Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  By the time they were already half drunk, each of the others began reciting verses that they’d composed for the recent civil service examination, all the while complimenting each other on their accomplished poetry. Miao refused to participate, pulling Gong aside to play some rowdy drinking games. Wins and losses occurred on both sides as the others continued praising their mutual efforts.

  In a stern voice, Miao finally declared, “I’ve been listening to everything you’ve been saying. This excuse for poetry is only suitable for reading to wives at bedtime—anyone else would find it completely disgusting!” The others looked shamefaced, but they were so peeved at Miao’s blunt criticism that they began reciting even more loudly.

  Miao grew enraged and with a growl flung himself to the ground, proceeding to change into a tiger that rushed at the offending scholars, killed them, and then roared before bounding away. The only survivors were Gong and Jin.

  Jin went on to teach in a private school. Three years after the preceding events, he was once again visiting Huashan when suddenly he saw scholar Ji, who’d been eaten on the mountain when the tiger attacked. Horrified, Jin tried to gallop off, but Ji grabbed his bridle and wouldn’t let him go.

  Jin climbed down from his horse and asked Ji what had happened. “I belong to the tiger spirit Miao now, serving him in grueling labor,” explained Ji. “But he won’t release me until he kills some other scholar to take my place. Three days from now, a scholar in Confucian cap and garb is supposed to be killed by a tiger at the base of Canglong, so he could take my place. Thus if you’ll invite a number of scholars to come that day, there’s bound to be someone among them to replace your old friend.” Jin didn’t dare refuse, so he solemnly promised Ji he would help, then rode off.

  When he got home and thought about the matter all night long, he realized he couldn’t go through with it, so he decided to break their agreement, leaving Ji to serve as the tiger spirit’s minion. He happened then to be visited by his relative, scholar Jiang, so he proceeded to narrate the strange events that had occurred to him.

  Jiang was a well-educated person, but he was envious of a local scholar named You, who’d scored a higher rating in the civil service examination. When he heard Jin’s words, he secretly planned to set a trap for You. He sent a slip inviting You to accompany him to Canglong, explaining that they could hike up together and noting that he’d be wearing plain clothing for the outing, without explaining why he wouldn’t be dressed in scholar’s garb like You. When they were halfway up the mountain, You found food and wine that Jiang had respectfully laid out for his entertainment.

  At the same time, the prefectural magistrate, whose family had long been friends with Jiang’s family, was climbing the mountain, so when he heard that Jiang was just below them, he sent a servant to conduct Jiang to come and see him. Jiang, however, didn’t dare appear before the magistrate in plain clothing, so he asked to borrow You’s cap and gown.

  He’d barely even donned the clothing before a tiger suddenly rushed out, seized Jiang in its mouth, and ran away.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Someone who wants to make a speech may grab others’ sleeves to force them into listening to him, but his captives simply yawn and stretch themselves with no interest in paying attention; they may pretend to fall asleep or otherwise attempt to escape, but the speaker then starts reciting poetry, beating rhythm with his hands and feet. Intimate friends quietly offer encouragement at the instigator’s elbow, afraid that seated among them is someone who can’t stand their efforts, like ‘scholar’ Miao. Concerning that envious scholar, Jiang—he died after exchanging his clothing for You’s, from which we can tell that Miao lacked the judgment even to distinguish between individuals.”

  _________

  Canglong: An apt name—meaning “fiend”—for this fateful place.

  457. The Scorpion Merchant

  A merchant from the south who dealt in scorpions came each year to Linqu, where he always purchased a great many of them. The locals would go up into the mountains with their wooden tongs, entering caves and turning over stones to find and capture the scorpions.

  One year, the merchant returned and checked into an inn. Suddenly he felt his heart start pounding and his hair stand on end, so he hurried to tell the innkeeper, “After having taken so many of their lives, now I see how I’ve angered the scorpion ghosts, so they’re coming to kill me! Quickly, help me!”

  The innkeeper looked around the room and found an oversized urn, urged the merchant to squat down and hide inside, then covered the top of it. Moments later, a sinister-looking, blond-headed man rushed in. “Do you have a southern guest staying here?” he asked the innkeeper.

  “He’s gone out,” the proprietor replied.

  The man looked all around the room, loudly sniffed three times with his nose, then exited through the doorway. “You’re safe and sound now,” the innkeeper said to the merchant. He took the cover off of the urn so he could see his guest—who’d been reduced to nothing but bloody water.

  _________

  Linqu: A county in Shandong province.

  458. Du Xiaolei

  Du Xiaolei was from the western hills region of Yidu. His mother was blind in both eyes. Du was a filial son in all matters, and even though his family was poor, they always ate well. One day, as he was about to go take care of some business, Du purchased some meat at the marketplace and handed it over to his wife, telling her to use it to make boiled dumplings.

  His wife was an extremely mean-spirited individual, so as she chopped the meat for the dumplings, she mixed dung beetles into the filling. Du’s mother subsequently found the dumplings’ smell so repulsive that she couldn’t eat them, so she hid a few to show her son.

  When Du returned home, he asked her, “Were the dumplings delicious?” His mother shook her head, then took out the reserved samples and showed them to her son. As soon as Du tore them open and looked inside, spotting the dung beetles, he became furious.

  He rushed into his wife’s room, intending to punish her, but he was afraid his mother might hear him. He sat on the bed, thinking about what to do, and when his wife asked him what the matter was, he didn’t say anything. His wife appeared nervous, then laid down beside the bed, clearly agitated.

  After a long while, he heard a sound like heavy breathing coming from her. Du angrily declared, “You’d better fall asleep, unless you’re just waiting to be beaten!” But he also felt her become quiet.

  _________

  Yidu: A county in Shandong province.

  He got up, lit a candle, and found a pig where she’d been—but when he looked at it carefully, he discovered that it had two human feet and realized that his wife had turned into the creature.

  The county magistrate heard about this, so he dispatched some men to take the pig and exhibit it everywhere as a warning to people against unfilial behavior. Rumor has it that Wei Chenzeng witnessed this personally.

  459. Mao Dafu

  Mao Dafu, from Taixing, was a doctor who specialized in skin ulcers. One day, as he was returning home from having just treated someone, he was suddenly confronted by a wolf that dropped some kind of bundle from its mouth and then crouched down beside it. Mao picked it up for a closer look, undid the bundle, and discovered several pieces of gold jewelry inside.

  While he was thinking that this was quite strange, the wolf enthusiastically leapt up and began pulling at his robe like it wanted him to leave. As he started walking, it kept up its insistent tugging. He couldn’t discern any viciousness in its actions, so he decided to go along with it.

  They shortly came to a cave, where Mao saw a wolf lying as though ill, then noticed that maggots had emerged from the gangrenous tissue of a large open sore on the top of its head. Mao realized that this was why the first wolf had brought him to the spot, so he probed the wound and scraped it clean, then applied medicinal powder to it and went on his way.

  Since it was already after sunset by then, the wolf accompanied
him as he left. They’d walked three or four li when they ran into a pack of wolves which started growling like they intended to attack Mao, who was thoroughly terrified. Suddenly, then, the wolf accompanying him rushed forward towards the pack, then appeared to be telling them something, after which the pack of wolves dispersed. Mao was then free to return home.

  _________

  Taixing: A city in Jiangsu province.

  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  Earlier, a silver merchant in town named Ning Tai had been robbed and murdered along the road, but no one had been able to uncover any information about the incident. When Mao showed up with the gold jewelry, someone recognized it as having belonged to Ning, so Mao was apprehended and taken before the local court of law.

  There he explained what had transpired with the wolves, but the court official refused to believe him and ordered him to be shackled. Mao complained that he’d been wrongly accused but couldn’t convince anyone, and realized that his only hope was to beg to be allowed to have the wolves corroborate his story. The court official sent two servants to escort Mao into the mountains, and they proceeded directly to the wolves’ cave.

  It happened that the wolves weren’t there, so they waited until sundown, but since they still hadn’t returned, the three men started to go back the way that they’d come. Once they were halfway down the mountain, they ran into two wolves, one of them still displaying the scar from the wound.

  Mao recognized it, turned to bow respectfully to the wolf in greeting, and said, “When we met before, you gave me some gifts, but now I’ve been accused of stealing them and I’ll suffer dire consequences. Only you can exonerate me, or else I’ll be returned and whipped to death!”

  When the wolf saw that Mao’s hands were tied, it turned angry and rushed at the servants. The servants drew swords and faced their attacker. The wolf lowered its muzzle and gave out a great howl; after three such howls, a pack of a hundred wolves gathered around them, completely surrounding the servants.

  The men realized that they were utterly helpless. But as the wounded wolf began to gnaw at the rope binding Mao’s hands, the servants realized that it recognized him, and once he was untied, the wolves all dispersed. They returned to the court where they explained what had occurred, and the official there found the account so strange that he didn’t immediately release Mao from prison.

  A few days later, when the court official went out for a walk, a wolf carrying a worn shoe in its mouth dropped it in his path. The official walked past it, so the wolf then picked it up in its mouth again, ran ahead of the official, and dropped it once more in his path. Once the official ordered his servants to retrieve the shoe, the wolf then left.

  When the official returned home, he privately sent a representative to make inquiries about the owner of the shoe. Someone reported that in a nearby village, there was a man named Cong Xin, who’d been chased by a pair of wolves and lost his shoe in the process. He had Cong apprehended, and learned that the shoe did indeed belong to him.

  But then the official began to suspect that Cong had killed Ning, and additional investigation verified this. It turned out that Cong murdered Ning so he could take the large bundle of gold jewelry, which he intended to hide in his robe; but before he could gather it up, the wolves snatched it up and ran off.

  In earlier times, there was an old midwife who was returning home when she happened to meet a wolf who was blocking her way, which then began pulling at her clothing like it wanted her to go with it. She followed after it, where she observed a female wolf in the midst of giving birth, though nothing had yet emerged. The old woman pressed down on the wolf’s stomach with all her strength so it was able to give birth, and then she continued on home. The next day, the wolf dragged a deer carcass to her home and left it there for her.

  Evidently there are many accounts of events such as these.

  460. The Hail God

  Court historian Tang Jiwu happened to be going to Rizhao to take charge of the funeral for a member of the An family. On the way there he passed the temple of the hail god, Li Zuoche, and entered the grounds to have a look around.

  There was a pond in front of the temple, filled with crystal-clear water in which several red-hued fish were swimming. With a flick of the tail, one of the fishes within the pond surfaced but didn’t panic at the sight of someone standing there. Tang picked up a small stone and was just about to toss it playfully at the fish. A Daoist ran up to him and stopped him before he could do so.

  _________

  Tang Jiwu: Tang Menglai, whose courtesy name was Jiwu and was also known as Baoyan, was from Zichuan, in Shandong province, Pu’s home district. Pu visited Mt. Lao with Tang in 1672, then accompanied him to Mt. Tai in 1673—opportunities to have collected stories like this one (Chang and Chang 46-7). Rizhao: A county in Shandong province.

  Li Zuoche: During the conflict between the Zhao and Han armies that would eventually result in the triumph of Liu Bang (who subsequently became the Emperor Gao), Li Zuoche, a counselor and nobleman for the Zhao, proposed taking 30,000 troops to block the grain shipments to the Han forces through the Taihang mountains, a suggestion that the Zhao prime minister, Chen Yu, refused to take, leading to the loss of the decisive Battle of Jingxing in the early 3rd century B.C.E. Li was subsequently honored for his wisdom by being made an elemental deity.

  When Tang asked him why, the Daoist explained, “All of the fish in this pond are the kin of dragons, and if you strike one of them, it’ll surely cause a terrible storm.” The court historian laughed at his prediction as nonsense and proceeded to toss the stone into the pond.

  Afterwards, he stepped up into his carriage and headed eastward. As he did so, black clouds appeared overhead that followed him on his way. Hailstones began falling from above that were the size of large balls of unspun silk floss. After he’d traveled for a li, the sky began to clear up.

  Tang Jiwu’s younger brother, Liangwu, who’d been following behind him, chased to catch up with him and find out what was going on since he had no idea about what Jiwu had done earlier. Liangwu asked other people standing around his elder brother whether they’d seen the dark clouds. With a laugh, Tang Jiwu replied, “I suppose I should worry that this is Li Zuoche’s doing!” Thus he refused to consider it anything strange.

  Outside the An family’s village there was a Guandi temple, and it happened that there was an itinerant peddler, standing just outside the gates to the temple, who suddenly tossed aside a pair of baskets, then hurried inside the temple where he pulled out and held up a large sword, then began whirling around and around with it, crying, “I am Li Zuoche. Tomorrow I’m going to accompany court historian Tang from Zichuan as he helps to take part in a funeral procession, so I’m respectfully informing the head of the An family now.”

  After these several words, the peddler regained his senses, without remembering that he’d said anything, and also without recognizing Tang as someone he’d addressed. The An family were quite amazed when they heard about this. The village was still about forty li beyond the temple, so they respectfully burned some hell money for the deceased, then went into the temple to express their sincere mourning while also praying for pity for themselves, fearing to show any dishonor regarding the hail god’s visitation.

  _________

  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  Tang . . . Liangwu: The court historian’s brother, whose courtesy name was Mengshi, was a student in the imperial academy (Zhu 3:1569n9).

  Guandi: The god of war, also known as Guangong, is the deified form of the Three Kingdoms-era hero, Guan Yu. See Sondergard and Collins (50-73).

  Court historian Tang blamed the head of the An family for believing the peddler and for taking his words seriously, so he spoke to him about it. “The hail god’s spirit is particularly evident here,” explained the man, “and he often possesses someone in order to be able to speak, with what is said then coming true. If one isn’t reverent and sincere before leaving, a tempest is
sure to arrive the next day.”

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Li Zuoche was a strong, wise man when he was alive. When he took charge as the master of hail, perhaps he also did so with a fervency of spirit, which is why heaven gave him that responsibility. But since the job was to become a god, why did he turn out so arrogant and different from other gods! Court historian Tang’s writings reflected a righteous path, and heaven had already watched him in admiration for quite some time, which is why the hail god showed any respect for the gentleman’s fame.”

  _________

  Hell money: Faux paper money burned in funeral obsequies to benefit the deceased symbolically, traditionally considered useful for the bribing of underworld officials.

  461. “Eight Crocks” Li

  Li Yuesheng, who studied at the imperial college, grew up as the second son in his father’s house. The old man was very wealthy and made a habit of storing his money in crocks, so his fellow villagers nicknamed him “Eight Crocks.”

  When old man Li found himself confined to bed by illness, he called for his son to divide up his money: he had eight shares of his possessions assigned to his elder son, and two shares assigned to his younger son. This left Yuesheng feeling dissatisfied and resentful. “I’m not partial in my affections or dislikes,” said old Li, “so I’ve hidden my silver in a pit, and when there are fewer people around I’ll let you know where it is, since there’s no hurry.”

  Several days went by, and it became even more obvious that the old man was dying. Yuesheng worked out a contingency plan, glanced around to see that no one was watching, then crept to his father’s bedside to learn the location of the silver’s hiding place. “Human life is full of sorrow and joy,” old Li told him, “and everyone’s fate is fixed. You enjoy a wife who’s virtuous and fortunate, and thus you shouldn’t need the assistance of much money, particularly if it might bring you trouble.”