45.

GENEROSITY.

The Chronicler of the Strange observes: 'Generosity in poverty is something found among drinkers, gamblers and drifters. Here it is the innkeeper's wife who is exceptional. How could a man not wish to repay her generosity? Ding's actions were indeed an example of the "kindness of a single meal never forgotten".' This is a reference to Sima Qian's biography of Fan Ju, a statesman of the Qin dynasty (221207 BC). 'Fan Ju used his private wealth to repay all those who had helped him when he was starving and in distress. Persons who aided him with no more than a single meal invariably received their reward' (Records of the Grand Historian, I, p. 145).

Dan Minglun (1842) comments that the innkeeper's wife shows exactly the kind of generosity of spirit appreciated by Ding, who was such an admirer of the chivalrous code of the knight errant.

Guo Xie: One of the most celebrated 'knights errant' (youxia) of the early-Han dynasty, who died in approximately 127 BC. His story is memorably told by Sima Qian: 'Guo Xie was short in stature and very quick-tempered; he did not drink wine. In his youth he was sullen, vindictive, and quick to anger when crossed in his will, and this led him to kill a great many people' (Records of the Grand Historian, II, pp. 41318).

censor: In this case it would have been a Shandong provincial censor investigating Ding Qianxi. We are never told what Ding's problem was, or why he had to disappear so fast and was able to return safely so soon afterwards. This laconic style is typical of Strange Tales. Censors were often called the Emperor's 'Eyes and Ears', the system through which he was made aware of the true state of the Empire. See also the Glossary.

47.

THE GIANT TURTLE.

Gold Mountain: Jinshan is a hill north-west of the city of Zhenjiang (written Chinkiang in Treaty Port days), in Jiangsu Province, on the south bank of the Yangtze, near its intersection with the Grand Canal. One imagines that the Zhang family must have travelled south along the canal.

the turtle's strange ways: The species referred to in this tale is the yuan, translated by Bernard Read as 'the Great Sea-turtle'. It 'comes from the rivers and lakes of the South, and is from 10 to 20 feet in circumference' (Chinese Materia Medica VIII: Turtle and Shellfish Drugs (1937), pp. 3031). It was clearly feared from early times, since Read also quotes the alchemist and pharmacologist Tao Hongjing (456536): 'It is said that when this turtle is old it is able to change into a mei (a brownie with a man's face and four legs).' Chen Cangji of the Tang dynasty comments on the fearsomeness of the beast: 'It is hard to kill them. When nearly all the flesh has been cut away it will still bite things and will snap up a bird such as a kite.'

48.

MAKING ANIMALS.

sorcerer: Dan Minglun (1842) remarks that this sort of sorcery combined with kidnapping was a speciality of people from Sichuan and Hunan. (Dan himself was a Guizhou man, and apparently had encountered it there as well.) died under torture: 'All persons convicted of... employing spells and incantations... shall be beheaded, after remaining in prison the usual period' (Ta Tsing Leu Lee, p. 273). In Chroniques de l'etrange (Arles, 1996), Andre Levy observes that in this case the Magistrate most probably caused the man to die on the rack because the normal course of justice would have been so protracted.

50.

DYING TOGETHER.

the twenty-first year of the reign of Kangxi: 1682.

Judge Bi: See note on Bi Jiyou, Tale 66, 'Mynah Bird'.

51.

THE ALLIGATOR'S REVENGE.

The alligator... Yangtze River: The Yangtze alligator (Alligator sinensis) has an average length of six and a half feet. Bernard Read gives interesting information (Chinese Materia Medica VII: Dragon and Snake Drugs (1934), pp. 2022), taken from his usual Chinese sources and from the pioneer study written by Albert Auguste Fauvel (18511909), 'Alligators in China', Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society XIII. According to Chen Cangji of the Tang dynasty, the alligator is 'shaped like a dragon, making a fearful noise; it grows up to ten feet long, and can give out clouds which descend like rain'. Other sources emphasize how hard it is to kill: 'Quite a long time after boiling water has been poured down its throat it dies and is skinned. Its skins are used for covering drums. It is a sleepy animal, lying about with its eyes constantly closed. Exceedingly strong and fierce, it can break down the banks of rivers... It can fly sideways but not upwards.'

Chen Youliang: (132063), a prominent rebel leader of the last years of the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty, and a rival of Zhu Yuanzhang, who founded the Ming dynasty.

52.

SHEEP SKIN.

the year xinchou: 1661.

53.

SHARP SWORD.

Lu Zhan'en (1825) makes the connection between the soldier's sharp sword that cuts clean through (literally 'through the big openings') and the famous blade of the Taoist cook Ding in the fourth-century Book of Zhuangzi, Chapter 3, 'The Secret of Caring for Life': 'I go along with the natural make-up, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are.'

54.

LOTUS FRAGRANCE.

The Chronicler of the Strange writes: 'Alas! The dead seek life, the living seek death! Is not this human bodily frame the most coveted thing in the world? Unfortunately those who possess this treasure often fail to cherish it; they live with less shame than foxes, and vanish into death with less trace than ghosts!'

In Redefining History, Chang and Chang see in this fox-and-ghost story 'profound questions in real life and in this world, [questions about] the meaning of human existence and the metaphysical, physical, psychological and spiritual images of the human body' (p. 44). Wai-yee Li sums up the story succinctly: 'Mutual appreciation and devotion persist through karmic cycles and eventually unite the three characters in a harmonious bigamous relationship' (Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature (Princeton, 1993), p. 127).

embroidered slipper: In Chinese Footbinding (New York, 1966, pp. 51ff.), Howard Levy writes: The shoe in which the tiny foot was encased flirtatiously suggested concealment, mystery and boudoir pleasures. Well-to-do ladies took pride in their small and well-proportioned 'golden lotuses' [bound feet], designed shoes for them of crimson silk, and wore especially attractive models when preparing for bed. The sleeping shoes, scarlet in hue, were intended to heighten male desire through a striking colour contrast with the white skin of the beloved. These shoes were greatly prized and sought after as love tokens. A woman might secretly give them to her enamoured as proof of love sentiments.

let alone a ghost: Sexual intercourse with a ghost was considered to be a source of extraordinary pleasure, and at the same time usually fatal. See also the Introduction, pp. xxivxxv.

sucking the life out of men: See the note on the Golden Elixir in Tale 38, 'Fox Enchantment'. This notion applied as much in the human world as it did to the relations between fox-spirits and men. Man 'regarded woman as the "enemy" because through her causing the man to emit semen she robs him of his precious Yang essence' (van Gulik, Erotic Colour Prints, p. 11). See also the Introduction, pp. xxixxii.

three Fairy Hills: In Taoist legend, the three Fairy Hills or Islands in the Eastern Sea Penglai, Yingzhou and Fangzhang were: inhabited by genii whose lustrous forms are nourished upon the gems which lie scattered upon their shores, or with the fountain of life which flows perennially for their enjoyment. Upon the Fairy Island of Yingzhou grows the magic mushroom known as zhi, and there is a rock of jade a thousand metres in height, from which flows a spring resembling wine... It is called the sweet-wine fountain of jade. Whoso quaffs a few measures of this beverage becomes suddenly inebriated and achieves eternal life.

(Plopper, Chinese Religion Seen through the Proverb, p. 359) large bolus-like pill: A bolus is a large pill much used in traditional Chinese medicine.

straw burial-doll: Figures buried with, or burned on behalf of, a dead man, to accompany him to the Nether World.

welcoming Sang into her family: It was not uncommon for the groom to 'marry into' the bride's family, especially when he was poorer than they were. Although Sang may have technically become part of the Zhang family, he seems to all intents and purposes to have lived quite independently from them after the marriage.

the swallow of yesteryear: The line is from a well-known lyric poem by Yan Shu (9911055).

the year gengxu: 1670.

55.