12

Mr. Tao Takes In Strangers Seeking Shelter from the Rain

Jiang Zhenqing Gains a Wife with a Jest

As the poem says,

Every intake of food and drink

Is determined by your lot.

One word said in jest

May lead to a lifelong bond.

Our story makes the point that everything that happens in one’s life is predestined. A casual little joke or a playful word may later turn out to be a prophecy that is fulfilled down to the last detail. Only then does one realize that even at the time of the jest, the ghosts and the spirits were already in action. Nothing happens by accident.

Let me give you an example: In the Chongning reign period [1102–6] of the Song dynasty, a Mr. Wang who lived in the Western Circuit of Zhejiang, having passed the provincial-level examinations at a young age, went to the capital to sit for the triennial national civil-service examinations. Early one evening, he was passing a small house on his way to a banquet in Yanqiu Lane when he saw a ravishingly beautiful girl pacing to and fro by the gate and looking around, as if waiting for someone. As he gazed at her, Mr. Wang saw a boisterous group of men on horseback drawing near. Quickly, the girl slipped back into the house. Mr. Wang hastened to press on without stopping to ask about the family’s surname.

Darkness had come on when Mr. Wang left his banquet in a tipsy state. While passing the same house on his way back, he peered through the tightly closed gate and found the house quiet. Mr. Wang rounded the left corner and kept to the wall as he went along, meaning to see if there was another gate at the back of the house. Several tens of paces away, he did see a small gate, also closed, in front of which was an empty lot about ten feet wide. He said to himself, “The beauty I saw earlier in the day must be inside, but how will I be able to see her again?” He was lingering around the back gate, unable to tear himself away, when something was tossed over the fence wall and fell to the ground with a thud, barely missing him. He picked up the object and saw that it was a piece of tile. The moon had just risen, and it was as light as day. He saw six characters written on the piece of tile: “Wait here under cover of night.”

Feeling somewhat intrigued, young Mr. Wang smiled in his slightly inebriated condition and said to himself, “I wonder who proposed such a tryst. Let me play a prank on them.” He scraped some lime from the fence wall and wrote this line on the back of the piece of tile with the fallen powder: “Come out after the third watch.” After tossing the tile over the fence wall back into the courtyard of the house, he took about ten steps away from the gate and stood there to see what would happen. A few moments later, a young man appeared, walking toward the fence wall. He kept his head lowered and walked back and forth, as if looking for something. Failing to see anything after a while, he sighed as he stood facing the wall and walked away from the house dejectedly, dragging his feet.

Having seen everything clearly from his hiding place in the shadows, young Mr. Wang thought, “This man must be here to keep the appointment. I wonder who asked him to be here. Well, whoever asked him here will surely come out. Let me wait some more.”

It was now the third watch of the night, and the moon was high in the sky, but a mist had gathered. Mr. Wang had sobered up from his wine and felt sleep overtaking him. He stretched, yawned, and thought self-mockingly, “What a busybody I am, poking my nose into other people’s business when I should be in bed, asleep!”

Just as he was about to head for his lodging, he heard a creaking sound from the small gate. It opened, and a woman passed through it. By the light of the moon, Mr. Wang saw that she was quite a beauty. She was followed by an old maidservant carrying a large bamboo suitcase on her back. As they ventured forth, Mr. Wang drew nearer and saw that the girl was none other than the one who had stood at the gate earlier in the day. The girl did not try to shy away from the approaching male figure, but when Mr. Wang was right in front of her, she gave a start and said, “Oh no! It’s not him!” She turned around to look at the old woman.

The old woman rubbed her eyes, stepped up, and peered at Mr. Wang. “No! It’s not him! Let’s turn back!” she exclaimed.

Mr. Wang blocked their way and seized the young woman with one hand. “Wishing to go back inside, eh? Is it right for an unmarried young lady to meet a lover under cover of night? If I make a fuss about this and take you to the authorities, your whole family won’t be able to live down the scandal! The very fact that I happened to run into you at this moment means there’s a predestined bond between you and me. You might just as well go with me to my place. I’m a juren, here in the capital to sit for the exams. You won’t be shortchanged.”

Tears gushing down, the young woman shook with fear and did not know what to do. The old woman said to her, “If he does make a fuss about it, the consequences will be grave. Since he’s a juren, I think it’s all right if you follow him to his place for the time being. There’s no other way. It will soon be daybreak. We’ll be in serious trouble if we’re seen.”

With Mr. Wang tugging at her, the young woman followed him submissively to his lodging, weeping all the way. He put her up in a small upstairs room and kept the old woman on as her servant.

After the young woman had calmed down, Mr. Wang asked her to tell him about herself. She said, “My surname is Cao. My father died early. I’m an only child, so my mother loves me dearly. She is about to find a match for me, but I want to marry my handsome and brilliant cousin whom I have known since childhood. This elderly lady here is my nurse. I asked my cousin to plead with my mother, but she refused because his father isn’t a government official. So I asked my nurse to tell him to toss a piece of tile at night as a signal for us to open the gate, so that I can elope with him. He did toss one piece and told me to come out at the third watch. But you’re the one I saw after I went out the gate. I wonder why he wasn’t anywhere in sight.”

Much amused, Mr. Wang told her how he had written his message on the piece of tile and how a young man had looked for something in vain and left with a drawn-out sigh.

“That was him all right,” said the young woman with a sigh.

Gleefully, Mr. Wang said, “And I came along! Shall I contribute my luck to a marriage bond that was made between us five hundred years ago?

The young woman was unable to see a way out of her difficulties. Not unimpressed by Mr. Wang’s refined looks, she submitted herself to him, and their newfound love ran deep.

When the results of the examinations were announced, Mr. Wang saw that his name had not made the list of successful candidates (MC: How disappointing! This could be retribution for his misconduct.), but deeply in love with Miss Cao, he was not bothered by his failure and continued to devote himself to the delights of their union day after day. The girl’s bamboo suitcase was filled with gold and silver, and she paid his expenses when he ran out of money. (IC: Pathetic.)

Several months went by, and Mr. Wang forgot all about returning home. In the meantime, Mr. Wang Senior looked forward eagerly to his son’s return but got no word from him. After an extended wait, he began to ask people who had returned from the capital, and they all said, “He’s living so happily with a woman that he’s definitely in no rush to return home!”

Mr. Wang Senior was livid with rage. He wrote a harshly worded letter and dispatched two servants to the capital to urge him on his way. He also wrote a letter to a good friend in the capital who had passed the exams the same year he had, asking him to force young Mr. Wang to leave the capital without delay and grant the young man permission to use horses from government courier stations. (MC: What a killjoy!)

Much against his will, young Mr. Wang took leave of the girl, saying, “I have no alternative but to go, but I’ll come back as soon as I get a chance. I may be able to explain the situation to my father and return here to take you to my home. (MC: Their farewell is too casual. Mr. Wang is not of a kindly disposition.) Be patient and wait for me with your nurse in this place.”

After they took tearful leave of each other, Mr. Wang returned home. His father had just been promoted to a position in Fujian and was on the point of departing for his post. So Mr. Wang Senior took his son along. As no opportunity to talk about Miss Cao presented itself, Mr. Wang Junior dejectedly followed his father to Fujian, but his thoughts were with Miss Cao day and night.

Let us now come back to Miss Cao and her nurse as they remained in the lodging, waiting for Mr. Wang’s return. Before his departure, they had already used up about half of what they had brought with them, and now, with no income to pay for their daily expenditures on room and board and other miscellaneous items, their means dwindled. With no word from Mr. Wang, Miss Cao began to panic. She asked her nurse to find out how her mother was, hoping to return home. As it turned out, her mother had wept from morning to night after her disappearance and had died of illness some time earlier. As for her cousin, when he heard the news the day after she left, he also did a disappearing act, afraid that he would be implicated. (MC: If he had not fled, she would not have given up all hope.) Miss Cao cried her heart out at her nurse’s report and said to the old woman, “Now I have no one to turn to for help. It’s not far from Bianjing to the Western Circuit of Zhejiang. While I still have something left to use as travel money, let’s go to his home. This is the only thing to do.” At her request, the nurse hired a boat, and they left Bianjing.

By the time they got to Guangling, their money had run out. At her advanced age, the nurse caught a cold when it turned chilly one day, and soon she succumbed to her illness and died. Left all alone now, Miss Cao spent all her time weeping.

Guangling is now Yangzhou, a prosperous and glamorous city. The ancients had these lines about it: “Go to Yangzhou in the misty month of flowers” and “With the bright moon over the twenty-four bridges, / Where is the sweet girl who played the xiao flute for you?” All eminent officials and sons of the rich wishing for beautiful concubines descended on Guangling to make their selections. So the streets of the city were filled with matchmakers bumping into one another. Noticing an attractive young woman weeping in a boat, the matchmakers gathered around her to find out what was going on. Miss Cao said, “I’m here from Bianjing to look for my husband, but my nurse died in this place and I’ve run out of money. That’s why I’m crying.”

One of the matchmakers, an elderly woman, said, “Why don’t you go and talk with Su Da?”

“Who’s Su Da?” asked Miss Cao.

“He’s a local hero who makes it his business to help people.”

In her desperation, Miss Cao did not know better. Without thinking, she said, “Please find him for me, please!”

Off went the old woman. Before long, she came back with a man. The man approached Miss Cao’s boat, asked her detailed questions, and brought back a group of laborers who carried the nurse’s body up the shore for burial. Then he paid the boatman and said to Miss Cao, “Get your things ready and stay at my home for a few days before you decide what to do next.” He also hired a sedan-chair for Miss Cao.

Impressed by the orderly way he got things done, Miss Cao thought he was a man of good character. Since she had no other person to rely on anyway, she felt safe leaving everything to him. Little did she know that he was a crime boss in the Yangzhou region who ran brothels and was the number one procurer. As soon as Miss Cao arrived at her destination in the sedan-chair, several prostitutes emerged from inside to greet her. Only then did she catch on. With nowhere to appeal for help, Miss Cao found herself trapped. Henceforth, she called herself “Su Yuan” and became a prostitute. (MC: Retribution for her misconduct.)

Mr. Wang stayed with his father at his father’s duty station in Fujian for two years before returning to Zhejiang. When the triennial national-level exams came around again, he packed and went north. As he passed Yangzhou, which lay on his way, the chief of the local police department, who had passed the provincial exams the same year as Mr. Wang, invited him to dinner. At the dinner table, one of the licensed courtesans respectfully offering wine stole many a glance at Mr. Wang. Mr. Wang also looked closely at her, wondering, “Why does this woman look so much like Miss Cao of the capital?”

He asked someone who she was and was given a completely different name, but the more he looked at her, the more convinced he was that she was Miss Cao. When he stood up about halfway through dinner, Su Yuan approached him with a flask and plied him with wine. When she saw him up close, old memories saddened her but she dared not say anything out loud. As the tears fell into his cup like two strings of pearls, no doubt was left in Mr. Wang’s mind. His eyes also moistening, he said, “I thought it was you, and indeed it is! But why are you here?”

Miss Cao told him about what had happened after his departure, including how she had left Bianjing in search of him and had exhausted her means and ended up a courtesan. As she broke down in tears of grief, Mr. Wang felt overwhelmed with self-reproach. Tearfully, he declined her offer of wine and rose from his seat, pleading illness. Then he invited her to his lodging, where they poured out their hearts to each other and spent the night together.

The next day, he discreetly asked the police chief of Yangzhou to charge Su Da with the crime of forcing a decent woman into prostitution. Su Yuan was thus taken off the registry of courtesans and allowed to join Mr. Wang on his journey. Later, she bore Mr. Wang a son, and Mr. Wang rose to be secretary of a department. What began as a prank, with Mr. Wang tossing a piece of tile, turned into a long-standing marriage. Miss Cao’s life was almost ruined, but, luckily, all turned out well.

My next story is about how a jocular word led to misidentification on both sides and a long-standing, perfect marriage, making it an even better story than the preceding one. There is a poem in testimony:

A word that was said in jest worked wonders;

None expected it to bring him a pretty wife.

A fake son-in-law became a real one;

A loss turned out to be a gain after all.

Our story takes place in the Chenghua reign period [1465–87] of this dynasty [Ming]. In Yuhang County of Hangzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang, there lived a Jiang Ting, courtesy name Zhenqing. Although the son of a Confucian scholar, he was quite carefree and fun-loving and never bothered with petty conventions. His favorite pastime was touring mountains and rivers. His excursions could last days and even months, and he hated the idea of staying at home, doing nothing. One day, he thought, “It’s always been said that Shanyin [in Shaoxing, Zhejiang] is a must-see with its beautiful mountains and valleys. Shaoxing Prefecture is not far from here. Why don’t I take a trip there?”

It just so happened that two traveling merchants who lived in his hometown were about to go south of the Qiantang River on business, so Jiang Ting joined them on their journey. They crossed Qiantang River, boarded an overnight boat at Xixing, and arrived at Shaoxing the next morning. (MC: A romantic experience for the romantic.) The two merchants went off to do their trading, and Jiang Ting toured the Orchid Pavilion, the Mausoleum of Yu,1 Mount Ji, and Mirror Lake and thoroughly enjoyed himself. The two merchants having also done what they were there to do, the three of them started on their journey back.

When they were taking a leisurely stroll in Zhuji Village, evening was closing in, and all that met their eyes were green fields, with no farmhouse in sight. Soon it began to rain. As the raindrops began to fall thicker and faster, the three of them had to break into a run because none had brought an umbrella. Panting and flustered, they caught sight of a house looming in the woods. Gazing into the distance, they said, “Good! Let’s take shelter there!”

Taking two steps in one, they reached the house and saw that it had rainproof double eaves. One leaf of the double gate was closed; the other was standing ajar. Jiang Zhenqing went up and was about to push the gate open when the two merchants said, “Mr. Jiang, you’re being as rude as you always are! We can stay out of the rain right here. We don’t know what kind of household this is. Why knock on their gate?”

Jiang Zhenqing, with his love of joking, said at the top of his voice, “What’s the harm? This is my father-in-law’s house!”

The two merchants said, “Don’t talk nonsense! You’ll only get yourself in trouble!”

After a while, as the rain intensified, both leaves of the gate swung wide open. An elderly man emerged. Behold:

On his head, a square-cut cap with diagonal angles;

In his hand, a cane with a fancy handle.

His square-cut cap with a bamboo lining

Covers his sparse and unkempt silver threads.

On the dragon whiskers on the cane handle

Rest five fingers as wrinkled as dried ginger.

In his billowing sleeves and long robe,

He walks with the grace of a crane.

In his high-soled and thick shoes,

He moves as slowly as a turtle.

He is the very image of Yellow Stone Sage;2

He has the look of the hoary Shangshan hermits.3

This elderly man, a Mr. Tao, was one of the wealthiest men in Zhuji Village. A straightforward and honorable man, he was also a generous host and a champion of justice, and he did things in good faith. As it was getting dark, he was about to go out and have a servant close the gate when he heard voices outside. Realizing that there must be people at his gate taking shelter from the rain, he stopped in his tracks and happened to hear Jiang Zhenqing’s words of jest all too clearly. He turned back into the house and told his wife and the rest of the family about what he had heard. (MC: The plot thickens.) They exclaimed, “What an insolent man! Let’s ignore him!” But now that the rain was pouring down, Mr. Tao felt sorry for the men trying to stay out of it, so he wanted to go and invite them inside, and yet he resented the man who had made those insulting remarks. After a few moments of hesitation, he decided to go out. Seeing three men, he asked, “Who among you just said that this old man is his father-in-law?”

At this question, Jiang Zhenqing realized his faux pas and reddened to the roots of his ears. In one voice, the two merchants grumbled, “That was indeed outrageous!”

Rightly surmising that Jiang was the offending party, the old man addressed the two merchants: “If you two gentlemen are not disdainful of this humble old man, please come inside and sit for a while. As for that young man, since he’s allegedly a junior member of my household, he’s no guest, and therefore he’s not to come inside. He can wait here.” (MC: The oldster is serious and stubborn. Little does he know that he is in fact doing the young man a favor!)

Before the two merchants could say the obligatory words of demurral, the old man seized them by their sleeves and dragged them into the house. As soon as they stepped over the threshold, he closed the gate with a bang.

The two merchants had no choice but to follow the old man into the main hall, where they greeted their host, sat down, introduced themselves, and told the old man that they were in the neighborhood when they happened to be caught in the rain. The old man, still bristling, said, “That friend of yours who’s traveling with you—he’s so disrespectful! He can’t be someone who knows how to keep himself out of harm’s way. You’d do well not to associate with him anymore.”

Offering an apology on Jiang’s behalf, the two merchants said, “Mr. Jiang is indeed a young man lacking in discretion. But he didn’t mean what he said on the spur of the moment. Please forgive him for that offensive remark.”

The old man’s anger did not subside. Soon, a feast was set out, but no mention was made of the man outside the gate. The old man’s hospitality exceeded the two merchants’ expectations. With their host in such high dudgeon, it would be unseemly for them to ask him to invite Jiang inside for dinner. They saw nothing for it but to enjoy their meal and let the old man have his way.

In the meantime, outside the gate, Jiang Zhenqing was feeling low and regretted having blurted out an indiscreet remark. By his forlorn self, he fidgeted under the eaves in the dark shadows, feeling woebegone. He wanted to be on his way so as to salvage his pride, but, partly because of the rain and the darkness and partly because he was alone, after all, he dared not venture out. (MC: An awkward moment.) So he swallowed the humiliation and waited patiently.

Gradually, the rain let up, and a ray of moonlight shone through the fleecy clouds. He strained his ears for sounds inside but heard nothing. He said to himself, “They must have all gone to bed. Why should I continue to wait like an idiot? I’d better start on my way while there’s some moonlight to light the way.” Then he thought, “That old man is understandably angry with me, but the two of them can’t just enjoy themselves and leave me in the lurch. They may have worked out something for me. Let me wait some more.”

While he was thus weighing his choices, he heard someone say in a subdued voice from within, “Don’t go yet.”

He thought, “I just knew they wouldn’t forget me!” Aloud he said, “All right! I won’t go!”

After a while, he heard the same voice again, saying softly, “I have some things for you. Pick them up.” (MC: Where bitterness ends, sweetness begins.)

Jiang Zhenqing thought, “Those two double-dealers! They enjoyed his hospitality, ate his food, and then stole his things!” But aloud he said, “All right!”

He stood still, waiting for the next thing to happen. When two objects were tossed over the wall and landed on the ground, he rushed forward and saw that they were two bedrolls. He lifted them and found them to be quite heavy. Then he pinched them with his fingers and found them to be lumpy, as if they were filled with ingots of gold and silver or other metalware. Afraid that someone would come out in pursuit of the valuables, he quickly slung them over his shoulders and took to his heels. After taking about a hundred steps, he looked back and found himself at a safe distance from the gate, so he stopped to see what would happen. As he watched from afar, two human figures jumped over the wall. Jiang Zhenqing said to himself, “Ah, here they come! In case someone gives chase, let me go ahead first. I don’t need to wait for them.” So thinking, he resumed his march. Those two followed behind in unhurried steps.

After getting quite a head start on them, Jiang thought, “When they catch up with me, they’ll surely demand an equal division of the contents of the bedrolls. While they’re still way behind me, let me open the bedrolls to see what’s inside. If it’s ill-gotten stuff, I’ll be justified in pocketing some of it for myself first.” (MC: There he goes again, coveting what is not rightfully his.) So he stopped and opened the bedrolls. He scooped up the ingots of gold and other items of the highest value, wrapped them up in a separate parcel, stuffed cash and lengths of fabric back into the bedrolls, and put the bedrolls over his shoulders again. As he went ahead, he saw that the two people were still a safe distance behind. What happened was that those two stopped when he did and started walking again when he did. And the two black shadows tailed him at a distance without ever attempting to draw near him. The trio continued on their way in the same manner throughout the night, with about an arrow’s-shot distance between them.

It was only when the sky was turning light that the two began to quicken their pace. When they were about to catch up with him, Jiang Zhenqing said, “Good! It’s only right that we should be traveling together!” But when they drew level with him and he shot them a glance, he was stunned to see that they were not the two merchants, but two women. (MC: Wonderful!) One was quite a beauty, wearing a Linqing bandanna and a blue silk blouse; the other looked like a maidservant, with a loose hair-bun and wearing a blue cotton jacket. On getting a close look at Jiang Zhenqing, they were also aghast. As they hastily dodged him, Jiang Zhenqing took a step forward and blocked the way of the beautiful one, saying, “Where do you think you’re going? If you join me, I’ll be nice to you. If not, I’ll take you back to your home and expose you!” The young woman lowered her head, speechless, and resignedly complied.

When they reached an inn, they went in, and Mr. Jiang picked a secluded corner suite. He lied to the owner of the inn, saying, “My wife and I are on an incense-offering pilgrimage. We’d like to have breakfast.”

The owner of the inn, seeing a couple followed by a maidservant, readily believed him and went off to prepare breakfast for them.

In a low voice, Jiang Zhenqing asked the young woman about her background. She replied, “I’m Tao Youfang, daughter of your friends’ host. My mother’s maiden name is Wang. I was promised to the Chu family of the same county when I was small. But as it turned out, my fiancé went blind. I didn’t want to marry a blind man. I like my cousin, handsome, young Mr. Wang. I made a pledge to him quite some time ago, and we arranged to meet last night and elope. I heard nothing from him during the day yesterday, but toward evening, my father came in and cried, ‘A man at the front door claimed to be my son-in-law. (MC: Heaven is making this match.) How preposterous! How abominable!’ I said to myself, this must be my man. So I hurriedly collected the valuables around the house, picked a maid as my companion, and climbed over the wall. When I saw you in front, carrying the bedrolls on your back, I thought, ‘Of course this is him!’ I was afraid of being seen, which was why I didn’t dare go near you. I had no idea I’ve been following the wrong man all this time. But now that I’ve lost him and I can’t go home anymore, I have no other choice but to put myself at your disposal.”

Jiang Zhenqing said in delight, “This is Heaven’s will! What I said has turned out to be true! Luckily I’m not married. Now, don’t panic. Just follow me to my home.”

Mr. Jiang had breakfast with her, and after the maid had also eaten, he paid the bill, hired a boat, and set out without waiting for the two merchants. They changed boats along the way and arrived at Jiang’s home in Yuhang. To his family members’ queries, he replied that he had married on the road through proper channels. After joining the Jiang household, the young woman proved herself to be a good and capable wife. She got along well with everyone high and low and was tenderly attached to Jiang Zhenqing.

After one year went by, she gave birth to a son, but every mention of her parents sent tears down her cheeks. One day, she said to Jiang Zhenqing, “I broke the rules out of resentment over my engagement to that blind man. Now that I’m yours, I have no other regret than having left my aging parents without support. (MC: The fact that she remains devoted to her parents means that she will be reunited with them.) After my departure, they must have been worried sick about me. I haven’t been able to ask after them for more than a year now, but I’ve never forgotten them, even for one brief moment. If I go on agonizing over them like this, I’m afraid my health will suffer. The way I see it, because they love me dearly, they’ll be delighted to see me even if they know what I did. They won’t be angry with me. Can you think of a way to deliver a message to them?”

Jiang Zhenjiang thought for a while before replying, “There’s a Mr. Ruan Taishi in the neighborhood. He’s a teacher and a good friend of mine, and he often takes trips to Zhuji. I’ll talk with him.”

Right away, he went to see Ruan Taishi. After he gave Mr. Ruan a full account of the situation, the latter said, “Mr. Tao is known throughout Zhuji as a very honorable man. I’ve met him several times. I’ll find an opportunity to break the news to him gently. Leave it to me. I won’t fail you.” Jiang Zhenqing thanked him and returned home to tell his wife about it.

Let us turn our attention to the venerable Mr. Tao. That night, he provided accommodations for the two merchants and served them breakfast the next morning. When the two men took leave of him with profuse thanks, he escorted them to the gate, saying affably, “I wonder where that unruly young man spent the night. It’s only right that he should go through some tribulations and learn not to be so flippant in the future.” (MC: No tribulations for him!)

The two merchants said, ‘He must have run out of patience waiting for us. When we catch up with him, we’ll give him a good talking-to. You can dismiss him from your thoughts.”

Mr. Tao said, “I lost my temper yesterday and treated him badly enough. How could I still keep him in my thoughts?” With that, they took leave of one another.

As soon as Mr. Tao went into the house, a maidservant walked up to him and said, shaken and panting for breath, “Master! Trouble! The young mistress has disappeared!”

“What!” the old man cried out in horror.

When he went stumbling and lurching into his bedchamber, he saw that his wife, Wang-shi, had collapsed onto the floor, calling for her daughter with all kinds of terms of endearment and wailing at the top of her voice. To Mr. Tao’s questions as to the details of what had happened, she replied, “Last night, she went to bed in her room as usual. This morning, because I was taking care of breakfast preparations for the houseguests, I didn’t see her get out of bed. It was after the guests had left and I called her for breakfast that her trunks and chests were seen to be wide open. And even her maid Shicui is also missing.”

Aghast, Mr. Tao said, “But why?”

A female domestic said, “Could those two houseguests have been bandits and kidnapped her in the night?”

“Nonsense!” said Mr. Tao. “They were passing through, and after spending the night here, they said good-bye properly. How could they have been kidnappers? About the third one: I was so angry with him that I didn’t even let him in. He’s even less of a suspect. (MC: The culprit is none other than the one who was denied admission.) My guess is that she must have arranged a tryst with someone, so she took advantage of the presence of guests and fled while everyone was busy. Have you ever noticed anything unusual about her?”

One of the female domestics said, “Ten to one Master has the right idea. The young mistress often weeps over her engagement to the blind man. But the young master of the Wang family gets along well with her and often asks Shicui to act as messenger. The young mistress must have eloped with him.”

This conjecture made sense to Mr. Tao. He sent a servant on a secret mission to the Wang residence to find out how things stood, and the servant found Mr. Wang Junior at home and everything as it should be.

Not knowing what to do, Mr. Tao said, “A family scandal must not become known to the public. Be sure not to let on about any of this to outsiders. As for the Chu family’s blind son, let’s call off the engagement. If that can’t be done, let’s find another girl for him, if worst comes to worst. But without our dear girl around the house, it’s so cheerless!” At this point, he and his wife broke down in uncontrollable sobs.

Later, the Chu family’s blind son died. Mr. and Mrs. Tao again dissolved into tears of grief. They said, “If he had died one year earlier, our daughter wouldn’t have done what she did.”

One day, more than a year later, their doorkeeper delivered an invitation card on which was written “Ruan Taishi of Yuhang.” Mr. Tao went to the gate and greeted him, adding, “What wind brought you here?”

Ruan Taishi replied, “I’ve been out of touch with my friends in Zhuji for too long. Now that I’ve got some free time, I decided to cross the river and pay you a visit.”

Mr. Tao set out a feast for the visitor. In the course of drinking, they exchanged news of the region, some credible, some less so. Ruan Taishi said, “Something newsworthy happened about a year ago in my own village, and it’s a true story.”

“What happened?” asked Mr. Tao.

“A young friend of mine went out on a pleasure trip. On his way back, he got himself a wife, thanks to some words said in jest. And they’re still man and wife to this day. It’s said that the woman is from this place. Do you happen to know her?”

“What’s her surname?”

Ruan Taishi replied, “They say she’s also a Tao.”

Mr. Tao gave a start. “Could she be my daughter?”

“She’s called Youfang. She’s eighteen, and she has a maid called Shicui.”

His eyes popping wide, Mr. Tao said, “She is my daughter! Why is she there?”

Ruan asked, “Do you still remember that a young man knocked at the gate in the rain and called himself your son-in-law and that you shut him out of the house?”

“Yes, all that did happen. But we never knew that man, and he was shut out with no one serving as a messenger. How did my daughter manage to elope with him?”

Ruan Taishi relayed Mr. Jiang’s tale to him and added, “One let his tongue run away with him, one flew into a rage, and one made a false identification—all contributed to the outcome. What an unusual event this is! They have a baby son now. Do you want to see them?”

“Yes, of course!” exclaimed Mr. Tao.

Mrs. Tao, hiding behind the screen, had heard everything, loud and clear. Unable to contain herself any longer, she jumped out and, wailing with abandon and not caring whether she knew the visitor well enough to warrant such behavior, prostrated herself at Ruan Taishi’s feet. “She’s our only child,” said she. “Since her disappearance, we almost died several times from weeping. To this day, we still find life too hard to bear without her. If you, sir, can really bring about a reunion between us and our girl, we’ll surely reward you well!”

Ruan Taishi said, “You would of course want to see your daughter, but I’m afraid you may have a grudge against your son-in-law. If so, he won’t dare come and see you.”

“We’ll be only too happy if a reunion is possible,” said Mr. Tao. “We won’t bear him a grudge.”

“Your son-in-law is also from an old family of distinguished lineage. Your beloved daughter hasn’t been shortchanged. Since you won’t hold him to blame, I’d like to invite you, sir, to your son-in-law’s home to meet them.” Joyfully, Mr. Tao changed his clothes and went with Ruan Taishi to Yuhang.

When they reached the Jiang residence, Ruan Taishi went in first and reported to Mr. Jiang about his mission. Then he came out with Jiang to greet Mr. Tao. The daughter, having missed her father for so long, was also led into the main hall. Ruan Taishi discreetly removed himself from this scene of reunion. Father and daughter fell on each other’s shoulders and broke down in a flood of tears.

Mr. Tao wanted Mr. Jiang and his daughter to go to the Tao residence, and so, since the daughter was also eager to see her mother, they set out together for Zhuji Village. On seeing each other, mother and daughter wrapped their arms around each other and said between violent sobs, “I thought I’d never get to see you again the rest of my life. I never expected this to happen!” There was not a dry eye among the women servants around them.

After they had a good cry, Mr. Jiang bowed in proper greeting to his parents-in-law and, with a kowtow, asked for forgiveness, saying, “Your humble son-in-law was joking with my companions outside the gate, little knowing that my father-in-law was taking my words seriously and was seized with anger. And then, who could have predicted that your beloved daughter would mistake me for another man and thus fulfill my wish? Looking back on these happenings, I assure you that I didn’t have the foggiest idea we’d get to where we are today. Everything happened by chance. Please forgive me, my father-in-law.”

Bursting into hearty laughter, Mr. Tao said, “It was Heaven that put those words in your mouth, my good son-in-law, to bring about such a happy outcome. Since this is all the workings of destiny, what’s there to forgive?”

In the midst of their conversation, Ruan Taishi came back to the front gate with gifts and shouted words of congratulations. Offering lengths of colored silk and ingots of silver, Mr. Tao asked Ruan Taishi to be the matchmaker. A grand feast was laid out for members of the clan, and a formal wedding ceremony was held for Jiang Zhenqing and his wife before they were allowed to return, laden with a lavish dowry, to the Jiang residence. The couple lived happily together to a ripe old age. (MC: She sets an example: Give birth first and marry later!)

If Mr. Jiang had not uttered those jocular words, if he had not been shut out of the house, he would have partaken of the dinner with the two merchants. How would he have managed to get this wife for himself ? He would have ended up with another woman. It is thus evident that the power of predestination and Heaven’s will were behind it all.

This story is taken from Zhu Zhishan’s Anecdotes of a Woodcutter on the Western Mountains.4 It is an interesting story as it is, but someone who didn’t know better made it into a story called “Mandarin Duck Bedrolls,” which was in fact a combination of the Yuan dynasty play “Mandarin Duck Bedrolls Delivered to the Wrong Man at Yuqing Nunnery,” the story about Xu Da, a comb maker of Jiading, kidnapping a woman and making her his wife, and a couple of other stories. It became such a hodgepodge that it makes little sense. This is why I have followed the original plot so as to spread the story anew and make it an entertaining read with a leaner structure. There is a poem in testimony:

One word got him a wife in a strange bond;

Stories like this should be spread far and wide.

Out of jumbled and error-filled versions

Comes this one, to put the story right.