Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  The boatmen began to emerge from their hiding places and turned the boat northward, but because they were going against the wind, they couldn’t make any headway. Suddenly they saw an iron cat in the water, swimming towards them. The terrified boatmen cried, “General Mao is coming!” All of the travelers aboard the boat went and hid themselves.

  _________

  A hundred catties of gold: Quite a fortune, since one catty is equivalent to ½ kilogram.

  Not long afterward, a mighty wooden timber broke the surface of the lake to stand erect and straight above it, then began swaying in their direction. The even more frightened boatmen exclaimed, “General Nan has appeared!”

  Almost immediately, huge waves began forming that blotted out the sun and sky, and as those aboard watched, all the other boats on the lake were soon capsized. Liu sat in the middle of the boat, clutching the crystal rod, while the lofty waves that roared towards his boat suddenly dissipated—and hence the boat was left completely unharmed.

  After he returned home, Liu kept telling people about the strange things that had happened to him: “There was a serving girl on that boat,” he’d say, “and even if I didn’t get a very good look at her facial features, she had a pair of lovely feet beneath her skirt that no one in the mortal world could match.”

  When he arrived in Wuchang, he heard about an old woman named Cui who wanted to sell her daughter, though she’d turned down the large sums of money that were offered; however, she announced that if anyone had managed to acquire a crystal measuring rod, it could be exchanged for her permission to marry the girl. Liu thought this an unusual coincidence, so he took the object and went to get a look at her.

  The old woman was delighted to meet him. When she called for her daughter to come out, Liu could see that that she was fifteen or sixteen years old, lovely, graceful, and refined, altogether beyond compare, and after briefly paying her respects to the scholar, she went back behind the curtain from which she’d originally emerged.

  One look at her and Liu’s spirit was shaking, so he told old lady Cui, “I happen to have acquired one of the things you’re after, but is it really what you’re looking for?” Then they each compared their crystal rods, discovering that they were identical in all respects.

  _________

  Wuchang: Part of modern Wuhan, in Hubei province.

  This made the old woman very happy, and after she asked him where he lived, she requested that he go and arrange for a carriage to fetch his bride, while she held onto the crystal rod as a guarantee of his intentions. Liu didn’t want to leave the rod behind, so old lady Cui laughed and exclaimed, “The gentleman has too little faith in me! Am I, a little old lady, going to run away with this crystal rod?” Since he had no alternative, Liu left it with her.

  He proceeded to hire a carriage and quickly returned, but the old woman and his intended wife had disappeared. Liu was quite shocked. He went all over, asking the local people about them, till finally he didn’t know what else to do. With the sun already setting in the west, feeling dejected in body and spirit he turned homeward, utterly depressed.

  Halfway there, he happened to pass another carriage, and suddenly someone inside it pulled aside a curtain and said, “What’s Master Liu doing out so late?”

  He looked closely and found it was old lady Cui, so he happily asked, “Where did you go?”

  “It was inevitable that you’d worry about whether I was trying to swindle you,” she said with a chuckle. “After you left, I happened to find a carriage available, and thinking that it might be hard for you to make arrangements for conveyance since you weren’t from around here, I accompanied my daughter to your boat.” Liu invited her to return there with him, but she declined.

  The scholar wasn’t at all convinced that he could really trust her, so he hurried back and boarded the boat, where he found the daughter and her maidservant already waiting for him. When old lady Cui’s daughter saw Liu come aboard, she smiled to welcome him. Liu noticed that she was wearing green stockings and purple slippers, just as the serving girl had been dressed earlier.

  He found this so perplexing that he began pacing back and forth while he stared at her. The girl laughed and said, “Why are you staring like you’ve never seen me before?”

  Liu bent down and looked closer at her stockings, where he found teeth marks just like those that he’d left on the serving girl’s stockings, and in amazement asked, “Are you Zhicheng?” She tried to cover up a little smile with her hand. Liu made a deep bow, hands clasped over his chest, as he said, “That means you’re an immortal, and if that’s true, please bluntly say so, to dispel my anxiousness.”

  “Then I’ll tell you truly,” replied Zhicheng: “the man you met earlier in the boat was the Lord of Dongting Lake. He admires your great talent, so he’d like to give me to you as a present; since I was much loved by his consort, he went home to obtain her consent. I’ve returned, then, at her command.”

  Liu was overjoyed, so he washed himself carefully, burnt some incense, turned in the direction of the lake and reverently paid his respects, then took Zhicheng home with him.

  Afterwards, when they took a trip to Wuchang, Zhicheng begged to return to the lake for a visit since they were so close. Upon their arrival at Dongting, Zhicheng pulled a hairpin from her hair and tossed it into the water, and when a small boat suddenly emerged on the surface of the lake, she leapt in, like a bird coming home to roost; in the twinkle of an eye, she disappeared. Liu sat in the prow of a boat to wait for her, staring attentively at the site where she’d vanished.

  Off in the distance, a large luxury boat appeared, and after it drew near, a window aboard it opened: all of a sudden, a brightly-colored bird flew out of it over to his boat, then immediately turned into Zhicheng. A man at the window of the larger boat passed gold, pearls, and a great many other precious objects to Liu, all gifts of the Lord of Dongting’s consort.

  Ever afterwards, Zhicheng would return to the lake every year or two for another visit. Consequently, Liu’s family became wealthy from all the jewels and valuable presents they received, and each of the items given to them were like nothing that’d ever been seen before in the mortal world.

  According to Tang-era legend, when Liu Yi met the daughter of the Lord of Dongting, he was made the lord’s son-in-law. Afterwards, the lord abdicated his position in favor of Liu. But when he thought about Liu’s scholarly appearance, he couldn’t imagine him being able to keep the lake’s water monsters cowed, so he gave him a demonic mask that he could wear during the daytime and take off at night; after a long time, however, he gradually became so accustomed to the mask that he forgot to take it off, and thus it became his face.

  Whenever Liu looked in the mirror, however, he felt ashamed. Hence when travelers floated across the lake, pointing with their hands at certain things along the way, he’d suspect that they were pointing at him; when travelers shaded their foreheads with their hands, he’d suspect that they were peering at him, then he’d overturn their boats, as a storm would rise and many boats would capsize. For this reason, whenever people boarded these vessels, they were warned about the dangers.

  They could only cross safely if they first offered sacrifices to the Lord of Dongting. If they showed respect for the immortal’s image upon arriving at the lake, the waves never hindered their crossing. Xu Xun once arrived at the lake and was hindered by the waves. He grew angry and turned Liu Yi over to the prefectural prison. The government officials there routinely interrogated their prisoners, but there was always one more there than there should be, and they puzzled over why he had been apprehended.

  One night, Liu sent a dream to the prefectural magistrate, asking him for assistance. The magistrate asserted that the worldly and the otherworldly had different systems for dealing with matters, then declined his request. Liu told him, “I know when Xu Xun will be coming to this place, and if you ask a favor from him, it will be granted to you.”

  _________

  Tang era
: This dynasty was the imperial power from 618-907 C.E.

  Xu Xun: A county magistrate and a Daoist priest during the Jin dynasty (265-420 C.E.), Xu was believed to have attained immortality at the age of 136—and hence to be someone capable of exercising power over Liu Yi.

  Following this, the immortal did indeed appear, so the magistrate spoke with him, and hence Xu Xun agreed to release Liu Yi. Thereafter, the arrests at the lake decreased a bit.

  433. Zhuqing

  Yu Ke was from Hunan, though I’ve forgotten his prefecture and town. He came from a poor family, and as he was returning home after having failed the imperial civil service examination, he ran out of money to cover his traveling expenses. Since Yu was too shy to beg, though he was also starving, he went to stay temporarily at the King of Wu Temple, where he prayed before the king’s ancestral tablet.

  He went back outside and decided to lie down on the temple’s porch, but suddenly a man appeared and led him away to see the king, in whose presence the man kneeled and declared, “Our detachment of soldiers is short by one, so this fellow can help to make up for the missing man.”

  “I approve,” said the king. Thus Yu was given a soldier’s black uniform.

  As soon as he put it on, he immediately changed into a crow, so he started flapping his wings and flew outside. He saw where a flock of crows was gathered, and just as he was about to join them, some of them left, revealing their perch to be a ship’s mast.

  There were passengers aboard the boat and the crows fought over the bits of meat that they tossed aside. The flock flew up into the air to catch the morsels as they were flung. Yu did likewise, and in moments his hunger was satisfied. He flew up and perched in the treetops, quite content.

  _________

  King of Wu Temple: A temple built by Sun Quan (182-252 C.E.) to honor General Gan Ning (d. circa 220 C.E.) at Fuchi, in Hubei province, with the Yangzi and Han rivers running nearby (Zhu 3:1495n3).

  When two or three days had passed, the King of Wu began to feel sorry for Yu since he didn’t have a mate, so he matched him up with a lady crow who was called Zhuqing. The two subsequently lived together, happy in their love. Whenever Yu flew to fetch food, he did so complacently, without paying much attention to anything. Zhuqing tried to warn him to be more alert, but he simply didn’t listen to her.

  One day, when some Manchu soldiers were floating past, they shot Yu in the chest. Luckily, Zhuqing was able to pick him up with her bill and fly away, so the soldiers couldn’t capture him. But their violence so infuriated the flock of crows that they began beating their wings to fan the river’s waves, till they surged up and completely overturned the soldiers’ boat.

  Zhuqing continually raided bait supplies in order to feed Yu. Yet he was mortally wounded, and at the end of the day, he died.

  All of a sudden, it was as though he’d just awakened from a dream, for he found himself lying in the King of Wu Temple. Earlier, the local people who’d noticed Yu had assumed that he was dead, but they didn’t know who he was, and when they touched him, his skin wasn’t cold, so from time to time, someone came to check on him. When he regained consciousness, they asked him where he was from, then collected some money to cover the costs of his going home.

  Three years later, he happened to be in the vicinity again, so he stopped to pay his respects at the King of Wu Temple. Yu set out some food, then called for the crows to come down from their roosts and eat, wishing them well as he said, “If Zhuqing’s among you, I hope she’ll stop with you here.” When they finished eating, the crows all flew away.

  _________

  They shot Yu: In the early phases of their conflict with Ming troops, Manchu soldiers “rapidly began to acquire rifles” (Cummins 308).

  After finally managing to pass the civil service examination, Yu decided before returning home to stop first at the King of Wu Temple, where he carried out a sacrificial ritual involving the roasting of lamb and pig meat. When he was finished, he set out a large pile of meat for his crow friends and again wished them well.

  That night, he was lodging in a village near the lake, holding a candle as he sat there, when suddenly a bird fluttered down onto the table in front of him; as he watched, it turned into a beautiful woman, about twenty years old, who cheerfully asked him, “How have you been, while we’ve been apart?” Startled, Yu asked her who she was, and she replied, “Don’t you remember Zhuqing?”

  Yu was overjoyed, so he asked her what she’d been doing. “I’m now the Goddess of Hanjiang,” she explained, “so I don’t return home very often. Some time ago, a crow brought word of your feelings for me, which is why I’ve come so we can be together.” Yu was even more happy and full of affection as they embraced like spouses who’d been kept apart for a long time, and nothing could surpass their love for each other.

  Yu wanted to take Zhuqing with him and head south, while it was her desire that they travel west, so the two of them couldn’t agree on which way to go. They went to bed, and when Yu awakened the next morning, he found that Zhuqing was already up. He opened his eyes and saw that they were in a high-ceilinged hall, where an enormous torch burnt brightly—as he finally comprehended that they were no longer in their boat.

  In amazement, he jumped up and cried, “What is this place?”

  “This is Hanyang,” Zhuqing replied with a laugh. “My home is your home, so there was no need to go south!”

  _________

  Hanjiang: That is, the Han River, a tributary of the Yangzi River. Hanyang: Part of the modern city of Wuhan, located in Hubei between the Han and Yangzi rivers.

  As dawn gradually filled the sky, serving women quickly began assembling there, bringing wine and meat for them to enjoy. The couple moved over to the bed, set up a short table, and proceeded to pour themselves some wine. “Where are my servants?” Yu asked.

  “They’re on the boat,” she replied. Yu thought about the boatmen, and was concerned that they couldn’t wait there for very long. “It’s nothing to worry about,” Zhuqing told him, “I can help you make it worth their while.” Then the two of them spent the rest of the day and night chatting and drinking, with Yu so happy that he forgot all about going home.

  When the boatmen awoke from their dreaming and discovered suddenly that they were in Hanyang, they were quite astonished. Yu’s servants went around trying to find out where their master had gone, but could learn nothing of his whereabouts. The boatmen wanted to get on their way, but they couldn’t untie their mooring rope, so they ended up waiting along with Yu’s servants.

  Two months elapsed before Yu suddenly remembered his intention to go home, and thus he told Zhuqing, “I’ve been cut off from all my relatives here. You and I have been living like a married couple, yet you don’t know a single one of my family members, so what’re we going to do about it?”

  “No matter what, I can’t go,” she replied; “since you already have a wife at home, if I were to go with you, what place would there be for me? It’d be better for me to remain here, where you can always come as your other home.” Yu regretted the fact that he lived so far away, because it meant that he wouldn’t be able to join Zhuqing often.

  She took out the black uniform he had worn earlier, and remarked, “Here’s the clothing that you wore when you first came here. If your thoughts turn to me, put this on and you’ll be able to visit me; once you come, I’ll help you take it off.” Then she had a fabulous spread of delicacies set out for a farewell dinner.

  Yu proceeded to drink so much that he fell asleep, and when he awakened later, he found himself back on the boat. As he looked around, he discovered that it was still moored on Dongting Lake. The boatmen and servants, who were all there and were utterly amazed to see Yu, asked him where he’d been. Yu seemed to be just as surprised and shocked as they were.

  There was something wrapped in cloth, lying beside his pillow, so he inspected it and found that Zhuqing had sent him some new clothing and shoes, while the black uniform was also folded up inside the bun
dle. Then he realized that there was an embroidered bag tied to his waist, and when he looked inside it, he found it filled with gold and coins.

  Consequently they headed south until they reached the shore, and after liberally rewarding the boatmen, Yu and his servants departed for home.

  Once he’d been home for several months, Yu began to miss Hanjiang terribly—so when he took out the black uniform in private and put it on, wings immediately sprouted from his sides and flapped together in synchrony as he soared into the sky, allowing him to reach the Han River in just a couple of hours.

  Upon his arrival, he looked down from where he hovered and saw that in the midst of a small island there was a cluster of buildings, so he flew down to land there. Some maidservants saw him approaching in the distance and cried, “Your husband has arrived!” In moments, Zhuqing came out and ordered the crowd of servants to help Yu take off his uniform, and soon the scholar felt the wings smoothly come off.

  Taking Yu’s hand, she led him inside, declaring, “You’ve come at the perfect time, for in just a little while I’m going to give birth.”

  Yu teased her, “Will you give birth to a baby? Or will you lay an egg?”

  “Now that I’ve become an immortal,” replied Zhuqing, “my skin and bones have already become completely different, not at all like they used to be.” A few days later, she gave birth to an infant enveloped in a thick placenta, as though it was a giant egg, and when it cracked open, a baby boy appeared. Yu was jubilant, and named him Hanchan.

  _________

  Dongting Lake: A tributary of the Yangzi River, located in the northeast of Hunan province.

  Three days later, the goddesses of the Han River all arrived, bearing foods and treasures along with their congratulations. They were all incredibly beautiful and none of them over thirty. They entered the room together and drew near Zhuqing’s bed, then took their thumbs and pressed the baby’s nose, a practice called “Increasing Longevity.”