by Pu Songling
The older girl raised a foot and planted it on his belly, while the younger one had to cover her mouth to stifle her giggles. Tao felt himself shaking from the effort of trying to restrain himself from reacting, so he urged himself to remain calm and not to give in, and indeed managed to ignore them. The older girl then drew close and ruffled Tao’s beard with her left hand, while with her right hand she lightly rapped his cheek, making a small slapping noise as she did so. This made the younger one giggle even more.
Tao suddenly sprang up, reproaching them, “How dare you ghosts do this!” The two young women were startled and quickly ran away. Tao worried that they might come back in the night to cause him harm, and wanted to move back home, but then he considered what a disgrace it would be if he didn’t live up to the words he’d written, so he lit a lamp and began reading.
As it grew darker, apparitions started darting around him, but he didn’t look up at them, even briefly. At just around midnight, he extinguished the light so he could go to sleep. He had just closed his eyes when he felt someone poking a slender object up his nose, which caused such a strange itchiness that it provoked a mighty sneeze; then he heard the sound of someone’s muffled laughter from a dark portion of the room. Tao didn’t say a word, but pretended to doze off, waiting for them to try something else.
Soon he saw one of the girls take a strip of paper to tickle him on the thigh, and silently approach his bed; Tao jumped up violently, shouting at her, so she fled, fluttering away. As soon as he lay down again, she stuck something in his ear. He had to put up with their annoyances all night long. Finally, at the cock’s crow in the morning, all the noise from the night ceased, with Tao drifting into a sound sleep, and all day long, he didn’t hear or see either of the girls.
At sunset, they suddenly reappeared. Tao proceeded to light a fire to prepare his evening meal, and was planning to stay awake until dawn. The older girl gradually rested her folded arms on the table, so she could watch Tao read; after awhile, she unexpectedly shut his book. Tao angrily grabbed for her, but she’d already floated beyond his reach; a bit later, she slapped the book shut again. Tao then used his hands to hold the book open on the table while he read.
The younger girl crept up behind him and put her hands over Tao’s eyes, then immediately ran away to stand in the far corner, grinning. Tao pointed at her, cursing, “You damn little ghost! Once I get hold of you, I’ll finish you once and for all!”
The girls obviously weren’t scared in the least by this. Hence he playfully told them, “I don’t know anything about the techniques of lovemaking, so pestering me won’t do you any good.” The two girls grinned, then turned towards the stove, where they proceeded to split firewood and wash rice, then began cooking for Tao.
He observed this and encouraged them by saying, “Isn’t this better than that other foolishness you two were pulling?” Presently, when the rice congee had been prepared, they competed to be first to lay out spoons, chopsticks, and bowls on the table. “I had my doubts, but you’ve done good work for me, so how can I repay you?” he asked them.
The girls laughed and replied, “We mixed poison into your meal.”
“You don’t have any kind of grudge against me,” said Tao, “so surely you wouldn’t have added anything like that.” When he finished slurping down the congee, they filled his bowl again, rushing about in contention over who’d get to serve him.
Tao was so pleased about this, he quickly became accustomed to having them around. As the days passed, he became even more attached to them, till he finally asked them to have a seat so he could learn their names. The older girl told him, “I’m Qiao Qiurong; she’s Ruan Xiaoxie.” Then he asked them about their backgrounds.
“What a fool!” exclaimed Xiaoxie. “You haven’t yet revealed your feelings to us, so what’s the point of asking about our family status—are you considering marriage?”
Tao honestly told them, “I’ve never been indifferent to your beauty; however, any mortal man encountering the secrets of the underworld must certainly die. If you’re not happy living here, you can go; but if you’re content to stay, you can live with me in peace. If you can’t see your way clear to love me, why should two such beauties disgrace yourselves by remaining here? But if you can love me, why would you want to cause the death of a crazy scholar like me?”
The girls turned to look at each other, visibly moved, and henceforth they weren’t so mean in their teasing; nevertheless, at times they still groped with their hands under his shirt, or yanked his pants down to the ground, but he didn’t act like it was anything unusual.
One day, he went outside before he’d finished the task of copying a particular book, and when he came back, he found Xiaoxie with her head bent over his desk, a brush grasped in her hand, copying in his place. When she saw Tao, she tossed the brush aside and cast a sidelong glance at him, laughing. He drew near to scrutinize her characters, and though they were so bad that they didn’t really look like any kind of calligraphy, they were lined up very neatly.
“What refined taste and poetic accomplishment!” Tao said to her, by way of praise. “If doing this makes you happy, I’ll gladly teach you how.” Then after she gave him a big hug, he held her wrist and taught her how to draw her characters.
As Qiurong walked in from outside, her expression suddenly changed to reflect her jealousy. Xiaoxie laughed and said, “When I was a little girl, my father taught me how to write, and though I haven’t done anything with it for a long time, it’s like I’m remembering it from a dream.”
Qiurong had nothing to say. Tao could tell what her silence meant, but he pretended that he had no idea what she was thinking, and prevented her from leaving, handing her the brush with the words, “Won’t you show me what you can do?”
She wrote several characters, and when she stood up afterwards, he exclaimed, “Qiurong’s calligraphy is excellent!” That made Qiurong very happy. Tao thereupon tore a piece of paper in half and made them into models for the two girls to copy; then he took a lamp and went off to read elsewhere. He was secretly pleased that each of them now had something to work on, so they’d stop interrupting and distracting him.
When they finished their copying, they stood respectfully before the table where he was sitting, to hear his appraisal of their efforts. Because Qiurong didn’t know how to read, her scrawly calligraphy was impossible to make out, so when Tao finished making a few suggestions, she realized that her skill was inferior to Xiaoxie’s, and looked shamefaced. Tao encouraged and comforted her, till her expression began to brighten. The two girls from this point forward treated Tao as their teacher—while he was sitting they would scratch his back, and when he laid down, they massaged his legs, and not only did they avoid insulting him, they actively competed to fawn on him.
A month went by, and to Tao’s surprise, Xiaoxie’s calligraphy became much better, so he offered her some casual praise. Qiurong felt so ashamed that her makeup began to run, streaked by the lines of her tears. Tao tried many different ways to reassure her, and she finally stopped crying. He agreed to teach her to read, and discovered her to be possessed of an extraordinary intelligence, for if he pointed something out to her once, he never had to repeat the lesson again. She began competing with Tao in reading, often staying up all night to do so.
Xiaoxie then led her third brother to Tao, where he bowed respectfully to the scholar, hoping he could become Tao’s pupil. He was about fifteen or sixteen, and possessed an elegant appearance. He gave Tao a golden Buddha scepter, of the sort used in Jin-era ceremonies; the scholar then directed the boy to work on the same classic that Qiurong was studying. The hall was filled with the sound of students reading aloud; and Tao realized then that he’d managed to establish a school for ghosts.
Master Jiang was overjoyed when he heard about this, and began paying him a regular salary. By the time that several months had passed, both Qiurong and her third brother proved able to compose poetry, so they spent their time reciting poems to each
other. Xiaoxie confidentially advised Tao not to teach Qiurong anything further, and he agreed not to do so; Qiurong privately urged him not to teach Xiaoxie anything else, and he also assented to her request.
One day, as Tao was just about to head off to participate in a civil service examination, the two girls clung to each other, in tears. Third brother commented, “You could ask for an exemption because of illness; otherwise, I’m afraid it’ll be very unlucky for you to go.” Tao told them that he’d consider it disgraceful to claim sickness as an excuse, and then he went on his way.
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Jin-era ceremonies: The Jin dynasty spanned 265-420 C.E.
Earlier, Tao, who had a real knack for composing poetry that satirized current affairs, had offended a local nobleman, who daily contemplated ways to avenge the slight. The nobleman secretly bribed the examiners to accuse Tao falsely of misconduct, with the result that he was subsequently arrested. When the money that he’d brought for traveling expenses ran out, he had to beg food from other prisoners, and he was already considering that he wouldn’t be able to live this way for long.
Suddenly someone magically appeared to him— Qiurong, bearing a banquet she’d prepared just for Tao. All choked up, she faced him with a sad look, and declared, “Third brother thought you’d meet with misfortune, and now he’s been proven right. He came with me, and he’s gone to the provincial governor’s office to see what can be done to right this wrong.” She disappeared after speaking these words, and no one else had seen her.
The next day, when the provincial governor walked out from his office, third brother blocked his way, bowing and crying out his grievance, which the governor agreed to investigate. After visiting Tao in the prison, Qiurong returned to see how her brother was succeeding, and for three days she didn’t come back to see Tao. He was so worried, hungry, and bored, that each day felt like it was a year long.
Suddenly Xiaoxie arrived, sighing grievously like she wanted to die, and told Tao, “When Qiurong went back home, she passed through the Temple of the City God, and in the West Gallery, the Black Panguan kidnapped her, to force her into becoming his concubine. Qiurong absolutely refused him, so now he’s also imprisoned her. I rushed a hundred li to get here, running so hard it nearly destroyed me; when I reached the north wall, a horrible old thorn jabbed through the sole of my foot, and the pain penetrated to the very marrow of my bones, so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make it back.” When she showed him her foot, it was drenched in rivulets of dark red blood. She took out three gold taels, then began limping away and vanished.
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Black Panguan: A panguan was “a decision-making official, from antiquity inheriting the connotation of judging” (Hucker 363).
The provincial governor had determined by that time that third brother had no direct connection to Tao, and that he couldn’t prove that the accusations against Tao were false, so the governor was just about to have him flogged, when third brother suddenly flung himself to the ground and disappeared. It was very strange. Then the governor actually read third brother’s written complaint, and its words moved him to feel a great sorrow.
He had guards bring Tao to him for questioning, and asked, “Who is this third brother?” Tao pretended that he didn’t know who the governor was talking about. The governor realized that an injustice had indeed been done, and saw to it that the scholar was exonerated.
When Tao returned home, no one appeared to him during the evening hours. Late that night, Xiaoxie finally arrived, and explained in grievous misery, “After third brother returned to the governor’s office, a guardian spirit there conducted him to one of the departments in the underworld; the Hell King recognized third brother’s righteous deeds, and ordered that he be reborn into a wealthy, influential family. Qiurong has been held against her will for a long time; I took a petition to the city god, but it was simply filed away on a shelf, and I was denied access to her, so now what am I going to do?”
“How dare that black demon do this!” cried Tao in anger. “Tomorrow I’m going to attack his image and trample it into the mud, rebuking the city god to remind him of his duty. To have allowed his official to commit such violence as this—he must have been stuck in some kind of drunken dream!” They sat together sharing their sorrow and indignation, unaware that it was almost time for the fourth watch to end.
Qiurong suddenly floated into view. Amazed and overjoyed, the other two quickly asked her what had happened. With her tears flowing down, she replied, “I’ve suffered countless torments for you! The Black Panguan forced me to endure knives and whips daily, but tonight he suddenly released me so I could come home, and told me, ‘I had no other reason for doing this, but that I desired you; but you were unwilling to return my feelings, so I never forced myself on you. I must ask you to report this to Tao, who in time will become Minister of Punishments, so he won’t condemn me.’”
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Fourth watch: The fourth of the five two-hour divisions of the night, covering approximately 1:00-3:00 a.m.
Tao was relieved to hear this, and immediately wanted to sleep with Qiurong, telling her, “Today I want to die in your embrace.”
The two women solemnly responded, “Your teaching has enlightened us, and now we clearly understand the principles of just behavior, so how could we bear it if loving you caused your death?” They insisted that they couldn’t do it. However, they bowed their heads to him submissively, just like obedient wives. Owing to the ordeals that both women had endured, any thoughts of jealousy completely disappeared.
One day, a Daoist priest who was passing Tao on the road turned and told him, “Your body has a ghostly emanation.” Tao thought this comment so unusual that he told the Daoist everything that had happened to him. “These ghosts have a great love for you—don’t let them suffer any further,” said the Daoist.
Then he drew characters on two paper talismans, and handed them to Tao, instructing him, “Go home and give these to the ghosts, then let fate work out what will happen: when you hear the crying of women outside your gate, have the ghosts swallow the talismans and then hurry outside, for the first one to arrive there will be able to return to life.”
Tao thanked him profusely for his instructions, then returned home and told the two women what they must do. After more than a month, it happened that they heard the sounds of women weeping outside. The two ghosts raced each other to arrive first. Xiaoxie was so preoccupied with the urgency of it all that she forgot to swallow her talisman. They saw a funeral carriage passing by, so Qiurong ran right up to it and vanished into the coffin it was carrying; Xiaoxie, however, couldn’t get in, and crying her heart out, she returned.
Tao came out to take a look, and discovered that the coffin belonged to a daughter of the wealthy Hao family. All of the mourners had seen a girl disappear into the coffin, so they were all shocked and bewildered; presently, hearing a sound from inside the coffin, they stopped to open it up and investigate, discovering that the daughter inside had come back to life. They quickly set the girl down outside Tao’s study, then gathered protectively around her.
Suddenly she opened her eyes and asked for scholar Tao. When the head of the Hao family asked her why she wanted to see him, she replied, “I’m not your daughter.” Then she told him about her love for Tao. Rejecting what he was hearing, Hao wanted to carry the girl home; but she wouldn’t budge, instead rushing into Tao’s study, where she lay down, refusing to get up. Hao then acknowledged Tao as his son-in-law and went away.
Tao drew near to examine her, and even though her facial features were unfamiliar to him, her countenance was no less radiant than Qiurong’s. He felt elated, gratified beyond his wildest expectations, and ardently told her he would always love her.
Suddenly they heard the mournful sound of a ghostly weeping, as Xiaoxie sobbed from a dark corner of the study. Tao’s heart went out to her in pity, and he moved towards her with a lam
p, speaking lovingly to sooth her great distress, but the front and the sleeves of her robe were soaked with her tears, and she remained inconsolable. Near daybreak, she finally left.
With the dawn, Hao sent maidservants and some older women to convey the substance of his daughter’s dowry to the scholar, the old man truly treating Tao as his son-in-law. That night, when the couple entered their bedroom, they were met by the sobbing of Xiaoxie. This went on for six or seven nights. Tao and Qiurong were made so completely miserable by this that they were unable to consumate their marriage.
The scholar anxiously thought about what to do, but couldn’t come up with an answer. Qiurong remarked, “That Daoist is an immortal. Go back and plead with him, to see if he’ll help us out.” Tao considered this the right thing to do.
He traced the Daoist to the place where he was living, kowtowed and prostrated himself, then explained his problem. The Daoist maintained that he possessed “no magic.” Tao wouldn’t cease his plaintive appeals. With a smile, the Daoist declared, “This foolish scholar certainly knows how to pester a person. But it’s only fitting, since we share a certain karmic affinity, that he should ask me to do what I can with my artifice.”
Then he followed Tao home, requested a quiet room, shut the door and sat down, warning the scholar that he mustn’t be disturbed. For more than ten days, the Daoist neither drank nor ate anything. When they secretly took a peek at him, they saw that his eyes were closed, as though he were deep asleep.
At dawn one day, a young woman pulled aside the curtain to their bedroom and entered, her eyes sparkling bright and teeth gleaming white, radiantly shining. “I’ve been walking all day long,” she said with a chuckle, “so I’m really bushed! You wouldn’t stop with the pestering, so I had to run all over a hundred li to find a suitable body, and the immortal will be here soon with Xiaoxie. When she sees this body, he’ll bring them together and then turn her over to you.”