STRANGE STORIES

FROM A

CHINESE STUDIO.

STRANGE STORIES

FROM A

CHINESE STUDIO,

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'

uv

TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED

BY

HERBERT A. GILES,

Of H.M.'s Consular Service.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON: THOS. DE LA RUE & CO.

no, B U N H I L L ROW. I880.

(o

PRINTED BY

THOMAS DE LA RUE AND CO., BUNHII.L ROW, LONDON.

STRANGE STORIES

FROM A

CHINESE STUDIO.

LXIII.

THE LO-CH'A COUNTRY AND THE SEA-MARKET.1

ONCE upon a time there was a young man, named Ma Chiin, who was also known as Lung-mei. He was the son of a trader, and a youth of surpassing beauty. His manners were courteous, and he loved nothing better than singing and playing. He used to associate with actors, and with an embroidered handkerchief round his head the effect was that of a beautiful woman. Hence he acquired the sobriquet of the Beauty. At fourteen years of age he graduated and began to make a name for himself; but his father, who was growing old and wished to retire from business, said to him, " My boy, book-

1 The term "sea-market" is generally understood in the sense of mirage, or some similar phenomenon.

VOL. II. B

2 STRANGE STORIES

learning will never fill your belly or put a coat on your back , you had much better stick to the old thing." Accordingly, Ma from that time occupied himself with scales and weights, with principle and interest, and such matters.

He made a voyage across the sea, and was carried away by a typhoon. After being tossed about for many days and nights he arrived at a country where the people were hideously ugly. When these people saw Ma they thought he was a devil and all ran screeching away. Ma was somewhat alarmed at this, but finding that it was they who were frightened at him, he quickly turned their fear to his own advantage. If he came across people eating and drinking he would rush upon them, and when they fled away for fear, he would regale himself upon what they had left. By-and-by he went to a village among the hills, and there the people had at any rate some facial resemblance to ordinary men. But they were all in rags and tatters like beggars. So Ma sat down to rest under a tree, and the villagers, not daring to come near him, contented themselves with looking at him from a distance. They soon found, how- ever, that he did not want to eat them, and by degrees approached a little closer to him. Ma, smiling, began to talk ; and although their language was different, yet he was able to make himself tolerably intelligible, and told them whence he had come. The villagers were much pleased, and spread the news that the stranger was not a man-eater. Nevertheless, the very ugliest of all would only take a look and be off again ; they would

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 3

not come near him. Those who did go up to him were not very much unlike his own countrymen, the Chinese. They brought him plenty of food and wine. Ma asked them what they were afraid of. They replied, " We had heard from our forefathers that 26,000 // to the west there is a country called China. We had heard that the people of that land were the most extraordinary in ap- pearance you can possibly imagine. Hitherto it has been hearsay; we can now believe it." He then asked them how it was they were so poor. They answered, "You see, in our country everything depends, not on literary talent, but on beauty. The most beautiful are made ministers of state ; the next handsomest are made judges and magistrates ; and the third class in looks are employed in the palace of the king. Thus these are enabled out of their pay to provide for their wives and families. But we, from our very birth, are regarded by our parents as inauspicious, and are left to perish, some of us being occasionally preserved by more humane parents to prevent the extinction of the family." Ma asked the name of their country, and they told him it was Lo-ch'a. Also that the capital city was some 30 // to the north. He begged them to take him there, and next day at cock-crow he started thitherwards in their company, arriving just about dawn. The walls of the city were made of black stone, as black as ink, and the city gate-houses were about TOO feet high. Red stones were used for tiles, and picking up a broken piece Ma found that it marked his finger-nail like vermilion. They arrived just when the Court was rising, and saw all the

B 2

4 STRANGE STORIES

equipages of the officials. The village people pointed out one who they said was Prime Minister. His ears drooped forward in flaps ; he had three nostrils, and his eye-lashes were just like bamboo screens hanging in front of his eyes. Then several came out on horseback, and they said these were the privy councillors. So they went on, telling him the rank of all the ugly uncouth fellows he saw. The lower they got down in the official scale the less hideous the officials were. By-and-by Ma went back, the people in the streets marvelling very much to see him, and tumbling helter-skelter one over another as if they had met a goblin. The villagers shouted out to re-assure them, and then they stood at a distance to look at him. When he got back, there was not a man, woman, or child in the whole nation but knew that there was a strange man at the village ; and the gentry and officials became very desirous to see him. However, if he went to any of their houses the porter always slammed the door in his face, and the master, mistress, and family, in general, would only peep at, and speak to him through the cracks. Not a single one dared receive him face to face ; but, finally, the village people, at a loss what to do, bethought themselves of a man who had been sent by a former king on official business among strange nations. "He," said they, " having seen many kinds of men, will not be afraid of you." So they went to his house, where they were received in a very friendly way. He seemed to be about eighty or ninety years of age ; his eye-balls protruded, and his beard curled up like a hedge -hog. He said,

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 5

"In my youth I was sent by the king among many nations, but I never went to China. I am now one hundred and twenty years of age, and that I should be permitted to see a native of your country is a fact which it will be my duty to report to the Throne. For ten years and more I have not been to Court, but have re- mained here in seclusion ; yet I will now make an effort on your behalf." Then followed a banquet, and when the wine had already circulated pretty freely, some dozen singing girls came in and sang and danced before them. The girls all wore white embroidered turbans, and long scarlet robes which trailed on the ground. The words they uttered were unintelligible, and the tunes they played perfectly hideous. The host, however, seemed to enjoy it very much, and said to Ma " Have you music in China ? " He replied that they had, and the old man asked for a specimen. Ma hummed him a tune, beating time on the table, with which he was very much pleased, declaring that his guest had the voice of a phoenix and the notes of a dragon, such as he had never heard before. The next day he presented a memorial to the Throne, and the king at once commanded Ma to appear before him. Several of the ministers, however, repre- sented that his appearance was so hideous it might frighten His Majesty, and the king accordingly desisted from his intention. The old man returned and told Ma, being quite upset about it. They remained together some time until they had drunk themselves tipsy. Then Ma, seizing a sword, began to attitudinize, smearing his face all over with coal-dust. He acted the part of Chang

6 STRANGE STORIES

Fei,2 at which his host was so delighted that he begged him to appear before the Prime Minister in the character of Chang Fei. Ma replied " I don't mind a little amateur acting, but how can I play the hypocrite 3 for my own personal advantage?" On being pressed he consented, and the old man prepared a great feast, and asked some of the high officials to be present, telling Ma to paint himself as before. When the guests had arrived, Ma was brought out to see them ; whereupon they all exclaimed " Ai-yah ! how is it he was so ugly before and is now so beautiful ? " By-and-by, when they were all taking wine together, Ma began to sing them a most bewitching song, and they got so excited over it that next day they recommended him to the king. The king sent a special summons for him to appear, and asked him many questions about the government of China, to all of which Ma replied in detail, eliciting sighs of admiration from His Majesty. He was honoured with a banquet in the royal guest-pavilion, and when the king had made himself tipsy he said to him " I hear you are a very skilful musician. Will you be good enough to let me hear you?" Ma then got up and began to attitudinize, singing a plaintive air like the girls with the turbans. The king was charmed, and at once made him a privy councillor, giving him a private banquet, and be- stowing other marks of royal favour. As time went on

2 A famous General who played a leading part in the wars of the Three Kingdoms. See No. XCIIL, note 8.

3 A hit at the hypocrisy of the age.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 7

his fellow-officials found out the secret of his painted face,4 and whenever he was among them they were always whispering together, besides which they avoided being near him as much as possible. Thus Ma was left to himself, and found his position anything but pleasant in consequence. So he memorialized the Throne, asking to be allowed to retire from office, but his request was refused. He then said his health was bad, and got three months' sick leave, during which he packed up his valuables and went back to the village. The villagers on his arrival went down on their knees to him, and he dis- tributed gold and jewels amongst his old friends. They were very glad to see him, and said "Your kindness shall be repaid when we go to the sea-market ; we will bring you some pearls and things." Ma asked them where that was. They said it was at the bottom of the sea, where the mermaids 5 kept their treasures, and that as many as twelve nations were accustomed to go thither to trade. Also that it was frequented by spirits, and that to get there it was necessary to pass through red vapours and great waves. " Dear Sir," they said, " do not your- self risk this great danger, but let us take your money and purchase these rare pearls for you. The season is now at hand." Ma asked them how they knew this. They said " Whenever we see red birds flying backwards and forwards over the sea, we know that within seven days the market will open." He asked when they were

4 Shewing that hypocrisy is bad policy in the long run.

5 The tears of Chinese mermaids are said to be pearls.

8 STRANGE STORIES

going to start, that he might accompany them ; but they begged him not to think of doing so. He replied " I am a sailor: how can I be afraid of wind and waves ?" Very soon after this people came with merchandise to forward, and so Ma packed up and went on board the vessel that was going.

This vessel held some tens of people, was flat-bottomed with a railing all round, and, rowed by ten men, it cut through the water like an arrow. After a voyage of three days they saw afar off faint outlines of towers and minarets, and crowds of trading vessels. They soon arrived at the city, the walls of which were made of bricks as long as a man's body, the tops of its buildings being lost in the Milky Way.6 Having made fast their boat they went in, and saw laid out in the market rare pearls and wondrous precious stones of dazzling beauty, such as are quite unknown amongst men. Then they saw a young man come forth riding upon a beautiful steed. The people of the market stood back to let him pass, saying he was the third son of the king ; but when the Prince saw Ma, he exclaimed "This is no foreigner," and immediately an attendant drew near and asked his name and country. Ma made a bow, and standing at one side told his name and family. The prince smiled, and said, " For you to have honoured our country thus is no small piece of good luck." He then gave him a horse and begged him to follow. They went out of the city gate and down to the sea-shore, whereupon their

6 See No. XIX., note I.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 9

horses plunged into the water. Ma was terribly frightened and screamed out; but the sea opened dry before them and formed a wall of water on either side. In a little time they reached the king's palace, the beams of which were made of tortoise-shell and the tiles of fishes' scales. The four walls were of crystal, and dazzled the eye like mirrors. They got down off their horses and went in, and Ma was introduced to the king. The young prince said, "Sire, I have been to the market, and have got a gentleman from China." Where- upon Ma made obeisance before the king, who ad- dressed him as follows : — " Sir, from a talented scholar like yourself I venture to ask for a few stanzas upon our sea-market. Pray do not refuse." Ma thereupon made a kofowi and undertook the king's command. Using an ink-slab of crystal, a brush of dragon's beard, paper as white as snow, and ink scented like the larkspur,7 Ma immediately threw off some thousand odd verses, which he laid at the feet of the king. When His Majesty saw them, he said, " Sir, your genius does honour to these marine nations of ours." Then, summoning the members of the royal family, the king gave a great feast in the Coloured Cloud pavilion; and, when the wine had circulated freely, seizing a great goblet in his hand, the king rose and said before all the guests, " It is a thousand pities, Sir, that you are not married. What say you to

7 Good ink of the kind miscalled " Indian," is usually very highly scented ; and from a habit the Chinese have of sucking their writing-brushes to a fine point, the phrase " to eat ink " has become a synonym of "to study,"

10 STRANGE STORIES

entering the bonds of wedlock?" Ma rose blushing, and stammered out his thanks; upon which the king looking round spoke a few words to the attendants, and in a few moments in came a bevy of court ladies sup- porting the king's daughter, whose ornaments went tinkle, tinkle, as she walked along. Immediately the nuptial drums and trumpets began to sound forth, and bride and bridegroom worshipped Heaven and Earth to- gether.8 Stealing a glance Ma saw that the princess was endowed with a fairy-like loveliness. When the cere- mony was over she retired, and by-and-by the wine-party broke up. Then came several beautifully-dressed waiting-maids, who with painted candles escorted Ma within. The bridal couch was made of coral adorned with eight kinds of precious stones, and the curtains were thickly hung with pearls as big as acorns. Next day at dawn a crowd of young slave-girls trooped into the room to offer their services ; whereupon Ma got up and went off to Court to pay his respects to the king. He was then duly received as royal son-in-law and made an officer of state. The fame of his poetical talents spread far and wide, and the kings of the various seas sent officers to congratulate him, vying with each other in their invitations to him. Ma dressed himself in gorgeous clothes, and went forth riding on a superb steed, with a mounted body-guard all splendidly armed. There were musicians on horseback and musicians in

8 This all -important point in a Chinese marriage ceremony is the equivalent of our own " signing in the vestry."

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. II

chariots, and in three days he had visited every one of the marine kingdoms, making his name known in all directions. In the palace there was a jade tree, about as big round as a man could clasp. Its roots were as clear as glass, and up the middle ran, as it were, a stick of pale yellow. The branches were the size of one's arm; the leaves like white jade, as thick as a copper cash. The foliage was dense, and beneath its shade the ladies of the palace were wont to sit and sing. The flowers which covered the tree resembled grapes, and if a single petal fell to the earth it made a ringing sound. Taking one up, it would be found to be exactly like carved cornelian, very bright and pretty to look at. From time to time a wonderful bird came and sang there. Its feathers were of a golden hue, and its tail as long as its body. Its notes were like the tinkling of jade, very plaintive and touching to listen to. When Ma heard this bird sing, it called up in him recollections of his old home, and accordingly he said to the princess, " I have now been away from my own country for three years, separated from my father and mother. Thinking of them my tears flow and the perspiration runs down my back. Can you return with me ? " His wife replied, "The way of immortals is not that of men. I am unable to do what you ask, but I cannot allow the feel- ings of husband and wife to break the tie of parent and child. Let us devise some plan." When Ma heard this he wept bitterly, and the princess sighed and said, " We cannot both stay or both go." The next day the king said to him " I hear that you are pining after your old

12 STRANGE STORIES

home. Will to-morrow suit you for taking leave ? " Ma thanked the king for his great kindness, which he de- clared he could never forget, and promised to return very shortly. That evening the princess and Ma talked over their wine of their approaching separation. Ma said they would soon meet again ; but his wife averred that their married life was at an end. Then he wept afresh, but the princess said, " Like a filial son you are going home to your parents. In the meetings and separations of this life, a hundred years seem but a single day; why, then, should we give way to tears like children ? I will be true to you ; do you be faithful to me ; and then, though separated, we shall be united in spirit, a happy pair. Is it necessary to live side by side in order to grow old together ? If you break our contract your next marriage will not be a propitious one ; but if loneliness9 overtakes you then choose a concubine. There is one point more of which I would speak, with reference to our married life. I am about to become a mother, and I pray you give me a name for your child." To this Ma replied, " If a girl I would have her called Lung Kung ; if a boy, then name him Fu-Hai. " 10 The princess asked for some token of remembrance, and Ma gave her a pair of jade lilies that he had got during his stay in the marine kingdom. She added " On the 8th of the 4th moon, three years hence, when you once

9 Literally, " if you have no one to cook your food."

10 "Dragon Palace" and "Happy Sea," respectively.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 13

more steer your course for this country, I will give you up your child." She next packed a leather bag full of jewels and handed it to Ma, saying, " Take care of this ; it will be a provision for many generations." When the day began to break a splendid farewell feast was given him by the king, and Ma bade them all adieu. The princess, in a car drawn by snow-white sheep, escorted him to the boundary of the marine kingdom, where he dismounted and stepped ashore. " Farewell ! " cried the princess, as her returning car bore her rapidly away, and the sea, closing over her, snatched her from her husband's sight. Ma returned to his home across the ocean. Some had thought him long since dead and gone ; all marvelled at his story. Happily his father and mother were yet alive, though his former wife had married another man ; and so he understood why the princess had pledged him to constancy, for she already knew that this had taken place. His father wished him to take another wife, but he would not. He only took a concubine. Then, after the three years had passed away, he started across the sea on his return journey, when lo ! he beheld, riding on the wave-crests and splashing about the water in playing, two young children. On going near, one of them seized hold of him and sprung into his arms ; upon which the elder cried until he, too, was taken up. They were a boy and girl, both very lovely, and wearing embroidered caps adorned with jade lilies. On the back of one of them was a worked case, in which Ma found the following letter : —

" I presume my father and mother-in-law are well.

14 STRANGE STORIES

Three years have passed away and destiny still keeps us apart. Across the great ocean, the letter-bird would find no path.11 I have been with you in my dreams until I am quite worn out. Does the blue sky look down upon any grief like mine ? Yet Ch'ang-ngo 12 lives solitary in the moon, and Chih Nil 13 laments that she cannot cross the Silver River. Who am I that I should expect hap- piness to be mine ? Truly this thought turns my tears into joy. Two months after your departure I had twins, who can already prattle away in the language of child- hood, at one moment snatching a date, at another a pear. Had they no mother they would still live. These I now send to you, with the jade lilies you gave me in their hats, in token of the sender. When you take them upon your knee, think that I am standing by your side. I know that you have kept your promise to me, and I am happy. I shall take no second husband, even unto death. All thoughts of dress and finery are gone from me ; my looking-glass sees no new fashions ; my face has long been unpowdered, my eyebrows unblacked. You are my Ulysses, I am your Penelope;14 though not actually leading a married life, how can it be said that

11 Alluding to an old legend of a letter conveyed by a bird.

12 See No. V., note 2.

13 The " Spinning Damsel," or name of a star in Lyra, connected with which there is a celebrated legend of its annual transit across the Milky Way.

4 These are of course only the equivalents of the Chinese names in the text.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 15

we are not husband and wife. Your father and mother will take their grandchildren upon their knees, though they have never set eyes upon the bride. Alas ! there is something wrong in this. Next year your mother will enter upon the long night. I shall be there by the side of the grave as is becoming in her daughter-in-law. From this time forth our daughter will be well ; later on she will be able to grasp her mother's hand. Our boy, when he grows up, may possibly be able to come to and fro. Adieu, dear husband, adieu, though I am leaving much unsaid." Ma read the letter over and over again, his tears flowing all the time. His two children clung round his neck, and begged him to take them home. "Ah, my children," said he, "where is your home?" Then they all wept bitterly, and Ma, looking at the great ocean stretching away to meet the sky, lovely and path- less, embraced his children, and proceeded sorrowfully to return. Knowing, too, that his mother could not last long, he prepared everything necessary for the ceremony of interment, and planted a hundred young pine-trees at her grave.15 The following year the old lady did die, and her coffin was borne to its last resting-place, when lo ! there was the princess standing by the side of the grave. The lookers-on were much alarmed, but in a moment there was a flash of lightning, followed by a clap of thunder and a squall of rain, and she was gone.

5 To keep off the much-dreaded wind, which disturbs the rest of the departed.

1 6 STRANGE STORIES

It was then noticed that many of the young pine-trees which had died were one and all brought to life. Sub- sequently, Fu Hai went in search of the mother for whom he pined so much, and after some days' absence returned. Lung Kung, being a girl, could not accom- pany him, but she mourned much in secret. One dark day her mother entered and bid her dry her eyes, saying, " My child, you must get married. Why these tears ? " She then gave her a tree of coral eight feet in height, some Baroos camphor,16 one hundred valuable pearls, and two boxes inlaid with gold and precious stones, as her dowry. Ma having found out she was there, rushed in and seizing her hand began to weep for joy, when suddenly a violent peal of thunder rent the building, and the princess had vanished.

16 For which a very high price is obtained in China.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 17

LXIV.

THE FIGHTING CRICKET.

DURING the reign of Hsiian Te,1 cricket righting was very much in vogue at court, levies of crickets being exacted from the people as a tax. On one occasion the magistrate of Hua-yin, wishing to make friends with the Governor, presented him with a cricket which, on being set to fight, displayed very remarkable powers ; so much so that the Governor commanded the magistrate to supply him regularly with these insects. The latter, in his turn, ordered the beadles of his district to provide him with crickets ; and then it became a practice for people who had nothing else to do to catch and rear them for this purpose. Thus the price of crickets rose very high \ and when the beadle's 2 runners came to

1 Of the Ming dynasty; reigned A.D. 1426 — 1436.

2 These beadles are chosen by the officials from among the respectable and substantial of the people to preside over a small area and be responsible for the general good behaviour of its inhabitants. The post is one of honour and occasional emolument, since all petitions presented to the authorities, all mortgages, transfers of land, &c., should bear the beadle's seal or signature in

VOL. II. C

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exact even a single one, it was enough to ruin several families.

Now in the village of which we are speaking there lived a man named Ch'eng, a student who had often failed for his bachelor's degree ; and, being a stupid sort of fellow, his name was sent in for the post of beadle. He did all he could to get out of it, but without success ; and by the end of the year his small patrimony was gone. Just then came a call for crickets, and Ch'eng, not daring to make a like call upon his neigh- bours, was at his wits' end, and in his distress determined to commit suicide. " What's the use of that ? " cried his wife. " You'd do better to go out and try to find some." So off went Ch'eng in the early morning, with a bamboo tube and a silk net, not returning till late at night ; and he searched about in tumble-down walls, in bushes, under stones, and in holes, but without catching more than two or three, do what he would. Even those he did catch were weak creatures, and of no use at all, which made the magistrate fix a limit of time, the result of which was that in a few days Ch'eng got one hundred blows with the bamboo. This made him so sore that he was quite unable to go after the crickets any more, and,

evidence of their bond fide character. On the other hand, the beadle is punished by fine, and sometimes bambooed, if robberies are too frequent within his jurisdiction, or if he fails to secure the person of any malefactor particularly wanted by his superior officers. And other causes may combine to make the post a dangerous one; but no one is allowed to refuse acceptance of it point-blank.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 19

as he lay tossing and turning on the bed, he determined once again to put an end to his life.

About that time a hump-backed fortune-teller of great skill arrived at the village, and Ch'eng's wife, putting to- gether a trifle of money, went off to seek his assistance. The door was literally blocked up — fair young girls and white-headed dames crowding in from all quarters. A room was darkened, and a bamboo screen hung at the door, an altar being arranged outside at which the fortune-seekers burnt incense in a brazier, and prostrated themselves twice, while the soothsayer stood by the side, and, looking up into vacancy, prayed for a response. His lips opened and shut, but nobody heard what he said, all standing there in awe waiting for the answer. In a few moments a piece of paper was thrown from behind the screen, and the soothsayer said that the petitioner's de- sire would be accomplished in the way he wished. Ch'eng's wife now advanced, and, placing some money on the altar, burnt her incense and prostrated herself in a similar manner. In a few moments the screen began to move, and a piece of paper was thrown down, on which there were no words, but only a picture. In the middle was a building like a temple, and behind this a small hill, at the foot which were a number of curious stones, with the long, spiky feelers of innumerable crickets appearing from behind. Hard by was a frog, which seemed to be engaged in putting itself into various kinds of attitudes. The good woman had no idea what it all meant ; but she noticed the crickets, and accord- ingly went off home to tell her husband. " Ah," said c 2

20 STRANGE STORIES

he, " this is to shew me where to hunt for crickets ; " and, on looking closely at the picture, he saw that the building very much resembled a temple to the east of their village. So he forced himself to get up, and, leaning on a stick, went out to seek crickets behind the temple. Rounding an old grave, he came upon a place where stones were lying scattered about as in the picture, and then he set himself to watch attentively. He might as well have been looking for a needle or a grain of mus- tard-seed ; and by degrees he became quite exhausted, without finding anything, when suddenly an old frog jumped out. Ch'eng was a little startled, but imme- diately pursued the frog, which retreated into the bushes. He then saw one of the insects he wanted sitting at the root of a bramble; but on making a grab at it, the cricket ran into a hole, from which he was unable to move it until he poured in some water, when out the little creature came. It was a magnificent specimen, strong and handsome, with a fine tail, green neck, and golden wings ; and, putting it in his basket, he returned home in high glee to receive the congratulations of his family. He would not have taken anything for this cricket, and proceeded to feed it up carefully in a bowl. Its belly was the colour of a crab's, its back that of a sweet chestnut; and Ch'eng tended it most lovingly, waiting for the time when the magistrate should call upon him for a cricket.

Meanwhile, a son of Ch'eng's, aged nine, one day took the opportunity of his father being out to open the bowl. Instantaneously the cricket made a spring for-

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 21

ward and was gone; and all efforts to catch it again were unavailing. At length the boy made a grab at it with his hand, but only succeeded in seizing one of its legs, which thereupon broke, and the little creature soon afterwards died. Ch'eng's wife turned deadly pale when her son, with tears in his eyes, told her what had hap- pened. " Oh ! won't you catch it when your father comes home," said she; at which the boy ran away, crying bitterly. Soon after Ch'eng arrived, and when he heard his wife's story he felt as if he had been turned to ice, and went in search of his son, who, however, was nowhere to be found, until at length they discovered his body lying at the bottom of a well. Their anger was thus turned to grief, and death seemed as though it would be a pleasant relief to them as they sat facing each other in silence in their thatched and smokeless3 hut. At evening they prepared to bury the boy ; but, on touching the body, lo ! he was still breathing. Over- joyed, they placed him upon the bed, and towards the middle of the night he came round; but a drop of bitterness was mingled in his parents' cup when they found that his reason had fled. His father, however, caught sight of the empty bowl in which he had kept the cricket, and ceased to think any more about his son, never once closing his eyes all night ; and as day gradually broke, there he lay stiff and stark, until suddenly he heard the chirping of a cricket outside

3 A favourite Chinese expression, signifying the absence of food.

22 STRANGE STORIES

the house door. Jumping up in a great hurry to see, there was his lost insect; but, on trying to catch it, away it hopped directly. At last he got it under his hand, though, when he came to close his fingers on it, there was nothing in them. So he went on, chasing it up and down, until finally it hopped into a corner of the wall; and then, looking carefully about, he espied it once more, no longer the same in appearance, but small, and of a dark red colour. Ch'eng stood looking at it, without trying to catch such a worthless specimen, when all of a sudden the little creature hopped into his sleeve ; and, on examining it more nearly, he saw that it really was a handsome insect, with well-formed head and neck, and forthwith took it indoors. He was now anxious to try its prowess ; and it so happened that a young fellow of the village, who had a fine cricket which used to win every bout it fought, and was so valuable to him that he wanted a high price for it, called on Ch'eng that very day. He laughed heartily at Ch'eng's champion, and, producing his own, placed it side by side, to the great disadvantage of the former. Ch'eng's countenance fell, and he no longer wished to back his cricket ; however, the young fellow urged him, and he thought that there was no use in rearing a feeble insect, and that he had better sacrifice it for a laugh ; so they put them together in a bowl. The little cricket lay quite still like a piece of wood, at which the young fellow roared again, and louder than ever when it did not move even though tickled with a pig's bristle. By dint of tickling it was roused at last, and then it fell upon its adversary with

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 23

such fury, that in a moment the young fellow's cricket would have been killed outright had not its master inter- fered and stopped the fight. The little cricket then stood up and chirped to Ch'eng as a sign of victory ; and Ch'eng, overjoyed, was just talking over the battle with the young fellow, when a cock caught sight of the insect, and ran up to eat it. Ch'eng was in a great state of alarm; but the cock luckily missed its aim, and the cricket hopped away, its enemy pursuing at full speed. In another moment it would have been snapped up, when, lo ! to his great astonishment, Ch'eng saw his cricket seated on the cock's head, holding firmly on to its comb. He then put it into a cage, and by-and-by sent it to the magistrate, who, seeing what a small one he had provided, was very angry indeed. Ch'eng told the story of the cock, which the magistrate refused to believe, and set it to fight with other crickets, all of which it vanquished without exception. He then tried it with a cock, and as all turned out as Ch'eng had said, he gave him a present, and sent the cricket in to the Governor. The Governor put it into a golden cage, and forwarded it to the palace, accompanied by some re- marks on its performances; and when there, it was found that of all the splendid collection of His Imperial Majesty, not one was worthy to be placed alongside of this one. It would dance in time to music, and thus became a great favourite, the Emperor in return bestow- ing magnificent gifts of horses and silks upon the Governor. The Governor did not forget whence he had obtained the cricket, and the magistrate also well re-

24 STRANGE STORIES

warded Ch'eng by excusing him from the duties of beadle, and by instructing the Literary Chancellor to pass him for the first degree. A few months afterwards Ch'eng's son recovered his intellect, and said that he had been a cricket, and had proved himself a very skilful fighter.4 The Governor, too, rewarded Ch'eng hand- somely, and in a few years he was a rich man, with flocks, and herds, and houses, and acres, quite one of the wealthiest of mankind.

4 That is to say, his spirit had entered, during his period of tem- porary insanity, into the cricket which had allowed itself to be caught by his father, and had animated it to fight with such extra- ordinary vigour in order to make good the loss occasioned by his carelessness in letting the other escape.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 25

LXV. TAKING REVENGE.

HSIANG KAO, otherwise called Ch'u-tan, was a T'ai-yiian man, and deeply attached to his half-brother Sheng. Sheng himself was desperately enamoured of a young lady named Po-ssu,1 who was also very fond of him : but the mother wanted too much money for her daughter. Now a rich young fellow named Chuang thought he should like to get Po-ssu for himself, and proposed to buy her as a concubine. "No, no," said Po-ssu to her mother, " I prefer being Sheng's wife to becoming Chuang's concubine." So her mother con- sented, and informed Sheng, who had only recently buried his first wife ; at which he was delighted and made preparations to take her over to his own house. When Chuang heard this he was infuriated against Sheng for thus depriving him of Po-ssu ; and chancing to meet him out one day, set to and abused him

1 This is the term used by the Chinese for " Persia," often put by metonymy for things which come from that country, sc. "valuables." Thus, "to be poor in Persia" is to have but few jewels, gold and silver ornaments, and even clothes.

26 STRANGE STORIES

roundly. Sheng answered him back, and then Chuang ordered his attendants to fall upon Sheng and beat him well, which they did, leaving him lifeless on the ground. When Hsiang heard what had taken place he ran out and found his brother lying dead upon the ground. Overcome with grief, he proceeded to the magistrate's, and accused Chuang of murder ; but the latter bribed so heavily that nothing came of the accusation. This worked Hsiang to frenzy, and he determined to assas- sinate Chuang on the high road ; with which intent he daily concealed himself, with a sharp knife about him, among the bushes on the hill-side, waiting for Chuang to pass. By degrees, this plan of his became known far and wide, and accordingly Chuang never went out except with a strong body-guard, besides which he engaged at a high price the services of a very skilful archer, named Chiao T'ung, so that Hsiang had no means of carrying out his intention. However, he con- tinued to lie in wait day after day, and on one occasion it began to rain heavily, and in a short time Hsiang was wet through to the skin. Then the wind got up, and a hailstorm followed, and by-and-by Hsiang was quite numbed with the cold. On the top of the hill there was a small temple wherein lived a Taoist priest, whom Hsiang knew from the latter having occasionally begged alms in the village, and to whom he had often given a meal. This priest, seeing how wet he was, gave him some other clothes, and told him to put them on ; but no sooner had he done so than he crouched down like a dog, and found that he had

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 27

been changed into a tiger, and that the priest had vanished. It now occurred to him to seize this opportunity of revenging himself upon his enemy ; and away he went to his old ambush, where lo and behold ! he found his own body lying stiff and stark. Fearing lest it should become food for birds of prey, he guarded it carefully, until at length one day Chuang passed by. Out rushed the tiger and sprung upon Chuang, biting his head off, and swallowing it upon the spot ; at which Chiao T'ung, the archer, turned round and shot the animal through the heart. Just at that moment Hsiang awaked as though from a dream, but it was some time before he could crawl home, where he ar- rived to the great delight of his family, who didn't know what had become of him. Hsiang said not a word, lying quietly on the bed until some of his people came in to congratulate him on the death of his great enemy Chuang. Hsiang then cried out, "I was that tiger," and proceeded to relate the whole story, which thus got about until it reached the ears of Chuang's son, who immediately set to work to bring his father's murderer to justice. The magistrate, however, did not consider this wild story as sufficient evidence against him, and thereupon dismissed the case.

28 STRANGE STORIES

LXVL THE TIPSY TURTLE.

AT Lin-t'iao there lived a Mr. Feng, whose other name the person who told me this story could not remember; he belonged to a good family, though now somewhat falling into decay. Now a certain man, who caught turtles, owed him some money which he could not pay, but whenever he captured any turtles he used to send one to Mr. Feng. One day he took him an enormous creature, with a white spot on its forehead; but Feng was so struck with something in its appear- ance, that he let it go again. A little while after- wards he was returning home from his son-in-law's, and had reached the banks of the river,1 when in the dusk of the evening he saw a drunken man come rolling along, attended by two or three servants. No

1 The name here used is the fffoig or "ceaseless" river, which is applied by the Chinese to the Ganges. A certain number, extend- ing to fifty-three places of figures, is called "Ganges sand," in allusion to a famous remark that "Buddha and the Bodhisatvas knew of the creation and destruction of every grain of dust in Jambudwipa (the universe); how much more the number of the sand-particles in the river Ganges ? "

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 29

sooner did he perceive Feng than he called out, "Who are you? " to which Feng replied that he was a tra- veller. " And haven't you got a name ? " shouted out the drunken man in a rage, " that you must call your- self a traveller ? " To this Feng made no reply, but tried to pass by ; whereupon he found himself seized by the sleeve and unable to move. His adversary smelt horribly of wine, and at length Feng asked him, saying, " And pray who are you ? " " Oh, I am the late magistrate at Nan-tu," answered he; "what do you want to know for ? " "A nice disgrace to society you are, too," cried Feng; "however, I am glad to hear you are only late magistrate, for if you had been present magistrate there would be bad times in store for travellers." This made the drunken man furious, and he was proceeding to use violence, when Feng cried out, " My name is So-and-so, and I'm not the man to stand this sort of thing from anybody." No sooner had he uttered these words than the drunken man's rage was turned into joy, and, falling on his knees before Feng, he said, " My benefactor ! pray excuse my rudeness." Then getting up, he told his servants to go on ahead and get something ready ; Feng at first declining to go with him, but yielding on being pressed. Taking his hand, the drunken man led him along a short distance until they reached a village, where there was a very nice house and grounds, quite like the establishment of a person of position. As his friend was now getting sober, Feng inquired what might be his name. " Don't be frightened when I teli

30 STRANGE STORIES

you," said the other ; " I am the Eighth Prince of the T'iao river. I have just been out to take wine with a friend, and somehow I got tipsy; hence my bad be- haviour to you, which please forgive." Feng now knew that he was not of mortal flesh and blood; but, seeing how kindly he himself was treated, he was not a bit afraid. A banquet followed, with plenty of wine, of which the Eighth Prince drank so freely that Feng thought he would soon be worse than ever, and accordingly said he felt tipsy himself, and asked to be allowed to go to bed. "Never fear," answered the Prince, who per- ceived Feng's thoughts; " many drunkards will tell you that they cannot remember in the morning the ex- travagances of the previous night, but I tell you this is all nonsense, and that in nine cases out of ten those extravagances are committed wittingly and with malice prepense.2 Now, though I am not the same order of being as yourself, I should never venture to behave badly in your good presence; so pray do not leave me thus." Feng then sat down again and said to the Prince, " Since you are aware of this, why not change your ways ? " " Ah," replied the Prince, " when I was a magistrate I drank much more than I do now; but I got into disgrace with the Emperor and was banished here, since which time, ten years and more, I

2 Drunkenness is not recognised in China as an extenuating circumstance; neither, indeed, is insanity, — a lunatic who takes another man's life being equally liable with ordinary persons to the forfeiture of his own.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 31

have tried to reform. Now, however, I am drawing near the wood,3 and being unable to move about much, the old vice has come upon me again ; I have found it impossible to stop myself, but perhaps what you say may do me some good." While they were thus talking, the sound of a distant bell broke upon their ears ; and the Prince, getting up and seizing Feng's hand, said, "We cannot remain together any longer; but I will give you something by which I may in part requite your kindness to me. It must not be kept for any great length of time; when you have attained your wishes, then I will receive it back again." Thereupon he spit out of his mouth a tiny man, no more than an inch high, and scratching Feng's arm with his nails until Feng felt as if the skin was gone, he quickly laid the little man upon the spot. When he let go, the latter had already sunk into the skin, and nothing was to be seen but a cicatrix well healed over. Feng now asked what it all meant, but the Prince only laughed, and said, " It's time for you to go," and forthwith escorted him to the door. The prince here bade him adieu, and when he looked round, Prince, village, and house had all dis- appeared together, leaving behind a great turtle which

3 A favourite Chinese figure expressive of old age. It dates back to the celebrated commentary by Tso Ch'iu Ming on Confucius' Spring and Autumn (See No. XLI., note 2): — " Hsi is twenty- three and I am twenty-five ; and marrying thus we shall approach the wood together;" the "wood" being, of course, that of the coffin.

32 STRANGE STORIES

waddled down into the water, and disappeared likewise. He could now easily account for the Prince's present to him ; and from this moment his sight became intensely keen. He could see precious stones lying in the bowels of the earth, and was able to look down as far as Hell itself; besides which he suddenly found that he knew the names of many things of which he had never heard before. From below his own bedroom he dug up many hundred ounces of pure silver, upon which he lived very comfortably ; and once when a house was for sale, he perceived that in it lay concealed a vast quantity of gold, so he immediately bought it, and so became im- mensely rich in all kinds of valuables. He secured a mirror, on the back of which was a phoenix, surrounded by water and clouds, and portraits of the celebrated wives of the Emperor Shun,4 so beautifully executed that each hair of the head and eyebrows could easily be counted. If any woman's face came upon the mirror, there it remained indelibly fixed and not to be rubbed out; but if the same woman looked into the mirror again, dressed in a different dress, or if some other woman chanced to look in, then the former face would gradually fade away.

Now the third princess in Prince Su's family was very beautiful ; and Feng, who had long heard of her fame, concealed himself on the K'ung-tung hill, when he knew the Princess was going there. He waited until she

4 See No. VIII., note 3.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 33

alighted from her chair, and then getting the mirror full upon her, he walked off home. Laying it on the table, he saw therein a lovely girl in the act of raising her handkerchief, and with a sweet smile playing over her face ; her lips seemed about to move, and a twinkle was discernible in her eyes.5 Delighted with this picture, he put the mirror very carefully away ; but in about a year his wife had let the story leak out, and the Prince, hear- ing of it, threw Feng into prison, and took possession of the mirror. Feng was to be beheaded ; however, he bribed one of the Prince's ladies to tell His Highness that if he would pardon him all the treasures of the earth might easily become his ; whereas, on the other hand, his death could not possibly be of any advantage to the Prince. The Prince now thought of confiscating all his goods and banishing him ; but the third princess observed, that as he had already seen her, were he to die ten times over it would not give her back her lost face, and that she had much better marry him. The Prince would not hear of this, whereupon his daughter shut herself up and refused all nourishment, at which the ladies of the palace were dreadfully alarmed, and reported it at once to the Prince. Feng was accordingly liberated, and was informed of the determination of the Princess, which, however, he declined to fall in with,

5 " Move these eyes ?

Here are severed lips."

— Merchant of Venice, Act. iii., sc. 2.

VOL. II. D

34

STRANGE STORIES

saying that he was not going thus to sacrifice the wife of his days of poverty,6 and would rather die than carry out such an order. He added that if His High- ness would consent, he would purchase his liberty at the price of everything he had. The Prince was exceedingly angry at this, and seized Feng again ; and meanwhile one of the concubines got Feng's wife into the palace, intending to poison her. Feng's wife, however, brought her a beautiful present of a coral stand for a looking-glass, and was so agreeable in her conversation, that the concu- bine took a great fancy to her, and presented her to the Princess, who was equally pleased, and forthwith deter- mined that they would both be Feng's wives.7 When Feng heard of this plan, he said to his wife, " With a Prince's daughter there can be no distinctions of first and second wife ;" but Mrs. Feng paid no heed to him, and immediately sent off to the Prince such an enor- mous quantity of valuables that it took a thousand men to carry them, and the Prince himself had never before heard of such treasures in his life. Feng was now liberated once more, and solemnized his marriage with the Princess.

One night after this he dreamt that the Eighth Prince came to him and asked him to return his former present, saying that to keep it too long would

6 See No. LIIL, note I.

7 This method of arranging a matrimonial difficulty is a common one in Chinese fiction, but I should say quite unknown in real life.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 35

be injurious to his chances of life. Feng asked him to take a drink, but the Eighth Prince said that he had forsworn wine, acting under Feng's advice, for three years. He then bit Feng's arm, and the latter waked up with the pain to find that the cicatrix on his arm was no longer there.

D 2

STRANGE STORIES

LXVII. THE MAGIC PATH.

IN the province of Kuangtung there lived a scholar named Kuo, who was one evening on his way home from a friend's, when he lost his way among the hills. He got into a thick jungle, where, after about an hour's wan- dering, he suddenly heard the sound of laughing and talking on the top of the hill. Hurrying up in the direction of the sound, he beheld some ten or a dozen persons sitting on the ground engaged in drinking. No sooner had they caught sight of Kuo than they all cried out, " Come along ! just room for one more ; you're in the nick of time." So Kuo sat down with the company, most of whom, he noticed, belonged to the literati,1 and began by asking them to direct him on his way home ;

1 This term, while really including all literary men, of no matter what rank or standing, is more usually confined to that large section of unemployed scholarship made up of ( I ) those who are waiting to get started in an official career, (2) those who have taken one or more degrees and are preparing for the next, (3) those who have failed to distinguish themselves at the public examinations, and eke out a small patrimony by taking pupils, and (4) scholars of suffi- ciently high qualifications who have no taste for official life.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 37

but one of them cried out, " A nice sort of fellow you are, to be bothering about your way home, and paying no attention to the fine moon we have got to-night." The speaker then presented him with a goblet of wine of exquisite bouquet, which Kuo drank off at a draught, and another gentleman filled up again for him at once. Now, Kuo was pretty good in that line, and being very thirsty withal from his long walk, tossed off bumper after bumper, to the great delight of his hosts, who were unanimous in voting him a jolly good fellow. He was, moreover, full of fun, and could imitate exactly the note of any kind of bird ; so all of a sudden he began on the sly to twitter like a swallow, to the great astonishment of the others, who wondered how it was a swallow could be out so late. He then changed his note to that of a cuckoo, sitting there laughing and saying nothing, while his hosts were discussing the extraordinary sounds they had just heard. After a while he imitated a parrot, and cried, " Mr. Kuo is very drunk : you'd better see him home ; " and then the sounds ceased, beginning again by-and-by, when at last the others found out who it was, and all burst out laughing. They screwed up their mouths and tried to whistle like Kuo, but none of them could do so ; and soon one of them observed, " What a pity Madam Ch'ing isn't with us : we must rendezvous here again at mid-autumn, and you, Mr. Kuo, must be sure and come." Kuo said he would, whereupon another of his hosts got up and remarked that, as he had given them such an amusing entertainment, they would try to shew him a few acrobatic feats. They all arose, and one of

38 STRANGE STORIES

them planting his feet firmly, a second jumped up on to his shoulders, a third on to the second's shoulders, and a fourth on to his, until it was too high for the rest to jump up, and accordingly they began to climb as though it had been a ladder. When they were all up, and the topmost head seemed to touch the clouds, the whole column bent gradually down until it lay along the ground transformed into a path. Kuo remained for some time in a state of considerable alarm, and then, setting out along this path, ultimately reached his own home. Some days afterwards he revisited the spot, and saw the remains of a feast lying about on the ground, with dense bushes on all sides, but no sign of a path. At mid-autumn he thought of keeping his engagement ; however, his friends persuaded him not to go.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 39

LXVIII.

THE FAITHLESS WIDOW.1

MR. Niu was a Kiangsi man who traded in piece goods. He married a wife from the Cheng family, by whom he had two children, a boy and a girl. When thirty-three years of age he fell ill and died, his son Chung being then only twelve and his little girl eight or nine. His wife did not remain faithful to his memory, but, selling off all the property, pocketed the proceeds and married another man, leaving her two children almost in a state of destitution with their aunt, Niu's sister-in-law, an old lady of sixty, who had lived with them previously, and had now nowhere to seek a shelter.

1 Unless under exceptional circumstances it is not considered creditable in China for widows to marry again. It may here be mentioned that the honorary tablets conferred from time to time by His Imperial Majesty upon virtuous widows are only given to women who, widowed before the age of thirty, have remained in that state for a period of thirty years. The meaning of this is obvious : temptations are supposed to be fewer and less dangerous after thirty, which is the equivalent of forty with us; and it is wholly improbable that thirty years of virtuous life, at which period the widow would be at least fifty, would be followed by any act that might cast a stain upon the tablet thus bestowed.

40 STRANGE STORIES

A few years later this aunt died, and the family fortunes began to sink even lower than before ; Chung, however, was now grown up, and determined to carry on his father's trade, only he had no capital to start with. His sister marrying a rich trader- named Mao, she begged her husband to lend Chung ten ounces of silver, which he did, and Chung immediately started for Nanking. On the road he fell in with some bandits, who robbed him of all he had, and consequently he was unable to return; but one day when he was at a pawnshop he noticed that the master of the shop was wonderfully like his late father, and on going out and making inquiries he found that this pawnbroker bore precisely the same names. In great astonishment, he forthwith proceeded to frequent the place with no other object than to watch this man, who, on the other hand, took no notice of Chung ; and by the end of three days, having satisfied himself that he really saw his own father, and yet not daring to disclose his own identity, he made application through one of the assistants, on the score of being himself a Kiangsi man, to be employed in the shop. Accordingly, an indenture was drawn up ; and when the master noticed Chung's name and place of residence he started, and asked him whence he came. With tears in his eyes Chung addressed him by his father's name, and then the pawnbroker became lost in a deep reverie, by-and-by asking Chung how his mother was. Now Chung did not like to allude to his father's death, and turned the question by saying, " My father went away on business six years ago, and never came back; my

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 41

mother married again and left us, and had it not been for my aunt our corpses would long ago have been cast out in the kennel." Then the pawnbroker was much moved, and cried out, " I am your father ! " seizing his son's hand and leading him within to see his step-mother. This lady was about twenty-two, and, having no children of her own, was delighted with Chung, and prepared a banquet for him in the inner apartments. Mr. Niu him- self was, however, somewhat melancholy, and wished to return to his old home ; but his wife, fearing that there would be no one to manage the business, persuaded him to remain ; so he taught his son the trade, and in three months was able to leave it all to him. He then pre- pared for his journey, whereupon Chung informed his step-mother that his father was really dead, to which she replied in great consternation that she knew him only as a trader to the place, and that six years previously he had married her, which proved conclusively that he couldn't be dead. He then recounted the whole story, which was a perfect mystery to both of them ; and twenty-four hours afterwards in walked his father, leading a woman whose hair was all dishevelled. Chung looked at her and saw that she was his own mother ; and Niu took her by the ear and began to revile her, saying, "Why did you desert my children?" to which the wretched woman made no reply. He then bit her across the neck, at which she screamed to Chung for assistance, and he, not being able to bear the sight, stepped in between them. His father was more than ever enraged at this, when, lo I Chung's mother had dis-

42 STRANGE STORIES

appeared. While they were still lost in astonishment at this strange scene, Mr. Niu's colour changed ; in another moment his empty clothes had dropped upon the ground, and he himself became a black vapour and also vanished from their sight. The step-mother and son were much overcome; they took Niu's clothes and buried them, and after that Chung continued his father's business and soon amassed great wealth. On returning to his native place he found that his mother had actually died on the very day of the above occurrence, and that his father had been seen by the whole family.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 43

LXIX.

THE PRINCESS OF THE TUNG-PING LAKE.

CH'EN PI-CHIAO was a Pekingese; and being a poor man he attached himself as secretary to the suite of a high military official named Chia. On one occasion, while anchored on the Tung-t'ing lake, they saw a dolphin1 floating on the surface of the water; and General Chia took his bow and shot at it, wounding the creature in the back. A fish was hanging on to its tail, and would not let go; so both were pulled out of the water together, and attached to the mast. There

literally, a "pig old-woman dragon." Porpoise (Fr. pore- poissori) suggests itself at once ; but I think fresh-water dolphin is the best term, especially as the Tung-t'ing lake is many hundred miles inland. The commentator explains it by t'0, which would be "alligator" or "cayman," and is of course out of the question. My friend, Mr. L. C. Hopkins, has taken the trouble to make some investigations for me on this subject. He tells me that this fish, also called the "river pig," has first to be surrounded and secured by a strong net. Being too large to be hauled on board a boat, it is then driven ashore, where oil is extracted from the carcase and used for giving a gloss to silk thread, &c.

44 STRANGE STORIES

they lay gasping, the dolphin opening its mouth as if pleading for life, until at length young Ch'en begged the General to let them go again; and then he himself half jokingly put a piece of plaster upon the dolphin's wound, and had the two thrown back into the water, where they were seen for some time afterwards diving and rising again to the surface. About a year afterwards, Ch'en was once more crossing the Tung-t'ing lake on his way home, when the boat was upset in a squall, and he him- self only saved by clinging to a bamboo crate, which finally, after floating about all night, caught in the over- hanging branch of a tree, and thus enabled him to scramble on shore. By-and-by, another body floated in, and this turned out to be his servant; but on dragging him out, he found life was already extinct. In great distress, he sat himself down to rest, and saw beautiful green hills and waving willows, but not a single human being of whom he could ask the way. From early dawn till the morning was far advanced he remained in that state; and then, thinking he saw his servant's body move, he stretched out his hand to feel it, and before long the man threw up several quarts of water and recovered his consciousness. They now dried their clothes in the sun, and by noon these were fit to put on; at which period the pangs of hunger began to assail them, and accordingly they started over the hills in the hope of coming upon some habitation of man. As they were walking along, an arrow whizzed past, and the next moment two young ladies dashed by on handsome palfreys. Each had a scarlet band round her head,

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 45

with a bunch of pheasant's feathers stuck in her hair, and wore a purple riding-jacket with small sleeves, confined by a green embroidered girdle round the waist. One of them carried a cross-bow for shooting bullets, and the other had on her arm a dark-coloured bow-and- arrow case. Reaching the brow of the hill, Ch'en beheld a number of riders engaged in beating the surrounding cover, all of whom were beautiful girls and dressed exactly alike. Afraid to advance any further, he inquired of a youth who appeared to be in attendance, and the latter told him that it was a hunting party from the palace; and then, having supplied him with food from his wallet, he bade him retire quickly, adding that if he fell in with them he would assuredly be put to death. Thereupon Ch'en hurried away; and descending the hill, turned into a copse where there was a building which he thought would in all probability be a monastery. On getting nearer, he saw that the place was surrounded by a wall, and between him and a half- open red-door was a brook spanned by a stone bridge leading up to it. Pulling back the door, he beheld within a number of ornamental buildings circling in the air like so many clouds, and for all the world resembling the Imperial pleasure-grounds; and thinking it must be the park of some official personage, he walked quietly in, enjoying the delicious fragrance of the flowers as he pushed aside the thick vegetation which obstructed his way. After traversing a winding path fenced in by balustrades, Ch'en reached a second enclosure, wherein were a quantity of tall willow-trees which swept the red

46 STRANGE STORIES

eaves of the buildings with their branches. The note of some bird would set the petals of the flowers fluttering in the air, and the least wind would bring the seed- vessels down from the elm-trees above; and the effect upon the eye and heart of the beholder was something quite unknown in the world of mortals. Passing through a small kiosque, Ch'en and his servant came upon a swing which seemed as though suspended from the clouds, while the ropes hung idly down in the utter stillness that prevailed.2 Thinking by this that they were approaching the ladies' apartments,3 Ch'en would have turned back, but at that moment he heard sounds of horses' feet at the door, and what seemed to be the laughter of a bevy of girls. So he and his servant hid themselves in a bush ; and by-and-by, as the sounds came nearer, he heard one of the young ladies say, " We've had but poor sport to-day; " whereupon another cried out, " If the princess hadn't shot that wild goose, we should have taken all this trouble for nothing." Shortly after this, a number of girls dressed in red came in escorting a young lady, who went and sat down

2 Literally, in the utter absence of anybody.

3 In passing near to the women's quarters in a friend's house, it is etiquette to cough slightly, that inmates may be warned and withdraw from the doors or windows in time to escape observation. Over and over again at interviews with mandarins of all grades I have heard the rustling of the ladies' dresses from some coigne of vantage, whence every movement of mine was being watched by an inquisitive crowd; and on one occasion I actually saw an eye peering through a small hole in the partition behind me.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 47

under the kiosque. She wore a hunting costume with tight4 sleeves, and was about fourteen or fifteen years old. Her hair looked like a cloud of mist at the back of her head, and her waist seemed as though a breath of wind might snap it5 — incomparable for beauty, even among the celebrities of old. Just then the attendants handed her some exquisitely fragrant tea, and stood glittering round her like a bank of beautiful embroid- ery. In a few moments the young lady arose and descended the kiosque ; at which one of her attendants (cried out, "Is your Highness too fatigued by riding to take a turn in the swing?" The princess replied that she was not; and immediately some supported her under the shoulders, while others seized her arms, and others again arranged her petticoats, and brought her the proper shoes.6 Thus they helped her into the swing, she herself stretching out her shining arms, and putting her feet into a suitable pair of slippers ; and then — away she went, light as a flying-swallow, far up into the fleecy clouds. As soon as she had had enough, the attendants helped her out, and one of them ex-

4 Literally, "bald" — i.e., without the usual width and orna- mentation of a Chinese lady's sleeve.

5 Small waists are much admired in China, but any such artificial aids as stays and tight lacing are quite unknown. A certain Prince Wei admitted none but the possessors of small waists into his harem; hence his establishment came to be called the Palace of Small Waists.

6 Probably of felt or some such material, to prevent the young lady from slipping as she stood, not sat, in the swing.

48 STRANGE STORIES

claimed, "Truly, your Highness is a perfect angel!" At this the young lady laughed, and walked away, Ch'en gazing after her in a state of semi-consciousness, until, at length, the voices died away, and he and his servant crept forth. Walking up and down near the swing, he suddenly espied a red handkerchief near the paling, which he knew had been dropped by one of the young ladies ; and, thrusting it joyfully into his sleeve, he walked up and entered the kiosque. There, upon a table, lay writing materials, and taking out the handkerchief he indited upon it the following lines : —

"What form divine was just now sporting nigh? — 'Twas she, I trow of ' golden lily ' fame ; Her charms the moon's fair denizens might shame, Her fairy footsteps bear her to the sky."

Humming this stanza to himself, Ch'en walked along seeking for the path by which he had entered ; but every door was securely barred, and he knew not what to do. So he went back to the kiosque, when suddenly one of the young ladies appeared, and asked him in astonishment what he did there. " I have lost my way," replied Ch'en ; " I pray you lend me your assistance." " Do you happen to have found a red handkerchief? " said the girl. " I have, indeed," answered Ch'en, "but I fear I have made it somewhat dirty ; " and, suiting the action to the word, he drew it forth, and handed it to her. "Wretched man ! " cried the young lady, " you are undone. This is a handkerchief the princess is constantly using, and you have gone and scribbled all over it ; what will become of

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 49

you now ? " Ch'en was in a great fright, and begged the young lady to intercede for him ; to which she replied, " It was bad enough that you should come here and spy about; however, being a scholar, and a man of refinement, I would have done my best for you; but after this, how am I to help you ? " Off she then ran with the handkerchief, while Ch'en remained behind in an agony of suspense, and longing for the wings of a bird to bear him away from his fate. By-and-by, the young lady returned and congratulated him, saying, " There is some hope for you. The Princess read your verses several times over, and was not at all angry. You will probably be released; but, meanwhile, wait here, and don't climb the trees, or try to get through the walls, or you may not escape after all." Evening was now drawing on, and Ch'en knew not, for certain, what was about to happen ; at the same time he was very empty, and, what with hunger and anxiety, death would have been almost a happy release. Before long, the young lady returned with a lamp in her hand, and followed by a slave-girl bearing wine and food, which she forthwith presented to Ch'en. The latter asked if there was any news about himself; to which the young lady replied that she had just mentioned his case to the Princess who, not knowing what to do with him at that hour of the night, had given orders that he should at once be provided with food, "which, at any rate," added she, "is not bad news." The whole night long Ch'en walked up and down unable to take rest ; and it was not till late in the morning that the young

VOL. II. E

50 STRANGE STORIES

lady appeared with more food for him. Imploring her once more to intercede on his behalf, she told him that the Princess had not instructed them either to kill or to release him, and that it would not be fitting for such as herself to be bothering the Princess with suggestions. So there Ch'en still remained until another day had almost gone, hoping for the welcome moment ; and then the young lady rushed hurriedly in, saying, "You are lost ! Some one has told the Queen, and she, in a fit of anger, threw the handkerchief on the ground, and made use of very violent language. Oh dear ! oh dear ! I'm sure something dreadful will happen." Ch'en threw himself on his knees, his face as pale as ashes, and begged to know what he should do } but at that moment sounds were heard outside, and the young lady waved her hand to him, and ran away. Immediately a crowd came pouring in through the door, with ropes ready to secure the object of their search ; and among them was a slave-girl, who looked fixedly at our hero, and cried out, " Why, surely you are Mr. Ch'en, aren't you ? " at the same time stopping the others from binding him until she should have reported to the Queen. In a few minutes she came back, and said the Queen requested him to walk in ; and in he went, through a number of doors, trembling all the time with fear, until he reached a hall, the screen before which was ornamented with green jade and silver. A beautiful girl drew aside the bamboo curtain at the door, and announced, " Mr. Ch'en ; " and he himself advanced, and fell down before a lady, who was sitting upon a dais at the other end,

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 51

knocking his head upon the ground, and crying out, " Thy servant is from a far-off country ; spare, oh ! spare his life." " Sir ! " replied the Queen, rising hastily from her seat, and extending a hand to Ch'en, " but for you, I should not be here to-day. Pray excuse the rudeness of my maids." Thereupon a splendid repast was served, and wine was poured out in chased goblets, to the no small astonishment of Ch'en, who could not understand why he was treated thus. " Your kindness," observed the Queen, "in restoring me to life, I am quite unable to repay; however, as you have made my daughter the subject of your verse, the match is clearly ordained by fate, and I shall send her along to be your handmaid." Ch'en hardly knew what to make of this extraordinary accomplishment of his wishes, but the marriage was solemnized there and then ; bands of music struck up wedding-airs, beautiful mats were laid down for them to walk upon, and the whole place was brilliantly lighted with a profusion of coloured lamps. Then Ch'en said to the Princess, "That a stray and unknown traveller like myself, guilty of spoiling your Highness's handkerchief, should have escaped the fate he deserved, was already more than could be expected; but now to receive you in marriage — this, indeed, far surpasses my wildest expectations." " My mother," replied the Princess, " is married to the King of this lake, and is herself a daughter of the River Prince. Last year, when on her way to visit her parents, she happened to cross the lake, and was wounded by an arrow ; but you saved her life, and gave her plaster for E 2

52

STRANGE STORIES

the wound. Our family, therefore, is grateful to you, and can never forget your good act. And do not regard me as of another species than yourself; the Dragon King has bestowed upon me the elixir of immortality, and this I will gladly share with you." Then Ch'en knew that his wife was a spirit, and by-and-by he asked her how the slave-girl had recognised him ; to which she replied, that the girl was the small fish which had been found hanging to the dolphin's tail. He then inquired why, as they didn't intend to kill him, he had been kept so long a prisoner. "I was charmed with your literary talent," answered the Princess, " but I did not venture to take the responsibility upon myself; and no one saw how I tossed and turned the livelong night." "Dear friend," said Ch'en ; " but, come, tell me who was it that brought my food." "A trusty waiting-maid of mine," replied the Princess; "her name is A-nien." Ch'en then asked how he could ever repay her, and the Princess told him there would be plenty of time to think of that ; and when he inquired where the king, her father, was, she said he had gone off with the God of War to fight against Ch'ih-yu,7 and had not returned. A few days passed, and Ch'en began to think his people at home would be anxious about him ; so he sent off his servant with a letter to tell them he was safe and

7 A rebel chieftain of the legendary period of China's history, who took up arms against the Emperor Huang Ti (B.C. 2697- 2597), but was subsequently defeated in what was perhaps the first decisive battle of the world.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 53

sound, at which they were all overjoyed, believing him to have been lost in the wreck of the boat, of which event news had already reached them. However, they were unable to send him any reply, and were considerably distressed as to how he would find his way home again. Six months afterwards Ch'en himself appeared, dressed in fine clothes, and riding on a splendid horse, with plenty of money, and valuable jewels in his pocket — evidently a man of wealth. From that time forth he kept up a magnificent establishment ; and in seven or eight years had become the father of five children. Every day he kept open house, and if any one asked him about his adventures, he would readily tell them without reservation. Now a friend of his, named Liang, whom he had known since they were boys together, and who, after holding an appointment for some years in Nan-fu, was crossing the Tung-t'ing Lake, on his way home, suddenly beheld an ornamental barge, with carved wood-work and red windows, passing over the foamy waves to the sound of music and singing from within. Just then a beautiful young lady leant out of one of the windows, which she had pushed open, and by her side Liang saw a young man sitting, in a neglige attitude, while two nice-looking girls stood by and shampooed 8

8 This favourite process consists in gently thumping the person operated upon all over the back with the soft part of the closed fists. Compare Lane, Arabian Nights, Vol. I., p. 551 : — " She then pressed me to her bosom, and laid me on the bed, and continued gently kneading my limbs until slumber overcame me."

54 STRANGE STORIES

him. Liang, at first, thought it must be the party of some high official, and wondered at the scarcity of attendants;9 but, on looking more closely at the young man, he saw it was no other than his old friend Ch'e: Thereupon he began almost involuntarily to shout o to him; and when Ch'en heard his own name, h stopped the rowers, and walked out towards the figur head,10 beckoning Liang to cross over into his b where the remains of their feast was quickly cle away, and fresh supplies of wine, and tea, and all kin of costly foods spread out by handsome slave-girls. " It's ten years since we met," said Liang, " and what a rich man you have become in the meantime." "Well," replied Ch'en, " do you think that so very extraordinary for a poor fellow like me?" Liang then asked him who was the lady with whom he was taking wine, and Ch'en said she was his wife, which very much astonished Liang, who further inquired whither they were going. " West- wards," answered Ch'en, and prevented any further ques- tions by giving a signal for the music, which effectually put a stop to all further conversation.11 By-and-by, Liang found the wine getting into his head, and seized

9 See No. LVI, note 5. A considerable number of the attend- ants there mentioned would accompany any high official, some in the same, the rest in another barge.

10 Generally known as the "cut- wave God."

11 At all great banquets in China a theatrical troupe is engaged to perform while the dinner, which may last from four to six hours, drags its slow length along.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 55

the opportunity to ask Ch'en to make him a present of one of his beautiful slave-girls. " You are drunk,12 my friend," replied Ch'en ; " however, I will give you the price of one as a pledge of our old friendship." And, turning to a servant, he bade him present Liang with a splendid pearl, saying, "Now you can buy a Green Pearl ; 13 you see I am not stingy ; " adding forthwith, "but I am pressed for time, and can stay no longer with my old friend." So he escorted Liang back to his boat, and, having let go the rope, proceeded on his way. Now, when Liang reached home, and called at Ch'en's house, whom should he see but Ch'en himself drinking with a party of friends. " Why, I saw you only yesterday," crien Liang, " upon the Tung-t'ing. How quickly you have got back ! " Ch'en denied this, and then Liang repeated the whole story, at the conclusion of which, Ch'en laughed, and said, "You must be mistaken. Do you imagine I can be in two places at once?" The company were all much astonished, and knew not what to make of it ; and subsequently when Ch'en, who died at the age of eighty, was being carried to his grave, the bearers thought the coffin seemed remarkably light, and on opening it to see, found that the body had disappeared.

12 See No. LI V., note i.

13 The name of a celebrated beauty.

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LXX. THE PRINCESS LILY.

AT Chiao-chou there lived a man named Tou Hsiin, otherwise known as Hsiao-hui. One day he had just dropped off to sleep when he beheld a man in serge clothes standing by the bedside, and apparently anxious to communicate something to him. Tou inquired his errand ; to which the man replied that he was the bearer of an invitation from his master. "And who is your master?" asked Tou. "Oh, he doesn't live far off," replied the other ; so away they went together, and after some time came to a place where there were innumer- able white houses rising one above the other, and shaded by dense groves of lemon-trees. They threaded their way past countless doors, not at all similar to those usually used, and saw a great many official-looking men and women passing and repassing, each of whom called out to the man in serge, " Has Mr. Tou come ? " to which he always replied in the affirmative. Here a mandarin met them and escorted Tou into a palace, upon which the latter remarked, "This is really very kind of you ; but I haven't the honour of knowing you, and I feel somewhat diffident about going in." "Our Prince," answered his guide, " has long heard of you as

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 57

a man of good family and excellent principles, and is very anxious to make your acquaintance," " Who is your Prince ? " inquired Tou. " You'll see for yourself in a moment," said the other ; and just then out came two girls with banners, and guided Tou through a great number of doors until they came to a throne, upon which sat the Prince. His Highness immediately de- scended to meet him, and made him take the seat of honour ; after which ceremony exquisite viands of all kinds were spread out before them. Looking up, Tou noticed a scroll, on which was inscribed, The Cassia t Court, and he was just beginning to feel puzzled as to what he should say next, when the Prince addressed him as follows : — " The honour of having you for a neigh- bour is, as it were, a bond of affinity between us. Let us, then, give ourselves up to enjoyment, and put away suspicion and fear." Tou murmured his acquiescence ; and when the wine had gone round several times there arose from a distance the sound of pipes and singing, unaccompanied, however, by the usual drum, and very much subdued in volume. Thereupon the Prince looked about him and cried out, "We are about to set a verse for any of you gentlemen to cap ; here you are: — '•Genius seeks the Cassia Court.'" While the courtiers were all engaged in thinking of some fit antithesis,1 Tou added, "Refinement loves the Lily flower ; "

1 In this favourite pastime of the literati in China the important point is that each word in the second line should be a due and proper antithesis of the word in the first line to which it corre- sponds.

58 STRANGE STORIES

upon which the Prince exclaimed, " How strange ! Lily is my daughter's name ; and, after such a coincidence, she must come in for you to see her." In a few mo- ments the tinkling of her ornaments and a delicious fragrance of musk announced the arrival of the Princess, who was between sixteen and seventeen and endowed with surpassing beauty. The Prince bade her make an obeisance to Tou, at the same time introducing her as his daughter Lily; and as soon as the ceremony was over the young lady moved away. Tou remained in a state of stupefaction, and, when the Prince proposed that they should pledge each other in another bumper, paid not the slightest attention to what he said. Then the Prince, perceiving what had distracted his guest's attention, remarked that he was anxious to find a con- sort for his daughter, but that unfortunately there was the difficulty of species, and he didn't know what to do ; but again Tou took no notice of what the Prince was saying, until at length one of the bystanders plucked his sleeve, and asked him if he hadn't seen that the Prince wished to drink with him, and had just been addressing some remarks to him. Thereupon Tou started, and, re- covering himself at once, rose from the table and apologized to the Prince for his rudeness, declaring that he had taken so much wine he didn't know what he was doing. "Besides," said he, "your Highness has doubtless business to transact ; I will therefore take my leave." "I am extremely pleased to have seen you," replied the Prince, " and only regret that you are in such a hurry to be gone. However, I won't detain you now ;

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 59

but, if you don't forget all about us, I shall be very glad to invite you here again." He then gave orders that Tou should be escorted home; and on the way one of the courtiers asked the latter why he had said nothing when the Prince had spoken of a consort for his daughter, as his Highness had evidently made the remark with an eye to securing Tou as his son-in-law. The latter was now sorry that he had missed his opportunity; mean- while they reached his house, and he himself awoke. The sun had already set, and there he sat in the gloom thinking of what had happened. In the evening he put out his candle, hoping to continue his dream ; but, alas ! the thread was broken, and all he could do was to pour forth his repentance in sighs. One night he was sleep- ing at a friend's house when suddenly an officer of the court walked in and summoned him to appear before the Prince ; so up he jumped, and hurried off at once to the palace, where he prostrated himself before the throne. The Prince raised him and made him sit down, saying that since they had last met he had become aware that Tou would be willing to marry his daughter, and hoped that he might be allowed to offer her as a handmaid. Tou rose and thanked the Prince, who thereupon gave orders for a banquet to be prepared ; and when they had finished their wine it was announced that the Princess had completed her toilet. Immediately a bevy of young ladies came in with the Princess in their midst, a red veil covering her head, and her tiny footsteps sounding like rippling water as they led her up to be introduced to Tou. When the ceremonies were concluded, Tou said

60 STRANGE STORIES

to the Princess, " In your presence, Madam, it would easy to forget even death itself; but, tell me, is not tl all a dream ? " " And how can it be a dream," ask( the Princess, " when you and I are here together ? "

Next morning Tou amused himself by helping the Princess to paint her face,2 and then, seizing a girdle, began to measure the size of her waist3 and the length of her fingers and feet. " Are you crazy ? " cried she, laughing ; to which Tou replied, " I have been deceived so often by dreams, that I am now making a careful record. If such it turns out to be, I shall still have something as a souvenir of you." While they were thus chatting a maid rushed into the room, shrieking out, " Alas, alas ! a great monster has got into the palace : the Prince has fled into a side chamber : destruction is surely come upon us." Tou was in a great fright when he heard this, and rushed off to see the Prince, who grasped his hand and, with tears in his eyes, begged him not to desert them. " Our relationship," cried he, " was cemented when Heaven sent this calamity upon us ; and now my kingdom will be overthrown. What shall I- do ? " Tou begged to know what was the matter ; and then the Prince laid a despatch upon the table, telling Tou to open it and make himself acquainted with its contents. This despatch ran as follows : — " The Grand Secretary of State, Black Wings, to His Royal Highness,

2 See No. LXII., note I.

3 See No. LXIX., note 5.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 6l

announcing the arrival of an extraordinary monster, and advising the immediate removal of the Court in order to preserve the vitality of the empire. A report has just been received from the officer in charge of the Yellow Gate stating that, ever since the 6th of the 5th moon, a huge monster, 10,000 feet in length, has been lying coiled up outside the entrance to the palace, and that it has already devoured 13,800 and odd of your Highness's subjects, and is spreading desolation far and wide. On receipt of this information your servant proceeded to make a reconnaissance, and there beheld a venomous reptile with a head as big as a mountain and eyes like vast sheets of water. Every time it raised its head, whole buildings disappeared down its throat ; and, on stretching itself out, walls and houses were alike laid in ruins. In all antiquity there is no record of such a scourge. The fate of our temples and ancestral halls is now a mere question of hours ; we therefore pray your Royal Highness to depart at once with the Royal Family and seek somewhere else a happier abode."4 When Tou had read this document his face turned ashy pale ; and just then a messenger rushed in, shrieking out, " Here is the monster ! " at which the whole Court burst into lamentations as if their last hour was at hand. The Prince was beside himself with fear ; all he could do

4 The language in which this fanciful document is couched is precisely such as would be used by an officer of the Government in announcing some national calamity ; hence the value of these tales, — models as they are of the purest possible style.

62 STRANGE STORIES

was to beg Tou to look to his own safety without regard- ing the wife through whom he was involved in their misfortunes. The Princess, however, who was standing by bitterly lamenting the fate that had fallen upon them, begged Tou not to desert her; and, after a moment's hesitation, he said he should be only too happy to place his own poor home at their immediate disposal if they would only deign to honour him. " How can we talk of deigning? cried the Princess, "at such a moment as this ? I pray you take us there as quickly as possible." So Tou gave her his arm, and in no time they had ar- rived at Tou's house, which the Princess at once pronounced to be a charming place of residence, and better even than their former kingdom. " But I must now ask you," said she to Tou, " to make some arrange- ment for my father and mother, that the old order of things may be continued here." Tou at first offered objections to this ; whereupon the Princess said that a man who would not help another in his hour of need was not much of a man, and immediately went off into a fit of hysterics, from which Tou was trying his best to recall her, when all of a sudden he awoke and found that it was all a dream. However, he still heard a buzzing in his ears which he knew was not made by any human being, and, on looking carefully about he dis- covered two or three bees which had settled on his pillow. He was very much astonished at this, and con- sulted with his friend, who was also greatly amazed at his strange story; and then the latter pointed out a number of other bees on various parts of his dress, none

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 63

of which would go away even when brushed off. His friend now advised him to get a hive for them, which he

I did without delay ; and immediately it was filled by a whole swarm of bees, which came flying from over the wall in great numbers. On tracing whence they had come, it was found that they belonged to an old gentleman who lived near, and who had kept bees for more than thirty years previously. Tou thereupon went and told him the story ; and when the old gentleman examined his hive he found the bees all gone. On breaking it open he discovered a large snake inside of about ten feet in

' length, which he immediately killed, recognising in it the "huge monster" of Tou's adventure. As for the bees, they remained with Tou, and increased in numbers every year.

64 STRANGE STORIES

LXXI. THE DONKEY'S REVENGE.

CHUNG CH'ING-YU was a scholar of some reputation, who lived in Manchuria. When he went up for his master's degree, he heard that there was a Taoist priest at the capital who would tell people's fortunes, and was very anxious to see him ; and at the conclusion of the second part of the examination,1 he accidentally met him at Pao-t'u-ch'iian.2 The priest was over sixty years of age, and had the usual white beard, flowing down over his breast Around him stood a perfect wall of people inquiring their future fortunes, and to each the old man made a brief reply : but when he saw Chung among the crowd, he was overjoyed, and, seizing him by the hand, said, " Sir, your virtuous intentions command rny esteem." He then led him up behind a screen, and asked if he did not wish to know what was to come ; and when Chung replied in the affirmative, the priest

1 The examination consists of three bouts of three days each, during which periods the candidates remain shut up in their exami- nation cells day and night.

2 The name of a place.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 65

informed him that his prospects were bad, " You may succeed in passing this examination," continued he, " but on returning covered with honour to your home, I fear that your mother will be no longer there." Now Chung was a very filial son ; and as soon as he heard these words, his tears began to flow, and he declared that he would go back without competing any further. The priest observed that if he let this chance slip, he could never hope for success; to which Chung replied that, on the other hand, if his mother were to die he could never hope to have her back again, and that even the rank of Viceroy would not repay him for her loss. "Well," said the priest, " you and I were connected in a former existence, and I must do my best to help you now." So he took out a pill which he gave to Chung, and told him that if he sent it post-haste by some one to his mother, it would prolong her life for seven days, and thus he would be able to see her once again after the examination was over. Chung took the pill, and went off in very low spirits ; but be soon reflected that the span of human life is a matter of destiny, and that every day he could spend at home would be one more day devoted to the service of his mother. Accordingly, he got ready to start at once, and, hiring a donkey, actually set out on his way back. When he had gone about half-a-mile, the donkey turned round and ran home; and when he used his whip, the animal threw itself down on the ground. Chung got into a great perspiration, and his servant recommended him to remain where he was ; but this he would not hear of, VOL. n. F

66 STRANGE STORIES

and hired another donkey, which served him exactly the same trick as the other one. The sun was now sinking behind the hills, and his servant advised his master to stay and finish his examination while he himself went back home before him. Chung had no alternative but to assent, and the next day he hurried through with his papers, starting immediately afterwards, and not stopping at all on the way either to eat or to sleep. All night long he went on, and arrived to find his mother in a very critical state ; however, when he gave her the pill she so far recovered that he was able to go in and see her. Grasping his hand, she begged him not to weep, telling him that she had just dreamt she had been down to the Infernal Regions, where the King of Hell had informed her with a gracious smile that her record was fairly clean, and that in view of the filial piety of her son she was to have twelve years more of life. Chung was rejoiced at this, and his mother was soon restored to her former health.

Before long the news arrived that Chung had passed his examination; upon which he bade adieu to his mother, and went off to the capital, where he bribed the eunuchs of the palace to communicate with his friend the Taoist priest. The latter was very much pleased, and came out to see him, whereupon Chung prostrated himself at his feet. "Ah," said the priest, "this success of yours, and the prolongation of your good mother's life, is all a reward for your virtuous conduct What have I done in the matter?" Chung was very much astonished that the priest should already know

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 67

what had happened; however, he now inquired as to his own future. "You will never rise to high rank," replied the priest, " but you will attain the years of an octogenarian. In a former state of existence you and I were once travelling together, when you threw a stone at a dog, and accidentally killed a frog. Now that frog has re-appeared in life as a donkey, and according to all principles of destiny you ought to suffer for what you did ; but your filial piety has touched the Gods, a protecting star-influence has passed into your nativity sheet, and you will come to no harm. On the other hand, there is your wife ; in her former state she was not as virtuous as she might have been, and her punish- ment in this life was to be widowed quite young ; you, however, have secured the prolongation of your own term of years, and therefore I fear that before long your wife will pay the penalty of death." Chung was much grieved at hearing this ; but after a wrhile he asked the priest where his second wife to be was living. "At Chung-chou," replied the latter; "she is now fourteen years old." The priest then bade him adieu, telling him that if any mischance should befall him he was to hurry off towards the south- east. About a year after this, Chung's wife did die ; and his mother then desiring him to go and visit his uncle, who was a magistrate in Kiangsi, on which journey he would have to pass through Chung-chou, it seemed like a fulfilment of the old priest's prophecy. As he went along, he came to a village on the banks of a river, where a large crowd of people was gathered F 2

68 STRANGE STORIES

together round a theatrical performance which was going on there. Chung would have passed quietly by, had not a stray donkey followed so close behind him that he turned round and hit it over the ears. This startled the donkey so much that it ran off full gallop, and knocked a rich gentleman's child, who was sitting with its nurse on the bank, right into the water, before any one of the servants could lend a hand to save it. Immediately there was a great outcry against Chung, who gave his mule the rein and dashed away, mindful of the priest's warning, towards the south-east After riding about seven miles, he reached a mountain village, where he saw an old man standing at the door of a house, and, jumping off his mule, made him a low bow. The old man asked him in, and inquired his name and whence he came ; to which Chung replied by telling him the whole adventure. " Never fear," said the old man ; " you can stay here, while I send out to learn the position of affairs." By the evening his mes- senger had returned, and then they knew for the first time that the child belonged to a wealthy family. The old man looked grave and said, " Had it been anybody else's child, I might have helped you ; as it is I can do nothing." Chung was greatly alarmed at this ; however, the old man told him to remain quietly there for the night, and see what turn matters might take. Chung was overwhelmed with anxiety, and did not sleep a wink; and next morning he heard that the constables were after him, and that it was death to any one who should conceal him. The old man changed counte-

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 69

nance at this, and went inside, leaving Chung to his own reflections; but towards the middle of the night he came and knocked at Chung's door, and, sitting down, began to ask how old his wife was. Chung replied that he was a widower ; at which the old man seemed rather pleased, and declared that in such case help would be forthcoming ; " for," said he, " my sister's husband has taken the vows and become a priest,3 and my sister herself has died, leaving an orphan girl who has now no

home ; and if you would only marry her "

Chung was delighted, more especially as this would be both the fulfilment of the Taoist priest's prophecy, and a means of extricating himself from his present difficulty; at the same time, he declared he should be sorry to implicate his future father-in-law. "Never fear about that," replied the old man; "my sister's husband is pretty skilful in the black art. He has not mixed much with the world of late ; but when you are married, you can discuss the matter with my niece." So Chung married the young lady, who was sixteen years of age, and very beautiful; but whenever he looked at her he took occasion to sigh. At last she said, "I may be ugly; but you needn't be in such a hurry to let me

3 This interesting ceremony is performed by placing little conical pastilles on a certain number of spots, varying from three to twelve, on the candidate's head. These are then lighted and allowed to burn down into the flesh, while the surrounding parts are vigorously rubbed by attendant priests in order to lessen the pain. The whole thing lasts about twenty minutes, and is always performed on the eve of Shakyamuni Buddha's birthday. The above was well de- scribed by Mr. S. L. Baldwin in the Foochviv Herald.

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know it ; " whereupon Chung begged her pardon, and said he felt himself only too lucky to have met with such a divine creature; adding that he sighed because he feared some misfortune was coming on them which would separate them for ever. He then told her his story, and the young lady was very angry that she should have been drawn into such a difficulty without a word of warning. Chung fell on his knees, and said he had already consulted with her uncle, who was unable him- self to do anything, much as he wished it. He con- tinued that he was aware of her power; and then, pointing out that his alliance was not altogether beneath her, made all kinds of promises if she would only help him out of this trouble. The young lady was no longer able to refuse, but informed him that to apply to her father would entail certain disagreeable conse- quences, as he had retired from the world, and did not any more recognise her as his daughter. That night they did not attempt to sleep, spending the in- terval in padding their knees with thick felt concealed beneath their clothes ; and then they got into chairs and were carried off to the hills. After journeying some distance, they were compelled by the nature of the road to alight and walk ; and it was only by a great effort that Chung succeeded at last in getting his wife to the top. At the door of the temple they sat down to rest, the powder and paint on the young lady's face having all mixed with the perspiration trickling down ; but when Chung began to apologize for bringing her to this pass, she replied that it was a mere trifle compared with what

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 71

was to come. By-and-by, they went inside; and threading their way to the wall beyond, found the young lady's father sitting in contemplation,4 his eyes closed, and a servant-boy standing by with a chowry.5 Everything was beautifully clean and nice, but before the dais were sharp stones scattered about as thick as the stars in the sky. The young lady did not venture to select a favourable spot ; she fell on her knees at once, and Chung did likewise behind her. Then her father opened his eyes, shutting them again almost instanta- neously; whereupon the young lady said, "For a long time I have not paid my respects to you. I am now married, and I have brought my husband to see you." A long time passed away, and then her father opened his eyes and said, "You're giving a great deal of trouble," immediately relapsing into silence again. There the husband and wife remained until the stones seemed to pierce into their very bones; but after a while the father cried out, " Have you brought tjie donkey?" His daughter replied that they had not; whereupon they were told to go and fetch it at once, which they did, not knowing what the meaning of this order was. After a few more days' kneeling, they suddenly heard that the murderer of the child had been caught and beheaded, and were just congratulating each

4 There is a room in most Buddhist temples specially devoted to this purpose.

5 The Buddhist emblem of cleanliness ; generally a yak's tail, and commonly used as a fly-brush.

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other on the success of their scheme, when a servant came in with a stick in his hand, the top of which had been chopped off. "This stick," said the servant, "died instead of you. Bury it reverently, that the wrong done to the tree may be somewhat atoned for."6 Then Chung saw that at the place where the top of the stick had been chopped off there were traces of blood ; he there- fore buried it with the usual ceremony, and immediately set off with his wife, and returned to his own home.

6 Tree- worship can hardly be said to exist in China at the present day ; though at a comparatively recent epoch this phase of religious sentiment must have been widely spread. See The Flower Nymphs and Mr. Willow.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 73

LXXII. THE WOLF DREAM.

MR. PAI was a native of Chi-li, and his eldest son was called Chia. The latter had been some two years holding an appointment 1 as magistrate in the south ; but because of the great distance between them, his family had heard nothing of him. One day a distant con- nection, named Ting, called at the house ; and Mr. Pai, not having seen this gentleman for a long time, treated him 'with much cordiality. Now Ting was one of those persons who are occasionally employed by the Judge of the Infernal Regions to make arrests on earth ; 2 and, as they were chatting together, Mr. Pai questioned him about the realms below. Ting told him all kinds of strange things, but Pai did not believe them, answering only by a smile. Some days afterwards, he had just lain

1 Literally, "had been allotted the post of Nan-fu magistrate," such appointments being always determined by drawing lots.

2 Such is one common explanation of catalepsy (see No. I., note 5), it being further averred that the proper lictors of the Infernal regions are unable to- remain long in the light of the upper world.

74 STRANGE STORIES

down to sleep when Ting walked in and asked him to go for a stroll; so they went off together, and by-and-by reached the city. "There," said Ting, pointing to a door, "lives your nephew," alluding to a son of Mr. Pai's elder sister, who was a magistrate in Honan ; and when Pai expressed his doubts as to the accuracy of this statement, Ting led him in, when, lo and behold ! there was his nephew, sitting in his court dressed in his official robes. Around him stood the guard, and it was impos- sible to get near him ; but Ting remarked that his son's residence was not far off, and asked Pai if he would not like to see him too. The latter assenting, they walked along till they came to a large building, which Ting said was the place. However, there was a fierce wolf at the entrance,3 and Mr. Pai was afraid to go in. Ting bade him enter, and accordingly they walked in, when they found that all the employe's of the place, some of whom were standing about and others lying down to sleep, were all wolves. The central pathway was piled up with whitening bones, and Mr. Pai began to feel horribly alarmed • but Ting kept close to him all the time, and at length they got safely in. Pai's son, Chia, was just coming out ; and when he saw his father accompanied by Ting, he was overjoyed, and, asking them to sit

3 Upon a wall at the entrance to every official residence is painted a huge fabulous animal, called Greed, in such a position that the resident mandarin must see it every time he goes out of his front gates. It is to warn him against greed and the crimes that are sure to flow from it.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 75

down, bade the attendants serve some refreshment. Thereupon a great big wolf brought in in his mouth the carcase of a dead man, and set it before them, at which Mr. Pai rose up in consternation, and asked his son what this meant. " It's only a little refreshment for you, father," replied Chia ; but this did not calm Mr. Pai's agitation, who would have retired precipitately, had it not been for the crowd of wolves which barred the path. Just as he was at a loss what to do, there was a general stampede among the animals which scurried away, some under the couches and some under the tables and chairs ; and while he was wondering what the cause of this could be, in marched two knights in golden armour, who looked sternly at Chia, and, producing a black rope, proceeded to bind him hand and foot. Chia fell down before them, and was changed into a tiger with horrid fangs ; and then one of the knights drew a glit- tering sword and would have cut off its head, had not the other cried out, " Not yet ! not yet ! that is for the fourth month next year. Let us now only take out its teeth." Immediately that knight produced a huge mallet, and, with a few blows, scattered the tiger's teeth all over the floor, the tiger roaring so loudly with pain as to shake the very hills, and frightening all the wits out of Mr. Pai — who woke up with a start. He found he had been dreaming, and at once sent off to invite Ting to come and see him ; but Ting sent back to say he must beg to be excused. Then Mr. Pai, pondering on what he had seen in his dream, despatched his second sen with a letter to Chia, full of warnings and good advice ;

76 STRANGE STORIES

and lo ! when his son arrived, he found that his elder brother had lost all his front teeth, these having been knocked out, as he averred, by a fall he had had from his horse when tipsy ; and, on comparing dates, the day of that fall was found to coincide with the day of his father's dream. The younger brother was greatly amazed at this, and took out their father's letter, which he gave to Chia to read. The latter changed colour, but imme- diately asked his brother what there was to be astonished at in the coincidence of a dream. And just at that time he was busily engaged in bribing his superiors to put him first on the list for promotion, so that he soon forgot all about the circumstance; while the younger, observing what harpies Chia's subordinates were, taking presents from one man and using their influence for another, in one unbroken stream of corruption, sought out his elder brother, and, with tears in his eyes, implored him to put some check upon their rapacity. " My brother," replied Chia, " your life has been passed in an obscure village ; you know nothing of our official routine. We are pro- moted or degraded at the will of our superiors, and not by the voice of the people. He, therefore, who gratifies his superiors is marked out for success;4 whereas he who consults the wishes of the people is unable to gratify his superiors as well." Chia's brother saw that his advice was thrown away; he accordingly returned home and told his father all that had taken place. The old man

4 Such, indeed, is the case at the present day in China, and else- where.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 77

was much affected, but there was nothing that he could do in the matter, so he devoted himself to assisting the poor, and such acts of charity, daily praying the Gods that the wicked son alone might suffer for his crimes, and not entail misery on his innocent wife and children. The next year it was reported that Chia had been recom- mended for a post in the Board of Civil Office,5 and friends crowded the father's door, offering their congratu- lations upon the happy event. But the old man sighed and took to his bed, pretending he was too unwell to receive visitors. Before long another message came, in- forming them that Chia had fallen in with bandits while on his way home, and that he and all his retinue had been killed. Then his father arose and said, "Verily the Gods are good unto me, for they have visited his sins upon himself alone ; " and he immediately proceeded to burn incense and return thanks. Some of his friends would have persuaded him that the report was probably untrue ; but the old man had no doubts as to its correct- ness, and made haste to get ready his son's grave. But Chia was not yet dead. In the fatal fourth moon he had started on his journey and had fallen in with bandits, to whom he had offered all his money and valuables ; upon which the latter cried out, " We have come to avenge the cruel wrongs of many hundreds of victims ; do you imagine we want only that ? " They then cut off his head, and the head of his wicked secre- tary, and the heads of several of his servants who had

6 See No. VII., note I.

7 8 STRANGE STORIES

been foremost in carrying out his shameful orders, and were now accompanying him to the capital. They then divided the booty between them, and made off with all speed. Chia's soul remained near his body for some time, until at length a high mandarin passing by asked who it was that was lying there dead. One of his servants replied that he had been a magistrate at such and such a place, and that his name was Pai. " What ! " said the mandarin, " the son of old Mr. Pai ? It is hard that his father should live to see such sorrow as this. Put his head on again."6 Then a man stepped forward and placed Chia's head upon his shoulders again, when the mandarin interrupted him, saying, "A crooked- minded man should not have a straight body: put his head on sideways." By-and-by Chia's soul returned to its tenement ; and when his wife and children arrived to take away the corpse, they found that he was still breath- ing. Carrying him home, they poured some nourishment down his throat, which he was able to swallow ; but there he was at an out-of-the-way place, without the means of continuing his journey. It was some six months before his father heard the real state of the case, and then he sent off the second son to bring his brother home. Chia had indeed come to life again, but he was able to see down his own back, and was regarded ever afterwards

6 The great sorrow of decapitation as opposed to strangulation is that the body will appear in the realms below without a head. The family of any condemned man who may have sufficient means always bribe the executioner to sew it on again.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 79

more as a monstrosity than as a man. Subsequently the nephew, whom old Mr. Pai had seen sitting in state surrounded by officials, actually became an Imperial Censor, so that every detail of the dream was thus strangely realised.7

7 This story is an admirable expose of Chinese official corruption, as rampant at the present day as ever in the long history of China.

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LXXIII. THE UNJUST SENTENCE.

MR. CHU was a native of Yang-ku, and, as a young man, was much given to playing tricks and talking in a loose kind of way. Having lost his wife, he went off to ask a certain old woman to arrange another match for him; and on the way, he chanced to fall in with a neighbour's wife who took his fancy very much. So he said in joke to the old woman, " Get me that stylish- looking, handsome lady, and I shall be quite satisfied." " I'll see what I can do," replied the old woman, also joking, " if you will manage to kill her present hus- band ; " upon which Chu laughed and said he certainly would do so. Now about a month afterwards, the said husband, who had gone out to collect some money due to him, was actually killed in a lonely spot; and the magistrate of the district immediately summoned the neighbours and beadle 1 and held the usual inquest, but was unable to find any clue to the murderer. However, the old woman told the story of her conversation with Chu, and suspicion at once fell upon him. The con-

1 See No, LXIV, note 2.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 8 1

stables came and arrested him ; but he stoutly denied the charge ; and the magistrate now began to suspect the wife of the murdered man. Accordingly, she was severely beaten and tortured in several ways until her strength failed her, and she falsely acknowledged her guilt.2 Chu was then examined, and he said, "This

2 Such has, doubtless, been the occasional result of torture in China ; but the singular keenness of the mandarins, as a body, in recognising the innocent and detecting the guilty, — that is, when their own avaricious interests are not involved, — makes this con- tingency so rare as to be almost unknown. A good instance came under my own notice at Swatow in 1876. For years a Chinese servant had been employed at the foreign Custom House to carry a certain sum of money every week to the bank, and at length his honesty was above suspicion. On the occasion to which I allude he had been sent as usual with the bag of dollars, but after a short absence he rushed back with a frightful gash on his right arm, evi- dently inflicted by a heavy chopper, and laying the bone bare. The money was gone. He said he had been invited into a tea- house by a couple of soldiers whom he could point out ; that they had tried to wrest the bag from him, and that at length one of them seized a chopper and inflicted so severe a wound on his arm, that in his agony he dropped the money, and the soldiers made off with it. The latter were promptly arrested and confronted with their accuser ; but, with almost indecent haste, the police magistrate

, dismissed the case against them, and declared that he believed the man had made away with the money and inflicted the wound on himself. And so it turned out to be, under overwhelming evidence. This servant of proved fidelity had given way to a rash hope of making a little money at the gaming-table ; had hurried into one

t of these hells and lost everything in three stakes ; had wounded himself on the right arm (he was a left-handed man), and had con- cocted the story of the soldiers, all within the space of about twenty-five minutes. When he saw that he was detected, he con- fessed everything, without having received a single blow of the bamboo ; but up to the moment of his confession the foreign feeling against that police-magistrate was undeniably strong. VOL. II. G

82 STRANGE STORIES

delicate woman could not bear the agony of your tures ; what she has stated is untrue ; and, even shoi her wrong escape the notice of the Gods, for her to in this way with a stain upon her name is more than can endure. I will tell the whole truth. I killed husband that I might secure the wife : she knew nothing at all about it." And when the magistrate asked for some proof, Chu said his bloody clothes would be evidence enough; but when they sent to search his house, no bloody clothes were forthcoming. He was then beaten till he fainted ; yet when he came round he still stuck to what he had said. "It is my mother," cried he, " who will not sign the death-warrant of her son. Let me go myself and I will get the clothes." So he was escorted by a guard to his home, and there he explained to his mother that whether she gave up or withheld the clothes, it was all the same ; that in either case he would have to die, and it was better to die early than late. Thereupon his mother wept bitterly, and going into the bedroom, brought out, after a short delay, the required clothes, which were taken at once to the magistrate's. There was now no doubt as to the truth of Chu's story; and as nothing occurred to change the magistrate's opinion, Chu was thrown into prison to await the day for his execution. Meanwhile, as the magistrate was one day inspecting his gaol, suddenly a man appeared in the hall, who glared at him fiercely and roared out, " Dull-headed fool ! unfit to be the guardian of the people's interests ! " — whereupon the crowd of ser- vants standing round rushed forward to seize him, but with

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 83

one sweep of his arms he laid them all flat on the ground. The magistrate was frightened out of his wits, and tried to escape, but the man cried out to him, " I am one of Kuan Ti's 3 lieutenants. If you move an inch you are lost." So the magistrate stood there, shaking from head to foot with fear, while his visitor continued, "The murderer is Kung Piao : Chu had nothing to do with it."

The lieutenant then fell down on the ground, and was to all appearance lifeless ; however, after a while he .recovered, his face having quite changed, and when they asked him his name, lo ! it was Kung Piao. Under the application of the bamboo he confessed his guilt. Always an unprincipled man, he had heard that the murdered man was going out to collect money, and thinking he would be sure to bring it back with him, he had killed him, but had found nothing. Then when he learnt that Chu had acknowledged the crime as his own doing, he had rejoiced in secret at such a stroke of luck. How he had got into the magistrate's hall he was quite unable to say. The magistrate now called for some ex- planation of Chu's bloody clothes, which Chu himself was unable to give ; but his mother, who was at once sent for, stated that she had cut her own arm to stain them, and when they examined her they found on her left arm the scar of a recent wound. The magistrate was lost in amazement at all this ; unfortunately for him

3 See No. I., note 3. G 2

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the reversal of his sentence cost him his appointment, and he died in poverty, unable to find his way home. As for Chu, the widow of the murdered man married him4 in the following year, out of gratitude for his noble behaviour.

4 See No. LXVIII., note i. The circumstances which led to this marriage would certainly be considered "exceptional."

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 85

LXXIV. A RIP VAN WINKLE.1

[THE story runs that a Mr. Chia, after obtaining, with the assistance of a mysterious friend, his master's degree, became alive to the vanity of mere earthly honours, and determined to devote himself to the practice of Taoism, in the hope of obtaining the elixir of immortality.2]

So early one morning Chia and his friend, whose name was Lang, stole away together, without letting Chia's family know anything about it; and by-and-by they found themselves among the hills, in a vast cave where there was another world and another sky. An old man was sitting there in great state, and Lang presented Chia to him as his future master. " Why have you come i so soon ? " asked the old man ; to which Lang replied, " My friend's determination is firmly fixed : I pray you receive him amongst you." " Since you have come," said the old man, turning to Chia, " you must begin by

1 This being a long and tedious story, I have given only such part of it as is remarkable for its similarity to Washington Irving's famous narrative.

" See No. IV., note I.

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putting away from you your earthly body." Chia mi mured his assent, and was then escorted by Lang to sleeping-chamber where he was provided with foe after which Lang went away. The room was beautifully clean : 3 the doors had no panels and the windows no lattices; and all the furniture was one table and one couch. Chia took off his shoes and lay down, with the moon shining brightly into the room; and beginning soon to feel hungry, he tried one of the cakes on the table, which he found sweet and very satisfying. He thought Lang would be sure to come back, but there he remained hour after hour by himself, never hearing a sound. He noticed, however, that the room was fragrant with a delicious perfume ; his viscera seemed to be re- moved from his body, by which his intellectual faculties were much increased ; and every one of his veins and arteries could be easily counted. Then suddenly he heard a sound like that of a cat scratching itself; and, looking out of the window, he beheld a tiger sitting under the verandah. He was horribly frightened for the moment, but immediately recalling the admonition of the old man, he collected himself and sat quietly down again. The tiger seemed to know that there was a man inside, for it entered the room directly afterwards, and walking straight up to the couch sniffed at Chia's feet. Whereupon there was a noise outside, as if a fowl were having its legs tied, and the tiger ran away. Shortly

3 Borrowed from Buddhism.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 87

afterwards a beautiful young girl came in, suffusing an exquisite fragrance around ; and going up to the couch where Chia was, she bent over him and whispered, "Here I am." Her breath was like the sweet odour of perfumes; but as Chia did not move, she whispered again, "Are you sleeping?" The voice sounded to Chia remarkably like that of his wife ; however, he re- flected that these were all probably nothing more than tests of his determination, so he closed his eyes firmly for a while. But by-and-by the young lady called him by his pet name, and then he opened his eyes wide to discover that she was no other than his own wife. On asking her how she had come there, she replied that Mr. Lang was afraid her husband would be lonely, and had sent an old woman to guide her to him. Just then they heard the old man outside in a towering rage, and Chia's wife, not knowing where to conceal herself, jumped over a low wall near by and disappeared. In came the old man, and gave Lang a severe beating before Chia's face, bidding him at once to get rid of his visitor ; so Lang led Chia away over the low wall, saying, " I knew how anxious you were to consummate your immortality, and accordingly I tried to hurry things on a bit; but now I see that your time has not yet come : hence this beating I have had. Good-by : we shall meet again some day." He then shewed Chia the way to his home, and waving his hand bade him farewell. Chia looked down — for he was in the moon — and beheld the old familiar village • and recollecting that his wife was not a good walker and would not have got very far,

88 STRANGE STORIES

hurried on to overtake her. Before long he was at his own door, but he noticed that the place was all tumble- down and in ruins, and not as it was when he went away. As for the people he saw, old and young alike, he did not recognise one of them ; and recollecting the story of how Liu and Yuan came back from heaven,4 he was afraid to go in at the door. So he sat down and rested outside ; and after a while an old man leaning on a staff came out, whereupon Chia asked him which was the house of Mr. Chia. " This is it," replied the old man ; " you probably wish to hear the extraordinary story con- nected with the family ? I know all about it. They say that Mr. Chia ran away just after he had taken his master's degree, when his son was only seven or eight years old ; and that about seven years afterwards the child's mother went into a deep sleep from which she did not awake. As long as her son was alive he changed his mother's clothes for her according to the seasons, but when he died, her grandsons fell into poverty, and had nothing but an old shanty to put the sleeping lady into. Last month she awaked, having been asleep for over a hundred years. People from far and near have been coming in great numbers to hear the strange story ; of

4 Alluding to a similar story, related in the Record of the Immortals, of how these two friends lost their way while gather- ing simples on the hills, and were met and entertained by two lovely young damsels for the space of half-a-year. When, however, they subsequently returned home, they found that ten generations' had passed away.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 89

late, however, there have been rather fewer." Chia was amazed when he heard all this, and, turning to the old man, said, " I am Chia Feng-chih." This astonished the old man very much, and off he went to make the an- nouncement to Chia's family. The eldest grandson was dead ; and the second, a man of about fifty, refused to believe that such a young-looking man was really his grandfather ; but in a few moments out came Chia's wife, and she recognised her husband at once. They then fell upon each other's necks and mingled their tears together.

[After which the story is drawn out to a considerable length, but is quite devoid of interest.]5

5 Besides the above, there is the story of a man named Wang, i who, wandering one day in the mountains, came upon some old men playing a game of tvei-ch'i (see Appendix} ; and after watching them for some time, he found that the handle of an axe he had with him had mouldered away into dust. Seven generations of men had passed away in the interval. Also, a similar legend of a horseman, who, when riding over the hills, saw several old men playing a game with rushes, and tied his horse to a tree while he himself approached to observe them. A few minutes afterwards he turned to depart, but found only the skeleton of his horse and the rotten remnants of the saddle and bridle. He then sought his home, but that was gone too ; and so he laid himself down upon the ground and died of a broken heart.

9o

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LXXV. THE THREE STATES OF EXISTENCE.

A CERTAIN man of the province of Hunan could recall what had happened to him in three previous lives. In the first, he was a magistrate ; and, on one occasion, when he had been nominated Assistant-Examiner,1 a candidate, named Hsing, was unsuccessful. Hsing went home dreadfully mortified, and soon after died; but his spirit appeared before the King of Purgatory, and read aloud the rejected essay, whereupon thousands of other shades, all of whom had suffered in a similar way, thronged around, and unanimously elected Hsing as their chief. The Examiner was immediately summoned to take his trial, and when he arrived the King asked him, saying, " As you are appointed to examine the various essays, how is it that you throw out the able and admit the worthless?" "Sire," replied he, "the ultimate decision rests with the Grand Examiner ; I only pass them on to him." The King then issued a warrant for the apprehension of the Grand Examiner,

1 See Appendix A.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 9 1

and, as soon as he appeared, he was told what had just now been said against him ; to which he answered, "I am only able to make a general estimate of the merits of the candidates. Valuable essays may be kept back from me by my Associate-Examiners, in which case I am powerless."2 But the King cried out, " It's all very well for you two thus to throw the blame on each other ; you are both guilty, and both of you must be bambooed according to law." This sentence was about to be carried into effect, when Hsing, who was not at all satisfied with its lack of severity, set up such a fearful screeching and howling, in which he was well supported by all the other hundreds and thousands of shades, that the King stopped short, and inquired what was the

2 If there is one institution in the Chinese empire which is jealously guarded and honestly administered, it is the great system of competitive examinations which has obtained in China now for many centuries. And yet frauds do take place, in spite of the exceptionally heavy penalties incurred upon detection. Friends are occasionally smuggled through by the aid of marked essays ; and dishonest candidates avail themselves of "sleeve editions," as they are called, of the books in which they are to be examined. On the whole, the result is a successful one. As a rule the best candidates pull through ; while, in exceptional cases, unquestionably good men are rejected. Of the latter class, the author of this work is a most striking instance. Excelling in literary attainments of the highest order, he failed" more than once to obtain his master's degree, and finally threw up in disgust. Thenceforward he became the enemy of the mandarinate ; and how he has lashed the cor- ruption of his age may be read in such stories as The Wolf Dream± and many others, while the policy that he himself would have adopted, had he been fortunate enough to succeed, must remain for ever a matter of doubt and speculation.

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matter. Thereupon Hsing informed His Majesty tl the sentence was too light, and that the Examine should both have their eyes gouged out, so as not be able to read essays any more. The King would not consent to this, explaining to the noisy rabble that the Examiners did not purposely reject good essays, but only because they themselves were naturally wanting in capacity. The shades then begged that, at any rate, their hearts might be cut out, and to this the King was obliged to yield ; so the Examiners were seized by the attendants, their garments stripped off, and their bodies ripped open with sharp knives. The blood poured out on the ground, and the victims screamed with pain; at which all the shades rejoiced exceedingly, and said, " Here we have been pent up, with no one to redress our wrongs ; but now Mr. Hsing has come, our injuries are washed away." They then dispersed with great noise and hubbub. As for our Associate-Examiner, after his heart had been cut out, he came to life again as the son of a poor man in Shensi; and when he was twenty years old he fell into the hands of the rebels, who were at that time giving great trouble to the country. By-and-by, a certain official was sent at the head of some soldiers to put down the insurrection, and he succeeded in capturing a large number of the rebels, among whom was our hero. The latter reflected that he himself was no rebel, and he was hoping that he would be able to obtain his release in consequence, when he noticed that the officer in charge was also a man of his own age, and, on looking more closely, he saw that it

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 93

was his old enemy, Hsing. "Alas!" cried he, "such is destiny;" and so indeed it turned out, for all the other prisoners were forthwith released, and he alone was beheaded. Once more his spirit stood before the King of Purgatory, this time with an accusation against Hsing. The King, however, would not summon Hsing at once, but said he should be allowed to complete his term of official life on earth ; and it was not till thirty years afterwards that Hsing appeared to answer to the charge. Then, because he had made light of the lives

; of his people, he was condemned to be born again as a brute-beast; and our hero, too, inasmuch as he had been known to beat his father and mother, was sen- tenced to a similar fate. The latter, fearing the future vengeance of Hsing, persuaded the King to give him the advantage of size ; and, accordingly, orders were issued that he was to be born again as a big, and Hsing as a little, dog. The big dog came to life in a shop in Shun-t'ien Fu, and was one day lying down in the street, when a trader from the south arrived, bringing with him a little golden-haired dog, about the

1 size of a wild cat, which, lo and behold ! turned out to be Hsing. The other, thinking Hsing's size would render him an easy prey, seized him at once ; but the

, little one caught him from underneath by the throat, and hung there firmly, like a bell. The big dog tried hard to shake him off, and the people of the shop did their best to separate them, but all was of no avail, and in a few moments both dogs were dead. Upon their spirits presenting themselves, as usual, before the King,

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each with its grievance against the other, the King crit out, " When will ye have done with your wrongs ai your animosities ? I will now settle the matter final for you;" and immediately commanded that Hsir should become the other's son-in-law in the next worlc The latter was then born at Ch'ing-yiin, and when was twenty-eight years of age took his master's degn He had one daughter, a very pretty girl, whom many of his wealthy neighbours would have been glad to get for their sons; but he would not accept any of their offers. On one occasion, he happened to pass through the prefectural city just as the examination for bachelor's degree was over ; and the candidate who had come out at the top of the list, though named Li, was no other than Mr. Hsing. So he led this man away, and took him to an inn, where he treated him with the utmost cordiality, finally arranging that, as Mr. Li was still unmarried, he should marry his pretty daughter. Every- one, of course, thought that this was done in admiration of Li's talents, ignorant that destiny had already decreed the union of the young couple. No sooner were they married than Li, proud of his own literary achievements, began to slight his father-in-law, and often passed many months without going near him; all of which the father-in-law bore very patiently, and when, at length, Li had repeatedly failed to get on any farther in his career, he even went so far as to set to work, by all manner of means, to secure his success ; after which they lived happily together as father and son.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 95

LXXVL

IN THE INFERNAL REGIONS.

Hsi FANG-P'ING was a native of Tung-an. His 'father's name was Hsi-Lien — a hasty-tempered man, who had quarrelled with a neighbour named Yang. By-and-by Yang died : and some years afterwards when Lien was on his death-bed, he cried out that Yang was bribing the devils in hell to torture him. His body then swelled up and turned red, and in a few mo- ments he had breathed his last. His son wept bitterly, ind refused all food, saying, "Alas! my poor father is now being maltreated by cruel devils ; I must go down and help to redress his wrongs." Thereupon he ceased speaking, and sat for a long time like one dazed, his soul having already quitted its tenement of clay. To nimself he appeared to be outside the house, not knowing in what direction to go, so he inquired from one of the passers-by which was the way to the district nty.1 Before long he found himself there, and, direct-

1 The Infernal Regions are supposed to be pretty much a counter- )art of the world above, excepting in the matter of light.

96 STRANGE STORIES

ing his steps towards the prison, found his father lying outside2 in a very shocking state. When the latter beheld his son, he burst into tears, and declared that the gaolers had been bribed to beat him, which they did both day and night, until they had reduced him to his present sorry plight. Then Fang-p'ing turned round in a great rage, and began to curse the gaolers. " Out upon you ! " cried he ; " if my father is guilty he should be punished according to law, and not at the will of a set of scoundrels like you." Thereupon he hurried away, and prepared a petition, which he took with him to present at the morning session of the City God ; but his enemy, Yang, had meanwhile set to work, and bribed so effectually, that the City God dismissed his petition for want of corroborative evidence.3 Fang-p'ing was furious, but could do nothing; so he started at once for the prefectural city, where he managed to get his plaint received, though it was nearly a month before it came on for hearing, and then all he got was a reference back to the district city, where he was severely tortured, and escorted back to the door of his own home, for fear he should give further trouble. How-

2 The visitor to Canton cannot fail to observe batches of prisoners with chains on them sitting in the street outside the prisons, many of them engaged in plying their particular trades.

3 The judge in a Chinese court is necessarily very much dependent on his secretaries ; and, except in special cases, he takes his cue almost entirely from them. They take theirs from whichever party to the case knows best how to "cross the palm."

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 97

ever, he did not go in, but stole away and proceeded to lay his complaint before one of the ten Judges of Purgatory; whereupon the two mandarins who had previously ill-used him, came forward and secretly offered him a thousand ounces of silver if he would withdraw the charge. This he positively refused to do ; and some days subsequently the landlord of the inn, where he was staying, told him he had been a fool for his pains, and that he would now get neither money nor justice, the Judge himself having already been tampered with. Fang-p'ing thought this was mere gossip, and would not believe it ; but, when his case was called, the Judge utterly refused to hear the charge, and ordered him twenty blows with the bamboo, which were administered in spite of all his protestations. He then cried out, " Ah ! it's all because I have no money to give you ; " which so incensed the Judge, that he told the lictors to throw Fang-p'ing on the fire-bed. This was a great iron couch, with a roaring fire underneath, which made it red-hot; and upon that the devils cast Fang-p'ing, having first stripped off his clothes, pressing him down on it, until the fire ate into his very bones, though in spite of that he could not die. After a while the devils said he had had enough, and made him get off the iron bed, and put his clothes on again. He was just able to walk, and when he went back into court, the Judge asked him if he wanted to make any further complaints. "Alas!" cried he, "my wrongs are still unredressed, and I should only be lying were I to say I would complain no more." The Judge then inquired what he

VOL. II. H

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had to complain of; to which Fang-p'ing replied that was of the injustice of his recent punishment, enraged the Judge so much that he ordered his att dants to saw Fang-p'ing in two. He was then led a by devils, to a place where he was thrust in between couple of wooden boards, the ground on all sides being wet and sticky with blood. Just at that moment he j was summoned to return before the Judge, who asked him if he was still of the same mind; and, on his replying in the affirmative, he was taken back again, ; and bound between the two boards. The saw was then ! applied, and as it went through his brain he experienced ; the most cruel agonies, which, however, he managed to endure without uttering a cry. " He's a tough cus- j tomer," said one of the devils, as the saw made its i way gradually through his chest ; to which the other replied, "Truly, this is filial piety; and, as the poor fellow has done nothing, let us turn the saw a little out of the direct line, so as to avoid injuring his heart." i Fang-p'ing then felt the saw make a curve inside him, { which caused him even more pain than before ; and, in | a few moments, he was cut through right down to the ground, and the two halves of his body fell apart, along | with the boards to which they were tied, one on either j side. The devils went back to report progress, and! were then ordered to join Fang-p'ing together again, , and bring him in. This they accordingly did, — the cut I all down Fang-p 'ing's body hurting him dreadfully, and: feeling as if it would re-open every minute. But, as Fang-p'ing was unable to walk, one of the devils took!

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO.

99

out a cord and tied it round his waist, as a reward, he said, for his filial piety. The pain immediately ceased, and Fang-p'ing appeared once more before the Judge, this time promising that he would make no more com- plaints. The Judge now gave orders that he should be sent up to earth, and the devils, escorting him out of the north gate of the city, shewed him his way home, and went away. Fang-p'ing now saw that there was even less chance of securing justice in the Infernal Regions than upon the earth above; and, having no means of getting at the Great King to plead his case, he bethought himself of a certain upright and benevo- lent God, called Erh Lang, who was a relative of the Great King's, and him he determined to seek. So he turned about and took his way southwards, but was immediately seized by some devils, sent out by the Judge to watch that he really went back to his home. These devils hurried him again into the Judge's pre- sence, where he was received, contrary to his expecta- tion, with great affability; the Judge himself praising his filial piety, but declaring that he need trouble no further in the matter, as his father had already been born again in a wealthy and illustrious family. " And upon you," added the Judge, " I now bestow a present of one thousand ounces of silver to take home with you, as well as the old age of a centenarian, with which I hope you will be satisfied." He then shewed Fang-p'ing the stamped record of this, and sent him away in charge of the devils. The latter now began to abuse him for giving them so much trouble, but Fang-p'ing turned H 2

100 STRANGE STORIES

sharply upon them, and threatened to take them back before the Judge. They were then silent, and marched along for about half-a-day, until at length they reached a village, where the devils invited Fang-p'ing into a house, j the door of which was standing half-open. Fang-p'ing ' was just going in, when suddenly the devils gave him a shove from behind, and .... there he was, born again on earth as a little girl. For three days he pined and cried, without taking any food, and then he died. But his spirit did not forget Erh Lang, and set out at \ once in search of that God. He had not gone far when ; he fell in with the retinue of some high personage, j and one of the attendants seized him for getting in the i way, and hurried him before his master. He was taken j to a chariot, where he saw a handsome young man, sitting in great state ; and thinking that now was his i chance, he told the young man, who he imagined to be j a high mandarin, all his sad story from beginning to end. His bonds were then loosed, and he went along with the young man until they reached a place where several officials came out to receive them ; and to one of these he confided Fang-p'ing, who now learnt that the young man was no other than God himself, the officials being the nine princes of heaven, and the one to whose care he was entrusted no other than Erh Lang. 1 This last was very tall, and had a long white beard, not at all like the popular representation of a God ; and • when the other princes had gone, he took Fang-p'ing i into a court-room, where he saw his father and their old j enemy, Yang, besides all the lictors and others who had |

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. IOI

been mixed up in the case. By-and-by, some criminals were brought in in cages, and these turned out to be the Judge, Prefect, and Magistrate. The trial was then commenced, the three wicked officers trembling and shaking in their shoes; and when he had heard the evidence, Erh Lang proceeded to pass sentence upon the prisoners, each of whom he sentenced, after en- larging upon the enormity of their several crimes, to be roasted, boiled, and otherwise put to most excru- ciating tortures. As for Fang-p'ing, he accorded him three extra decades of life, as a reward for his filial piety, and a copy of the sentence was put in his pocket. Father and son journeyed along together, and at length reached their home ; that is to say, Fang-p'ing was the first to recover consciousness, and then bade the ser- vants open his father's coffin, which they immediately did, and the old man at once came back to life. But when Fang-p'ing looked for his copy of the sentence, lo ! it had disappeared. As for the Yang family, poverty soon overtook them, and all their lands passed into Fang-p'ing's hands; for as sure as any one else bought them, they became sterile forthwith, and would produce nothing; but Fang-p'ing and his father lived on happily, both reaching the age of ninety and odd years.4

4 The whole story is of course simply a satire upon the venality and injustice of the ruling classes in China.

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LXXVII. SINGULAR CASE OF OPHTHALMIA.

A MR. Ku, of Chiang-nan, was stopping in an inn at Chi-hsia, when he was attacked by a very severe inflammation of the ejes. Day and night he lay on his bed groaning, no medicines being of any avail; and when he did get a little better, his recovery was accom- panied by a singular phenomenon. Every time he closed his eyes, he beheld in front of him a number of large buildings, with all their doors wide open, and people passing and repassing in the background, none of whom he recognised by sight. One day he had just sat down to have a good look, when, all of a sudden, he felt himself passing through the open doors. He went on through three court-yards without meeting any one ; but, on looking into some rooms on either side, he saw a great number of young girls sitting, lying, and kneel- ing about on a red carpet, which was spread on the ground. Just then a man came out from behind the building, and, seeing Ku, said to him, "Ah, the Prince said there was a stranger at the door; I suppose you are the person he meant." He then asked Ku to walk

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 103

in, which the latter was at first unwilling to do ; how- ever, he yielded to the man's instances, and accom- panied him in, asking whose palace it was. His guide told him it belonged to the son of the Ninth Prince, and that he had arrived at the nick of time, for a number of friends and relatives had chosen this very day to come and congratulate the young gentleman on his recent recovery from a severe illness. Meanwhile another person had come out to hurry them on, and they soon reached a spot where there was a pavilion facing the north, with an ornamental terrace and red balus- trades, supported by nine pillars. Ascending the steps, they found the place full of visitors, and then espied a young man seated with his face to the north,1 whom they at once knew to be the Prince's son, and thereupon they prostrated themselves before him, the whole company rising as they did so. The young Prince made Ku sit down to the east of him, and caused wine to be served; after which some singing- girls came in and performed the Hua-feng-chu.2 They had got to about the third scene, when, all of a sudden, Ku heard the landlord of the inn and his servant shouting out to him that dinner was ready, and was

1 In Book V. of Mencius' works we read that Shun, the perfect man, stood with his face to the south, while the Emperor Yao (see No. VIII., note 3) and his nobles faced the north. This arrange- ment is said to have been adopted in deference to Shun's virtue ; for in modern times the Emperor always sits facing the south.

2 Name of a celebrated play.

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dreadfully afraid that the young Prince, too, had heard. No one, however, seemed to have noticed anything, so Ku begged to be excused a moment, as he wished to change his clothes, and immediately ran out. He then looked up, and saw the sun low in the west, and his servant standing by his bedside, whereupon he knew that he had never left the inn. He was much cha- grined at this, and wished to go back as fast as he could; he, therefore, dismissed his servant, and on shutting his eyes once more, he found everything just as he had left it, except that where, on the first occasion, he had observed the young girls, there were none now to be seen, but only some dishevelled hump- backed creatures, who cried out at him, and asked him what he meant by spying about there. Ku didn't dare reply, but hurried past them as quickly as he could, and on to the pavilion of the young Prince. There he found him still sitting, but with a black beard over a foot in length; and the Prince was anxious to know where he had been, saying that seven scenes of the play were already over. He then seized a big goblet of wine, and made Ku drink it as a penalty, by which time the play was finished, and the list was handed up for a further selection, The " Marriage of P'eng Tsu " was selected, and then the singing-girls began to hand round the wine in cocoa-nuts big enough to hold about five quarts, which Ku declined, on the ground that he was suffering from weak eyes, and was consequently afraid to drink too much. " If your eyes are bad," cried the young Prince, " the Court physician is at hand,

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 105

and can attend to you." Thereupon, one of the guests sitting to the east came forward, and opening Ku's eyes with his fingers, touched them with some white ointment, which he applied from the end of a jade pin. He then bade Ku close his eyes, and take a short nap ; so the Prince had him conducted into a sleeping-room, where he found the bed so soft, and surrounded by such delicious perfume, that he soon fell into a deep slumber. By-and-by he was awaked by what appeared to be the clashing of cymbals, and fancied that the play was still going on ; but on opening his eyes, he saw that it was only the inn-dog, which was licking an oilman's gong.3 His ophthalmia, however, was quite cured; and when he shut his eyes again he could see nothing.

3 These are about as big as a cheese-plate and attached to a short stick, from which hangs suspended a small button of metal in such a manner as to clash against the face of the gong at every turn of the hand. The names and descriptions of various instruments em- ployed by costermongers in China would fill a good-sized volume.

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LXXVIII. CHOU K'O-CH'ANG AND HIS GHOST.

AT Huai-shang there lived a graduate named Chou T'ien-i, who, though fifty years of age, had but one son, called K'o-ch'ang, whom he loved very dearly. This boy, when about thirteen or fourteen, was a handsome, well-favoured fellow, strangely averse to study, and often playing truant from school, sometimes for the whole day, without any remonstrance on the part of his father. One day he went away and did not come back in the even- ing • neither, after a diligent search, could any traces of him be discovered. His father and mother were in despair, and hardly cared to live ; but after a year and more had passed away, lo and behold ! Ko-ch'ang re- turned, saying that he had been beguiled away by a Taoist priest, who, however, had not done him any harm, and that he had seized a moment while the priest was absent to escape and find his way home again. His father was delighted, and asked him no more questions, but set to work to give him an education ; and K'o-ch'ang was so much cleverer and more intelligent than he had been before, that by the following year he had taken his

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 107

bachelor's degree and had made quite a name for him- self. Immediately all the good families of the neigh- bourhood wanted to secure him as a son-in-law. Among others proposed there was an extremely nice girl, the daughter of a gentleman named Chao, who had taken his doctor's degree, and K'o-ch'ang's father was very anxious that he should marry the young lady. The youth himself would not hear of it, but stuck to his books and took his master's degree, quite refusing to en- tertain any thought of marriage ; and this so exasperated his mother that one day the good lady began to rate him soundly. K'o-ch'ang got up in a great rage and cried out, " I have long been wanting to get away, and have only remained for your sakes. I shall now say farewell, and leave Miss Chao for any one that likes to marry her." At this his mother tried to detain him, but in a moment he had fallen forwards on the ground, and there was nothing left of him but his hat and clothes. They were all dreadfully frightened, thinking that it must have been K'o-ch'ang's ghost who had been with them, and gave themselves up to weeping and lamentation ; however, the very next day K'o-ch'ang arrived, accompanied by a retinue of horses and servants, his story being that he had formerly been kidnapped1 and sold to a wealthy trader, who, being then childless, had adopted him, but who, when he subsequently had a son born to him by his own wife, sent K'o-ch'ang back to his old home. And

1 See No. XXIII., note 10.

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as soon as his father began to question him as to his studies, his utter dulness and want of knowledge soon made it clear that he was the real K'o-ch'ang of old ; but he was already known as a man who had got his master's degree, (that is, the ghost of him had got it,) so it was determined in the family to keep the whole affair secret This K'o-ch'ang was only too ready to espouse Miss Chao; and before a year had passed over their heads his wife had presented the old people with the much longed-for grandson.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 109

LXXIX. THE SPIRITS OF THE PO-YANG LAKE.

AN official, named Chai, was appointed to a post at Jao-chou, and on his way thither crossed the Po-yang lake. Happening to visit the shrine of the local spirits, he noticed a carved image of the patriotic Ting P'u-lang,1 and another of a namesake of his own, the latter occu- pying a very inferior position. " Come ! come ! " said Chai, " my patron saint shan't be put in the background like that ; " so he moved the image into a more honour- able place, and then went back on board his boat again. Soon after, a great wind struck the vessel, and carried away the mast and sails ; at which the sailors, in great alarm, set to work to howl and cry. However, in a few moments they saw a small skiff come cutting through the waves, and before long they were all safely on board. The man who rowed it was strangely like the image in the shrine, the position of which Chai had changed ; but they were hardly out of danger when the squall had passed over, and skiff and man had both vanished.

1 A famous official who lived in the reign of Hung Wu, first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1399). I have not been able to discover what was the particular act for which he has been celebrated as "loyal to the death."

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LXXX.

THE STREAM OF CASH.

A CERTAIN gentleman's servant was one day in his master's garden, when he beheld a stream of cash1 flowing by, two or three feet in breadth and of about the same depth. He immediately seized two large handfuls, ; and then threw himself down on the top of the stream in j order to try and secure the rest. However, when he got up he found that it had all flowed away from under him, none being left except what he had got in his two I hands.

[ " Ah ! " says the commentator, " money is properly a j circulating medium, and is not intended for a man to i lie upon and keep all to himself."]2

1 See No. II., note 2.

2 The Chinese, fond as they are of introducing water, under the i form of miniature lakes, into their gardens and pleasure-grounds, do ; not approve of a running stream near the dwelling-house, I myself j knew a case of a man, provided with a pretty little house, rent free, alongside of which ran a mountain-rill, who left the place and j paid for lodgings out of his own pocket rather than live so close to j a stream which he averred carried all his good luck away. Yet this i man was a fair scholar and a graduate to boot.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO.

LXXXI. THE INJUSTICE OF HEAVEN.

MR. Hsu was a magistrate at Shantung. A certain upper chamber of his house was used as a store-room ; but some creature managed so frequently to get in and make havoc among the stores, for which the servants were always being scolded, that at length some of the latter determined to keep watch. By-and-by they saw a huge spider as big as a peck measure, and hurried off to tell their master, who thought it so strange that he gave orders to the servants to feed the insect with cakes. It thus became very tame, and would always come forth when hungry, returning as soon as it had taken enough to eat.1 Years passed away, and one day Mr. Hsii was consulting his archives, when suddenly the spider appeared and ran under the table. Thinking it was hungry, he bade his servants give it a cake ; but the next moment he noticed two snakes, of about the thick- ness of a chop-stick, lying one on each side. The spider

1 That Chinaman thinks his a hard lot who cannot "eat till he is full." It may be noticed here that the Chinese seem not so much to enjoy the process of eating as the subsequent state of repletion. As a rule, they bolt their food, and get their enjoyment out of it afterwards.

112 STRANGE STORIES

drew in its legs as if in mortal fear, and the snakes began to swell out until they were as big round as an egg ; at which Mr. Hsu was greatly alarmed, and would have hurried away, when crash ! went a peal of thunder, killing every person in the house. Mr. Hsu himself re- covered consciousness after a little while, but only to see his wife and servants, seven persons in all, lying dead ; and after a month's illness he, too, departed this life, j Now Mr. Hsu was an upright, honourable man, who i really had the interests of the people at heart. A sub- j scription was accordingly raised to pay his funeral | expenses, and on the day of his burial the air was rent for miles round with cries of weeping and lamentation.

[Hereon the commentator, I Shih-shih, makes the following remark : — " That dragons play with pearls 2 I have always regarded as an old woman's tale. Is it ; possible, then, that the story is a fact? I have heard, j too, that the thunder strikes only the guilty man;3 and, j if so, how could a virtuous official be visited with this dire calamity?"]

1 The full explanation and origin of this saying I have failed to j elucidate. Dragons are often represented with pearls before their i mouths; and these they are supposed to spit out or swallow as I fancy may take them. The pearl, too, is said to be the essence of I the dragon's nature, without which it would be powerless ; but this i is all I know about the subject.

3 Such is the common belief in China at the present day. There is a God of Thunder who punishes wicked people ; the lightning is : merely a mirror, by the aid of which he singles out his victims.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 113

LXXXIL

THE SEA-SERPENT.

A TRADER named Chia was voyaging on the south seas, when one night it suddenly became as light as day on board his ship. Jumping up to see what was the matter, he beheld a huge creature with its body half out of the water, towering up like a hill. Its eyes resembled two suns, and threw a light far and wide ; and when the trader asked the boatmen what it was, there was not one who could say. They all crouched down and watched it ; and by-and-by the monster gradually disappeared in the water again, leaving everything in darkness as before. And when they reached port, they found all the people talking about a strange phenomenon of a great light that had appeared in the night, the time of which coincided exactly with the strange scene they themselves had wit- nessed.1

1 The "sea-serpent" in this case was probably nothing more or less than some meteoric phenomenon. VOL. II. I

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LXXXIII. THE MAGIC MIRROR.1

" . . . . BUT if you would really like to have some- thing that has belonged to me," said she, " you shall." Whereupon she took out a mirror and- gave it to him, saying, " Whenever you want to see me, you must look for me in your books ; otherwise I shall not be visible ; " —and in a moment she had vanished. Liu went home very melancholy at heart; but when he looked in the mirror, there was Feng-hsien, standing with her back to him, gazing, as it were, at some one who was going away, and about a hundred paces from her. He then be- thought himself of her injunctions, and settled down to his studies, refusing to receive any visitors ; and a few days subsequently, when he happened to look in the mirror, there was Feng-hsien, with her face turned to- wards him, and smiling in every feature. After this, he was always taking out the mirror to look at her ; how- ever, in about a month his good resolutions began to disappear, and he once more went out to enjoy himself

1 The following is merely a single episode taken from a long and otherwise uninteresting story. Miss Feng-hsien was a fox ; hence her power to bestow such a singular present as the mirror here described, the object of which was to incite her lover to success— the condition of their future union.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 115

and waste his time as before. When he. returned home and looked in the mirror, Feng-hsien seemed to be crying bitterly ; and the day after, when he looked at her again, she had her back turned towards him as on the day he received the mirror. He now knew that it was because he had neglected his studies, and forthwith set to work again with all diligence, until in a month's time she had turned round once again. Henceforward, when- ever anything interrupted his progress, Feng-hsien's countenance became sad ; but whenever he was getting on well, her sadness was changed to smiles. Night and morning Liu would look at the mirror, regarding it quite in the light of a revered preceptor ; and in three years' time he took his degree in triumph. " Now," cried he, " I shall be able to look Feng-hsien in the face." And there, sure enough, she was, with her delicately-pencilled arched eye-brows, and her teeth just showing between her lips, as happy-looking as she could be, when, all of a sudden, she seemed to speak, and Liu heard her say, " A pretty pair we make, I must allow " — and the next moment Feng-hsien stood by his side.

I 2

n6

STRANGE STORIES

LXXXIV. COURAGE TESTED.

MR. TUNG was a Hsu-chou man, very fond of playing broad-sword, and a light-hearted, devil-may-care fellow, who was often involving himself in trouble. One day he' fell in with a traveller who was riding on a mule and going the same way as himself; whereupon they entered into conversation, and began to talk to each other about feats of strength and so on. The traveller said his name was T'ung,1 and that he belonged to Liao-yang; that he had been twenty years away from home, and had just returned from beyond the sea. "And I venture to say," cried Tung, "that in your wanderings on the Four Seas2

• .

1 Besides the all-important aspirate, this name is pronounced in a different tone from the first-mentioned "Tung;" and is moreover expressed in writing by a totally different character. To a Chinese ear, the two words are as unlikely to be confounded as Brown and Jones.

2 The Four Seas are supposed by the Chinese to bound the habitable portions of the earth, which, by the way, they further believe to be square. In the centre of all is China, extending far and wide in every direction,— the eye of the universe, the Middle Kingdom. Away at a distance from her shores lie a number of small islands, wherein dwell such barbarous nations as the English, French, Dutch, etc.

re i

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. I] 7

you have seen a great many people ; but have you seen any supernaturally clever ones ? " T'ung asked him to what he alluded ; and then Tung explained what his own particular hobby was, adding how much he would like to learn from them any tricks in the art of broad-sword. " Supernatural," replied the traveller, "are to be found everywhere. It needs but that a man should be a loyal subject and a filial son for him to know all that the supernaturals know." "Right you are, indeed!" cried Tung, as he drew a short sword from his belt, and, tapping the blade with his fingers, began to accompany it with a song. He then cut down a tree that was by the wayside, to shew T'ung how sharp it was ; at which T'ung smoothed his beard and smiled, begging to be allowed to have a look at the weapon. Tung handed it to him, and, when he had turned it over two or three times, he said, " This is a very inferior piece of steel ; now, though I know nothing about broad-sword myself, I have a weapon which is really of some use." He then drew from beneath his coat a sword of a foot or so in length, and with it he began to pare pieces off Tung's sword, which seemed as soft as a melon, and which he cut quite away like a horse's hoof. Tung was greatly astonished, and borrowed the other's sword to examine it, returning it after carefully wiping the blade. He then invited T'ung to his house, and made him stay the night ; and, after begging him to explain the mystery of his sword, began to nurse his leg and sit listening respect- fully without saying a word. It was already pretty late, when suddenly there was a sound of scuffling next door,

Il8 STRANGE STORIES

where Tung's father lived ; and, on putting his ear to the wall, he heard an angry voice saying, " Tell your son to come here at once, and then I will spare you." This was followed by other sounds of beating and a continued groaning, in a voice which Tung knew to be his father's. He therefore seized a spear, and was about to rush forth, but T'ung held him back, saying, " You'll be killed for a certainty if you go. Let us think of some other plan." Tung asked what plan he could suggest ; to which the other replied, " The robbers are killing your father : there is no help for you ; but as you have no brothers, just go and tell your wife and children what your last wishes are, while I try and rouse the servants." Tung agreed to this, and ran in to tell his wife, who clung to him and implored him not to go, until .at length all his courage had ebbed away, and he went upstairs with her to get his bow and arrows ready to resist the robbers attack. At that juncture he heard the voice of his friend T'ung, outside on the eaves of the house, saying, with a laugh, "All right; the robbers have gone;" but on lighting a candle, he could see nothing of him. He then stole out to the front door, where he met his father with a lantern in his hand, corning in from a party at a neighbour's house ; and the whole court-yard was covered with the ashes of burnt grass, whereby he knew that T'ung the traveller was himself a supernatural.8

3 The commentator, I Shih-shih, adds a note to this story which might be summed up in our own —

"The [wo] man that deliberates is lost."

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 119

LXXXV. THE DISEMBODIED FRIEND.

MR. CH'EN, M.A., of Shun-t'ien Fu, when a boy of sixteen, went to school at a Buddhist temple.1 There were a great many scholars besides himself, and, among others, one named Ch'u, who said he came from Shan- tung. This Ch'u was a very hard-working fellow ; he never seemed to be idle, and actually slept in the school- room, not going home at all. Ch'en became much attached to him, and one day asked him why he never went away. "Well, you see," replied Ch'u, "my people are very poor, and can hardly afford to pay for my schooling ; but, by dint of working half the night, two of my days are equal to three of anybody else's." Thereupon Ch'en said he would bring his own bed to the school, and that they would sleep there together ; to which Ch'u replied that the teaching they got wasn't worth much, and that they would do better by putting

1 Buddhist priests not unusually increase the revenue of their monastery by taking pupils ; and it is only fair to them to add that the curriculum is strictly secular, the boys learning precisely what they would at an ordinary school and nothing else.

I2O

STRANGE STORIES

themselves under a certain old scholar named Lii. This they were easily able to do, as the arrangement at the temple was monthly, and at the end of each month any- one was free to go or to come. So off they went to this Mr. Lii, a man of considerable literary attainments, who had found himself in Shun-t'ien Fu without a cash in his pocket, and was accordingly obliged to take pupils. He was delighted at getting two additions to his number and, Ch'u showing himself an apt scholar, the two sooi became very great friends, sleeping in the same room an< eating at the same table. At the end of the month Ch' asked for leave of absence, and, to the astonishment of all, ten days elapsed without anything being heard of him. It then chanced that Ch'en went to the T'ien-nin^ temple, and there he saw Ch'u under one of the veran- dahs, occupied in cutting wood for lucifer-matches.' The latter was much disconcerted by the arrival oi Ch'en, who asked him why he had given up his studies so the latter took him aside, and explained that he w£ so poor as to be obliged to work half a month to sera] together funds enough for his next month's schooling.

2 These consist simply of thin slips of wood dipped in brimstone, and resemble those used in England as late as the first quarter the present century. They are said to have been invented by the people of Hang-chou, the capital of Chekiang ; but it is quite possible that the hint may have first reached China from the west. They were called yin kiiang "bring light," (cf. lucifer), fa cht "give forth illumination," and other names. Lucifer matches are now generally spoken of as tzA lai huo "self-come fire," and are almost universally employed, except in remote parts where the flint and steel still hold sway.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 121

" You come along back with me," cried Ch'en, on hearing this, " I will arrange for the payment," which Ch'u im- mediately consented to do on condition that Ch'en would keep the whole thing a profound secret. Now Ch'en's father was a wealthy tradesman, and from his till Ch'en abstracted money wherewith to pay for Ch'u ; and by- and-by, when his father found him out, he confessed why he had done so. Thereupon Ch'en's father called him a fool, and would not let him resume his studies ; at which Ch'u was much hurt, and would have left the school too, but that old Mr. Lii discovered what had taken place, and gave him the money to return to Ch'en's father, keeping him still at the school, and treating him quite like his own son. So Ch'en studied no more, but whenever he met Ch'u he always asked him to join in some refresh- ment at a restaurant, Ch'u invariably refusing, but yielding at length to his entreaties, being himself loth to break off their old acquaintanceship.

Thus two years passed away, when Ch'en's father died, and Ch'en went back to his books under the guidance of old Mr. Lii, who was very glad to see such determi- nation. Of course Ch'en was now far behind Ch'u ; and in about six months Lii's son arrived, having begged his way in search of his father, so Mr. Lii gave up his school and returned home with a purse which his pupils had made up for him, Ch'u adding nothing thereto but his tears. At parting, Mr. Lii advised Ch'en to take Ch'u as his tutor, and this he did, establishing him com- fortably in the house with him. The examination was very shortly to commence, and Ch'en felt convinced that

122 STRANGE STORIES

he should not get through ; but Ch'u said he thought he should be able to manage the matter for him. On the appointed day he introduced Ch'en to a gentleman who he said was a cousin of his, named Liu, and asked Ch'en to accompany this cousin, which Ch'en was just proceeding to do when Ch'u pulled him back from be- hind,3 and he would have fallen down but that the cousin pulled him up again, and then, after having scrutinized his appearance, carried him off to his own house. There being no ladies there, Ch'en was put into the inner apartments ; and a few days afterwards Liu said to him, "A great many people will be at the gardens to-day ;, let us go and amuse ourselves awhile, and afterwards I will send you home again." He then gave orders that a servant should proceed on ahead with tea and wine, and by-and-by they themselves went, and were soon in the thick of the fete. Crossing over a bridge, they saw beneath an old willow tree a little painted skiff, and were soon on board, engaged in freely passing round the wine. However, finding this a little dull, Liu bade his servant go and see if Miss Li, the famous singing- girl, was at home; and in a few minutes the servant returned bringing Miss Li with him. Ch'en had met her before, and so they at once exchanged greetings, while Liu begged her to be good enough to favour them with a song. Miss Li, who seemed labouring under a fit of melancholy, forthwith began a funeral dirge ; at which

3 The whole point of the story hinges on this.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 123

Ch'en was not much pleased, and observed that such a theme was hardly suitable to the occasion. With a forced smile, Miss Li changed her key, and gave them a love-song ; whereupon Ch'en seized her hand, and said, "There's that song of the Huan-sha river,4 which you sang once before ; I have read it over several times, but have quite forgotten the words." Then Miss Li be- gan—

" Eyes overflowing with tears, she sits gazing into her glass, Lifting the bamboo screen, one of her comrades approaches ; She bends her head and seems intent on her bow-like slippers, And forces her eyebrows to arch themselves into a smile. With her scarlet sleeve she wipes the tears from her perfumed

cheek, In fear and trembling lest they should guess the thoughts that

o'erwhelm her."5

Ch'en repeated this over several times, until at length the skiff stopped, and they passed through a long veran- dah, where a great many verses had been inscribed on the walls,6 to which Ch'en at once proceeded to add a stanza of his own. Evening was now coming on, and Liu remarked that the candidates would be just about

4 Beside which lived Hsi Shih, the famous beauty of the fifth century after Christ.

5 I fear that the translation of this "Singing-girl's Lament" falls so considerably below the pathetic original as to give but a poor idea of the real merit of the latter as a lyric gem.

6 The Chinese have precisely the same mania as our Browns, Joneses, and Robinsons, for scribbling and carving their names and compositions all over the available parts of any place of public resort. The literature of inn walls alone would fill many ponderous tomes.

124 STRANGE STORIES

leaving the examination-hall;7- so he escorted him back to his own home, and there left him. The room was dark, and there was no one with him ; but by-and-by the servants ushered in some one whom at first he took to be Ch'u. However, he soon saw that it was not Ch'u, and in another moment the stranger had fallen against him and knocked him down. " Master 's fainted ! " cried the servants, as they ran to pick him up ; and then Ch'en discovered that the one who had fallen down was really no other than himself.8 On getting up, he saw Ch'u standing by his side ; and when they had sent away the servants the latter said, " Don't be alarmed : I am nothing more than a disembodied spirit. My time for re-appearing on earth9 is long overdue, but I could not forget your great kindness to me, and accordingly I have remained under this form in order to assist in the accom- plishment of your wishes. The three bouts10 are over, and your ambition will be gratified." Ch'en then inquired if Ch'u could assist him in like manner for his doctor's degree ; to which the latter replied, " Alas ! the luck descending to you from your ancestors is not equal to that.11 They were a niggardly lot, and unfit for the

7 The examination, which lasts nine days, has been going on all this time.

8 That is, his own body, into which Ch'u's spirit had temporarily passed, his own occupying, meanwhile, the body of his friend.

9 That is, for being born again, the sole hope and ambition of a disembodied shade.

10 See No. LXXL, note I.

11 See No. LXL, note 3.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 125

posthumous honours you would thus confer on them." Ch'en next asked him whither he was going ; and Ch'u replied that he hoped, through the agency of his cousin, who was a clerk in Purgatory, to be born again in old Mr. Lii's family. They then bade each other adieu ; and, when morning came, Ch'en set off to call on Miss Li, the singing-girl ; but on reaching her house he found that she had been dead some days.12 He walked on to the gardens, and there he saw traces of verses that had been written on the walls, and evidently rubbed out, so as to be hardly decipherable. In a moment it flashed across him that the verses and their composers belonged to the other world. Towards evening Ch'u re-appeared in high spirits, saying that he had succeeded in his design, and had come to wish Ch'en a long fare- well. Holding out his open palms, he requested Ch'en to write the word Cfcu on each ; and then, after refusing to take a parting cup, he went away, telling Ch'en that the examination-list would soon be out, and that they would meet again before long. Ch'en brushed away his tears and escorted him to the door, where a man, who had been waiting for him, laid his hand on Ch'u's head and pressed it downwards until Ch'u was perfectly flat. The man then put him in a sack and carried him off on his back. A few days afterwards the list came out, and, to his great joy, Ch'en found his name among the successful candidates ; whereupon he immediately started

12 His own spirit in Ch'u's body had met her in a disembodied state.

126 STRANGE STORIES

off to visit his old tutor, Mr. Lii.13 Now Mr. Lii's wife had had no children for ten years, being about fifty years of age, when suddenly she gave birth to a son, who was born with both fists doubled up so that no one could open them. On his arrival Ch'en begged to see the child, and declared that inside its hands would be found written the word Ch'u. Old Mr. Lii laughed at this ; but no sooner had the child set eyes on Ch'en than both its fists opened spontaneously, and there was the word as Ch'en had said. The story was soon told, and Ch'en went home, after making a handsome present to the family; and later on, when Mr. Lii went up for his doctor's degree14 and stayed at Ch'en's house, his son was thirteen years old, and had already matriculated as a candidate for literary honours.

13 Such is the invariable custom. Large presents are usually made by those who can afford the outlay, and the tutor's name has ever afterwards an honourable place in the family records.

14 See No. XLVIIL, note I.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 127

LXXXVL

THE CLOTH MERCHANT.

A CERTAIN cloth merchant went to Ch'ing-chou, where he happened to stroll into an old temple, all tumble- down and in ruins. He was lamenting over this sad state of things, when a priest who 'stood by observed that a devout believer like himself could hardly do better than put the place into repair, and thus obtain favour in the eyes of Buddha. This the merchant con- sented to do ; whereupon the priest invited him to walk into the private quarters of the temple, and treated him with much courtesy ; but he went on to propose that our friend the merchant should also undertake the general ornamentation of the place both inside and out.1 The

1 The elaborate gilding and wood-work of an ordinary Chinese temple form a very serious item in the expense of restoration. Public subscriptions are usually the means employed for raising sufficient funds, the names of subscribers and amount given by each being published in some conspicuous position. Occasionally devout priests — black swans, indeed, in China — shut themselves up in boxes studded with nails, one of which they pull out every time a certain donation is given, and there they remain until every nail is withdrawn. But after all it is difficult to say whether they endure

128 STRANGE STORIES

latter declared he could not afford the expense, and the priest began to get very angry, and urged him so strongly that at last the merchant, in terror, promised to give all the money he had. After this he was preparing to go away, but the priest detained him, saying, "You haven't given the money of your own free will, and con- sequently you'll be owing me a grudge : I can't do better than make an end of you at once." Thereupon he seized a knife, and refused to listen to all the cloth merchant's entreaties, until at length the latter asked to be allowed to hang himself, to which the priest con- sented ; and, showing him into a dark room, told him to make haste about it.

At this juncture, a Tartar-General 2 happened to pass by the temple ; and from a distance, through a breach in the old wall, he saw a damsel in a red dress pass into the priest's quarters. This roused his suspicions,3 and dismounting from his horse, he entered the temple and searched high and low, but without discovering anything. The dark room above-mentioned was locked and double-

these trials so much for the faith's sake as for the funds from which they derive more of the luxuries of life, and the temporary notoriety gained by thus coming before the public. A Chinese proverb says, "The image-maker doesn't worship Buddha. He knows too much about the idol;" and the application of this saying may safely be extended to the majority of Buddhist priests in China.

2 This is the title generally applied to the Manchu commanders of Manchu garrisons, who are stationed at certain of the most important points of the Chinese Empire, and whose presence is intended as a check upon the action of the civil authorities.

3 See No. VI., note 2.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 129

barred, and the priest refused to open it, saying the place was haunted. The General in a rage burst open the door, and there beheld the cloth merchant hanging from a beam. He cut him down at once, and in a short time he was brought round and told the General the whole story. They then searched for the damsel, but she was nowhere to be found, having been nothing more than a divine manifestation. The General cut off the priest's head and restored the cloth merchant's property to him, after which the latter put the temple in thorough repair and kept it well supplied with lights and incense ever afterwards.

Mr. Chao, M.A., told me this story with all its de- tails.4

I

4 The moral being, of course, that Buddha protects those who look afler his interests on earth.

VOL. II. K

STRANGE STORIES

LXXXVIL A STRANGE COMPANION.

HAN KUNG-FU, of Yii-ch'eng, told me that he was one day travelling along a road with a man of his village, named P'eng, when all of a sudden the latter disap- peared, leaving his mule to jog along with an empty saddle. At the same moment, Mr. Han heard his voice calling for assistance, and apparently proceeding from inside one of the panniers strapped across the mule's back ; and on looking closely, there indeed he was in one of the panniers, which, however, did not seem to be at all displaced by his weight. On trying to get him out the mouth of the pannier closed itself tightly; and it was only when he cut it open with a knife that he saw P'eng curled up in it like a dog. He then helped him out, and asked him how he managed to get in ; but this he was unable to say. It further appeared that his family was under fox influence, many strange things of this kind having happened before.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 131

LXXXVIII.

SPIRITUALISTIC SEANCES.

IT is customary in Shantung, when any one is sick, for the womenfolk to engage an old sorceress or medium, who strums on a tambourine and performs certain mysterious antics. This custom obtains even more in the capital, where young ladies of the best families fre- quently organize such seances among themselves. On a table in the hall they spread out a profusion of wine and meat, and burn huge candles which make the place as light as day. Then the sorceress, shortening her skirts, stands on one leg and performs the shang-yang,1 while two of the others support her, one on each side. All this time she is chattering unintelligible sentences,2 some-

1 It is related in the Family Sayings, an apocryphal work which ( professes to give conversations of Confucius, that a number of one- legged birds having suddenly appeared in Ch'i, the Duke of Ch'i sent off to ask the Sage what was the meaning of this strange phenomenon. Confucius replied, "The bird is the shang-yang, and portends beneficial rain." And formerly the boys and girls in Shantung would hop about on one leg, crying, "The shang-yang\i-x-> come ;" after which rain would be sure to follow.

2 Speaking in the unknown tongue, like the Irvingites and others.

K 2

132 STRANGE STORIES

thing between a song and a prayer, the words being con- fused but uttered in a sort of tune ; while the hall re- sounds with the thunder of drums, enough to stun a person, with which her vaticinations are mixed up and lost. By-and-by her head begins to droop, and her eyes to look aslant ; and but for her two supporters she would inevitably fall to the ground. Suddenly she stretches forth her neck and bounds several feet into the air, upon which the other women regard her in terror, saying, " The spirits have come to eat ; " and immediately all the candles are blown out and everything is in total darkness. Thus they remain for about a quarter of an hour, afraid to speak a word, which in any case would not be heard through the din, until at length the sorceress calls out the personal name of the head of the family 3 and some others ; whereupon they immediately relight the candles and hurry up to ask if the reply of the spirits is favourable or otherwise. They then see that every scrap of the food and every drop of the wine has disappeared. Meanwhile, they watch the old woman's expression, whereby they can tell if the spirits are well disposed ; and each one asks her some ques- tion, to which she as promptly replies. Should there be I any unbelievers among the party, the spirits are at once j aware of their presence ; and the old sorceress, pointing !

3 This is a clever hit. The "personal" name of a man may notj be uttered except by his father or mother, grandfather, grand- } mother, uncles, etc. Thus, the mere use of the personal name of] the head of a family proves conclusively that the spirit of some! one of his ancestors must be present.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO.

J33

her finger at such a one, cries out, " Disrespectful mocker ! where are your trousers ? " upon which the mocker alluded to looks down, and lo ! her trousers are gone — gone to the top of a tree in the court-yard, where they will subsequently be found. 4

Manchu women and girls, especially, are firm believers in spiritualism. On the slightest provocation they con- sult their medium, who comes into the room gorgeously dressed, and riding on an imitation horse or tiger.5 In her hand she holds a long spear, with which she mounts the couch6 and postures in an extraordinary manner, the animal she rides snorting or roaring fiercely all the time. Some call her Kuan Ti,7 others Chang Fei, and others again Chou Kung, from her terribly martial

4 I consider the whole of the above a curious story to be found in a Chinese work exactly 200 years old, but no part of it more so than the forcible removal of some part of the clothing, which has been so prominent a feature in the seances of our own day. It may be added that in many a court-yard in Peking will be found one or more trees, which cause the view from the city wall to be very pleasing to the eye, in spite of the filth and ruins which a closer inspection reveals.

5 The arrangement being that of the hobby-horse of by-gone days.

6 The couches of the north of China are brick beds, heated by a stove underneath, and covered with a mat. Upon one of these is generally a dwarf table and a couple of pillows ; and here it is that the Chinaman loves to recline, his wine-kettle, opium-pipe, or tea- pot within reach, and a friend at his side, with whom he may con- verse far into the night.

T See No. LXXIIL, note 3. Chang Fei was the bosom-friend of the last, and was his associate-commander in the wars of the Three Kingdoms. Chou Kung was the first Emperor of the Chou

134 STRANGE STORIES

aspect, which strikes fear into all beholders. And should any daring fellow try to peep in while the seance is going on, out of the window darts the spear, transfixes his hat, and draws it off his head into the room, while women and girls, young and old, hop round one after the other like geese, on one leg, without seeming to get the least fatigued.

dynasty, and a pattern of wisdom and virtue. He is said by the Chinese to have invented the mariner's compass; but the legend will not bear investigation.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 135

LXXXIX.

THE MYSTERIOUS HEAD.

SEVERAL traders who were lodging at an inn in Peking, occupied a room which was divided from the ad- joining apartment by a partition of boards from which a piece was missing, leaving an aperture about as big as a basin. Suddenly a girl's head appeared through the opening, with very pretty features and nicely dressed hair ; and the next moment an arm, as white as polished jade. The traders were much alarmed, and, thinking it was the work of devils, tried to seize the head, which, however, was quickly drawn in again out of their reach. This happened a second time, and then, as they could see no body belonging to the head, one of them took a knife in his hand and crept up against the partition underneath the hole. In a little while the head re- appeared, when he made a chop at it and cut it off, the blood spurting out all over the floor and wall. The traders hurried off to tell the landlord, who immediately reported the matter to the authorities, taking the head with him, and the traders were forthwith arrested and

136 STRANGE STORIES

examined ; but the magistrate could make nothing of the case, and, as no one appeared for the prosecution, the accused, after about six months' incarceration, were accordingly released, and orders were given for the girl's head to be buried.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 137

XC.

THE SPIRIT OF THE HILLS.

A MAN named Li, of I-tu, was once crossing the hills when he came upon a number of persons sitting on the ground engaged in drinking. As soon as they saw Li they begged him to join them, and vied with each other in filling his cup. Meanwhile, he looked about him and noticed that the various trays and dishes contained all kinds of costly food; the wine only seemed to him a little rough on the palate. In the middle of their fun up came a stranger with a face about three feet long and a very tall hat ; whereupon the others were very much alarmed, and cried out, " The hill spirit ! the hill spirit ! " running away in all directions as fast as they could go. Li hid himself in a hole in the ground ; and when by-and-by he peeped out to see what had hap- pened, the wine and food had disappeared, and there was nothing there but a few dirty potsherds and some pieces of broken tiles with efts and lizards crawling over them.1

1 Mr. Li had, doubtless, taken a "drop too much" before he started on his mountain walk.

138 STRANGE STORIES

XCI.

INGRATITUDE PUNISHED.

K'u TA-Yu was a native of the Yang district, and managed to get a military appointment under the com- mand of Tsu Shu-shun.1 The latter treated him most kindly, and finally sent him as Major-General of some troops by which he was then trying to establish the dynasty of the usurping Chows. K'u soon perceived that the game was lost, and immediately turned his forces upon Tsu Shu-shun, whom he succeeded in cap- turing, after Tsu had been wounded in the hand, and whom he at once forwarded as a prisoner to head- quarters. That night he dreamed that the Judge of Purgatory appeared to him, and, reproaching him with his base ingratitude, bade the devil-lictors seize him and scald his feet in a cauldron of boiling oil. K'u then woke up with a start, and found that his feet were very sore and painful ; and in a short time they swelled up, and his toes dropped off. Fever set in, and in his agony he shrieked out, " Ungrateful wretch that I was indeed," and fell back and expired.

1 Of whom I can learn nothing.

FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. 139

XCIL

SMELLING ESSAYS.1

Now as they wandered about the temple they came upon an old blind priest sitting under the verandah, engaged in selling medicines and prescribing for patients. "Ah !" cried Sung, "there is an extraordinary man who is well versed in the arts of composition ; " and im-