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ALDERMAN LIBRARIfl UNIVERSITY OF VIRAIMn
cHARLonrmviumi iniMiNia
J
STRANGE STORIES
FROM A
CHINESE STUDIO
TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED
BY
HERBERT A. GILES
HON. M.A. (CANTAB.), '
HON. LL.D. (aBBRD.), PROFESSOR OF CHINESE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE AND SOME TIME H.B.M. CONSUL AT NINGPO
THIRD EDITION REVISED
KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED
SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, SINGAPORE
AND YOKOHAMA
1916
VOL
JOt
r
TO
MY GRANDCHILDREN
PENELOPE ESBELL LAURENCE
MARGARET VALERIE ST. GILES
^ SYLVIA SARAH GILES
ROSAMOND ST. GILES
AUSTIN LOUDON VALENTINE ST. GILES
JOHN ALLEN LAURENCE
AUDREY LAURENCE
CONTENTS
Introduction pp. xi-xxiii
STORIES
Adulteration Punished Alchemist, The
* Another Solomon Arrival of Buddhist Priests Boat-girl Bride, The . Boatmen of Lao-lung, The Boon Companion, The Bribery and Corruption Buddhist Priest of Ch*ang-ch*ing, The Butterfly's Revenge, The .
^Carrying a Corpse
Cattle Plague, The .
Censor in Purgatory, The .
Chang Pu-liang
Chang's Transformation ' Chinese Jonah, A
* Chinese Solomon. A . ,.._ .
Chou K*o-ch*ang and his Ghost Clay Image, The Cloth Merchant, The Collecting Subscriptions Country of the Cannibals, The Courage Tested Cruelty Avenged Dead Priest, The Death by Laughing .
* Disembodied Friend, The Dishonesty Punished. Doctor, The
, Donkey's Revenge, The
vii
PAGE
442 464 400
353 461
102
366
13
430
372 411
403
371
147
370^ ,^54)
329 423 341 393 243
334
418
408
215 336
424 430 304
VIU
CONTENTS
Dr. Tseng's Dream •
Dreaming Honours .
Dutch Carpet, The •.
Dwarf, A ...
Earthquake, An
Elephants and the Lion, The
Engaged to a Nun .
Examination for the Post of Guardian
Faithful Dog, The .
Faithful Gander, The
Faithless Widow, The
Feasting the Ruler of Purgatory
F6ng-shui
Fight with the Foxes, The
Fighting Cricket, The
Fighting Quails, The
Fisherman and his Friend, The
Flood, A .
Flower-nymphs, The
Flying Cow, The
Football on the Tung-t*ing Lake
Foreign Priests
Fortune-hunter Punished, The
Forty Strings of Cash, The
Friendship with Foxes
Gambler's Talisman, The
Grateful Dog, The
Great Rat, The
Great Test, The * Hidden Treasure, The
His Father's Ghost .
Hsiang-ju's Misfortunes « Husband Punished, The
Incorrupt Official, The
Ingratitude Punished
Injustice of Heaven, The ^^in the Infernal Regions
Invisible Priest, The ^Jen Hsiu Jf^ Joining the Immortals
Judge Lu.
Justice for Rebels
Killing a Serpent
King, The f Life Prolonged
Lingering Death, The
JtM^f^X)
Angel
PAOt
138 416
161
I
415
458 288
427
447
155
275 40
380
215 176
409
250
211
420
388
436
257 439
437 441
459 349 139 258 466
347
332
322'
402
122
32
56 373 376 158 421
449
CONTENTS
IX
Little Cliu • • • . .
Lo-ch'a Country and the Sea Market, The
Lost Brother, The
Mad Priest, The
Magic Mirror, The
Magic Path, The
Magic Sword, The
Magical Arts
Magnanimous Girl, The
Making Animals ^Man who was changed into a Crow, The ^P&fan who was thrown down a Well, The
Marriage Lottery, The
Marriage of the Fox's Daughter, The .
Marriage of the Virgin Goddess, The .
Master-thief, The ....
Metempsychosis ....
" Mirror and Listen " Trick, The
Miss A-pao ; or, Perseverance Rewarded
Miss Chiao-no .....
Miss lien-hsiang. The Fox-Girl .
Miss Quarta Hu ....
Miss Ying-ning ; or, The Laughing Girl
Mr. Chu, the Considerate Husband
Mr. Tung ; or, Virtue Rewarded
Mr. Willow and the I«ocusts
Mysterious Head, The
Painted Skin, The
Painted >VaU, The .
Performing Mice, The
Picture Horse, The .
Pious Surgeon, The .
Planchette
Planting a Pear-tree .
Playing at Hanging .
Priest's Warning, The
Princess Lily, The
Princess of the Tung-t'ing Lake
Quarrelsome Brothers, The
Raising the Dead
Rat Wife, The .
Resuscitated Corpse, The
Rip van Winkle, A .
Rukh, The
Salt Smuggler, The .
Saving Life
PAGX 89 265 126 426
333
286
77 28
99
417 171
224
262
16
413 213
386
409
"5 20
104
94
65 98
406
405
345
47 6
135
428
462
433 8
216
385 299
290
193
445 217
378 316
457 390 389
CONTENTS
Sea-serpent, The Self-punished Murderer, The
* She-wolf and the Herd-boys, The Shui-mang Plant, The Singing Frogs, The . Singular case of Ophthalmia Singular Verdict Sisters, The Smelling £ssa3^ Snow in Summer Spirit of the Hills, The Spirits of the Po-yang Lake, The Spiritualistic Seances Stolen Eyes, The Strange Companion, A Stream of Cash, The Supernatural Wife, A TaJdng Revenge Talking Pupils, The . Ta-nan in search of his Father Taoist Devotee, A Taoist Miracles
•r- Taoist Priest, A
Taoist Priest of Lao-shan, The
Theft of the Peach .
Three Genii, The "♦Three States of Existence, The
Thunder God, The .
Tiger Guest, The
Tiger of Chao-ch'fing, The
Tipsy Turtle, The
Trader's Son, The . 5Jf Two Brides, The
• Unjoist Sejitence, The Virtuous Daughter-in-iaw, The Wei-ch*i Devil, The . Wine Insect, The Wolf Dream, The Wolves
Wonderful Stone, The Young Gentleman who couldn't spell, The Young Lady of the Tung-t'ing Lake, The
Appendix I
«>
II. .
FAGB
333
212
84
135 327
439 207
347 432 346 330
343 401
343
331
364 280
3 183 373 397 152
ID
374
133
319
253 203
135
282
52
359
313 229
418
414
309 438 189 201 167
467 486
INTRODUCTION
The barest skeleton of a biography is all that can be formed from the very scanty materials which remain to mark the career of a writer whose work has been for the best part of two centuries as familiar throughout the length and breadth of China as are the tales of the " Arabian Nights " in all English-speaking com- munities. The author of " Strange Stories " was a native of Tzu-ch'uan, in the province of Shan-tung. His family name was P'u ; his particular name was Sung-ling ; and the designation or literary epithet by which, in accordance with Chinese usage, he was commonly known among his friends, was Liu-hsien, or " Last of the Immortals." A further fancy name, given to him probably by some enthusiastic admirer, was Liu-ch'iian, or " Willow Spring ; " birt he is now familiarly spoken of simply as F u Sung-ling. We are unacquainted with the years of his birth or death ; however, by the aid of a meagre entry in the History of Tzu'Ch* uan it is possible to make a pretty good guess at the date of the former event. For we are there told that P'u Sung-ling successfully competed for the lowest or bachelor's degree before he had reached the age of twenty ; and that in 1651 he was in the position of a graduate of ten years' standing, having failed in the interim to take the second, or master's, degree. To
xi
xii INTRODUCTION
this failure, due, as we are informed in the history above quoted, to his neglect of the beaten track of academic study, we owe the existence of his great work; not, indeed, his only production, though the one by which, as Confucius said of his own " Spring and Autimin,"^ men will know him. All else that we have on record of P'u Sung-ling, besides the fact that he lived in close companionship with several eminent scholars of the day, is gathered from his own words, written when, in 1679, he laid down his pen upon the completion of a task which was to raise him within a short period to a foremost rank in the Chinese world of letters. Of that record I here append a close translation, accompanied by such notes as are abso- lutely necessary to make it intelligible to non-students of Chinese.
AUTHOR'S OWN RECORD
'* Clad in wistaria, girdled with ivy ; " * thus sang Ch'ii- P'ing ® in his Falling into Troubled Of ox-headed devils and serpent Gods,^ he of the long-nails * never wearied to tell. Each interprets in his own way the music of heaven ; '^ and whether it be discord or not, depends upon antecedent
1 Annals of the Lu State.
* Said of the bogies of the hills, in allusion to their clothes. Here quoted with reference to the official classes, in ridicule of the title under which they hold posts which, from a literary point of view, they are totally unfit to occupy.
* A celebrated statesman (b.c. 332-295) who, having lost his master's favour by the intrigues of a rival, finally drowned himself in despair. The annual Dragon Festival is said by some to be a " search " for his body. The term San Lu used here was the name of an office held by Ch'u-P'iiig.
* A poem addressed by Ch*u-P'ing to his Prince, after his disgrace. Its non-success was the immediate cause of his death.
^ That is, of the supernatural generally.
* A poet of the T'ang dynasty whose eyebrows met, whose nails were very long, and who could write very fast.
' " You know the music of earth," said Chuang Tzu ; " but you have not heard the music of heaven."
INTRODUCTION . xui
causes.® As for me, I cannot, with my poor autumn fire- fly's light, match myself against the hobgoblins of the age.* I am but the dust in the sunbeam, a fit laughing-stock for devils.^® For my talents are not those of Kan Pao,^^ elegant explorer of the records of the Gods ; I am rather animated by the spirit of Su Tung-p'o,^* who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural. I get people to commit what they tell me to writing and subsequently I dress it up in the form of a story ; and thus in the lapse of time my friends from all quarters have supplied me with quantities of material, which, from my habit of collecting, has grown into a vast pile.^*
Human beings, I would point out, are not beyond the pale of fixed laws, and yet there are more remarkable phenomena in their midst than in the country of those who crop their hair ; ^* antiquity is unrolled before us, and many tales are to be found therein stranger than that of the nation of Flying Heads.^^ " Irrepressible bursts, and luxurious
^ That is, to the operation of some influence surviving from a previous existence.
* This is another hit at the ruling classes. Hsi K'ang, a celebrated musician and alchemist (a.d. 223-262), was sitting one night alone, playing upon his lute, when Suddenly a man with a tiny face walked in, and began to stare hard at him, the stranger's face enlarging aU the time. " I'm not going to match myself against a devil I " cried the musician, after a few moments, and instantly blew out the light.
1* When Liu Chiian, Governor of Wu-ling, determined to relieve his poverty by trade, he saw a devil standing by his side, laughing and rubbing its hands for glee. " Poverty and wealth are matters
of destiny," said liu Chiian ; " but to be laughed at by a devil ,"
and accordingly he desisted from his intention.
" A writer who flourished in the early part of the fourth century, and composed a work in thirty books entitled Supernatural Researches,
^* The famous poet, statesman, and essayist, who flourished a.d. 1036-1101.
*• '* And his friends had the habit of jotting down for his unfailing delight anything quaint or comic that they came across." — The World on Charles Dickens, July 24, 1878.
1* It is related in the Historical Record that when T'ai Po and Yu Chung fled to the southern savages they saw men with tattooed bodies and short hair.
1^ A fabulous community, so called because the heads of the men are in the habit of leaving their bodies, and flying down to marshy places to feed on worms and crabs. A red ring is seen the night before the flight encircling the neck of the man whose head is about to fly ; at daylight the head returns. Some say that the ears are used as wings ; others that the hands also leave the body and fly away.
xiv INTRODUCTION
ease, " ^* — ^such was always his enthusiastic strain. ' ' For ever indidging in liberal thought," ^^ — ^thus he spoke openly without restraint. Were men Hke these to open my book, I should be a laughing-stock to them indeed. At the cross- road^^ men will not Usten to me, and yet I have some knowledge of the three states of existence ^^ spoken of beneath the cliff ; ^® neither should the words I utter be set aside because of him that utters them.^^ When the bow ^^ was hung at my father's door, he dreamed that a sickly- looking Buddhist priest, but half covered by his stole, entered the chamber. On one of his breasts was a round piece of plaster like a cash ; ^^ and my father, waking from sleep, found that I, just bom, had a similar black patch on my body. As a child, I was thin and constantly ailing, and unable to hold my own in the battle of life. Our own home was chill and desolate as a monastery ; and working there for my livelihood with my pen,^ I was as poor as a priest with his alms-bowl.^^ Often and often I put my hand to my head 2* and exclaimed, "Surely he who sat with his
!• A quotation from the admired works of Wang Po, a brilliant scholar and poet, who was drowned at the early age of twenty- eight, A.D. 676.
" I have hitherto failed in all attempts to identify the particular writer here intended. The phrase is used by the poet Li T'ai-po and others.
1* The cross-road of the " Five Fathers " is here mentioned, which the commentator tells us is merely the name of the place.
!• The past, present, and future life of the Buddhist s)rstem of metempsychosis .
*® A certain man, who was staying at a temple, dreamt that an old priest appeared to him beneath a jade-stone cliff, and, pointing to a stick of burning incense, said to him, " That incens^ represents a vow to be fulfilled ; but I say unto you, that ere its smoke shaU have curled away, your three states of existence will have been already accomplished." The meaning is that time on earth is as nothing to the Gods.
*^ This remark occurs in the fifteenth chapter of the Analects or Confucian Gospels.
** The birth of a boy was formerly signalled by hanging a bow at the door ; that of a girl, by displaying a smaU towel — vindicative of the parts that each would hereaiiter play in the drama of life.
*» See Note 2 to No. II.
** Literally, " ploughing with my pen."
*' The patra or bowl, used by Buddhist mendicants, in imitation of the celebrated alms-dish of Sh&kyamuni Buddha.
*• Literally, " scratched my head," as is often done by the Chinese in perplexity or doubl.
INTRODUCTION xv
face to the wall *' was myself in a previous state of exist- ence ; " and thus I referred my non-success in this life to the influence of a destiny surviving from the last. I have been tossed hither and thither in the direction of the ruUng wind, like a flower falling in filthy places ; but the six paths *• of transmigration are inscrutable indeed, and I have no right to complain. As it is, midnight finds me with an expiring lamp, while the wind whistles mournfully without ; and over my cheerless table I piece together my tales,** vainly hoping to produce a sequel to the Infernal Regions,^^ With a bumper I stimulate my pen, yet I only succeed thereby in " venting my excited feelings,"*^ and as I thus commit my thoughts to writing, truly I am an object worthy of commiseration. Alas ! I am but the bird, that dreading the winter frost, finds no shelter in the tree ; the autumn insect that chirps to the moon, and hugs the door for warmth. For where are they who know me ? ** They are *' in the bosky grove, and at the frontier pass " ^ — ^wrapped in an impenetrable gloom !
From the above curious document the reader will
*' Alluding to Bddhidharma, who came from India to China, and tried to convert the Emperor Wu Ti of the Liang dynasty ; but, failing in his attempt, because he insisted that real merit lay not in works but in purity and wisdom combined, he retired full of morti- fication to a temple at Sung-shan, where he sat for nine years before a rock, until his own image was imprinted thereon.
*• The six gdii or conditions of existence, namely : — angels, men, demons, hungry devils, brute beasts, and tortured sinners.
•• Literally, " putting together the pieces under the forelegs (of foxes) to make robes." This part of the fox-skin is the most valuable for making fur clothes. '.-'^
•® The work of a well-known writer, named Lin I-ch*ing, who flourished during the Sung Dynasty.
*i Alluding to an essay by Han Fei, a philosopher of the third century B.C., in which he laments the iniquity of the age in general, and the corruption of officials in particular. He finally committed suicide in prison, where he had been cast by the intrigues of a rival minister.
>» Confucius {Anal, xiv.) said, *' Alas Ij there is no one who knows me (to be what I am)."
•* The great poet Tu Fu (a.d. 712-770) dreamt that his greater predecessor, Li T*ai-po (a.d. 705-762) appeared to him, " coming when the maple-grove was in darkness, and returning while the frontier-pass was still obscured!; " — ^that is, at night, when no one could see him ; the meaning being that he never came at all, and that those " who know me (P'u Sung-ling) " are equally non-existent.
xvi INTRODUCTION
gain some insight into the abstruse, but at the same time marvellously beautiful, style of this gifted writer. The whole essay — ^for such it is, and among the most perfect of its kind — ^is intended chiefly as a satire upon the scholarship of the age ; .scholarship which had turned the author back to the disappointment of a private life, himself conscious all the time of the inward fire that had been lent him by heaven. It is the key- note of his own subsequent career, spent in the retire- ment of home, in the society of books and friends ; as also to the numerous uncomplimentary allusions which occur in all his stories relating to official life. Whether or not the world at large has been a gainer by this instance of the fallibility of competitive examina- tions has been already decided in the affirmative by the millions of P'u Sung-ling's own countrymen, who for the past two hundred years have more than made up to him by a posthumous and enduring reverence for the loss of those earthly and ephemeral honours which he seems to have coveted so much.
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, known to the Chinese as the Liao Chai Chih I, or more familiarly, the Liao Chai, has hardly been mentioned by a single foreigner without some inaccuracy on the part of the writer concerned. For instance, the late Mr. Mayers states in his Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 176, that this work was composed " circa a.d. 1710," the fact being that the collection was actually completed in 1679, as we know by the date attached to the "Author's Own Record " given above. I should mention, however, that the Liao Chai was originally, and for many years, circulated in manuscript only. P*u Sung-ling, as we are told in a colophon by his grandson to the first
INTRODUCTION xvii
edition, was too poor to meet the heavy expense of block-cutting ; and it was not until so late as 1740, when the author must have been already for some time a denizen of the dark land he so much loved to describe, that his aforesaid grandson printed and published the collection now universally famous. Since then many editions have been laid before the Chinese public, the best of which is that by Tan Ming-lun, a Salt Com- missioner, who flourished during the reign of Tao Kuang, and who in 1842 produced, at his own expense* an excellent edition in sixteen smaU octavo volumes of about 160 pages each. And as various editions will occasionally be found to contain various readings, I would here warn students of Chinese who wish to compare my rendering with the text, that it is from the edition of Tan Ming-lun, collated with that of Yii Chi, published in 1766, that this translation has been made. Many have been the commentaries and disquisitions upon the meaning of obscure passages and the general scope of this work ; to say nothing of the prefaces with which the several editions have been ushered into the world. Of the latter, I have selected one specimen, from which the reader will be able to form a tolerably accurate opinion as to the true natiure of these always singular and usually difficult composi- tions. Here it is : —
T'ANG MfiNG-LAI'S PREFACE
The common saying, " He regards a camel as a horse with a swelled back," trivial of itself, may be used in illustration of greater matters. Men are wont to attribute an existence only to such things as they daily see with their own eyes, and they marvel at whatsoever, appearing before them at one instant, vanishes at the next. And yet
b
xviii INTRODUCTION
it is not at the sprouting and falling of foliage, nor at the metamorphosis of insects that they marvel, but only at the manifestations of the supernatural world ; though of a truth, the whistling of the wind and the movement of streams, with nothing to set the one in motion or give sound to the other, might well be ranked among extraordinary phenomena. We are accustomed to these, and therefore do not note them. We marvel at devils and foxes : we do not marvel at man. But who is it that causes a man to move and to speak ? — ^to which question comes the ready answer of each individual so questioned, " I do." This " I do," however, is merely a personal consciousness of the facts under discussion. For a man can see with his eyes, but he cannot see what it is that makes him see ; he can hear with his ears, but he cannot hear what it is that makes him hear ; how, then, is it possible for him to imderstand the rationale of things he can neither see nor hear ? What- ever has come within the bounds of their own ocular or auricular experience men regard as proved to be actually existing ; and only such things.** But this term " experi- ence " may be understood in various senses. For instance, people speak of something which has certain attributes as form, and of something else which has certain other attributes as substance ; ignorant as they are that form and substance are to be found existing without those particular attributes. Things which are thus constituted are in- appreciable, indeed, by our ears and eyes ; but we cannot argue that therefore they do not exist. Some persons can see a mosquito's eye, while to others even a mountain is invisible ; some can hear the sound of ants battling together, while others, again, fail to catch the roar of a thunder-peal. Powers of seeing and hearing vary ; there should be no
^ " Thus, since countless things exist that the senses can take account of, it is evident that nothing exists that the senses can not take account of." — ^The " Professor " in W. H. Mallock's New Paul and Virginia,
This passage recalls another curious classification by the great Chinese philosopher Han W^n-kung. '* There are some things which possess form but are devoid of sound, as, for instance, jade and stones ; others have sound, but are without form, such as wind and thimder; others, again, have both form and sound, such as men and animals ; and lastly, there is a class devoid of both, namely, devils and spirits"
INTRODUCTION xix
reckless imputations of blindness. According to the schoolmen, man at his death is dispersed like wind or fire, the origin and end of his vitaUty bemg aUke unknown ; and as those who have seen strange phenomena are few, the number of those who marvel at them is proportionately great, and the " horse with a swelled back " parallel is very widely applicable. And ever quoting the fact that Confucius would have nothing to say on these topics, these schoolmen half discredit such works as the Ch'i chieh chih kuai and the Yu ch'U'Chii,^ ignorant that the Sage's unwillingness to speak had reference only to persons of an inferior mental calibre ; for his own Spring and Autumn can hardly be said to be devoid of all allusions of the kind. Now P'u Liu-hsien devoted himself in his youth to the marvellous, and as he grew older was specially remarkable for his comprehension thereof ; and being moreover a most elegant writer, he occupied his leisure in recording whatever came to his knowledge of a particularly marvellous nature. A volume of these compositions of his formerly fell into my hands, and was constantly borrowed by friends ; now, I have another volume, and of what I read only about three-tenths was known to me before. What there is, should be suf&cient to open the eyes of those schoolmen, though I much fear it will be like talking of ice to a butter- fly. Personally, I disbelieve in the irregularity of natural phenomena, and regard as evil spirits only those who injure their neighbours. For eclipses, faUing stars, the flight of herons, the nest of a mainah, talking stones, and the combats of dragons, can hardly be classed as irregular ; while the phenomena of nature occurring out of season, wars, rebellions, and so forth, may certainly be relegated to the category of evil. In my opinion the morahty of P'u Liu- hsien's work is of a very high standard, its object being distinctly to glorify virtue and to censure vice ; and as a book calculated to elevate mankind, it may be safely placed side by side with the philosophical treatises of Yang Hsiung ^* which Huan Tan ®' declared to be so worthy of a wide circulation.
•5 I have never seen any of these works, but I believe they treaty as implied by their titles, chiefly of the supernatural world. •• P.C. ^3-A.D. i8, «' B.C. 13-A.D. 56.
XX INTRODUCTION
With regard to the meaning of the Chinese words Liao Chai Chih /, this title has received indifferent treatment at the hands of different writers. Dr. Williams chose to render it by " Pastimes of the Study," and Mr. Mayers by " The Record of Marvels, or Tales of the Genii ; " neither of which is sufficiently near to be regarded in the light of a translation. Taken literally and in order, these words stand for " Liao — library — record — strange," " Liao *' being simply a fanciful name given by our author to his private libr'ary or studio. An apocryphal anecdote traces the origin of this selection to a remark once made by himself with reference to his failure for the second degree. " Alas ! " he is reported to have said, " I shall now have no resource (Liao) for my old age ; " and accordingly he so named his study, meaning that in his pen he would seek that resource which fate had denied to him as an official. For this untranslatable " Liao" I have ventured to substitute " Chinese," as indicating more clearly the nature of what is to follow. No such title as " Tales of the Genii " fully expresses the scope of this work, which embraces alike weird stories of Taoist devilry and magic, marvellous accoimts of impossible countries beyond the sea, simple scenes of Chinese everyday life, and notices of extraordinary natural phenomena. Indeed, the author once had it in contemplation to publish only the more imaginative of the tales in the present collection under the title of " Devil and Fox Stories ; " but from this scheme he was ultimately dissuaded by his friends, the result being the heterogeneous mass which is more aptly described by the title I have given to this volume. In a similar manner, I too had originally determined to publish a full and complete translation of the whole of
INTRODUCTION xxi
these sixteen volumes ; but on a closer acquaintance many of the stories turned out to be quite imsuitable for the age in which we Uve, forcibly recalling the coarseness of our own writers of fiction in the eighteenth century. Others, again, were utterly pointless, or piere repetitions in a slightly altered form. From the whole, I therefore selected one hundred and sixty-four of the best and most characteristic stories, of which eight had previously been published by Mr. Allen in the China Review, one by Mr. Mayers in Notes and Queries on China and Japan, two by myself in the colimins of the Celestial Empire, and four by Dr. Williams in a now forgotten handbook of Chinese. The remaining one hundred and forty-nine have never before, to my knowledge, been translated into English. To those, however, who can enjoy the Liao Chai in the original text, the distinctions between the various stories in felicity of plot, originality, and so on, are far less sharply defined, so impressed as each competent reader must be by the incomparable style in which even the meanest is arrayed. For in this respect, as important now in Chinese eyes as it was with ourselves in days not long gone by, the author of the Liao Chai and the rejected candidate succeeded in founding a school of his own, in which he has since been followed by hosts of servile imitators with more or less success. Terseness is pushed to extreme limits ; each particle that can be safely dispensed with is scrupulously eliminated ; and every here and there some new and original combina- tion invests perhaps a single word with a force it could never have possessed except under the hands of a perfect master of his art. Add to the above, copious allusions and adaptations from a course of reading which would seem to have been co-extensive with the
xxii INTRODUCTION
whole range of Chinese Hterature, a wealth of metaphor and an artistic use of figures generally to which only the writings of Carlyle form an adequate parallel ; and the result is a work which for purity and beauty of style is now universally accepted in China as the best and most perfect model. Sometimes the story runs along plainly and smoothly enough ; but the next moment we may be plunged into pages of abstruse text, the meaning of which is so involved in quotations from and allusions to the poetry or history of the past three thousand years as to be recoverable only after diligent perusal of the commentary and much searching in other works of reference. In illustration of the popularity of this book, Mr. Mayers once stated that " the porter at his gate, the boatman at his midday rest, the chair-coolie at his stand, no less than the man of letters among his books, may be seen poring with delight over the elegantly-narrated marvels of the Liao Chat ; ** but he would doubtless have withdrawn this statement in later years, with the work lying open before him. During many years in China, I made a point of never, when feasible, passing by a reading Chinaman without asking permission to glance at the volume in his hand ; and at my various stations in China I always kept up a borrowing acquaintance with the libraries of my private or official servants ; but I can safely affirm that I never once detected the Liao Chat in the hands of an ill-educated man. In the same connection, Mr. Mayers observed that " fairy- tales told in the style of the Anatomy of Melancholy would scarcely be a popular book in Great Britain ; " but except in some particular points of contact, the styles of these two works could scarcely claim even the most distant of relationships.
INTRODUCTION xxiii
Such, then, is the settmg of this collection of Strange
Stories from a Chinese Studio^ many of which contain,
in addition to the advantages of style and plot, a very
excellent moral. The intention of most of them is, in
the actual words of T'ang M6ng-lai, " to glorify virtue
and to censure vice," — ^always, it must be borne in.
mind, according to the Chinese and not to a European
interpretation of these terms. As an addition to our
knowledge of the folk-lore of China, and as a guide
to the manners, customs, and social life of that vast
Empire, my translation of the Liao Chai may not be
wholly devoid of interest. It has now been carefully
revised, all inaccuracies of the first edition having been,
so far as possible, corrected.
HERBERT A. GILES.
Cambridge, July 1908.
STRANGE STORIES FROM A CHINESE STUDIO
I. EXAMINATION FOR THE POST OF GUARDIAN ANGELA
My eldest sister's husband's grandfather, named Sung Tao, was a graduate.^ One day, while lying down from indispo- sition, an official messenger arrived, bringing the usual notification in his hand and leading a horse with a white forehead to summon him to the examination for his master's degree. Mr. Sung here remarked that the Grand Examiner had not yet come, and asked why there should be this hurry. The messenger did not reply to this, but pressed so earnestly that at length Mr. Sung roused himself, and getting upon the horse rode with him. The way seemed strange, and by-and-by they reached a city which resembled the capital of a prince. They then entered the Prefect's yatnen,^ the apartments of which were beautifully decorated ; and there they found some ten officials sitting at the tipper end, all strangers to Mr. Sung, with the ex- ception of one whom he recognised to be the God of War.* In the verandah were two tables and two stools, and at the end of one of the former a candidate was already seated,
1 The tutelar deity of every Chinese city.
* That is, he had taken the first or bachelor's degree. I shall not hesitate to use strictly English equivalents for aU kinds of Chinese tenns. The three degrees are literally, (i) Cultivated Talent, (2) Raised Man, and (3) Promoted Scholar.
' The official residence of a mandarin above a certain rank.
* The Chinese Mars. A celebrated warrior, named Kuan Yu, who lived about the beginning of the third century of our era. He was raised after death to the rank of a God, and now ^lays a leading part in the Chinese Pantheon.
B
2 STRANGE STORIES FROM
so Mr. Sung sat down alongside of him. On the table were writing materials for each, and suddenly down flew a piece of paper with a theme on it, consisting of the following eight words : — ** One man, two men ; by intention, with- out intention." When Mr. Sung had finished his essay, he took it into the hall. It contained the following passage : "Those who are virtuous by intention, though virtuous, shall not be rewarded. Those who are wicked without intention, though wicked, shall receive no punishment." The presiding deities praised this sentiment very much, and calling Mr. Sung to come forward, said to him, " A Guardian Angel is wanted in Honan. Go you and take up the appointment." Mr. Sung no sooner heard this than he bowed his head and wept, saying, " Unworthy though I am of the honour you have conferred upon me, I should not venture to decHne it but that my aged mother has reached her seventh decade, and there is no one now to take care of her. I pray you let me wait until she has fulfilled her destiny, when I will hold m5rself at your dis- posal." Thereupon one of the deities, who seemed to be the chief, gave instructions to search out his mother's term of life, and a long-bearded attendant forthwith brought in the Book of Fate. On turning it over, he declared that she still had nine years to live ; and then a consultation was held among the deities, in the middle of which the God of War said, " Very well. Let Mr. graduate Chang take the post, and be relieved in nine years' time." Then, turning to Mr. Sung, he continued, " You ought to proceed without delay to your post ; but as a reward for your filial piety, you are' granted a furlough of nine years. At the expiration of that time you will receive another summons." He next addressed a few kind words to Mr. Chang ; and the two candidates, having made their kotow, went away together. Grasping Mr. Sung's hand, his companion, who gave " Chang Ch'i of Ch'ang-shan " as his name and address, accompanied him beyond the city walls and gave him a stanza of poetry at parting. I cannot recollect it all, but in it occurred this couplet : —
With mne and flowers we chase the hours,
In one eternal spring : No moon, bo light, to cheer the night,
Thyself that ray must bring.
A CHINESE STUDIO 3
Mr. Sung here left him and rode on, and before very long reached his own home ; here he awaked as if from a dream, and found that he had been dead three days,*^ when his mother, hearing a groan in the coffin, ran to it and helped him out. It was some time before he could speak, and then he at once inquired about Ch'ang-shan, where, as it turned out, a graduate named Chang had died that very day.
Nine years afterwards, Mr. Sung's mother, in. accordance with fate, passed from this life; and when the funeral obsequies were over, her son, having first purified himself, entered into his chamber and died also. Now his wife's family lived within the city, near the western gate ; and all of a sudden they beheld Mr. Sung, accompanied by numerous chariots and horses with carved trappings and red-tasselled bits, enter into the hall, make an obeisance, and depart. They were very much disconcerted at this, not knowing that he had become a spirit, and rushed out into the village to make inquiries, when they heard he was already dead. Mr. Sung had an account of his adventure written by himself ; but unfortunately after the insurrection it was not to be found. This is only an outline of the story.
II. THE TALKING PUPILS
At Ch'ang-ngan there lived a scholar, named Fang. Tung, who though by no means destitute of ability was a very un- principled rake, and in the habit of following and speaking to any woman he might chance to meet. The day before the spring festival of Clear Weather,^ he was strolling about outside the city when he saw a small carriage with red curtains and an embroidered awning, followed by a crowd of waiting-maids on horseback, one of whom was exceedingly pretty, and riding on a small palfrey. Going closer to get a better view, Mr. Fang noticed that the carriage curtain was partly open, and inside he beheld a
* Catalepsy, which is the explanation of many a story in this collection, would appear to be of very common occurrence among the Chinese. Such, however, is not the case.
* One of the twenty-four solar terms. It falls on or about the 5th of April, and is the special time for worshipping at the family tombsi
B 2
4 STRANGE STORIES FROM
beautifully dressed girl of about sixteen, lovely beyond anything he had ever seen. Dazzled by the sight, he could not take his eyes off her; and, now before, now behind, he followed the carriage for many a mile. By-andr- by he heard the young lady call out to her maid, and, when the latter came alongside, say to her, " Let down the screen for me. Who is this rude fellow that keeps on staring so ? " The maid accordingly let down the screen, and looking angrily at Mr. Fang said to him, "This is the bride of the Seventh Prince in the City of Immortals going home to see her parents, and no village girl that you should stare at her thus." Then taking a handful of dust, she threw it at him and blinded him. He rubbed his eyes and looked round, but the carriage and horses were gone.* This frightened him, and he went off home, feeling very uncomfortable about the eyes. He sent for a doctor to examine his eyes, and on the pupils was found a small film, which had increased by next morning, the eyes watering incessantly all the time. The film went on growing, and in a few days was as thick as a cash.* On the right pupil there came a kind of spiral, and as no medicine was of any avail, the sufferer gave himself up to grief and wished for death. He then bethought him- self of repenting of his misdeeds, and hearing that the Kuang-ming sutra could relieve misery, he got a copy and hired a man to teach it to him. At first it was very tedious work, but by degrees he became more composed, and spent the whole day in a posture of devotion, telling his beads. At the end of a year he had arrived at a state of perfect calm, when one day he heard a small voice, about as loud as a fly's, calling out from his left eye : " It's horridly dark in here." To this he heard a reply from the right eye, saying, " Let us go out for a stroll, and cheer ourselves up a bit." Then he felt a wriggling in his nose which made it itch, just as if something was going out of each of the nostrils ; and after a while he felt it again as if going the other way. Afterwards he heard a voice from one eye say, " I hadn't seen the garden for a long time : the epiden-
* The common European name for the only Chinese coin, about twenty of which go to a penny. Each has a square hole in the middle, for the convenience of stringing them together ; hence the expression " strings of cash."
A CHINESE STUDIO 5
dnuns are all withered and dead." Now Mr. Fang was very fond of these epidendrums, of which he had planted a great number, and had been accustomed to water them himself ; but since the loss of his sight he had never even alluded to them. Hearing, however, these words, he at once asked his wife why she had let the epidendrums die. She inquired how he knew they were dead, and when he told her she went out to see, and found them actually withered away. They were both very much astonished at this, and his wife proceeded to conceal herself in the room. She then observed two tiny people, no bigger than a bean, come down from her husband's nose and run out of the door, where she lost sight of them. In a Uttle while they came back and flew up to his face, like bees or beetles seeking their nests. This went on for some days, until Mr. Farg heard from the left eye, '* This roundabout road is not at all convenient. It would be as well for us to make a door." To this the right eye answered, " My wall is too thick : it wouldn't be at all an easy job." ** I'll try and open mine," said the left eye; " and then it will do for both of us." Whereupon Mr. Fang felt a pain in his left eye as if something was being spUt, and in a moment he found he could see the tables and chairs in the room. He was delighted at this and told his wife, who examined his eye and discovered an opening in the film, through which she could see the black pupil shining out beneath, the eyeball itself looking like a cracked pepper-corn. By next morning the film had disappeared, and when h£ eye was closely examined it was observed to contain two pupils. The spiral on the right eye remained as before ; and then they knew that the two pupils had taken up their abode in one eye. Further, although Mr. Fang was still blind of one eye, the sight of the other was better than that of the two together. From this time he was more careful of his behaviour, and acquired in his part of the country the reputation of a virtuous man.^
• The belief that the human eye cont^s a tiny being of the human shape is universal in China. It originated, of course, from the reflection of oneself that is seen on looking into the pupil of anybody's eye or even, with the aid of a mirror, into one's own.
6 STRANGE STORIES FROM
III. THE PAINTED WALL
A KiANG-si gentleman, named Meng Limg-t'an, was lodging at the capital with a Mr. Chu, M.A., when one day chance led them to a certain monastery, within which they found no spacious halls or meditation chambers, but only an old priest in deshabille. On observing the visitors, he arranged his dress and went forward to meet them, leading them round and showing whatever there was to be seen. In the chapel they saw an image of Chih^Kung, and the walls on either side were beautifully painted with hfe-like representations of men and animals. On the east side were pictured a number of fairies, among whom was a young girl whose maiden tresses were not yet con- fined by the matron's knot. She was picking flowers and gently smiUng, while her cherry lips seemed about to move, and the moisture of her eyes to overflow. Mr. Chu gazed at her for a long time without taking his eyes off, until at last he became unconscious of anything but the thoughts that were engrossing him. Then, suddenly he felt himself floating in the air, as if riding on a cloud, and found himself passing through the wall,^ where halls and pavilions stretched away one after another, unlike the abodes of mortals. Here an old priest' was preaching the Law of Buddha, surrounded by a large crowd of Usteners. Mr. Chu mingled with the throng, and after a few moments perceived a gentle tug at his sleeve. Turning round, he saw the young girl above-mentioned, who walked laughing away. Mr. Chu at once followed her, and passing a winding balustrade arrived at a small apart- ment beyond which he dared not venture farther. But the young lady, looking back, waved the flowers she had in her hand as though beckoning him to come on. He accordingly entered and found nobody else within. Then they fell on their knees and worshipped heaven and earth together,^ and rose up as man and wife, after which the bride went away, bidding Mr. Chu keep quiet until she came back. This went on for a couple of days, when the
* Which wiU doubtless remind the reader of " Alice through the Looking-glass, £ind what she saw there."
* The all-dmportant item of a Chinese marriage ceremony ; amounting, in fact, to calling God to witness the contract.
A CHINESE STUDIO 7
young lady's companions began to smell a rat and dis- covered Mr. Chu's hiding-place. Thereupon they all laughed and said, " My dear, you are now a married woman, and should leave off that maidenly coiffure J*. So they gave her the proper hair-pins and head ornaments, and bade her go bind her hair, at which she blushed very much but said nothing. Then one of them cried out, " My sisters, let us be off. Two's company, more's none." At this they all giggled again and went away.
Mr. Chu found his wife very much improved by the alteration in the style of her hair. The high top-knot and the coronet of pendants were very becoming to her. But suddenly they heard a sound Uke the tramping of heavy- soled boots, accompanied by the clanking of chains and the noise of angry discussion. The bride jumped up in a fright, and she and Mr. Chu peeped out. They saw a man dad in golden armour, with a face as black as jet, carrying in his hands chains and whips, and surroimded by aU the girls, He asked, " Are you aU here ? " " All," they rephed. " If," said he, ** any mortal is here con- cealed amongst you, denounce him at once, and lay not up sorrow for yourselves." Here they all answered as before that there was no one. The man then made a movement as if he would search the place, upon which the bride was dreadfully alarmed, and her face turned the colour of ashes. In her terror she said to Mr. Chu, *' Hide yourself under the bed," and opening a small lattice in the wall, disappeared herself. Mr. Chu in his concealment hardly dared to draw his breath ; and in a little while he heard the boots tramp into the room and out again, the sound of the voices getting gradually fainter and fainter in the distance. This reassured him, but he still heard the voices of people going backwards and for- wards outside ; and having been a long time in a cramped position, his ears began to sing as if there was a locust in them, and his eyes to bum Uke fire. It was almost un- bearable ; however, he remained quietly awaiting the return of the young lady without giving a thought to the! why and wherefore of his present position.
Meanwhile, Meng Lung-t'an had noticed the sudden disappearance of his friend, and thinking something was wrong, asked the priest where he was. " He has gone to
8 , STRANGE STORIES FROM
hear the preaching of the Law/' replied the priest. *' Where ? " said Mr. Meng. " Oh, not very far," was the answer. Then with his finger the old priest tapped the wall and called out, " Friend Chu ! what makes you stay away so long ? " At this, the likeness of Mr. Chu was figured upon the wall, with his ear incUned in the attitude of one listening. The priest added, '* Your friend here has been waiting for you some time ; " and immediately Mr. Chu descended from the wall, standing transfixed like a block of wood, with starting eye-balls and trembling legs. Mr. Meng was much terrified, and asked him quietly what was the matter. Now the matter was that while concealed under the bed he had heard a noise resembUng thunder and had rushed out to see what it was.
Here they all noticed that the young lady on the wall with the maiden's tresses had changed the style of her coiffure to that of a married woman. Mr. Chu was greatly astonished at this and asked the old priest the reason.
He repUed, ** Visions have their origin in those who see them : what explanation can I give ? " This answer was very unsatisfactory to Mr. Chu ; neither did his friend, who was rather frightened, know what to make of it all ; so they descended the temple steps and went away.
IV. PLANTING A PEAR-TREE
A COUNTRYMAN was oue day selling his pears in the market. They were unusually sweet and fine flavoured, and the price he asked was high. A Taoist^ priest in rags and
^ That is, of the religion of TaOy a system of philosophy founded some six centuries before the Christicin era by a man named Lao-tzfi, " Old boy," who was said to have been bom with white hair and a beard. It is now but a shadow of its former self, and is corrupted by the grossest forms of superstition borrowed from Buddhism, which has in its turn adopted many of the forms and beliefs of Taoism, so that the two religions are hardly distinguishable one from the other.
" What seemed to me the most singular circumstance connected with the matter, was the presence of half a dozen Taoist priests, who joined in all the ceremonies, doing everything that the Buddhist priests did, and presenting a very odd appearance, with their top- knots and cues, among their closely shaven Buddhist brethren. It seemed strange that the worship of Sakyamuni by celibate Buddhist priests, with shaved heads, into which holes were duly burned at their initiation, should be participated in by married Taoist priests.
A CHINESE STUDIO 9
tatters stopped at the barrow and begged one of them. The countryman told him to go away, but as he did not do so he began to curse and swear at him. The priest said, " You have several hundred pears on your barrow ; I ask for a single one, the loss of which. Sir, you would not feel. Why then get angry ? " The lookers-on told the country- man to give him an inferior one and let him go, but this he obstinately refused to do. Thereupon the beadle of the place, finding the commotion too great, purchased a pear and handed it to the priest. The latter received it with a bow and turning to the crowd said, *' We who have left our homes and given up all that is dear to us * are at a loss to understand selfish niggardly conduct in others. Now I have some exquisite pears which I shall do mj^elf the honour to put before you." Here some- body asked, *' Since you have pears yourself, why don't you eat those ? " " Because," replied the priest, ** I wanted one of these pips to grow them from." So saying he munched up the pear ; and when he had finished took a pip in his hand, unstrapped a pick from his back, and proceeded to make a hole in the ground, several inches deep, wherein he deposited the pip, filling in the earth as before. He then asked the bystanders for a little hot water to water it with, and one among them who loved a joke fetched him some boiling water from a neighbouring shop. The priest poured this over the place where he had made the hole, and every eye was fixed upon him when sprouts were seen shooting up, and gradually grow- ing larger and larger. By-and-by, there was a tree with branches sparsely covered with leaves ; then flowers, and last of all fine, large, sweet-smelling pears hjanging in great profusion. These the priest picked and handed round to the assembled crowd until all were gone, when he took his pick and hacked away for a long time at the tree, finally cutting it down. This he shouldered, leaves and all, and sauntered quietly away. Now, from the very beginning, our friend the countryman had been amongst
whose heads are not wholly shaven, and have never been burned." — Initiation of Buddhist Priests at Kooshany by S. L, B.
Taoist priests are credited with a knowledge of alchemy and the black art in general.
* A celibate priesthood belongs properly to Buddhism, and is not a doctrine of the Taoist church.
DO STRANGE STORIES FROM
the crowd, straining his neck to see what was going on, and forgetting all about his business. At the departure of the priest he turned round and discovered that every one of his pears was gone. He then knew that those the old fellow had been giving away so freely were really his own pears. Looking more closely at the barrow, he also found that one of the handles was missing, evidently having been newly cut off. Boiling with rage, he set out in pursuit of the priest, and just as he turned the comer he saw the lost barrow-handle lying under the wall, being in fact the very pear-tree the priest had cut down. But there were no traces of the priest — ^much to the amusement of the crowd in the market-place.
V. THE TAOIST PRIEST OF LAO-SHAN
There lived in our village a Mr. Wang, the seventh son in an old family. This gentleman had a penchant for the Taoist religion ; and hearing that at Lao-shan there were plenty of Immortals,^ shouldered his knapsack and went off for a tour thither. Ascending a peak of the mountain he reached a secluded monastery, where he found a priest sitting on a rush mat, with long hair flowing over his neck, and a pleasant expression on his face. Making a low bow, Wang addressed him thus : " Mysterious indeed is the doctrine : I pray you, Sir, instruct me therein." ** Delicately nurtured and wanting in energy as you are," replied the priest, " I fear you could not support the fatigue." " Try me," said Wang. So when the disciples, who were very many in number, collected together at dusk, Wang joined them in making obeisance to the priest, and remained with them in the monastery. Very early next morning the priest" summoned Wang, and giving him a hatchet sent him out with the others to cut firewood. Wang respectfully obeyed, continuing to work for over a month until his hands and feet were so swollen and blistered
^ The " angels " of Taoism — ^immortality in a happy land being the reward held out for a life on earth in accordance with the doctrines of Tao.
Taoist priests are believed by some to possess an elixir of immor- tality in the form of a precious liquor ;• others again hold that the elixir consists solely in a virtuous conduct of life^
A CHINESE STUDIO ii
that he secretly meditated returning home. One evening when he came back he found two strangers sitting drinking with his master. It being already dark, and no lamp or candles having been brought in, the old priest took some scissors and cut out a circular piece of paper like a mirror, which he proceeded to stick against the wall. Inmiediately it became a dazzling moon, by the Ught of which you could have seen a hair or a beard of com. The disciples all came crowding round to wait upon them, but one of the strangers said, " On a festive occasion like this we ought all to enjoy ourselves together." Accordingly he took a kettle of wine from the table and presented it to the disciples, bidding them drink each his fill ; whereupon our friend Wang began to wonder how seven or eight of them could all be served out of a single kettle. The disciples, too, rushed about in search of cups, each struggling to get the first drink for fear the wine should be exhausted. Nevertheless, all the candidates failed to empty the kettle, at which they were very much astonished, when suddenly one of the strangers said, *' You have given us a fine bright moon ; but it's dull work drinking by ourselves. Why not call Ch'ang-ngo ^ to join us ? " He then seized a chop-stick and threw it into the moon, whereupon a lovely girl stepped forth, from its beams. At first she wsls only a foot high, but on reaching the ground lengthened to the ordinary size of woman. She had a slender waist and a beautiful neck, and went most gracefully through the Red Garment figure.^ When this was finished she sang the following words : —
Ye fairies I ye fairies I I*m coming back soon,
Too lonely and cold is my home in the moon. ^
Her voice Wcis clear and well sustained, ringing like the notes of a flageolet, and when she had concluded her song she pirouetted round and jumped up on the table, where, with every eye fixed in astonishment upon her, she once more became a chop-stick. The three friends laughed
* The beautiful wife of a legendary chieftain named Hou I, who flourished about 2500 B.C. She is said to have stolen from her husband the elixir of immortality, and to have fled with it to the moon.
' The name of a celebrated pas seul of antiquity.
12 STRANGE STORIES FROM
loudly, and one of them said, " We are very jolly to-night, but I have hardly, room for any more wine. Will you drink a parting glass with me in the palace of the moon ? " They then took up the table and walked into the moon, where they could be seen drinking so plainly that their eyebrows and beards appeared Uke reflections ip a looking- glass. By-and-by the moon became obscured ; and when the disciples brought a lighted candle they found the priest sitting in the dark alone. The viands, however, were still upon the table and the mirror-like piece of paper on the wall. ** Have you ^ had enough to drink ? " asked the priest ; to which they answered that they had. "In that case," said he, "you had better get to bed, so as not to be behind-hand with your wood-cutting in the morning." So they all went off, and among them Wang, who was deUghted at what he had seen, and thought no more of returning home. But after a time he could not stand it any longer ; and as the priest taught him no magical arts he determined not to wait, but went to him and said, '* Sir, I have travelled many long miles for the benefit of your instruction. If you will not teach me the secret of Immortahty, let me at any rate learn some trifling trick, and thus soothe my cravings for a knowledge of your art. I have now been here two or three months, doing nothing but chop firewood, out in the morning and back at night, work to which I was never accustomed in my own home." ** Did I not tell you," replied the priest, *' that you would never support the fatigue ? To-morrow I will start you on your way home." " Sir," said Wang, " I have worked for you a long time. Teach me some small art, that my coming here may not have been wholly in vain." " What art ? " asked the priest. " WeU," answered Wang, " I have noticed that whenever you walk about anywhere, walls and so on are no obstacle to you. Teach me this, and FU be satisfied." The priest laughingly assented, and taught Wang a formula which he bade him recite. When he had done so he told him to walk through the wall; but Wang, seeing the wall in front of him, didn't like to walk at it. As, however, the priest bade him try, he walked quietly up to it and was there stopped. The priest here called out, *' Don't go so slowly. Put your head down and rush at it." So Wang stepped back
A CHINESE STUDIO 13
a few paces and went at it full speed ; and the wall yielding to him as he passed, in a moment he found himself outside. Delighted at this, he went in to thank the priest, who told him to be careful in the use of his power, or otherwise there would be no response, handing him at the same time some money for his expenses on the way. When Wang got home, he went about bragging of his Taoist friends and his contempt for walls in general ; but as his wife dis- believed his story, he set about going through the per- formance as before. Stepping back from the wall, he rushed at it full speed .with his head down ; but coming in contact with the hard bricks, finished up in a heap on the floor. His wife picked him up and found he had a bump on his forehead as big as a large egg, at which she roared with laughter ; but Wang was overwhelmed with rage and shame, and cursed the old priest for his base ingratitude.
VI. THE BUDDHIST PRIEST OF CH'ANG-CH'ING
At Ch'ang-ch'ing there lived a Buddhist priest of excep- tional virtue and purity of conduct, who, though over eighty years of age, was still hale and hearty. One day he fell down and could not move ; and when the other priests rushed to help him up, they found he was already gone. The old priest was himself unconscious of death, and his soul flew away to the borders of the province of Honan. Now it chanced that the scion of an old family residing in Honan had gone out that very day with some ten or a dozen followers to hunt the hare with falcons ; *
^ This form of sport may still be seen in the north of China. A hare being started, two Chinese greyhounds (which are very slow) are slipped from their leash in pursuit. But, as the hare would easily run straight away from them, a falcon is released almost simultaneously. The kitter soars to a considerable height, and then swoops down on the hare, striking it a violent blow with the " pounce," or claw. This partially stuns the hare, and allows the dogs to regain lost ground, by which time the hare is ready once more, and off they go again. The chase is ended by the hare getting to earth in a fox's burrow, or being ultimately overtaken by the dogs. In the latter case the heart and Uver are cut out on the spot, and given to the falcon ; otherwise he would hunt no more that day. Two falcons are often released, one shortly after the other. They wear hoods.
14 STRANGE STORIES FROM
but his horse having riin away with him he fell off and was killed. Just at that moment the soul of the priest came by and entered into the body, which thereupon gradually recovered consciousness. The servants crowded round to ask him how he felt, when opening his eyes wide, he cried out, " How did I get here ? " They assisted him to rise, and led him into the house, where all his ladies came to see him and inquire how he did. In great amaze- ment he said, " I am a Buddhist priest. How came I hither ? " His servants thought he was wandering, and tried to recall him by pulling his ears. As for himself, he could make nothing of it, and closing his eyes refrained from saying anything further. For food he would only eat rice, refusing all wine and meat ; and avoided the society of his wives.* After some days he felt inclined for a stroll, at which all his family were delighted ; but no sooner had he got outside and stopped for a little rest than he was besieged by servants begging him to take their accounts as usual. However, he pleaded illness and want of strength, and no more was said. He then took occasion to ask if they knew the district of Ch'ang-ch'ing, and on being answered in the affirmative expressed his intention of going thither for a trip, as he felt anxious about those he had left to their own iresources, at the same time bidding the servants look after his affairs at home. .They tried to dissuade him from this on the ground of his iiaving but recently risen from a sick bed ; but he paid no heed to their remonstrances, and on the very next day set out. Arriving in the Ch'ang-ch'ing district, he found everything unchanged; and without being put to the
which are removed at the moment of flying, and are attached by a slip-string from one leg to the falconer's wrist. During the night previous to a day's hunting they are not allowed to sleep. Each falconer lies down with one falcon on his left wrist, and keeps up an incessant tapping with the other hand on the bird's head. This is done to make 'them fierce. Should the quarry escape, a hare's skin is thrown down, by which means the falcons are secured, and made ready for a further flight. Occasionally, but rarely, the falcon misses its blow at the hare, with the result of a broken or injured " arm."
* Abstinence from wine and meat, and celibacy, are among the most important rules of the Buddhist church, as specially applied to its priesthood. At the door of every Buddhist monastery may be seen a notice that " No wine or meat may enter here 1 " Even the laity are not supposed to drink wine.
A CHINESE STUDIO
15
necessity of asking the road, made his way straight to the monastery. His former disciples received him with every token of respect as an honoured visitor; and in reply to his question as to where the old priest was, they informed him that their worthy teacher had been dead for some time. On asking to be shown his grave, they led him to a spot where there was a sohtary mound some three feet high, over which the grass was not yet green. Not one of them knew his motives for visiting this place ; and by-and-by he ordered his horse, sajdng to the dis- ciples, " Your master was a virtuous priest. Carefully preserve whatever relics of him you may have, and keep them from injury." They all promised to do this, and he then set off on his way home. When he arrived there, he fell into a listless state and took no interest in his family affairs. So much so, that after a few months he ran away and went straight to his former home at the monastery, telling the disciples that he was their old master. This they refused to beUeve, and laughed among themselves at his pretensions ; but he told them the whole story, and recalled many incidents of his previous life among them, until at last they were convinced. He then occupied his old bed and went through the same daily routine as before, paying no attention to the repeated entreaties of his family, who came with carriages and horses to beg him to return. About a year subsequently, his wife sent one of the servants with splendid presents of gold and silk, all of ^ which he refused with th^ exception of a siiigle linen robe. And whenever any of his old friends passed this monastery, they alwa}^ went to pay him their respects, finding him quiet, dignified, and pure. He was then barely thirty, though he had been a priest for more than eighty
years
8
* Having renewed his youth by assuming the body of the young man into which his soul had entered.
i6 STRANGE STORIES FROM
VII. THE MARRIAGE OF THE FOX'S
DAUGHTER
A President of the Board of Civil Office,^ named Yin, and a native of Li-ch'eng, when a young man, was very badly off, but was endowed with considerable phs^icaJ courage. Now in this part of the country there was a large establishment, covering several acres, with an un- broken succession of pavilions and verandahs, and belong- ing to one of the old county families ; but because ghosts and apparitions were frequently seen there, the place had for a long time remained untenanted, and was overgrown with grass and weeds, no one venturing to enter in even in broad dayUght. One evening when Yin was carousing with some fellow-students, one of them jokingly said, *' If anybody will pass a night in the haunted house, the rest of us will stand him a dinner." Mr. Yin jumped up at this, and cried out, "What is there difl&cult in that ? " So, taking with him a sleeping-mat, he proceeded thither, escorted by all his companions as far as the door, where they laughed and said, ' We will wait here a little while. In case you see anything, shout out to us at once." '* If there are any goblins or foxes," replied Yin, '* I'll catch them for you." He then went in, and found the paths obliterated by long grass, which had sprung up, mingled with weeds of various kinds. It was just the time of the new moon, and by its feeble light he was able to make out the door of the house. Feeling his way, he walked on until he reached the back pavilion, and then went up on to the Moon Terrace, which was such a pleasant spot that he determined to stop there. Gazing westwards, he sat for a long time looking at the moon — a single thread of light embracing in its horns the peak of a hill * — ^without hearing anything at all unusual; so, laughing to himself at the nonsense people talked, he spread his mat upon the floor, put a stone under his head for a pillow, and lay down to sleep* He had watched the Cow-herd and the Lady *
^ One of the " Six Boards " (now Seven) at the capital, equivaleat to our own War Office, Board of Works, &c.
* Which, of course, is impossible.
* The Chinese names for certain stars : $y Aquilae and a Lyrae.
A CHINESE STUDIO l^
until they were just disappearing, and was on the point of dropping off, when suddenly he heard footsteps dowa below coming up the stairs. Pretending to be asleep, he saw a servant enter, carrying in his hand a lotus-shaped lantern,* who, on observing Mr. Yin, rushed back in a fright, and said to some one behind, " There is a stranger here ! " The person spoken to asked who it was, but the servant did not know ; and then up came an old gentleman, who, after examining Mr. Yin closely, said, " It's the future President : he's as drtmk as can be. We needn't mind him ; besides, he's a good fellow, and won't give us any trouble." So they walked in and opened all the doors ; and by-and-by there were a great many other people moving about, and quantities of lamps were Ughted^ till the place was as hght as day. About this time Mr, Yin slightly changed his position, and sneezed ; upon which the old man, perceiving that he was awake,. came forward and feU down on his knees, saying, " Sir, I have a daughter who is to be married this very night. It was not anticipated that Your Honour would be here. I pray, therefore, that we may be excused." Mr. Yin got up and raised the old man, regretting that, in his ignorlnce of the festive occasion, he had brought with him no present.* " Ah, Sir," repUed the old man, '* your very presence here will ward off all noxious influences ; and that is quite enough for us." He then begged Mr. Yin to assist in doing the honours, and thus double the obUgation already conferred. Mr. Yin readily assented, and went inside to look at the gorgeous arrangements they had made. He was here met by a lady, apparently about forty years of age, whom the old gentleman introduced as his wife ; and he had hardly made his bow when he heard the sound of flageolets,® and some one came hurrying in, saying, '* He has come 1 " The old gentleman flew out to meet this personage, and Mr. Yin also stood up, awaiting his arrival. In no long time, a bevy of people with gauze lanterns ushered in the bridegroom himself, who seemed to be about seventeen or eighteen years old, and of a most refined and prepossessing appearance. The old. gentleman
* Lanterns very prettily made to resemble all kinds of flowers are to be seen at the Chinese New Year.
* This is, as with us, obligatory on all friends invited to a marriage. ' The accompaniment of all weddings and funerals in China,
c
i8 STRANGE STORIES FROM
bade him pay his respects first to their worthy guest ; and upon his looking towards Mr. Yin, that gentleman came forward to welcome him on behalf of the host. Then followed ceremonies between the old man and his son- in-law ; and when these were over, they all sat down ta supper. Hosts of waiting-maids brought in profuse quantities of wine and meats, with bowls and cups of jade or gold, till the table glittered again. And when the wine had gone round several times, the old gentleman told one of the maids to summon the bride. This she did, but some time passed and no bride came. So the old man rose and drew aside the curtain, pressing the young lady to come forth ; whereupon a number of women escorted out the bride, whose ornaments went tinUe tinkle as she walked along, sweet perfumes being all the time diffused around. Her father told her to make tl^e proper saluta- tion, after which she went and sat by her mother. Mr. Yin took a glance at her, and saw that she wore on her head beautiful ornaments made of kingfisher's feathers, her beauty quite surpassing anything he had ever seen. All this time they had been drinking their wine out of golden goblets big enough to hold several pints, when it flashed across him that one of these goblets would be a capital thing to carry back to his companions in evidence of what he had seen. So he secreted it in his sleeve, and pretending to be tipsy,' leaned forward with his head upon the table as if going off to sleep. " The gentleman is drunk," said the guests ; and by-and-by Mr. Yin heard the bridegroom take his leave, and there was a general trooping downstairs to thCtune of a wedding march. When they were all gone the old gentleman collected t'he goblets, one of which was missing, though they hunted high and low to find it. Some one mentioned the sleeping guest ; but the old gentleman stopped him at once for fear Mr. Yin should hear, and before long silence reigned
' The soberest people in the world, amongst whom anything like sottishness is comparatively unknown, think it no disgrace, but rather complimentary, to get pleasantly tipsy on all festive occasions ; and people who are physically unable to do so frequently go so far as to Mre substitutes to drink for them. Mandarins specially suffer very much from the custom of being obliged to take " wine " with a large number of guests. For further on this subject, see No. LI v., note i.
A CHINESE STUDIO 19
throughout. Mr. Yin then arose. It was dark, and he had no light ; but he could detect the lingering smell of the food, and the place was filled with the fumes of wine. Faint streaks of Ught now appearing in the east, he began quietly to make a move, having first satisfied himself that the goblet was stiU in his sleeve. Arriving at the door, he found his friends already there ; for they had been afraid he might come out after they left, and go in again early in the morning. When he produced the goblet they were all lost in astonishment ; and on hearing his story, they were fain to believe it, well knowing that a poor student like Yin was not likely to have such a valuable piece of plate in his possession.
Later on Mr. Yin took his doctor's degree, and was appointed magistrate over the district of Fei-ch*iu, where there was an old-established family of the name of Chu. The head of the family asked him to a banquet in honour of his arrival, and ordered the servants to bring in the large goblets. After some delay a slave-girl came and whispered something to her master which seemed to make him very angry. Then the goblets were brought in, and Mr. Yin was invited to drink. He now found that these goblets were of precisely the same shape and pattern as the one he had at home, and at once begged his host to tell him where he had had these made.- ** Well;" said Mr. Chu, '* there should be eight of them. An ancestor of mine had them made, when he was a minister at the capital, by an experienced artificer. • They have been handed down in our family from generation to generation, and have now been carefully laid by for some time ; but I thought we would have them out to-day as a compUment to your Honour. However, there are only seven to be found. None of the servants can have touched them, for the old seals of ten years ago are still upon the box, unbroken. I don't know what to make of it." Mr. Yin laughed, and said, " It must have flown away I Still, it is a pity to lose an heirloom of that kind ; and as I have a very similar one at home, I shall take upon myself to send it to you." When the banquet was over, Mr. Yin went home, and taking out his own goblet, sent it off to Mr. Chu. The latter was somewhat surprised to find that it was identical with his own, and hurried away to thank
02
20 STRANGE STORIES FROM
the magistrate for his gift, asking him at the same time how it had come into his possession. Mr. Yin told him the whole story, which proves conclusively that although a fox may obtain possession of a thing, even at a distance of many hundred miles, he will not venture to keep it altogether.®
VIII. MISS CHIAO-NO
K'UNG HsuEH-Li was a descendant of Confucius.^ He was a man of considerable ability, and an excellent poet.^ A fellow-student, to whom he was much attached, became magistrate at T'ien-t'ai, and sent for K'ung to join him. Unfortunately, just before K*ung arrived his friend died, and he found himself without the means of returning home ; so he took up his abode in a Buddhist monastery, where he was employed in transcribing for the priests. Several hundred paces to the west of this monastery there was a house belonging to a Mr. Shan, a gentleman who had known better days, but who had spent all his money in a heavy law-suit ; and then, as his family was a small one, had gone away to live in the country and left his house vacant. One day there was a heavy fall of snow which kept visitors away from the monastery ; and K'ung, finding it dull, went out. As he was passing by the door of the house above-mentioned, a young man of very elegant appearance came forth, who, the moment he saw K'ung, ran up to him, and with a bow, entered into conversation, asking him to be pleased to walk in. K'ung was much takep with the young man, and followed him inside. The
* The wedding-party was, of course, composed entirely of foxes, this animal being believed by the Chinese to be capable of appearing at will under the human form, and of doing either good or evil to its friends or foes. These facts will be prominently brought out in several of the stories to follow.
^ Lineal descendants of Confucius are to be found at this day living together as a clan, near their founder's mausoleum in Shan- tung. The head of the family is an hereditary kung or " duke," and each member enjoys a share of the revenues with which the family has been endowed, in well-merited recognition of the undying influence of China's greatest sage.
* More or less proficiency in the art of poetry is an absolutely essential qualification for all who present themselves at the great competitive tests by which successful candidates are admitted to Chinese official life.
A CHINESE STUDIO 21
rooms were not particularly large, but adorned throughout with embroidered curtains, and from the walls hung scrolls and drawings by celebrated masters. On the table lay a book, the title of which was ** Jottings from Paradise " ; and turning over its leaves, K'ung found therein many strange things. He did not ask the young man his name, presuming that as he Uved in the Shan family mansion, he was necessarily the owner of the place. The young man, however, inquired what he was doing in that part of the country, and expressed great sympathy with his misfortunes, recommending him to set about taking pupils. " Alas ! " said K'ung, *' who will play the Maecenas to a distressed wayfarer like myself ? " " If," replied the young man, " you would con(iescend so far, I for my part would gladly seek instruction at your hands." K'ung was much gratified at this, but said he dared not arrogate to himself the position of teacher, and begged merely to be considered as the young man's friend. He then asked him why the house had been shut up for so long ; to which the young man replied, " This is the Shan family mansion. It has been closed all this time because of the owner's removal into the country. My surname is Huang-fu, and my home is in Shen-si ; but as our house has been burnt down in a great fire, we have put up here for a while." Thus Mr. K'ung found out that his name was not Shan. That evening they spent in laughing and talking together, and K'ung remained there for the night. In the morning a lad came in to light the fire ; and the young man, rising first, went into the private part of the house. Mr. K'ung was sitting up with the bed-clothes still huddled round him, when the lad looked in and said, " Master's coming ! " So he jumped up with a start, and in came an old man with a silvery beard, who began to thank him, saying, " I am very much obliged to you for your condescension in becoming my son's tutor. At present he writes a villainous hand ; and I can only hope you will not allow the ties of friendship to interfere with discipUne.". There- upon, he presented Mr. K'ung with an embroidered suit of clothes, a sable hat, and a set of shoes and stockings ; and when the latter had washed and dressed himself he called for wine and food. K'ung could not make out what the valances of the chairs and tables were made of ; they
22 STRANGE STORIES FROM
were so very bright-coloured and dazzling. By-and-by, when the wine had circulated several times, the old gentle- man picked up his walking-stick and took his leave. After breakfast the young man handed in his theme, which turned out to be written in an archaic style, and not at all after the modern fashion of essay-writing. K'ung asked him why he had done this, to which the young man replied that he did not contemplate competing at the public examinations. In the evening they had another drinking- bout, but it was agreed that there should be no more of it after that night. The young man then called the boy and told him to see if his father was asleep or not ; adding that if he was, he might quietly summon Miss Perfume, The boy went off, first taking a guitar out of a very pretty case ; and in a few minutes in came a very nice-looking young girl. The young man bade her play the Death of Shun ; ^ and seizing an ivory plectrum she swept the chords, pouring forth a vocal melody of exquisite sweetness and pathos. He then gave her a goblet of wine to drink, and it was midnight before they parted. Next morning they got up early and settled down to work. The young man proved an apt scholar : he could remember what he had once read, and at the end of two or thcee months had made astonishing progress. Then they agreed that every five days they would indulge in a symposium, and that Miss Perfume should always be of the party. One night when the wine had gone into K'ung's head, he seemed to be lost in a reverie ; whereupon his young friend, who knew what was the matter with him, said. " This girl was brought up by my father. I know you find it lonely, and I have Iqng been looking out for a nice wife for you." " Let her only resemble Miss Perfume," said K'ung, " and she will do." " Your experience," said the young man, laughing, " is but limited, and, consequently, anything , is a surprise to you. If Miss Perfume is your beau ideals why, it will not be difficult to satisfy you."
• One of the two celebrated but legendary rulers of China in the golden ages of antiquity. Yao — ^who abdicated 2357 b.c, — ^nomi- nated as his successor a young and virtuous husbandman named Shun, giving ]|im both his daughters in marriage. At the death of Shun, these ladies are said to have wept so much that their tears literally drenched the bamboos which grew beside their husband's grave ; and the speckled bamboo is now commonly known as the bamboo of Shun's wives.
A CHINESE STUDIO 23
Some six months had passed away, when one day Mr. K'ung took it into his head that he would like to go out for a stroll in the country. The entrance, however, was carefully closed ; and on asking the reason, the young man told him that his father wished to receive no guests for fear of causing interruption to his studies. So K'ung thought no more about it ; and by-and-by, when the heat of summer came on, they moved their study to a pavilion in the garden. At this time Mr. K'ung had a swelling on the chest about as big as a peach, which, in a single night, increased to the size of a bowl. There he lay groaning with the pain, while his pupil waited upon him day and night. He slept badly and took hardly any food ; and in a few days the place got so much worse that he could neither eat nor drink. The old gentleman also came in, and he and his son lamented over him together. Then the young man said, '* I was thinking last night that my sister, Chiao-no, would be able to cure Mr. K'ung, and accordingly I sent over to my grandmother's asking her to come. She ought to be here by now." At that moment a servant entered and announced Miss Chiao-no, who had come with her cousin, having been at her aunt's house. Her father and brother ran out to meet her, and then brought her in to see Mr. K'ung. She was between thirteen and fourteen years old, and had beautiful eyes with a very intelligent expression in them, and a most graceful figure besides. No sooner had Mr. K'ung beheld this lovely creature than he quite forgot to groan, and began to brighten up. Mean- while the young man was sajdng, " This respected friend of mine is the same to me as a brother. Try, sister, to cure him." Miss Chiao-no immediately dismissed her blushes, and rolling up her long sleeves approached the bed to feel his pulse.* As she was grasping his wrist, K'ujig became conscious of a perfume more delicate than that of the epidendrum ; and then she laughed, saying, " This illness was to be expected ; for the heart is touched. Though it is severe, a cure can be effected ; but, as there is already a swelling, not without using the knife." Then
* Volumes have been written by Chinese doctors on the subject of the pulse. They profess to distinguish as many as twenty-four different kinds, among which is one well known to our own prac- titioners— ^namely, the *' thready " pulse ; they, moreover, make a point of feeling the pulses of both wrists,
24 STRANGE STORIES FROM
she drew from her arm a gold bracelet which she pressed down upon the suffering spot, until by degrees the swelling rose within the bracelet and overtopped it by an inch and more, the outljmig parts that were inflamed also passing under, and thus very considerably reducing the extent of the tumour: With one hand she opened her robe and took out a knife with an edge as keen as paper, and pressing the bracelet down all the time with the other, proceeded to cut lightly round near the root of the swelling. The dark blood gushed forth, and stained the bed and the mat ; but Mr. K'ung was delighted to be near such a beauty, — not only felt no pain, but would willingly have continued the operation that she might sit by him a little lofiger. In a few moments the whole thing was removed, and looked like a growth which had been cut off a tree. Here Miss Chiao-no called for water to wash the wound, and from between her lips she took a red pill as big as a bullet, which she laid upon the flesh, and; after drawing the skin together, passed round and round the place. The first turn felt like the searing of a hot iron ; the second lijce a gentle itching ; and at the third he experienced a sensation of lightness and coolness which penetrated into his very bones and marrow. The young lady then returned the pill to her mouth, and said, " He is cured," hurrying away as fast as she could. Mr. K'ung jumped up to thank her, and found that his complaint had quite disappeared. Her beauty, however, had made such an impression on him that his troubles were hardly at an end. From this moment he gave up his books, and took no interest in anything. This state of things was soon noticed by the young man, who said to him, " My brother, I have found a fine match for you." " Who is it to be ? " asked K'ung. '* Oh, one of the family," replied his friend. Thereupon Mr. K'ung remained some time lost in thought, and at length said, *' Please don't ! " Then turning his face to the wall, he repeated these lines :—
Speak not of lakes and streams to him who once has seen the sea ; The clouds that circle Wu's peak are the only clouds for me.*
The young man guessed to whom he was alluding, and replied, " My father has a very high opinion of your' talents
? B jr a famous poet^ nanaed Yuan Chto, a.d. 779-831.
A CHINESE STUDIO 25
and would gladly receive you into the family, but that he has only one daughter, and she is much too young. My cousin, Ah-sung, however, is seventeen years old, and not at all a bad-looking girl. If you doubt my word, you can wait in the verandah until she takes her daily walk in the garden, and thus judge for yourself." This Mr. K'ung acceded to, and accordingly saw Miss Chiao-no come out with a lovely girl — ^her black eyebrows beautifully arched, and her tiny feet encased in phcenix-shaped shoes— as like one another as they well could be. He was of course delighted, and begged the young man to arrange all pre- liminaries ; and the very next day his friend came to tell him that the affair was finally settled. A portion of the house was given up to the bride and bridegroom, and the marriage was celebrated with plenty of music and hosts of guests, more like a fairy wedding than anything else. Mr. K'ung was very happy, and began to think that the position of Paradise had been wrongly laid down, until one day the young man came to him and said, " For the trouble you have been at in teaching me, I shall ever remain your debtor. At the present moment, the Shan family law- suit has been brought to a termination, and they wish to resume possession of their house immediately. We there- fore propose returning to Shen-si, and as it is unUkely that you and I will ever meet again, I feel very sorrowful at the prospect of parting." Mr. K'ting repUed that he would go too, but the young man advised him to return to his old home. This, he observed, was no easy matter ; upon which the young man said, " Don't let that trouble you : I will see you safe there." By-and-by his father came in with Mr. K'ung's wife, and presented Mr. K'ung with one hundred ounces ^f gold; and then the young man gave the husband and wife each one of his hands to grasp, bidding them shut their eyes. The next instant they were floating away in the air, with the wind whizzing in their ears. In a little while he said, " You have arrived," and opening his eyes, K'ung beheld his former home. Then he knew that the young man was not a human being. Joyfully he knocked at the old door, and his mother was astonished to see him arrive with such a nice wife. They were all rejoicing together, when he turned round and found that bis friend had disappeared. His wife attended
26 STRANGE STORIES FROM
on her mother-in-law with great devotion, and acquired a reputation 'both for virtue and beauty, which was spread round far and near. Some time passed away, and then Mr. K'ung took his doctor's degree, and was appointed Governor of the Gaol in Yen-ngan. He proceeded to his post with his wife only, the journey being too long for his mother, and by-and-by a son was bom. Then he got into trouble by being too honest an official, and threw up his appointment ; but had not the wherewithal to get home again. One day when out hunting he met a handsome young man riding on a nice horse, and seeing that he was staring very hard looked closely at him. It was young Huang-fu. So they drew bridle, and fell to laughing and crying by turns, — the young man then inviting K'ung to go, along with him. They rode on together until they had reached a village thickly shaded with trees, so that the sun and sky were invisible overhead, and entered into a most elaborately-decorated mansion, such as might belong to an old-estabUshed family. K'ung asked after Miss Chiao-no, and heard that she was married ; also that his own mother-in-law was dead, at which tidings he was greatly moved. Next day he went back and returned again with his wife. Chiao-no also joined them, and taking up K'ung's child, played with it, saying, "Your mother played us truant." Mr. K'ung did not forget to thank her for her former kindness to him, to which she replied, " You're a great man now. Though the wound has healed, haven't you forgotten the pain yet ? " Her husband, too, came to pay his respects, returning with her on the following morning. One day the young Huang-fu seemed troubled in spirit, and said to Mr. K'ung, " A great calamity is impending. Can you help us ? " Mr. K'ung did not know what he was alluding to, but readily promised his assistance. The young man then ran out and sum- moned the whole family to worship in the ancestral hall, at which Mr. K'ung was alarmed, and asked what it all meant. " You know," answered the young man, " I am not a man but a fox. To-day we shall be attacked by thunder ; • and if only you will aid us in our trouble, we may still
• The Chinese believe that wicked people axe struck by the God of Thunder, and killed in punishment for some hidden crime. They regard lightning merely as an arrangement with a mirror by which the God is enabled to see his victim.
A CHINESE STUDIO 27
hope to escape. If you are unwilling, take your child and go, that you may not be involved with us." Mr, K'ung protested he would live or die with them, and so the young man placed him with a sword at the door, bidding him remain quiet there in spite of all the thunder. He did as he was told, and soon saw black clouds obscuring the light until it was all as dark as pitch. Looking round, he could see that the house had disappeared, and that its place was occupied by a huge mound and a bottomless pit. In the midst of his terror, a fearful peal was heard which shook the very hills, accompanied by a violent wind and driving rain. Old trees were torn up, and Mr. K'ung became both dazed and deaif. Yet he stood firm until he saw in a dense black column of smoke a horrid thing with a sharp beak and long claws, with which it snatched some one from the hole, and was disappearing up with the smoke. In an instant K'ung knew by her clothes and shoes that the victim was no other than Chiao-no, and instantly jumping up he struck the devil violently with his sword, and cut it down. Immediately the mountains were riven, and a sharp peal of thunder laid K'ung dead upon the ground. Then the clouds cleared away, and Chiao-no gradually came round, to find K'ung dead at her feet. She burst out crying at the sight, and declared that she would not live since K'ung had died for her. K'ung's wife also came out, and they bore the body inside. Chiao-no then made Ah-sung hold her husband's head, while her brother prised open his teeth with a hair-pin, and she herself arranged his jaw. She next put a red pill into his mouth, and bending down breathed into him. The pill went along with the current of air, and presently there was a gurgle in his throat, and he came round. Seeing all the family about him, he was disturbed as if waking from a dream. However, they were all united together, and fear gave place to joy ; but Mr. K'ung objected to Hve in that out- of-the-way place, and proposed that they should return with him to his native village. To this they were only too pleased to assent — all except Chiao-no ; and when Mr. K'ung invited her husband, Mr. Wu, as well, she said she feared her father and mother-in-law would not like to lose the children. They had tried all day to persuade her, but without success, when suddenly in rushed one of the Wu family's servants, dripping with perspiration and
28 STRANGE STORIES FROM
quite out of breath. They asked what was the matter, and the servant replied that the Wu family had been visited by a calamity on the very same day, and had every one perished. Chiao-no cried very bitterly, at this, and could not be comforted; but now there was nothing to prevent them from all returning together. Mr. K'ung went into the city for a few days on business, and then they set to work packing-up night and day. On arriving at their destination, separate apartments were allotted to young Mr. Huang-fu, and these he kept carefully shut up, only opening the door to Mr. K'ung and his wife.
Mr. K'ung amused himself with the young man and his sister Chiao-no, filling up the time with chess,' wine, con- versation, and good cheer, as if they had been one family. His little boy, Huan, grew up to be a handsome young man, but with a touch of the fox in his composition ; so that when he showed himself abroad, he was immediately recognised as the son of a fox.
IX. MAGICAL ARTS
A CERTAIN Mr. Yii was a spirited young fellow, fond of boxing and trials of strength. He was able to take two kettles and swing them round about with the speed of the wind. Now, during the reign of Ch'ung Cheng,^ when up for the final examination at the capital, his servant became seriously ill. - Much troubled at this, he applied to a necro- mancer in the market-place ^ who was skilful at determining
' Chinese " chess " is similar to, but not identical with, our game. The board is divided by a river, and the king is confined to a small square of moves on his own territory. The game par excellence in China is wei-ch'i, an accoimt of which I contributed to the Temple Bar magazine for January 1877.
* The last emperor of the Ming dynasty. Began to reign a.d. 1628.
* The trade of fortune-teller is one of the most flourishing in China. A large majority of the candidates who are unsuccessful at the public examinations devote their energies in this direction ; and in every Chinese city there are regular establishments whither the superstitious people repair to consult the oracle on every imagin- able subject ; — ^not to mention hosts of itinerant soothsayers, both in town and country, whose stock-in-trade consists'of a trestle-table, pen, ink, and paper, and a few other mysterious implements of their art. The nature of the response, favourable or otherwise, is determined by an inspection of the year, i^month, day, and hour at which the applicant was bom, taken in combination with other particulars referring to the question at issue.
A CHINESE STUDip 29
the various leases of life allotted to men. Before he had uttered a word, the necromancer asked him, saying, " Is it not about your servant. Sir, that you would consult me ? " Mr. Yii was startled at this, and repUed that it was. " The sick man," continued the necromancer, "^will come to no harm ; you. Sir, are the one in danger." Mr. Yii then begged him to cast his nativity, which he pro- ceeded to do, finally saying to Mr. Yii, " You have but three days to Uve ! " Dreadfully frightened, he remained some time in a state of stupefaction, when the necromancer quietly observed that he possessed the power of averting this calamity by magic, and would exert it for the sum of ten ounces of silver. But Mr. Yii reflected that Life and Death are already fixed,' and he didn't see how magic could save him. So he refused, and was just going away, whereupon the necromancer said, '* You grudge this trifling outlay. I hope you will not repent it." Mr. Yii's friends also urged him to pay the money, advising him rather to empty his purse than not secure the necro- mancer's compassion. Mr. Yii, however, would not hear of it, and the three days slipped quickly away. Then he sat down calmly in his inn to see what was going to happen. Nothing did happen all day, and at night he shut his door and trinuned the lamp ; then, with a sword at his side, he awaited the approach of death.
By-and-by, the clepsydra * showed that two hours had already gone without bringing him any nearer to dis- solution ; and he was thinkmg about lying down, when he
* A firm belief in predestination is an important characteristic of the Chinese mind. '* All is destiny *' is a phrase daily in the mouth of every man, woman, and child, in the empire. Confucius himself, we are told, objected to discourse to his disciples upon this topic ; but it is evident from many passages in the Lun Yu, or Confucian Gospels [Book vi. ch. 8, Book xiv. ch. 38, &c.], that he believed in a certain pre-arrangement of human afiairs, against which all efforts would be imavailing;
* An appliance of very ancient date in China, now superseded by cheap clocks and watches. A large clepsydra, consisting of four copper jars standing on steps one above the other, is stfil, how- ever, to be seen in the city of Canton, and is in excellent working order, the night-watches being determined by reference to its indi- cator in the lower jar. By its aid, coils of ** joss-stick," or pastille, are regulated to bum so many hours, and are sold to the poor, who use them both for the purpose of guiding their extremely vague notions of time, and for lighting the oft-recurring tobacco-pipe.
30 STRANGE STORIES FROM
heard a scratching at the window, and then saw a tiny little man creep through, carrying a spear on his shoulder, who, on reaching the ground, shot up to the ordinary height. Mr. Yii seized his sword and at once struck at it ; but only succeeded in cutting the air. His visitor instantly shrank down small again, and made an attempt to escape through the crevice of the window ; but Yii redoubled his blows and at last brought him to the ground. Lighting the lamp, he found only a paper man,^ cut right through the middle. This made him afraid to sle^p, and he sat up watching, until in a little time he saw a horrid hobgoblin creep through the same place. No sooner did it touch the ground than he assailed it lustily with his sword, at length cutting it in half. Seeing, however, that both halves kept on wriggling about, and fearing that it might get up again, he went on hacking at it. Every blow told, giving forth a hard sound, and when he came to examine his work, he found a clay image all knocked to pieces. Upon this he moved his seat near to the window, and kept his eye fixed upon the crack. After some time, he heard a noise Uke a bull bellowing cflitside the window, and some- thing pushed against the window-frame with such force as to make the whole house tremble and seem about to fall. Mr. Yii, fearing he should be buried under the ruins, thought he could not do better than fight outside ; so he accordingly burst open the door with a crash and rushed out. There he found a huge devil, as tall as the house, and he saw by the dim light of the moon that its face was as black as coal.
• " Paper men " are a source of great dread to the people at large. During the year 1876 whole provinces were convulsed by the belief that some such superstitious agency was at work to de- prive innocent persons of their tails ; and the so-called " Pope " of the Taoist religion even went so far as to publish a charm against the machinations of the unseen. It ran as follows : — " Ye who urge filthy devils to spy out the people 1 — ^the Master's spirits are at hand and will soon discover you. With this charm anyone may travel by sunlight, moonlight, or starlight all over the earth.** At one time popular excitement ran so high that serious conse- quences were anticipated ; and the mandarins in the affected dis- tricts found it quite as much as they could do to prevent lynch- law being carried out on harmless strangers who were unlucky enough to give rise to the slightest suspicion.
Taoist priests are generally credited with the power of cutting out hunuin, animal, or other figures, of infusing vitality into them on the spot, and of employing them for purposes of good or evil.
A CHINESE STUDIO 31
Its eyes shot forth yellow fire : it had nothing either upon its shoulders or feet ; but held a bow in its hand and had some arrows at its waist. Mr. Yii was terrified ; and thfe devil discharged an arrow at him which he struck to the ground with his sword. On Mr. Yii preparing to strike, the devil let off another arrow which the former avoided by jumping aside, the arrow quivering in the wall beyond with a smart crack. The devil here got very angry, and drawing his sword flourished it like a whirlwind, aiming a tremendous blow at Mr. Yii. Mr. Yii ducked, and the whole force of the blow fell upon the stone wall of the house, cutting it right in two. Mr. Yii then ran out from between the devil's legs, and began hacking at its back — ^whack I whack ! The devil noAV became furious, and roared like thunder, turning round to get another blow at his assailant. But Mr. Yii again ran between his legs, the devil's sword merely cutting off a piece of his coat. Once more he hacked away — ^whack ! — ^whack ! and at length the devil came tumbUng down flat. Mr. Yii cut at him right and left, each blow resounding Uke the watchman's wooden gong,® and then, bringing a light, he found it was a wooden image about as tall as a man. The bow and arrows were still there, the latter attached to its waist. Its carved and painted features were most hideous to behold ; and wherever Mr. Yii had struck it with his sword, there was blood. Mr. Yii sat with the Ught in his hand till morning, when he awaked to the fact that all these devils had been sent by the necromancer in order to kill him, and so evidence his own magical power. The next day, after having told the story far and wide, he went with some others to the place where the necromancer had his stall ; but the latter, seeing them coming, vanished in the twinkling of an eye, Some one observed that the blood of a dog would reveal a person who had made himself invisible, and Mr. Yii immediately procured some and went back with it. The necromancer disappeared as before, but on the spot where he had been standing they quickly threw down the dog's blood. Thereupon they saw his head and face all smeared
• Watchmen in China, when on their nightly rounds, keep up an incessant beating on what, for want of a better term, we have called a wooden gong. The object is to let thieves know they are awake and on the look-out.
32 STRANGE STORIES FROM
over with blood, his eyes glaring like a devil's ; and at once seizing him, they handed him over to the authorities, by \frhpm he was put to death.
X. JOINING THE IMMORTALS
A Mr. Chou, of Wen-teng, had in his youth been fellow- student with a Mr. Ch'eng, and a firm friendship was the result. The latter was poor, and depended very much upon Chou, who was the elder of the two. He called Chou's wife his " sister," and had the run of the house just as if he was one of the family. Now this wife happening to die in child-bed, Chou married another named Wang ; but as she was quite a young girl, Ch'eng did hot seek to be introduced.^ One day her younger brother came to visit her, and was being entertained in the " inner " apart- ments 2 when Ch'eng chanced to call. The servant an- nounced his arrival, and Chou bade him ask Mr. Ch'eng in. But Ch'eng would not enter, and took his leave. There- upon Chou caused the entertainment to be moved into the public part of the house, and, sending after Ch'eng, succeeded in bringing him back. They had hardly sat down before some one came in to say that a former servant of the establishment had been severely beaten at the magistrate's yamen ; the facts of the case being that a cow-boy of the Huang family connected with the Board of Rites had driven his cattle across the Chou family's land, and that words had arisen between the two servants in consequence ; upon which the Huang family's servant had complained to his master, who had seized the other and had sent him in to the magistrate's, where he had been bambooed. When Mr. Chou found out what the matter was, he was exceedingly angry, and said, " How dares this pig-boy fellow behave thus ? Why, only a generation ago his master was my father's servant 1 He emerges a little from his obscurity, and immediately thinks himself I don't
1 This is a characteristic touch. Only the most intimate of friends ever see each other's wives.
* Where the women of the family live, and into which no strangei; ever penetrates. Among other names by which a Chinese husband speal^ of his wife, a very common one is " the inner [wo] man."
A CHINESE STUDIO 33
know what ! " Swelling with rage, he rose to go in quest of Huang, but Ch'eng held him back, saying, " The age is corrupt : there is no distinction between right and wrong. Besides, the officials of the day are half of them thieves, and you will only get yourself into hot water." Chou, however, would not listen to him ; and it was only when tears were added to remonstrances that he consented to let the matter drop. But his anger did not cease, and he lay tossing and turning all night. In the morning he said to his family, " I can stand the insults of Mr. Huang ; but the magistrate is an officer of the Grovemment, and not the servant of influential people. If there is a case of any kind, he should hear both plaintiff and defendant, and not act hke a dog, biting anybody he is set upon. I wiU bring an action against the cow-boy, and see what the magistrate will do to him." As his family rather egged him on, he accordingly proceeded to the magistrate's and entered a formal plaint ; but that functionary tore up his petition, and would have nothing to do with it. This roused Chou's anger, and he told the magistrate plainly what he thought of him, in return for which contempt of court he was at once seized and bound. During the forenoon Mr. Ch'eng called at his house, where he learnt that Chou had gone into the city to prosecute the cow-boy, and immediately hurried after him with a view to stop proceedings. But his friend was already in the gaol, and ail he could do was to stamp his foot in anger. Now it happened that three pirates had just been caught ; and the magistrate and Huang, putting their heads together, bribed these fellows to say that Chou was one of their gang, whereupon the higher authorities were petitioned to deprive him of his status as a graduate,* and the magistrate then had him most unmercifully bam- booed.* Mr. Ch'eng gained admittance to the gaol, and, after a painful interview, proposed that a petition should
• Until which he would be safe, by virtue of his degree, from the degrading penalty of the bamboo.
* This is the instrument commonly used for flogging criminals in' China, and consists of a strip of split bamboo planed down smooth.. Strictly speaking there are two kinds, the heavy and the light; the former is now hardly if ever used. Until the reign of K'ang Hsi all strokes were given across the back ; but that humane Emperor removed the locus operandi lower down, " for fear of injuring the liver or the lungs."
D
34 STRANGE STORIES FROM
be presented direct to the Throne. " Alas I " said Chou, " here am I bound and guarded, like a bird in a cage. I have indeed a young brother, but it is as much as he can do to provide me with food." Then Ch'eng stepped forward, saying, " I will perform this service. Of what use are friends who will not assist in the hour of trouble ? " So away he went, and Chou's brother provided him with money to defray his expenses. After a long journey he arrived at the capital, where he found himself quite at a loss as to how he should get the petition presented. How- ever, hearing that the Emperor was about to set out on a hunting tour, he concealed himself in the market-place, and when His Majesty passed by, prostrated himself on the ground with loud cries and gesticulations. The Emperor received his petition, and sent it to the Board of Punish- ments,® desiring to be furnished with a report on the case. It was then more than ten months since the beginning of the affair, and Chou, who had been made to confess • to this false charge, was already under sentence of death ; so that the officers of the Board were very much alarmed when they received the Imperial instructions, and set to work to re-hear the case in person. Huang was also much alarmed, and devised a plan for killing Mr. Chou by bribing, the gaolers to stop his food and drink ; so that when his brother brought provisions he was rudely thrust back and prevented from taking them in. Mr. Ch'eng complained of this to the Viceroy of the province, who investigated the matter himself, and found that Chou was in the last stage of starvation, for which the gaolers were bambooed to death. Terrified out of his wits, Huang, by dint of bribing heavily, succeeded in absconding and escaping a just punishment for his crimes. The magistrate, however, was banished for perversion of the law, and Chou was permitted to return home, his affection for Ch'eng being now very much increased. But ever after the prosecution and his friend's captivity, Mr. Ch'eng took a dismal view of human affairs, and one day invited Chou to retire with him from the world. The latter, who w£ls deeply attached
• See No. VII., note i.
* It is a principle of Chinese jurisprudence that no sentence can be passed until the prisoner has confessed his guilt — a principle, however, frequently set aside in practice.
A CHINESE STUDIO 35
to his young wife, threw cold water on the proposition, and Mr. Ch'eng pursued the subject no farther, though his own mind was fully made up. Not seeing him for some da5rs afterwards, Mr. Chou sent to inquire about him at his house ; but there they all thought he was at Chou's, neither family, in fact, having seen an5d:hing of him. This looked suspicious, and Chou, aware of his pecuUarity, sent off people to look for him, bidding them search all the temples and monasteries in the neighbourhood. He also from time to time suppUed Ch'eng's son with money and other necessaries.
Eight or nine years had passed away, when suddenly Ch'eng re-appeared, clad in a yellow cap and stole, and wearing the expression of a Taoist priest. Chou was de- lighted, and seized his arm, saying, " Where have you been ? — ^letting me search for you all over the place." " The solitary cloud and the wild crane," repUed Ch'eng, laughing, " have no fixed place of abode. Since we last met my equanimity has happily been restored." Chou then ordered wine, and they chatted together on what had taken place in the interval. He also tried to persuade Ch'eng to detach himself from the Taoist persuasion, but the latter only smiled and answered nothing. " It is absurd ! " argued Chou. " Why cast aside your wife and child as you would an old pair of shoes ? " " Not so," answered Ch'eng ; " if men wish to cast me aside, who is there who can do so now ? " Chou asked where he Hved, to which he repUed, " In the Great Pure Mansion on Mount Lao." They then retired to sleep on the same bed ; and by-and-by Chou dreamt that Ch'eng was lying on his chest so that he could not breathe. In a fright he asked him what he was doing, but got no answer ; and then he waked up with a start. Calling to Ch'eng and receiving no reply, he sat up and stretched out his hand to touch him. The latter, however, had vanished, he knew not whither. When he got calm, he found he was lying at Ch'eng's end of the bed, which rather startled him. " I was not tipsy last night," reflected he ; " how could I have got over here ? " He next called his servants, and when they came and struck a light, lo ! he was Ch'eng. Now Chou had had a beard, so he put up his hand to feel for it, but found only a few straggling hairs. He then seized a mirror to look at lumself , and cried out in
D2
36 STRANGE STORIES FROM
alarm : " If this is Mr. Ch'eng, where on earth am I ? " By this time he was wide awake, and knew that Ch'eng had employed magic to induce him to retire from the world. He was on the point of entering the ladies* apartments ; but his brother, not recognising who he was, stopped him, and would not let him go in ; and as he himself was un- able to prove his own identity, he ordered his horse that he might go in search of Ch'eng. After some days' journey he arrived at Mount Lao ; and, as his horse went along at a good rate, the servant could not keep up with him. By-and-by he rested awhile under a tree, and saw a great number of Taoist priests going backwards and forwards, and among them was one who stared fixedly at him. So he inquired of him where he should find Ch'eng ; whereat the priest laughed and said, "I know the name. He is probably in the Great Pure Mansion." When he had given this answer he went on his way, Chou following him with his eyes about a stone's-throw, until he saw him speak with some one else, and, after saying a few words, proceed onwards as before. The person whom he had spoken with came on to where Chou was, and turned out to be a fellow-townsman of his. He was much surprised at meeting Chou, and said, " I haven't seen you for some years. They told me you had gone to Mount Lao to be a Taoist priest. How is it you are still amusing yourself among mortals ? ' Chou told him who he really was ; upon which the other replied, " Why, I thought the gentle- man I just met was you ! He has only just left me, and can't have got very far." "Is it possible," cried Chou, " that I didn't know my own face ? " Just then the servant came up, and away they went full speed, but could not discover the object of their search. All around them was a vast desert, and they were at a loss whether to go on or to return. But Chou reflected that he had no longer any home to receive him, and determined to carry out his design to the bitter end ; but as the road was dangerous for riding, he gave his horse to the servant, and bade him go back. On he went cautiously by himself, until he spied a boy sitting by the wayside alone. He hurried up to him and asked the boy to direct him where he could find Mr. Ch'eng. " I am one of his disciples,** replied the lad ; and, shouldering Chou's bundle, started
A CHINESE STUDIO 37
off to show the way. They journeyed on together, taking their food by the. light of the stars, and sleeping in the open air, until, after many mUes of road, they arrived in three days at their destination. But this Great Pure locality was not like that generally spoken of in the world. Though as late as the middle of the tenth moon, there was a great profusion of flowers along the road, quite unUke the beginning of winter. The lad went in and announced the arrival of a stranger, whereupon Mr. Ch'eng came out, and Chou recognised his own features. Ch'eng grasped his hand and led him inside, where he prepared wine and • food, and they began to converse together. Chou noticed many birds of strange plumage, so tame that they were not afraid of him ; and these from time to time would aUght on the table and sing with voices Uke Pan-pipes. He was very much astonished at all this, but a love of mundane pleasures had eaten into his soul, and he had no intention of stopping. On the ground were two rush- mats, upon which Ch'erig invited his friend to sit down with him. Then about midnight a serene calm stole over him ; and whUe he was dozing off for a moment, he seemed to change places with Ch'eng. Suspecting what had happened, he put his hand up to his chin, and found it covered with a beard as before. At dawn he was anxious to return home, but Ch'eng pressed him to stay ; and when three days had gone by Ch'eng said to him, " I pray you take a httle rest now : to-morrow I will set you on your way." Chou had barely closed his eyehds before he heard Ch'eng call out, " Everything is ready for starting ! " So he got up and followed him along a road other than that by which he had come, and in a very short time he saw his home in the distance. In spite of Chou's entreaties, Ch'eng would not accompany him so far, but made Chou go, waiting himself by the roadside. So the latter went alone, and when he reached his house, knocked at the door. Receiving no answer, he determined to get over the wall, when he found that his body was as light as a leaf, and with one spring he was over. In the same manner he passed several inner walls, until he reached the ladies' apartments, where he saw by the still burning lamp that the inmates had not yet retired for the night. Hearing people talking within, he hcked a hole in the
38 STRANGE STORIES FROM
paper window^ and peeped through, and saw his wife sitting drinking with a most disreputable-looking fellow. Bursting with rage, his first impulse was to surprise them
' in the act ; but seeing there were two against one, he stole away and let himself out by the entrance-gate, hurrying off to Ch'eng, to whom he related what he had seen, and finally begged his assistance. Ch'eng willingly went along with him ; and when they reached the room,*Chou seized a big stone and hammered loudly at the door. All was then confusion inside, so Chou hammered again, upon which the door was barricaded more strongly than before. Here Ch'eng came forward with his sword,* and burst the door open with a crash. Chou rushed in, and the man inside rushed out ; but Ch'eng was there, and with his sword cut his arm right off. Chou rudely seized his wife, and asked what it all meant ; to which she repUed that the man was a friend who sometimes came to take a cup of wine with them. Thereupon Chou borrowed Ch'eng's sword and cut off her head,' hanging up the trunk on a tree in the courtyard. He then went back with Ch'eng. By-and-by he awaked and found himself on the bed, at which he was somewhat disturbed, and said, " I have had a strangely confused dream, which has given me a fright." " My brother,' 'repUed Ch'eng, smiling, " you look upon dreams as reahties : you mistake reaUties for dreams." Chou asked what he meant by these words ;
• and then Ch'eng showed him his sword besmeared with blood. Chou was terrified, and sought to destroy him- self ; but all at once it occurred to him that Ch'eng might be deceiving him again. Ch'eng divined his suspicions,
' Wooden frames covered with a semi-transparent paper are used all over the northern provinces of China ; in the south, oyster- shells, cut square and planed down thin, are inserted tile-fashion in the long narrow spaces of a wooden frame made to receive them, and used for the same purpose. But glass is gradually finding its way into the houses of the well-to-do, large quantities being made at Canton and exported to various parts of the empire.
* Every Taoist priest has a magic sword, corresponding to our " magician's wand."
• In China, a man has the right to slay his adulterous wife, but he must slay her paramour also ; both or neither. Otherwise, he lays himself open to a prosecution for murder. The act completed, he is further bound to proceed at once to the magistrate of the district and report what he has done.
A CHINESE STUDIO 39
and made haste at once to see him home. In a little while they arrived at the village gate, and then Ch'eng said, " Was it not here that, sword in hand, I awaited you that night ? I cannot look upon the unclean spot. I pray you go on, and let me stay here. If you do not return by the afternoon, I will depart alone." Chou then approached his house, which he found all shut up as if no one was living there ; so he went into his brother's.
The latter, when he beheld Chou, began to weep bitterly, sajmig, " After your departure, thieves broke into the house and killed my sister-in-law, hanging her body upon a tree. Alas ! alas ! The murderers have not .yet been caught." Chou then told him the whole story of his dream, and begged him to stop further proceedings ; at all of which his brother was perfectly lost in astonish- ment. Chou then asked after his son, and his brother told the nurse to bring him in ; whereupon the former said, " Upon this infant are centred the hopes of our race.^*^ Tend him well ; for I am going to bid adieu
10 The importance of male offspring in Chinese social Jlife is hardly to t)e expressed in words. To the son is confided the task of worshipping at the ancestral tombs, the care of the ancestral tablets, and the due performance of all rites and ceremonies connected with the departed dead. No Chinaman will die, if he can help it, without leaving a son behind him. If his wife is childless he will buy a concubine ; and we are told on page 41, vol. xiii., of the Liao Chaiy that a good wife, " who at thirty years of age has not borne a child should forthwith pawn her jewellery and purchase a concubine for her husband ; for to be without a son is hard in- deed I " Another and a common resource is to adopt a nephew ; and sometimes a boy is bought from starving parents, or from a professional kidnapper. Should a little boy die, no matter how yoimg, his parents do not permit even him to be without the good ofi&ces of a son. They adopt some other child on his behalf ; and when the latter groWs up it becomes his duty to perform the proper ceremonies at his baby father's tomb. Girls do not enjoy the luxury of this sham posterity. They are quietly buried in a hole near the family vault, and their disembodied spirits are left to wander about in the realms below uncared for and unappeased. It must not be inferred, however, from this that the position of woman in China is low, as such is far from being the case. Every mother shares in the ancestral worship, and her name is recorded on the tombstone, side by side with that of her husband. Hence it is that Chinese tombstones are always to the memory either of a father or of a mother, or of both, with occasionally the addition of the grandfather and grandmother, and sometimes even that of the generation preceding.
40 • STRANGE STORIES FROM
to the world." He then took his leave, his brother following him all the time with tears in his eyes to induce him to remain. But he heeded him not ; and when they reached the village gate his brother saw him go away with Ch'eng. From afar he looked back and said, " Forbear, and be happy ! " His brother would have repUed ; but here Ch'eng whisked his sleeve, and they disappeared. The brother remained there for some time, aiid then went back overwhelmed with grief. He was an unpractical man, and before many years were over all the property was gone and the family reduced to poverty. Chou's son, who was growing up, was thus unable to secure the services of a tutor, and had no one but his uncle to teach him. One morning, on going into the school-room, the uncle found a letter lying on his desk addressed to himself in his brother's handwriting. There was, however, nothing in it but a finger-nail about four inches in length. Surprised at this, he laid the nail down on the ink-slab while he went out to ask whence the letter had come. This no one knew ; but when he went back he found that the ink-stone had been changed into a piece of shining yellow gold. More than ever astonished, he tried the nail on copper and iron things, all of which were hkewise turned to gold. He thus became very rich, sharing his wealth with Ch'eng's son ; and it was bruited about that the two famihes pos- sessed the secret of transmutation.^^
XI. THE FIGHTING QUAILS
Wang Ch'£ng belonged to an old family in P'ing-yiian, but was such an idle fellow that his property gradually disappeared, until at length all he had left was an old tumble-down house. His wife and he slept under a coarse hempen coverlet, and the former was far from sparing her reproaches. At the time of which we are speaking the weather was unbearably hot ; and Wang went to pass the night with many other of his fellow- villagers in a pavilion which stood among some dilapidated buildings belonging to a family named Chou. With the first streaks of dawn
^^ The belief that a knowledge of alchemy is obtainable by leading the life of a pure and perfect Taoist is one of the numerous additions in later ages to this ancient form of religion. See No. IV., note i.
A CHINESE STUDIO 41
his comrades departed ; but Wang slept well on till about nine o'clock, when he got up and proceeded leisurely home. AH at once he saw in the grass a gold hair-pin ; and taking it up to look at it, found engraved thereon in smaU characters — " The property of the Imperial family." Now Wang's own grandfather had married into the Imperial family,^ and consequently he had formerly possessed many similar articles ; but while he was thinking it over up came an old woman in search of the hair-pin, which Wang, who though poor was honest, at once produced and handed to her. The old woman was deUghted, and thanked Wang for his goodness, observing that the pin was not worth much in itself, but was a rehc of her departed husband. Wang asked what her husband had been ; to which she replied, " His name was Wang Chien-chih, and he was cormected by marriage with the Imperial family." " My own grandfather ! " cried Wang, in great surprise ; " how could you have known him ? " " You, then," said the old woman, " are his grandson. I am a fox, and many years ago I was married to your grandfather ; but when he died I retired from the world. Passing by here I lost my hair- pin, which destiny conveyed into your hands." Wang had heard of his grandfather's fox-wife, and believing therefore the old woman's story, invited her to return with him, which she did. Wang called his wife out to receive her ; but when she came in rags and tatters, with unkempt hair and dirty face, the old woman sighed, and said, " Alas ! alas I has Wang Chien-chih's grandson come to this ? '* Then looking at the broken, smokeless stove, she added, " How, under these circumstances, have you managed even to support Hfe ? " Here Wang's wife told the tale of their poverty, with much sobbing and tears ; whereupon the old woman gave her the hair-pin, bidding her go pawn it, and with the proceeds buy some food, saying that in three days
• * The direct issue of the Emperors of the present dynasty and their descendants in the male hne for ever are entitled to wear a yeUow girdle in token of their relationship to the Imperial family, each generation becoming a degree lower in rank, but always re- taining this distinctive badge. Members of the collateral branches wear a red girdle, and are commonly known as gioros. With the lapse of two hundred and fifty years, the wearers of these badges have become numerous, and in many cases disreputable ; and they are now to be found even among the lowest dregs of Chinese socicil life.
42 STRANGE STORIES FROM
she would visit them again. Wang pressed her to stay, but she said, " You can't even keep your wife alive ; what would it benefit you to have me also dependent on you ? " So she went away, and then Wang told his wife who she was, at which his wife felt very much alarmed ; but Wang was so loud in her praises, that finally his wife consented to treat her with all proper respect. In three days she returned as agreed, and, producing some money, sent out for a hundredweight of rice and a hundredweight of com. She passed the night with them, sleeping with Mrs. Wang, who was at first rather frightened, but who soon laid aside her suspicions when she found that the old lady meant so well towards them. Next day the latter addressed Wang, saying, " My grandson, you must not be so lazy. You should try to make a Httle money in some way or another." Wang repUed that he had no capital ; upon which the old lady said, " When your grandfather was aUve, he allowed me to take what money I Uked ; but not being a mortal, I had no use for it, and consequently did not draw largely upon him. I have, however-, saved from my pin-money the sum of forty ounces of silver, which has long been lying idle for want of an investment. Take it, and buy summer cloth, which you may carry to the capital and re-sell at a profit." So Wang bought some fifty pieces of summer cloth ; and the old lady made him get ready, calculating that in six or seven days he would reach the capital. She also warned him, saying,
Be neither lazy nor slow — For if a day too long you wait, Repentance comes a day too late.
Wang promised all obedience, and packed up his goods and went off. On the road he was overtaken by a rain-storm which soaked him through to the skin ; and as he was not accustomed to be out in bad weather, it was altogether too much for him. He accordingly sought shelter in an inn, but the rain went on steadily till night, running over the eaves of the house like so many ropes. Next morning the roads were in a horrible state ; and Wang, watching the passers-by sUpping about in the slush, unable to see any path, dared not face it all, and remained until noon, when it began to dry up a Uttle. Just then, however, the clouds closed over again, and down came the rain in torrents.
A CHINESE STUDIO 43
causing him to stay another night before he could go on. When he was nearing the capital, he heard to his great joy that summer cloth was at a premium ; and on arrival proceeded at once to take up his quarters at an inn. There the landlord said it was a pity he had come so late, as com- munications with the south having been only recently opened, the supply of summer cloth had been small ; and there being a great demand for it among the wealthy families of the metropolis, its price had gone up to three times the usual figure. " But," he added, " two days ago several large consignments arrived, and the price went down again, so that the late comers have lost their market." Poor Wang was thus left in the lurch, and as every day more sunmier cloth came in, the value of it fell in a corre- sponding ratio. Wang would not part with his at a loss, and held on for some ten days, when his expenses for board and lodging were added to his present distress. The landlord urged him to sell even at a loss, and turn his attention to something else, which he ultimately did, losing over ten ounces of sUver on his venture. Next day he rose in the morning to depart, but on looking in his purse found all his money gone. He rushed away to tell the landlord, who, however, could do nothing for him. Some one then advised him to take out a summons and make the landlord reimburse him ; but he only sighed, and said, "It is my destiny, and no fault of the landlord's." Thereupon the landlord was very grateful to him, and gave lum five ounces of sUver to enable him to go home. He did not care, however, to face his grandmother empty-handed, and remained in a very undecided state, untU suddenly he saw a quail-catcher winning heaps of money by fighting his birds, and selling them at over 100 cash a-piece. He then determined to lay out his five ounces of silver in quails, and pay back the landlord out of the profits. The latter approved very highly of this plan, and not only agreed to lend him a room, but also to charge him Uttle or nothing for his board. So Wang went off rejoicing, and bought two large baskets of quaUs, with which he returned to the city, to the great satisfaction of the landlord, who advised him to lose no time in disposing of them. All that night it poured in torrents, and the next morning the streets were like rivers, the rain still continuing to fall. Wang waited
44 STRANGE STORIES FROM
for it to clear up, but several days passed and still there were no signs of •fine weather. He then went to look at his quails, some of which he found dead and others dying. He was much alarmed at this, but was quite at a loss what to do ; and by the next day a lot more had died, so that only a few were left, which he fed all together in one basket. The day after this he went again to look at them, and lo ! there remained but a single quail. With tears in his eyes he told the landlord what had happened, and he, too, was much affected. Wang then reflected that he had no money left to carry him home, and that he could not do better than cease to Uve. But the landlord spoke to him and soothed him, and they went together to look at the quail. " This is a fine bird," said the landlord, *' and it strikes me that it has simply killed the others. Now, as you have got nothing to do, just set to work and train it ; and if it is good for anything, why, you'll be able to make a living out of it." Wang did as he was told ; and when the bird was trained, the landlord bade him take it into the street and gamble for something to eat. This, too, he did, and his quail won every main ; whereupon the landlord gave him some money to bet with the young fellows of the neighbourhood. Everything turned out favourably, and by the end of six months he had saved twenty ounces of silver, so that he became quite easy in his mind and looked upon the quail as a dispensation of his destiny.
Now one of the princes was passionately fond of quail- fighting, and always at the Feast of Lanterns anybody who owned quails might go and fight them in the palace against the Prince's birds. The landlord therefore said to Wang, " Here is a chance of enriching yourself by a single stroke ; only I can't say what your luck will do for you." He then explained to him what it was, and away they went together, the landlord saying, " If you lose, burst out into lamenta- tions ; but if you are lucky enough to win, and the Prince wishes, as he will, to buy your bird, don't consent. If he presses you very much, watch for a nod from me before you agree." This settled, they proceeded to the palace, where they found crowds of quail-fighters already on the ground ; and then the Prince came forth, heralds proclaiming to the multitude that any who wished to fight their birds might come up. Some man at once stepped forward, and the
A CHINESE STUDIO 45
Prince gave orders for the quails to be released ; but at the first stnke the stranger's quail was knocked out of time. The Prince smiled, and by-and-by won several more mains, imtil at last the landlord said, " Now's our time," and went up together with Wang. The Prince looked at their bird and said, " It has a fierce-looking eye and strong feathers. We must be careful what we are doing." So he com- manded his servants to bring out Iron Beak to oppose Wang's bird; but, after a couple of strikes, the Prince's quail was signally defeated. He sent for a better bird, but that shared the same fate ; and then he cried out, " Bring the Jade Bird from the palace 1 " In a little time it arrived, with pure white feathers like an egret, and an unusually martial appearance. Wang was much alarmed, and falling on his knees prayed to be excused this main, saying, " Your Highness's bird is too good. I fear lest mine should be wounded, and my livelihood be taken from me." But the Prince laughed and said, " Go on. If your quail is killed I will make it up to you handsomely." Wang then released his bird, and the Prince's quail rushed at it at once ; but when the Jade Bird was close by, Wang's quail awaited its coming head down and full of rage. The former made a violent peck at its adversary, and then sprang up to swoop down on it. Thus they went on iip and down, backwards and forwards, until at length they got hold of each other, and the Prince's bird was beginning to show signs of exhaustion. This enraged it all the more, and it fought more violently than ever ; but soon a perfect snowstorm of feathers began to fall, and, with drooping wings, the Jade Bird made its escape. The spectators were much moved by the restdt ; and the Prince himself, taking up Wang's bird, examined it closely from beak to claws, finally asking if it was for sale. " My sole dependence," replied Wang, " is upon this bird. I would rather not part with it." " But," said the Prince, " if I give you as much as the capital, say, of an ordinary tradesman, will not that tempt you ? " Wang thought some time, and then answered, "' I would rather not sell my bird ; but as your Highness has taken a fancy to it I will only ask enough to find me in food and clothes." " How much do you want ? " inquired the Prince ; to which Wang replied that he would take a thousand ounces of sUver. " You fool 1 " cried the
46 STRANGE STORIES FROM
Prince ; " do you think your bird is such a jewel as all that ? " "If your Highness," said Wang, " does not think the bird a jewel, I value it more than that stone which was priced at fifteen cities." " How so ? " asked the Prince. " Why," said Wang, " I take my bird every day into the market-place. It there wins for me several ounces of silver, which I exchange for rice ; my family, over ten in number, has nothing to fear from either cold or hunger. What jewel could do that ? " " You shall not lose any- thing," repUed the Prince ; " I will give you two hundred ounces." But Wang would not consent, and then the Prince added another hundred ; whereupon Wang looked at the landlord, who, however, made no sign. Wang then offered to take nine hundred ; but the Prince ridiculed the idea of paying such a price for a quail, and Wang was preparing to take his leave with the bird, when the Prince called him back, saying, " Here ! here ! I will give you six hundred. Take it or leave it as you please." Wang here looked at the landlord, and the landlord remained motion- less as before. However, Wang was satisfied himself with this offer, and being afraid of missing his chance, said to his friend, " If I get this price for it I shall be quite content. If we go on haggling and finally come to no terms, that will be a very poor end to it all." So he took the Prince's offer, and the latter, overjoyed, caused the money to be handed to him. Wang then returned with his eWnings. but the landlord said to him, " What did I say to you ? You were in too much of a hurry to sell. Another minute, and you would have got eight hundred." When Wang got back he threw the money on the table and told the land- lord to take what he Hked ; but the latter would not, and it was only after some pressing that he would accept pa5anent for Wang's board. Wang then packed up and went home, where he told his story and produced his silver, to the great delight of all of them. The old lady counselled the purchase of a quantity of land, the building of a house, and the purchase of implements ; and in a very short time they became a wealthy family. The old lady always got up early in the morning and made Wang attend to the farm, his wife to her spinning ; and rated them soundly at any signs of laziness. The husband and wife henceforth lived in peace, and no longer abused each other, until at
A CHINESE STUDIO 47
the expiration of three years the old lady declared her intention of bidding them adieu. They both tried to stop her, and with the aid of tears succeeded in persuading her ; but the next day she had disappeared.*
XXL THE PAINTED SKIN
At T'ai-yiian there Hved a man named Wang. One morning he was out walking when he met a young lady carrying a bundle and hurrying along by herself. As she moved along with some difficulty,^ Wang quickened his pace and caught her up, and found she was a pretty girl of about sixteen. Much smitten, he inquired whither she was going so early, and no one with her. " A traveller like you," rephed the girl, " cannot alleviate my distress ; why trouble yourself to ask ? '* *' What distress is it ? " said Wang ; " I'm sure I'll do anything I can for you." " My parents," answered she, " loved money, and they sold me as concubine into a rich family, where the wife was very jealous, and beat and abused me morning and night. It was more than I could stand, so I have run away." Wang asked her where she was going ; to which she replied that a runaway had no fixed place of abode. " My house," said Wang, " is at no great distance ; what do you say to coming there ? " She joyfully acquiesced ; and Wang, taking up her bundle, led the way to his house. Finding no one there, she asked Wang where his family were ; to which he
* Quail fighting is not so common now in China as it appears to have been formerly. Cricket-fighting is, however, a very favourite form of gambling, large quantities of these insects being caught every year for this purpose, and considerable sums frequently staked on the result of a contest between two champions.
* Impeded, of course, by her bound feet. This practice is said to have originated about a.d. 970, with Yao Niang, the concubine of the pretender Li Yu, who wished to make her feet like the " new moon." The Manchu or Tartar ladies never adopted this custom, and therefore the Empresses of modem times have had feet of the natural size ; neither is it in force among the Hakkas or among the hiU-tribes of China and Formosa and others. The practice was forbidden in 1664 by the Manchu Emperor, K'ang Hsi ; but popular feeling was so strong on the subject that four years after- wards the prohibition was withdrawn, A vigorous attempt is now being made to secure natural feet for the Chinese girl, with more chance of success.'
48 STRANGE STORIES FROM
replied that that was only the library. " And a very nice place, too," said she ; " but if you are kind enough to wish to save my life, you mustn't let it be known that I am here." Wang promised he would not divulge her secret, and so she remained there for some days without anyone knowing anything about it. He then told his wife, and she, fearing the girl might belong to some influential family, advised him to send her away. This, however, he would not consent to do ; when one day, going into the town, he met a Taoist priest, who looked at him in astonish- ment, and asked him what he had met. " I have met nothing," replied Wang. " Why," said the priest, " you are bewitched ; what do you mean by not having met anything ? " But Wang insisted that 'it was so, and the priest walked away, saying, " The fool ! Some people don't seem to know when death is at hand." This startled Wang, who at first thought of the girl ; but then he reflected that a pretty young thing as she was couldn't well be a witch, and began to suspect that the priest merely wanted to do a stroke of business. When he returned, the library door was shut, and he couldn't get in, which made him suspect that something was wrong ; and so he climbed over the wall, where he found the door of the inner room shut too. Softly creeping up, he looked through the window and saw a hideous devil, with a green face and jagged teeth like a saw, spreading a human skin upon the bed and painting it with a paint brush. The devil* then threw aside the brush, and giving the skin a shake out, just as you would a coat, threw it over its shoulders, when lo ! it was the girl. Terrified at this, Wang hurried away with bis head down in search of the priest, who had gone he knew not whither ; subsequently finding him in the fields, where he threw himself on his Imees and begged the priest to save him. " As to driving her away," said the priest, " the creature must be in great distress to be seeking a substitute for herself ; ^ besides, I could hardly endure to
* The disembodied spirits of the Chinese Inferno are permitted, under certain conditions of time and good conduct, to appropriate to themselves the vitality of some human being, who, as it were, exchanges places with the so-called " devil." The devil does not, however, reappear as the morjtal whose life it has become possessed of, but is merely bom again into the world ; the idea being that the amount of life on earth is a constant quantity, and cannot be
A CHINESE STUDIO 49
injure a living thing."' However, he gave Wang a fly- brush, and bade him hang it at the door of the bedroom, agreeing to meet again at the Ch'ing-ti temple. Wang went home, but did not dare enter the Ubrary ; so he hung up the brush at the bedroom door, and before long heard a sound of footsteps outside. Not daring to move, he made his wife peep out ; and she saw the girl standing looking at the brush, afraid to pass it. She then ground her teeth and went away ; but in a Uttle while came back, and began cursing, saying, " You priest, you won't frighten me. Do you think I am going to give up what is already in my grasp ? " Thereupon she tore the brush to pieces, and bursting open the door, walked straight up to the bed, where she ripped open Wang and tore out his heart, with which she went away. Wang's wife screamed out, and the servant came in with a Ught ; but Wang was already dead and presented a most miserable spectacle. His wife, who was in an agony of fright, hardly dared cry for fear of making a noise ; and next day she sent Wang's brother to see the priest. The latter got into a great rage, and cried out, " Was it for this that I had compassion on you, devil that you are ? " proceeding at once with Wang's brother to the house, from which the girl had disappeared without anyone knowing whither she had gone. But the priest, raising his head, looked all round, and said, " Luckily she's not far off." He then asked who lived in the apartments on the south side, to which Wang's brother repUed that he did ; whereupon the priest declared that there she would be found. Wang's brother was horribly frightened and said he did not thiuk so ; and then the priest asked him if any stranger had been to the house. To this he answered that he had been out to the Ch'ing-ti temple and couldn't possibly say': but he went off to inquire, and in a httle while came back and reported that an old woman had
increased or diminished, reminding one in a way of the great modem doctrine of the conservation of energy. This curious behef has an important bearing that will be brought out in a subsequent story.
' Here again is a Taoist priest quoting the Buddhist command- ment, ** Thou shalt not take life." The Buddhist laity in China, who do not hesitate to take life for the purposes of food, salve their consciences from time to time by buying birds, fishes, &c., and letting them go, in the hope that such acts will be set down on the credit side of their record of good and evil.
50 STRANGE STORIES FROM
sought service with them as a maid-of-all-work, and had been engaged by his wife. " That is she," said the priest, as Wang's brother added she was still there ; and they all set out to go to the house together. Then the priest took his wooden sword, and standing in the middle of the court- yard, shouted out, " Base-bom fiend, give me back my fly- j brush ! " Meanwhile the new maid-of-all-work was in a ' great state of alarm, and tried to get away by the door ; but the priest struck her and down she fell flat, the human skin dropped off, and she became a hideous devil. There she lay grunting Uke a pig, until the priest grasped his wooden sword and struck off her head. She then became a dense column of smoke curling up from the ground, when the priest took an uncorked gourd and threw it right into the midst of the smoke. A sucking noise was heard, and the whole column was drawn into the gourd ; after which the priest corked it up closely and put it in his pouch.* The skin, too, which was complete even to the eye-brows, eyes, hands, and feet, he also rolled up as if it had been a scroll, and was on the point of leaving with it, when Wang's wife stopped him, and with tears entreated him to bring her husband to Ufe. The priest said he was unable to do that ; but Wang's wife flung herself at his feet, and with loud lamentations implored his assistance. For some time he remained immersed in thought, and then repHed, " My power is not equal to what you ask. I myself cannot raise the dead ; but I will direct you to some one who can, and if you apply to him properly you will succeed." Wang's wife asked the priest who it was ; to which he replied, " There is a maniac in the town who passes his time grovelUng in the dirt. Go, prostrate yourself before him, and beg him to help you. If he insults you, show no sign of anger." Wang's brother knew the man to whom he alluded, and accordingly bade the priest adieu, and pro- ceeded thither with his sister-in-law.
They found the destitute creature raving away by the roadside, so filthy that it was all they could do to go near him. Wang's wife approached him on her knees ; at which the maniac leered at her, and cried out, " Do you love me, my beauty ? " Wang's wife told him what she had come
* This recalls the celebrated story of the fisherman in the Arabian Nights.
A CHINESE STUDIO ' 51
for, but he only laughed and said, *' You can get plenty of other husbands. Why raise the dead one to life ? " But Wang's wife entreated him to help her ; whereupon he observed, " It's very strange : people apply to me to raise their dead as if I was kinl of the infernal regions." He then gave Wang's wife a thrashing with his staff, which she bore without a murmur, and before a gradually increasing crowd of spectators. After this he produced a loathsome piU which he told her she must swallow, but here she broke down and was quite unable to do so. However, she did manage it at last, and then the maniac, crying out, " How you do love me ! " got up and went away without taking any more notice of her. They followed him into a temple with loud suppHcations, but he had disappeared, and every effort to find him was unsuccessful. Overcome with rage and shame, Wang's wife went home, where she mourned bitterly over her dead husband, grievously repenting the steps she had taken, and wishing only to die. She then bethought herself of preparing the corpse, near which none of the servants would venture, and set to work to close up the frightful wound of which he died.
While thus employed, interrupted from time to time by her sobs, she felt a rising lump in her throat, which by-and- by came out with a pop and fell straight into the dead man's wound. Looking closely at it, she saw it was a human heart ; and then it began as it were to throb, emitting a warm vapour like smoke. Much excited, she at once closed the flesh over it, and held the sides of the wound together with all her might. Very soon, however, she got tired, and finding the vapour escaping from the crevices, she tore up a piece of sUk and bound it round, at the same time bringing back circulation by rubbing the body and covering it up with clothes. In the night she removed the coverings, and found that breath was coming from the nose ; and by next morning her husband was ahve again, though disturbed in mind as if awaking from a dream, and feeling a pain in his heart. Where he had been^ wounded there was a cicatrix about as big as a cash, which soon after disappeared.
£ 2
52 STRANGE STORIES FROM
XIII. THE TRADER'S SON
In the province of Hunan there dwelt a man who was engaged in trading abroad ; and his wife, who lived alone, dreamt one night that some one was in her room. Waking up, she looked about, and discovered a small creature which on examination she knew to be a fox ; but in a moment the thing had disappeared, although the door had not been opened.' The next evening she asked the cook-maid to come and keep her company ; as also her own son, a boy of ten, who was accustomed to sleep elsewhere. Towards the middle of the night, when the cook and the boy were fast asleep, back came the fox ; and the cook was waked up by hearing her mistress muttering something as if she had nightmare. The former then called out, and the fox ran away ; but from that moment the trader's wife was not quite herself. When night came she dared not blow out the candle, and bade her son be sure and not sleep too soundly. Later on, her son and the old woman having taken a nap as they leant against the wall, suddenly waked up and found her gone. They waited some time, but she did not return, and the cook was too frightened to go and look after her ; so her son took a light, and at length found her fast asleep in another room. She didn't seem aware that anything particular had happened, but she became queerer and queerer every day, and wouldn't have either her son or the cook to keep her company any more. Her son, however, made a point of running at once into his mother's room if he heard any unusual sounds ; and though his mother always abused him for his pains, he paid no attention to what she said. Consequently, everyone thought him very brave, though at the same time he was always indulging in childish tricks. One day he played at being a mason, and piled up stones upon the window-sill, in spite of all that was said to him ; and if anyone took away a stone, he threw himself on the ground, and cried like a child, so that nobody dared go near him. In a few days he had got both windows blocked up and the light excluded ; and then he set to filUng up the chinks with mud. He worked hard all day without minding the trouble, and when it was finished he took and sharpened the kitchen chopper.
A CHINESE STUDIO 53
Everyone who saw him was disgusted with such antics,
and v^ould take no notice of him. At night he darkened
his lamp, and, with the knife concealed on his person, sat
waiting for his mother to mutter. As soon as she began
he uncovered his Hght, and, blocking up the doorway,
shouted out at the top of his voice. Nothing, however,
happened, and he moved from the door a Uttle way, when
suddenly out rushed something Uke a fox, which was
disappearing through the door when he made a quick
movement and cut off about two inches of its tail, from
which the warm blood was still dripping as he brought the
light to bear upon it. His mother hereupon cursed and
reviled him, but he pretended not to hear her, regretting
only as he went to bed that he hadn't hit the brute fair.
But he consoled himself by thinking that although he
hadn't killed it outright, he had done enough to prevent it
coming again. On the morrow he followed the tracks of
blood over the wall and into the garden of a family named
Ho ; and that night, to his great joy, the fox did not
. reappear. His mother was meanwhile prostrate, with
hardly any Hfe in her, and in the midst of it all his father
came home. The boy told him what had happened, at
which he was much alarmed, and sent for ?. doctor to attend
his wife ; but she only threw the medicine away, and cursed
and swore horribly. So they secretly mixed the medicine
with her tea and soup, and in a few days she began to get
better, to the inexpressible delight of both her husband
and son. One night, however, her husband woke up and
found her gone ; and after searching for her with the aid
of his son, they discovered her sleeping in another room.
From that time she became more eccentric than ever, and
was always being found in strange places, cursing those who
tried to remove her. Her husband was at his wits' end.
It was of no use keeping the door locked, for it opened of
itself at her approach ; and he had called in any number of
magicians to exorcise the fox, but without obtaining the
slightest result. One evening her son concealed himself in
the Ho family garden, and lay down in the long grass with
a view to detecting the fox's retreat. As the moon rose
h8 heard the sound of voices, and, pushing aside the grass,
saw two people drinking, with a long-bearded servant
pouring out their wine, dressed in an old dark-brown coat.
54 STRANGE STORIES FROM
They were whispering together, and he could not make out what they said ; but by-and-by he heard one of them remark, " Get some white wine for to-morrow," and then they went away, leaving the long-bearded servant alone. The latter then threw off his coat, and lay down to sleep on the stones ; whereupon the trader's son eyed him care- fully, and saw that he was like a man in every respect except that he had a tail. The boy would then have gone home ; but he was afraid the fox might hear him, and accordingly remained where he was till near dawn, when he saw the other two come back, one at a time, and then they all disappeared among the bushes. On reaching home his father asked him where he had been, and he replied that he had stopped the night with the Ho family. He then accompanied his father to the town, where he saw hanging up at a hat-shop a fox's tail, and finally, after much coaxing, succeeded in making his father buy it for him. While the latter was engaged in a shop, his son, who was playing about beside him, availed himself of a moment when his father was not looking and stole some money from him, and went off and bought a quantity of white wine, which he left in charge of the wine-merchant. Now an uncle of his, who was a sportsman by trade, lived in the city, and thither he next betook himself. His uncle was out, but his aunt was there, and inquired after the health of his mother. *' She has been better the last few days," replied he ; " but she is now very much upset by a rat having gnawed a dress of hers, and has sent me to ask for some poison." His aunt opened the cupboard and gave him about the tenth of an ounce in a piece of paper, which he thought was very Httle ; so, when his aunt had gone to get him something to eat, he took the opportunity of being alone, opened the packet, and abstracted a large handful. Hiding this in his coat, he ran to tell his aunt that she needn't prepare anything for him, as his father was waiting in the market, and he couldn't stop to eat it. He then went off ; and having quietly dropped the poison into the wine he had bought, went sauntering about the town. At nightfall he returned home, and told his father that he had been at his uncle's. This he. continued to do for some time, until one day he saw among the crowd his long- bearded friend. Marking him closely, he followed him,
A CHINESE STUDIO 55
and at length entered into conversation, asking him where lie lived. " I livd at Pei-ts'un," said he ; " where do you live ? " " I," repUed the trader's son, falsely, " live in a hole on the hillside." The long-bearded man was consider- ably startled at his answer, but much more so when he added, " We've Hved there for generations : haven't ^ow ? " The other man asked his name, to which the boy repUed, " My name is Hu.^ I saw you with two gentlemen in the Ho family garden, and haven't forgotten you." Questioning him more fully, the long-bearded man was still in a half- and-half state of belief and doubt, when the trader's son opened his coat a little bit, and showed him the end of the tail he had bought, sa5H[ng, " The like of us can mix with ordinary people, but unfortunately we can never get rid of this." The long-bearded man then asked him what he was doing there, to which he answered that his father had sent him to buy wine ; thereupon the former remarked that that was exactly what he had come for, and the boy then inquired if he had bought it yet or not. " We are poor," replied the stranger, *' and as a rule I prefer to steal it." " A difficult and dangerous job," observed the boy. " I have my masters' instructions to get some," said the other, " and what am I to do ? " The boy then asked him who his masters were, to which he replied that they were the two brothers the boy had seen that night. '* One of them has bewitched a lady named Wang ; and the other, the wife of a trader who lives near. The son of the last-mentioned lady is a violent fellow, and cut off my master's tail, so that he was laid up for ten days. But he is putting her under spells again now." He was then going away, sapng he should never get his wine ; but the boy said to him, '* It's much easier to buy than steal. I have some at the wine- shop there which I will give to you. My purse isn't empty, and I can buy some more." The long-bearded man hardly knew how to thank him ; but the boy said, " We're all one family. Don't mention such a trifle. When I have time I'll come and take a drink with you." So they went off together to the wine-shop, where the boy gave him the wine, and they then separated. That night his mother
* Hu is the sound of the character for " fox *' ; it is also the sound of quite a different character, which is used as a sur- name.
56 STRANGE STORIES FROM
slept quietly and had no fits, and the boy knew that some- thing must have happened. He then told his father, and they went to see if there were any results ; when lo ! they found both foxes stretched out dead in the arbour. One of the foxes was lying on the grass, and out of its mouth blood was still trickhng. The wine-bottle was there ; and on shaking it they heard that some was left. Then his father asked him why he had kept it all so secret ; to which the boy replied that foxes were very sagacious, and would have been sure to scent the plot. Thereupon his father was mightily pleased, and said he was a perfect Ulysses * for cunning. They then carried the foxes home, and saw on the tail of one of them the scar of a knife-wound. From that time they were left in peace ; but the trader's wife became very thin, and though her reason returned, she shortly afterwards died of consumption. The other lady, Mrs. Wang, began to get better as soon as the foxes had been killed ; and as to the boy, he was taught riding and archery ^ by his proud parent, and subsequently rose to high rank in the army.
XIV. JUDGE LU
At Ling-yang there lived a man named Chu Erh^tan, whose literary designation^ was Hsiao-ming. He was a fine manly
' The name of the Chinese tjrpe was Ch'dn P'ing.
• Skill in archery was until quite lately de rigueur for all Manchus, and for those who would rise in the Chinese army.
^ Every Chinese man and woman inherits a family name or sur- name. A woman takes her husband's surname, followed in official documents by her maiden name. Children usually have a pet name given to them soon after birth, which is dropped after a few years. Then there is the ming or name, which once given is unchangeable, and by which the various members of a family are distinguished. But only the Emperor, a man's father and mother, and certain other relatives are allowed to use this. Friends call each other by their literary designations or ** book-names," which are given gene- rally by the teacher to whom the boy's education is first entrusted. Brothers and sisters and others have all kinds of nick-names, as with us. Dogs and cats are called by such names as " Blacky," " Whitey," " Yellowy," " Jewell," " Pearly," &c., &c. Junks are christened " Large Ptofits," " Abounding Wealth," ** Favourite of Fortune," &c., &c. Places are often named after some striking geographical feature ; e.g., Hankow — " mouth of the Han river/
A CHINESE STUDIO 57
fellow, but an egregious dunce, though he tried hard to learn. One day he was taking wine with a number of fellow-students, when one of them said to him, by way of a joke, " People credit you with plenty of pluck. Now, if you will go in the middle of the night to the Chamber of Horrors,^ and bring back the Infernal Judge from the left- hand porch, we'll stand you a dinner." For at Ling-yang there was a representation of the Ten Courts of Purgatory, with the gods and devils carved in wood, and almost life- like in appearance ; and in the eastern vestibule there was a full-length image of the Judge with a green face, and a red beard, and a hideous expression in his features. Some- times sounds of examination under the whip were heard to issue during the night from both porches, and persons who went in found their hair standing on end from fear ; so the other young men thought it would be a capital test for Mr. Chu. Thereupon Chu smiled, and rising from his seat went straight off to the temple ; and before many minutes had elapsed they heard him shouting outside, " His Excel- lency has arrived ! " At this they all got up, and in came Chu with the image on his back, which he proceeded to deposit on the table, and then poured out a triple libation in its honour. His comrades, who were watching what he did, felt ill at ease, and did not hke to resume their seats ; so they begged him to carry the Judge back again. But he first poured some wine upon the ground, invoking the image as follows : "I am only a foolhardy, ilUterate fellow : I pray your Excellency excuse me. My house is close by, and whenever your Excellency feels so disposed I shall be glad to take a cup of wine with you in a friendly
i.e., its point of junction with the Yang-tsze ; or they have fancy names, such as Puhkien — " happily established ; " Tientsin — ** Heaven's ford ; " or names implying a special distinction, such as Nanking — ** southern capital ; " Shan-tung — " east of the mountains,*' &c.
* The name given by foreigners in China to the imitation of the ten torture-chambers of purgatory, as seen in every Ch'Sng-huang or municipal temple. The various figures of the devil-lictors and the tortured sinners are made either of clay or wood, and painted in very bright colours ; and in each chamber is depicted some specimen of the horrible tortures that wicked people will undergo in the world to come. I have given in the Appendix a translation of the YU-li-ch'aOf a celebrated Taoist work on this subject, which should at any rate be glanced at by persons who would understand the drift "^of some of these stories.
58 STRANGE STORIES FROM
way." He then carried the Judge back, and the next day his friends gave him the promised dinner, from which he went home half-tipsy in the evening. But not feehng that he had had enough, he brightened up his lamp, and helped himself to another cup of wine, when suddenly the bamboo curtain was drawn aside, and in walked the Judge. Mr. Chu got up and said, " Oh, dear ! Your Excellency has come to cut off my head for my rudeness the other night." The Judge parted his thick beard, and smiUng, replied, " Nothing of the kind. You kindly invited me last night to visit you ; and as I have leisure this evening, here I am." Chu was deUghted at this, and made his guest sit down, while he himself wiped the cups and Ughted a fire.* " It's warm weather,'* said the Judge ; " let's drink the wine cold." Chu obeyed, and putting the bottle on the table, went out to tell his servants to get some supper. His wife was much alarmed when she heard who was there, and begged him not to go back ; but he only waited until the things were ready, and then returned with them. They drank out of each other's cups,* and by-and-by Chu asked the name of his guest. " My name is Lu," repHed the Judge ; " I have no other names." They then conversed on literary subjects, one capping the other's quotation as echo responds to sound. The Judge then asked Chu if he understood composition ; to which he answered that he could just tell good from bad ; whereupon the former repeated a little infernal poetry which was not very different from that of mortals. He was a deep drinker, and took off ten goblets at a draught ; but Chu, who had been at it all day, soon got dead drunk and fell fast asleep with his head on tlie table. When he waked up the candle had burnt out and day was beginning to break, his guest having already departed ; and from this time the Judge was in the habit of dropping in pretty often, until a close friendship sprang up between them. Sometimes the latter would pass the night at the house, and Chu would show him his essays, all of which the Judge scored and underlined as being good for nothing. One night Chu got tipsy and went to bed first, leaving the Judge drinking by himself. In his drunken sleep he seemed to feel a pain in his stomach, and
• To heat the wine, which is almost invariably taken hot,
* In token of their mutual good feeling.
A CHINESE STUDIO 59
waJdng up he saw that the Judge, who was standing by the side of the bed, had opened him and was carefully arranging his inside. " What harm have I done you," cried Chu, " that you should thus seek to destroy me ? " " Don't be afraid," replied the Judge, laughing ; " I am only providing you with a more intelligent heart." ^ He then quietly put back Chu's viscera, and closed up the opening, securing it with a bandage tied tightly round his waist. There was no blood on the bed, and all Chu felt was a slight numbness in his inside. Here he observed the Judge place a piece of flesh upon the table, and asked him what it was. " Your heart," said the latter, " which wasn't at all good at composition, the proper orifice being stuffed up.* I have now provided you with a better one, which I procured from Hades, and I am keeping yours to put in its place." ' He then opened the door and took his leave. In the morning Chu undid the bandage, and looked at his waist, the wound on which had quite healed up, leaving only a red seam. From that moment he became an apt scholar, and found his memory much improved ; so much so, that a few days afterwards he showed an essay to the Judge for which he was very much commended. " However," said the latter, " your success will be limited to the master's degree. You won't get beyond that." "When shall I take it?" asked Chu. "This year," replied the Judge. And so it turned out. Chu passed first on the list for the bachelor's degree, and then among the first five for the master's degree. His old comrades, who had been accustomed to make a laughing-stock of him, were now astonished to find him a full-blown M.A., and when they learned how it had come about, they begged Chu to speak to the Judge on their behalf. The Judge promised to assist them, and they made all ready to receive him ; but when in the evening he did come, they were so frightened at his red beard and flashing eyes that their teeth chattered in their heads, and one by one they stole away. Chu then took the Judge home with him to have
* The Chinese as a nation believe to this day that the heart is the seat of the intellect and the emotions.
• The heart itself is supposed to be pierced by a number of " eyes,'* which pass right through ; and in physical and mental health these passages are believed to be clear.
' See No XII.,' note 2.
6o STRANGE STORIES FROM
a cup together, and when the wine had mounted well into his head, he said, " I am deeply grateful to your Excel- lency's former kindness in ari'anging my inside ; but there is still another favour I venture to ask which possibly may be granted." The Judge asked him what it was ; and Chu replied, " If you can change a person's inside, you surely could also change his face. Now my wife is not at all a bad figure, but she is very ugly. I pray your Excellency try the knife upon her." The Judge laughed, and said he would do so, only it wouM be necessary to give him a little time. Some days subsequently, the Judge knocked at Chu's door towards the middle of the night ; whereupon the latter jumped up and invited him in. Lighting a candle, it was evident that the Judge had something under his coat, and in answer to Chu's inquiries, he said, " It's what you asked me for. I have had great trouble in procuring it." He then produced the head of a nice-looking young girl, and presented it to Chu, who found the blood on the neck was still warm. " We must make haste," said the Judge, " and take care not to wake the fowls or dogs." ® Chu was afraid his wife's door might be bolted ; but the Judge laid his hand on it and it opened at once. Chu then led him to the bed where his wife was l5^ng asleep on her side ; and the Judge, giving Chu the head to hold, drew from his boot a steel blade shaped like the handle of a spoon. He laid this across the lady's neck, which he cut through as if it had been a melon, and the head fell over the back of the pillow. Seizing the head he had brought with him, he now fitted it on carefully and accurately, and pressing it down to make it stick, bolstered the lady up with pillows placed on either side. When all was finished, he bade Chu put his wife's old head away, and then took his leave. Soon after Mrs. Chu waked up, and perceived a curious sensa- tion about her neck, and a scaly feeling about the jaws. Putting her hand to her face, she found flakes of dry blood ; and much frightened called a maid-servant to bring water to wash it off. The maid-servant was also greatly alarmed at the appearance of her face, and proceeded to wash oft
* The Hsi-yuan-lUy a well-known work on Chinese medical jurisprudence and an officially authorised hooky while giving an absurd antidote against a poison that never existed, gravely insists that it is to be prepared at certain dates only, " in some place quite away from women, fowls, and dogs." .
A CHINESE STUDIO 6i
the blood, which coloured a whole basin of water ; but when she saw her mistress's new face she was almost frightened to death. Mrs. Chu took a nMiror to look at herself, and was staring at herself in utter astonishment, when her husband came in and explained what had taken place. On examining her more closely, Chu saw she had a well- featured pleasant face, of a high order of beauty ; and when he came to look at her neck, he found a red seam all round, with the parts above and below of a different coloured flesh. -Now the daughter of an official named Wu was a very nice-looking girl, who, though nineteen years of age, had not yet been married, two gentlemen who were engaged to her having died before the day.* At the Feast of Lanterns,^** this young lady happened to visit the Chamber of Horrors, whence she was followed home by a burglar, who that night broke into the house and killed her. Hearing a noise, her mother told the servant to go and see what was the matter ; and the murder being 'thus discovered, every member of the family got up. They placed the body in the hall, with the head alongside, and gave themselves up to weeping and wailing the Hve-long night. Next morning, when they removed the coverings, the corpse was there, but the head had disappeared. The waiting-maids were accordingly flogged for neglect of duty, and consequent loss of the head, and Mr. Wu brought the matter to the notice of the Prefect. This officer took very energetic measures, but for three months no clue could be obtained ; and then the story of the changed head in the Chu family gradually reached Mr, Wu's ears. Suspecting something, he sent an old woman to make inquiries ; and she at once recognised
• It was almost a wonder that she got a second fianciy few people caring to affiance their sons in a family where such a catastrophe has once occurred. The death of an engaged girl is a matter of much less importance, but is productive of a very curious cere- mony. Her betrothed goes to the house where she is lying dead and steps over the coffin containing her body, returning home with a pair of the girl's shoes. He thus severs all connection with her, and her spirit cannot haunt him as it otherwise most certainly would do.
1® Held annually on the 15th of the first Chinese month — i.e., at the first full moon of the year, when coloured lanterns are hung at every door. It was originally a ceremonial worship in the temple of the First Cause, and dates from about the time of the Han dynasty, or nearly two thousand years ago.
62 STRANGE STORIES FROM
her late young mistress's features, and went back and reported to her master. Thereupon Mr. Wu, unable to make out why the body should have been left, imagined that Chu had slain his daughter by magical arts, and at once proceeded to the house to find out the truth of the matter ; but Chu told him that his wife's head had been changed in her sleep, and that he knew nothing about it, adding that it was unjust to accuse him of the murder. Mr. Wu refused to beheve this, and took proceedings against him ; but as all the servants told the same story, the Prefect was unable to convict him. Chu returned home and took counsel with the Judge, who told him there would be no difficulty, it being merely necessary to make the murdered girl herself speak. That night Mr. Wu dreamt that his daughter came and said to him, " I was killed by Yang Ta-nien, of Su-ch'i. Mr. Chu had nothing to do with it ; but desiring a better-looking face for his wife. Judge Lu gave him mine, and thus my body is dead while my head still lives. Bear Chu no malice." When he awaked, he told his wife, who had dreamt the same dream ; and there- upon he communicated these facts to the officials. Subsequently, a man of that name was captured, who confessed under the bamboo that he had committed the crime ; so Mr. Wu went off to Chu's house, and asked to be allowed to see his wife, regarding Chu from that time as his son-in-law. Mrs. Chu's old head was fitted on to the young lady's body, and the two parts were buried together. Subsequent to these events Mr. Chu tried three times for his doctor's degree, but each time without success, and at last he gave up the idea of entering into official fife. Then when thirty years had passed away. Judge Lu appeared to him one night, and said, " My friend, you cannot Uve for ever. Your hour will come in five days' time." Chu asked the Judge if he could not save him ; to which he rephed, " The decrees of Heaven cannot be altered to suit the purposes of mortals. Besides, to an intelligent man life and death are much the same.^^ Why necessarily regard Hfe as a boon and death as a misfortune ? " Chu
^1 It was John Stuart Mill who pointed out that the fear of death is due to '* the illusion of imagination, which makes one conceive oneself as if one were alive and feeling oneself dead " (The Utility ot Religion),
A CHINESE STUDIO 63
could make no reply to this, and forthwith proceeded to order his cofi&n and shroud ; and then, dressing himself in his grave-clothes,^* jdelded up the ghost. Next day, as his wife was weeping over his bier, in he walked at the front door, to her very great alarm. " I am now a disembodied spirit," said Chu to her, " though not different from what I was in Hfe ; and I have been thinking much of the widow and orphan I left behind." His wife, hearing this, wept till the tears ran down her face, Chu all the time doing his best to comfort her. " I have heard tell," said she, ** of dead bodies returning to life ; and since your vital spark is not extinct, why does it not resume the flesh ? " ** The ordinances of Heaven," repHed her husband, " may not be disobeyed." His wife here asked him what he was doing in the infernal regions ; and he said that Judge Lu had got him an appointment as Registrar, with a certain rank attached, and that he was not at all uncomfortable. Mrs. Chu was proceeding to inquire further, when he interrupted her, sa5dng, ** The Judge has come with me ; get some wine ready and something to eat." .He then hurried out, and his wife did as he had told her, hearing them laughing and drinking in the guest chamber just like old times come back again. About midnight she peeped in, and found that they had both disappeared ; but they came back once in every two or three days, often spending the night, and managing the family affairs as usual. Chu's son was named Wei, and was about five years old ; and whenever his father came he would take the little boy upon his knee. When he was about eight years of age, Chu began to teach him to read ; and the boy was so clever that by the time
1* " Boards of old age " and *' Clothes of old age sold here " iare common shop-signs in every Chinese city ; death and burial being al-wa}^, if possible, spoken of euphemistically in some such terms as these. A dutiful son provides, when he can afford it, decent coffins for his father and mother. They are generally stored in the house, sometimes in a neighbouring temple ; and the old people take pleasure in seeing that their funeral obsequies are properly provided for, though the subject is never raised in con- versation. Chinese coffins are beautifully made ; and when the body has been in for a day or two, a candle is closely applied to the seams all round to make sure it is air-tight — any crack, how- ever fine, being easily detected by the flickering of the flame in the escaping gas. Thus bodies may be kept unburied for a long time, until the geomancer has selected an auspicious site for the grave*
64 STRANGE STORIES FROM
he was nine he could actually compose. At fifteen he took his bachelor's degree, without knowing all this time that he had no father. From that date Chu's visits became less frequent, occurring not more than once or so in a month ; until one night he told his wife that they were never to meet again. In reply to her inquiry as to whither he was going, he said he had been appointed to a far-off post, where press of business and distance would combine to prevent him from visiting them any more. The mother and son clung to him, sobbing bitterly, but he said, " Do not act thus. The boy is now a man, and can look after your affairs. The dearest friends must part some day." Then, turning to his son, he added, " Be an honourable man, and take care of the property. Ten years hence we shall meet again." With this he bade them farewell, and went away.
Later on, when Wei was twenty-five years of age, he took his doctor's degree, and was appointed to conduct the sacrifices at the Imperial tombs. On his way thither he fell in with a retinue of an official, proceeding along with all the proper insignia,^® and, looking carefully at the individual sitting in the carriage, he was astonished to find that it was his own father. AHghting from his horse, he prostrated himself with tears at the side of the road ; where- upon his father stopped and said, '* You are well spoken of. I now take leave of this world." Wei remained on the ground, not daring to rise ; and his father, urging on his carriage, hurried away without saying any more. But when he had gone a short distance, he looked bacl^ and unloosing a sword from his waist, sent it as a present to his son, shouting out to him, " Wear this and you will succeed." Wei tried to follow him ; but, in an instant, carriage, retinue, and horses had vanished with the speed of wind. For a long time his son gave himself up to grief, and then seizing the sword began to examine it closely. It was of exquisite workmanship, and on the blade was engraved this legend : ** Be bold, but cautious ; round in disposition, square in action/* ^* Wei subsequently rose to
^' Gongs, red umbrellas, men carrying boards on which the officer's tides are inscribed in large characters, a huge wooden fan, &c., &c.
14 " Be like a cash " (see No. II., note 2) is a not uncommon saying among the Chinese, the explanation of which rests upon the
A CHINESE STUDIO 65
high honours, and had five sons named Ch'en, Ch'ien, Wu, Hun, and Shen. One night he dreamt that his father told him to give the sword to Hun, which he accordingly did ; aod Hun rose to be a Viceroy of great administrative ability.
XV. MISS YING-NING, OR THE LAUGHING GIRL
At Lo-tien, in the province of Shantung, there lived a youth named Wang Tzu-fu, who had been left an orphan when quite young. He was a clever boy, and took his bachelor's degree at the age of fourteen, being quite his mother's pet, and not allowed by her to stray far away from home. One young lady to whom he had been be- trothed having unhappily died, he was still in search of a wife when, on the occasion of the Feast of Lanterns, his cousin Wu asked him to come along for a stroll. But they had hardly got beyond the village before one of his uncle's servants caught them up and told Wu he was wanted. The latter accordingly went back ; but Wang, seeing plenty of nice girls about and being in high spirits himself, pro- ceeded on alone. Amongst others, he noticed a young lady with her maid. She had just picked a sprig of plum- blossom, and was the prettiest girl he had ever heard of, her smiling face being very captivating. He stared and stared at her quite regardless of appearances ; and when she had passed by, she said to her maid, " That young fellow has a wicked look in his eyes." As she was walking away, laughing and talking, the flower dropped out of her hand ; and Wang, picking it up, stood there disconsolate as if he had lost his wits. He then went home in a very melancholy mood ; and, putting the flower under his pillow, lay down to sleep. He would neither talk nor eat ; and his mother became very anxious about him, and called in the aid of the priests.^ By degrees, he fell off in flesh and
fact that a cash is *' round in shape and convenient for use," which words are pronounced identically with a corresponding number of words meaning " round in disposition, square in action." It is, in fact, a play on words.
^ Sickness bemg supposed to result from evil influences, witch- craft, &c.,- just as often as from more natural causes.
66 STRANGE STORIES FROM
got very thin ; and the doctor felt his puke and gave him medicines to bring out the disease. Occasionally, he seemed bewildered in his mind, but in spite of all his mother's inquiries would give no clue as to the cause of his malady. One day when his cousin Wu came to the house, Wang's mother told him to try and find out what was the matter ; and the former, approaching the bed, gradually and quietly led up to the point in question. Wang, who had wept bitteriy at the sight of his cousin, now repeated to him the whole story, begging him to lend some assistance in the matter. " How foolish you are, cousin," cried Wu ; " there will be no difficulty at all, I'll make inquiries for you. The giri herself can't belong to a very aristocratic family to be walking alone in the country. If she's not already engaged, I have no doubt we can arrange the affair ; and even if she is unwilling, an extra outlay wiU easily bring her roujad.2 You make haste and get well : I'll see to it all." Wang's features relaxed when he heard these words ; and Wu left him to tell his mother how the case stood, immediately setting on foot inquiries as to the whereabouts of the girl. All his efforts, however, proved fruitless, to the great disappointment of Wang's mother ; for since his cousin's visit Wang's colour and appetite had returned. In a few days Wu called again, and in answer to Wang's questions falsely told him the affair was settled. " WTho do you think the young lady is ? " said he. " Why, a cousin of ours, who is only waiting to be betrothed ; and though you two are a little near,* I dare say this difficulty may be overcome." Wang was overjoyed, and asked where she Uved ; so Wu had to tell another Ue, and say, ** On the south-west hills, about ten miles from here." Wang begged him again and again to do his best for him,
• The rule which guides betrothals in China is that " the doors should be opposite " — i.e., that the families of the bride and bride- groom should be of equal position in the social scale. Any un- pleasantness about the value of the marriage presents, and so on, is thereby avoided.
* Marriage between persons of the same surname, except in special cases, is forbidden by law, for such are held to be blood relations, descended lineally from the original couple of that name* Inasmuch, however, as the line of descent is traced through the male branches only, a man may marry his cousins on the maternal side without let or hindrance except that of sentiment, which is sufficiently strong to keep these alliances down to a minimum.
A CHINESE STUDIO 67
and Wu undertook to get the betrothal satisfactorily arranged. He then took leave of his cousin, who from this moment was rapidly restored to health. Wang drew the fiower from underneath his pillow, and found that, though dried up, the leaves had not fallen away. He often sat playing with this flower and thinyng of the young lady ; but by-and-by, as Wu did not reappear, he wrote a letter and asked him to come. Wu pleaded other engagements, being unwilling to go ; at which Wang got into a rage and quite lost his good spirits ; so that his mother, fearing a relapse, proposed to him a speedy betrothal in another quarter. Wang shook his head at this, and sat day after day waiting for Wu, until his patience was thoroughly exhausted. He then reflected that ten miles was no great distance, and that there was no particular reason for asking anybody's aid ; so, concealing the flower in his sleeve, he went od in a huff by himself without