by Pu Songling
Quite astonished, Wang declared, “I’m Wang Wen, but how could I have had a son?” He thought about the fact that Wang was a very common surname, but privately he was quite pleased about it, and cherished the boy all the more. When they returned home, anyone who saw them didn’t question the matter and figured the boy must be Scholar Wang’s son.
Wang Zi gradually grew up to be very strong and brave, enjoyed hunting game but not the business of producing anything, and loved to fight. Even Wang couldn’t control or regulate Wang Zi’s behavior. Zi also said that he could spot ghosts and foxes, but no one really believed him.
There was an occasion where someone in his village was being afflicted by a fox, so Zi was asked to go and observe the situation. When he arrived, he pointed to the place where the fox was hiding, told several men to strike where he was pointing, and then they all heard the fox cry out as fur and blood rained down—from that point on, there was no more trouble from the fox. After that, people accepted Wang Zi’s strange ability.
One day as Wang was walking through the marketplace, he suddenly ran into Zhao Donglou, who was dressed in ragged clothing, looking gloomy and emaciated. Shocked, he asked Zhao how he’d come to be in such a state. Zhao sadly asked if they could go somewhere else to talk.
Wang then took his relative home with him, and had some wine poured. Zhao told him, “When the proprietress got back with Yatou, she punished her harshly and had her whipped. Afterwards they moved north, in an effort to force Yatou to stop thinking about you. But she pledged to be true to you till she died, and hence her mother locked her up. She gave birth to a boy, who was abandoned in a back alley; I heard that an orphanage took the child in, so I suppose that he’s already grown up. But he’s your child.”
Wang shed tears as he declared, “Heaven took pity on my misfortunes, so my son’s already been brought home.” Then he told Zhao the whole story. “How did you come to be in such dire straits?” he asked his relative.
With a sigh, Zhao replied, “Now I finally realize that though prostitutes are a great pleasure, you can’t take any relationship with them seriously. That’s all I can say!”
In the beginning, when Yatou’s mother moved them up north, Zhao packed up his mercantile goods and followed them. It was difficult to make the move with his heavy merchandise, so he sold it all off cheaply. Along the route, the mother’s transport and living expenses were outrageously high, so Zhao’s resources were severely depleted. The demands of Yatou’s sister were especially lavish. In a few years, all of his money was gone.
As she watched Zhao’s money run out, the mother soon became even more contemptuous of him. Yatou’s sister was eventually sent to sleep with wealthy men, spending several nights at a time with them without coming back. Zhao became indignant and couldn’t stand it, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
It so happened that when the mother went out one day, Yatou called to him from the window of the room where she was being held, “There are no lasting relationships in a brothel, so my sister wasn’t sentimentally attached to you, just to your money. You’re reluctant to leave, but if you don’t go, you’ll experience a greater disaster.”
Zhao was scared, like he’d just awakened from a nightmare. Before departing, he furtively went to see Yatou. She instructed Zhao to deliver a letter to Wang for her, and he then left to return home. Zhao told Wang that for these reasons, he had come back.
Then he took out Yatou’s letter. It read, “I know that our son, Zi, is with you now. Donglou knows what hardships I’ve faced while separated from you. In a previous life I must have been very wicked, for why else would this happen! I’m locked away in a dark room where I get no sunlight, I’m horribly whipped and beaten, and I’m so consumed with hunger that every day feels like a year.
“If you haven’t forgotten those snowy nights when we slept together under a quilt along the Han River, staying warm in each other’s arms, you should formulate a plan with our son, for only you two can rescue me from my distress. Even though my mother and sister are hard to endure, they’re my flesh and blood, so it’s my wish that you urge Zi not to injure them.” As Wang read this, he wept piteously. He took some money and silk, presented them to Zhao, and then left.
At the time, Wang Zi was eighteen. His father told him their whole story, and afterwards showed him his mother’s letter. Zi grew so infuriated, it seemed like his eyes might pop, and that same day he went to the capital, made inquiries, and located the proprietress’ establishment, where he found carts and horses transporting patrons.
Wang Zi went right in, discovered Yatou’s sister drinking with a Hubei patron, and when she saw him, she stood up, horrified and pale. Without hesitating he advanced and killed her, terrifying the patrons, who mistook him for some kind of bandit. When they looked at the daughter’s corpse, they saw that it had already turned into a fox.
Zi held onto the blade as he charged into the next room, where Yatou’s mother was supervising some maidservants as they were preparing soup. He rushed into the room, but the proprietress suddenly vanished. Zi looked all around, quickly drew an arrow, spotted the fox on a roof beam, and shot at it; pierced through the heart, the fox fell down, and Wang Zi severed its head.
He searched till he found where his mother was imprisoned, used a stone to break open the bolt, and then mother and son were tearfully reunited. Yatou asked him about her mother, and he replied, “I’ve already executed her.”
“Why didn’t you listen to what I said!” she scolded him. Then she ordered him to take the bodies and bury them in the open countryside outside of town. Zi lied that he would do so, but instead skinned the foxes and hid their pelts. Afterwards he went through the proprietress’s trunk, emptied it of money, which he then presented to his mother, and took her home. Once Wang Wen and Yatou were reunited, they shared all their sorrows and happiness with each other.
Sometime later, when Wang asked about Yatou’s mother, Zi replied, “She’s here in my bag.” In astonishment he asked what Zi meant, and his son brought out the two fox pelts and offered them to him.
His outraged mother cried, “You unfilial son! How could you do such a thing!” She howled with grief, striking herself as she did so, flinging herself around like she wanted to die. Wang did his utmost to try to comfort her, and shouted at his son to go bury the pelts.
Irate, Zi demanded of Yatou, “Now that you’re free and content, have you suddenly forgotten everything you suffered?” His mother, even more upset, couldn’t stop crying. Once Wang Zi buried the pelts and then returned to report the deed, Yatou finally began to relax a bit.
Wang Wen then took his wife home, and the family subsequently began to flourish. In appreciation of Zhao’s deeds, Wang bestowed on him a huge sum of money. For his part, Zhao had finally come to realize that the proprietress and her daughters were all foxes.
Zi did his best to be a very filial son; however, if something set him off, he’d start cursing and become roaring mad. Yatou told Wang, “Our son has beast tendons inside him, and if they’re not removed, he’ll finally begin killing people, ruining the family’s fortunes.” That night they waited until Zi fell asleep, then stealthily tied his hands and feet.
When Zi woke up, he protested, “I haven’t committed any crime.”
“We’re going to heal your violent temper,” Yatou reassured him, “so don’t let it worry you.” Zi cried out, twisting anxiously, but was unable to break free.
Yatou took a large needle and stuck it in beside Zi’s anklebone, about three or four fen deep, and then used her strength to dig out the tendon, which noisily popped out; she did it again at his elbow and his skull with equal success. At last, they untied him, and gently helped him to bed.
The next day, he hurried to speak with his parents, and tearfully told them, “This morning and last night I kept thinking about the things I’d done in the past, and I realized they were all terrible deeds!” Wang and Yatou were overjoyed, and thereafter, Zi became as peaceful as
a quiet girl, respected by his fellow villagers.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “The prostitutes were all foxes. But not all foxes are prostitutes; whether the magical creature is a fox or a bustard, it’s still by nature a beast or bird. Is it any wonder, then, that they reject reason and mangle ethics? As far as being able to endure torture and hardship while retaining one’s own personal beliefs to the end, could a human even hope to do what a fox like Yatou actually achieved? Tang Taizong said that Wei Zheng was at his most charming when people criticized his slow, deliberate action, and I would say the same thing about Yatou.”
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Fen: A unit of length equal to 0.33 centimeter, or about 1/10 inch.
Tang Taizong: Li Shimin (b. 599) led the rebellion against the Sui dynasty (581-618) that founded the Tang dynasty (618-649). As Taizong, he was emperor from 626-49.
Wei Zheng: A trusted advisor of Taizong, Wei Zheng (581-643) is considered the epitome of the wise, trustworthy civil servant.
175. The Wine Worm
There was a fat fellow in Changshan named Liu, who was addicted to drinking. Whenever he drank by himself, he’d always empty a whole wine jar. Near the city walls he owned three hundred mu of fertile fields, half of which were always planted in millet; his family was wealthy and powerful, so there was no chance that he could drink it into poverty.
A foreign monk saw the corpulent Liu and asked him if he had some kind of strange sickness. “No,” replied Liu.
“And whenever you drink you never get drunk?”
Liu told him, “That’s right.”
“This is the work of a wine worm,” declared the monk. Liu, stunned, quickly solicited the monk for medical assistance. “An easy matter,” said the monk.
Liu asked him, “What kind of medicine do I need?” The monk explained that he wouldn’t need any.
Subsequently, he directed Liu at midday to lie face down, with his hands and feet bound; then he set up a cup of good wine about half a chi from Liu’s head. In moments, he became very thirsty, and thought only of drinking some wine. As his nose detected the fragrant alcohol, a gluttonous need began to burn in him, tormenting him since he couldn’t get any of the wine.
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Changshan: Former provincial capital of Shandong.
Mu: A measure of area equal to .0667 hectares. Since one hectare equals 2.47 acres, the reference is to a plot just over 49.4 acres in size.
Chi: A measure of distance equal to 1/3 meter.
Suddenly he felt a violent scratchiness in his throat, and as he retched, something came out, and immediately plunged into the wine. The monk loosened his bonds, and they saw a long piece of red flesh, about three cun in length, wriggling like a fish swimming around, complete with a mouth and eyes. Horrified, Liu thanked the monk for helping him.
He offered to reward him with some gold, but the monk refused it, although he asked if he might have the worm. “What are you going to use it for?” asked Liu.
The monk replied, “This is the spirit of wine: if you have a wine jar full of water, and stir this worm into it, the water will become fine wine.” Liu sent for a jar to have it tested, and it worked as the monk had said.
From that point on, Liu loathed wine like it was his enemy. His body gradually became thin just as his family also became poorer each day, and this continued until the family no longer had enough food to survive.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “He could drink a shi of wine each day without damaging his fortune; but when he stopped drinking even a single dou of wine, he became increasingly more impoverished: how can one try to escape one’s destiny? Perhaps it should be said, ‘The worm was Liu’s good fortune, not a disease, and the monk tricked him into giving it up with his skills.’ Correct or not?”
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Cun: A measure of length equal to 1/3 decimeter.
Shi: A unit of weight equal to 50 kilograms.
Dou: A tenth of one shi; the point is simply to set up a contrast— even the smallest amount of wine each day might have prevented Liu’s fortune (and weight) from wasting away.
176. The Wooden Beauty
Businessman Bai Yougong reports, “At Luokou, I saw a man carrying a bamboo basket and leading two enormous dogs. From within the basket, he took out a wood carving of a beautiful woman that was more than a chi tall and could turn her hands around automatically, while looking very life-like in her attractive clothing and make-up. Then the man took a small decorated saddle, put it on one of the dogs so it could be ridden, and ordered the wooden beauty to sit on it. Once she was seated and ready, the man yelled for the dog to run quickly.
The wooden beauty then stood up on the dog and began imitating a number of professional horse riding tricks, like hanging in a stirrup, hidden by the dog’s belly, flying to the dog’s tail from its waist, and then returning to the waist by jumping from the end of the dog; all of the kneeling and jumping around was carried out nimbly and flawlessly.
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Luokou: A place located at the northern outskirts of Jinan, the capital of Shandong province.
‘Zhaojun crosses the frontier’: The maneuver is named for Wang Qiang, whose courtesy name was Zhaojun, one of the famous “Four Beauties” of Chinese lore. At a time when the emperor chose which consort to sleep with by selecting from portraits done of all the consorts by court painters, Zhaojun refused to pay the usual bribes for a flattering portrait, so the painters portrayed her as ugly. Hence the Western Han emperor Yuan (49-33 B.C.E.) selected her, from her portrait, to pose as the “imperial daughter” and be wed to the Xiongnu, a Mongolian tribe, in a treaty marriage, to stall any further aggression by the northerners. By the time Yuan actually saw the beautiful Zhaojun, it was too late to stop the marriage. The painters were subsequently executed.
Then the beauty performed ‘Zhaojun crosses the frontier’: the man took a wood carving of a boy, stuck a pheasant feather into his wooden hat, dressed him in a woolen coat, and set him on the other dog. The beauty looked back often, and the boy in the woolen coat flourished a whip and chased after her, as though they were really alive.”
177. Third Sister Feng
Eleventh sister Fan, the daughter of a highly respected official, lived in Lucheng. Youthfully delicate and charming, she was particularly knowledgeable about poetry. Her father and mother doted on her, and they agreed that she could select her own husband from those who proposed to marry her; but eleventh sister Fan always disapproved of the men who were her suitors.
Several months after the Lantern Festival, the Buddhist nuns at the Shuiyue Temple were celebrating the “Feast of All Souls.” On that day, many women went out for a stroll, and Fan decided to do likewise.
When she was about to visit the temple, a young woman began following after her, repeatedly looking at Fan’s face from a distance, as though she had something she wanted to say to her. Fan looked carefully at her, a sixteen-year-old of peerless loveliness. Pleased by her attractiveness, Fan turned around in hopes of getting a better look at her. The girl smiled and said, “Aren’t you eleventh sister Fan?”
“That’s right,” she replied.
“For a long time, I’ve heard of your beauty,” the girl told her, “and now it’s clear that people haven’t lied.” Fan wanted to know where the girl came from. She laughed and said, “My name’s Feng, the third sister, and I live in the neighboring village.” They grasped each other’s arms, laughing heartily, and chatting warmly, with the result that they became very fond of each other, and neither one wanted to part.
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Lucheng: The modern city of Yueyang, in Hunan province.
Lantern Festival: Held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it marks the official end of the Chinese New Year. The “Feast of All Souls” falls during Ghost Month (鬼月), the seventh lunar month.
Shuiyue Temple: Lite
rally, the “Moon in the Water”—a symbol of purity—Temple.
“Why don’t you have any companions?” asked Fan.
Feng replied, “My parents died when I was young, and there’s only an old lady in my family who has to stay and watch the house, so I have to come here alone.” Fan was just about to return home, and Feng stared, her eyes glistening with tears, on the verge of weeping, and Fan was also at a loss about what else to do, so she invited Feng to come home with her. “You have your wealthy home and your private room,” Feng answered, “while I’m a simple person without even any distant relatives, so I worry that my arrival would incur others’ ridicule and disdain.”
Fan firmly repeated her invitation. Feng said, “Let’s wait till some other day.” Fan then took out one of her gold hairpins to offer Feng as a present, and Feng also took from her hair a green hairpin, to present in exchange. Fan then went home, thinking over the intensity of her feelings.
Upon her return, she took out the hairpin Feng had given her, neither gold nor jade, but none of her family members recognized what it was, which was very strange. Each day, she kept looking off into the distance, expecting Feng to come, until she became so upset that she fell sick. Her parents sent some people to find out what had become of Feng, but when they made inquiries in the village, no one knew anything about her.
It so happened at the time of the Double Ninth Festival that Fan, feeling weak, listless and bored, asked a servant girl to help her up so she could peer out of the garden, having her set out a mattress under the eastern hedge row. Suddenly a young woman climbing over the wall came into view, and when Fan looked carefully at her, she saw it was Feng. “Can someone help me?” she asked. The servant girl assisted her, and in moments she was down.
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Double Ninth Festival: Set on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, it celebrates both veneration of ancestors (with visits to gravesites) and “climbing the heights,” ascending into the hills or mountains for picnics.