Caption

The man's head rolled a few feet.

54.

LOTUS FRAGRANCE.

Translator's note: In this longer story, I have incorporated some of the commentaries into the text, to show how this was normally done in the old Chinese editions of Strange Tales. The commentators were constantly at one's side.

There was a young man by the name of Sang Xiao, from the town of Yizhou. He was orphaned when still a young man, and went to live in Saffron Bank, a small country town nearby. His was a quiet, self-contained nature. He only set foot outside his lodgings twice a day, and then only to eat with his neighbour to the east. The rest of the time he spent alone at home in his studio.

Once his neighbour dropped by and said in jest, 'Living all on your own like this, are you never scared of ghosts and fox-spirits?'

Sang laughed. 'Why should a grown man fear such things? Supposing something of that sort does ever come to visit me, why, if it's male, I have a sharp sword at the ready; and if it's female, I shall simply open my door and invite the young lady in!'

The neighbour went home and plotted with his friends. They persuaded a local sing-song girl to lean a ladder up against Sang's wall and climb into his compound. She tapped her fingers on his door, and Sang peeped out and asked who was there.

'A ghost!' replied a woman's voice.

Sang had the fright of his life, and his teeth started chattering in his head. The sing-song girl lingered a little while, and then went away.

Dan Minglun: Game One enter the sing-song girl.

The next morning, the neighbour called round again at Sang's lodgings, and Sang related his frightening encounter with a ghost, announcing his intention of quitting the place and returning directly to his home town. The neighbour clapped his hands: 'But I thought you said you would invite her in!'

Sang realized at once that they had played a trick on him, and his fears were allayed.

Dan Minglun: A clever, roundabout way of preparing for the next scene.

Six months went by uneventfully, and then one night there came another knock on his studio door, followed by a woman's voice again. This time Sang, confident that it was another of his neighbour's pranks, opened the door and invited the woman in. He gazed in wonder at the ravishing beauty who entered. When he asked her where she hailed from, she replied that her name was Lotus Fragrance, and that she was a sing-song girl from the Western District.

Dan Minglun: Game Two enter the fox, as a consequence of Game One.

Sang was aware that there were quite a number of houses of pleasure in Saffron Bank, and he believed her tale. The lamp was soon extinguished, and the two of them climbed into bed, where they enjoyed to the full the sweet pleasures of love. From that day on, Lotus Fragrance returned to visit him every few nights.

Dan Minglun: The 'real' sing-song girl has prepared us for Lotus Fragrance [the false sing-song girl]. What subtlety, what skill! Li's subsequent appearance is linked to that of Lotus Fragrance. The whole story repeatedly links ghost and fox. They appear together, and the whole is in jest, it happens naturally, without the slightest trace of artifice. This scintillating text, with its strange transformations, grows entirely out of this word 'jest'. The essence of the writer's art lies in the playfulness of his conception.

One evening, Sang was sitting alone, lost in his thoughts, when he became vaguely aware of a woman's form flitting into the room. Thinking it must be Lotus Fragrance on one of her periodic visits, he rose to greet her only to see before him a total stranger, a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, with long flowing sleeves and hair down to her shoulders. She was an exquisite vision, at one and the same time ethereally graceful and sensually alluring. When she moved, she seemed to drift through the air rather than walk. Sang at once had misgivings that she was a fox-spirit, and was greatly afraid.

Dan Minglun: Game Three enter the ghost (as a consequence of Game Two).

'I am a daughter of the Li family,' she told him, as if divining his thoughts. 'My family are well-respected people. Your fame as a man of great refinement and culture has reached my ears, and I have long wished to make your acquaintance.'

Sang felt strongly drawn to her and took hold of her hand, which was cold as ice. 'Why are you so cold?'

'I'm only a young girl,' she replied, 'and extremely delicate by nature. It's a frosty night outside. Of course I am cold!'

She loosened her silken robe, and when they made love, he found her to be a virgin.

'This love of ours was destined to be,' she said to him. 'Tonight I have given you the flower of my purity. Take me in, and I will stay with you for ever and sleep by your side. But first you must tell me if you have some other lover.'

'There is no other,' replied Sang, adding, 'apart from a sing-song girl of the neighbourhood, and she does not come here often.'

'I must avoid her at all costs,' said the girl. 'I am not at all like those women from the houses of pleasure. And you, my love, must keep our secret and be sure never to mention me to her. Whenever she comes, I shall go; when she has gone, I shall return.'

The cock crowed, and she made to leave. But before going, she gave him a tiny embroidered slipper, saying, 'This is something intimate of mine. Touch it, turn it around in your hand, and your thoughts of love will reach me. But be careful never to touch it if there is anyone else present!'

He took the slipper. It was an exquisite thing, tapering to a fine point like a little bodkin for unpicking embroidery knots. The very next evening, when he was alone, he held it again and gazed at it, turning it round in his hand. Suddenly there she was, and soon they were making love. From that time forth, whenever he took out the slipper, there she would be, in answer to his desires.

He marvelled at this strange way she had of appearing, but whenever he asked her to explain, she would merely smile and say, 'I always arrive at the right moment!'

One night, Lotus Fragrance came to see him again. 'My dear!' she said in some alarm. 'You seem to be in very low spirits!'

'Not that I am aware of,' he replied.

That night, when she took her leave, Lotus Fragrance said she would be away for ten days. During this absence of hers, Li spent every night with Sang.

'Why has that lady-friend of yours not been to see you for such a long time?' she asked him one evening. He told her that Lotus Fragrance had gone away for ten days. Li smiled. 'Tell me, dearest, who is the prettier: myself, or this Lotus Fragrance?'

'Perhaps her skin is a little softer and warmer to the touch,' he replied. 'But you are both of you perfection!'

She pulled a face. 'You say that just to humour me! I am sure she's far prettier than I am why, I dare say she is as beautiful as the Moon Goddess herself!'

She seemed most unhappy. Counting the days on her fingers, she calculated that it was already ten days since Lotus Fragrance had gone away. She told Sang that she had decided to spy on her rival, and that he must not breathe a word of it to Lotus Fragrance when she returned.

Dan Minglun: With the spying, the author brings ghost and fox into clear focus. The 'beauty contest' provides the context for the spying. What subtlety!

True to her word, the very next night, Lotus Fragrance came to Sang. She talked and laughed gaily with him, but the moment they withdrew to bed she cried out in a shocked voice, 'Look at you! How dreadfully thin you have grown in these ten days! You must have been sleeping with someone else!'

Sang asked her why she said this.

'I can tell from your aura,' she replied. 'Your pulse is all broken, like a tangled skein of silk. You are possessed by a spirit.'

The following night, Li came and Sang asked her what impression she had formed of Lotus Fragrance.

'Oh, she's very beautiful all right. More beautiful than any woman on earth could ever be. That's the point. She is definitely a fox-spirit. When she went away, I followed her to her hole in the southern hills.'

Sang attributed this remark to jealousy and paid it no heed. But the next night he teased Lotus Fragrance, 'Someone's been saying that you're a fox-spirit. I don't believe it myself, but...'

'Who's been saying so?' snapped Lotus Fragrance, and pressed him for an answer.

Sang laughed awkwardly. 'Oh, I was only teasing...'

'And anyway, what makes fox-spirits so different from humans?' she asked.

'They cast spells on men, they make them fall ill, even die. That's why we are so frightened of them.'

'No!' protested Lotus Fragrance. 'It's not like that at all! A strong young man such as yourself can restore his vital energy three days after the act of love. Even a fox-spirit can do you no harm. But if you go indulging yourself day after day, then a human lover can do you more harm than a fox.

Feng Zhenluan: Wise counsel! Young people, take heed of this!

'You cannot blame everything on foxes! Someone must have been saying nasty things about me.'

Sang denied this, but she only pressed him the more, and in the end he told her all about his new lover, Li.

'I knew it! I could tell there was something strange about the rapid course of your illness! That girl is definitely not human. Don't breathe a word to her. Tomorrow night, I will spy on her...'

The next evening, Li came, but before she and Sang had exchanged more than a few words, they heard a cough outside the window and she fled. In came Lotus Fragrance.

'You are in grave danger! That new girl of yours is a ghost! There is no doubt about it! Allow this infatuation of yours to continue, and you will be going to certain death!'

Sang thought to himself that she too was speaking out of jealousy, and said nothing in reply.

'I know you will find it hard to break with her,' Lotus Fragrance continued, 'but you must. I cannot stand by and watch you waste away and die. Tomorrow I shall bring you some herbs to help you purge this poison. Luckily it has not yet entered too deeply into your body. In ten days' time you should be cured. If you agree, I will stay here by your bedside and nurse you until then.'

The following evening, she came with a small quantity of medicine as promised, and gave it to Sang. The instant he swallowed the first dose, his bowels opened several times. He immediately felt a renewed lightness in his internal organs, and his whole sense of physical vitality was restored. He told her how grateful he was to her, but still he could not bring himself to believe that Li was a ghost. Lotus Fragrance slept by his side every night; but if he tried to make love to her, she refused him.

Dan Minglun: He knows that Li is a ghost, but he can't believe it.

Several days later, he began to put on weight and seemed to be growing stronger. Lotus Fragrance took her leave, earnestly beseeching him once more to break off relations with Li. He assured her with apparent sincerity that he would do so. But the moment she was gone and the door was closed, he trimmed his lamp, took the little slipper in his hand and thought of Li. The very next instant, there she was. She seemed resentful at their long separation (and at Lotus Fragrance's continued presence).

'She has just been caring for me these past few nights,' he protested. 'Surely you cannot hold that against her! You know I love you that is what matters.'

She was somewhat mollified by his words. Sang lay down by her side and whispered, 'I love you deeply! But someone has said that you are a ghost...'

For a long while she was speechless. Then she burst out, 'It's her! It's that slut of a fox putting ideas into your head! You must break with her, or I shall go away and never see you again!'

She broke down and wept. Sang did everything he could to comfort and reassure her, and finally succeeded in calming her down.

The following evening, Lotus Fragrance returned. When she learned that Li had been with him again, she cried angrily, 'Do you want to die?'

Sang gave a little laugh. 'Why are you still so jealous, my darling?'

At this she grew angrier still. 'You were wasting away, you were on the verge of death, and I gave you back your health! If that's jealousy, then you're lucky I was jealous. If I hadn't been, what would have become of you?'

'She said that my illness was caused by a fox-spirit,' said Sang, deliberately goading her on. 'She said I was under a spell.'

'So you are!' sighed Lotus Fragrance. 'You are hopelessly blind! I can see now that something terrible will happen to you, and that whatever I say, you'll hold me to blame. Very well. I shall go away. This time I shall stay away for a hundred days. Then I shall come back to visit you on your sickbed.'

He pleaded with her to stay, but she went away in a fit of angry pique.

From then on, he and Li were inseparable day and night. After two months, he began to feel an overwhelming sense of fatigue, which he shrugged off at first. But he continued to grow thinner day by day, and could barely manage to drink even a cup of congee. He began to consider returning home and letting his own relations take care of him, but could not bear the thought of wrenching himself away from Li. He continued like this for several days, until he could no longer even rise from his bed. His neighbour could see that he was seriously ill, and sent his pageboy round every day with nourishing broths for the invalid.

Sang himself finally began to suspect Li, and one day he said to her, 'Now I regret not having heeded Lotus Fragrance's advice. Look at the state I am in!'

As he spoke, he closed his eyes and drifted into a semiconscious state. A little while later, when he came round and looked about him, Li was nowhere to be seen. Days went by, and still she did not return. He lay there alone in his empty studio, emaciated, longing now for Lotus Fragrance's return with all his heart, just as a farmer longs for the time of his harvest. And then one day, just as he was thinking of her, the door-curtain was raised and in she came.

'My poor country fool!' she said, walking up to his bed with a tender smile. 'Was I telling the truth?'

Sang sobbed, confessing that he had been wrong and begging her to save him.

'This time the illness has entered deep into your vital organs,' said Lotus Fragrance. 'I know of no cure for it now. I have come to bid you adieu, and to prove to you that I was never jealous.'

Sang was overcome with grief.

'Under my pillow,' he said, 'you will find something. I want you to take it and destroy it.'

Lotus Fragrance found the slipper. But, rather than destroy it, she held it up to the lamplight, turning it over and toying with it. At once Li appeared. The instant she saw Lotus Fragrance she turned to flee, but Lotus Fragrance barred the doorway with her body. Sang began to reproach Li for the harm she had done him, and she stood there in silence.

Lotus Fragrance smiled. 'At last we meet face to face! You accused me of bringing this illness on him. Now what do you say?'

Li hung her head and begged forgiveness.

'How could you do this?' continued Lotus Fragrance. 'How could a beautiful girl like you use love as a weapon of hatred?'

Feng Zhenluan: These words about using love as a weapon of hatred are a veritable Book of Life!

The girl flung herself on the ground and wept bitterly. Lotus Fragrance raised her, and asked her to tell her story.

'I am the daughter of Judge Li, the Deputy Prefect,' she began. 'I died when I was a young girl, and they buried me outside the wall of this house before my web of destiny was complete. I died like a silkworm in the spring, woven into its own cocoon, before it could finish making its thread. But my feelings of love Caption

Li hung her head and begged forgiveness.

never died. It was always my heart's desire to be this young man's dearest companion. It was never my intention to cause his death.'