Dan Minglun: It is true that she had no intention of doing so, but with even the best intentions, love can lead to illness and death. Unbridled lust can kill even in a harmonious marriage.

'What I have heard,' said Lotus Fragrance, 'is that ghosts wish their man to die, because once he is dead he is with them for ever.'

'No!' cried the girl. 'Why, when two ghosts are together, there is no joy in it for either of them. If that were the sort of pleasure I wanted, there are dead young men aplenty in the Nether World!'

'What a silly girl you were,' retorted Lotus Fragrance, 'to make love with him like that night after night! Even a human lover would have endangered his health with such indulgence let alone a ghost!'

'Foxes also drive men to their death,' said Li. 'What makes you so different?'

Dan Minglun: In truth it is neither foxes nor ghosts that hurt mortals; mortals hurt themselves. This sums up the entire preceding section. It also harks back to the original jest.

'You are speaking of the fox-spirits that feed themselves by sucking the life out of men. I am not that sort. You see, the truth is, there are harmless foxes, but never harmless ghosts. Ghosts are too dark, they belong for ever to the realm of Yin.'

Hearing this exchange, Sang could deny the truth no longer: Lotus Fragrance was a fox-spirit and Li a ghost. His long acquaintance with the two of them enabled him to accept this extraordinary fact with a certain equanimity. But even as they were talking, he felt his life force waning and gave a cry of pain.

'What are we going to do with our young man?' said Lotus Fragrance to Li. But Li merely blushed with shame and shrank from her despondently.

'I am afraid that even if he were to regain his health,' said Lotus Fragrance, with a wry smile, 'you would be more jealous than ever.'

At this, Li drew herself up, straightened her gown and bowed with some dignity. 'Find a skilled physician to heal him,' she said. 'Free me of my guilt, and I will gladly bury my head beneath the ground and never show my face here again.'

Lotus Fragrance took some medicine from her bag.

'I knew this day would come,' she said. 'When I left, I went searching on the three Fairy Hills. It took me three full months to bring together the necessary herbs. This special remedy of mine will restore any man afflicted with this wasting illness, even when it has reached such an advanced stage. But the cure must be administered by the person who caused the illness. So I must ask you to help me.'

'What must I do?' asked Li.

'All we need is a little saliva from your pretty mouth,' said Lotus Fragrance. 'I shall place one of my pills in his mouth, and then I want you to press your lips to his and spit.'

Li blushed fiercely and lowered her head, turning coyly from side to side and gazing at her embroidered slippers.

Lotus Fragrance laughed. 'One would think you were in love with your slippers...'

The girl was more embarrassed than ever and did not know which way to look.

'Come!' said Lotus Fragrance. 'There's nothing to it! You've done this sort of thing often enough why so coy all of a sudden?'

She took a large bolus-like pill and held it to Sang's lips, then turned to Li and urged her on. Reluctantly Li did as she had been told, put her lips to Sang's and moistened the pill with her saliva.

'Again!' cried Lotus Fragrance, and again Li complied. Three or four times she repeated it, and finally the pill went down. In a little while, his belly began to rumble like thunder. Lotus Fragrance placed another pill between his lips and this time she herself pressed her lips to his and projected her own vital force into him. He felt his Cinnabar Field, the very centre of his being, take fire and his life force quicken within him.

'He is cured!' cried Lotus Fragrance.

Li heard the cock crow and, with some hesitation, departed, leaving Lotus Fragrance to stay and take care of Sang. He remained at home, still too weak to go to his neighbour's for meals, and Lotus Fragrance locked the door from the outside, thereby creating the impression that he had gone home, and deterring any would-be callers. Meanwhile she continued to wait on him day and night, assisted in this by Li, who came every evening and looked up to her now like an elder sister. Lotus Fragrance for her part grew more and more fond of Li.

This menage continued for three months, at the end of which time Sang was fully recovered. Then, for several evenings, there was no sign of Li. When she did finally appear, she stayed only a very short while, and from her face they could see that she was extremely downcast. Lotus Fragrance had often invited her to stay and share their bed, but she had always refused, and this evening was no exception. Later, when she took her leave, Sang went after her and carried her back in his arms, finding her as light as a straw burial-doll. She felt obliged to stay, and curled up on the bed as she was, fully clothed, occupying a space barely two feet long. Lotus Fragrance felt more affectionate towards her than ever, and secretly she urged Sang to embrace her. He tried to wake her, but in vain. Then he himself fell asleep. When he awoke, he reached for her but she had vanished. More than ten days passed by and still there was no sign of her. Sang missed her greatly, and often took out the slipper. Once he and Lotus Fragrance held it together.

'What a delightful creature she is!' said Lotus Fragrance. 'I've grown strangely fond of her myself! It's little wonder that you came to love her so!'

'In the past,' replied Sang, 'she came to me whenever I touched the slipper. I used to wonder what it meant, but I could never imagine that she was a ghost. Now whenever I see the slipper I see her face. It makes me feel so dreadfully sad.'

He wept as he spoke.

Now, just before this, in the Zhang family (a local household of some considerable means), a fifteen-year-old girl called Swallow had suddenly fallen ill, and when her illness was aggravated by an inability to perspire, she died. But the very next morning she appeared to come back to life, sat up in bed and wanted to be running around. Her father bolted the door to prevent her from going out. She began talking as if to herself: 'I am the spirit of the Judge's daughter. A young gentleman named Sang has been very good to me, and is always present in my thoughts. I left one of my slippers with him. I am a ghost, so you will achieve nothing by locking me up.'

Dan Minglun: When she was a ghost, the slipper gave her such pleasure. In her new life, she is still unable to forget it. It is only after her rebirth that she can admit to being a ghost.

Her story seemed to make some sort of strange sense, but afterwards, when the Zhang family asked her how she had come to be where she was, and if she was truly who she said she was, she looked around her in a dazed fashion and was quite unable to provide an explanation. One of them told her that Sang was ill, and that he had left town and gone home. But she insisted that this was not true, which greatly perplexed them.

Sang's neighbour came to hear of this strange event in the Zhang family and of the various claims made by the girl, and he decided to climb his wall and investigate for himself whether his friend was still at home. He soon saw with his own eyes that Sang, so far from having gone away, was sitting in his studio talking to a beautiful lady. He was creeping in on them when, in the confusion of the moment, the beautiful lady vanished. In utter amazement, he asked Sang what was going on.

'Didn't I once say,' laughed Sang, 'that if a woman knocked, I would open the door and let her in!'

Dan Minglun: He prevaricates by alluding to a true event in the past. And at the same time our author is able to remind us of the very beginning of his story.

The neighbour proceeded to tell him about the miraculous revival of Swallow Zhang and the strange things she had been saying. Sang unlocked his outer door at once, wanting to call on the Zhang family in order to learn more. But he could think of no acceptable pretext for doing so.

The girl's mother, Mrs Zhang, had herself meanwhile ascertained to her own great astonishment that the young gentleman named Sang had indeed (as Swallow insisted) never returned home, and she sent one of her serving-women to retrieve the slipper mentioned by Swallow in her deluded ramblings. Sang promptly handed it over, and Swallow was at first overjoyed to have it. But then, when she tried it on, she discovered to her dismay that it was a good inch too small for her. She looked at herself in the mirror, and suddenly to her horror the truth dawned on her: she had come back to life, but in a completely different body. Now she told her new family her entire story, and her mother believed that she was telling the truth.

'To think that I used to be so vain!' sobbed Swallow, continuing to look into the mirror. 'And even then I felt inferior beside Lotus Fragrance! Look at me now! I was prettier by far when I was a ghost!'

She held the slipper in her hand and wept inconsolably, lying there stiff and motionless under her covers from that day forth, and refusing all food. At first her body began to swell. For seven days, she continued to eat nothing and still she did not die. Gradually the swelling subsided, and she began to feel unbearably hungry and started to eat again. After a few days, her body began to itch and her skin fell away, and when she rose one morning, her bedsocks fell off her feet and on to the floor. Picking them up, she saw that they were much too large for her feet; so she tried one of the slippers on again and discovered to her delight that it was now a perfect fit. Looking once more in the mirror, she was overjoyed to see that her features had also been restored to their former beauty. She washed herself, combed her hair and went in to see her mother, everyone staring at her in amazement as she passed by.

Lotus Fragrance heard of this extraordinary transformation and encouraged Sang to send a matchmaker to the Zhangs. He was reluctant to take any such steps, since the Zhang family was so much wealthier than his own. Then, one day, an opportunity arose to make contact. It was old Mrs Zhang's birthday, and Sang went with some of her younger relations to offer his congratulations. When the old lady saw his name card among the others, she told Swallow to peep through the blind and take a look at the guests. Sang was the last to arrive. Swallow had no sooner set eyes on him than she went running out into the room, seized him by the sleeve and wanted to go home with him at once. Her mother reprimanded her, and she left the room in shame and confusion. But Sang himself had meanwhile recognized her as his former lover, and he fell weeping to his knees. The old lady raised him up, not in the least put out or offended. Sang took his leave and asked the girl's uncle to act as a go-between. Mrs Zhang duly selected an auspicious day and announced her intention of welcoming Sang into her family.

On returning to his lodgings, Sang told Lotus Fragrance what had happened and asked her what they should do. She maintained a long and melancholy silence, and then announced that she would have to leave.

'Now that you are getting married,' she said, paying no heed to Sang's tearful pleading, 'how can I possibly stay with you?'

But Sang would not hear of it. He had a plan. It was this. First they should return together as man and wife, he and Lotus Fragrance, to his native village, and then he could return and marry Swallow afterwards. Lotus Fragrance agreed to do this. On his return, Sang explained to the Zhangs how things stood, and although Mrs Zhang was angry to discover that he already had a wife and rebuked him for it, Swallow endeavoured to explain everything to her parents and finally succeeded in talking them round.

The day came for the wedding, and Sang went to fetch his new bride, having prepared his studio as best he could for the occasion. But when the two of them arrived, he found the whole place richly carpeted and ablaze with countless coloured lanterns. Lotus Fragrance accompanied the bride into the nuptial chamber, and when Swallow took off her veil, the two women were reunited in their happy friendship of former days. Lotus Fragrance was present when they drank the wedding cup, and then she asked Swallow to tell her the whole story of her rebirth.

Dan Minglun: What a darling Lotus Fragrance is!

Wang Shizhen: What a fine person was Lotus Fragrance! I have seldom encountered a woman of such rare quality, let alone a fox!

'That day,' began Swallow, 'when I left you both and went away, I was so miserable, I felt entirely lost. I was nothing but a ghost, a vile, strange creature. I was so wretched that I refused to return to my grave, but instead I drifted here and there on the wind, envying every living soul. In the daytime, I clung to the grasses and trees; by night, I roamed from one place to another. By chance I came to the Zhang home and saw a young girl lying dead on her bed. I went up to her, and somehow, without knowing how, I came back to life again through her.'

Lotus Fragrance listened to her tale in silence, deep in thought.

Feng Zhenluan: Even a ghost needs will power!

Two months passed, and Lotus Fragrance bore Sang a son. After the birth, she fell suddenly ill and her condition grew more and more serious. She took Swallow by the hand one day. 'I wish to entrust my child the fruit of my karma to your care. My child is your child.'

Swallow wept to hear this and tried to comfort her. They called in doctors and clairvoyants, but Lotus Fragrance sent them all away. The illness reached its crisis, and her life hung by a thread. Sang and Swallow stood weeping at her bedside when suddenly she opened her eyes wide.

'Do not weep!' she said. 'You find your joy in life, I find mine in death. If it is our karma, we will see each other again ten years from now.'

And with these words she died.

When they lifted the bedcovers to prepare her for burial, they found the body of a fox. But Sang refused to regard her as a supernatural being, and buried her with all the usual ceremony.

Dan Minglun: Only after death does her body really become that of a fox.

The boy was named Foxy (Hu-er), and Swallow reared him as if he were her own. On every Qing Ming Festival, she went to Lotus Fragrance's grave with the child in her arms and wept for her friend.

The years went by, and Foxy grew into a young man. He succeeded in the provincial examination, and the family prospered. But Swallow herself was never able to conceive. Foxy was highly intelligent, but he was always a frail boy and susceptible to illness, and Swallow was forever urging Sang to take a concubine in order to have another son.

One day, their maid came hurrying in. 'There's an old woman outside,' she announced, 'with a young girl for sale.'

Swallow invited the woman in, and the moment she saw the girl she let out a great cry. 'It's Lotus Fragrance returned from the grave!'

Sang studied the girl. She did indeed bear an astonishing resemblance to Lotus Fragrance. He asked the old lady the girl's age, and she told him that she was fourteen years old. When he asked her the price she wanted, she replied, 'The girl is all I have. But if she can find a good home and I can end up with enough to feed myself and save my old bones from the gutter, I'll be content.'

Sang paid her a generous price for the girl. Swallow took her by the hand and led her to her private apartment, where she pinched her cheek and laughed. 'Don't you recognize me?'

'No, I don't.'

When Swallow asked her her name, she replied, 'I am from the Wei family. My father used to sell soy milk in Xu City. He's been dead three years.'

Feng Zhenluan: How dull it would have been if the author had wasted a lot of ink explaining the details of Lotus Fragrance's reincarnation!

Swallow counted silently on her fingers. It was exactly fourteen years since the death of Lotus Fragrance. She looked again carefully at the girl: her features, her manner they were all exactly those of Lotus Fragrance. She patted her on the head. 'Sister Lotus! Sister Lotus! You said we would meet again after ten years and you have kept your promise.'

The girl suddenly awoke as if from a dream and gave a great cry, staring fixedly at Swallow.

'She is the swallow of yesteryear,' put in Sang with a smile.

The girl wept. 'It is all true! It must be! I remember my mother telling me that I was able to speak the day I was born. She thought it an ill omen and gave me dog's blood to drink, to make me forget my past life. Now I have woken from what seems like a dream. And you were once Miss Li who felt ashamed to be a ghost?'

They talked of their former lives, and there was joy and sorrow mingled in their words.

One day, at the Qing Ming Festival, Swallow said, 'This is the day my husband and I always go to weep at your grave.'

The three of them went together to the grave, which was completely overgrown, with a large tree above it casting a broad shade. The girl heaved a deep sigh, and Swallow turned to Sang: 'Sister Lotus and I have been close in two lifetimes. We never wish to be parted again. Take my bones and bury them with hers.'

Dan Minglun: Strange, that both ghost and fox should now be human beings! Stranger still that their bones from a previous existence should finally be buried together! If ghosts and foxes are like this, what harm can they possibly do?

Sang did as she asked. He opened the Li family grave and took out the bones of the girl who had become first a wandering ghost and then Swallow, carried them home and buried them with those of Lotus Fragrance, who had died as a fox and been reborn as a soy-milk vendor's daughter.

When they heard this extraordinary tale, many of Sang's friends and relations dressed in respectful attire and came to pray at the grave of their own accord.

I was travelling south through Yizhou in the year gengxu, when I was detained by the rain and had to put up at the inn. A man named Liu Zijing, a cousin of Sang's, showed me an account of Sang's life written by a certain Wang Zizhang, a close friend of Liu's. It was well over ten thousand words long. What I have given here is merely the gist of it.

55.

KING OF THE NINE MOUNTAINS.

There was a certain gentleman by the name of Li from the town of Caozhou, an official scholar of the town, whose family had always been well off, though their residence had never been extensive. The garden behind their house, of an acre or two, had been largely abandoned.

One day, an old man arrived at the house, inquiring about a place to rent. He said he was willing to spend as much as a hundred taels, but Li declined, arguing that he had insufficient space.

'Please accept my offer,' pleaded the old man. 'I will cause you no trouble whatsoever.'

Li did not quite understand what he meant by this, but finally agreed to accept the money and see what happened.

A day later, the local people saw carriages and horses and a throng of people streaming into the garden behind Li's residence. They found it hard to believe that the place could accommodate so many, and asked Li what was going on. He himself was quite at a loss to explain, and hurried in to investigate, but found no trace of anything.

A few days later, the old man called on him again.

'I have enjoyed your hospitality already for several days and nights,' he said. 'Things have been very hectic. We have been so busy settling in, I am afraid we simply have not had time to entertain you as we should have done. Today I have asked my daughters to prepare a little meal, and I hope you will honour us with your presence.'

Li accepted the invitation and followed the old man into the garden, where this time he beheld a newly constructed range of most splendid and imposing buildings. They entered one of these, the interior of which was most elegantly appointed. Wine was being heated in a cauldron out on the verandah, while the delicate aroma of tea emanated from the kitchen. Presently wine and food were served, all of the finest quality and savour. Li could hear and see countless young people coming and going in the courtyard, and he heard the voices of girls chattering and laughing behind gauze curtains. Altogether he estimated that, including family and servants, there must have been over a thousand people living in the garden.

Li knew they must all be foxes. When the meal was finished, he returned home and secretly resolved to find a way of killing them. Every time he went to market he bought a quantity of saltpetre, until he had accumulated several hundred catties of the stuff, which he put down everywhere in the garden. He set light to it, and the flames leaped up into the night sky, spreading a cloud of smoke like a great black mushroom. The pungent odour of the smoke and the choking particles of burning soot prevented anyone from getting close, and all that could be heard was the deafening din of a thousand screaming voices. When the fire had finally burned itself out and Li went into the garden, he saw the bodies of dead foxes lying everywhere, countless numbers of them, charred beyond recognition. He was still gazing at them when the old man came in from outside, an expression of utter devastation and grief on his face.

'What harm did we ever do you?' he reproached Li. 'We paid you a hundred taels far more than it was worth to rent your ruin of a garden. How could you be so cruel as to destroy every last member of my family? It is a terrible thing that you have done, and we will most certainly be revenged!'

And with those bitter words of anger, he took his leave.

Li was concerned that he would cause trouble. But a year went by without any strange or untoward occurrence.

It was the first year of the reign of the Manchu Emperor Shunzhi. There were hordes of bandits up in the hills, who formed huge roving companies which the authorities were quite powerless to apprehend. Li had numerous dependants and was especially concerned at the disturbances.

Caption

'What harm did we ever do you?'