chinese
LIEH-I CHUAN
(1) Chiang Chi's Dead Son
When Chiang Chi was General of the Garrison,1 his wife saw their dead son in a dream. In tears he said to her, "Life and death are different roads! When I was alive, I was the descendant of ministers. Now, beneath the ground, I am a petty sergeant in Mount T'ai's2 realm of the dead. Because of the lowliness of this position and the hardships it entails, I am indescribably haggard. The singer Sun A who lives west of the Imperial Temple has today received the command to become magistrate of Mount T'ai. I would like you to have the marquis, my father, enjoin Sun A on my behalf that I might obtain a happier position." When he finished speaking, his mother suddenly awoke.. The following day she told Chiang Chi what had occurred. Chiang Chi said, "Dreams are like that. You needn't think it strange."
1 Chiang Chi was a native of the state of Ch'u who came to be Grand Commandant in the state of Wei. His biography is in San-kuo chih 14, pp. 450ff.
2 Mt. T'ai is T'ai-shan, one of the five sacred mountains in China. This is the site on which the Han emperors performed major sacrifices to Heaven and Earth. With the introduction of Buddhism into China, it became confused with the T'ai-shan of the Ten Buddhist Hells and was identified as a branch of Yama's court. T'ai-shan Wang, the God of T'ai-shan, thus, became the lord of departed souls and judge of the dead (see Ku Yen-wu, Jih chih lu, 30, 28b-19a [SPPY edition]; cf. Po-wu chih, 1/20 [Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1980], p. 10).--Ed.
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The following night the mother again dreamt of her son who told her, saying, "I have come to greet the new magistrate, and have been stationed temporarily beneath the temple. I am able to return to see you for a while just before he departs. The new magistrate is to start on his journey by noon tomorrow, but before his departure there will be much to do, so that I won't be able to come back again. I will make my eternal farewell here and now. The marquis has a stubborn nature and is not easily prevailed upon. That is why I have voiced my plaint to you, Mother. I would like you to beseech the marquis once more. What would be the harm in putting this to a test!" Thereupon he related Sun A's physical appearance in great detail.
After the sun had risen, the mother spoke to the marquis once more, saying, "Last night I had another dream of our son's plea. Even though it is said that dreams are nothing to believe in, this is just too coincidental. What would be the harm in trying an experiment?" Chiang-chi thereupon dispatched someone to the Imperial Temple to inquire about Sun A, who, sure enough, was there. His physical appearance proved to be in every way as Chiang Chi's son had described him. Chiang Chi wept and said, "I had almost turned my back on my son!"
He then sent for Sun A and told him the whole affair. Sun did not fear his imminent death, but was instead pleased that he was to become magistrate of Mount T'ai. He feared only that Chiang Chi's words might not be reliable. Thus he said, "If it is as you say, General, it is as I wish. Yet what position does your worthy son wish to receive?" Chiang Chi answered, "Give him whatever is desirable in the underground." Sun responded, "Then it shall be done as you instruct!" The general then rewarded him amply, and having finished speaking, he sent him home.
Chiang Chi was anxious to know the outcome of his test. He had a man posted every ten paces from the gate of his garrison headquarters to the foot of the Imperial Temple, in order to pass on news of Sun A. Early the next morning the news arrived that Sun had developed a pain in his chest. By mid-morning it was reported that Sun's condition had worsened, and at noon Sun's death was announced. Chiang Chi said in tears, "Even though I am in sorrow over my son's misfortune, I am nonetheless pleased to learn that the dead retain their sentience."
A month later, Chiang Chi's son reappeared and told his mother,. "I have been made Recorder of Events!"
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your debt." So saying, she rose into the air and departed. Where she went no one knows.
(SSC 1/28) Tr. Michael Broschat
Note: This is an example of the adaptation of a miracle story for the purpose of propagating Confucian moralities. Derived from the "Hsiao-tzu chuan" (Story of the Filial Son) ascribed to Liu Hsiang (77-6 B.C.), this SSC version in turn became a source of adaptations by later story tellers, including a prosimetric version in the pien-wen style (see Wang Ch'ung-min et al., eds., Tun-huang pien-wen chi [Peking: Jen-min wen-hsiieh, 1957], pp. 109-13.)
(7) The Jade Maiden from Heaven
Hsien Ch'ao, styled I-ch'i, served under the Wei Dynasty [220-265] as assistant magistrate of Chi-pei Prefecture [present-day Fei-ch'eng County in Shantung Province]. One night during the Chia-p'ing reign period [249-253], while sleeping alone, he dreamt that a goddess came to offer herself to him. She explained that she was a jade maiden1 from heaven and her native place was Tung-chun.2 Her family name was Ch'eng-kung, and her given name was Chih-ch'iung. Because she lost her parents at an early age, the King of Heaven took pity on her and sent her down to marry someone.
During his dreams, Ch'ao's spirits were enlivened as he delighted in the girl's uncommon beauty. After waking, he would think back longingly on her. To him she seemed both real and unreal. All this went on for three or four nights.
1 A kind of Taoist goddess. 2 The former name of an area comprising part of northwestern Shantung and southern Hopeh. The jade girl seems to be referring to her original place of birth before her transformation into a goddess. According to religious Taoism, a person could transcend human existence and become an immortal through yoga, alchemy, or macrobiotics.
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Then one day she appeared in person, riding in a curtained carriage followed by a retinue of eight maids. She wore a robe of embroidered silk damask, and her face and bearing were just like a celestial beauty's. She told Ch'ao she was seventy years old, but to him she looked only about fifteen or sixteen. In her carriage was a five-piece set of decanters and goblets made of blue and white porcelain, together with some rare delicacies and wine, all of which she shared with Ch'ao.
"I am a jade girl dispatched from heaven to seek a husband," she said to him. "I have come to you not as a reward for your virtue, but because it was fated that we become husband and wife. Though this match won't do you any good, it won't bring you any harm either. At least you will always have the use of light carriages, ride stout horses, feast on exotic foods, and have all the tapestries you want. Because I am a goddess, I cannot bear you a son. But since I am not the jealous type, I would not stand in the way if you were to take another wife."
They then became husband and wife. The girl gave Ch'ao a poem. It read:
Whirled and wafted, I float between the Po-hai Gulf and P'eng-lai Island3
Crashing, smashing, the "cloud stones" sound.4 The iris needs no moisture For the highest virtue has its appointed season. Would a goddess come down for no reason?-- It is fate that sends me to help you. Heed me, and your relatives, close and distant,
will all prosper Disobey me and you will bring down disaster...
This is the most important part of the poem. The entire poem contains more than two hundred words and cannot be recorded here in full.
3 P'eng-lai is one of the mythical island homes of Taoist divinities.
4 The meaning of this verse is unclear. Some commentators believe that "cloud stones" are a percussion instrument similar to the stone drum. [The term yiln (cloud) may be an abbreviation for yiin-pan (cloud-patterned clappers), while shih (stone) itself refers to a stone drum.--Ed.]
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The girl also wrote a seven-chuan commentary on the Book of Changes, with the trigrams and images classified according to their judgments.5 The commentary was profound and could be used for divination. It thus resembles Master Yang's Great Mystery6 and Mr. Hsiieh's Central Classic.1 Ch'ao had no difficulty in understanding the ideas in the commentary and used it to foretell the future.
He and the jade maiden had lived as husband and wife for seven or eight years when his parents matched him with another woman. Ch'ao, however, continued to meet the jade maiden, dining with her every other day and sleeping with her every other night. She came at night and left at dawn--her movements as swift as lightning. No one but Ch'ao ever saw her. They used a house that had seldom been occupied, so she went unseen. But people heard voices inside the house and became curious. They asked Ch'ao what was happening, and Ch'ao revealed the affair. The jade girl then wanted to leave.
"I am a goddess," she said to Ch'ao. "I did not want others to know about my relationship with you. Because of your carelessness, everything about me has been exposed. Now I cannot see you anymore. Since we have been together for several years, our love for each other is deep. When separated, how can I help feeling sad? But under the circumstances there is no other way out. Both of us must be strong."
She told her servant to serve them some wine. Then she opened a box and took out two silk gowns, which she gave to Ch'ao along with^ajpoem. She then held his arms and bid him a tearful farewell. After she composed herself she climbed into her carriage and departed quickly--as if on wings. Ch'ao grieved for several days and nearly fell ill.
5 The Book of Changes, or I ching, is a divination manual which may date from the eighth century B.C. It consists of short oracles or judgments arranged under sixty-four hexagrams.
6 Yang Hsiung (53 B.C.-A.D.18) wrote this book, Great Mystery or Trai hsiian, in imitation of the I ching.
1 Central Classic is Chung ching. No such work is listed in the bibliographies of the Chinese dynastic histories.
8 A city which served as capital during various periods. It was located twenty li northwest of present-day Loyang County in Honan Province.
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Five years later Ch'ao received orders to go to Loyang8 as an emissary. On his way westward, while on a road beneath Fish Mountain [in modern Tung-o County, Shantung] north of the Chi River, he gazed toward the end of the winding road ahead and saw a carriage drawn by a team of horses. The carriage and horses looked like the jade maiden's. Ch'ao spurred his horse and dashed ahead to make sure. They were hers. She opened the curtain to her carriage, and when they saw each other they were overcome with sadness and joy.
Ch'ao then steadied the horse on the left and took the reins. Together he and the jade maiden rode to Loyang where they resumed their relationship as husband and wife. They still lived there during the T'ai-k'ang reign period [280-289].
The jade girl did not come every day. She would always come on the third day of the third month, the fifth day of the fifth month, the seventh day of the seventh month, the ninth day of the ninth month, and the fifteenth day of the eleventh month. She would spend the night and then depart. To commemorate her, Chang Min [fl. 275-280] composed a "Rhapsody on the Goddess."9
(SSC 1/31; IWLC, 79.1b-2a) Tr. Cordell D. K. Yee
Note: This story is to an extent typical of CK stories about marriage with a transcendent being, yet it shows a diverging development from what might be the original pattern (seen, for instance, in the preceding story "Tung Yung"). Although it still retains the motif of "eventual separation," an assertion of the human wish for a more permanent relationship is suggested in the atypical ending here.
9 The SSC version has "Chang Mao-hsien" (i.e., Chang Hua, 232-300) for "Chang Min;" the correction is made according to the version cited in IWLC. Chang Hua also wrote a fu with the same title, which has been lost. For Chang Min's work, see IWLC, 79.51b.--Ed.
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eagerness to join them. The appointed day will soon be upon us. How can we allow you to change at this late date and accept your regrets?" Shortly thereafter, the three men passed away.
(SSC 5/94) Tr. Kenneth J. DeWoskin
Note: Chiang-shan, or Mount Chiang, a famous lankmark in the suburb of Mo-ling (modern Nanking), was named after an official, Chiang Tzu-wen (late Han), who died there during a campaign against the rebels. (It was formerly known as Chung-shan.) The first five entries of chtian 5 of SSC (5/92-96) are all concerned with revelations of the god of Mount Chiang.
As pointed out by Wang Shao-ying (SSC, p. 59), the official positions of Han Po, Wang Yiin, and Liu Tan mentioned in the text were attained by these men only after Kan Pao's death or after the original compilation of the Sou-shen chi. Like many others in the 20-chuan edition, this story must have been a later addition.
(11) Kan Chiang and Mo Yeh
Kan Chiang and his wife Mo Yeh lived in the state of Ch'u.1 He once made a pair of swords--one male, one female--for the king.2 But since it had taken him three years to finish the swords, the king was angry and wanted to kill him. Kan Chiang had a talk with his wife, who was
1 A state which once covered Hunan, most of Hupeh, and parts of Anhwei, Kiangsi, Kiangsu, and Honan (740-330 B.C.).
2 In the Wu YUeh ch'un-ch'iu (Chronicles of Wu and Yiieh), the couple were said to be from the state of Wu. The King of Wu, Ho Lu (514-496 B.C.) asked Kan Chiang to make a pair of swords. The iron which the latter used for the purpose would not melt until his wife cut off her hair, clipped her finger nails, and threw both into the furnace. When the swords were forged, the yang (male) one was called Kan Chiang, and the yin (female) one, Mo Yeh. See Wu Yueh ch1un-ch'iu, (rpt. Taipei: Shih-chieh shu-chii, 1959), 4, pp. 76-78.--Ed.
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pregnant and about to give birth. "I took three years to make the swords for the king," he
said. "The king is angry and will certainly kill me. If the baby turns out to be a boy, after he grows up tell him this: Go out the door and look toward the mountain to the south. There is a pine tree growing out of a stone. A sword has been stuck into the tree."
Kan Chiang took the female sword to the palace and presented it to the king. The king was already incensed, and upon realizing that only the female sword had been brought, and that the male was missing, grew even more furious. He had Kan Chiang killed immediately.
Mo Yeh's son was named Ch'ih. When he reached manhood he asked his mother, "Where's my father?"
"Your father made swords for the King of Ch'u," his mother answered. "it took him three years to finish them, so the king lost his temper and killed him. Before he left, he told me to tell you to go out of the house and look toward the mount in the south. There is a pine tree growing out of a stone. A sword has been stuck into the tree."
The son went out of the house and looked south. He did not see the mountain, but only a pine post on a stone base in front of the hall. He split the post with an ax and found a sword. Afterwards he thought day and night only of avenging his father's death on the King of Ch'u.
One night the king saw Mo Yeh's son in a dream: his brows were one foot apart,3 and he spoke of his desire for vengeance. After this the king offered a reward of one thousand gold pieces for the capture of Mo Yeh's son. Upon hearing of this, Ch'ih fled to the mountains where he wandered about wailing. There he met a stranger who said to him, "You are so young. Why are you wailing so bitterly?"
"I am the son of Kan Chiang and Mo Yeh," he replied. "The King of Ch'u killed my father, and I want to avenge his death."
3 Wide foreheads were believed to be characteristic of men of excellence. [The hero's one-foot wide forehead is derived from a pun that contains a riddled message to the king in his dream. The name Ch'ih (or "red") is homophonous with the word for the length measure "foot." In other versions the hero is sometimes referred to as Mei-chien-ch'ih (lit., Red-Spot-between-the-Brows).--Ed.]
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"I've heard that the king has set a price of one thousand gold pieces on your head," the stranger said. "if you give me your head and sword, I will avenge your father's death for you."
"I would be very much obliged!" said Ch'ih, who then drew his sword over this own throat. Still standing erect, he held his head and sword with both hands and presented them to the stranger.
"I won't fail you," the stranger said. Only then did the young man's corpse fall over.
The stranger took the head to the King of Ch'u. The king was delighted.
"This is the head of a brave man," the stranger told the king. "it should be boiled in a cauldron."
The king did as the stranger said. But after three days and nights, the head still did not dissolve. It leaped out of the boiling water, glaring with rage.
"The young man's head has not dissolved," the stranger said to the king. "Perhaps Your Majesty should come over here and take a look. Only then will it dissolve."
When the king went over and looked down into the cauldron, the stranger pointed the sword at him--the king's head dropped into the water. The stranger directed the sword at his own head. It too fell into the water. The three heads all dissolved so that there was no telling them apart. The liquid was drained from the cauldron, and all the bones were buried in one spot. The burial site thus became known as the "Grave of the Three Kings." It is located in what is now North I-ch'un County in Ju-nan Prefecture [in modern Honan].
(SSC 11/266) Tr. Cordell D. K. Yee
Note: A spin-off of the legend of the famous swords and their makers recorded in f/u Yiieh ch' un-ch' iu, this story consists of a complex of themes and motifs: revenge, knight-errantry, the supernatural manifestation of a severed head, etc. It appealed strongly to the Chinese imagination and was circulated widely during Chin times. Many distantly separated locations were identified as the site of the Grave of the Three Kings.
The laconic description of the young man's self-beheading is striking and effective, though the action itself is puzzling. The device of conveying a message in a riddle, while thematically functional, adds a sense of mystery and depth to the text as well.
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her cart on a bamboo staff and swore to the crowd around her, 'if I am guilty, I die willingly and my blood will flow into the ground. If I die unjustly, let my blood contrarily flow upward. ' No sooner had the ax fallen than her blood, green-yellow, streamed to the pole and flowed up, up to the highest pennant, streamed over the flags and poured down."
(SSC 11/290) Tr. Kenneth J. DeWoskin
Translator's Note: This story will be recognized as one of the sources of the celebrated Yuan play by Kuan Han-ch'ing, "injustice to Tou 0."
Editor's Note: Cf. Han shu 71, pp. 3041-42, where a similar story is recorded.
(13) Fan Shih and Chang Shao
During the Han Dynasty [206 B . C .-A. D. 220 ] there was a man. by the name of Fan Shih, styled Ssu, courtesy name Chu-ch'ing, from Chin-hsiang in Shan-yang [in modern Shantung].1 He was a friend of Chang Shao of Ju-nan [in modern Honan], whose courtesy name was Yuan-po. They both attended the Imperial Academy together. Sometime later the two took leave to return to their respective homes.
"in two years' time I should return, and will go to your place to pay my respects to your parents and see your wife," said Fan Shih to Chang Shao. They then both agreed upon the future date.
Later when the time was just about due, Yuan-po related the whole plan to his mother and asked that she prepare a meal in expectation of Fan Shih's arrival. "You've been separated for two years," said his mother, "and your agreement involves such a long distance. How can you be so trusting?" "Chu-ch'ing is a trustworthy gentleman," replied Chang Shao. "He will never go back on his word." "Then, that being so, I will make some wine for you two."
1 For his official biography, see Hou Han shu 87, pp. 2676-79.
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When the time came, Fan Shih did indeed arrive. They went into the main hall to pay their respects to Chang Shao's mother. They drank together and were extremely happy. Then they parted once more.
One night sometime thereafter, Yiian-po became seriously ill. His neighbors Chih Chun-chang and Yin Tzu-cheng watched over him from morning to night. As Chang Shao was about to expire he sighed and said, "I'm so' sorry I won't be seeing my friend-unto-death." "But Chun-chang and I have taken such good care of you," protested Yin. "If we could not be called friends-unto-death, who else could it be that you seek?" "You two are just my friends-in-life. Fan Chii-ch'ing in Shan-yang is the one I mean by friend-unto-death." Shortly thereafter he died.
Suddenly, Fan Shih, at his own home, saw Chang Shao in a dream, wearing a black headdress with a trailing strap and dragging his slippers. Chang called out to Fan Shih, "Chli-ch'ing, I died on such-and-such a day and ought to be buried soon to stay forever in the underworld. You have not forgotten me thus far, but could you possibly make it to the funeral in time?" Fan Shih woke up in a daze, and sighing mournfully began to cry.
Then he donned clothes proper for the mourning of a friend and hurried off in order to attend the funeral.
Before he could get there, however, the funeral had already begun. The procession had already reached the open grave and the bearers were about to lower the casket, but it would not go in. Chang Shao's mother held onto the casket. "Yuan-po," she said, "is it that you want something?" She then held back the casket.
Time passed, and a pure white cart with matching steeds could be seen in the distance, its driver yelling and wailing as it approached. Chang Shao's mother looked at it and said, "That must be Fan Shih."
When Fan arrived, knocking his head against the coffin, he spoke to the casket. "Go on, Yuan-po. The dead and living travel two different paths. We will be parted forever from now on." Those gathered for the burial, numbering about a thousand in all, broke into tears. Fan Shih then took the bier strap and led the casket forward. The casket now went on its way.
He stayed by the grave afterward to arrange for trees to be planted around the tomb. Only then did he leave.
(SSC 11/299; Hou Han-shu 87, 2676-77) Tr. Michael Broschat
CH'I-HSIEH CHI
(38) Tung Chao-chih and the King of the Ants
Tung Chao-chih, of Fu-yang County [modern Hang County, Chekiang Province] in the state of Wu, was once taking a boat across the Ch'ien-t'ang River. In midstream he saw an ant crawling on a short reed. Scurrying back and forth on the reed, it seemed fearful and anxious. Tung said, "It fears death." He thereupon took a rope and caught the reed. He wanted to bring it up onto the prow of the boat, but someone on the boat scowled, "That is a poisonous insect. You can't keep it alive. If you bring it on board, I will stomp it to death."
In his heart Tung felt great pity for the ant. It happened that the boat reached the bank just then and the ant was able to climb out along the rope. That night Tung dreamed of a man dressed in black, leading hundreds of men. The man came to thank him, and said, "I was careless and fell into the river. Thanks to you, my life was saved. I am the Insect King. If you are ever in any trouble, call on me."
Ten-odd years later, there were bandits and robbers west of the river. While passing by the mountain area of Yu-hang [east of Hang-chou], Tung was pressed into a bandit gang by their chief, and ended up bound in the Yu-yao [south of Hang-chou Bay] prison. All of a sudden he remembered his dream of the ant king. As he was tossing the idea about in his head, a fellow prisoner asked him about it. Tung said, "The ant said that when a crisis came, I should let him know. Now how can I let him know?" A prisoner said, "Take a couple of ants in your hand and pray to them."
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Tung did as he said, and that night dreamed of a man in black who said, "You should go quickly to Yii-hang Mountain. The emperor will soon declare an amnesty." He then awoke. The ants had already finished gnawing through his cangue, and thus he was able to escape from the prison. He crossed the river and took refuge on Yii-hang Mountain. In a short while amnesty was declared and he was free.
(Lu, pp. 231-32; TPKC, 473.8) Tr. Chris Connery
Note: Again "a good turn repaid" (cf. "Hsieh Yiin" [33]). The story here probably is motivated specifically by the Buddhist belief of retribution.
(39) Hsiieh Tao-hsiin, the Tiger-man
In the fourth year of the reign of the Emperor Hsiao Wu [r. 372-396] of the Chin Dynasty [265-420], Hsiieh Tao-hsiin of An-lu County in the Chiang-hsia Commandery [in Hupeh Province] was twenty-two. He had been brilliant from an early age, but succumbed to an epidemic disease and, following his cure, went mad. A hundred remedies could not restore his sanity. Then he took some powdered drugs and began to dash around wildly, completely unrestrainable. All of a sudden, he simply vanished. He had turned into a tiger and subsequently devoured countless people.
One day there was a girl picking mulberries beneath a tree. The tiger approached and ate her. When he finished eating, he hid her jewelry among some boulders, thinking he would remember where to find them when he became a man again.
After a year he returned home, a man once more. Later he went to the capital and became an official, serving as Palace Attendant. One night when he was talking with a group of friends, the conversation shifted to matters of mysterious metamorphoses in the universe. Hsiieh Tao-hsiin spoke up, "Long ago I was sick and went mad, and then became a tiger. For a full year I gobbled men down. He then recounted locales and names of his victims. Among those with him were men whose fathers, sons, or brothers he had eaten, and they began to wail and cry. They seized him and brought him before a judge. He later starved to death in a Chien-k'ang [modern Nanking, Kiangsu] prison.