Between the hours of seven and nine in the evening of the seventeenth day of the sixth month of the seventh year of the Kangxi reign, a severe earthquake occurred. I happened to be staying in Jixia, and was sitting in the lamplight drinking with my cousin Li Duzhi. All of a sudden we heard a rumbling noise like thunder, coming up towards us from the south-east. We were both thrown into a great state of alarm, and had no idea what the noise could be. The next moment, the table began to rock violently from side to side, upsetting our wine cups, and the very beams and pillars of the room began to creak as if they would come crashing down on us at any minute. We looked at each other aghast. It soon dawned on us that this must be an earthquake, and we went hurrying out into the street, where we saw buildings of every description storeyed mansions, pavilions, simple cottages heaving up and down. The cries of children and the wailing of women mingled with the sounds of walls crashing and of whole buildings tumbling down. The scene resembled nothing so much as the contents of a seething cauldron. Men went tottering to the ground and sat there rolling around with the movement of the earth, while great ten-foot waves came surging down the course of the river. The town echoed with the sounds of cocks crowing and dogs barking. It was a full two hours before any semblance of calm returned. And then we saw men and women gathering in the streets, stark naked, anxious to speak to their neighbours, oblivious of the fact that they were wearing nothing.

I learned subsequently that in certain places the wells were so disturbed that it was no longer possible to draw water from Caption

It dawned on us that this must be an earthquake.

them, while in certain houses terraces that had once faced north now faced south. The mountain outside Qixia was split in two, while the River Yi near the town of Yishui flowed into a great depression to form a lake of several acres. Truly this was a most extraordinary phenomenon.

A woman of a certain town went out one night to relieve herself. On her way home she encountered a wolf and saw that it was holding her son in its mouth. She struggled bravely with the beast, and when the wolf loosened its grip, she was able to wrest away her child and take it in her arms. The wolf still crouched there motionless. The woman began to scream and her neighbours came hurrying on to the scene, whereupon the wolf finally ran off.

When the woman had recovered from the shock, she cried out for joy, and recounted the tale of her struggle with the wolf for the benefit of her neighbours, with many dramatic gestures. It was only when she had finished telling the tale that she became aware that she did not have a stitch of clothing on, and went running away.

This was rather like the naked townsfolk after the earthquake. How amusing, the way men panic and forget their normal inhibitions!

44.

SNAKE ISLAND.

On Guji Island the Island of Antiquities in the Eastern Sea, jasmine-flowers of every colour bloom throughout the four seasons of the year. But no one has ever lived on the island, and very few visitors make the crossing.

A gentleman named Zhang of Dengzhou, who was fond of hunting and adventure, heard tell of this island as an especially beautiful place, and, taking with him provisions and wine, he rowed out to it in a little boat. When he arrived, he saw the jasmine-flowers in full bloom. Their scent wafted several miles. Many of the trees he saw around him were huge, several arm-lengths in circumference. Zhang ambled here and there on the island, enjoying himself enormously, and eventually he sat down and poured himself a cup from his pitcher of wine. His one regret was that he had no companion with whom to share this pleasant moment.

Even as this thought entered his mind, a woman of a beauty beyond compare, wearing a dazzling crimson gown, appeared amid the flowers. She smiled when she saw Zhang.

'Here I was having such a lovely time all on my own. I had no idea that there was another flower-lover here on the island!'

'Who are you?' asked Zhang, greatly taken aback.

'I am a sing-song girl from Jiaozhou,' was her reply. 'I've come here with the Sea Prince, and he has gone off on a ramble, to visit some of the sites on the island. I stayed behind, because my little feet give me such trouble walking.'

Zhang, who had just been lamenting his lack of a companion, was overjoyed to find himself with this beautiful young lady and invited her to sit with him and share his wine. She spoke in a soft, entrancing voice, and soon had Zhang completely under her spell. Anxious that the Sea Prince might return at any moment and rob them of their pleasure, he threw his arms around her and began to make love to her. She seemed only too pleased to yield to his advances. Their passion had still not been fully consummated, however, when a sound was heard as of a rushing wind, bending the trees and plants to the ground. The young lady frantically pushed Zhang away from her and rose to her feet, crying, 'The Prince is coming!'

Zhang did up his clothes and looked around him in alarm. The young lady had already vanished. Turning a moment later, he saw a huge snake coming out of the bushes, its body thicker than a large bamboo bucket. In terror, Zhang took refuge behind a large tree, hoping the snake would not see him. But the snake advanced towards him and wrapped itself around both Zhang and the tree, enfolding them several times and pinning Zhang's arms tightly to his body so that he was unable to move. Then it raised its head, darted out its tongue and bit Zhang on the nose. Blood gushed from the bite and formed a pool on the ground, from which the snake, lowering its head, began licking. Zhang thought his last hour had come, when he remembered some fox-poison he had brought with him in a pouch at his waist. He succeeded in inserting two fingers into the pouch, broke open the paper wrapping and pressed some of the powder into the palm of his hand. Then he leaned over and looked down into his hand, so that the blood from his nose dripped on to the powder, forming a thick mixture of blood and poison in the palm of his hand, which sure enough the snake began to lick. It had still not finished drinking when it stretched its body, relaxing its grip, and began thrashing its tail with a thunderous sound against a nearby tree, bringing half the tree crashing down. Finally the thrashing ceased and the snake lay dead on the ground, straight and stiff as a log.

Zhang was for a long while too dazed to move, but eventually he recovered his wits and set off home with the dead snake. He Caption

The snake wrapped itself around both Zhang and the tree.

was seriously ill for more than a month afterwards. It was widely suspected that the young lady was also a snake in human form.

45.

GENEROSITY.

Ding Qianxi of the town of Zhucheng was a wealthy gentleman of a chivalrous disposition, a staunch upholder of honour and a great admirer of the legendary brigand and knight errant Guo Xie. When a local censor began an investigation into Ding's affairs, he simply disappeared to the nearby town of Anqiu and, since it was raining, took shelter at an inn. By midday, when the rain had still not stopped, a young man came and provided him with an excellent meal. That evening Ding decided to stay the night, and his horse was fed with beans and fresh fodder, while he himself was served a hearty supper.

He asked the young man his name.

'The innkeeper is Mr Yang,' he replied. 'I am his nephew. My father is Mrs Yang's brother. My master normally makes a point of treating his guests well, but unfortunately he is away at present and my aunt is coping on her own. I'm afraid we are too poor to offer you proper service. I hope you will make allowances.'

Ding asked him how his uncle made ends meet, and the young man informed him that he was a man with neither land nor wealth of his own, who supplemented his meagre earnings from the inn by running a small gambling establishment on the premises.

The following day, the rain continued and once again Ding was well looked after. That evening he was puzzled to observe that the hay brought for his horse was in wet bundles of irregular lengths.

'To tell the truth,' explained the youth, 'we are too poor to store any proper hay. My aunt had to take some thatch off the roof.'

Caption

'My aunt had to take some thatch off the roof.'

Ding was more perplexed than ever. Were these folk expecting to be handsomely paid for the great pains they were taking? The following morning, before leaving, he offered the youth money, but he refused to accept it, only reluctantly agreeing (when Ding insisted) to take it in and offer it to his aunt. He reappeared shortly afterwards and handed it back.

'My aunt asks me to say that we are not in this business to rob people of their money. My uncle has been away from home and on the road for several days, penniless and relying on the generosity of others. How could we demand money from a traveller arriving at our inn?'

Ding let fall a sigh of admiration for this altruistic spirit of theirs.

'When your uncle returns,' he said, as he was leaving, 'please let him know that Mr Ding of Zhucheng stayed here, and ask him to call on me when he can. I should be honoured.'

Several years passed, and Ding had no news of the Yang family. Then came a year of terrible famine, during which the Yangs suffered greatly and were reduced to dire straits. Mrs Yang urged her husband to call on Ding, and he took her advice, making his way to Zhucheng and giving his name to Ding's gate-man. At first Ding hardly remembered who he was. But a few inquiries jogged his memory and he hurried out in his slippers to greet his guest and invite him in, bowing politely with hands clasped. Yang was wearing rags and worn-out shoes, and Ding at once showed him to a warm room, served him a veritable banquet and treated him with great respect and affection. The following day he had a thick, lined robe made for his guest. Yang was touched by Ding's generous hospitality, but his own family's survival was still in the forefront of his mind, and he could not help but hope for some more material aid. Several days went by without any mention of his being sent home with a parting gift, and finally Yang felt obliged to speak out.

'I cannot conceal this from you any longer, sir! When I came here to see you, we had less than a bushel of rice left at home. You have made me very comfortable here, and I thank you for your great generosity. But what of my wife and family?'

'Please do not concern yourself on their behalf,' replied Ding. 'I have already seen to their needs. Set your mind at ease, and stay here with us for a little longer. Naturally when you do leave I also wish to provide you with your travelling expenses.'

He invited gamblers from all over town to his house, put Yang in charge of the game in such a way that he would make a healthy profit, and by the end of the night Yang had earned himself the considerable sum of one hundred taels of silver. Now Ding accompanied him home. He arrived to find his wife decked out in fine new clothes, and a young maidservant waiting on her. Yang asked her in astonishment what had occurred.

'After you left,' she replied, 'the very next day, a carriage came laden with cloth and silk and grain, enough to fill a whole room. The man said it was a gift from a former lodger of ours, Mr Ding. And he presented me with this maidservant, to wait upon me.'

Yang was overwhelmed by this act of generosity. From that day he enjoyed a more comfortable life, and never again needed to struggle as he had done formerly.

46.

THE GIANT FISH.

There had never been mountains along the sea. Then one day suddenly they appeared, a great range of them, peak upon peak, stretching for miles, to the great astonishment of all who beheld them. And then the following day, just as suddenly, the mountains moved away and there was nothing.

Legend had it that it was a huge sea-fish, which came every Qing Ming Festival, along with all of its family, to worship at their ancestral tomb. This was why it usually appeared on Cold Food Day.

47.

THE GIANT TURTLE.

An elderly gentleman called Zhang, a native of the western region of Jin, was about to give away his daughter in marriage, and took his family with him by boat on a trip to the South, having decided to purchase there all that was necessary for her trousseau. When the boat arrived at Gold Mountain, he went ahead across the river, leaving his family on board and warning them not to fry any strong-smelling meat during his absence, for fear of provoking the turtle-demon that lurked in the river. This vicious creature would be sure to come out if it smelled meat cooking, and would destroy the boat and eat alive anyone on board. It had been wreaking havoc in the area for a long while.

Once the old man had left, his family quite forgot his words of caution, lit a fire on deck and began to cook meat on it. All of a sudden a great wave arose, overturning their boat and drowning both Zhang's wife and daughter. When Zhang returned, he was grief-stricken at their deaths. He climbed up to the monastery on Gold Mountain and called on the monks there, asking them for information about the turtle's strange ways, so that he could plan his revenge. The monks were appalled at his intentions.

'We live with the turtle every day, in constant fear of the devastation it is capable of causing. All we can do is worship it and pray to it not to fly into a rage. From time to time we slaughter animals, cut them in half and throw them into the river. The turtle jumps out of the water, gulps them down and disappears. No one would be so crazy as to try to seek revenge!'

As he listened to the monks' words, Zhang was already forming his plan. He recruited a local blacksmith, who set up a furnace on the hillside above the river and smelted a large lump of iron, over a hundred catties in weight. Zhang then ascertained the turtle's exact hiding place and hired a number of strong men to lift up the red-hot molten iron with a great pair of tongs and hurl it into the river. True to form, the turtle leaped out of the water, gulped down the molten metal and plunged back into the river. Minutes later, mountainous waves came boiling to the water's surface. Then, in an instant, the river became calm and the turtle could be seen floating dead on the water.

Travellers and monks alike rejoiced at the turtle's death. They built a temple to old man Zhang, erected a statue of him inside it and worshipped him as a water god. When they prayed to him, their wishes were always fulfilled.

Caption

They hurled the red-hot molten iron into the river.

48.

MAKING ANIMALS.