror.

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  South of here: That is, south of Pu’s home province, Shandong.

  Wutong spirit: Xiaofei Kang notes that a tenth-century Buddhist text associates fox spirits with “the concept of Wutong, the Five Supernatural Powers that were practiced by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. The power of the fox, termed as Demonic Power (yaotong), ranked fifth, well below the other four: the Powers of the Way (daotong), the Spirit (shentong), Dependence (yitong), and Retribution (baotong)” (39). In subsequent centuries, the demonic aspect of the Wutong, as displayed here in Pu’s story, merged with folklore that treated Wutong as a god of “sudden and undeserved wealth, who granted money to husbands in exchange for their wives’ favours” (Goossaert 8). See Richard von Glahn’s chapter, “Wutong: From Demon to Deity” (180-221).

  Wu county: In Jiangsu province, site of the modern city of Suzhou.

  When Yan wanted to leave, the man grabbed her harshly and declared, “Don’t be afraid—I’m Fourth Master, a Wutong spirit. I’m just going to love you, nothing bad’s going to happen.” Then he picked her up like she was a mere baby, dropped her down on a bed, pulled off her clothes and proceeded to rape her. However, she found it impossible to bear his enormous organ and moaned helplessly, in pitiful pain. Fourth Master took pity and didn’t penetrate her entirely.

  Afterward, he got up from the bed and told her, “I’ll be back for more in five days.” Then he simply left.

  Zhao Hong was away from home, minding his shop, so that very night, one of their maidservants rushed off to tell him what had happened. When Zhao learned that a Wutong spirit was involved, he didn’t dare return home with further questions. At daybreak, he examined Yan and found her so fatigued that she couldn’t get out of bed, which made him feel so shamed that he warned his servants not to spread the word about what had happened.

  Three or four days later, Yan began to feel more like herself again, but she was terribly frightened of the Wutong’s return. Under no circumstances would her maidservants sleep in her room, avoiding it by lodging elsewhere in the house; alone, Yan sat with her candle, grimly awaiting what she must inevitably endure.

  Before long, Fourth Master entered, together with two young men who appeared cultured and refined. There was a servant boy with them who set out some delicacies and wine, and the Wutong motioned for Yan to come drink with them. However, she shrank from them, hanging her head meekly, and even when the spirit more forcefully told her to come drink with them, she refused; she felt quite terrified, afraid that if the monster had his way with her once again, she’d be doomed.

  The three men drank toasts to each other, with the Wutong calling one of them his elder brother and the other one his younger brother. They drank together till midnight, then the two guests rose from their seats, saying, “Tonight, Fourth Master, you have an assignation with this provocative beauty, so you must invite us, Second Master and Fifth Master, to return some other time with plenty of wine to drink while we celebrate.” Then they said goodbye and went away.

  Yan begged Fourth Master for mercy as he pulled her through the curtain leading into her bedroom; he forced himself on her again, but it wasn’t until she began to bleed and then lost consciousness that the Wutong desisted and left. Yan lay on her bed, feeling unbearable shame and anger, and decided to commit suicide by trying to hang herself with her silk belt, yet each time she tested it, it came undone, failing to choke her.

  Fortunately, the Wutong spirit allowed enough time between his violations of her to allow her to begin to recover before he returned. This went on for two or three months because no one in the house could think of any way to deal with the problem.

  There was a Kuaiji man named Wan, a cousin of Zhao, who was strong, bold, and an excellent bowman. One day when he came to see Zhao, it was already after sunset, so Zhao conducted him to the guest house where the family members were all gathered for safety, then he led Wan to a place where he could lodge in their inner courtyard.

  Wan lay in bed for a long time, unable to sleep, when he heard what sounded in the courtyard like a man walking around, so he peered out his window and saw a man enter Yan’s room. Suspicious, he grabbed his sword and hid himself where he could observe what was going on in the room, consequently spotting the man seated next to Yan, with fancy snacks set out on a table before them.

  Furious, Wan jumped up, ran over to the room and burst in. The startled man stood up, quickly turning to look for his own sword; by that point, Wan was already burying his weapon in the man’s skull, which split open as the man fell to the ground, dead. Upon scrutinizing the body, Wan discovered it to be a small horse
, about the size of a mule.

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  Kuaiji: A county in Pu’s time, now the city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang province.

  Stunned, Wan asked Yan who the man was; she explained everything that had been happening to her, then added, “Both of the other Wutongs are about to arrive, so how can we possibly deal with them!” Wan shook his hand back and forth, signaling her not to make another sound. He extinguished the candles in the room, then picked up his bow and arrows and hid himself in the darkness there.

  Soon, four men came flying down out of the sky. Wan quickly shot an arrow, killing the first of them. The other three howled in anger, pulling out swords as they searched for the bowman. Wan held a knife as he waited behind the door, silent and motionless. When one of the spirits entered, Wan slit his throat and the Wutong fell dead.

  Wan remained leaning behind the door and for a long time there was no sound, so he finally came out, then went to knock at Zhao’s door, to tell him what had transpired. Zhao was utterly astonished; taking candles, they went together to look, discovering a horse and two boars lying dead. They awoke the household and everyone cheered in celebration.

  Yet they were still afraid that the other two things might return to wreak havoc, so they prevailed upon Wan to stay with them, roasting the pork and stewing the horse meat for his enjoyment; both had a marvelously savory flavor, due to their extraordinary sources. Wan’s reputation spread widely after this. He stayed with Zhao for a month, but once the weird activity appeared to have ceased, he said goodbye and went on his way. Besides, there was a certain troubled timber merchant who had summoned Wan.

  The merchant had a daughter who hadn’t yet been married, and his troubles began when suddenly a Wutong spirit dropped down in broad daylight, looking like a robust, handsome man about twenty years old, who said that he’d come to make the merchant’s daughter his wife—so he gave the merchant a hundred taels in silver for her, selected an auspicious day for their marriage and then flew off again.