Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  “What kind of official documents?” wondered the Licheng clerks.

  _________

  Licheng county . . . Jicheng: Licheng is located in Shanxi province. A very small Jicheng exists in Shandong province, though unlikely to be the Jicheng referenced here.

  Han Chengxuan: A native of Shanxi province, Han passed the highest level of the imperial civil service examination in 1635, and was appointed a county magistrate for Zichuan county, Shandong province, before later receiving the appointment in Licheng (Zhu 3:1529n1).

  Taishan: Located near the city of Tai’an, in Shandong province, Taishan, or Mt. Tai, is one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Daoist tradition.

  “Jinan is facing a great disaster,” explained the others, “and the documents note the names and numbers of the dead.” Startled, the Licheng clerks asked how many would die. “The entire number is not clear,” said the others, “but somewhere around a million people.”

  The Licheng clerks asked when this was going to take place, and the reply was simply “The first day of the first lunar month.” The two human clerks turned to each other in shock, realizing that they would reach their prefecture just about the time of the projected disaster, so they were afraid of facing severe danger if they did so; yet they also feared being denounced and punished if they lingered where they were.

  The ghosts recommended that “Failing to arrive on time would actually be a very minor infraction, while arriving at the time of the pending disaster would have fatal consequences. It’d be better to avoid the trouble, and hence you shouldn’t go home right now.” The Licheng clerks decided to follow their advice.

  Not long afterwards, the northern soldiers came in vast numbers, slaughtering the citizens of Jinan such that they left a million corpses behind. But by then, the two clerks from Licheng had gone into hiding and thus avoided the massacre.

  _________

  Northern soldiers: The Manchus, whose invasion of northern China in the first half of the seventeenth century effectively overthrew the Ming dynasty and led to the establishment of the Qing dynasty.

  446. Wang Shi

  Wang Shi, who was from Gaoyuan, was buying salt in Boxing. One night, he was captured by two men. He figured they were watchmen for the local salt merchants, so he tried abandoning his own stock of salt in hopes of escaping from them; but before he could run away, they already had him tied up.

  He pled with them to let him go. “We’re not in the employ of the salt dealer,” said the two men, “we’re ghost servants.” Wang was terrified and begged to be allowed to go home, to say goodbye to his wife and children. They couldn’t let him do so, but reassured him, “Accompanying us doesn’t mean that you’re going to die—merely that there’s a task you have to perform.”

  “What is it?” asked Wang.

  “Since the new Hell King accepted his post in the underworld,” explained the ghosts, “the Nai River has become filled with silt, and the toilets in all eighteen levels have become clogged, which is why we’ve been sent to capture three kinds of people to clean out the river: petty thieves, counterfeiters, and salt smugglers; then we send brothel workers to unclog the toilets.”

  _________

  Gaoyuan . . . Boxing: Gaoyuan was a county in Pu’s time, but it’s now the town of Gaoyuan, in Boxing county, Shandong province.

  Nai River: Like the river Styx in Greek mythology, the Nai must be crossed by all mortals entering the underworld.

  Eighteen levels: The number of levels in the underworld varies in different local traditions and sources; see “Justice After Death: Pu Songling and the Tradition of the Hell King,” in volume 2 (xxviii).

  Wang followed them as they passed through some city walls and came to a government office, where he saw the Hell King seated, looking at names in an official register. “We’ve apprehended this smuggler, named Wang Shi,” the ghost servants reported.

  The Hell King took a look at Wang, then angrily snarled, “When we refer to salt smugglers, we mean those merchants who’ve avoided paying taxes to the government and hence whose corruption harms the lives of the people. Although wicked officials and corrupt merchants might identify someone like this as a salt smuggler, in fact the world is full of people like this who are good citizens. Just because a poor man needs to make a little money to feed his children, how does that make him a smuggler!”

  The two ghost servants were made to give Wang four dou of salt, and once this compensatory store had been secured, it was conveyed to his house. The Hell King then detained Wang, gave him a bludgeon with a head shaped like a bat nut, and instructed him to accompany the ghost servants and to supervise the work of dredging the river.

  The ghosts led Wang to the site, and as they reached the shore of the Nai River, he saw a long line of workers that looked like a file of ants. Then he noticed that the river water was a muddy red and stank horribly. The naked workers all held large dustpan-like scoops which they carried as they waded into and out of the river.

  The rotted bones of decayed corpses filled baskets which were then hoisted over the workers’ backs and carried out; in the deeper portions, they practically drowned in the foul water. Any signs of laziness were punished by blows to the back of the legs from the bat nut bludgeon.

  _________

  Dou: A measure of volume equal to one deciliter.

  Bat nut: The water caltrops (蒺藜), also known as the bat nut, or Trapa bicornis, is an aquatic plant that has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Its seed pods are, indeed, bat-shaped.

  Wang’s fellow supervisors, the ghost servants, gave him a fragrantly-scented pill that looked like a large edible seed, advising him to insert it into his mouth and keep it there as he approached the river’s edge. Once he did so, he spotted a salt merchant from Gaoyuan standing among the other workers. Wang singled him out for special punishment: he beat the man’s back as he entered the river, then struck his legs whenever he waded out onto shore. The salt merchant became so scared of him that he often remained in the putrid water until Wang walked away.

  Laboring around the clock for three days, with half of them dying, the workers finally completed the job. Consequently, the two ghosts accompanied Wang back home, where he suddenly regained consciousness.

  Earlier, when Wang hadn’t returned from his covert salt venture after a long time, his wife opened the door one morning and discovered that two large bags of salt had been placed in their courtyard, even though Wang remained absent. She had other people look for him everywhere, till finally they found him dead beside the road. They picked him up and as they were carrying him home, he inexplicably began to breathe all of a sudden. Upon regaining consciousness, he began to describe everything that had happened.

  It turned out that the salt merchant that Wang had beaten also appeared to have died the day that Wang did, and also revived at the same time. All of the spots where he’d been struck with the bat nut bludgeon formed huge, fetid, deep-rooted ulcers that would rupture, releasing a smell so bad that no one could draw near.

  Wang decided to pay him a visit. When the salt merchant saw Wang coming, he ducked his head under the quilt on his bed, just as he’d tried to avoid Wang at the Nai River. A year later, once the man finally began to recover, he retired from the salt trade for good.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Where the sale of salt is concerned, the government considers someone to be involved in smuggling if the sale involves untaxed salt; but officials treat licensed merchants—even those involved in the same kind of activity—as though they’re not involved in smuggling. Recently, according to idiotic new regulations, salt merchants have had to comply with setting up shops at the boundary of each of the towns where they wish to sell their salt. Not only is this true for local people, but people elsewhere also can’t get around the policy; these shops supposedly exist for the people, who can’t avoid dealing with them.

  “But in these shops, they secretly bait their hooks to lure outsiders; they sell salt to them at
a very cheap price; but when they sell salt to the local people, they increase the price until it’s many times more expensive. And then inspectors are set up along the route used by the local people, ensuring that they cannot escape paying the high prices. If local people pretend to be from other towns when buying the salt and are subsequently caught, there’s no escaping punishment. Hence more local men are crossing the boundary to other places to buy their salt.

  “When these patrolling inspectors capture people, first they take a blade-shaped stick and savagely beat the people’s legs, then afterwards they march them all before an official; the official has them put in shackles, and this entire practice is called ‘paying for untaxed salt.’ Alas! What injustice! Someone who evades paying tens of thousands in taxes isn’t called a smuggler, while someone who tries to buy some salt to take home is sentenced for being one. It’s legal to sell the local salt to other towns, but illegal to buy it from them—such an injustice!

  “These ‘salt laws’ are extremely strict, especially to the poor or to the family members of humble soldiers and criminals! Moreover, when a husband belongs to one of these categories, his wife and children know to obey the laws, not to steal or to prostitute themselves; thus when they have no alternative, they try to do enough business to earn the tiniest bit of money. If the towns were filled with just these people, there wouldn’t even be room to shut the doors at night.

  “Is there no place for the good people in this world! Even though those merchants were sent to dredge out the Nai River, they should have been sent with all their legal suits to unclog the toilets! Until officials become more scrupulous about their judgments, we’ll just have to accept that some people can profit in this way, taking tall stacks of laws to help them oppress the good people.

  “However, if the poor people are going to be treated this way, it’s just like legalizing robbery. The businessmen rob the people in broad daylight, and the officials act like they’re deaf; this kind of robbery is as obvious as a roaring stove fire that shines brightly, yet the officials are blind to it; while there was a day when the corruption was cleared out of the Nai River, it didn’t come from those who deal in trade that provides barely any income for themselves, yet officials will punish them just for trying to make a living.

  “Alas! These officials are unable to show compassion to a laborer, but if they listen to some wicked merchant they’ll use the law in his favor, deceiving the public day after day—so why else are rebellious people born every day, while the good people die!”

  There are corrupt merchants in every town, and an old practice in our prefecture is to send officials a gift every year, which is called “eating salt.” Then throughout the course of the year, at every festival, they receive other lavish gifts, too. When a merchant goes to see an official, the official proceeds by having the merchant sit down to talk, perhaps over some tea. The merchant then sends smugglers to the official, whom he punishes severely.

  _________

  Merchant goes to see an official: The collusion here makes both of these parties look good—the merchant is identified by the official as a law-abiding individual (while removing the competition) and the official looks effective in dealing with lawbreakers (while receiving gifts and bribes from the merchant).

  When Master Zhang Shinian was a magistrate in Zichuan, one such merchant came to see him, following the old practice, but simply bowed with his hands clasped, without showing respect in doing so.

  This angered Zhang, who castigated him, “The official who preceded me took your bribe and hence was obliged to you, but I buy my salt from the market legally, so where do you get off playing the arrogant businessman, showing no respect in my own hall!” Magistrate Zhang ordered the man’s pants pulled down and was about to have him beaten. The merchant kowtowed to apologize for his social blunder, then he was released.

  Later, when the merchant caught two smugglers trying to do business in his shop, one made his escape, while the other one allowed himself to be taken before the magistrate. “There were two of you engaged in smuggling, so why’d the other man run off?” asked Zhang.

  The man replied, “So he could get away.”

  “Do you have some kind of infirmity of the leg that prevents you from running?” wondered the magistrate.

  “I can run,” said the man.

  “Since you were captured, apparently you didn’t run,” retorted Zhang; “if you can run, then get up and prove that you can.” The man ran several steps, then acted like he was going to stop. “Run and don’t stop!” shouted the magistrate. The stupid fellow finally ran till he was outside the magistrate’s gate. Everyone who observed this burst into laughter.

  Magistrate Zhang loved the people, and this is one of his good deeds which the people still enjoy chatting about.

  447. Danan

  Scholar Xi Chenglie, from Chengdu, had both a wife and a concubine. The concubine’s surname was He, and her first name was Zhaorong. Xi’s first wife had died quite some time earlier, so he then married a woman surnamed Shen who possessed a jealous personality, and whenever she ran into Zhaorong, she treated her like a servant; her constant yelling at Zhaorong all day long made it hard for Xi to get any work done, which finally made him so angry that he walked out on the situation.

  Sometime after he’d left, He Zhaorong gave birth to a son named Danan, and since Xi hadn’t returned, Shen wouldn’t let Zhaorong have any of the same food she was eating, and Zhaorong was forced to endure all of her intimidating behavior. Danan gradually began to grow, but since Shen gave Zhaorong and Danan nothing to cover their expenses, Zhaorong had to turn to cloth-making to help them pay for adequate food to eat.

  When Danan saw a group of boys reciting texts with their tutor, he expressed the desire that he, too, wanted to study. Though his mother felt that he was too young, she took him to see the tutor anyway. Danan was very intelligent and read much faster than all of the other students. The tutor realized that Danan possessed a rare talent, so he didn’t demand any tuition money from Zhaorong. Thus she sent Danan to study with him, and sent what little money she had to help support the tutor. By the time he’d been studying two or three years, Danan had worked through all of the Confucian classics.

  _________

  Chengdu: The capital of Sichuan province.

  Danan: Literally, the characters of his name (大男) signify a fully mature, but unmarried, man.

  One day, upon returning home, he told his mother, “My fellow students all go to their fathers to ask them for money to buy pancakes—so why don’t I have a father?”

  “Wait till you’ve grown up,” replied Zhaorong, “and then I’ll explain it to you.”

  “But I’m already between seven and eight years old,” Danan declared, “so how much older do I need to be?”

  “When you’re on the way to study with your tutor,” she advised, “and pass the Guandi temple, you should stop and do obeisance, asking the deity to bless you so you can grow up quickly.” Danan put her suggestion into action, and each time he approached the temple, he went inside and reverently acknowledged Guandi.

  Upon learning of this, Zhaorong asked him, “What do you say when you’re invoking the god’s blessing?”

  “I wish that next year I’ll appear to be sixteen or seventeen years old,” he said with a smile. His mother just laughed.

  Yet as he continued studying, his body did grow at an accelerated rate: when he turned ten, he looked like he was thirteen or fourteen; his writing also matured beyond his years.

  One day, he remarked to his mother, “When I was little, you said that when I grew bigger, you’d tell me about what happened to my father, so now you can do so.”

  “Not yet,” said Zhaorong, “not yet.”

  Another year passed, and to everyone’s amazement, Danan grew to look like a fully mature adult, so he frequently pressed his mother for an explanation till Zhaorong finally gave in and related the events preceding Xi’s departure. Danan was overwhelmed with a feelin
g of loss and wanted to go search for his father. “You’re still so young, and you don’t know whether your father is alive or dead, so why are you in such a hurry now to look for him?” asked Zhaorong.

  _________

  Guandi: Also known as Guangong. The deified title of Guan Yu (d. 219 C.E.), ally/oath brother of Liu Bei during the Three Kingdoms period; popularly venerated as the god of war, but also acknowledged as a man of refinement and learning. See Sondergard and Collins (50-73).

  Danan left without saying a word, and by noon he still hadn’t returned home. His mother checked with her son’s tutor, but learned that he hadn’t shown up for breakfast. She became quite worried, so she took out some money and hired someone to search everywhere for him, but there was no sign of him anyplace.

  When Danan had left his home’s gates, he hurriedly followed the road, at a loss about which direction to pursue. He happened to meet a man who said his name was Qian, and that he was on his way to Kuizhou. Danan begged for food as he followed after him. Qian figured that Danan must be ill since he was walking so slowly, so he hired transportation for them; unfortunately, this used up most of the rest of his money.

  Upon arriving in Kuizhou, while they were sharing a meal together, Qian secretly drugged Danan’s food, causing him to fall unconscious. Qian then conveyed him to a large Buddhist temple, where he claimed that Danan was his son who happened to be ill, and pleading financial desperation, he sold Danan to the monks. The monks perceived that Danan possessed a certain quality of excellence, so they enthusiastically agreed to buy him. Qian sped away as soon as he received his money.

  When the monks gave Danan something to drink, he began to regain consciousness. The senior monk noticed this and drew closer to examine him, sizing him up as a man of rare appearance, then proceeded to question him about his background, prompting Danan to tell him the story of his life. Feeling great sympathy for him, the senior monk gave him some money so he could go home.