Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  418. Another Frog God Tale

  The frog god often relied upon a particular mage to convey his words to people. The mage could observe whether the frog god was angry or pleased; when he told the god’s followers that the god was “happy,” they knew that good fortune was coming their way; if he said the god was “angry,” then the followers’ wives and children would sit and sigh, some of them becoming so distressed that they couldn’t eat. Was this just the prevailing custom? Or was it not entirely crazy to think that the frog god truly dominated them so completely?

  There was a certain rich merchant named Zhou, who had a reputation for being miserly. When the local people collected money so they could perform repairs on a temple, the poor and the wealthy joined their economic resources—except for Zhou, who alone was unwilling to give even the slightest contribution. After quite some time, they were no closer to being able to afford the work, and the man in charge of the project had no options to exercise.

  When it happened that a group of villagers gathered together to offer sacrifices to the frog god, the mage who was the god’s spokesman suddenly declared, “General Zhou Cang has put me in charge of raising money to

  _________

  General Zhou Cang: A fictional character from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a renegade who reforms himself in order to serve under the command of General Guan Yu. In chapter 77, following proof of Guan Yu’s death, Zhou takes his own life. repair this temple, and he wants you to give me the village accounts book.” The villagers did as the frog god asked.

  The mage then told them, “Everyone who has already contributed will not be forced to give more; but those who have not contributed yet must donate according to their capability.” The people crowded there all listened respectfully and agreed to this, so each of them wrote something in the account book. The mage then examined it and declared, “Which of you is Zhou the merchant?” Zhou had been trying to hide behind others in the crowd, but he was afraid the frog god would know where he was, so when he heard these words he turned pale and stepped forward.

  Pointing to the account book, the mage commented, “You’ve put down one hundred taels.” Zhou reacted with sheepish embarrassment. “Yet you’ve paid two hundred for a woman to drink with you,” the mage angrily chided, “so let’s see what you’ll offer for something truly worthwhile!” It turned out that Zhou had been secretly seeing a married woman, and when her husband caught them together, it had cost Zhou two hundred taels to settle the matter. Zhou felt even more ashamed for his miserly response, so he had no alternative but to comply with the frog god and contribute more.

  After he returned home, he told his wife what had happened. “This mage is just trying to swindle you,” she replied. The mage repeatedly made his demand, but in the end, Zhou refused to give any more.

  One day, while taking a nap, he suddenly heard what sounded like an ox snorting outside his door. He looked up and saw a giant frog that was just barely squeezing its body through his doorway, its gait ponderous and slow, blocking the way as it tried to enter. Once it was successfully inside, it turned its body around and proceeded to lie down, its chin on the doorway’s lintel, rousing the household and frightening everyone.

  “This thing has surely come to demand more money,” observed Zhou. He burnt incense and invoked blessings, offering immediately to give another thirty taels, then to donate more after that, but the frog didn’t budge; Zhou then begged it to accept fifty taels, prompting it suddenly to withdraw a bit, and it shrank by about a chi; he proposed giving an additional twenty taels, prompting the frog to continue getting smaller until it was about half its original size; when he asked the creature to accept the entire amount all at once, it shrank to the size of a fist, then unhurriedly left his doorway, crawled through a crack in the wall and disappeared.

  Zhou quickly took fifty taels and personally supervised the temple’s reconstruction, surprising people with his strangely sudden philanthropy, though the merchant said nothing about the motivation for his actions.

  Several days passed and the mage then declared, “This Zhou still owes fifty taels, so why not press him for them?” Zhou felt scared when he heard about this, so he quickly came up with another ten taels to settle the matter quickly.

  One day, Zhou and his wife were eating together when the frog arrived, just as large as it had been before, its eyes bulging furiously. Soon it crawled onto Zhou’s bed, causing the bed to wobble like it was going to collapse; it laid its enormous head down on the pillow and fell asleep, its stomach inflating and rising like a reclining ox’s, covering the entire bed. Zhou was so intimidated by this that he gave what added up to about a hundred taels. When he went to check in on the frog, however, it was still lying there, without having moved even a little.

  Half a day later, little frogs gradually started showing up, with more and more coming the next day till they filled the family’s storehouses and were climbing all over their beds, so no place was free of them; some of them, as big as bowls, hopped onto the stove to slurp up flies, but succeeded in spoiling the contents of the cooking pot by jumping into it, making the food cooking there inedible; after three days, the courtyard was crammed with their squirming bodies, so there was no way to avoid them.

  _________

  Chi: A length equal to 1/3 meter.

  The entire Zhou household felt unnerved and frightened by the situation, but they didn’t know what they could do about it. There was no alternative but to beg the mage for guidance. “It’s clear that this is happening because you’ve given too little,” replied the mage.

  Accordingly, when Zhou offered the huge frog another twenty taels, it began to raise its head; when he offered a bit more, it moved its feet; when the amount finally reached a hundred taels, it stood up on all fours, hopped down from the bed and went out the door with a few lumbering bounds, but then returned and proceeded to lie down in the doorway.

  Zhou was so shaken that he went back to ask the mage why the frog wouldn’t leave. The mage theorized that it had returned because Zhou hadn’t yet contributed enough. Zhou had no choice but to hand over his remaining money to the mage, at which point the frog then started moving, and once it was several hops away, its body began immediately to shrink rapidly as it mingled with the mass of smaller frogs, until it could no longer be distinguished from them, and one after another, they all gradually began to hop away.

  Once the temple had been rebuilt, more money was needed in order for effigies to be erected. The mage suddenly pointed to the chief benefactors and exclaimed, “Some of you need to take out some more money.” There had been fifteen contributors altogether, and only two of them weren’t included in the mage’s targeting. The others all entreated the frog god, “We did as we were asked and we’ve already given what you compelled us to give.”

  “I didn’t take from you according to whether you were poor or rich, whether you had money to spare or didn’t,” replied the frog god through the mage, “but determined the amount that guilt could force you to give. Thus you couldn’t use this money for your own benefit because you were afraid of suffering sudden misfortune. I figured that if you donated money for the temple’s reconstruction and worked diligently to see it rebuilt, I’d eliminate those worries for you. Except for those honest and upright individuals who are guilt-free, I won’t let anyone off the hook—I won’t even cover for the mage and his family, in fact I’ll order them to pay up first, to show the way for the others.”

  They then hurried to the mage’s home, where he started searching through chests and boxes. The mage’s wife asked him what he was doing, but he made no reply, emptying out everything that’d been stashed away in money bags, before announcing to the crowd, “I’ve been secretly hoarding eight taels in silver, but now I’m taking them all out.”

  He then weighed them on some scales with the crowd to determine that the amount was indeed only six taels in silver, then directed the crowd to note how much more he owed as his share towards the temple recons
truction. The crowd was stunned by this revelation but didn’t dare argue about it, so they collected his money. The mage had no memory of this matter later; but when others told him about it, he felt so greatly ashamed, that he even sold off some of his clothing to make up the other two taels that he owed.

  There were only two people who defaulted on the donations that they were told to make; once the temple was completed, one of them fell sick for more than a month, while the other was afflicted by terrible boils, and the expenses that they both had to pay for doctors and medicine exceeded the money that they’d owed to the temple project, so people said that this was the god punishing them.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “The frog god took charge of raising money for the temple, but wasn’t he also proved just in doing so, since he successfully secured funds owed by people who wouldn’t give them up under any other kind of coercion? He exposed the money that the mage and others had been hoarding, and since by forfeiting it they were able to fend off impending misfortune, illustrating the frog god’s power and strength, it was actually an act of benevolence.”

  419. Ren Xiu

  Ren Jianzhi, from Yutai, made his living as a dealer in woolen carpets and furs. Pulling together his financial resources, he departed on a business trip to Shanxi province. Along the road, he met a man who introduced himself as “Shen Zhuting, from Suqian.” They got along quite well as they conversed, and behaved towards each other like brothers, deciding that they should travel together.

  When they arrived in Shanxi, Ren fell seriously ill, but Shen was happy to watch over him. After ten days, however, Ren’s condition became much worse. He told Shen, “My family owns no property, and I have eight people to clothe and feed, so all of them depend upon me to keep them from starving. Now it’s my misfortune to die in a place far from my home. You’ve been a brother to me, and I’m two thousand li from home, so who else have I got! I have more than two hundred taels in my money bag, so please take half of them to have a modest coffin prepared for me and to help you with your travel expenses; send the other half to my wife, so she can pay to transport my coffin and I can return home. If you’re willing to carry my remains personally to my village, then you can keep all of the money for yourself.”

  Then as Shen held him up, Ren Jianzhi signed his money over to his friend, and later that night, he died. Shen took five or six taels, went to the marketplace for a cheap, flimsy coffin, then took it back and put Ren inside. The keeper of the inn where they’d been staying urged Shen to remove the coffin from his premises, so Shen claimed he’d go locate a temple, but then he simply ran off without paying his tab or returning for the coffin there.

  _________

  Yutai: A county in Shandong province.

  Suqian: A county in Jiangsu province.

  Li: Distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  It was a year later before Ren’s family was informed of his death. His son, Ren Xiu, who was seventeen at the time, was being tutored, but abruptly abandoned his studies because he wanted to find and retrieve his father’s coffin. His mother worried that he was too young for such a task, but Xiu began weeping piteously, so they mortgaged some of the family’s belongings to raise some money for the journey and for an elderly servant to accompany him, and the two of them returned with the coffin six months later.

  By the time they’d buried Ren Jianzhi, the family found itself absolutely destitute. Fortunately, Xiu was intelligent, and once he’d completed his period of mourning, he succeeded in the local civil service examination and received an appointment in Yutai. Yet he was also rather frivolous and enjoyed the thrill of gambling, and though his mother warned him quite sternly, he didn’t change his ways.

  One day, a provincial education commissioner arrived with his records to administer the annual examination, but Ren Xiu performed so poorly that he was demoted. His mother wept in anger and wouldn’t eat. Xiu felt so ashamed and frightened that he reassured her he would do better. For the following year, he shut the doors to his room, living on a scholar’s grant from the government, and studied until he was able to re-establish his first class ranking. His mother advised him to set up a school, but people assumed that he hadn’t changed his ways, so no one sent him any students.

  Xiu had a certain uncle Zhang who was conducting business in the capital and advised Xiu to join him there, offering to cover all his expenses so he wouldn’t have to spend any of his own money. Xiu was happy to comply, and traveled to the capital.

  They left to pursue Zhang’s business ventures, and the boat in which they’d been traveling moored just outside Linqing. At the time, a great number of boats conveying salt were anchoring there, their masts standing like a virtual forest. After they’d gone to bed, Xiu could hear both the lapping waves and the sound of men talking, creating enough noise that he couldn’t sleep.

  Then, after things finally had calmed down a bit, he suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of dice being tossed in the neighboring boat—music to his ears—which dominated his thoughts till, in spite of himself, the old desire to gamble returned. He furtively listened to the other travelers on his boat and as soon as they were all sleeping soundly, he took his money bag, which held a thousand copper coins, intending to climb over to another boat and gamble.

  He got up stealthily, untied his bag, and clutched the money inside—but then hesitated, uncertain, thinking back to his mother’s instructions, and finally returned the money to his bag and tied it up. After he went back to bed, his thoughts were so agitated that he couldn’t get to sleep. Thus he got up once again, opening his bag as he did before: in all, he did this three times. Finally, his desire to gamble got the best of him and he was unable to restrain himself, so he took his money and left.

  When he climbed over into a neighboring boat, he saw two men who were indeed gambling with significant stakes to wager. He put his money down on the deck and asked to join in the game. The two men were only too pleased to let him toss the dice with them.

  Xiu, however, began winning big. When one of the other men’s stake ran out, he took out a large denomination of money so the boat’s owner could give him small change for further gambling, and the gamblers raised the betting limit to ten strings of coins. They were merrily gaming once again when another man climbed aboard the boat, standing back and watching them for a long time before proceeding to open his money bag and take out a hundred taels, which he gave the boat’s owner in order to get change, and then the four began gambling together.

  _________

  Linqing: A county in Shandong province.

  Xiu’s uncle Zhang woke up at about midnight and discovered that Xiu wasn’t onboard, so when he heard the sound of dice being tossed, he realized where Xiu had gone and crossed over to the neighboring boat because he wanted to put a halt to Xiu’s gaming.

  Once he arrived there, he found that Xiu had accumulated a virtual mountain of money where he was sitting, so he didn’t say anything to him, instead picking up a few thousand coins and carrying them back to the other boat. He called for the other passengers onboard to wake up and help him transport Xiu’s winnings, which came to about ten thousand coppers altogether. Before long, Xiu had won all the copper coins from the other three gamblers, emptying their boat of them.

  The other three then wanted to start gambling with silver, but Xiu wanted to stop while he was ahead, arguing that he wouldn’t take a chance on gambling with anything but coins. His uncle Zhang was at his side and did his best to urge him to go back to the other boat.

  The three gamblers were very irritated about having lost. For a price, the boat owner offered to help them get back to tossing the dice by changing money with other boats, keeping a hundred coins from each thousand for himself. The gamblers gave him their money, making it possible for them to set the wagers even higher; before long, the trio once again had lost all their money to Xiu.

  Dawn was already filling the sky when they were told that the waterway to Linqing was open, so Xiu and Zhang p
icked up the money Xiu had won and returned to their boat. The three gamblers also left then. When the boat owner examined the two hundred silver taels he’d been given by the trio, he discovered that they’d turned entirely to ashes from the kind of paper tinsel that’s burned as offerings for the dead.

  Terrified, he looked for Xiu’s boat and told him what had happened, hoping that Xiu would compensate him for his loss. The boat owner asked him his name and hometown, and upon learning that he was the son of Ren Jianzhi, the man shrank back, perspiring with shame, and hastily retreated. It came to pass that when they inquired about the man among other boat owners, they subsequently learned that his name was Shen Zhuting.

  Xiu had heard this name upon first arriving in Shanxi; thus it seemed that ghosts had come to punish Shen by taking back from him the money he’d once taken from Xiu’s father, which is why Xiu and Zhang didn’t bother chasing him down for his former transgression. Xiu took the money to open a business in the north with his uncle, and by the end of the year, he’d made back his investment several times over. Then he took his share of the profits and secured himself a place as a student in the imperial academy. He continued to build upon the capital from his business venture till in ten years’ time, he’d become the wealthiest person in the region.

  420. Wanxia

  The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the date on which dragon boat races are held in the states of Wu and Yue. Trees are cut, trimmed and carved into the shapes of dragons, then armored scales are painted on while gold and green decorations are added; the tops of them feature grooved roof ridges and scarlet railings; their sails and banners are all embroidered brocade. The boats’ sterns end in dragon tails that stand a zhang in height, to which wooden planks, tied with cloth, hang down the sides so boys can sit on them, flip themselves upside-down, and perform all kinds of ingenious acrobatics; they constantly risk falling into the river waters below. That’s why the boys are first purchased for a sizeable fee from their parents, then taught the tricks they’ll perform, so if the boys happen to fall into the water and drown, the parents can’t complain.