designation[93] was Hsiao-ming. He was a fine manly fellow, but an
egregious dunce, though he tried hard to learn. One day he was taking
wine with a number of fellow-students, when one of them said to him,
by way of a joke, “People credit you with plenty of pluck. Now, if you
will go in the middle of the night to the Chamber of Horrors,[94] and
bring back the Infernal Judge from the left-hand porch, we’ll all
stand you a dinner.” For at Ling-yang there was a representation of
the Ten Courts of Purgatory, with the Gods and devils carved in wood,
and almost life-like in appearance; and in the eastern vestibule there
was a full-length image of the Judge with a green face, and a red
beard, and a hideous expression in his features. Sometimes sounds of
examination under the whip were heard to issue during the night from
both porches, and persons who went in found their hair standing on end
from fear; so the other young men thought it would be a capital test
for Mr. Chu. Thereupon Chu smiled, and rising from his seat went
straight off to the temple; and before many minutes had elapsed they
heard him shouting outside, “His Excellency has arrived!” At this they
all got up, and in came Chu with the image on his back, which he
proceeded to deposit on the table, and then poured out a triple
libation in its honour. His comrades who were watching what he did,
felt ill at ease, and did not like to resume their seats; so they
begged him to carry the Judge back again. But he first poured some
wine upon the ground, invoking the image as follows:--“I am only a
fool-hardy, illiterate fellow: I pray Your Excellency excuse me. My
house is close by, and whenever Your Excellency feels so disposed I
shall be glad to take a cup of wine with you in a friendly way.” He
then carried the Judge back, and the next day his friends gave him the
promised dinner, from which he went home half-tipsy in the evening.
But not feeling that he had had enough, he brightened up his lamp, and
helped himself to another cup of wine, when suddenly the bamboo
curtain was drawn aside, and in walked the Judge. Mr. Chu got up and
said, “Oh, dear! Your Excellency has come to cut off my head for my
rudeness the other night.” The Judge parted his thick beard, and
smiling, replied, “Nothing of the kind. You kindly invited me last
night to visit you; and as I have leisure this evening, here I am.”
Chu was delighted at this, and made his guest sit down, while he
himself wiped the cups and lighted a fire.[95] “It’s warm weather,”
said the Judge; “let’s drink the wine cold.” Chu obeyed, and putting
the bottle on the table, went out to tell his servants to get some
supper. His wife was much alarmed when she heard who was there, and
begged him not to go back; but he only waited until the things were
ready, and then returned with them. They drank out of each other’s
cups,[96] and by-and-by Chu asked the name of his guest. “My name is
Lu,” replied the Judge; “I have no other names.” They then conversed
on literary subjects, one capping the other’s quotation as echo
responds to sound. The Judge then asked Chu if he understood
composition; to which he answered that he could just tell good from
bad; whereupon the former repeated a little infernal poetry which was
not very different from that of mortals. He was a deep drinker, and
took off ten goblets at a draught; but Chu who had been at it all day,
soon got dead drunk and fell fast asleep with his head on the table.
When he waked up the candle had burnt out and day was beginning to
break, his guest having already departed; and from this time the Judge
was in the habit of dropping in pretty often, until a close friendship
sprang up between them. Sometimes the latter would pass the night at
the house, and Chu would show him his essays, all of which the Judge
scored and underlined as being good for nothing. One night Chu got
tipsy and went to bed first, leaving the Judge drinking by himself. In
his drunken sleep he seemed to feel a pain in his stomach, and waking
up he saw that the Judge, who was standing by the side of the bed, had
opened him, and was carefully arranging his inside. “What harm have I
done you?” cried Chu, “that you should thus seek to destroy me?”
“Don’t be afraid,” replied the Judge, laughing, “I am only providing
you with a more intelligent heart.”[97] He then quietly put back Chu’s
viscera, and closed up the opening, securing it with a bandage tied
tightly round his waist. There was no blood on the bed, and all Chu
felt was a slight numbness in his inside. Here he observed the Judge
place a piece of flesh upon the table, and asked him what it was.
“Your heart,” said the latter, “which wasn’t at all good at
composition, the proper orifice being stuffed up.[98] I have now
provided you with a better one, which I procured from Hades, and I am
keeping yours to put in its place.”[99] He then opened the door and
took his leave. In the morning Chu undid the bandage, and looked at
his waist, the wound on which had quite healed up, leaving only a red
seam. From that moment he became an apt scholar, and found his memory
much improved; so much so, that a few days afterwards he showed an
essay to the Judge for which he was very much commended. “However,”
said the latter, “your success will be limited to the master’s degree.
You won’t get beyond that.” “When shall I take it?” asked Chu. “This
year,” replied the Judge. And so it turned out. Chu passed first on
the list for the bachelor’s degree, and then among the first five for
the master’s degree. His old comrades, who had been accustomed to make
a laughing-stock of him, were now astonished to find him a full blown
M.A., and when they learned how it had come about, they begged Chu to
speak to the Judge on their behalf. The Judge promised to assist them,
and they made all ready to receive him; but when in the evening he did
come, they were so frightened at his red beard and flashing eyes that
their teeth chattered in their heads, and one by one they stole away.
Chu then took the Judge home with him to have a cup together, and when
the wine had mounted well into his head, he said, “I am deeply
grateful to Your Excellency’s former kindness in arranging my inside;
but there is still another favour I venture to ask which possibly may
be granted.” The Judge asked him what it was; and Chu replied, “If you
can change a person’s inside, you surely could also change his face.
Now my wife is not at all a bad figure, but she is very ugly. I pray
Your Excellency try the knife upon her.” The Judge laughed, and said
he would do so, only it would be necessary to give him a little time.
Some days subsequently, the Judge knocked at Chu’s door towards the
middle of the night; whereupon the latter jumped up and invited him
in. Lighting a candle, it was evident that the Judge had something
under his coat, and in answer to Chu’s inquiries, he said, “It’s what
you asked me for. I have had great trouble in procuring it.” He then
produced the head of a nice-looking young girl, and presented it to
Chu, who found the blood on the neck was still warm. “We must make
haste,” said the Judge, “and take care not to wake the fowls or
dogs.”[100] Chu was afraid his wife’s door might be bolted; but the
Judge laid his hand on it and it opened at once. Chu then led him to
the bed where his wife was lying asleep on her side; and the Judge,
giving Chu the head to hold, drew from his boot a steel blade shaped
like the handle of a spoon. He laid this across the lady’s neck, which
he cut through as if it had been a melon, and the head fell over the
back of the pillow. Seizing the head he had brought with him, he now
fitted it on carefully and accurately, and pressing it down to make it
stick, bolstered the lady up with pillows placed on either side. When
all was finished, he bade Chu put his wife’s old head away, and then
took his leave. Soon after Mrs. Chu waked up, and perceived a curious
sensation about her neck, and a scaly feeling about the jaws. Putting
her hand to her face, she found flakes of dry blood; and much
frightened called a maid-servant to bring water to wash it off. The
maid-servant was also greatly alarmed at the appearance of her face,
and proceeded to wash off the blood, which coloured a whole basin of
water; but when she saw her mistress’s new face she was almost
frightened to death. Mrs. Chu took a mirror to look at herself, and
was staring at herself in utter astonishment, when her husband came in
and explained what had taken place. On examining her more closely, Chu
saw that she had a well-featured pleasant face, of a medium order of
beauty; and when he came to look at her neck, he found a red seam all
round, with the parts above and below of a different coloured flesh.
Now the daughter of an official named Wu was a very nice-looking girl
who, though nineteen years of age, had not yet been married, two
gentlemen who were engaged to her having died before the day.[101] At
the Feast of Lanterns,[102] this young lady happened to visit the
Chamber of Horrors, whence she was followed home by a burglar, who
that night broke into the house and killed her. Hearing a noise, her
mother told the servant to go and see what was the matter; and the
murder being thus discovered, every member of the family got up. They
placed the body in the hall, with the head alongside, and gave
themselves up to weeping and wailing the livelong night. Next morning,
when they removed the coverings, the corpse was there but the head had
disappeared. The waiting-maids were accordingly flogged for neglect of
duty, and consequent loss of the head, and Mr. Wu brought the matter
to the notice of the Prefect. This officer took very energetic
measures, but for three days no clue could be obtained; and then the
story of the changed head in the Chu family gradually reached Mr. Wu’s
ears. Suspecting something, he sent an old woman to make inquiries;
and she at once recognised her late young mistress’s features, and
went back and reported to her master. Thereupon Mr. Wu, unable to make
out why the body should have been left, imagined that Chu had slain
his daughter by magical arts, and at once proceeded to the house to
find out the truth of the matter; but Chu told him that his wife’s
head had been changed in her sleep, and that he knew nothing about it,
adding that it was unjust to accuse him of the murder. Mr. Wu refused
to believe this, and took proceedings against him; but as all the
servants told the same story, the Prefect was unable to convict him.
Chu returned home and took counsel with the Judge, who told him there
would be no difficulty, it being merely necessary to make the murdered
girl herself speak. That night Mr. Wu dreamt that his daughter came
and said to him, “I was killed by Yang Ta-nien, of Su-ch‘i. Mr. Chu
had nothing to do with it; but desiring a better-looking face for his
wife, Judge Lu gave him mine, and thus my body is dead while my head
still lives. Bear Chu no malice.” When he awaked, he told his wife,
who had dreamt the same dream; and thereupon he communicated these
facts to the officials. Subsequently, a man of that name was captured,
who confessed under the bamboo that he had committed the crime; so Mr.
Wu went off to Chu’s house, and asked to be allowed to see his wife,
regarding Chu from that time as his son-in-law. Mrs. Chu’s old head
was fitted on to the young lady’s body, and the two parts were buried
together.
Subsequent to these events Mr. Chu tried three times for his doctor’s
degree, but each time without success, and at last he gave up the idea
of entering into official life. Then when thirty years had passed
away, Judge Lu appeared to him one night, and said, “My friend, you
cannot live for ever. Your hour will come in five days’ time.” Chu
asked the Judge if he could not save him; to which he replied, “The
decrees of Heaven cannot be altered to suit the purposes of mortals.
Besides, to an intelligent man life and death are much the same.[103]
Why necessarily regard life as a boon and death as a misfortune?” Chu
could make no reply to this, and forthwith proceeded to order his
coffin and shroud;[104] and then, dressing himself in his
grave-clothes, yielded up the ghost. Next day, as his wife was weeping
over his bier, in he walked at the front door, to her very great
alarm. “I am now a disembodied spirit,” said Chu to her, “though not
different from what I was in life; and I have been thinking much of
the widow and orphan I left behind.” His wife, hearing this, wept till
the tears ran down her face, Chu all the time doing his best to
comfort her. “I have heard tell,” said she, “of dead bodies returning
to life; and since your vital spark is not extinct, why does it not
resume the flesh?” “The ordinances of Heaven,” replied her husband,
“may not be disobeyed.” His wife here asked him what he was doing in
the infernal regions; and he said that Judge Lu had got him an
appointment as Registrar, with a certain rank attached, and that he
was not at all uncomfortable. Mrs. Chu was proceeding to inquire
further, when he interrupted her, saying, “The Judge has come with me;
get some wine ready and something to eat.” He then hurried out, and
his wife did as he had told her, hearing them laughing and drinking in
the guest chamber just like old times come back again. About midnight
she peeped in, and found that they had both disappeared; but they came
back once in every two or three days, often spending the night, and
managing the family affairs as usual. Chu’s son was named Wei, and was
about five years old; and whenever his father came he would take the
little boy upon his knee. When he was about eight years of age, Chu
began to teach him to read; and the boy was so clever that by the time
he was nine he could actually compose. At fifteen he took his
bachelor’s degree, without knowing all this time that he had no
father. From that date Chu’s visits became less frequent, occurring
not more than once or so in a month; until one night he told his wife
that they were never to meet again. In reply to her inquiry as to
whither he was going, he said he had been appointed to a far-off post,
where press of business and distance would combine to prevent him from
visiting them any more. The mother and son clung to him, sobbing
bitterly; but he said, “Do not act thus. The boy is now a man, and can
look after your affairs. The dearest friends must part some day.”
Then, turning to his son, he added, “Be an honourable man, and take
care of the property. Ten years hence we shall meet again.” With this
he bade them farewell, and went away.
Later on, when Wei was twenty-two years of age, he took his doctor’s
degree, and was appointed to conduct the sacrifices at the Imperial
tombs. On his way thither he fell in with a retinue of an official,
proceeding along with all the proper insignia,[105] and, looking
carefully at the individual sitting in the carriage, he was astonished
to find that it was his own father. Alighting from his horse, he
prostrated himself with tears at the side of the road; whereupon his
father stopped and said, “You are well spoken of. I now take leave of
this world.” Wei remained on the ground, not daring to rise; and his
father, urging on his carriage, hurried away without saying any more.
But when he had gone a short distance, he looked back, and unloosing a
sword from his waist, sent it as a present to his son, shouting out to
him, “Wear this and you will succeed.” Wei tried to follow him; but,
in an instant, carriage, retinue, and horses, had vanished with the
speed of wind. For a long time his son gave himself up to grief, and
then seizing the sword began to examine it closely. It was of
exquisite workmanship, and on the blade was engraved this
legend:--“_Be bold, but cautious; round in disposition, square in
action._”[106] Wei subsequently rose to high honours, and had five
sons named Ch‘ên, Ch‘ien, Wu, Hun, and Shên. One night he dreamt that
his father told him to give the sword to Hun, which he accordingly
did; and Hun rose to be a Viceroy of great administrative ability.
FOOTNOTES:
[93] Every Chinese man and woman inherits a family name or surname. A
woman takes her husband’s surname, followed in official documents by
her maiden name. Children usually have a pet name given to them soon
after birth, which is dropped after a few years. Then there is the
_ming_ or name, which once given is unchangeable, and by which the
various members of a family are distinguished. But only the father and
mother and certain other relatives are allowed to use this. Friends
call each other by their literary designations or “book-names,” which
are given generally by the teacher to whom the boy’s education is
first entrusted. Brothers and sisters and others have all kinds of
nick-names as with us. Dogs and cats are called by such names as
“Blackey,” “Whitey,” “Yellowy,” “Jewel,” “Pearly,” &c., &c. Junks are
christened “Large Profits,” “Abounding Wealth,” “Favourite of
Fortune,” &c., &c. Places are often named after some striking
geographical feature; _e.g._, _Hankow_--“mouth of the Han river,”
_i.e._, its point of junction with the Yang-tsze; or they have fancy
names, such as _Fuhkien_--“happily established;” _Tientsin_--“Heaven’s
ford;” or names implying a special distinction, such as
_Nanking_--“southern capital;” _Shan-tung_--“east of the mountains,”
&c.
[94] The name given by foreigners in China to the imitation of the ten
torture-chambers of purgatory, as seen in every _Ch‘êng-huang_ or
municipal temple. The various figures of the devil-lictors and the
tortured sinners are made either of clay or wood, and painted in very
bright colours; and in each chamber is depicted some specimen of the
horrible tortures that wicked people will undergo in the world to
come. I have given in the _Appendix_ a translation of the
“_Yü-li-ch‘ao_,” a celebrated Taoist work on this subject, which
should at any rate be glanced at by persons who would understand the
drift of some of these stories.
[95] To heat the wine, which is almost invariably taken hot.
[96] In token of their mutual good feeling.
[97] The Chinese as a nation believe to this day that the heart is the
seat of the intellect and the emotions.
[98] The heart itself is supposed to be pierced by a number of “eyes,”
which pass right through; and in physical and mental health these
passages are believed to be clear.
[99] See No. XII., note 87.
[100] The _Hsi-yüan-lu_, a well-known work on Chinese medical
jurisprudence, and an _officially-authorised book_, while giving an
absurd antidote against a poison that never existed [see my _Chinese
Sketches_, p. 190], gravely insists that it is to be prepared at
certain dates only, “in some place quite away from women, fowls, and
dogs.”
[101] It was almost a wonder that she got a second _fiancé_, few
people caring to affiance their sons in a family where such a
catastrophe has once occurred. The death of an engaged girl is a
matter of much less importance, but is productive of a very curious
ceremony. Her betrothed goes to the house where she is lying dead and
steps over the coffin containing her body, returning home with a pair
of the girl’s shoes. He thus severs all connection with her, and her
spirit cannot haunt him as it otherwise most certainly would.
[102] Held annually on the 15th of the first Chinese month--_i.e._, at
the first full moon of the year, when coloured lanterns are hung at
every door. It was originally a ceremonial worship in the temple of
the First Cause, and dates from about the time of the Han dynasty, or
nearly two thousand years ago.
[103] It was John Stuart Mill who pointed out that the fear of death
is due to “the illusion of imagination, which makes one conceive
oneself as if one were alive and feeling oneself dead” (_The Utility
of Religion_).
[104] “Boards of old age” and “Clothes of old age sold here” are
common shop-signs in every Chinese city; death and burial being
always, if possible, spoken of euphemistically in some such terms as
these. A dutiful son provides, when he can afford it, decent coffins
for his father and mother. They are generally stored in the house,
sometimes in a neighbouring temple; and the old people take pleasure
in seeing that their funeral obsequies are properly provided for,
though the subject is never raised in conversation. Chinese coffins
are beautifully made; and when the body has been in for a day or two,
a candle is closely applied to the seams all round to make sure it is
air-tight,--any crack, however fine, being easily detected by the
flickering of the flame in the escaping gas. Thus bodies may be kept
unburied for a long time, until the geomancer has selected an
auspicious site for the grave.
[105] Gongs, red umbrellas, men carrying boards on which the officer’s
titles are inscribed in large characters, a huge wooden fan, &c., &c.
[106] “Be like a cash” [see No. II., note 42] is a not uncommon saying
among the Chinese, the explanation of which rests upon the fact that a
cash is “round in shape and convenient for use,” which words are
pronounced identically with a corresponding number of words meaning
“round in disposition, square in action.” It is, in fact, a play on
words.
XV.
MISS YING-NING; OR, THE LAUGHING GIRL.