Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 4

by Pu Songling

  The first man replied, “I was just about to go call on Scarred-Eye Yang. When I last saw him, his face was all dark and gloomy, an ominous sign of pending disaster.”

  “I also noticed that,” commented the other, “so what you’re saying is no exaggeration.”

  Once the hunter realized that they weren’t human beings, he began shouting in a loud voice, and the two men simultaneously vanished. That night, the hunter trapped a fox, and over its left eye there was a scar the size of a coin.

  _______________________________

  Chi: A measure equal to 1/3 meter.

  288. Xiaocui

  There was a Chamberlain for Ceremonials named Wang, who was from Zhejiang. When he was a child, he happened to be lying in bed during the daytime on a particular occasion. Suddenly it grew ominously dark, a massive thunderbolt struck, and something the size of a cat ran and hid itself under his bed, frantic, refusing to come out.

  Shortly thereafter, the sky became fair and clear, and the creature came back out. When Wang looked at it, he could tell it wasn’t a cat, and he became frightened, calling out for his elder brother. When his brother heard what had happened, he happily told Wang, “You’re surely going to become someone of high rank, for this was a fox who came to you for shelter to escape the thunderbolt.”

  Consequently, while he was still a young man he became a jinshi, successively taking posts as a county magistrate and then as an Attendant Censor.

  Wang had a son named Yuanfeng, who was a simpleton, and since at the age of sixteen he was still unable to tell the sexes apart, none of his fellow townspeople would let him marry their daughters. Yuanfeng’s father became quite worried about him.

  _______________________________

  Chamberlain for Ceremonials: This figure was in charge of “great state sacrificial ceremonies, especially at the Imperial Ancestral Temple” and at other imperial tombs (Hucker 476).

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

  Attendant Censor: A “prominent post” that involved maintaining “surveillance over the officialdom” and that “impeached wayward officials” (Hucker 431).

  Then it happened that a woman brought a girl to call at the Wangs’ home, to inquire whether she might be made Yuanfeng’s wife. When Wang took a good look at her, a grin spreading joyously across her face, she seemed a genuine goddess. Overjoyed, he asked for her name.

  “Her surname’s Yu,” the woman replied. “The girl’s called Xiaocui, and she’s sixteen years old.” Wang brought up the subject of the bride-price. “She’s been following me, but I don’t have enough food to feed her, too—so if she could live in a large home with servants, feeding upon fine foods, where she’d be satisfied, and my responsibility to her would be fulfilled, why should I dicker and make demands!”

  Yuanfeng’s mother was very pleased, and proved quite munificent towards the woman and Xiaocui. The woman told Xiaocui to kowtow to Wang and his wife, advising the girl, “These are your parents-in-law, and you should serve them with proper devotion. I’m very busy, and have to leave for now, but in three days I’ll come again.”

  Wang ordered a servant to accompany her on horseback. “My neighborhood’s not far away,” she replied, “so I won’t put you to that trouble.” Then she walked out the gate and left. Xiaocui didn’t exhibit any particular sadness or affection for the woman, but simply reached into her make-up case and picked through it till she found an embroidery pattern. This further endeared her to Wang’s happy wife.

  Some days later, the woman still hadn’t arrived. When they asked Xiaocui where she lived, the girl seemed too slow-witted to be able to explain how to get there. As soon as they could set up a space in the courtyard, they completed the marriage ceremony. When all of their relatives heard that they’d found the daughter of a poor family for their son to make his wife, everyone laughed at the Wangs; but when they saw the girl, they were all shocked by her beauty and had to reconsider their opinions.

  Xiaocui proved so clever that she could intuit the moods of her in-laws. Master Wang and his wife doted on her excessively, for they were apprehensive and afraid that she might reject their dullard son; but Xiaocui, ever joyful and laughing, never seemed unhappy with him. Since she loved to play so much, Xiaocui took cloth and stitched together a ball that she and Yuanfeng could have fun kicking around. She put on short leather boots, and whenever she’d kick the ball several dozen paces away, Yuanfeng gleefully ran to pick it up, till both he and the maidservants were all sweating.

  One day, when Wang happened to be passing by, the sound of the ball being kicked was followed by his being struck in the face with it. Xiaocui and the maidservants all ran away, while Yuanfeng eagerly kept chasing the ball. Wang was so angry that he threw a stone at his son, who consequently plopped down on the ground and began crying.

  Wang went and told his wife what had happened; she proceeded to scold Xiaocui, who bowed her head submissively and smiled as she sat fidgeting with her hand. After Wang’s wife left, the girl jumped up and resumed playing, taking make-up and putting it on Yuanfeng, making his face as pale as a ghost’s.

  When Wang’s wife saw this, she flew into a rage, shouting verbal abuse at Yuanfeng. Leaning against a small table, fiddling with her sash, the girl wasn’t frightened at all, and had nothing to say. Since she was unable to get through to Xiaocui, Wang’s wife instead began beating her son. As Yuanfeng wailed loudly, Xiaocui blanched and humbly knelt to beg forgiveness. Her mother-in-law’s anger instantly dissipated, so she let go of the stick and left.

  Xiaocui smilingly dragged Yuanfeng into their room, where she brushed the dirt off his clothing, wiped away his tears, massaged him where he’d been hit by the stick, and gave him some dates and chestnuts. Yuanfeng then stopped crying and became cheerful once again.

  Shutting their door, Xiaocui proceeded to costume Yuanfeng like General Xiang Yu, making him look like someone from the desert; she then dressed in glamorous clothing, tied delicately at her waist, and began dancing around, causing the curtains to sway with her; next she stuck a pheasant feather in her hair and played the pipa, so the noise of their fun and laughter filled the room all day long. Master Wang accepted that his son was a dolt, so he couldn’t bring himself to pass any blame on to Xiaocui; thus when he heard a bit about what they’d been up to, he just ignored it.

  In Wang’s neighborhood, a little more than ten doors away, there was a ministry supervisor also named Wang, but they usually weren’t on good terms with each other. It happened to be time for the triennial review of officials, and envying the fact that Yuanfeng’s father had been named an Attendant Censor in Henan, Supervisor Wang wanted to damage his reputation. Wang knew that this was what his neighbor was planning, and was concerned, but decided that there was nothing he could do about it.

  One night, Wang went to sleep early. Xiaocui dressed up in formal male clothing to impersonate the prime minister, took scissors and cut out a strip of silk to make herself a phony moustache, then dressed her two maidservants like male assistants, secretly saddling up a horse, and rode out, playfully declaring, “I’m off to visit Master Wang.”

  She quickly arrived at Supervisor Wang’s gate, where she made a show of beating her assistants, crying in a loud voice, “I’m trying to visit Attendant Censor Wang, not Supervisor Wang!” She tugged the reins and returned home.

  _______________________________

  Xiang Yu: This famous general (232-202 B.C.E.), an irascible figure in Chinese cultural narratives, was responsible along with Liu Bang for ending the Qin dynasty. His character is represented in Chinese opera by an iconic black-and-white mask.

  Pipa: A four-stringed, lute-like instrument.

  Ministry Supervisor: A jijian held a position that was almost the equivalent of a censor, with focus on one of the six ministries (of Administration, Finance, Public Works, Punishments, Rites, and War).

  When she arrived at the family gate, the gatekeeper mist
ook her for the real prime minister, and hurried to inform his master. Wang quickly sprang up to receive and to welcome him, but then he recognized that it was just his son’s wife playing a joke. He became very angry, and told his wife, “That man’s trying to find a reason to defame me, so these meddlesome women scandalously go right up to his gate and give him a reason. More misfortune can’t be far off!”

  Furious, his wife hurried to Xiaocui’s room and scolded her for what she’d done. The girl merely responded by giggling, and truly had nothing to say. They couldn’t bear to beat her; but they wouldn’t send her away, for then she’d have no home: the couple felt so vexed and resentful that they couldn’t sleep at all that night.

  At that time, the prime minister was enjoying considerable public power, his very appearance inspiring obedience, and since Xiaocui’s disguise made her look no less than the very likeness of the prime minister, Supervisor Wang was also mistaken in thinking that he had truly come to visit Yuanfeng’s home. Over and over he sent spies to Attendant Censor Wang’s gate, and by midnight the prime minister still hadn’t come out, so he began to suspect that the prime minister was conferring with Wang about confidential matters.

  At court the next day, when he saw Wang, he asked, “Were you meeting with the prime minister in your home last night?” Yuanfeng’s father figured Supervisor Wang was just trying to mock him, so he made some affirming sounds in a subdued voice, but really didn’t give any kind of answer. Supervisor Wang became even more convinced that a meeting had taken place, so he put aside his plans to discredit Attendant Censor Wang, and from that point tried to develop cordial relations with him.

  When Yuanfeng’s father discovered through inquiries why he was behaving thus, he was secretly relieved, and he privately instructed his wife to advise Xiaocui to change her ways; the girl smiled and agreed to do so.

  A year went by, and after the prime minister was dismissed, it happened that a private letter sent to Attendant Censor Wang was mistakenly delivered to Wang Jijian. Supervisor Wang was overjoyed to be able to get his hands on it, and had an official known to both men deliver an extortion demand for ten thousand taels, which Yuanfeng’s father rejected.

  Wang Jijian subsequently went to visit him personally. Attendant Censor Wang was searching for proper clothing to receive his guest, but couldn’t locate it; Supervisor Wang waited there a long time, his anger at Wang growing, till finally he was just about to leave.

  Suddenly he spotted Yuanfeng, dressed in the dragon robe and diadem of the emperor, with Xiaocui pushing him out the door from inside. Supervisor Wang was utterly aghast; smirking in triumph, he stripped the robe and diadem from Yuancheng and left. The young man’s father rushed out, too late to catch up with his visitor.

  When he heard why Supervisor Wang had left, he became terrified, loudly sobbing, “This girl’s like a terrible flood! Because of her, our whole clan will be wiped out!” With his wife, he grabbed a stick and went to find Xiaocui. The girl learned what they were up to, and bolted the door to her room, forcing Wang to rail against her from outside. He became so angry, he intended to chop down her door.

  Inside, Xiaocui stifled her laughter and declared, “Sir, don’t trouble yourself with anger. You have a daughter-in-law, so if the executioner’s axe falls on anyone, it’ll be me, and they certainly won’t order any harm to you folks. If that’s the case, sir, do you want to kill me just to get rid of a witness?” Wang then restrained himself.

  _______________________________

  The dragon robe . . . of the emperor: The dragon was the imperial symbol, and only the emperor was allowed to wear clothing bearing it.

  When Supervisor Wang got home, he prepared a petition to the emperor that accused his rival of sedition, with the robe and diadem serving as proof. The emperor was dismayed and examined the evidence, discovering that the headpiece was woven from millet stalks, while the robe was a worn yellow cloth used for wrapping up clothing to be stored. The emperor became angry and accused Supervisor Wang of trying to frame Attendant Censor Wang.

  Then he summoned Yuanfeng to court, and when he witnessed the young man’s simple-minded behavior, he threw up his hands, laughing, “Could this fellow be confused for the emperor?”

  Thus Supervisor Wang decided to pursue legal action. He accordingly filed a suit against Wang’s family, claiming there was a sorcerer living there, so court officers rigorously interrogated the family’s servants, who insisted there was no such individual, that it was the doing of the young master’s wife who was also simpleminded, and that she spent her days with him laughing and playing; the neighbors said the same thing. The suit was then dismissed, and Supervisor Wang was punished by being sent to Yunnan to serve in the army.

  Wang realized there was something extraordinary about Xiaocui. Then taking into consideration the fact that the woman who’d been her guardian had never returned for her, he came to believe that she wasn’t a mortal. He sent his wife to look into the matter by questioning the girl, but Xiaocui just laughed, and didn’t reply. After she kept on asking her questions repeatedly, the girl covered her mouth with one hand and whispered, “Mother, don’t you know that I’m the Jade Emperor’s daughter?”

  Not long afterwards, Wang was promoted to serve as a minister in the capital. Now over fifty years old, he was increasingly worried that he had no grandson. Xiaocui had been married to Yuanfeng for three years, yet every night she slept apart from him, so they hadn’t yet even made love together.

  _______________________________

  Jade Emperor: The supreme deity of Daoism.

  Wang’s wife had one of the beds removed, and urged her son to sleep in the same bed with Xiaocui. A few days later, Yuanfeng told his mother, “I want the bed back that you took, and I’ll be mad if you don’t return it! Every night, Xiaocui keeps moving her leg on top of my stomach, till I can hardly breathe; then she keeps grabbing me in the vicinity of my thigh.” The maidservants were all grinning broadly. Wang’s wife scolded him, then clapped her hands and dismissed the servants.

  One day, Xiaocui was taking a bath in their room, and when Yuanfeng saw her, he wanted to bathe with her; Xiaocui giggled, then told him to wait till she was finished. After she got out of the tub, she had the water changed for some hot water from an urn, then took off his robe and pants, and had the maidservants help him climb in.

  Feeling that the steam was too thick for him to breathe, Yuanfeng cried that he wanted to get out. But Xiaocui wouldn’t hear of it, and instead put a large quilt over him. Moments later, there were no further sounds from Yuanfeng, and by the time she lifted up the quilt to examine him, he was already dead. The girl simply smiled, not the least bit upset, and pulled his body over onto the bed, where she wiped his body till it was dry and clean, and then tucked him in.

  When his mother heard about it, she burst into tears and rushed in, screaming, “You crazy girl, why have you murdered my son!”

  “Rather than an idiotic son like this,” Xiaocui replied with a grin, “it’s better to have no son at all.”

  Wang’s wife became uncontrollably irate and butted the girl with her head; the maidservants tried to pull the two apart and calm them. In the midst of all the chaos and clamor, one of the maids cried out, “Young master just groaned!” As Wang’s wife ceased her tears and went to comfort her son, his breathing became quiet and serene, and he perspired so profusely that his mattress became soaked with it. Moments later, the sweating stopped.

  Suddenly he opened his eyes and looked all around, staring at his family members as though he didn’t recognize them, saying, “I can now recall the past and everything as though I’ve been dreaming—why is that?” His mother noticed that his manner of speaking was no longer simple-minded, which seemed very odd.

  She took him to see his father, who tested him repeatedly, and consequently concluded that he was no longer an idiot. Yuanfeng’s parents were overjoyed, for it was as if they had received a rare treasure.

  That night they returne
d the other bed that had been removed, placing a quilt and pillow on it to observe what would happen. When Yuanfeng entered the room, he sent the maidservants away. When his parents peeked into the room early the next morning, they found the second bed empty and undisturbed. From then on, the couple no longer acted foolish, but lived in intimate, loving harmony together.

  After a year, Wang made an accounting error and was removed from his official position due to accusations deliberately made by a faction connected with Supervisor Wang. In the past, the Vice Censor of Guangxi had given Yuanfeng’s father a jade bottle valued at a thousand taels, and he was on the verge of using it as a bribe to someone who could influence his case.

  Xiaocui loved touching and holding the bottle, so when it slipped out of her hand and shattered into pieces, she felt awful, rushing to tell her in-laws about it. Wang and his wife were preoccupied with his loss of position, so when they heard what had happened to the jar, they were infuriated and in unison began cursing her.

  Xiaocui became angry, too, and rushed out to tell Yuanfeng, “Since I’ve been part of your family, I’ve protected far more than some bottle—so why, then, am I given so little respect? I’ll tell you the truth of it: I’m not a human being. I’m here because my mother was facing disaster from a thunderbolt, frightened out of her wits, and your father saved her by providing her shelter; thus it was determined that we would be together for five years so I could repay your father’s former kindness, and fulfill his long-cherished wishes for you. I’ve faced curses and insults from your family, giving me sufficient excuse to leave any number of times, and yet I haven’t done so, since our five years haven’t yet been fulfilled. But now how can I delay leaving any longer!” Having vented her pique, she rushed out, and though Yuanfeng chased after her, she’d already disappeared.