Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 4

by Pu Songling

  There was a man who picked up Jia’s head and put it back on his body, declaring, “An evil man shouldn’t have his head facing straightforward, but it’s okay if his chin is turned to rest on his shoulder.” Then he left.

  Moments later, Jia returned to life. His wife had traveled there to retrieve his corpse, and when she saw that he was breathing, she took him away with her; she patiently poured out some water, then helped him drink. However, they had to interrupt their travel by staying at the residences of various officials, since they had no money to return home immediately.

  Six months later, old Bai, receiving reliable information that Jia was alive, dispatched his second son to find him and bring him home. Although Jia had indeed been returned to life, he couldn’t turn his head to see what was behind him, and he was soon forgotten by people.

  Old Bai’s sister had a son who was an official with a reputation for effective administration, and within a year, he was raised to the position of imperial censor—so all of these things were foretold in the old man’s dream.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “I have to sigh because there are tiger officials and wolf magistrates everywhere. Even if officials don’t behave like tigers, magistrates who behave like wolves force them through circumstances to become like tigers! This man was doomed because he couldn’t turn around to see the wrongs he’d done; hence after he returned to life, he was forced to look back as the spirits’ way of teaching him a lesson!”

  Jinshi Li Kuangjiu, from Zouping, held a government office and had a reputation for being quite honest. Some rich people were continually being intimidated by one of Li’s servants, who warned them, “Since the jinshi asked you to give him two hundred taels, you’d better hurry and do it, otherwise you’ll be in trouble!”

  The rich people were startled, so they proposed giving the servant half of what they’d been asked. The servant then waved his hands at them and said he couldn’t possibly accept it. The rich people moaned and groaned till the servant told them, “I’ll do everything within my power on your behalf, but I’m afraid he won’t agree to that amount. If you’ll wait and let me look for the appropriate time, you’ll see with your own eyes that I’ll speak plainly with him about your request, to see whether he’ll grant it or not, and then you can also witness me asking him why not if he refuses to do so.”

  Shortly thereafter, Li set aside the work he’d been doing. The servant knew that Li had given up smoking, so he approached him and asked, “Would you like me to fix you a smoke?” Li adamantly shook his head.

  The servant then hurried over to the others and quietly said, “Did you see that when I gave him your message, Official Li shook his head no about accepting your bribe?” The rich people believed him and were worried, so they promised him the amount he’d demanded before.

  The servant knew that Li loved his tea, so he approached him and asked, “Should I fix you some tea?” Li’s chin nodded affirmatively. The servant brewed the tea and then hurried over to the others, declaring, “He’s agreed! Did you see him nod his head?” Consequently, when the official had finished with what he was working on, the rich people gathered together their resources and gave the servant the bribe intended for Li, each of them offering their gratitude in taels.

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

  Zouping: A country located in modern Shandong province.

  Alas! Official Li was himself incorruptible, and he’d have filled the streets with the sound of condemning this man’s greediness, for this servant was a wolf, but the official knew nothing about it. This is the way the world is more and more, and to hold public office, one must be prepared to look in the mirror.

  There was a county magistrate named Master Yang whose unyielding personality seemed to stick in people’s throats like a fishbone, and anyone who stirred up his anger would definitely die for it. He was especially vicious towards all manner of servants, as he refused to forgive even their minor offences. Whenever Yang sat in his strict severity in the court hall, the petty officials there wouldn’t dare even to cough. During those times, if a servant suggested something to him, Yang would surely do just the opposite.

  It happened that there was a person from Yang’s county who’d been convicted of a serious crime, and he was afraid of being executed. A court clerk accepted a heavy bribe from him to intercede on his behalf. The prisoner didn’t trust him, so he told him, “What I’m reluctant to offer you now, I’ll reward you with afterwards.” Thus he was able to compel the clerk to work on his behalf.

  In a short while, Yang looked into his case. The prisoner refused to confess his guilt. The clerk, standing at the magistrate’s side, scolded the man, “If you don’t tell the truth quickly, His Excellency will have you shackled, handcuffed, and executed!”

  “How do you know I intend to shackle and handcuff him?” demanded the angry magistrate. “I think his bribe must not have reached me.” Accordingly, he punished the clerk and released the prisoner. The man then took a hundred taels and offered them to the magistrate.

  We should realize that there are many ways in which such wolves can cheat us, and that if we’re careless even just a bit, they will take advantage of us. These kinds of men maltreat us maliciously and insidiously, so much so that they can destroy our entire families. I don’t know what it is that holding public office does to their insides, causing these bogeymen to feed insistently on their rulers’ subjects!

  306. Glowing in the Dark

  There was a trader who was traveling by water in the South China Sea. Sometime during the third watch, his boat was illuminated by a great brilliance, like the sun at dawn. He got up to take a look, and saw an enormous thing, with half of its body sticking out of the water, as majestic as a lofty mountain; its eyes were like two rising suns, whose brilliant rays radiated in all directions, as though lighting the entire world.

  Astonished, he asked the boatman what it was, but truly, he had no idea. They both hid themselves and continued watching. In moments, the thing started gradually sinking back into the water, and then the area grew dark again.

  After they reached Minzhong, the people were all talking about one night when there had been a glowing in the dark that later returned to darkness, and were spreading word of this strange phenomenon until it was becoming part of local legends. When the trader and the boatman calculated the time of its appearance, they discovered that it had been the night when they had spotted the giant thing.

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  Third watch: The third of the five traditional two-hour divisions of the night, approximately 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.

  Minzhong: Located in modern Fujian province.

  307. Summer Snow

  On the sixth day of the seventh lunar month, in the year 1707, a great snow began falling on Suzhou. The common people there were panic-stricken, and together they all began praying at the Temple of the Four Golden Dragon Kings.

  The dragon kings suddenly possessed the body of a man and said, “From now on when you call on the dragon lords, always add the word ‘great’; do you think we’re so small that we don’t merit the word ‘great’?” The crowd was terrified, but as soon as everyone cried out to the “Great Lords,” the snowfall immediately stopped.

  Thenceforward it was noted that the deities liked to receive compliments, being most generous in their rewards to those people who flattered them best.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “Social conventions change, with underlings flattering more to feed the conceited pride of those above them. By the fortieth year of Kangxi’s reign, even the manner of addressing others has changed from traditional custom.

  “A juren was called ‘uncle’ twenty years ago; a jinshi was called ‘lord,’ thirty years ago; a provincial governor was called ‘great lord,’ only twenty-five years ago. In the past, if a district magistrate happened to meet a c
ounty governor, he would refer to him as his senior officer; now this practice has been abandoned. Even a respectable scholar will offer compliments and lavish flattery, and no one thinks it strange. In recent years, the wife of a retired officer has become referred to as ‘Your Ladyship.’ In the past, such a title of respect was reserved for the mother of the retired officer; you’d never see such excesses except in the realm of fiction.

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  Suzhou: A city located in modern Jiangsu province.

  Kangxi: The Qing emperor who ruled 1662-1722.

  Juren: A successful candidate in the provincial level of the imperial civil service examinatinon.

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

  “In the Tang dynasty, the emperor wanted to confer the title ‘great scholar’ on Zhang Shuo. Zhang refused and declared, ‘A scholar never presumes to call himself ‘great,’ so I wouldn’t dare do so.’ Do those who are called ‘great’ today truly possess greatness? Originally, it was just a term used by villainous individuals to flatter someone, but because it pleased arrogant, wealthy men, and they claimed not to be suspicious about it, one after another, the entire world followed suit.

  “At this rate, I imagine that in a few years, ‘uncle’ will be ‘lord,’ and won’t ‘great’ have to be added to ‘lord’? That’s just unbelievable!”

  On the third day of the sixth lunar month, in the year 1707, at Guidefu, in Henan, a big storm of snow fell over a chi deep, freezing and killing all the grain in the fields, and it was a pity that the people didn’t know who to try to flatter into doing something about it, since the dragon lords’ magic later proved successful. How sad!

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  Tang dynasty: Imperial dynasty spanning 618-907 C.E.

  Zhang Shuo: Zhang (667-730), whose courtesy name was Daoji, initially established himself as a plain-speaking person while serving as an assistant minister in the Ministry of War; see Zhu (2:1058n12).

  Guidefu: The city of Shangqiu in modern Henan.

  Chi: Measure equal to 1/3 meter.

  308. Becoming a Boy

  In the Mudu district outside Suzhou, a girl was sitting in her family’s courtyard one night, when suddenly a fragment of comet fell from the sky and struck her in the skull, knocking her to the ground, dead. Her elderly parents had no children but this daughter, so they screamed in alarm for someone to save her.

  In moments, she began to revive, and with a smile, declared, “I’ve now become a boy!” When they examined her private parts, they discovered she had, indeed, been transformed. Her family didn’t take her for some kind of demon, but were instead secretly pleased that she’d become a son.

  This incident took place in the year 1707.

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  Mudu . . . Suzhou: Mudu is located in the southwest suburbs of Suzhou, a city in modern Jiangsu province.

  309. The Warrior Bird

  There was a certain monastery at Tianjin, where storks were nesting beneath the roof ridge. A snake as big as a basin was hidden at a point near the hall’s ceiling, and every time some of the fledglings began growing feathers and moving around, the snake would come out and swallow them whole. After crying mournfully for several days, the storks then would leave.

  Things went on this way for three years, till people began to expect that this time the storks wouldn’t be coming back, but then the following year they nested there again, just like before. About the time that the fledglings had grown large enough to move around, the adults flew away, and then returned three days later. In the nests, they squawked and chirped, feeding their young just as they previously had been doing.

  The snake then began slithering towards them. Just as it drew near the nest, the adult storks became agitated and with a mournful call, quickly flew straight up into the sky. Instantly, there came the sound of the wind roaring, and in a twinkling, heaven and earth grew dark.

  In astonishment, everyone watched as an enormous bird, blocking out the sky and sun, swooped down out of the sky as swiftly as a blustery rainstorm, striking the snake with its talons, ripping its head off, and in the process knocking off a piece several chi long from the corner of the hall’s roof, before flapping its wings and flying off. The storks followed along in its wake, as though they were seeing it off.

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  Tianjin: One of China’s largest cities, located centrally in the province of the same name, along China’s eastern seaboard.

  The nest then fell down, with the two fledglings inside both spilling out, one alive and one dead. A monk picked up the survivor, and gave it a place in the bell tower. Before long, the storks returned, fed the fledgling as before, and then once its wings were sufficiently grown, they all flew away.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “The year following their trials, the storks unexpectedly faced disaster again; for three years they didn’t move their nest, and then they figured out a way to take revenge; when they didn’t return for three days, it was because they were evidently begging in tearful desperation for help. The huge bird was clearly a martial hero of the avian world, arriving with a violent wind, making a single strike, and then flying away—so what swordsman of great skill could possibly have done more than this?”

  There was a battalion soldier in Jinan who saw a stork flying overhead, so he shot at it, and the bird fell to the ground at the snap of his bowstring. It happened to be carrying a fish in its mouth that it had been about to feed to its offspring. Others who were present advised the soldier to pull the arrow out of the stork and release it, but he wouldn’t listen to them.

  In a short while, with the arrow still stuck in it, the stork flew away. After leaving, it arrived at the outer wall of the city, where it lived for two years, while the arrow remained in its body.

  One day, the soldier was sitting beneath the outer gate of a government office when the stork passed overhead, and the arrow suddenly fell to the ground. The soldier picked it up, scrutinized it, and wondered aloud, “Is this arrow really still intact?” His ear immediately started to itch, so he scratched at it with the tip of the arrow.

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  Chi: A measure equal to 1/3 meter.

  Jinan: The capital of Shandong province.

  Suddenly, a great wind smashed the gate, instantly slamming it shut and driving the arrow through the soldier’s brain, killing him.

  310. The Geese

  In Tianjin, there was a huntsman who captured a goose. The goose’s mate followed him home, hovering overhead while honking mournfully, and kept it up until sunset, before leaving.

  The next day, when the huntsman went out early, the male goose was already there, honking as it flew, following him; subsequently, it alighted at his feet. The huntsman was just about to seize it. Then as he watched, it stretched its neck, and with a simple movement of its head, it spit out half an ingot of gold.

  The huntsman comprehended what it meant, noting, “This is supposed to ransom your mate.” Accordingly, he released the female goose. The two birds lingered there, as though conducting a tearfully joyful reunion, and then the pair flew off together. The huntsman weighed the gold, discovering to it be worth two and six-tenths taels.

  Alas! Birds may not know much, but they understand passionate feelings like these! Of all sorrows, none is greater in life than being apart from others, so didn’t the goose also understand this?

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  Tianjin: A port located near Beijing on the eastern seaboard of China.

  311. The Elephant

  In Guangdong, there was a hunter who carried his bow and arrows with him into the mountains. It happened that when he laid down to rest for a bit, he didn’t feel himself drifting off to sleep, and thus an elephant came along, lifted him up with its trunk, and then left. The hunter was convinced that he would surely be horribly injured or kille
d.

  Before long, the elephant set him down under a tree, then kowtowed and trumpeted, summoning a herd of many elephants that circled around them on all sides, as if they were there to solicit something from him. The first elephant prostrated itself under the tree, raised its head to look up at it, and then lowered its head again, as though indicating it wanted the hunter to climb the tree.

  The hunter understood, climbed onto the elephant’s back, and then clambered up the tree. When he came to the top of it, he didn’t know what the elephant intended for him to do next.

  Moments later, a lion arrived, and the entire herd of elephants prostrated themselves. The lion selected a fat one, indicating that it intended to devour it. The elephants all trembled, not daring to try running away, but merely looked up at the hunter in the tree, like they were imploring him to take pity and save them. The hunter understood, so he aimed his bow at the lion and shot it dead.

  All of the elephants looked skyward at him, and began doing obeisance to him. The hunter then climbed down, and the first elephant again laid down before him, then began tugging at his clothing with its trunk, like it wanted him to ride it. The hunter complied, and once he’d straddled the top of its body, the elephant started walking.

  When it came to a particular spot, it raised its foot and stamped a hole in the ground, where the hunter discovered a vast cache of ivory. The hunter climbed down, then bound the ivory together, and placed it on the elephant’s back. The elephant accordingly carried him on its back away from the mountains, returning him from whence he’d come.

  312. Carrying a Corpse

  A woodcutter who had been to the marketplace was toting his remaining wood home, using a shoulder pole, when suddenly he felt the weight of his wood grow much heavier on his back. When he turned around to look, he saw a headless body fastened there, hanging down. Terrified, he grabbed a piece of wood and frantically struck at the body, but then it vanished.