Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 3

by Pu Songling

  As the evening darkness began to gather, Xiaoxie arrived, and the other girl jumped up to give her a welcoming hug, causing them to merge into a single body which then fell to the ground as though dead. The Daoist came out of his room, folded his hands in a respectful salutation, and turned to go on his way. Tao bowed gratefully to him and saw him off.

  By the time he returned, the girl had already regained consciousness. They helped her to bed, and the qi in her body gradually began to circulate more vigorously, though she grabbed her foot and groaned about the aching in her feet and legs, and it was only after several days that she was finally able to get up and about.

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  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  After this, Tao passed the civil service examination and was named to an official’s position. A man named Cai Zijing, who also took the exam when Tao did, happened to be passing through on business and stopped to stay with him for a few days. Xiaoxie was returning home from a neighbor’s house when Cai saw her from a distance, and hurried over to her so quickly that he practically ran over her; Xiaoxie turned away and rushed off to avoid him, privately furious about his insulting behavior.

  Cai confessed to Tao, “There’s a personal matter that might be rather shocking for you to hear about—may I speak of it?” Tao asked him what it was, and he replied, “Three years ago, my younger sister died suddenly, but after two nights her body went missing, and even now it remains a mystery. So when I saw your wife, I had to wonder: why does she look so much like my sister?”

  “She’s as common as a mountain bramble,” Tao smiled in reply, “so how could she possibly be as attractive as your sister? However, since you’re a fellow examinee, and an honorable friend, surely there can be no harm in introducing you to my wife.” He went inside, instructed Xiaoxie to dress in her burial clothes, and then they came back out.

  In amazement, Cai cried, “She is my sister!” Thereupon he began weeping freely. Tao quickly filled him in about everything that had happened. Overjoyed, Cai cried, “My sister isn’t dead, so I must hurry home, and give my parents the comforting news.” Then he left. Several days went by, and then the whole Cai family arrived. Afterwards they came and went there, just like the members of the Hao family.

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  The qi in her body: According to the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, “the qi of the human body flows in concert with that of heaven and earth” (59), and if this natural energy becomes blocked, health problems and even death can result. Conversely, unblocking the flow of qi stimulates health, as with the revival of Xiaoxie in her new body.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “To find one matchless beauty is a considerable challenge, so how can one possibly find two! This could only be accomplished by someone who wouldn’t just run off with a woman as soon as he’d met her. Was this Daoist an immortal? What celestial magic he possessed! If one has such magic, it’s possible to make a mate even of a horrible ghost.”

  225. The Hanging Ghost

  Scholar Fan was staying overnight at an inn. After dinner, he kept a candle lit as he went to sleep. Suddenly a maidservant appeared and placed a hooded robe on a chair; then she took the contents of a woman’s make-up case, lined them up one by one on a tabletop, and left. Presently a young woman came into the room, took the case, opened it up, then began to comb her hair while looking into its mirror; when she was finished, she coiled her hair up, secured it with a hairpin, and turned to begin pacing back and forth for quite a long time.

  When the maidservant had come in previously, she’d brought a wash basin with her. As the young woman finished washing, she dried her hands on a cloth, and afterwards the maidservant retrieved the basin of wash water and left. The young woman untied the hooded robe that had been laid out, took out some undergarments and a short cape, all of them as dazzling as though they were newly made, and then put them on. She closed the front of the robe and raised the collar, concluding her thorough preparations.

  Fan didn’t say anything, but felt that it was all very strange, though he figured she must certainly be preparing to elope, and had dressed in the formal attire to begin her travels. When the young woman had finished adjusting her appearance, she took out a long silk belt, solemnly looped it over one of the ceiling beams, and tied its ends together. Fan wondered at this.

  The young woman calmly stretched up on her tiptoes, craned her neck, and hanged herself. At the moment that she put the belt around her neck, her eyes closed at once, her eyebrows immediately jerked up, her tongue protruded from her lips more than two cun, and her complexion changed horribly to that of a ghost.

  Terrified, Fan fled from the room, shouting for the innkeeper, and when he examined the room, there was nothing to be seen. “Long ago, my daughter-in-law did such a thing here,” the innkeeper declared, “so mustn’t it have been her?” Alas, how strange! To have died and yet to continue reenacting the process that led to it—what else is there to say about it?

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “When one’s injustices are sufficiently extreme to lead one to commit suicide, how sad it is! The mortal human cannot imagine the bitterness that will result, and even the ghost cannot sense the consequences—only that it’s time for that unbearable moment, when, in full dress, one commits suicide. That’s the reason that after death one immediately forgets everything else, but retains the memory of that scene and moment, always seeming to be freshly reenacted: a sign of the bitterness that cannot be forgotten.”

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  Cun: A measure of length equal to 1/3 decimeter.

  226. The Painter from Wumen

  There was a certain painter from Wumen, I’ve forgotten his name, who enjoyed painting portraits of Patriarch Lü, but whenever he imagined the immortal’s appearance, he wished that one day he might be able to meet him in person. This sincere wish always lingered in his mind, and never diminished.

  One day, it happened that a crowd of beggars were drinking at the outskirts of town near the city’s outer wall, one of whom was a man with a worn robe that left his elbows exposed, but who nevertheless was wearing a completely contented expression. The painter suddenly felt moved by his appearance, and suspected that the man was really Patriarch Lü.

  When he looked more closely, he felt sure of it, and hastily grabbing his arm, the painter cried, “You’re Patriarch Lü.” The beggar laughed loudly at this. The painter insisted that the man was Patriarch Lü, then prostrated himself on the ground in submission, and wouldn’t get up.

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  Wumen: Ancient name for the area that is now Suzhou, in Jiangsu province.

  Patriarch Lü: Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals of Daoist lore, born circa 755 C.E., who overcame a series of ten temptations and earned thereby both magical knowledge and a “sword of supernatural power, with which he traversed the Empire, slaying dragons and ridding the earth of divers kinds of evil, during a period of upwards of four hundred years” (Mayers 157-8).

  “If I am Patriarch Lü,” the beggar declared, “what are you going to do about it?” The painter bowed his head, kowtowing, begging the immortal’s suggestions. Then the beggar told him, “You and I finally have a chance to become acquainted, and this is our fate. However, this isn’t the place for me to say anything, so let’s meet tonight to settle things.” The painter wanted to stop him from leaving, in order to ask him some questions, but when he turned to follow, hoping to speak with him, the beggar had already disappeared.

  Astonished, he sighed and went home. That night, the painter dreamt that Patriarch Lü appeared to him and said, “You’ve been concentrating on me, and your mind is sincere, which is why I came especially to see you. But your nature is avaricious and miserly, so you can’t become an immortal. I’m going to send someone to see you, and give you something to remember.”

  When he turned to the sky and gave a beckoning gesture, a bea
utiful woman, dressed and adorned like an imperial concubine, descended by walking lightly through the air, projecting a commanding presence and bearing, while a brilliant light illuminated the room. “This is imperial concubine Dong,” Patriarch Lü told him, “so take a good look at her and remember what you see.” After a bit, he asked him, “Will you remember her now?”

  “I’ve already committed her to memory,” the painter replied.

  The immortal advised him, “Don’t forget.” Presently the beauty left, and subsequently Patriarch Lü also departed.

  The painter woke up then, with a strange feeling about his dream, so he drew an image of the beauty and kept her in his mind, even though he couldn’t make sense of what it was they’d been talking about in the dream.

  After several years, it chanced that the painter was traveling to the capital. Consort Dong had died, and the emperor, concerned to commemorate her goodness, ordered that a portrait be made of her. All the painters were collected and had her appearance described to them, but no one could create a proper portrait of her.

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  Concubine Dong: An apparent reference to consort Xiao Xian, the major concubine of the Qing emperor Shunzhi (ruled 1644-1661). Xiao Xian, who died in 1660, was elevated posthumously to the title of empress (Paludan 190). See Zhu (2:785n6).

  The painter suddenly recalled the image of the woman from his dream—couldn’t she be Consort Dong? He made a painting, and then petitioned to submit it to the court. When officials there examined it, they all said that it was remarkably like her. Hence the emperor was going to make him a staff member of the imperial cabinet, but he declined, saying he couldn’t possibly accept the appointment; so the emperor accordingly rewarded him with ten thousand taels.

  As a result, he gained a widespread reputation. Relatives of the imperial family repeatedly vied to lavish money on him, begging him to create portraits of their ancestors. But when he hung up the finished works, everyone could see that they weren’t so true to life as the first portrait. Even so, in about twenty days, he accumulated several million taels. Zhu Gongkui from Laiwu met him once.

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  Laiwu: A county located in modern Shandong province.

  227. The Lin Family

  Qi Anqi, from Jinan, was frivolous and immoral, and enjoyed visiting brothels. His wife tactfully warned him to stop, only to be ignored. She was a member of the Lin family, lovely and virtuous. When the soldiers from the north stormed the area, she was captured and taken away.

  After sunset, once they’d made camp for the night, the soldiers wanted to violate her. Lin pretended like she was going to let them do so. When a soldier who was wearing a sword at his waist came to her bed, she quickly drew out his sword, slit her own throat, and died; the soldiers carried her body off and abandoned it in the wilds. The next day, they packed up camp and left.

  Someone brought word of her death to Qi, who began mourning, grief-stricken by her death, and then came to find her. As he was examining her carefully, she emitted a small gasp. He hoisted her onto his back and he carried her home, where her eyes gradually began to blink; then, knitting her eyebrows, she began to groan a bit; so cradling her neck, he raised her up, and with a bamboo tube trickled drops of water for her to drink, so she could swallow them.

  “There was only a one in ten thousand chance that you could have survived this,” Qi said, trying to comfort her, “and if I continue to betray you, may I come to a violent end!”

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  Jinan: The capital of Shandong province.

  Soldiers from the north: The Manchu soldiers who surged into China from the north and helped to overthrow the Ming dynasty and to establish the Qing dynasty.

  In six months’ time, Lin was restored to her former health; however, beneath her chin, there was a scar across her neck where the sword had been drawn, that was concealed whenever she’d look to the left. Qi didn’t think it ugly, and loved her much more deeply than he had in the past. His habit of visiting the brothel vanished. Lin felt self-consciously marked by her scar, and was about to go buy a concubine for Qi; but Qi firmly refused to allow her to do so.

  They lived there for several years, and Lin proved unable to bear a child, so she persuaded Qi to hire a maidservant for that purpose. Qi replied, “But haven’t I already sworn to you that you’re the only woman in my life, with all the spirits as my witnesses? If I have no descendants to carry on my name, then that is simply my destiny. If I’m not fated to be childless, won’t you eventually give birth?”

  Lin then claimed to feel ill, and sent Qi off to sleep by himself in another room; meanwhile, she dispatched her maidservant, Haitang, to go lay down at the foot of Qi’s bed. After a long time, she went and stealthily asked the maidservant if Qi had shown any interest in her. Haitang said he hadn’t. But Lin didn’t believe her.

  The next night, Lin warned Haitang not to go to Qi’s room, then went to pay a visit there herself, laying nearby like she was the maidservant. Soon she could hear the sound of Qi’s breathing as he slept. She secretly got up, climbed onto the bed, and started caressing Qi. When he woke up and asked who was there, Lin replied, “It’s me, Haitang.”

  Qi immediately pulled away, crying, “I’ve sworn an oath, and I dare not go back on it. If things were as they were some years ago, would I need you to approach me first?” Lin left the side of the bed and went out. Qi consequently went to sleep by himself.

  Lin then told Haitang to pretend to be her and to go to Qi’s bed. Qi thought about the fact that in all her life, Lin had never come to his bed uninvited, so he became suspicious; when he touched her neck, there was no scar there, and he knew it was the maidservant, so he cried out. The maidservant felt ashamed, and rushed away.

  In the morning, he expressed his feeling to Lin that they needed to marry off her maidservant. Lin laughed and replied, “You don’t need to bother. If she can give birth to a son for you, sir, then her presence here is very fortunate.”

  “If I turn my back on the oath I swore before all the spirits,” Qi replied, “wouldn’t they punish me for it, dashing my hopes ever to have any descendents?”

  The next day, smiling cheerfully, Lin said, “Since a farmer can’t tell which seedlings will actually prove productive, the common practice is to sow widely, so you can’t miss. Do enough plowing and hoeing at night, and eventually something will start growing.” Qi chuckled at this for some time.

  That night, Lin put out the light and called for Haitang, then sent her to slip in under Qi’s quilt. When Qi walked in and got into bed, he playfully remarked, “The plowman’s arrived. I’m terribly embarrassed that my hoe isn’t very sharp, but I’ve brought it with me to plow your fertile farmland.” Haitang didn’t say a thing.

  After a bit, as he prepared to make love to her, the maidservant, in a quiet voice, declared, “My tiny orifice is a bit swollen, so it can’t bear any rough action.” Qi then behaved gently. When they were finished, Haitang pretended that she had to get up to urinate, and then Lin took her place. From then on, once Haitang had another period, Lin and she repeated the previous arrangement, without Qi ever catching on.

  Before long, the maidservant’s belly began to expand. Lin generally had her sit quietly, and didn’t order her to do any of the work that she had done before. She deliberately took up the subject with Qi: “I tried to advise you regarding my maidservant, but you wouldn’t listen. If on that day you’d mistaken me for her, and she pretended to be me, with your coupling resulting in a pregnancy, what would you do?”

  “Keep the calf and sell the cow,” Qi replied. Lin had nothing else to say.

  Not long after this, Haitang gave birth to a son. Lin secretly hired a wet nurse, and the child was adopted into the home of Lin’s parents. Four or five years passed, with the maidservant producing an additional son and a daughter in this way.

  The son was named Zhangsheng, and at the age of seven, he started study at his
grandparents’ house. Every couple of weeks, Lin would return to her parents’ home to see the children.

  The older and more familiar that Haitang grew, the more often Qi had his wife send for her. Lin always agreed with what he asked. The maidservant was always thinking about her sons and daughter, so Lin sent her to her parents’ home and made her dress up in the style of a married woman. She told Qi, “The reason I’ve always refused to marry off Haitang is that there’s a righteous young man who works in my parents’ household and would be a good match for her.”

  Another several years went by, while Haitang’s sons and daughter all grew up. It happened that to celebrate Qi’s birthday, Lin prepared to invite relatives and friends for a banquet. Qi sighed and declared, “The years have sped by, and suddenly half my life is already over. I’m fortunate still to be strong and healthy, and my family’s never gone cold or hungry. The only thing I lack is a few children.”

  “You were stubborn,” Lin remarked, “and wouldn’t take my suggestion, so who’s to blame for that? However, would you still like to have a son, or better yet, two of them?”

  Qi smiled broadly and said, “If what you’re saying isn’t impossible, I’d love to have two sons by tomorrow, if that’s convenient.”

  “No problem,” cried Lin, “that’s easy!”

  The next morning, Lin got up early and went to her parents’ home, where she dressed up Qi’s sons and daughter in formal attire, then took them back home with her. When the children passed through the gate, they stood in line before Qi, then began kowtowing to their father while wishing him a happy birthday. When they finished offering their respects, they stood back up, and turned to each other, laughing merrily. Qi, astonished, didn’t understand what was going on.

  Lin explained to him, “You wanted two sons, and I added a daughter to them.” Then she explained everything in detail, from beginning to end. Qi was overjoyed, and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”