Strange Tales from Liaozhai--Volume 4

by Pu Songling

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  Nanchang: A prefecture in Pu’s time, now a city in Jiangxi province.

  Cui’s mother warned her son even more fervently after the neighbors’ shrewish daughter-in-law died, and when people came to tell him about grievances they wanted him to redress, his mother turned them away. One day, after his mother’s older brother had died, Cui went with her to participate in mourning. Along the way, they ran into several men who, having tied up another man, were yelling and cursing at him to move faster, beating him as well. Onlookers were blocking the road, so the carriage carrying Cui and his mother couldn’t proceed.

  Cui asked what was going on, and people who knew him vied with each other to give him the details. Originally, a certain Jia, son of a powerful nobleman, who’d been bullying the local village, happened to spy Li Shen’s attractive wife, and wanted to take her for his own, but had no rationale for doing so. Hence Jia ordered his lackies to lure Li into gambling, then lent him money with heavy interest, requiring him to sign an agreement that if he couldn’t repay the money, he’d have to forfeit his wife.

  In the course of a single night, he ran up a debt of a few thousand coppers; in six months, the capital and interest came to thirty thousand. Li couldn’t repay the money, so Jia sent his henchmen to seize Li’s wife. A weeping Li went after them all the way to the Jia family’s gates. This made the nobleman’s son angry, so he had his men pull Li over and tie him to a tree, then beat him, opening gashes in his flesh, before forcing him to sign a statement of “no contest” to the seizure of his wife.

  When Cui heard this, he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him by a mountain, so he lashed his horse and galloped forward, in order to tear into the tormentors. His mother pulled aside the carriage’s curtain and cried out, “Don’t do it! You’re giving in again!” Cui then abruptly stopped.

  After they’d completed their mourning and returned home, he wouldn’t speak or eat, but just sat bolt upright, staring straight ahead, as though silently furious. When his wife asked him about it, he wouldn’t reply. That night, he lay in his bed with his clothes still on, tossing and turning until dawn.

  The next night the same thing happened, till suddenly he opened the door and went out, then returned later and lay down again. He did this three or four times, but his wife didn’t dare ask why, fearfully holding her breath as she listened. Later, he went out once more and was gone for a long time before returning, then shut the door and lapsed into a deep sleep.

  That same night, someone killed Jia in his bed, slicing open his belly so his intestines spilled out; the naked corpse of Li’s wife was also found in the bed. The magistrate suspected Li of the deed, so he had him arrested. He was savagely beaten and then clapped into wooden restraints, exposing his ankles, though in the end he refused to confess to anything.

  A year passed, till he was unable to bear the torture any longer, so he pled guilty despite being innocent, and was accordingly sentenced to death. This happened a little while after Cui’s mother had died. Following her burial, Cui told his wife, “I killed Jia—it was really me. Since I was supposed to be following my mother’s wishes, I couldn’t let the truth get out. Now that she’s passed away, how can I let another person suffer for my crime? I’m going to go now to the magistrate’s office to take my punishment!”

  His wife was so upset that she tried to hang onto him, but he pulled himself loose and left, giving himself up at the magistrate’s office. The amazed magistrate put him in prison and released Li. But Li wouldn’t go away, and insisted that he was the guilty party. The magistrate couldn’t decide what to do, so he had both of them locked up.

  Li’s relatives all scolded him for not escaping when he had the chance. “Master Cui simply carried out what I wanted to do but couldn’t. He did it for me, so how could I allow myself just to sit and watch while he’s put to death? Today I’ll reiterate my confession, so Master Cui can go free, even if I can’t.” He remained adamant in his admission of guilt, steadfastly contradicting Cui’s statements.

  After quite some time, everyone in the magistrate’s office realized why Li was doing so, and thus he was forced to leave while Cui was sentenced to be executed, and the end seemed to be near for him. At that point, Ministry Official Zhao, noted for his care in meting out punishment, arrived to review the records of prisoner cases, and when he came to Cui’s name, he called for servants to bring him out.

  When Cui entered, he looked up at the dais, where he saw Zhao Sengge. Torn by feelings of both sorrow and joy, Cui told him the truth. Zhao paced back and forth for a good long while, then ordered that Cui be taken back to his cell, and advised the jailer to look after him well.

  Since Cui had turned himself in, Zhao had his sentence reduced to serving in the army in Yunnan. Li enlisted to serve with him, and they left together. Not even a year later, they were pardoned and returned home: all due to Zhao.

  After they returned, Li insisted on serving Cui and wouldn’t leave him, so he began overseeing Cui’s business affairs for him. Cui tried to pay him for doing this, but Li wouldn’t accept any money from him. What he really cared most about was martial arts. Cui was very generous towards him, buying Li a wife and giving him some farmland.

  In this manner, Cui began to change his earlier patterns of behavior, and every time he rubbed the tattoo his mother had applied to his arm, tears would trickle down his face. Hence if fellow villagers had certain matters they wanted Cui to address, Li always took care of them under Cui’s name, without letting him know.

  There was a former graduate of the imperial academy named Wang, from a rich and powerful family, and all kinds of troublemaking scoundrels could be observed passing through his gates. Among the affluent families in their area, many of them had been robbed by these thugs; and if they tried to resist them, the criminals always sent someone back to finish the job and then murder them.

  Wang’s son was a licentious and cruel man as well. Wang had a widowed aunt, whom he and his son both abused sexually. Wang’s wife, whose surname was Qiu, tried again and again to stop them, until Wang finally strangled her to death. Qiu’s brothers brought the matter before officials, whom Wang bribed to take his side and declare that the brothers had accused him falsely.

  The brothers, angrily frustrated by their inability to address this injustice, went to see Cui, to plead with him to take up their cause. Li refused to admit them, and sent them home. A few days later, a visitor arrived, and since it happened that there weren’t any servants around, Cui sent Li to make some tea for them.

  Li went out, quietly telling the visitors as he passed, “Cui Meng and I are friends, and I’ve followed him a great distance, never refusing to accompany him; but I’ve been paid nothing, and I’ve looked after him like a servant performing menial duties, but I’ve had enough!” Then he left in anger.

  Someone told Cui what he’d had said. Cui was surprised at Li’s change of heart, and couldn’t think of anything unusual that might have caused it. Li suddenly filed an official suit, asserting that Cui had withheld a servant’s wages from him for three years. Cui was dumbfounded by this, and appeared in court in person, to answer Li’s angry contentions against him. The magistrate saw no merit in Li’s complaint, so he dismissed the case and sent everyone home.

  A few days later, Li abruptly entered the Wang family home one night, killed Wang, his son, his aunt, and his wife, then pasted up a piece of paper on the wall on which he’d written his full name, Li Shen; by the time men were sent out to pursue and apprehend him, he’d already vanished without a trace. The Wang family suspected Cui of masterminding the deed, but the magistrate give this no credence.

  Cui began to realize that the whole purpose behind Li’s suit had been to deflect suspicion for the murders away from Cui. Official documents were drafted and sent out, calling for Li’s immediate capture. But then Li Zicheng’s rebellion turned everything upside down, so the matter was dropped.

  Following the dynasty
change, Li brought his family back home, and they lived happily with Cui as they had before. At that time, rowdy lawbreakers were gathering into enclaves, so Wang’s nephew, Wang Deren, collected the rogues who’d been associated with his uncle, and established a mountain stronghold from which they carried out raids, burning and looting villages.

  One night, they turned out in full force to attack Cui’s home in revenge for Wang’s death. Cui, however, had gone out earlier; when Li figured out what was happening, he climbed over the wall and hid in the dark. The outlaws looked unsuccessfully for Cui and Li, so they abducted Cui’s wife, collected all of his valuables, and left.

  When Li returned, he found only a single servant, which so provoked his anger that he cut a rope into several dozen pieces, handing the shorter segments over to the servant, while keeping the longer pieces himself. He directed the servant to climb up to the villains’ lair, and once he was halfway up the mountain, to light the rope bits on fire, scattering them throughout the underbrush, then to hurry away without looking back. The servant promised he would do so and left.

  Li had noticed that the outlaws wore red belts around their waists, and fastened red silk around their caps, so he disguised himself as one of them. There was an old mare that had just given birth to a colt, and the outlaws had abandoned both of them outside their compound.

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  Li Zicheng’s rebellion: The rebel leader, also known as the “Dashing General,” advanced his troops in the northwest, and in April, 1644, stormed unopposed into Beijing (Paludan 187).

  The dynasty change: When the Ming was overthrown and gave way to the Qing in 1644.

  Li then tied up the colt, climbed onto the mare, and stealthily rode straight for the abductors’ cave. Their lair was near a large village, so Li tied the horse outside it, then slipped into their camp.

  He observed that the outlaws were unorganized and undisciplined, but were armed nevertheless. Li furtively made inquiries among some scoundrels, and learned that Cui’s wife was being held in Wang’s quarters. Just then he heard Wang giving orders for his men to go to bed, and with a loud cry they acknowledged the command.

  Suddenly a man reported that there were fires on the east side of the mountain, so a crowd of the criminals went to see about them; at first there were just a couple outbreaks here or there, but soon the fires started appearing on the mountainside like constellations in the sky. Li gave a ragged shout of alarm that there were fires burning on the eastern slope of the mountain. Quite startled, Wang had things packed up, and led his followers out of the cave.

  Li seized his chance when the others came pouring out, and slipped inside. He spotted two of the outlaws standing guard near a curtain, and called out to them, “General Wang’s missing his sword.” The two began searching for it. Li came up behind one of them, stabbed him, and the villain fell, dead; when the other one turned around to look, Li also ran him through. Then he proceeded to carry Cui’s wife on his back as he made his way over and beyond the wall of their encampment.

  He untied the horse, grabbed the bridle, and told Cui’s wife, “You don’t know the way, but you can just let the horse take you back.” The horse wanted to see its colt, so it speedily galloped off, with Li following after. Once he’d come out through the mouth of a narrow pass, he set fire to the rest of the rope, spreading the pieces all over, and then returned home.

  The next day, when Cui returned home and learned what had happened, he took the turn of events as a great disgrace, became enraged, and wanted to ride off alone to wipe out the abductors. Li persuaded him not to do so. He gathered fellow villagers together to join with them, but many of them were so afraid of the outlaws that they didn’t dare respond. Once again, Li reiterated the need to join together, but only succeeded in convincing a couple dozen of them, and was troubled that they were unarmed.

  It happened just then that they captured two spies from Wang Deren’s band, and though Cui wanted to kill them, Li wouldn’t let him do so; he instructed twenty villagers to grab weapons, line up, and cut off the spies’ ears, then let them go free.

  “This is just going to incite them,” the crowd of villagers protested, “and we’re afraid that since the outlaws know where we live, they’re going to come back and destroy us. Now that they’ve escaped, nothing can save the village—they’re going to form a group and come for us!”

  “Exactly,” Li replied, “I want them to come.” Then he seized the villager who’d been harboring the spies and executed him.

  He dispatched men in all directions to secure bows, arrows, and firearms, then went to the nearest city to borrow two large cannons. As night fell, he led the brave volunteers to the mountain pass, placing the cannons on opposite sides of it; then he had two men hide there, telling them to be ready to fire as soon as they saw the outlaws. When they came to a ravine east of the mouth of the pass, he had them cut down some trees and place them near the brink of the cliff above. Shortly afterwards, he and Cui each took about ten of the men, split up and hid near the cliff edge.

  As the first watch came to an end, they heard the neighing of horses in the distance, and the outlaws showed up in large numbers, riding to storm the village. The men waited until the criminals entered the ravine, then shoved the fallen trees over the edge of the cliff, so they fell and blocked the outlaws’ exit, trapping them. At that point the cannons fired with a mighty roar, shaking the mountain ravine.

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  First watch: First of the five two-hour divisions of the night, from 7:00-9:00 p.m.

  The outlaws trampled each other in their frantic attempts to retreat; when they came to the east end of the pass, they found their way blocked, with no open space remaining. Shot and arrows peppered them from both sides, like a pelting rainstorm, tearing heads and limbs from bodies, till they lay strewn throughout the ravine. Recognizing all was lost, the remaining outlaws knelt submissively on the ground, begging to be spared.

  Li had some of the men tie them up and accompany them back to the village. Then he took advantage of their victory to head directly into the outlaws’ lair. When those who’d been left behind to guard their stronghold heard the sounds of the attack, they quickly fled, and upon searching the lair, Li and the others found the stash of everything the outlaws had stolen, and brought it back with them.

  Cui was quite pleased by all this, and asked Li to explain his strategy with starting the fires. “We started fires on the east side of the mountain,” Li explained, “because I was concerned that they might attack from the west; we cut off their route because I was concerned that they would discover we had no men there; the other rope pieces were placed at the mountain pass, the mouth of which was quite narrow, so even a single man could cut them off there, and in case they came in pursuit, they’d see the fires and surely be frightened off. Everything hinged on the risk that they’d attack, which could have been a bad move.”

  When Cui interrogated the captured outlaws about it, they said that they’d ridden into the ravine because they’d seen the fires and were frightened into retreating. The twenty or so outlaws were punished by having their noses and toes cut off, and then were released.

  Thereafter, Cui’s prestige became even greater, so that far and near, those who sought to escape the chaos around them came to serve with Cui’s forces, until they grew into a group of more than three hundred men. All of the territory under their protection grew quiet, since no one would dare attack, and so the region became peaceful.

  The collector of these strange tales remarks, “A charging ox can certainly damage a cart, and the same can be said of Cui Meng! It’s because he was fervent in his ideals, that such a pair of rare men were drawn together. Although we might wish the world to be free of such matters, isn’t it preferable to have men like these around to face them? Li Shen, a common man, became a protector of the people. It was his fate to swoop in and wipe out the bestial individuals who’d invaded the chamber of Cui’s wife, cutti
ng off their route and attacking from both sides, washing away the nightmare of their activities at the mountain pass. Thus the two were given authority in military matters, devoting themselves to their country, and completing the noble mission of pacifying the region.”

  328. Solving a Case with Poetry

  Fan Xiaoshan, a resident of Qingzhou, was a traveling businessman who sold writing brushes for a living, and who hadn’t yet returned home from his latest trip. One night in April, his wife, whose family name was He, was murdered. That same night it had been raining lightly, and at the scene of the crime, a fan was found in the mud, its inscribed handle identifying it as having been given to Wu Feiqing by Wang Sheng.

  No one knew who Wang Sheng was; Wu was a wealthy gentleman from Yidu, where he and Fan came from the same hometown, and since he was usually rather flippant, villagers all believed him to be the guilty party. The county magistrate had him arrested and interrogated, but he firmly denied he was responsible until he was placed in wooden restraints and tortured, then he confessed despite the fact that he was innocent of the crime; and though he filed a series of subsequent appeals, sending the matter before more than ten officials, there was no change in the original verdict.

  Convinced that he was going to be executed, Wu advised his wife to take all of his possessions and use them to care for orphans and those in need. He directed that anyone who came to their gate and chanted a thousand Buddhist scriptures would be given a pair of cotton trousers; anyone who came and recited ten thousand scriptures would be given a cotton jacket: consequently, beggars began flocking there, and the sound of Buddhist chanting could be heard ten li away. And so Wu’s family rapidly became poor, till they had to sell their belongings and land just in order to cover basic expenses.

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  Qingzhou: A prefecture in Shandong province.

  Yidu: A county in Shandong.

  Wu secretly bribed his jailer to send to the marketplace for supplies so he could commit suicide with some poisoned wine. That night he dreamt that an immortal told him, “You mustn’t kill yourself, for just as external factors have proved harmful previously, your inner nature will prove auspicious in the time ahead.” When he fell asleep again, the immortal appeared again with the same warning, with the result that he didn’t kill himself.