by Pu Songling
Zhu also treated Baodai with greater kindness and whenever she was taking a meal with her husband, she always called for Baodai to come and join them; but in Hong’s eyes, Baodai was becoming increasingly ugly, so he’d end up sending her away even before they finished eating. Zhu also tricked her husband into entering Baodai’s room and then locked the door, yet all night long, Hong resisted taking advantage of the situation to make love to her.
As a result, Baodai came to despise Hong, always slandering and maligning him when she spoke to other people. Hong consequently became even more fed up and disgusted with her, and eventually began to whip her. Baodai was furious and stopped taking care of her appearance, pulling on worn and dirty shoes, allowing her hair to become wildly dishevelled, till she was no longer allowed to talk to other people.
One day, Hengniang asked Zhu, “How are my methods working for you?”
“They’re working wonderfully; yet while I followed all of your instructions, in the end I don’t understand why they worked,” Zhu replied. “Why’d you tell me to let Hong indulge himself with Baodai?”
Hengniang explained, “Haven’t you heard the saying: Men get tired of the familiar and crave the new, valuing variety? Your husband loved his concubine not because she was beautiful, but because she felt like a fresh conquest to him, but fortunately he grew tired of her. You indulged him until he’d had his fill and if a man has enough of even the tastiest morsel, he’ll no longer crave the taste for it!”
“Why did you have me ruin my appearance and then later make it attractive again?”
“When something familiar is no longer in view,” Hengniang told her, “it begins to feel as though it’s been gone for a long time; when Hong suddenly saw your colorful clothing and gorgeous make-up, it was as though a new woman had come to him: he was like a poor man who’d suddenly been given the choicest food to eat, only to discover that ordinary food no longer tasted good. Just don’t let your husband have easy, continual access to you, and you’ll remain fresh, while Baodai grows stale—this is the method for replacing the concubine with the wife.”
These words made Zhu so happy that Hengniang became a regular visitor to her home and the two were close friends ever after.
Several years went by, and then all of sudden, Hengniang told Zhu, “Though we two have been as close as anyone can be, there’s something I’ve never mentioned all these years. I’ve wanted to say something, but I was afraid your feelings about me might change; now that we’ve been friends for so long, I feel I can tell you the truth: I’m really a fox. I was very young when my mother died, and my stepmother sold me in the capital to merchant Di. My husband treated me kindly, so I couldn’t bear to leave him and we became so affectionately attached that I’ve remained with him till now. Tomorrow, my father’s soul will leave his body as he becomes an immortal, so I must go with him and I won’t be able to return.” Zhu held Hengniang’s hands and sobbed.
Early the next morning, when members of the Di family went to wake her, they were astonished and filled with trepidation, for Hengniang had vanished.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “It’s like buying a pearl but not valuing it, instead valuing the fancy box in which it’s stored: one can’t change the thousand-year-old truism that people always will be attracted by the new and distance themselves from the old; but there’s an art to switching abhorrence for love, and Hengniang was able to help Zhu do just that. In ancient times, a canny official was one who served the emperor by preventing him from seeing other officials and reading their proposals. It seems that the lesson of how to regain someone’s love has to be learned in person from someone knowledgeable.”
412. Gejin
Chang Dayong was from Luoyang. His favorite pastime was cultivating tree peonies. When he heard that Caozhou peonies were of unsurpassed excellence, he set his mind on going there. It happened that other business necessitated his traveling to Caozhou and he was able to avail himself of lodging in the garden courtyard of a retired government official there.
It was February at the time, and the peonies hadn’t yet begun to blossom, so all he could do was wander through the gardens, looking for sprouts or buds to emerge. To pass the time, Chang wrote a hundred different heartfelt poems about peonies. Before too long, the flowers began to bud, but the money he’d brought to cover his expenses was nearly depleted; he went and pawned his spring clothing, so reluctant to leave that he forgot all about returning home.
One day before dawn, he hurried out to look at the flowers and discovered a young lady and an old woman already there. Chang figured that she was the daughter of some wealthy family, so he hastened to go back the way he’d come. At dusk he went back out, spotted them again, and more leisurely retreated from view. A few minutes later he peeked out, noting the young lady’s stunningly beautiful clothing was like what one might see in the imperial palace.
_______________________________
Luoyang: Located in Henan province.
Caozhou: A prefecture in Pu’s time, now part of Shandong province’s Heze county.
Dazzled and infatuated, he had a sudden epiphany: she must be one of the celestials, for how could there be such a woman from this world! He quickly ran out to look for her and rushed past a decorative display of rocks, where he happened to run into the old woman. The young lady was sitting nearby on a stone and cast a surprised glance at Chang.
The old woman interposed herself in front of the girl, scolding him, “What’re you doing, you crazy scholar!”
Kneeling reverentially, Chang exclaimed, “This young lady must surely be a fairy spirit!”
“For that kind of wild talk,” cried the old woman, “you should be tied up and taken before the district magistrate!” Chang was quite shaken by her words.
The young lady smiled and told the old woman, “Let’s get away!” They rushed past the rock display and disappeared.
Chang wanted to retrace his steps, but he could hardly move, paralyzed by the thought of the young lady returning home to tell her father and brothers what he had said, which they would almost certainly consider an insult and come after him. He flung himself on the floor of the empty studio where he was staying, repenting his rash comments. He considered it fortunate that the young lady hadn’t appeared to be angry with him, so maybe she wouldn’t give it any additional thought.
He experienced such mixed feelings of remorse and fear that he felt sick all night long. As the sun came up the next morning, he was happy to see that he wasn’t being called to account by some delegation of her male relatives, so he gradually calmed down. And as he recalled the young lady’s voice and appearance, his fear turned to desire for her. He suffered from these thoughts for three days, growing so ill and haggard from his love-longings that he wanted to die.
His candle was still burning bright one midnight, and his servant was already deep asleep. The old woman entered, holding a bowl, and approached Chang to say, “My lady, Gejin, made this poisoned soup with her own hands, so drink it down quickly!”
Chang was shocked to hear her words and after composing himself, replied, “There’s no long-standing enmity between your lady and me, so why has she sent you to order my suicide? But since she’s made this for me herself, and the alternative is to waste away from lovesickness, I guess I’d better just take the poison and die!” Thus he did as she instructed and drank the whole bowl. The old woman laughed, picked up the bowl, and left.
Chang experienced the concoction as a fragrant, cooling fluid, and it was as if he hadn’t been poisoned at all. Presently, he became aware of his insides relaxing, while his mind felt alert, so he merrily went to sleep. When he awakened, the rays of the setting sun were streaming through his window. He tried getting up, only to discover that it was as though he’d never been ill and he began to believe even more definitely that the young lady was a fairy spirit.
Since he was unable to engage her on her own level, whenever there was no one around he performed something like
a Buddhist veneration of her, standing and kneeling, piously offering his obeisance and praying silently.
One day, he was out wandering when all at once, in a dark thicket of trees, he found himself looking right into the face of Gejin, and since he was in luck and there wasn’t anyone else around, overjoyed, he flung himself to the ground before her. As she approached to pull him up, Chang suddenly sensed a rare fragrance from her body and thus he took her beautiful hand in his own and stood up. The skin of Gejin’s fingers was so soft and supple that it made his very joints go weak.
Just as he was about to tell her how he felt, the old woman suddenly appeared. Gejin urged Chang to hide himself behind a rock, then pointed to the south and told him, “Take a ladder tonight and climb over the wall, where you’ll find my room, which has red windows on all sides.” Then she hurried away. Chang was so disappointed to see her go that he felt bereft of his very spirit, unable even to tell where he was going.
That night, he moved the ladder and climbed over the south wall, where he discovered another ladder in place for him to climb down, which he did happily, and accordingly located the room with red windows. From inside it, he heard the sound of go stones being played, so he stood still there for a long time, not daring to interrupt, till he finally decided to go back the way he came and return home.
After awhile, Chang tried climbing over the wall once again, but he could still hear the sounds of the go stones; gradually he drew closer to take a peek, observing Gejin facing a beauty who was dressed in mourning clothes, and the old woman was also sitting there while a maidservant attended them. Thus he went back home again.
By the time he made his third assay over the wall, the night had already advanced into the third watch. Crouching behind the ladder on Gejin’s side of the wall, Chang heard the old woman say, “Who put that ladder there?” She called for the maidservant to help her move it elsewhere.
Chang then climbed back up onto the wall and though he wished to climb down Gejin’s side once again, there was no longer a ladder there, so, in frustration, he retired to his own side.
The next night he tried again, for the ladder on Gejin’s side had once again been set there for him. Pleased that it was quiet and there was no one else around, he entered the room, where he found Gejin sitting stock still, as if deep in thought. When she spotted Chang, she stood up, startled, and backed away from him shyly.
He bowed respectfully before her, declaring, “I’ve always said that my luck was limited and I feared that a fairy spirit would have nothing to do with me—yet here we are tonight!” Then he pulled her into a tight embrace.
_______________________________
Third watch: The third of the five traditional two-hour divisions of the night, from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Her slender waist barely filled his hands, and exhaling a breath like orchids, she resisted strenuously, crying, “What’s your hurry!”
“Many things can obstruct the attempt to achieve happiness,” replied Chang, “and if we take too long, the spirit world will grow jealous and interfere.”
No sooner had these words left his lips than they heard someone in the distance saying something. Gejin quickly exclaimed, “My younger sister, Yuban, is coming! For the time being, you can hide under the bed.” Chang did as she advised.
Soon, a girl walked in, remarking with a laugh, “Though I’ve already defeated your army, General, would you be up for another skirmish? I’ve got some tea brewed, so I thought I’d invite you over for some all-night gaming.” Gejin declined, claiming that she was simply too tired to play.
Yuban begged her insistently, but her sister adamantly refused to budge from her chair. “You seem so passionately anchored here—it wouldn’t be because you’re hiding a man in your room, would it?” Tugging on Gejin, Yuban dragged her out the gate and they left together.
Chang crawled out from under the bed, exasperated at the turn of events, and began searching among her bedroom furnishings and kitchenware, hoping that she’d left behind some personal item that he might take with him. Though there were no women’s toiletries in the room, there was a crystalline scepter next to the bed, wrapped with purple cloth, of pristine loveliness. He stashed it in his robe and went back over the wall to return home.
Even from inside his robe’s sleeve, the fragrant scent of her body emanated from the scepter, which made his ardor for her all the greater. However, he’d been afraid while hiding under her bed and now he feared that he might be punished for his act, yet he didn’t dare go back again with it, so instead he hid the precious scepter, hoping that she’d come looking for it.
The next night, Gejin did indeed come, and with a smile, she commented, “I took you for a gentleman, but I had no idea that you were also a robber.”
“I had my reasons,” Chang replied. “That is, I didn’t behave like a gentleman because I hoped the scepter would bring you to me.” Then he took her into his arms and reached his hands inside her clothing, loosening the ties on her robe to expose her snow-white flesh, her fragrant warmth spreading all around him as they embraced; he felt that every scent from her body, whether of her breath or of her sweat, was a rare fragrance.
Accordingly, he told her, “I had a strong feeling that you were a fairy spirit, and now I realize that I wasn’t mistaken. I’m lucky to share a relationship with you, whether it’s in past, present, or future incarnations. But I’m afraid that you’ll be shut out from the realm of the immortals if you marry below your station and that it’ll lead to a sorrowful parting.”
Smiling, Gejin told him, “You can set aside your worries. I’m nothing more than an enraptured girl in love, who happens to have been attracted to you. But this affair needs to be kept secret, for I fear otherwise that loose lips will make up malicious rumors and since you can’t sprout wings, and I can’t ride the wind, a forced separation would be much more traumatic for us than an amiable parting.”
Chang agreed with her, but he still suspected that she was really a fairy spirit, so he kept inquiring about her surname. “If you take me for some kind of fairy,” said Gejin, “why do you need me to give you some kind of name?”
“Then who’s that old lady?” asked Chang.
She explained, “That’s Granny Mulberry. When I was young, she taught me how to survive outside, so she’s not just some kind of maidservant.” She stood up then to leave, commenting, “There are many eyes back at my place, so I mustn’t stay any longer, but I’ll watch for an opportunity and then come again.”
Just as she was about to leave, she asked to retrieve the scepter from him, explaining, “This doesn’t belong to me—Yuban left it behind.”
“Who is Yuban?” asked Chang.
“She’s my uncle’s younger sister,” Gejin explained.
Thus he handed her the scepter and she left.
After she departed, his quilt and pillows were all suffused with her rare fragrance. Thenceforward, she always came to him, every two or three nights. Chang was so passionately obsessed with her that he could no longer even think of returning home to Luoyang. But his money purse was nearly empty, so he figured he’d have to sell his horse.
Realizing what he had in mind, Gejin told him, “This is all because of me, and I can’t bear for you to empty your purse and pawn your clothes. What’s more, if you sell your means of transportation, how will you ever travel the thousand li to return home? I have some private savings that can help you to cover your travel expenses.”
Chang declined, explaining, “Your love for me is touching and if I pledged my very flesh to you, it wouldn’t be enough to offer in return; so what kind of man would I be to use up your savings greedily!”
“You can just borrow it for now,” Gejin insisted fervently. Then she took Chang’s arm, and led him beneath a mulberry tree, where she pointed to a stone and said, “Turn that over!” Chang did as she directed.
Then from her hair she pulled out a hairpin, poked it into the ground several dozen times and commanded, “Sear
ch there.” Again, Chang did as she told him. Soon he uncovered the mouth of an urn. Gejin looked inside it and took out about fifty taels of silver; Chang grabbed her arm to stop her from removing any more, but she wouldn’t hear of it and withdrew another ten bars of silver, though Chang firmly returned half the amount and then covered up the urn.
One night, Gejin told him, “For the past few days, there’s been some idle gossip circulating, and it won’t be long before it affects us, so we’ll have to plan accordingly.”
_______________________________
Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.
“But what can we do about it!” cried Chang, upset. “I’m usually such a cautious person, but now that I’m involved with you, I’m like a widow who’s thrown caution aside, I’m no longer my own master. I’ll do anything you tell me to do, even if it involves swords and axes, for I can no longer turn away from you!”
Gejin proposed that they run away together, but told Chang to return home first, then made arrangements to meet up with him in Luoyang. Chang subsequently made arrangements for his return home, intending to arrive there before Gejin and then afterwards to rendezvous with her; upon arriving, however, he discovered Gejin’s carriage already waiting at his gate.
They walked up the steps to his courtyard and greeted the members of his household, while his neighbors, surprised by Gejin’s presence, congratulated the couple, though none of them were aware that the two had run away together. To Chang, it seemed like a dangerous plan; but Gejin seemed entirely calm as she told him, “Even if they were able to reach a thousand li to look for us, and discovered us, I’m the daughter of an influential family, and if I choose to elope, they’re not going to interfere with my business or cause trouble for the man I love.”
Gejin turned to look at Chang’s younger brother, Daqi, who was seventeen, and commented, “He has an innate goodness and his future will most certainly be brighter than yours.” A date for Daqi’s marriage had been arranged, but then his intended wife suddenly died, though she was quite young.