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Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

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Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio ,*>. STRANGE STORIES FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. STRANGE STORIES FROM A CHINESE STUDIO. T'u -\\vog TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED BY HERBERT A. GILES, Of H.M.'s Consular Service. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: THOS. DE LA RUE & CO. no, BUNHILL ROW. I880. PRINTED BY THOMAS DE LA RUE AND CO., BUNHILL ROW, LONDON. TO MY WIFE AND OUR CHILDREN: BERTRAM, LIONEL, VALENTINE, LANCELOT. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION Vol. I., pp. xiii-xxxii. STORIES. VOL. I. VOL. II. PAGE PAGE Adulteration Punished ... ... ... ... 332 Alchemist, The 313 Boat-girl Bride, The 149 Boatmen of Lao-lung, The ... ... ... 348 Boon Companion, The ... ... ... ... 165 Bribery and Corruption ... ... ... ... 170 Buddhist Priest of Ch'ang-ching, The 22 Buddhist Priests, Arrival of ... ... ... 231 Butterfly's Revenge, The 289 Carrying a Corpse ... ... ... ... ... 181 Cattle Plague, The 253 Censor in Purgatory, The ... ... ... ... 238 Chang Pu-liang ... ... ... ... ... 177 Chang's Transformation ... ... ... ... 237 Chou K'o-ch'ang and his Ghost ... ... ... 1 06 Clay Image, The 276 Cloth Merchant, The 127 Collecting Subscriptions ... ... ... ... 220 Considerate Husband, The ... ... ... 158 ~- Country of the Cave Men, The 397 Courage Tested ... ... ... ... ... 1 1 6 Cruelty Avenged ... ... ... ... ... 267 Dead Priest, The 247 Death by Laughing ... ... ... ... 352 Disembodied Friend, The... ... ... ... 119 Dishonesty Punished ... ... ... ... 279 Doctor, The 290 Donkey's Revenge, The ... ... ... ... 64 V Dr. Tseng's Dream 387 viii CONTENTS. VOL. I. VOL. II. PAGE PAGE v'Dreaming Honours... ... ... ... ... 327 Dutch Carpet, The 179 Dwarf, A 224 Earthquake, An ... ... ... ... ... 263 Elephants and the Lion, The ... ... ... 343 Engaged to a Nun ... ... ... ... ... 262 Examination for the Post of Guardian Angel ... I Faithful Dog, The 261 Faithful Gander, The 342 Faithless Widow, The ... ... ... ... 39 Feasting the Ruler of Purgatory 284 Feng-shui ... ... ... ... ... ... 322 Fight with the Foxes, The 251 Fighting Cricket, The 17 Fighting Quails, The 66 Fisherman and his Friend, The ... ... ... 197 Flood, A 350 Flower-nymphs, The ... ... ... ... 285 Flying Cow, The 249 Foot-ball on the Tung-t 'ing Lake 408 Foreign Priests ... ... ... ... ... 343 Fortune-hunter Punished, The ... ... ... 272 Forty Strings of Cash, The 211 with Friendship Foxes ... ... ... ... 300 Gambler's Talisman, The 419 Grateful Dog, The 308 Great Rat, The _ 303 Great __ Test, The 3IO Hidden Treasure, The 345 His Father's Ghost I42 Hsiang-ju's Misfortunes 225 Husband Punished, The 422 The Incorrupt Official, 3^3 Infernal In the Regions, 95 Ingratitude Punished j,g Injustice of The Heaven, ... m Invisible The Priest, _ 235 The Gambler Jen Hsiu, I9 6 the Immortals Joining 53 Jonah, A Chinese ... ... ... ... CONTENTS. IX VOL. I. VOL. II. PAGE PAGE Judge Lu 9 2 Justice for Rebels ... ... ... ... 184 Killing a Serpent IQO King, The 257 Life Prolonged 273 Lingering Death, The 325 Little Chu 143 Lo-ch'a Country and the Sea Market, The ... I Lost Brother, The 203 Mad Priest, The 282 Magic Mirror, The 114 Magic Path, The 36 Magic Sword, The 124 Magical Arts ... ... ... ... ... 47 Magnanimous Girl, The ... ... ... ... 160 Making Animals ... ... ... ... ... 265 Man who was changed into a Crow, The ... 278 Man who was thrown down a Well, The . 365 Marriage Lottery, The ... ... 428 Marriage of the Fox's Daughter, The ... ... 26 Marriage of the Virgin Goddess, The ... ... 257 Master-thief, The 347 Metempsychosis ... ... ... 207 "Mirror and Listen" Trick, The 251 Miss Chiao-no ... ... ... ... ... 33 Miss Lien-Hsiang, The Fox-girl ... ... ... 168 Miss Quarta Hu 152 the ... ... 106 Miss Ying-ning ; or, Laughing Girl Virtue Rewarded ... ... ... Mr. Tung ; or, 244 Mr. Willow and the Locusts ... ... ... 242 Mysterious Head, The 135 Painted Skin, The 76 Painted Wall, The 9 Performing Mice, The 218 Perseverance Rewarded ... ... ... ... 186 Picture Horse, The ... ., 286 Pious Surgeon, The ... ... ... ... 351 Planchette 295 Planting a Pear-tree ... ... ... ... 14 Playing at Hanging ... ... ... ... 354 X CONTENTS. VOL. 1. VOL. II. PAGE PAGE Priest's Warning, The 205 Princess Lily, The 56 Princess of the Tung-t 'ing Lake 43 Quarrelsome Brothers, The 3*3 Raising the Dead 318 Rat Wife, The 355 Resuscitated Corpse, The 193 Rip van Winkle, A Chinese 85 Roc, The 340 Salt Smuggler, The 215 Saving Life 213 Sea-serpent, The 113 Self-punished Murderer, The 345 She-wolf and the Herd-boys, The 330 Shui-mang Plant, The 136 Singing Frogs, The 217 Singular case of Ophthalmia ... ... ... 102 Singular Verdict 307 Sisters, The 336 Smelling Essays ... ... ... ... ... 139 Snow in Summer ... ... ... ... 294 Solomon, A Chinese .., ... ... ... 335 Solomon, Another ... ... ... ... ... 355 Spirit of the Hills, The 137 Spirits of the Po-yang Lake, The ... ... 109 Spiritualistic Seances ... ... ... ... 131 Stolen Eyes, The 233 Strange Companion, A ... ... ... ... 130 Stream of Cash, The no Supernatural Wife, A ... ... ... ... 166 Taking Revenge ... ... ... ... ... 25 Talking Pupils, The 5 Ta-nan in Search of his Father 296 Taoist Devotee, A 183 Taoist Miracles ... ... ... ... ... 226 Taoist Priest, A 246 Taoist Priest of Lao-shan, The 17 Theft of the Peach 186 Three Genii, The 214 Three States of Existence, The 90 CONTENTS. X VOL. I. VOL. II. PAGE PAGE Thunder God, The 413 Tiger Guest, The ... ... ... 330 Tiger of Chao-ch'eng, The ... ... ... 219 Tipsy Turtle, The 28 Trader's Son, The 85 Two The Brides, !t;8 Unjust Sentence, The 80 Virtuous Daughter-in-law, The ... ... ... 374 Wei-ch'i Devil, The 268 Wine Insect, The 259 V Wolf Dream, The 73 Wolves ... ... ... ... ... ... 305 Wonderful Stone, The ... ... ... ... 306 Young Gentleman who couldn't spell, The . 326 Young Lady of the Tung-t'ing Lake, The ... 271 APPENDIX A .. 361 B _ 389 INTRODUCTION. I. PERSONAL. The public has, perhaps, a right to be made acquainted with the title under which I, an unknown writer, come forward as the trans- lator of a difficult Chinese work. In the spring of 1867 I began the study of Chinese at H.B.M.'s Legation, Peking, under an implied promise, in a despatch from the then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that successful efforts would be rewarded by proportionately rapid advancement in the service of which I was a member. Then followed a long novitiate of utterly uninteresting and, indeed, most repellent labour, inseparable, however, from the acquisition of this language, which throughout its early stages demands more from sheer memory than from the exercise of any XIV INTRODUCTION. other intellectual faculty. At length, in the spring of 1877, while acting as Vice-Consul at Canton, I commenced the translation of the work here offered to the English reader. For such a task I had flattered myself into the belief that I possessed two of the requisite qualifications: an accurate knowledge of the grammatical structure of the language, and an extensive insight into the manners, customs, superstitions, and general social life of the Chinese. I had been variously stationed at Peking, Tientsin, Takow, and Taiwan Fu (in Formosa), Ningpo, Hankow, Swatow, and Canton, from the latter of which I was transferred when my task was still only half finished to Amoy. I had travelled beyond the Great Wall into Mon- and I had made the overland golia ; journey from Swatow to Canton, a distance of five hundred miles besides in addition to of ; which, my study the language, my daily object in life had always been to familiarise myself as much as possible with Chinese sympathies and habits of thought. With these advantages, and by the interesting nature of the subject-matter, I hoped to be able on the one hand to arouse a somewhat deeper interest than is usually taken in the affairs of China on the to correct at ; and, other, any rate some of the erroneous views, too frequently palmed off by inefficient and disingenuous workers, and INTRODUCTION. XV too readily accepted as fact. And I would here draw attention to one most important point; namely, that although a great number of books have been published about China and the Chinese, there are extremely few in which the information is at first hand in other in conveyed ; words, which the Chinese are allowed to speak for themselves.1 Hence, perhaps, it may be that in an accurately- compiled work such as Tylor's Primitive Culture, allusions to the religious rites and ceremonies of nearly one-third of the human race are condensed within the limits of barely a dozen short passages. Hence, too, it undoubtedly is that many Chinese customs are ridiculed and condemned by turns, simply because the medium through which they have been conveyed has produced a distorted image. Much of what the Chinese do actually believe and practise in their religious and social life will be found in this volume, in the ipsissima verba of a highly-educated scholar writing about his and his native land while fellow-countrymen ; for the notes with which I have essayed to make the picture more suggestive and more acceptable 1 " How can a statement as to customs, myths, beliefs, &c., of a savage tribe, be treated as evidence, where it depends on the testi- mony of some traveller or missionary, who may be a superficial observer, more or less ignorant of the native language, a careless retailer of unsifted talk, a man prejudiced or even wilfully deceit- ful?" TYLOR'S Primitive Culture, Vol. L, p. 9. XVI INTRODUCTION. to the European eye, I claim only so much autho- rity as is due to the opinion of one qualified observer who can have no possible motive in deviating ever so slightly from what his own per- sonal experience has taught him to regard as the truth. II. BIOGRAPHICAL. The barest skeleton of a biography is all that can be formed from the very scanty materials which remain to mark the career of a writer whose work has been for the best part of two centuries as familiar throughout the length and breadth of China as are the tales of the tf Arabian Nights" in all English-speaking com- " munities.
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