Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 6

by Pu Songling

  But after spotting Weiniang unexpectedly, he came up with a cunning plan and quickly urged the old woman and Weiniang to board his ferry. The old woman recognized him, so they got into his boat. In the middle of the river, he put drugs into their food that knocked out both of them. Next he pushed the old woman into the river; then he took Weiniang back to Jinling, where he sold her to the official for a huge sum of money.

  _________

  Jinling: Another name for Nanjing.

  Guangling: Another name for the city of Yangzhou, in Jiangsu province.

  As they entered the official’s gates, his wife figured out what was going on and became furious. Since Weiniang had no way of knowing this, she didn’t behave deferentially towards the wife, so as a consequence the wife had her beaten viciously and then locked up. The official and his household had been traveling north by boat for three days by the time Weiniang regained consciousness. A maidservant explained to her what had happened, which simply caused Weiniang to burst into tears.

  One night, as they were lodging near the Yi River, Weiniang committed suicide by hanging herself, so they buried her in a hastily-dug grave. Once she was buried, Weiniang starting being bullied by a crowd of ghosts till old Li showed up to protect her, and she thus revered him like he was her birth father. “You weren’t fated to die yet,” he told her, “so I’ll help you pick out a fine prospect for a husband.”

  Earlier, when Feng Yugui had been sleeping by his tomb, old Li caught a glimpse of the scholar, then returned and told Weiniang, “There’s a scholar who seems moral and dependable. As soon as my third son arrives, I’ll have him arrange the marriage for you.” Some days later, he told her, “You can return to wait now, for my son’s almost here.” That was the very same day that Li Shuxiang opened his father’s tomb.

  As soon as they’d held the funeral obsequies for old Li, Weiniang described her past experiences to Shuxiang. He sighed for quite some time, then decided to make Weiniang formally his sister, so she could keep the Li surname. Shuxiang also bought her some wedding clothes, then married her to Feng, telling the couple, “I don’t have much money with me here, so I can’t provide you with a proper dowry. I was thinking that you could come live with me, which would be a comfort to mother—what do you think of that?” Weiniang and Feng joyfully accepted his offer. Consequently the couple accompanied Shuxiang, along with a carriage to convey old Li’s coffin.

  When they arrived, Shuxiang’s mother asked them about all that had happened, her heart filling with love for the couple like their were her own children, so she arranged lodging for them in a nearby courtyard. While they held the funeral observances for old Li, Weiniang’s sorrowful grieving surpassed even that of Li’s own sons and grandsons.

  This led Shuxiang’s mother to feel even more attached to Weiniang, so she couldn’t bear the thought of her eventually returning home to the east and she urged her three sons to buy a house there for Weiniang and Feng. It happened that another man sharing Feng’s surname was selling a residence for six hundred taels. Wasting no time in trying to raise the money first, the brothers prepared a contract for the owner, setting a date by which they would pay in full for the house.

  When the date arrived, the Feng who owned the house arrived early for his payment; Weiniang just happened to be entering the courtyard to visit her adoptive mother when she suddenly noticed that this Feng closely resembled the boatman who’d murdered the old woman and sold her as a concubine earlier that same year.

  This Feng was clearly startled to see her. Weiniang quickly ran inside. Two of the Li brothers had come to visit and care for their mother, who’d been feeling a little ill. “Who’s the man standing a few steps outside the front hall?” she asked them.

  Li Zhongdao replied, “It must be the man who’s selling us his house.” He got up, intending to go out and see the man. But Weiniang stopped him, explaining her suspicions regarding the man’s identity, warning Zhongdao to question him closely.

  Zhongdao promised to do so and went outside, but the man had already left, and Master Xue, who ran a private school located a street or so to the south of them, was there in his place. “Why have you come?” Zhongdao asked him.

  “Last night, a man named Feng prevailed upon me to come to your hall this morning,” Xue explained, “to act as a witness to your contracted agreement. Once we got here, he said there was something he’d forgotten about that he had to run back home briefly to take care of, and then he’d return, so he told me to have a seat and wait for him.”

  After a little while, Feng Yugui and Li Shuxiang both arrived and struck up a conversation with Master Xue. Given that she’d already recognized the boatman, Weiniang hid herself behind a screen so she could spy on this other guest, to get a closer look at him, and as she did so, she recognized him as her own father. She rushed out from her hiding place and threw her arms around him, weeping uncontrollably.

  The startled Xue tearfully exclaimed, “How has my child come to be here!” The group of them slowly began to realize that Xue was actually Xue Yinhou, Weiniang’s father. Zhongdao had often run into him when out walking through the street, but had never known his first name.

  Everyone rejoiced over this reunion, and as they recounted the events that led up to this, they brought out wine to celebrate together. They invited Master Xue to stay with them for a few nights while he explained how things had come to be this way.

  Back when Weiniang was first lost, Xue’s wife took her loss so hard that it killed her, so Xue lived alone in their home, without anyone to share his sadness, which is why he became an itinerant teacher and eventually arrived here. Feng then arranged that as soon as he finished paying for the house, Xue should come and live with them.

  The next day, the old man went out to find the other Feng, but he’d already packed up his family and fled, confirming that he had indeed killed the old woman and sold Weiniang.

  Originally, when this Feng first came to Pingyang, he became expert in commercial trading; but in time he began gambling, his wealth diminishing every day, until his habit was consuming his commodities and even his residence—which he’d originally purchased with the money he made from selling Weiniang—so he was on the brink of bankruptcy.

  Now that she had a home of her own, Weiniang couldn’t bring herself to hate the man, so she and Feng selected a date for moving into their new home since they were no longer concerned about Feng’s whereabouts. Old Li’s wife often sent them presents if they lacked something, and her sons joined together to see that all their other needs were met. Feng Yugui then settled in Pingyang, which made it something of a hardship when he had to return to his hometown to take the imperial civil service examination. Luckily, he succeeded in passing it, becoming a xiaolian.

  Weiniang became wealthy, but she kept thinking about the old woman who’d been killed instead of her, so she decided that she’d try to compensate the old woman’s son. The old woman’s husband was named Yin, and they had a son named Yin Fu, but he loved to gamble, leaving him so poor that he lacked even a little money.

  One day, outside a gambling establishment where they’d just been betting against each other, Yin Fu beat and killed a man, then fled to Pingyang, where he pleaded with Weiniang to help him. Feng Yugui disguised him as a workman to hide him in their home. He then investigated the matter, inquiring about the name of the man who’d been killed, and learned that it had been none other than Feng, the boatman.

  Shocked, he sighed for a long time, then he revealed the truth to Yin Fu—who suddenly realized that he’d killed the man who had murdered his mother. Overjoyed, he remained with Feng Yugui and Weiniang, working for them as a servant.

  Xue Yinhou continued to be supported by his son-in-law, Feng Yugui, who also bought a concubine for him who eventually gave birth to a son and a daughter.

  468. Tian Zicheng

  Tian Zicheng, from Jiangning, was passing through Dongting when his boat capsized and he drowned. His son, Tian Liangsi, who’d subsequent
ly become a jinshi during the final years of the Ming dynasty, was an infant at the time. When Tian Zicheng’s wife, whose surname was Du, received notice of her husband’s death, she poisoned herself and died. Liangsi was brought up by his grandmother, and as an adult he took up an official post in Hubei.

  A year later, he was to serve as a high official overseeing military affairs in Hunan. But when he came to Dongting, he was overcome by emotion and bitter tears, so he returned home. Blaming himself as a man of inferior ability, he accepted the lesser position of county magistrate serving Hanyang, stepping down from his previous position, but then didn’t proceed to take up his new one.

  When the provincial governor’s office strongly urged him to go, he tried to do so. But he found himself wandering the streets subsequently, unable to fulfill his official obligation.

  _________

  Jiangning: The ancient name for Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.

  Dongting: A lake in northwestern Hunan province.

  Jinshi: A successful candidate in the highest level of the imperial civil service examination.

  Hanyang: A prefecture in Hubei province.

  One night, as his boat was anchored at a river bank, he heard the sound of a xiao flute playing, its tones rising and falling as he listened. He took advantage of the bright moonlight to disembark and ventured off about half a li, till he saw a thatched building standing in an open space and a light flickering from inside; when he approached a window and peered inside, he observed three men drinking together: the one in the seat of honor was a xiucai, about thirty years old; the one in the next seat was an old man; then beside them was the man playing the xiao, by far the youngest of the three.

  The old man beat time and offered praise while the young man finished playing. The xiucai then faced the wall and prepared to recite something quite challenging, but Liangsi couldn’t make out what he was saying. The old man declared, “Lu Shixiong must have an excellent work, so please grace us with a recitation, something that’ll appeal to our senses.”

  The xiucai thus recited,

  “The river’s waters are completely cold now,

  The grass thin, flowers gone, the ground turned to mud,

  And though I cannot fly to reach the cloudy mountains a thousand li away,

  In dreams, night after night, my spirit crosses the bamboo bridge, heading westward.”

  He delivered these lines in melancholic tones.

  The old man smiled and exclaimed, “Lu Shixiong has performed to his usual high standard!” Afterwards he poured wine into very large drinking vessels, declaring, “I can’t possibly match that, so please drink up while I sing.” Then he proceeded to sing Li Bai’s “Mound of Orchids and Good Wine,” among various other songs. When he finished singing, he sat down with a big smile.

  _________

  Xiao flute: A bamboo flute played vertically.

  Li: A distance equal to 1/3 mile.

  Xiucai: A successful candidate in the county level of the imperial civil service examination.

  The young man stood up and said, “I see that the moon has reached its peak.” Suddenly he looked in Tian Liangsi’s direction, clapped his hands and cried, “There’s a man outside the window, so he must have seen us all!” Then he pulled Liangsi inside, where they all raised their hands in greeting. The old man then had Liangsi sit in front of the young man.

  Liangsi tried a sip of wine from a cup, but when he found it to be icy cold, he declined taking any more to drink. The young man then leapt up, built a fire with some dry reeds, and set a pot on it to warm the wine. Liangsi took out some money, intending to pay for some of the warmed wine, but the old man absolutely refused to accept anything from him.

  The others asked him about his home and family, so Liangsi told them his life’s story. The old man respectfully introduced himself by commenting, “You’re our local county magistrate. My name’s Jiang, and I was born here.” He pointed at the young man and declared, “This is Du Yehou, from Jiangxi.” Then he pointed to the xiucai: “This is Lu Shixiong, who’s also a local native like me.”

  Lu then looked at Liangsi rather haughtily, without any pretense of treating him as an equal. Liangsi accordingly asked him, “In what village do you live? For a fellow of such outstanding talent, I’m surprised I haven’t heard of you.”

  “Even though I’ve been without a permanent home for a long time,” replied Lu, “what a pity it is that people in the same areas of interest aren’t acquainted with each other!” His words seemed genuinely sad and pained.

  The old man waved his hand disapprovingly, exclaiming, “If you’re going raise a ruckus with this kind of annoying talk, we’d better keep things hospitable with a drinking game!” Then he raised his drinking vessel and said, “A drinking game will keep us engaged, and whoever fails at it will pay a penalty. We’ll each throw three dice and then respond with something styled on the classics that’s consistent with the numbers on the dice.” He threw the dice, rolling a one, a two, and a three, so he called out, “Three’s the same as adding one and two, and in three years we’ll meet again to dine like Fan Juqing with Zhang Shao: friends who’re happy to be together.”

  _________

  Li Bai: Tang dynasty poet Li (701-762) often celebrates the aesthetics of wine-drinking and of flowers (or of both) in his verse.

  Then the young man, Du, who threw a pair of twos and a four, declared, “Men who don’t study see vulgarity to be the norm and laugh at what’s not funny. Four is the same as a pair of twos, four righteous men gathered together in an ancient city: brothers who’re happy to be together.”

  Lu rolled a pair of ones and a single two, commenting, “Two is the same as a pair of ones, when father and son embrace, the son’s two arms embracing his father: father and son are happy to be together.”

  Tian Liangsi then tossed the dice, receiving the same numbers as Lu, and declared, “Two is the same as a pair of ones, for two grain vessels entertain the person visited as well as the visitor: host and guest are happy to be together.” When he finished his recitation, Liangsi rose to take his leave.

  Lu then started to get up, saying, “Now that we’ve established a friendship here, unless you’re too busy to share your thoughts with us, why leave so hastily? We were on the verge of asking you about someone, so we hope that you’ll linger a bit longer.”

  _________

  Fan Juqing with Zhang Shao: These Eastern Han-era friends, who exchanged visits faithfully from long distances, are featured in a popular Ming dynasty tale: when Zhang Shao dies, Fan Juqing dreams of this happening and hurries to see his friend, but the funeral procession has already left for the graveyard by the time he finally arrives. However, an inexplicable heaviness of the coffin, which forces the pallbearers to put it down, delays the proceedings long enough for Juqing to join them (Feng 16).

  As Liangsi sat back down again, he asked, “What’re you talking about?”

  “I have a certain old friend who drowned at Dongting—aren’t you members of the same family?” asked Lu.

  “My late father died there,” Liangsi replied, “but how did you know each other?”

  “We’d been close ever since we were young,” he explained. “The day he drowned, I was the only one to witness it, so I recovered his body and buried him beside the lake.” Tears began to fall from Liangsi’s eyes as he prostrated himself, begging Lu to show him the site of his father’s grave. “If you come here tomorrow, it’s off in that direction, where I’m pointing,” Lu indicated. “If you want to spot the tomb, just walk a few steps further, but you’ll also see that there are ten bundles of reed stalks lying on top of the grave.” Liangsi’s tears poured forth as he paid his respects to the group and then left.

  Upon returning to his boat, he found himself unable to sleep at all that night, thinking that there had to be some reason that Lu had explained things as he did. He set out at daybreak but discovered to his great shock that the thatched building was no longer there. Accordingly, he
headed off in the direction that Lu had pointed out to search for the grave, and consequently found it.

  The bundles of reeds were lying on top of it, their number tallying with that Lu had told him he’d find. Suddenly he understood the significance of his encounter with Lu Shixiong to be a kind of parable; for the man he met in that place had been his own father’s ghost.

  He made detailed inquiries among the local people, learning that twenty years earlier, there’d been a wealthy old man named Gao, who was well-liked, so when people drowned, he had men recover their corpses and then paid to bury them, which is why there were now several other graves in that same area. Thus Tian Liangsi resigned his official position, dug up his father’s bones, and returned home with them.

  Upon arriving, he informed his paternal grandmother, who confirmed that everything he’d suspected was absolutely true. Du Yehou, from Jiangxi, had been her cousin, and when he was nineteen, he drowned at Dongting; afterwards, his father moved away from Jiangxi.

  Then Liangsi remembered that after his mother, Du, had died, she’d been buried on the west side of a bamboo bridge, recalling the lyrics of xiucai Lu’s recitation. However, he never learned who the old man was.

  469. Wang Gui’an

  Wang Xi, whose courtesy name was Gui’an, was very well known by his contemporaries and their families. It happened that he’d been traveling south and his boat was anchored near the shore of a river. There was a boatman’s daughter nearby who was engaged in embroidering a shoe, truly a beauty. Wang stared at her for a long time, but it was as though she was unconscious of his presence.

  Thus he loudly recited, “The Luoyang Girl Next Door,” making sure that she would hear him. The boatman’s daughter acted as though she understood some of what he was reciting, then tilted her head a little bit and winked at him before turning back and continuing her embroidering like before.