Essay

An Anthology of Ill

Chinese Literature

BEGINNINGS TO 1911

Edited and Translated by

Stephen Owen

W. W. NO RTON & COM PA NY

NEW YORK • LONDON

Copyright© 1996 by Stephen Owen and The Council for Cultural Planning and Development of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China

jacket art: "The Nymph of the Lo River" by Wei Chiu-ting is reproduced with the permission of the National Pa lace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Since this pa~e cannot legibl y accommodate all the copyright notices, pages 1165-66 constitute dn extension of the copyright page.

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of Ameri ca

First Ed ition

The text of th is book is composed in Sabon w ith the display set in Optima Composition by Com Com Manufacturing by Haddon Craftsmen Book design by joan "Greenfield

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publ ication Data

An antho logy of Chinese literature : beginnings to 1911 I edited and translated by Stephen Owen.

p. em . Translations from Chinese. Includes bibl iograph ica l references and index. ISBN 0-393-03823-8 1. Chinese literature-Translations into Engl ish. I. Owen,

Step hen. P1 2658.E1 A8 14 1996 895. 1 '08-dc20 95-11409

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 http ://web. wwnorton .com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 10 Coptic Street, Lo ndon WC1 A 1 PU

Contents

Peeking at the Bathers (XXI) 1028 Secret Pledge (XXII) 1033 Jade Burial (XXV) 1041 Gift of a Meal (XXVI) 1048 Denouncing the Rebel (XXVIII) 1054 Bells (XXIX) 1059 Stocking-Viewing (XXXVI) 1063 The Corpse Released (XXXVII) 1067 Ballad (XXXVIII) 1076 The Immortal's Recollections (XL) 1087 Reunion (L) 1091

Pu Song-ling (1640-1715), Liao-zhai's Record of Wonders 11o3

Lian-xiang 1103 Xiao-cui 1113 Blue Maid 1120

Qing Classical Poetry and Song Lyric 1128 Gu Yan-wu (1613-1682) 1129

Autumn Hills (first of two) 1130

Wu Wei-ye (1609-1671) 1130 Escaping the Fighting (fifth of six) 1131 Escaping the Fighting (last of six) 1131 A Lament for My Daughter (first of three) 1132 West Fields (first of four) 1133 Mooring in the Evening 1133 from Thoughts Stirred on Meeting the Gardener of the Royal

Academy in Nanjing 1134

Wang Shi-zhen (1634-1 711) 1135 Crossing the Ancient Barrier Pass in the Rain (1672) 1135 On the Ba River Bridge: Sent Home to My Wife (second

of two) 1135 Farm Home by Cu-lai Mountain 1136 On the Qing-yang Road 1136 What I Saw on the Northern Outskirts of Zhen-zhou 1136 At Daybreak I Crossed the Ping-jiang River and Climbed on

Foot to the Summit of Crossing-Above-Clouds Mountain 1136

Nara Singde (1655-1685) 1137 to "Like a Dream" (Ru meng ling) 1137 to "Clear and Even Music" (Qing-ping yue) 1137 to "Seeking Fragrant Plants" (Xun fang-cao), Account of a

Dream in Xiao Temple 1138 to "Golden Threads" (Jin-lii qu), Thoughts on the Anniversary

of My Wife's Death 1138

XXX111

Pu Song-ling (1640-1715), m Liao-zhai's Record of Wonders

Stories of marvels and encounters with supernatural beings had been popular in China at least since the Han Dynasty, but the favorite compendium of all such sto- ries was Liao-zhai's Record of Wonders (Liao-zhai zhi-yi), by Pu Song-ling. By the Qing, the number of educated men who sought public office far exceeded the num- ber of available positions. Pu Song-ling failed the provincial examinations and spent his life in the employ of officials and local gentry in his native Shan-dong. A pre- liminary version of Liao-zhai's Record of Wonders was completed in 1679, though he continued to add to it in the decades that followed. Numerous versions of the collection circulated in manuscript, but the work was not published until1766. Held up as a model of classical prose style and exposition, Liao-zhai's Record of Won- ders transformed the venerable genre of the supernatural tale into high art.

The supernatural tale seems to have answered some hunger for the strange that is a component of societies that are relatively stable and ordinary. In the Chinese version, strangeness often took the form of an abrupt intrusion of a sexual relationship into or- dinary life. In Liao-zhai's Record of Wonders, the strange and the ordinary are often in competition; ghosts, were-beasts, and immortal beings may be domesticated, but their powers eventually reveal themselves in the common world. This constant play on ap- pearance and a truth that I ies behind appearance is worked out through the social roles and obligations that shape human relationships, especially between men and women.

One striking difference between many of Pu Song-ling's literary ghost stories and their Western counterparts is the frequent undercurrent of whimsy and humor, found precisely in the conjunction of the ordinary and the supernatural, the domestic and demonic. In "Lian-xiang/' the protagonist, young Sang, lies on his deathbed listen- ing to his two rival girlfriends debate the relative destructive powers of ghosts and foxes, suddenly realizing the each was, in fact, the supernatural creature that the other had claimed. The narrator's comment: "Fortunately he was so used to them that he wasn't alarmed by them at all." At the very moment that the supernatural re- veals itself in the ordinary world, he finds that the strange has become ordinary.

One further aspect of the domestication of the strange is the intrusion of thenar- rator at the end of each story, offering a judgment as the "Chronicler of Wonders/' in the manner of a Chinese official historian.

Lian-xiang

A native of Yi-zhou, one Sang Xiao, also known as Sang Zi-ming, had been orphaned in his youth and taken up lodging in Red Blossom Port. Sang was the sort of person who enjoyed the quiet, sedate life. Every day he would go

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Anthology of Chinese Literature

out to take his meals with a neighbor to his east, but he would spend the rest of his time just sitting at home. His neighbor once jokingly asked him, "Aren't you afraid of ghosts and foxes, living all by yourself?" Sang laughed and replied, "Why should a grown man be afraid of ghosts and foxes? Should a male of either type come, I have a sharp sword. If it's a female, I should open the gate and welcome her in."

Sang's neighbor then went home and hatched a scheme with some friends. They used a ladder to boost a courtesan over the way, and in no time she was there knocking at his gate. When Sang peeked out and asked who she was, the courtesan said she was a ghost. Sang was utterly terrified, and she could hear the sound of his teeth chattering. The courtesan then backed away and left. Early the next day, Sang's neighbor came to see Sang in his study; Sang related what he had seen and announced that he was going back to his native district. At this the neighbor clapped his hands together and asked, "Why didn't you open the door and welcome her in?" Immedi- ately Sang realized he had been hoodwinked and went back to the quiet life he had led before.

A half a year went by, and then one night a young woman came knock- ing at his study. Sang thought that this was another joke being played on him by his friend, so he opened the door and asked her in. She turned out to be a beauty worth dying for. Sang was surprised and asked her where she had come from. She replied, "My name is Lian-xiang, and I am a courtesan who lives west of here." Since there were many establishments in the red light district of the port, Sang believed her. When he put out the candle and got in bed with her, their lovemaking was perfect. From that time on, she would suddenly show up every fifteenth night.

One evening as he was sitting alone, lost in thought, a young woman came flitting in. Thinking it was Xiang-lian, Sang greeted her and was talk- ing to her; but when he caught sight of her face, it was someone else alto- gether. She was just fifteen or sixteen, with billowing sleeves and her hair in bangs, a winsome and charming creature, who seemed uncertain whether to come any closer or to withdraw. Sang was aghast, suspecting she was a fox. The young woman said, "My name is Li, and I come from a good fam- ily. I am an admirer of your noble disposition and cultivation, and now I have the good fortune to be able to come and make your acquaintance."

Sang was delighted; but when he took her hand, it was cold as ice. And he asked her, "Why are you so chilly?" She replied, "How could it be oth- erwise, being so young and tender, yet left alone in the cold each night, in the frost and dew?" And when he had untied the folds of her dress, she was indeed a true virgin. She said to him, "Because of the love I feel for you, I have now, in a short span, failed to preserve my innocence. If you do not look on me as unworthy, I would like to share your bed always. But do you, perhaps, have another woman for your bedroom?" Sang told her that there was no one else but a nearby prostitute and that she didn't come to visit him often. At this the young woman said, "I'll be careful to avoid her. I don't belong to the same class as those women of the entertainment quarters, so

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you have to keep this completely secret. When she comes, I'll leave; and then when she leaves, I'll come back."

As the roosters were crowing and she was about to go, she gave him an embroidered slipper and said, "By fondling this thing I have worn on my body, you can let me know that you are longing for me. But take care not to fondle it when anyone else is around." When Sang took it and examined it, he saw that it was as sharply pointed as a knitting needle. And his heart was filled with love and desire. There was no one with him the following evening, so he took it out and examined it. In a flash the young woman was suddenly there, and they then shared tender intimacies. From then on when- ever he took out the slipper, the young woman would respond to his thoughts and come to him. He thought this unusual and questioned her about it, but she only laughed and said, "It's just coincidence."

One night when Lian-xiang came, she said with alarm, "How is it that you look so pallid and drained of vitality?" Sang said, "I hadn't been aware of it." Lian-xiang later took her leave and promised to come again in ten days. After Lian-xiang left, Miss Li came regularly, leaving no evening free. She asked him, "Why hasn't your lover come in such a long time?" Sang then told her about the interval she had stipulated. Li laughed and asked, "In your eyes, how do I compare to Lian-xiang in beauty?" Sang replied, "Both of you are extraordinary, but Lian-xiang's skin is pleasantly warm." At this, Li colored and said, "If you are telling me to my face that she and I are matched in beauty, then she must be a veritable goddess of the moon- palace, and I am obviously not her equal." After that she grew sulky. Then, as she reckoned it, the ten days were already up; and forbidding Sang to say a word, she intended to get a glimpse of Lian-xiang.

On the following night Lian-xiang finally came, and they laughed and talked quite cheerfully. But when they went to bed, she was shocked and said, "This is terrible! It's been only ten days since I saw you last-how could you have deteriorated so badly? Can you assure me that you haven't been meeting with someone else?" Sang asked her to explain, and Lian-xiang said, "I can see the evidence in your vital signs. Your pulse is fluctuating wildly, like tangled threads. This is the symptom of the presence of a ghost."

The next night Li came, and Sang asked, "Did you get a glimpse of Lian- xiang?" Li answered, "She is beautiful. As a matter of fact, I would even say that in the whole human world there's no woman so lovely. That's because she's a fox. When she left, I tailed her-her lair is in the hill to the south."

Sang suspected Li was simply jealous and gave her a flippant reply. But the next evening, he teased Lian-xiang: "I really don't believe it, but some- one claimed you were a fox." Lian-xiang pressed him to tell her who had said this, but Sang laughed and answered, "I was just teasing you." Then Lian-xiang asked, "Just how are foxes different from human beings?" Sang replied, "Those who are bewitched by them grow sick, and in the worst cases they die. This is the reason people are terrified of them." Lian-xiang said, "It's not so. When someone your age sleeps with a fox, their vitality is re- stored after only three days. So even if one were a fox, what harm would it

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do? But suppose there were a creature that sapped a person's energy every day-there are people far worse than foxes. With all the corpses and ghosts of people who died of consumption and other diseases, it's hardly just foxes that cause people to die. In any case, someone has obviously been talking about me." Sang did his best to persuade her that this wasn't so, but Lian- xiang questioned him ever more vigorously. At last Sang had no choice but to tell her the whole story. Then Lian-xiang said, "I was really astounded at how sickly you had grown. But how else could you have reached this con- dition so suddenly? The creature must not be human. Don't say anything about this, but tomorrow night, I have to spy on her as she did on me."

That night, Li came. She hadn't exchanged more than a few words with Sang when she heard a cough outside the window and disappeared imme- diately. Then Lian-xiang came in and said, "You're in serious danger. She really is a ghost. If you keep on being intimate with her and don't break it off quickly, the dark path is close at hand!" Sang thought she was jealous and said nothing. Lian-xiang then said, "I realize that you can't just put aside your love for her, but still I can't bear to watch you die. Tomorrow, I'm going to bring you some medicine to get rid of this malady brought on by an ex- cess of the feminine principle. Fortunately the disease hasn't taken deep root in you, and it should be gone in ten days. I ask you to share a bed with me so that I can keep an eye on the cure."

The next night she brought out some finely chopped herbs and made Sang take them. In a little while he had a few bouts of diarrhea, after which he felt that his entrails had been purged clear and his energy invigorated. Al- though he felt grateful to Lian-xiang, he still didn't believe that his sickness had been due to a ghost. Every night Lian-xiang pressed close to him under the covers; but when Sang wanted to make love, she stopped him immedi- ately. After several days, his flesh was back to its former fullness. When she was about to leave, Lian-xiang urged him with all her might to break off with Li, and Sang pretended to agree. But as soon as he closed the door and trimmed the lamp wick, he immediately took hold of the slipper and turned his thoughts to Li. Suddenly there she was. Having been kept away from him for several days, she looked rather resentful; but Sang explained, "These past few nights I've been having shamanistic therapy. Please don't be an- noyed with me. I still care about you." At this Li grew somewhat more cheer- ful. But later in bed Sang whispered to her, "I love you very much, but there are those that claim you're really a ghost." Li was tongue-tied for a long time, then rebuked him, "That wanton fox must have bewitched you into believ- ing her. If you don't break off with her, I won't come here any more!" Then she burst into tears. Sang said all sorts of things to make her feel better, then gave up.

The following night when Lian-xiang appeared, she knew that Li had come again, and she said angrily, "You must want to die." Sang laughed, saying, "Why are you so jealous of her?" At this Lian-xiang grew even an- grier: "The seeds of death had been planted in you, and I got rid of them for you. What would have happened if I hadn't been jealous?" Then Sang at-

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tributed words to Lito tease Lian-xiang: "She says that my sickness the other day was the evil eye brought on by a fox." At this, Lian-xiang said with a sigh, "It really does happen as you say, but you have been duped and don't know it. The whole thing is bound to turn out badly; and then even if I spoke with a hundred tongues, how could I explain myself. I'll leave you now. When I see you again in a hundred days, you will be bedridden." Sang could- n't get her to stay, and she departed at once in indignation.

From then on, Li was always with him morning and night. After a little more than two months, he began to feel very weak. At first he still tried to shake it off by himself, but he grew steadily more gaunt and emaciated until all he could eat was a bowl of thick porridge. He was ready to go back to where his family lived, but he still was too attached to Li to bear to leave her so abruptly. After a few more days, the sickness became debilitating, and he couldn't get up any more. When Sang's neighbor saw how feeble he had become, he sent his servant every day to see to Sang's meals. It was only at this point that Sang began to suspect Li and said to her, "I regret not hav- ing listened to Lian-xiang's advice. It has brought me to this." After saying that, he lost consciousness. A while later he came to; and when he opened his eyes and looked around, Li was gone, obviously having decided to have nothing more to do with him. Sang lay there emaciated, alone in his study, longing for Lian-xiang as one might hope for a great bounty.

One day as he was lost in reverie, someone suddenly lifted the curtain and came in. It was Lian-xiang. Standing by his bed, she said with a sad smile, "Well, my naive friend, was I wrong?" Sang was choked up for a long time, then admitted how wrong he had been and asked her to rescue him. Lian-xiang said, "The disease has entered the vital regions below the heart, and there's no way to save you. I came to say my last farewell to you, and to show you that it was not jealousy." Sang was terribly upset and said, "There's something I have beneath my pillow-please destroy it for me." Lian-xiang reached under and found the slipper, then took it over in the lamp to examine it, turning it over in her hand. In a flash Li entered the room, but then suddenly caught sight of Lian-xiang and turned to make her escape. Lian-xiang blocked the doorway with her body, and Li found herself hemmed in with no way out.

When Sang took her to task for everything she had done to him, Li had no way to answer. Lian-xiang laughed. "Now I have a chance to confront you face to face. Some time ago you told our young friend that his previous illness could only have been brought on by me. How about now?" Li bowed her head and admitted she had been in the wrong. Then Lian-xiang said, "You're so beautiful, and yet you used love against him as if he were your enemy."

At that, Li fell to the floor and burst into tears, begging for mercy. Lian- xiang then helped her up and questioned her in detail about her life. Li said, "I was the daughter of the Assistant Li. I died young and was buried here just outside the walls. Li Shang-yin wrote how when the spring silkworm dies, its threads of longing end. In my case the spring silkworm may have died, but

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those threads remained and did not end. I just wanted to live with him hap- pily; it was never my intention to bring about his death." Then Lian-xiang said, "I have heard that ghosts gain advantage by someone's death, because after that person dies they can be with him forever. Is that true?" Li answered, "No, it's not true. When two ghosts meet, there's no way they can enjoy them- selves together. If they could, there are more than enough young men in the underworld!" Lian-xiang said, "Foolish girl! A man can't take doing it every night even with a human being-much less with a ghost!" Then Li asked, "But foxes bring about people's deaths. What technique do you have that this is not true for you?" Lian-xiang answered, "Those are the vampire foxes that suck the vital essences out of a person-I'm not that sort. There really are foxes that don't do people any harm, but there are absolutely no ghosts that don't do people harm-the Yin humors are too strong in them."

As Sang heard them talking, he realized for the first time that they really were a fox and a ghost. Fortunately he was so used to them that he wasn't alarmed by them at all. The only thing on his mind was his sinking breath, now as thin as a thread; and without realizing it, he groaned in misery. Lian- xiang consulted with Li. "What are we going to do about him?" Li blushed crimson and demurred. Lian-xiang laughed and said, "I'm afraid that if he gets strong and healthy again, you'll be so jealous you'll be eating sour grapes." Li straightened her sleeves in a demure attitude: "If there were some doctor of national standing who could undo my betrayal of our friend, then I would bury my head in the earth and never be so shameless as to show my face in the world again."

Lian-xiang then opened a pouch and took out some medicine. "I knew long ago it would reach this stage, so after leaving Sang I gathered these herbs on the Three Mountains of the immortals; and now that they have been cur- ing for three months, the ingredients are at last ready. If he takes these, they will restore him to health, even if the malignancy has brought him to the edge of death. Nevertheless, the medicine must be helped along by the very same means by which he contracted the disease. That means that it is you who must do your best to save him." Li asked, "What is required?" Lian- xiang answered, "A drop of spit from your mouth. I will put in the pill, and then you put your mouth on his and spit into it." A glow of embarrassment rose on Li's cheeks; she lowered her head and fidgeted, looking at the slip- per. Then Lian-xiang teased her, "I guess the slipper is the only thing that satisfies you." At this Li became even more ashamed and seemed as though she couldn't endure it. Lian-xiang then said, "This is an ordinary remedy for fevers-why are you holding back in this case?" Then she put the pill between Sang's lips and put increasing pressure on Li. Li had no choice but to spit on it. Lian-xiang said, "Again!" And she spit on it again. After spit- ting on it a few more times, the pill finally went down his throat. After a short while, there was a rumbling in his belly like the sound of thunder. She gave him another pill and this time touched her own lips to his and dissolved it with her breath. Sang felt a fire in his abdomen, and his vitality flared forth. Lian-xiang said, "He's better!"

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When Li heard the rooster crow, she grew anxious and departed. Since Sang was still an invalid, Lian-xiang had to stay and nurse him, since he had no way to get his own meals. She locked up the door to give the false im- pression that he had gone back to his home region so that no one would come to visit him. She kept by his side day and night, and every evening Li too would come and give her wholehearted help. She treated Xiang-lian like a sister, and Xiang-lian too came to feel a deep affection for her.

After three months, Sang was as healthy as ever. After that Li would stay away for several evenings at a time, and when she did come, she would take a quick look and leave. When she faced them, she seemed troubled and un- happy. Lian-xiang would always try to get her to spend the night with them, but she was never willing. Once Sang went after her and picked her up to bring her back; her body was as light as one of the straw dolls used in buri- als. When she found that she couldn't get away, she lay down in her clothes and curled her body into a ball that wasn't even two feet wide. Lian-xiang increasingly felt sorry for her and secretly had Sang put his arms around her and try to be intimate with her, but he couldn't wake her up even by shak- ing her. Sang fell off to sleep; and when he woke up and looked for her, she was long gone.

For more than ten days after that, she didn't come again. She was very much on Sang's mind, and he would often take out the slipper and fondle it together with Lian-xiang. Lian-xiang said, "It's so lonely now. I still care for her, and as a man you must feel it even more." Then Sang said, "It used to be that she would come whenever I fondled the slipper; I did always won- der about that, but I never suspected she was a ghost. Now looking at this slipper and thinking of her face really makes me miserable." Then he began to weep.

The wealthy Zhang household had a fifteen-year-old daughter, Yan-er, who died suddenly without showing any signs of sickness. After a night had passed, she returned to consciousness. She got up, looked around, and started to run away. The Zhangs barred the door, and she couldn't get out. At this the young woman said, "I'm the spirit of the daughter of Assistant Li. I have been deeply touched by the kind attentions of Mr. Sang, and there's a piece of footwear of mine that still remains at his house. I really am a ghost, so it's not going to do any good to lock me up." Since there was a certain coherence in what she was saying, they questioned her about how she came to her present state. But she simply looked around in bewilderment, con- fused and unable to explain herself. Someone said that Mr. Sang was sick and had gone back to his native region, but the young woman insisted that this was erroneous.

The people in the household were quite perplexed. Sang's neighbor to the east heard about this, so he climbed over the wall to peek in Sang's house; there he saw Sang talking together with a beautiful woman. He burst in to catch them by surprise, but in a moment of confusion he lost track of her. Alarmed, the neighbor asked Sang for an explanation; and Sang laughed. "As I said to you quite clearly before, if it was a female I'd invite her in."

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Then Sang's neighbor told him what Yan-er had said. Sang unlocked the door and wanted to go find out what was going on, but there was no way he could.

When Mrs. Zhang heard that Sang had not, after all, gone back to his native place, she thought the whole matter was even stranger. She sent an old serving woman to get the slipper, which Sang produced and handed over to her. Y an-er was delighted when she got it; but when she tried to put it on, it was smaller than her foot by a full inch, and she was greatly alarmed. When she then took a mirror to look at herself, she was in a daze, suddenly realizing that she had come to life in this other body. At she explained the full course of events, and at last her mother believed her. When the young woman looked at her face in the mirror, she wept loudly, saying, "I had some self-confidence in my looks back then, yet whenever I saw Lian-xiang, I still felt embarrassment by comparison. But as it is now, I'm even less attractive as a human being than as a ghost." She would just hold the slipper and wail inconsolably. She covered herself up with a quilt and lay stiff. They would try to feed her, but she wouldn't eat, and her flesh and skin became all swollen. For a full seven days she didn't eat; but she did not die and the swelling gradually subsided. At that point, she felt so hungry she couldn't bear it and began to eat again. After several days itching covered her whole body, and the skin all fell away. When she got up in the morning, her bed slippers fell from her feet, and when she went to put them on again, they were too large and didn't fit. Then she tried on her old slipper, and now it fit perfectly. She was delighted. Then she looked at herself in the mirror again and found that her brows, her eyes, her cheeks, and chin were all just as they had been originally-and at this she was even more delighted. She then bathed, combed her hair, and went to see her mother, and all who saw her were pleased.

When Lian-xiang heard about this marvel, she urged Sang to send a matchmaker with an offer of marriage; but because of the discrepancy in the fortunes of the two households, Sang didn't dare proceed with rash haste. On the old lady's birthday, he went along with her sons-in-law to congrat- ulate her. The old lady saw his name and had Y an-er look through the cur- tain to see if she recognized him. Sang was the last to arrive, and the young woman burst out, grabbed his sleeve, and wanted to go home with him. Only after her mother scolded her did she grow embarrassed and go back in. Sang had gotten a clear look at her, and without knowing it, tears began to fall from his eyes. At this, he prostrated himself on the floor in front of the old lady and didn't get up. She in turn helped him up and didn't take it as bad manners. As Sang left, he asked one of the young woman's uncles to repre- sent him in negotiations for .the marriage. The old woman deliberated and chose a lucky day for to take him as her son-in-law.

When Sang went back, he told Lian-xiang about this, and they discussed how to handle matters;, but then Lian-xiang grew depressed for a long time and finally wanted to take her leave of him. Sang grew quite alarmed and wept. Then Lian-xiang said, "You are going to be married with all the

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proper ceremonies, and if I go along with you, I'll lose all respect." Sang planned with Lian-xiang to first take her back to her own home, and then to go get Y an-er and bring her back as his bride. Lian-xiang agreed. Sang then explained the situation to Mrs. Zhang, who, on hearing that he had a concubine, became furious and reproached him bitterly. But Yan-er did her best to explain matters, and Mrs. Zhang did as she asked. When the day came, Sang went to get his bride and bring her home. The furnishings of his house had been extremely messy and ill kept; but when he got back, there were woolen rugs laid down on the ground from the gate into the main hall, and thousands of lanterns in sparkling rows like brocade. Lian-xiang helped the new bride under the green wedding awning, and when the bridal veil was lifted, they were as happy to see one another as ever.

Lian-xiang joined them in the ritual exchange of winecups and ques- tioned Yan-er in detail on the marvel of her recent spirit wandering. Yan-er then said, "That day, I was depressed and upset. I just felt that I was no longer human and that my body had become something unclean. After I left you, I was so distraught that I didn't go back to my grave but let myself drift along with the wind. Whenever I saw a living person, I felt envious of them. In the daytime I stayed among the plants and trees, and by night I let my feet drift along. Then I happened to come to the Zhang household and saw a young girl lying on a bed. I approached her and then came right up next to her, not knowing that I could come to life."

When Lian-xiang heard this, she remained quiet, as if something were on her mind. Several months later, Lian-xiang gave birth to a child. After the delivery she became gravely ill, and her condition steadily deteriorated. She clutched Yan-er's arm and said, "If I can burden you with my bastard, let my son be your son." Y an-er wept and reassured her. They called in a shaman doctor, but Lian-xiang immediately sent him away. As she lay on her deathbed, her breath grew ragged, while Sang and Y an-er were both weeping. Suddenly she opened her eyes and said, "Don't be like that. You find joy in life; I find joy in death. If destiny permits, ten years from now we may get to meet again." After uttering these words, she was gone. When they drew back the covers to gather her up, the corpse had changed into a fox. Sang couldn't bear to treat her as something unhuman and gave her a lav- ish funeral.

They named her son Kit, andY an-er treated him if he were her own issue. Every year at the Qing-ming Festival she would take Kit in her arms and go weep at Lian-xiang's tomb. After several years Sang won a provincial de- gree from his native region, and the household gradually became more af- fluent. Yan-er had unfortunately not had a child of her own, and while Kit was very clever, he was frail and sickly. Yan-er always wanted Sang to take a concubine. One day a servant announced, "There's an old lady outside the gate with a girl she wants to sell." Yan-er called out to have them brought in. When she saw her, she said amazed, "Lian-xiang has reappeared!" When Sang looked at her and saw that she did indeed resemble Lian-xiang, he too was shocked. They asked how old she was, and woman answered that she

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Anthology of Chinese Literature

was fourteen. "How much do you want for her?" And the old woman said, "This little piece of flesh is all I have. It's enough for me that I find a place, that I am able to get enough eat and that in the future my old bones not just be thrown in some ditch."

Sang paid her well and let her stay. Yan-er took the girl by the hand and took her into a room where they could be private; then she pinched the girl's chin and said with a laugh, "Do you recognize me?" The girl replied that she did not, and Yan-er questioned her about her background. The girl said, "My name is Wei, and my father was a bean-paste merchant in Xu-cheng. He's been dead three years." When Y an-er thought about it and counted, Lian-xiang had been dead for exactly fourteen years. She looked the girl over carefully again, and all her features and the way she moved bore an uncanny resemblance. Then she patted the girl on the top of the head, shouting, "Lian- xiang! Lian-xiang! Don't fool us in your promise to see us again in ten years!"

All of a sudden the young girl seemed as if waking from a dream and said, "Huh?" Then she looked Yan-er over carefully. Sang laughed and said, "It's like that line of verse:

As if they were old acquaintances, the swallows come back again."

Tears streaming down her face, the girl said, "It's true! I heard my mother say that when I was born, I could already speak. They thought it was un- lucky, so they gave me dog's blood to drink in order to forget my previous existence. Today it's like just waking up from a dream. Aren't you my friend Li, who was ashamed to be a ghost?" Then they all talked about their ear- lier lives together, with grief and joy mingling.

One day on the festival for visiting the graves, Yan-er said, "This is the day that Sang and I go to weep at your tomb every year." Then the girl joined them on the visit to the tomb; the wild grasses were growing everywhere, while the trees planted by the tomb had already reached a double handspan in girth. The girl too sighed, andY an-er said to Sang, "Lian-xiang and I have been close to one another in two lifetimes now, and we can't bear to be apart. Our bones should be buried in the same grave." Sang did as she asked; he opened Li's tomb to get her remains, then took them back to bury with Lian- xiang's. Friends and relatives heard about this marvel and stood by the graveside in formal attire. Unexpectedly there were hundreds gathered there.

In 1670, I visited Yi-zhou during my travels south; unable to go on because of a storm, I stopped at an inn there. A certain Liu Zi-jing was there, a relative of Sang's, and he showed me a work entitled "Mr. Sang's Story" by Wang Zi- zhang, a member of his set. This was a long work of more than ten thousand characters. I finished reading it, and the above is an abbreviated version.

Here follows the judgment of the Chronicler of Wonders: A dead per- son sought to live, and a living person sought to die. Is not a human body the hardest thing to attain in this world? Yet it seems to happen that those

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The Qing Dynasty

who have such a human body always use it in such a way that they come to shamefulness that makes them in life inferior to the fox, and in simply van- ishing away their death is inferior to the ghost.

Xiao-cui

Wang, the Grand Chamberlain of Ceremonials, was a native of Yue. When he was still a boy, he was napping, when all of a sudden the sky grew dark and there was a mighty clap of thunder. An animal larger than a cat came and hid under his body, squirming and refusing to go. After a while the sky cleared up, and the animal immediately went straight out. When Wang looked closely and saw that it was not a cat, he grew frightened and called to his big brother in the other room. His brother heard him and said cheer- fully, "Well, brother, you're going to reach a very exalted position-this was a fox that came to you to escape being destroyed by thunder and lightning."

Afterward the young man did indeed pass the metropolitan examination at a young age, and he rose from the post of county magistrate to become a Censor. He had one son whose name was Yuan-feng, a simpleton who at the age of sixteen didn't know the difference between male and female. As a result, no one of his own class was willing to marry their daughters to him. Wang was worried about him.

It happened that a woman brought a girl to his gate and requested that she be made Yuan-feng's wife. When Wang looked the girl over, she smiled in the most fetching manner-she was a beauty of the highest order. De- lighted, he asked the name, and the woman said, "Our family is named Yu, and my daughter is Xiao-cui. She's sixteen." He then discussed the question of price with her, and she said, "With me she has eaten rough fare and has never been able to eat her fill. Now in a single day she will find herself liv- ing in spacious apartments, waited on by servants, and having all the meat and fine rice she can eat. If she is content, then my own wishes are satisfied. I'm not going to haggle over a price for her as if I were selling vegetables!"

Wang's wife was very pleased and rewarded the woman generously. Then the woman bade her daughter bow to Wang and his wife and instructed her: "These are to be your parents. You should serve them conscientiously. I'm very busy and am going away for a while. I'll be back in a few days." Wang ordered his servant to hitch up the carriage to see her home, but the woman said, "I don't live far from here, and I don't want to be a bother." Then she went out the gate. Xiao-cui didn't seem to miss her at all, but at once went to the dressing table and began to play around with various ways of making herself up. Wang's wife doted on her.

After several days, the mother did not return. They asked Xiao-cui where she lived, but she seemed befuddled and couldn't tell them the way. Conse- quently they set up separate apartments, and had her formally married to Yuan-feng. When the relatives heard that the Wangs had picked up a poor girl as Yuan-feng's bride, they all made fun of them; but when they saw the girl, everyone was amazed, and the gossip quieted down.

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