Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 4

by Pu Songling

  He happened to see a couple weeping in great sorrow, so he asked them what was wrong. They told him, “We’ve been joined as man and wife for more than a year, but now with the famine, we can’t afford to live here any longer, and that’s why we’re so sad.”

  A bit later, he saw them again in front of a shop that sold sesame oil, where some kind of contention was taking place. He came near and asked what was going on. The shop owner, a man named Ma, explained, “This couple’s so hungry that they’ve almost starved to death, so each day they turn to me and ask if they can have the mash left over once the oil’s extracted. Now they’re back and the man wants to sell his wife to me. I already have more than ten mouths to feed in my family. What’s in it for me to buy her? If the price is low enough, I can sell her in turn; otherwise he should just stop trying. It’s ridiculous to pester people this way!”

  The husband replied, “Food is as precious as pearls now, and I’ve got to find some three hundred coppers, or I won’t have enough to cover the expenses of fleeing the famine. Before, we wanted to flee together; if I have to sell my wife and then still starve to death, what’s the point of selling her? I don’t dare come right out and say it, but I’m begging for someone virtuously to do a good deed.”

  Liu sympathized with them, so he asked Ma what he would give for the wife. Ma replied, “Since I’d have the wife’s mouth to feed now, too, I could only offer about a hundred.” Liu pleaded that they wouldn’t require that much more, so he hoped Ma could help them come up with the other half of the money they needed. But Ma persisted that he couldn’t offer any more than that.

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  Thirteenth year of Chongzhen’s reign: This Qing emperor ruled from 1628-44, so the year in question here would be 1640/1.

  Feeling rather frustrated by the whole business, Liu consequently told the husband, “This is a trivial amount, not worth mentioning, so please accept it as a little present. If it enables you to flee the famine, and still stay together as a couple, isn’t that worth it?” Then he delivered to them a bag with the money in it. The husband and wife tearfully acknowledged his generosity and left. When Liu had finished narrating the details, Li praised him enthusiastically.

  Liu at that point suddenly reverted to the way he’d been living before, and now, at the age of seventy, he’s still healthy. Last year, Li paid a visit to Zhoucun, where he met Liu arguing with some people—the crowd surrounding him was trying to persuade him that he’d misinterpreted something. Li laughed and called out, “Are you planning another litigation about peach trees?” Liu looked befuddled and changed color, stammering as he ceased his contention and withdrew.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Li Cuishi and his brothers all are said to have become wealthy without holding public office. However, Cuishi was also gentle and judicious, happy to do good, and rarely prided himself on his wealth; a restrained, sincere gentleman. For his entire life, evidently, he could be seen mediating disputes and exhorting people to do good. The ancients used to say: ‘A rich man’s a heartless man.’ I don’t know—was Cuishi compassionate first, and became wealthy afterwards? Or did his restraint make him wealthy first, and afterwards he became compassionate?”

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  Zhoucun: Now part of the city of Zibo, in Shandong province.

  258. Ninth Sister Shao

  Chai Tingbin lived in Taiping. His wife came from the Jin family, but proved to be infertile, and was also extremely jealous. Chai took a hundred taels to buy a concubine, but Jin treated her so cruelly, that a year later she was dead. Chai stormed out in anger, and went to live by himself for several months, never entering Jin’s bedroom.

  On Chai’s birthday, Jin spoke humbly to him, treating the occasion seriously, wishing her husband a long life. Chai couldn’t bear to reject her, so he began to talk and laugh with her. Jin set up a feast for them in her room, then invited Chai. He declined, however, on the pretext that he was already drunk.

  Jin then dressed colorfully and went to Chai’s room, where she told him, “I’ve been working hard all day long to prepare this, so even if you’re drunk, please come have one small winecup and then you can leave.” Chai then entered her room, where she poured wine while they chatted.

  “Months ago, it was a mistake to have killed that girl,” his wife said calmly, “and now I’m terribly sorry about it. Why then avoid me like an enemy—don’t you have any feelings for your real wife? Take as many concubines as you wish, and I won’t make a fuss.” Chai was quite pleased, so he extinguished the candles, and spent the night with her there.

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  Taiping: A prefecture located in modern Anhui province.

  Henceforth, he esteemed and loved her as he had in the beginning. Jin accordingly said she’d call for a marriage broker to come, to find him a beautiful concubine; but she secretly told the broker to procrastinate and not make any contact, while publicly seeming to urge the process forward. Things went on this way for more than a year.

  When Chai couldn’t wait any longer, he advised all his relatives and friends about the kind of girl he wanted to purchase, obtaining an adopted daughter from the Lin family. When Jin saw her, she put on a happy face, ate and drank with Lin, sharing her make-up and jewelry with her, allowing her to select whatever she wished.

  However, Lin was originally from Hebei, where the women weren’t very well versed in sewing work, so she had to depend upon others to embroider her shoes for her. “We’re always hardworking and thrifty here,” Jin explained to her, “not like in the homes of nobility, where they purchase concubines to sit around as decorations.” Thereupon she began instructing her how to make beautiful brocade, and schooling her as if she was a strict teacher and Lin her pupil. At first she simply scolded and criticized her, but as things continued, she began whipping her. Chai felt intensely sorry for her suffering, but was unable to do anything about it.

  And yet Jin seemed to feel twice as affectionate towards Lin as she had previously, often helping her with her attire, and even assisting with applying her make-up. But if Lin’s shoes became a bit scuffed, Jin would take an iron rod and strike her feet; and if her hair was even slightly disarrayed, Jin responded by slapping her cheeks: Lin finally couldn’t take the cruelty any longer, so she committed suicide by hanging herself.

  The tragedy put Chai in a miserable frame of mind, and he treated Jin with open contempt. “I accepted the responsibility from you of trying to teach the young woman,” she said angrily, “so why act like I’ve committed some kind of crime?”

  Chai began to realize just how wicked she was, and hence the seriousness of the conflict permanently severed their marital bonds of happiness and love. He secretly had a private cottage built on other property he owned, thinking that he would buy another beauty and have her live there.

  Six months slipped by without him having found the right person. By chance, he happened to be at a friend’s funeral when he saw a sixteen-year-old girl, a beauty of such overwhelming radiance that it made him stop and stare, unable to think of anything but her. When the girl noticed him unrestrainedly gawking, she turned a bright-eyed glance at him.

  He asked various people about her, and learned that she was a member of the Shao family. Her father was an impoverished scholar, and the daughter was the family’s sole remaining child; but she was intelligent, so Shao had taught her to read, and she proved able to comprehend anything she studied. She loved to read the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine and other medical treatises. Her father doted on her, and whenever he discussed marriage with her, he always allowed her to make her own choice—but rich or poor, no one yet had made the slightest impression on her, which is why she was seventeen but still hadn’t been betrothed.

  Once Chai learned the whole story, he realized he didn’t stand a chance with her, yet he was reluctant to leave. Then he became hopeful that since her family was poor, he might be able to use his financial
advantages to influence her choice. He contacted a number of matchmakers, but none of them were sufficiently confident to face the Shao girl, so he was about to give up and look elsewhere.

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  Sole remaining child: The story’s title indicates that the Shao daughter came very late in the family children’s birth order (ninth); the others are apparently all living in their own households now.

  Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine: The huangdi neijing is a philosophy as well as source of medical diagnostic theory, teaching the ways in which the mind and body interact to achieve a holistic conception of health. Attributed to the legendary Yellow Emperor, whose rule is dated to the middle of the third century B.C.E.

  Suddenly an old lady named Jia, who was conveying some merchandise that included pearls, happened to pass by Chai’s place. Chai told her what he was after, and encouraged her with a huge sum of money, explaining, “I’m merely requesting that you communicate the sincerity of my offer, and if it’s not successful, I won’t hold you responsible. But if it happens that it works out, I won’t hesitate to pay you a thousand taels.” Given her love of profit, old lady Jia agreed to do it.

  She called at the Shao home, and began chatting with Shao’s wife. Upon observing the daughter, she enthusiastically praised her: “What a wonderful beauty, auntie! If she were to arrive at Zhaoyang Palace, Feiyan herself would be no match for her!” Then she asked, “What family is your son-in-law from?”

  “There isn’t one yet,” replied Shao’s wife.

  “That’s nothing to worry about,” Jia assured her, “since she’ll be courted by princes and noblemen.”

  Shao’s wife sighed, saying, “We don’t dare hope for such exalted suitors; we merely want to join her to a family of scholars, and then she’ll be fine. But our daughter’s pretty disapproving and rejects each selection, not accepting one man in ten, so I just don’t understand what she’s looking for.”

  “You mustn’t worry,” old lady Jia responded. “She’s such a beauty, I don’t know who could possibly have acquired enough good fortune in previous incarnations to afford her in this life. Yesterday I had a good laugh over a particular matter: there’s a gentleman from the Chai family who told me that while he was standing at a certain funeral service, he happened to see your daughter’s face, and immediately wanted to offer a thousand taels so he could marry her. Isn’t that a case of a hungry owl lusting to devour the flesh of a swan? I let him know what I thought about that idea, and then I left!” Shao’s wife offered a little smile, but didn’t reply.

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  Zhaoyang Palace, Feiyan: This Han dynasty-era palace was a showcase for beauties like the svelte Feiyan (literally, “Flying Swallow”).

  “It’s precisely because yours is a xiucai’s family,” Jia remarked, “that his idea wouldn’t work out; if it was some other family, one that would give up a daughter to gain a fortune, then it might actually happen.” Shao’s wife again smiled with saying anything. The old lady clapped her hands and asserted, “But really, I wouldn’t dream of trying to persuade you to do something inappropriate. Today I’ve received your generosity, joining you in the privacy of your home and being treated to fine wine; but if you were given a thousand taels, and I was out with my horse and cart, coming to visit you, and arrived at your gate, your gatekeeper would berate me and turn me away.”

  Shao’s wife seemed to be deep in thought for a good long while, then got up and went out to exchange some words with her husband; in moments, she called for her daughter; then shortly after that, the three of them appeared together before Jia. Shao’s wife smiled as she said, “Strangely, our daughter, who’s been given a good many marriage offers without accepting any of them, on hearing of this has agreed to become a concubine. However, we’re afraid that we’ll be shunned by other scholars!”

  “If she enters his gates and delivers him a baby boy,” Jia exclaimed, “his wife can do nothing about it!” She explained immediately afterwards that their daughter would live in a different house than Chai’s wife.

  The Shaos became even happier, and called upon their daughter, saying, “Tell Granny Jia what you’ve determined. This is your own decision, and you won’t be able to change your mind afterwards, or blame your parents for it.”

  The girl modestly replied, “Father and mother have generously provided me a happy life, raising and nurturing me. Yet I believe myself to be short-lived, and if I’m joined to a fine mate, my life will surely be reduced by several years—but even if I had to face certain adversity while with him, it wouldn’t necessarily all be misfortune. When I first saw Master Chai, his face seemed auspicious, so his descendants will surely become prominent.” Old lady Jia was overjoyed, and hurried off to inform Chai.

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  Xiucai: A scholar who has successfully passed the imperial civil service examination at the county level.

  Pleased that his wild hopes were to be realized, Chai placed the thousand taels in Jia’s possession, had a carriage prepared to convey her, and married the girl at his villa, with his servants keeping mum about the matter. The girl told Chai, “Your plan’s like a swallow nesting on a screen—it’s not going to work for long. How can you hope to stop up mouths and guard against tongues, to prevent the truth from leaking out? Please, it would be better to tell your wife sooner, for the more quickly you send word of this, the smaller the resulting conflict will be.” Chai thought about the likelihood of a disastrous outcome. “Without exception, everyone can change,” the Shao girl said. “If I haven’t done any wrong, how can she get mad at me?”

  Chai replied, “It’s not that simple. She’s extraordinarily overbearing, and can’t be persuaded by reason.”

  “I’m to be your humble concubine,” the girl declared, “so it’s my duty to accept whatever happens. Moreover, you purchased me to live with you from now on, so how long can you keep it quiet?” Chai felt that what she said was right, but in the end he remained hesitant, undecided about what to do.

  One day, Chai had someplace he needed to go. The Shao daughter put on servant’s clothing and went outside, directing one of her servants to saddle an old mare, and instructing an old maidservant to bring her bedding along and follow her, and when they reached the house where Jin was living, the girl prostrated herself and gave her reasons for coming.

  Jin was angry at first; but when she thought about the girl having come personally to explain everything to her, and saw how she was also treating herself as the wife’s inferior, Jin relaxed and made peace with her. Then she ordered a maidservant to take out some brocade clothing for Shao to wear, commenting, “He’s an insensitive man and spreads hateful lies about me to people, and hence I’m harsh with him because of the slander. The fact is, men are all unjust, and concubines all have no moral scruples, so that’s why they excite each other. He plots behind my back and tries to set up a separate household, so isn’t that just like a man?”

  “After observing him carefully,” Shao replied, “it’s like he regrets it a bit, though he’s unwilling to back down. There’s a saying that ‘The greater doesn’t give in to the lesser.’ And where ritual propriety is concerned, the wife is to the husband, as the son is to the father, and as the concubine is to the proper wife. If you permit yourself to appear amiable in words and expression, then all the accumulated resentment of the past can be forgotten.”

  Jin replied, “He doesn’t come to me anymore, so what can I do about it?” Then she ordered her maidservants to clear out a room for the concubine. Even though she wasn’t happy about it, she made peace with the situation for the time being.

  When Chai heard that Shao had gone to the home he shared with Jin, he felt as continually frightened as a sheep that stumbles upon a group of tigers—it was utterly unbearable. He hurried back, and when he saw that things were quiet in the house, he began to feel more secure.

  Shao welcomed him at the door and recommended that he visit
Jin. Chai appeared reluctant to do so. When the concubine’s tears began to fall, he relented.

  Shao went to see Jin and told her, “The master’s come home, but he’s so ashamed to face you, that he requests you to go and express your disapproval of him.” When Jin refused, Shao commented, “I’ve already remarked that the husband is to the wife, as the wife is to the concubine. Meng Guang raised her bowl at the table, and if she didn’t consider it appropriate to flatter her husband in this way, then why would she have done it? It was her duty to do so.”

  Jin then went with her, and when she saw Chai, she said, “You’re like the crafty rabbit who has three burrows, so why have you returned here?” Chai bowed his head and didn’t say anything. Shao elbowed him, and he gradually forced himself to smile. Jin’s expression softened, and she turned to go back to her room. Shao pushed Chai to follow after her, then directed the cooks to prepare food and pour wine for them.

  From then on, the couple lived harmoniously. Shao would rise up early every morning, don servant’s clothing, and venture out; she helped with the washing, distributed hand towels, and exhibited the very respectful demeanor of a maidservant. When Chai went to her bedroom, she painstakingly declined to sleep with him, and for every ten nights he tried, she’d only agree to let him into her bed once.

  Jin admired Shao’s virtue; however, she also felt ashamed that she wasn’t as good as the concubine. As her shame grew, it turned into jealousy. Yet because Shao always waited on her respectfully and attentively, Jin was unable to find fault with her; and if she coldly reprimanded Shao, the concubine just accepted the criticism obediently.

  One night, Chai and Jin had one of their rare arguments, and the next morning, Jin’s make-up reflected how furious she remained. Shao was holding a mirror for her when it slipped out of her grasp, fell, and was broken. Jin’s hatred of Shao flared, and she grabbed the concubine’s hair, her eyes glaring with anger. Frightened, Shao knelt in apology, begging to be forgiven. But Jin’s fury was indissoluble, so she whipped Shao several dozen times.