Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 3

by Pu Songling

  One day, it happened that Ma was again taking food without paying for it, recklessly causing trouble for the people in the marketplace. Zhu pitied them, so he forthrightly compensated them for what Ma had taken. Then he took Ma home with him, and offered him several hundred taels, in order for Ma to make a fresh start.

  Ma left, unwilling to discuss setting up a business, and instead settled down to live off of the money Zhu had given him. Before long, he used up the money, and then continued his old habits. But he was often haunted by his encounter with Zhu, and he ended up going to a nearby village.

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  Qi: The ancient feudal state located in the northeastern part of modern Shandong province.

  That night, he slept at a Confucian temple, where he was cold all night long, and he kept taking food offerings from the altar to Confucius, and burned the boards held by the effigies there to keep warm. The county-appointed education official in the temple learned of this, and angrily wanted to punish him for his actions. Ma said he was sorry about what he’d taken, and he wished to go get some money to pay for it. This pleased the official, who released him so he could go.

  Ma then went looking for a particularly prosperous scholar, called at his house, and aggressively demanded money from him, which just make the scholar angry; then Ma pulled a knife and slashed himself, falsely accusing the scholar and publicly denouncing him. Subsequently, through repeated bribes to the official, he was absolved.

  All of the local scholars then banded together and solicited the county magistrate to pursue the matter. The magistrate, an honest, upright man who investigated the matter and uncovered the truth, ordered that Ma be subjected to forty lashes, and then that he have a wooden cangue placed around his neck, with the result that three days later, Ma died.

  That night, old Zhu dreamed that Ma was dressed as a scholar and appeared to him, saying, “I betrayed your virtuous generosity, so now I’ve come to make it up to you.” Upon awakening, Zhu’s wife presented him with a son. The old man knew that this was Ma’s doing, so he named the child Ma’er.

  When he was a boy, Ma’er wasn’t very bright, but Zhu was pleased that he could read. Once the young man turned twenty, Zhu did his utmost to send him to the village school.

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  Wooden cangue: A broad, heavy collar placed on criminals.

  County-appointed education official: A Qing dynasty appointment. The xueguan was a generic reference to “all officials engaged in school instruction, especially in Confucian Schools” (Hucker 252).

  Later on, when Ma’er was lodging at an inn while waiting to take the civil service examination, he happened to be lying down for a nap one day, when he noticed an entire eight-part essay pasted up on the wall; as he looked more closely at it, he saw it was titled “The Nature of a Dog,” with four sentences outlining the subject matter, and since he was already afraid of the difficulty of the exam, he read the paper on the wall and memorized it. When he entered the test area, he found out that it had indeed identified the subject matter of the examination, so he set to work, with the result that his essay was considered first-rate, and he became a linsheng. Once he was over sixty, he served as a teacher and lecturer in a neighboring town.

  Serving as an official for several years, he didn’t have a single sincere friend. When people pulled out money from their sleeves, that alone would make him laugh like a cormorant; otherwise, with his eyelashes a cun long, he’d open his eyes wide at visitors, like they were strangers.

  By chance the county magistrate ordered him to judge some matters involving other scholars, whom he punished with oppressive sentences, like he was punishing bandits. If the man facing a particular lawsuit was rich, he could be sure to find Ma’er knocking at his door. There were many more such cases, until the zhusheng couldn’t stand it any longer. He was nearly seventy years old, his joints swollen, hard of hearing and dim-sighted, and he frequently consulted men about using knotweed medicine.

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  Eight-part essay: The so-called bagu, or “eight-legged essay” (see Chang and Chang 18-19), a term that colloquially has come to mean “too rigid in style.”

  Linsheng: Certain students in government schools were designated as linsheng, or “stipend students,” and received stipends while also being “certified as best qualified to participate in Provincial Examinations” for the civil service recruitment process (Hucker 313).

  Laugh like a cormorant: Chinese folklore maintains that the cry of the cormorant, pleased when it scoops up a fish, sounds something like the laugh of a money-mad miser (Zhu 821n19).

  Cun: A length equal to 1/3 decimeter, or about 1.33 inches.

  There was a certain madcap scholar, who used madder roots to mock him. At daybreak, when people gathered together for the official to examine them, they found what looked like a shrine effigy, moulded in the likeness of Ma’er. He was so angry, that he went to have the scholar arrested; the scholar, however, had already fled the previous evening. After that point, the official’s spirit began to fail, with the conclusion that several months later, he died.

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  Zhusheng: A successful candidate in the lowest level of the imperial civil service examination.

  Knotweed: Two members of the Polygonum genus are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and would be helpful for Ma’er. Snakeweed (Polygonum bistorta) is used to “increase mental clarity” (Bremness 206), while the “slightly toxic rhizome and leaves” of knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum; known in China as heshouwu) is used to “activate blood circulation, clear toxins, and aid tissue regeneration (Bremness 209).

  Madder: A reddish-brown root that yields dyes like “the rich red alizarin, used on cloth, hair, and leather” (Bremness 211). The scholar dyes his mock effigy bright red, so it appears like one of the angry or mighty god effigies, lampooning the official’s overzealous punishments.

  241. The Bureau of Examination Frauds

  Wen Rensheng was from Henan. He’d been laid up in poor health for days, when he saw a xiucai enter and bow at the foot of his bed, modestly and politely, like he was visiting a superior. Shortly afterwards he asked Wen to take a short walk with him, supporting Wen by the arm as he chatted incessantly for a long time, and even though they’d traveled several li, the xiucai still hadn’t said farewell.

  Wen stopped walking any further, saluted the other man courteously with folded hands, and prepared to take his leave. “I’ve troubled you to come all this way, and I continue to bother you further,” the xiucai said, “since I have a favor to ask of you in a matter.” Wen inquired what it might be.

  The xiucai replied, “The men in my family are under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Examination Frauds. The department chief is called the Empty Belly King of the Ghosts. When the King of the Ghosts first interviewed me, he said that precedent requires having some flesh cut from my thigh, so I’m asking for you to intercede for me.”

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  Xiucai: A scholar who had passed the imperial civil service examination at the county level.

  Li: A Distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  Bureau of Examination Frauds: A sardonic commentary on Pu Songling’s sense of the widespread corruption associated with the imperial civil service examinations—see volume one, pp. xv-xix.

  Startled, Wen asked him, “What crime was it that you committed to bring this upon you?”

  “I didn’t need to commit a crime,” replied the xiucai, “it’s simply his long-standing practice. If I’d offered him a bounteous bribe, I would’ve been freed from the punishment. However, I’m poor.”

  “I’ve never had any contact with the King of the Ghosts,” said Wen, “so how could I possibly influence him?”

  The xiucai replied, “In a previous life, you were of the same generation as his grandfather, so it’s only right that he should heed your request.”

  In the course of their
conversation, they passed through the city walls. They came to a government office, but the building wasn’t very spacious, and had only a large hall; there were two stone tablets standing at the threshold of the hall, flanking a green book bigger than a wicker basket, with one tablet reading “Filial Piety and Fraternal Duty, Loyalty and Trustworthiness,” the other reading “Propriety and Righteousness, Sense of Honor.”

  Wen wavered at steps leading up to the hall, then proceeded till he saw a banner hanging above the hall, displaying “Bureau of Examination Frauds” in large characters. Between the pillars, there was a plaque engraved with green characters that combined to read, “The underworld school attaches great importance to enlightening the people by educating them in moral integrity; students at every level gather here to learn the public ceremonies, as pupils of the King of the Ghosts.”

  He hadn’t yet finished looking at everything before an official stepped out, his hair curling out over his hunched back, as though he was several hundred years old; his nostrils were turned upwards, and his lips stuck out from his face, as though they could barely contain his teeth. Following him was the secretary in charge of the official’s register, who had a tiger’s head and a human body. Then more than ten men lined up to wait on them, half of them as fierce-looking as predatory owls.

  The xiucai announced, “This is the King of the Ghosts.” Wen approached in horrorified dread, though he really wanted to step back and run away. The King of the Ghosts had already noticed him, and walked down the steps towards Wen with his hands clasped in greeting, making polite inquiries about him. Wen merely grunted affirmatively.

  Then the King of the Ghosts asked him, “On what business have you come to visit me?” Wen then expressed what he had been told by the xiucai. The King’s pleasant expression changed as he exclaimed, “There’s a precedent for this, instructions from my father that I dare not disobey!”

  The atmosphere turned frigid like the severe cold of a forest, as the King of the Ghosts implied that the matter must go no further. Wen didn’t dare say anything, so he suddenly stood up to take his leave. The King of the Ghosts walked beside him, accompanying him, and didn’t turn back until they were already outside the building’s gates.

  Wen didn’t go home, but instead secretly returned to observe what the King would do. By the time he arrived outside the hall, the xiucai was already waiting with a number of other men, their arms tied tightly. A ferocious-looking man came forward, holding a knife, then exposed the xiucai’s thigh, and cut off slices of flesh, that altogether might have been about the size of three fingers.

  The xiucai screamed himself hoarse. Wen, who couldn’t just stand by while this happened, became so angry that he couldn’t restrain himself from crying out in a loud voice, “How can the world be capable of such cruelty!” Startled, the King of the Ghosts stood up, immediately ordered the man to stop cutting, then quickly rushed over to welcome Wen.

  The scholar, however, had already stormed out indignantly, and was spreading word to the townspeople, intending to make a formal complaint to heaven. Someone laughed and exclaimed, “How ridiculous! Where in heaven are you going to look for someone to complain to that there’s been an injustice? The only thing to do in such a case is to make your accusations to the Hell King, and maybe he can do something about dealing with it.” Then they showed Wen how to find him.

  He hurried off on his way till he saw palace steps leading to a throne of daunting authority, where the Hell King was seated; Wen prostrated himself on the stairs and made a series of bows. After hearing the scholar, the Hell King determined to summon the King of the Ghosts for interrogation, so he sent a group of ghosts, carrying maces, to tie him up and to retrieve him.

  In a short while, the King of the Ghosts came forward, together with the xiucai. Examining him carefully, the Hell King found the xiucai to be a man of reliable sensibility, and declared in outrage to the King of the Ghosts, “I pitied you because you had worked hard in your previous existence, so I temporarily entrusted you with this appointment while you were waiting to be reborn into a wealthy family; yet you dare do this! Now we’ll take away your good tendons and connect them to wicked bones, with the additional punishment decreed that for generation after generation, you may not fulfill your ambitions of achieving high position!”

  The King of the Ghosts was then whipped, and as he fell to the ground, the jolt knocked a tooth out; they took a knife and cut off his fingertips, drawing out tendons that were a shining white, like silk. The King of the Ghosts squealed in pain, like a pig being butchered. Once they’d finished drawing the tendons from his hands and feet, two ghosts took him away.

  Wen kowtowed to the Hell King, and took his leave. The xiucai followed after him, moved by the scholar’s earnest efforts on his behalf. He drew Wen along with him past a marketplace, where they saw a doorway with a red curtain hanging in front of it, and inside there was a young woman with half of her face showing, whose looks and make-up were absolutely beautiful.

  “Whose house is that?” Wen asked him.

  The xiucai replied, “That’s a brothel.” As they were about to pass by, Wen lingered there, then firmly assured the xiucai that it wasn’t necessary to see him off. “You came here for me,” the xiucai replied, “so I can’t leave you alone when I feel obligated to accompany you.” Wen adamantly reaffirmed his intention, and then the xiucai departed.

  As soon as he saw the xiucai receding in the distance, Wen hurried back to to the brothel. The woman welcomed him, and he found her looks very pleasing. Once they’d entered a room and sat down together, they asked each other their names. “My surname is Liu,” the young woman explained, “and my first name is Qiuhua.”

  An old woman went out and brought back some snacks and wine for them. When the wine was finished, they entered a curtained area, where their lovemaking was especially intense, and afterwards they concluded that they should marry.

  At daybreak, the old woman entered and said, “Now that our savings has run out, I need to draw upon your money—so how about it!” Wen, suddenly worried that his money bag was empty, felt so anxious and embarrassed that he couldn’t reply.

  After a long pause, he explained, “I truly never carry more than a few copper coins, but I can write receipts for what I owe, so when I return home, I can repay people.”

  The old woman’s face changed expression as she demanded, “Have you ever before heard of a prostitute agreeing to be paid that way?” Qiuhua frowned, and didn’t utter a word. Wen pawned some of his clothing to give the old woman some money. Once she had it in hand, she laughed and said, “This still isn’t enough to repay me fairly for the wine.” She kept prattling on about not being completely satisfied, then she took Qiuhua somewhere else inside the house. Wen felt ashamed.

  Moments later, he was still hoping that Qiuhua would open the curtain and they could discuss the marriage plans they’d set up the previous night. For a long, long time he didn’t hear a sound; reaching the limit of his patience, he went to peek at what was happening, and saw the old woman with Qiuhua—which made him blink his eyes in disbelief, since from above the shoulder they’d changed into ox-headed demons.

  Terrified, Wen ran outside; he wanted to go home, but from the hundreds of paths to choose, he didn’t know which to follow. He asked some townspeople, but no one recognized his village’s name. He paced back and forth past households and shops for two days, with a sour taste in his mouth as his guts growled in hunger, yet his going back-and-forth wasn’t getting him anywhere.

  Suddenly the xiucai came passing by, and when he saw Wen from a distance, he was startled and cried out, “Why haven’t you headed home, instead of hanging around here irreverently?” Wen blushed and admitted he didn’t know the right way to go.

  “Now I know what’s going on!” the xiucai told him. “You were attracted by that yaksha prostitute, weren’t you?”

  Then feeling quite angry, the xiucai approached the women and exclaimed, “Qiuhua, and you, old woma
n, how hastily you’ve changed your faces!”

  The xiucai left for a little while before returning to hand over Wen’s pawned clothing, saying, “That wicked maidservant was impertinent, and I’ve already scolded her about it.” He accompanied Wen till they arrived at his home, then the xiucai took his leave and departed.

  Wen, who had suddenly died three days earlier, revived, and described the entire experience.

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  Yaksha prostitute: Qiuhua was actually a yaksha, a Buddhist nature spirit or demon, often considered a guardian of “treasures and secrets” (Bonnefoy 124), generally benevolent, though inclined to mischief. Unlike their grotesque, big-bellied male counterparts, female yakshas may be quite attractive—at least, some of the time.

  242. Yama, the Hell King

  Xu Gongxing, from Yi prefecture, has said that there were nights when he became Yama, the Hell King. There’s a Scholar Ma in Yi who also did this. When Xu heard about him, he paid a visit to Ma’s family, and then asked Ma, “What business did you have to deal with in the underworld last night?”

  Ma told him, “It wasn’t anything special—I accompanied Zuo Luoshi as he was promoted to heaven. An enormous lotus flower, the size of a house, fell from the sky in response.”

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  Yi prefecture: Located in modern Shandong province’s Linyi county.

  Yama, the Hell King: There is a tradition of the lord of the underworld, the ultimate judge and chief of the bureacracy of the dead, having certain mortals stand in for him on occasion. See “Justice After Death: Pu Songling and the Tradition of the Hell King,” in volume two, pp. xxi-xxix.

  Zuo Luoshi: Zuo Moudi (1601-46), who gave himself the courtesy name Luoshi, after the mountain where his father died. A native of Jiayang, Shandong province, Zuo by the age of thirty had passed the highest level of the imperial civil service examination. On his career in public service, see Zhu (2:826n3).