Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 3

by Pu Songling

  Alone, Wanshi begged for food from village to village. He happened to come to the red-lacquered gates of a particular wealthy family, where the gatekeeper turned him away with a scolding, refusing to listen to his complaints. After a little while, when an official came out, Wanshi prostrated himself, sobbing.

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  Provincial education commissioner: Hucker explains that from 1684 forward, this duty assignment for vice ministers, imperial censors, and members of the Hanlin Academy including touring and inspecting schools, certifying students for state educational subsidies, and “encouraging educational and cultural activities in general” (498), so the action against Yang Wanshi was well within their purview.

  The official stared hard at him for a long time before asking him his name, and was astonished to hear it: “You’re my uncle! How did you become so poor?” Wanshi studied the official’s face, and once he recognized it as Xi’er’s, he no longer felt like crying.

  He followed Xi’er inside, where he saw a hall filled with brilliantly shining gold and jade. In moments, his father entered, assisted by some servant boys, and as son and father faced each other, they were choked with emotion. Wanshi then related to them the story of his misfortunes.

  Back when he originally brought Xi’er to this area, Ma spent several days searching for someplace where the elder Yang and his grandson could live together. Then he engaged a teacher to tutor Xi’er in reading.

  At the age of fifteen, Xi’er was admitted to the county school, and when he passed the imperial civil service examination at the provincial level the following year, Ma negotiated a marriage for him. Then he told the Yangs that he wished to leave. Xi’er wept, and tried to detain him. But Ma told them, “Rather than a human being, I’m really a fox immortal. I must be on my way now, for my companions have already been waiting for me a long time.” And thus he departed.

  Now, upon hearing Wanshi’s recounting of the past, Xi’er couldn’t help but grieve for his suffering. At his memories of the past tyranny they’d all endured at the hands of his uncle’s cruel wife, their former miseries felt all the more grievous. Consequently, he gathered together sufficient gold, took a horse and carriage to buy back concubine Wang, and then returned home with her. After a year had gone by, she gave birth to a boy, and on account of this, Wanshi made her his proper wife.

  For six months after she married the butcher, Yin carried on with her arrogant ways as she had in the past. But her husband finally became so furious with her that he took a filleting knife and cut holes in her thigh, through which he strung a coarse rope, hung her up from a beam in the house, with the rope pulling at her flesh, and then went out.

  Yin screamed in pain until she was hoarse, and a neighbor finally discovered what had been done. He untied her, and began to draw the rope from her wounds; as it was pulled out, she screamed in agony, shaking up the neighbors in all directions. Thereafter, whenever Yin saw the butcher coming, her entire body would stiffen in terror.

  Even after the wounds to her leg had healed, she continued to limp because of the rope fibers that had broken off inside her flesh; day and night, she was forced to labor for the butcher, never daring to slack off even a little. The butcher was a brutal man, and every time he returned home drunk, he would mercilessly whip and curse Yin without cause. It was with things in such a state, that Yin began to realize that in the past, she had treated the men in her family in precisely this fashion.

  One day, Yang Xi’er’s wife went with Wang to Putuo Temple, to burn sticks of incense, and as they approached the village, some of the peasant women came out to pay their respects to them. Yin was among them, disappointed that she wasn’t one of the women standing in front of the crowd. Noting her, Wang asked. “Who’s she?”

  “Butcher Zhang’s wife,” a servant replied. Then the servant stood in front of Yin, deriding her, and insisting that she kowtow to Wang.

  “Since this woman married a butcher, she should have no lack of meat to eat,” Wang laughed, “so why’s she such a skinny weakling?” Ashamed and remorseful, Yin went home and tried to commit suicide by hanging, but the rope was too weak to hold her, so she didn’t succeed in killing herself. Zhang subsequently became even more cruel to her.

  After another year passed, the butcher died. Yin ran into Wanshi while traveling along a road, and when she saw him in the distance, she began crawling towards him on her knees, tears falling from her eyes. Due to the servants on the spot, Wanshi didn’t say anything to her.

  He returned home and told his nephew what had happened, expressing his wish to bring her there. Xi’er absolutely refused to consider it. The villagers turned Yin away, and for a long time she had nowhere to live, so she ended up among a group of beggars.

  Wanshi continued to visit her at an abandoned monastery where the beggars were staying. Xi’er found this behavior disgraceful, so he instructed the other beggars to insult his uncle, and make him feel ill at ease, till finally he stopped coming to see her. I personally don’t know how things actually came out in the end, but I found the last several lines, written by Bi Gongquan, acceptable.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “There are men everywhere who fear their wives. But in all heaven and earth, no one can imagine there’d be someone like Yang! Isn’t he the oddball? I once wrote a sequel to the “Harmony Sutra,” and now I’d like to attach it here to get a smile from you:

  “‘It is a natural law that all livings things are created by heaven, and that we fundamentally rely upon the world to make us complete; a man should be eager to serve it any way he can, and especially needs a wife’s help. A couple can both experience life’s sweetness, while the wife has to bear its pain alone—she suffers ten months of groaning during pregnancy; she leaves the dry spot in the bed for her infant to sleep on, while she gets the wet one where the baby peed, spending three years of caring to earn both worry and happiness concerning her baby. The desire to carry on the family line and to attend to household duties is the reason why a man takes a wife; and they love each other and live in harmony.

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  I personally don’t know: One of Pu’s rare first-person intrusions indicating uncertainty regarding a source.

  Bi Gongquan: Zhu notes that Bi, whose courtesy name was Shichi, like Pu Songling lived in Zhichuan county, Shandong province. Bi passed the provincial-level imperial civil service examination in 1678, and became a literary celebrity (2:723n71). It’s possible that Pu had some inside knowledge about Bi also suffering a shrewish spouse, to justify this remark.

  A sequel to the “Harmony Sutra”: Zeitlin (128) notes that the attached material is drawn from two Pu Songling comic narratives on shrews, titled “The Classic of Henpecked Husbands” (papo jingshu), and “A Sequel to the Harmony Sutra” (miaoyin jing xuyan). The former is modeled on the style of classical philosophical treatises, while the latter is structured after Buddhist scripture.

  “‘If the wife alone takes charge of issuing all the orders for the household, then the husband’s authority over her is certain to be undermined. If the wife’s words to her husband then become impertinent, he must venture to challenge them; if it goes on for very long, their mutual respect will become eroded on the wife’s side. When the husband becomes the only party still feeling affection, he loses his masculine spirit.

  “‘If the woman in a family proves to be a cruel monster, it’s because the man in the family, normally hard as diamond, has become yielding; if the woman at home is too arrogant, the man, thought to be made of iron, proves submissive. The stick she uses to cudgel her husband isn’t the one used by other wives to pound their husbands’ laundry by moonlight; and the thin fingers she rakes across his face aren’t those of elegant ladies scratching their husbands where it itches. A henpecked husband should resign himself to a life of adversity, for a shrewish wife beating such a man is like a mother disciplining her child; for a woman to wield such power over a man, is contrary to marita
l harmony.

  “‘When a shrew throws a tantrum, the noise of her fit fills the street with curious bystanders; when her quarreling voice runs wild, it’s like the piercing cries of frightened birds. Alas for such hateful behavior! She shouts her appeals to heaven and earth, then with hair disheveled, threatens to throw herself down a well. What shame for the husband! Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she pretends like she’s going to go hang herself. At that moment, the coward husband is scared to death, his frightened spirit scattered everywhere.

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  Three years of caring: In the Analects, Hence, Confucius insists upon three years of mourning when parents die: “It is only after being tended by his parents for three years that an infant can finally leave their bosom” (Ames and Rosemont, Jr. 17.21.209). Cruel monster: Pu actually uses the term yecha, or yaksha; for the kind of overbearing female creature he’s suggesting here, see story #100, “The Yaksha Kingdom.”

  “‘Wouldn’t even Bei Gongyou and Meng Shishe, the bravest of men, be afraid of this kind of woman? A general’s spirit must be fierce as thunder and lightning, but when he returns home and enters his courtyard, soon he’s reduced to nothing; an official’s facial expression may ordinarily be cold as ice and frost, but when he reaches his wife’s bedroom, he finds a situation he can’t manage. Don’t women have a certain power that men can’t conquer? Otherwise, why are such manly figures so scared of them? It might be explained this way: does a man have to work to be obedient to a gorgeous beauty? Whereas when a shrew who looks like an ugly hag comes up to her husband, she wants to be treated like a fragrant flower.

  ‘When he hears her roaring like an angry lion, he’s frightened into raising his face to the sky to flatter her; when he hears the sound of her clucking like a mother hen, he knows he must submissively approach her, his body cringing.

  “‘The lecherous husband overlooks his shrewish wife’s shameful displays because he wants to continue having sex with her, just like the emperor Zhongzong, who was ridiculed by his descendants. If he found himself the son-in-law of a Fen Yang, in hopes of receiving a share of his father-in-law’s wealth and glory, he’d fawn on a shrew as his “dearest darling”; if he married into his wife’s family and took their surname, irrevocably enslaving himself to them, what could possibly be the point?

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  Bei Gongyou and Meng Shishe: Zhu explains that the point here is that both of these figures were men who, throughout their lives, never backed down from challenges (2:726n89).

  Zhongzong Emperor: This Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.) emperor was “totally dominated by his wife” (Paludan 97), the empress Wei, who appointed her own father chief minister upon her husband’s accession in 684. The weak emperor was ousted six weeks later.

  Fen Yang: Or Fen Yangyu, the name under which Guo Ziyi (697-781 C.E.) was ennobled. One of China’s most famous generals, Guo was distinguished by outstanding service to four Tang dynasty emperors (Mayers 103).

  “‘It seems to be acceptable that those destitute men, who have no self-esteem, allow their shrewish wives to throw their angry fits in hopes of the women’s generosity when their husbands pardon them afterwards; but wealthy men do so, too, their fortunes apparently having little effect when confronting a shrewish wife.

  “‘But can a woman hold her husband’s heart with such mean behavior? Can she control him by rigid restraints? If a couple can truly live and die together without betrayal, what will there be to lament in old age?

  “‘A jealous woman possesses her husband day and night, monopolizing him, to keep him for herself. It is this angry demon, complaining when her husband leaves her alone during the long, cold, night in an empty house, who pushes him into the arms of prostitutes.

  “‘The cicada’s leaving only its shell behind is like a husband escaping such a wife, a wife in turn who, like a black dragon, is only beloved when she’s left asleep; the timid husband hates the fact that even when driven by a fine whisk, his calf cart won’t be able to run as fast as a horse cart. A shrewish wife will kill someone she finds lying with her husband, only to discover later he was just sharing his bed with her own brother; she’ll tie her husband to the bed, and later discover that he’s been transformed into a miserable sheep.

  “‘A shrewish wife’s beauty lasts a short time, while her poisonous personality endures forever. If a man starts frequenting brothels, giving gifts to the prostitutes, he must suffer the guilt caused by his misdeeds; however, if a man is punished for no reason, no one—not even a Li Yang—would agree that it’s conscionable.

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  Li Yang: The strict governor of a remote prefecture in the time of Jin Wudi, founder of the Jin dynasty (265-420 C.E.). See Zhu (2:730n110).

  “‘She’s too jealous to annul the relationship with her husband; instead, in only a month she inundates their beautiful spring and the romance on the Lan Bridge. Or in some cases, when the husband has a gathering of guests, the wife just keeps the wine unopened, and from her room sends a note out to drive them all away; thus his friends will never come again, and the husband will be isolated.

  “‘A shrewish wife even keeps her husband separated from his brothers, causing tears for an entire family; she also abuses the children born by her husband’s former wife, marking a relationship like the one signified by the term “reed catkins.” It’s also the reason why, long ago, while drinking wine in a shop, Yang Cheng explained that he only cared about his brothers; and hence he asserted that even by the time he was seventy, he would never marry.

  “‘The ancients believed the reason for this was that Yang never wanted to have to conceal the pains of marital strife from them. Alas! A couple might live together for a lifetime, then finally become an ulcerous torment to each other; maybe the betrothal gifts they paid to secure their marriage merely turned out to be the price for their tormenting injuries.

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  Inundates . . . Lan Bridge: Pu uses the phrase cuhai, literally “a sea of vinegar,” to signify marital strife and to set up this flood metaphor. The Lan Bridge is located in Shaanxi province (Zhu 2:730n111).

  Signified by the term “reed catkins”: In ancient times, reed catkins were sometimes used in place of cotton wadding to insulate clothing. This attempt to use something that was available to take the place of something more valuable led to luhua, or reed catkins, being adopted as a term to signify “filial son” (Zhu 2:730-31n113). The shrew’s maltreatment of stepchildren either stands in for abuse of the husband, or punishes them (available) because she has no children of her own to displace them (more valuable).

  Yang Cheng: A Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.) figure, whose courtesy name was Kangzong, Yang retired to live in seclusion on Mt. Tiao after having passed the highest level (jinshi) of the imperial civil service examination (Zhu 2:731n114).

  “‘Although the man who fears his wife may be in full possession of his faculties, does he lack the courage to conquer his shrewish spouse? Or does he lack the courage to castrate himself in order to be freed from the burden of desire? Shrews are like detachments of soldiers—once they begin indulging in acts of wanton cruelty, there’s no easy way to stop them; and though they’re like tigers that may devour everyone around them, at least the victims can count on the power of the Buddha to help them in their next life.

  “‘Shrews are women whose misdeeds must be brought respectfully to the attention of heaven, and not until after they’re dead can they be spared from the cauldrons where criminals are boiled; for just as heaven can be moved to let the rains fall to germinate flowers, it can also intervene to end the torments caused by the Mountain of Swords in the underworld.

  “‘Just as we can follow the Buddha’s teachings to cultivate our moral character, to enter the world of blissful happiness after death, husbands and wives must love each other, while wives and concubines must live in harmony. Thus, if they follow the Buddha’s teachings, in the end
they’ll be relieved of all such worries, and shake off lust’s vexations. Ah! If you can address this long list of admonishments, you will do much to produce a sweet dew that will refresh the human race, for curing a shrew of jealous malice would mean giving her a whole new life!’”

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  Mountain of Swords: Daoshan, also translated as the Mountain of Knives, and Sword Mountain; Scholar Zeng discovers its function as a torturous punishment in tale #149, “A Sequel to the Yellow Millet Dream.”

  213. Kuixing

  Zhang Jiyu, from Yuncheng, was in bed, but hadn’t yet fallen asleep, when suddenly he witnessed a brilliant light fill the room. Startled, he squinted to focus and saw a spirit standing there, holding a writing brush, and looking like Kuixing, the god of literature. Zhang quickly got out of bed, and began kowtowing in obeisance. The light then dissipated.

  Zhang thus mistakenly assumed that he’d been given some kind of special blessing as a consequence of this portent. Afterwards, however, he unexpectedly found himself down and out, a complete failure; his family also began falling apart, his relatives dying one after another, until he was the last one alive.

  How was he to have known that Kuixing wasn’t appearing to him to announce good fortune, but rather disaster?

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  Yuncheng: A county in Shandong province.

  214. General She

  She Dayou, whose courtesy name was Junshi, was from Hanzhong, in Yang county. He qualified as a wuju, and followed his forefathers’ example by serving under the banner of the emperor. He was treated very well by the emperor, and was promoted when he helped to quash Wu Sangui’s rebellion.