27.

WAILING GHOSTS.

The Chronicler of the Strange himself answers the question posed in the last lines of his tale: 'Only virtue can keep evil spirits at bay!' He adds: 'Self-important personages such as Commissioner Wang take note!' Feng Zhenluan (1818) remarks: 'The title Education Commissioner might scare first-degree scholars, but not ghosts!'

Chang and Chang (Redefining History, p. 139) stress the political message of this story, in which Pu Songling 'divulges the horror of mass killings by Manchu soldiers in his native district... The ghosts of the victims of the Manchu slaughter laugh sarcastically at a Ming turncoat, Wang Qixiang, when he tries to scare away the ghosts by mentioning his new official title under the Manchu regime... The ghosts who died for the Ming cause only laugh at him disgustedly with sarcasm and sadness.'

the Xie Qian troubles in Shandong: Xie Qian's uprising against the Manchus took place in Shandong in 16467, during the early years of the reign of the first Manchu Emperor Shunzhi. Zichuan (Pu Songling's home town) became the rebel capital in July 1647, when Pu Songling was a young boy, and the rebels executed large numbers of 'collaborators' (Ming-dynasty officials who had gone over to the Manchus). Xie Qian's men raided Pu Village (Pu Songling's family home outside Zichuan), and one of the Pu family was killed in the fighting. The rebellion was crushed in August 1647, when the Manchu troops took Zichuan using high-powered cannons. In the massacre that followed, more than three thousand people were randomly killed by the Manchus.

Wang Qixiang: Like Pu Songling, a native of Zichuan. He was a second-degree graduate of 1636 and a jinshi of 1637, who subsequently went over to the Manchus (thus becoming in the eyes of Xie Qian and many others a collaborator) and went on to be Education Commissioner in Shandong. (There is no information available about the other two Wangs in the story, the visiting gentleman and the gate-man.) will-o'-the-wisp flickerings of light: These 'were declared by the ancients to be in the main the products of the blood of those slain by steel, that blood having constituted their essential energy while they lived' (De Groot, The Religious System of China, IV, p. 80, quoting the Luncheng of Wang Chong (2791)). 'In places where fights are fought and people are slain, the blood of men and horses changes after a series of years into will-o'-the-wisps' (ibid., p. 81, quoting the Bowuzhi of Zhang Hua (232300)).

The British fairy-folklorist Katharine Briggs describes the ignis fatuus, or 'foolish fire', as 'sometimes ghostly in origin, a soul who for some sin could not rest' (A Dictionary of Fairies (Harmondsworth, 1976), p. 231), while in Russian folklore, 'these wandering fires are the spirits of stillborn children, which flit between heaven and the Inferno' (Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 16th edn (London, 1999), pp. 6045).

ghosts wailing: In The Religious System of China, V (p. 708), De Groot writes of the mysterious wailings attributed by the Chinese to maleficent ghosts, and comments that it was deemed especially ill-omened and dangerous for a man to hear a spectre call him by his proper name (as was the case in our story, with the young gentleman Wang Gaodi).

28.

THUMB AND THIMBLE.

The foster-mother literally refers to a 'fist-sized mother' and an 'awl-sized baby', the point being that they are both tiny. In the view of Qiu Shengwei (1991), this tale reads like an inconsequential commonplace-book jotting, devoid of any deeper significance. 'After all, there are reports in modern times of such unusual physiological phenomena.' Other modern commentators argue that this tragic story is symptomatic of the oppressive marriage system of China's feudal past, which produced social victims such as this young child-bride.

29.

SCORCHED MOTH THE TAOIST.

Academician Dong: Dong Na, from Pingyuan in north-western Shandong, was ranked third of the jinshi graduates of 1667, eventually rising to be President of the Board of War in the reign of the Manchu Emperor Kangxi (16611722).

Under-Secretary Sun: Sun Guangsi is another historical person, also from Shandong (his family origins were in Pingyin, south-west of Ji'nan), who graduated as jinshi in 1655, later becoming Vice-President of the Board of War.

30.

FRIENDSHIP BEYOND THE GRAVE.

The Chronicler of the Strange writes: That a man's soul may cleave to a True Friend beyond death, oblivious to death itself most people will doubt this, but I believe in it implicitly! Did not love enable the spirit of Qian-niang to find her beloved? [For this Tang-dynasty tale, see Minford and Lau, Classical Chinese Literature, I, pp. 10324.] Do not friends separated by great distances find their way to each other in dreams? How deep it is, the friendship, the predestined affinity between men of letters who spin out their very hearts in intricate webs of words, how deep the friendship between artists and musicians who share inner visions of mountain peaks and rolling streams? [See Classical Chinese Literature, I, pp. 2312, for the famous story 'A Good Listener', about the musician Bo Ya and his friend Zhong Ziqi, who was able to understand his music instinctively. This unspoken 'understanding' is often referred to as a type of true friendship.] Ah! How rare are such encounters!... There are not a few men in this world like Ye, men with high aspirations whose lives end in failure! But how few men there are like Ding, friends to whom we can cleave in life and death! Alas!

Feng Zhenluan (1818) comments: 'This moving note by the Chronicler reads like his own autobiography!' Pu Songling himself failed the second-degree examination (crucial for an official career) countless times. After one such failure (in 1687), he wrote an often-quoted lyric, which includes the lines: It was as if A thousand ladles of cold sweat Drenched my gown, And my soul Left my body; And I was numb, Felt no pain nor itch, But sat listlessly, Praying it was all A bad dream!

Crane Rider: Ding's name alludes to the Taoist mystics who frequently roamed the skies on their winged steeds.

to purchase for Ye the rank... for the second degree: In addition to the normal series of examinations, there existed the possibility of purchasing certain ranks, such as membership of the Imperial College, which enabled the candidate to bypass the first-degree examination and become eligible directly for the all-important second-degree examination.

31.

KARMIC DEBTS.

This tale brings together two recurring themes: the Chinese preoccupation with children and the continuation of the family line on the one hand, and the determining role of karma in key events such as the birth of children on the other. Numerous proverbs drive home the point that virtue (like money) can be accumulated, and that debts (both material and moral) should always be paid. Virtuous sons and daughters are considered to be the visible evidence of previous merit.

As seed corn is from former years reserved, So children are in former lives deserved.

(Clifford Plopper, Chinese Religion Seen through the Proverb (Shanghai, 1926), p. 299) Wang Xianqian: Obtained his jinshi degree in 1570, and rose to be President of the Board of War.

strings of cash: The Chinese traditionally threaded their copper coins or 'cash' on to thongs (usually a thousand coins per thong). The coins had a square hole in the centre for this purpose.

32.

RITUAL CLEANSING.

Chaotian Temple: The Chaotian (Facing Heaven) Temple complex in Peking was built in 1432, north-west of the Forbidden City, by the Ming Emperor Xuande (r. 142636). It was destroyed by fire in 1626. The Spirit Guardians (ling-guan) of which the fox-spirit was so afraid were responsible for cleansing temples of all impurities before special days of worship.

tu-na: In these exercises, stale ('dead') air is exhaled as completely as possible through the mouth, and fresh ('living') air is inhaled through the nose, to fill the lungs to their maximum capacity.

33.

THE DOOR GOD AND THE THIEF.

Eastern Sacred Mountain: The cult of Mount Tai, the easternmost of the Five Sacred Mountains, situated in Shandong, some thirty-one miles south of the provincial capital Ji'nan, goes back to the very beginnings of Chinese history. During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the mountain's sovereign deity (who was judge over the souls of the dead) was officially declared to be 'Lord of this World, Determiner of Birth and Death, Misfortune and Happiness, Honour and Dishonour'. Temples to the mountain are to be found all over China, one of the most famous being in Peking.

34.

THE PAINTED SKIN.

The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: How foolish men are, to see nothing but beauty in what is clearly evil! And how benighted to dismiss as absurd what is clearly well-intended! [Is he referring to the Taoist's earlier advice, which Wang ignores?] It is folly such as this that obliges the lady Chen to steel herself to eat another man's phlegm, when her husband has fallen prey to lust. Heaven's Way has its inexorable justice, but some mortals remain foolish and never see the light!

Dan Minglun (1842) comments wryly: A man who lets a ghost into his own room, ignores his wife's warning, and is blind to the advice of the Taoist priest, is clearly a man in the grip of a serious sexual delusion. The beggar's advice to Wang's wife (that she should not bother bringing her worthless husband back from the dead) is by no means the raving of an idiot, but the wise counsel of an immortal...

The contemporary Taiwanese psychoanalytical critic Wang Yijia has some scathing (and rather pertinent) things to say about the way in which the man in the story (a typical Chinese male both obsessed by and terrified of the Chinese femme fatale) has to rely on his wife to save him. 'This is exactly what Sun Longji [the contemporary Chinese-American historian and cultural theorist, author of The Deep Structure of Chinese Culture (Hong Kong, 1982)] is referring to when he writes of Chinese males depending on their womenfolk to salvage them whenever things get dirty, whenever the going gets rough, thus helping them to restore the status quo the Deep Structure of [male-dominated] Chinese culture' (Liaozhai sougui (Taipei, 1989), p. 129).

This is one of the most widely read of all the Strange Tales. It has been made into a film several times, and continues to be popular for its powerful theme and for the sheer gruesomeness of its detail.

hurrying along... with considerable difficulty: She was handicapped by her bound feet. It is worth noting that the binding (mutilation would be a more honest word) of women's feet is itself never something to which Pu Songling draws attention in his work. However strange we may find it today, it was in his time regarded as completely normal.

finding a substitute: If a ghost, especially the ghost of someone who has died from unnatural causes, can find an uncorrupted corpse, the ghost can enter it and make it a substitute for the ghost's own body.

fly-whisk: Originally made from yak's hair, later horsehair or vegetable fibre, fixed to a short wooden handle, the fly-whisk (chenwei) was an emblem of purity, detachment and supernatural power, carried by Buddhist and Taoist monks. Its Indian origin (as the chauri or chowry) lies in the Buddhist commandment not to take life, the whisk being used to wave away flies and other insects. In Taoism, it is regarded as an instrument of magic.

the Green Emperor: In one version of legend, the Five Chinese Emperors and their elements and planets comprised the Green Emperor of the East (wood, Jupiter); the Red Emperor of the South (fire, Mars); the White Emperor of the West (metal, Venus); the Black Emperor of the North (water, Mercury); and the Yellow Emperor of the Centre (earth, Saturn).

wooden sword: The sword was one of the principal weapons used by Taoist exorcists. Sometimes they were made of wood (peach-wood, willow, mulberry).

plenty of fine men in this world for you to marry: Pu Songling is having fun putting the venerable words of the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (? third century BC) in the mouth of the mad beggar. In the original (Duke Huan, 15th Year), a mother, asked by her daughter whether a father or a husband is 'nearer and dearer', replies: 'Any man may be husband to a woman, but she can have but one father.'