Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  When Changong returned home by boat, Qiulian was overjoyed, but she advised him not to mention to his parents what had happened.

  About two or three years after Changong returned home, his father, Mu Xiaohuan, traveled to the south on business, but after several months’ absence, he still hadn’t come home. The lake water stored at home for Qiulian to take with every meal had almost run out.

  Qiulian then fell ill, panting rapidly day and night, and counseled Changong, “If I should die, don’t bury me, but at daybreak, at noon, and in the evening, recite Du Fu’s poem, ‘Dreaming of Li Bo,’ and even though I’m dead, my body won’t decay. Wait until you have the waters fetched from the lake, then pour the water into a tub, close the door, loosen my clothing, and immerse me in the lake waters—I should revive.” After several days of gasping for breath this way, she suddenly died.

  _________

  Du Fu’s “Dreaming of Li Bo”: A sequence of two poems written by Du Fu (712-90 C.E.), musing on his separation from his dear friend, China’s most famous poet, Li Bo (699-752 C.E.). Li’s mother reportedly dreamt prior to his birth that the planet Venus “shot down from heaven and entered her bosom” (Mayers 129), explaining why he was so uniquely gifted as a poet. The poem can be found inYip (284-7) and Hinton (35).

  Half a month later, as soon as his father had arrived, Changong quickly did as Qiulian had instructed him, and after being immersed a single time, she began to revive. From that point on, Qiulian’s thoughts always turned to the lake. Thus, after his father died, Mu Changong followed Qiulian’s suggestion and moved south with her.

  422. The King

  The provincial governor of Hunan sent an aide to escort a shipment of six hundred thousand taels in silver to the capital. While the escorts were on the road at nightfall, it began raining, and though there were no establishments to put them up for the night, they happened to see an ancient temple in the distance and settled in there.

  At daybreak the next morning, they discovered that the taels were gone without a trace. The shocked escorts had no one they could blame for the loss. They returned and the aide reported the incident to the provincial governor, who considered his account preposterous and was on the verge of having him arrested.

  When the servants from the escort group were interrogated, there were no discrepancies between their reports and the aide’s. The provincial governor thus ordered his aide to return to the temple site and to search carefully for any clues to the cause of the disappearance.

  As they arrived before the temple, they spotted a blind man there with bizarre facial features who held a plaque that read, “I can tell what’s on your mind.” Hence the aide asked him to divine what he was thinking about. “The missing money is your problem,” replied the blind man.

  “That’s so,” the aide acknowledged. He proceeded to tell the man about the loss he’d previously suffered.

  The blind man requested a sedan chair and informed the aide, “If you go with me, you’ll find out what happened.” The aide did as the man said, directing the servants with him to follow after them. The blind man called out, “East.” So they traveled east. “North,” directed the blind man. Thus they proceeded north.

  In all, they journeyed for five days, heading deep into the mountains, until suddenly they observed some city walls, with crowds of people walking around inside them. Passing inside the walls, they continued moving for a short time before the blind man called, “Stop here.” He stepped down from the sedan chair and pointed to the south, declaring, “You’ll see there’s a tall gate facing the west, and if you request to be let in, you can ask your questions there.” The blind man then humbly bowed to the aide with folded hands and left.

  The aide did as he’d been instructed, walking till he found a tall gate, which he was eventually allowed to enter. A person came out to meet him, wearing the clothing of a Han gentleman, but he didn’t introduce himself. The aide explained to him why he’d come there. The gentleman told him, “If you’ll stay here a few days, I’ll take you then to see our sovereign.” Leading the way, the man gave orders for a room to be prepared for the visitor, ensuring that he was also given food and refreshment.

  With leisure time on his hands, the aide went out for a stroll behind the building where he was staying, and there he came upon an arbor which he entered to explore. Ancient pine trees blocked out the sun, and the grass there was as soft as velvet. Passing through several winding verandahs and walkways, he came upon a particularly tall pavilion, so he walked up its steps and entered—and there he discovered human skins hanging from a wall, their facial features on display, stinking of putrifaction and decay.

  Without thinking, scared witless, he retreated quickly back to the main building. Considering that he might be about to die in this stange place, seeing no hope of escape and realizing that he’d probably be dead no matter what, he decided he’d just accept whatever was going to happen.

  _________

  Han: The ethnicity of the majority of China’s residents.

  The next morning, the gentleman in Han clothing summoned the aide to go with him, explaining, “Today you can see the king.” The aide very enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity. The gentleman mounted a sturdy-looking horse and galloped off while the aide followed on foot.

  Presently, they came to the outer gate of a high official’s office, as impressive as a governor-general’s residence, where black-garbed men stood at solemn attention in files flanking the building. The gentleman in Han clothing dismounted from his horse and led the aide inside.

  They came then to a heavy door. The aide saw a king inside, wearing a pearl-lined cap and intricately-embroidered ceremonial dress, sitting with his face turned to the south. The aide then hurried forward and prostrated himself before the king. The monarch asked him, “Are you the official from Hunan who was sent to escort the money?” The aide replied that he was indeed. “The silver is all here,” replied the ruler. “It’s not much, but you can inform your provincial governor that I’ve received his offering, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

  Sobbing his concern, the aide exclaimed, “The deadline set for me to find the money has already passed, and when I return, I’m sure to be punished, so even if I report this to the provincial governor, what evidence do I have to support my claim?”

  “This is no problem,” asserted the king. He handed a large case to the aide, telling him, “Take this back with you, and you’ll be just fine.” Then he sent some of his guards to accompany the official. The aide held his breath in fear, but didn’t dare refuse, so he accepted the case and turned homeward.

  The landscape that he passed through on the way wasn’t at all the same as it had been when he’d originally traveled there. Once they were out of the mountains, the guards who’d been accompanying him returned to their monarch.

  After several days, the aide arrived at Changsha and respectfully reported everything to the provincial governor. The governor thought this was even more outrageous than the aide’s previous tale, so he angrily rejected his explanations and ordered that he be tied up. Quickly loosening the cloth around it, the aide took out the case, but before the provincial governor could read everything inside it, his face turned as pale as the dust. He commanded that the aide be untied, then announced, “The silver is a small matter, so you’re free to go.”

  Consequently, the governor hurriedly sent a proclamation to resign his position, and used all of his personal means to make up the missing amount of silver. Several days later, the provincial governor fell ill, and died shortly thereafter.

  Earlier, the governor had slept with his favorite concubine, and when they woke up, they discovered that the woman’s hair had all fallen out. Everyone in the governor’s residence considered this quite bizarre, but couldn’t figure why it had happened.

  When the provincial governor had opened the case from the king, what he witnessed there was her hair. On the outside of the case was a letter that read, “One day you rose to be
district magistrate, and now your status approaches that of a government minister. You’ve greedily extorted countless bribes. The six hundred thousand taels you sent before has already been received into the accounts of the imperial treasury. You must send the money that you have extorted as replacement for the original amount. The official who escorted the money is blameless, so he must not be held responsible for it. I took your beloved’s hair in order to give you a bit of warning. Accordingly, if you don’t pay heed to my decree, at some point I’ll take your head. Your beloved’s hair is being returned to you so you’ll believe it.”

  After the provincial governor died, the people were told the contents of the letter. Later on, when the provincial governor’s staff members sent servants to search for the place where the governor’s aide had been taken, all they found were cliffs cut off from the surrounding valleys, with no pathways connecting them.

  _________

  Changsha: The capital of Hunan province.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Just as Hongxian stole the gold box, warning Tian not to attack Luzhou, the king warned this provincial governor of Hunan—a wonderful story to hear. The people live in a perfect world, unconcerned about things like robbery; then swordsmen gather to take advantage of them, with no recourse to city or courts for justice. Alas! Where are the gods in such circumstances? If the location of this king is found out, I fear that the number of people making petitions of complaint to him will be countless.”

  _________

  Hongxian: Heroine of a classic Tang dynasty narrative by the same title, Hongxian is a servant in the home of the military commissioner of Luzhou, Xue Song, uniquely talented in martial and magical arts. She steals a gold box from the bedside of Tian Chengsi, who’d gathered troops to challenge Xue’s, to send Tian the message that he easily could be reached and killed; thus instead of launching a military attack, he sent costly gifts to Xue, averting bloodshed on both sides (Dong 42).

  423. A Certain Fellow

  There was a certain fellow who was having an affair with his servant’s wife, so he killed the servant and took the wife for himself. She bore him two sons and a daughter. Nineteen years went by, then an enormous band of thieves broke into his town and looted it, leaving it quite empty.

  One young thief entered the fellow’s home, holding a knife. When the fellow looked closely at the thief, he noticed the man bore a remarkable resemblance to the servant he’d killed. Sighing in regret, he exclaimed, “I’m done for now!”

  He gave the thief everything he had in hopes of buying his freedom. But the thief ignored his offer and didn’t say a word, gathered all of the people in the house and killed them, twenty-seven of them in all, then left. The fellow fortunately avoided being decapitated, so once the bandit had gone, he began to revive and hence was able to report what had happened.

  Three days later, the fellow died nevertheless. Alas! Revenge is dreadfully relentless!

  424. Three Hauntings in Quzhou

  Zhang Wozhong, who served in the army in Quzhou, reports, “In the dead of night at Quzhou, no one dares to venture out alone. There’s a ghost of ferocious appearance occupying one of the corners overhead in the bell tower, and when it hears someone walking by, it comes down. The person is terrified and runs away, so the ghost then leaves. However, anyone who sees the ghost always falls ill afterwards, and most of these people die.

  “Inside Quzhou, there’s a pond, and at night, a bolt of white silk emerges from it and unrolls horizontally. When someone picks it up, the bolt rolls itself back up, with the person trapped inside, and reenters the water.

  “Then there’s also a ghost duck—in the middle of the night, when there’s nothing else around, if someone near the edge of the pond hears the sound of a duck, that person also will fall ill.”

  _________

  Quzhou: Modern Zhejiang province’s Qu county.

  425. The Home Wrecker

  He Jiongqing was from Pingyin. Back when he was a district magistrate in Qinzhong, there was a sesame oil merchant who’d been accused of some minor violation of the law and whose language had been so blunt that He became furious and ordered the man beaten to death.

  Later, as he advanced to become an official in the justice ministry, his family consequently grew to be quite wealthy. He had a tall pavilion constructed on his property, and on the day that the roof beam was to be put in place, relatives and guests were on hand to raise their wine cups and congratulate him. Suddenly, He saw the dead sesame oil merchant enter, and reacted privately with terror at what this portended.

  Presently, the announcement came that his concubine had just given birth to a son. “The construction work isn’t finished yet,” said He sorrowfully, “and now the home wrecker’s arrived!” Everyone there commented that he was just being silly, but they had no idea about what he’d just seen.

  Once He’s son grew up, he proved to be utterly dissolute and squandered everything his family owned. He Jiongqing’s son was forced to work as a servant, and whenever he managed to save a few copper coins, he always used the money to buy some sesame oil to season what he ate.

  _________

  Pingyin: City in Shandong province.

  Qinzhong: Central Shaanxi province (also known as Guanzhong).

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Often we see wealthy families with mansions connected to pavilions, but after the owner dies, it all in time turns to ruins. Surely this is because a home wrecker was born into the family. For anyone who’s in a position of authority over other people, it’s never too soon to begin acting with caution!”

  426. The Big Scorpion

  Ming-era General Peng Hong once led an expedition into Sichuan in pursuit of bandits. When they found themselves deep in the mountains, they came across a large temple that appeared to have been abandoned by Buddhist monks for a hundred years already. When they asked the local people about it, they were told, “There’s a demon in the temple, and anyone who enters there dies.”

  General Peng was concerned that there might be bandits hiding inside, thus he led his soldiers to cut down the brush outside the temple, and then they entered it. Leading into the main hall, there was a black vulture sitting in the doorway, but it flew away as they approached; there was nothing at all strange in the main hall; then as they continued, they came to the Buddha pavilion, made a sweeping search of the building, but didn’t find anything unusual, though everyone who entered was struck with an unbearable headache. When General Peng entered, he, too, experienced the headache.

  In a little while, an enormous scorpion, the length of a pipa, crawled into the pavilion on the ceiling, and then dropped down. The soldiers all ran away in terror. General Peng consequently made sure that the temple was burned to the ground.

  _________

  The length of a pipa: The pipa is a lute-like stringed instrument, usually just over three feet in length.

  427. Chen Yunqi

  Zhen Yusheng, from Yiling in Hubei, was a filial and honest son. He was gifted intellectually, handsome and mannered, well-known despite being a young man just entering adulthood. When he was a boy, someone took a look at him and predicted, “When it comes time for him to marry, he’ll have to make a lady Daoist his wife.” His parents both found this hilarious. But whenever they tried to discuss the question of marriage, Yusheng would go to great pains to avoid the topic.

  Zhen’s mother, Zang, had relatives living in Huanggang, so Yusheng decided to pay a visit to the kinfolk on his mother’s side. He happened to hear some of Zang’s cronies commenting, “Huangzhou’s ‘Four Clouds’ are beauties beyond comparison.”

  At the Lüzu Convent in Huangzhou, there were female Daoists who were quite beautiful, so people said. The convent was only ten or so li away from the Zang family’s village, so Zhen furtively decided to go there. When he knocked at their entrance, four lady Daoists modestly and joyfully welcomed him, their etiquette and entertainment entirely, immaculately elegant. Among them, the yo
ungest was so incredibly pretty that no one in the whole world could match her, and Zhen just stared at her, smitten with love.

  _________

  Yiling: A prefecture in Pu’s time; now the city of Yichang in Hubei province.

  Huanggang: A county in Hubei.

  Huangzhou: A prefecture in Huanggang county.

  Four Clouds: As the reader will learn, each of the four lady Daoists at the convent has the character yun (云), signifying “clouds,” as part of her first name.

  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  The woman, however, sat with her chin in her hand, looking off somewhere else. The lady Daoists located a teacup and proceeded to brew up some tea for their visitor. Zhen seized the chance to ask the young woman her name, and she replied, “I’m Chen Yunqi.”

  “How curious!” exclaimed Zhen, teasing by fibbing to her. “My surname happens to be Pan.” Yunqi’s cheeks blushed as she hung her head without saying anything else, then she stood up and left.

  In a little while, the tea was ready, and what they served him was excellent indeed. Then each of the other lady Daoists introduced herself: one, named Bai Yunshen, was about thirty years old; Sheng Yunmian was already twenty; and Liang Yundong was about twenty-four or twenty-five, each of them addressing him like he was a brother. But Yunqi didn’t come back.

  Zhen was particularly disappointed by this, so he asked the others why she hadn’t returned. “She’s just nervous around laymen,” Bai replied. When Zhen got up to take his leave, Bai vigorously tried, unsuccessfully, to detain him, so he walked out.