



Produced by Al Haines










CHINESE FOLK-LORE TALES


BY

REV. J. MACGOWAN, D.D.




[Transcriber's note: the original book from which
this etext was prepared was missing pages 3 and 4,
and 13 and 14.]





MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1910




GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.




CONTENTS


    I.  THE WIDOW HO
   II.  KWANG-JUI AND THE GOD OF THE RIVER
  III.  THE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER OF LIU-KUNG
   IV.  THE FAIRY BONZE
    V.  THE MYSTERIOUS BUDDHIST ROBE
   VI.  THE VENGEANCE OF THE GODDESS
  VII.  "THE WONDERFUL MAN"
 VIII.  THE GOD OF THE CITY
   IX.  THE TRAGEDY OF THE YIN FAMILY
    X.  SAM-CHUNG AND THE WATER DEMON
   XI.  THE REWARD OF A BENEVOLENT LIFE




I

THE WIDOW HO

One day in the early dawn, a distinguished mandarin was leaving the
temple of the City God.  It was his duty to visit this temple on the
first and fifteenth of the moon, whilst the city was still asleep, to
offer incense and adoration to the stern-looking figure enshrined
within.

This mandarin was Shih-Kung, and a juster or more upright official did
not exist in all the fair provinces of the Empire.  Wherever his name
was mentioned it was received with the profoundest reverence and
respect; for the Chinese people have never lost their ideal of Tien-Li,
or Divine Righteousness.  This ideal is still deeply embedded in the
hearts of high and low, rich and poor; and the homage of all classes,
even of the most depraved is gladly offered to any man who
conspicuously displays this heavenly virtue.

As Shih-Kung was being carried along in his sedan chair, with his
numerous retinue following closely behind him, he happened to notice a
young woman walking in the road in front of him, and began to wonder
what it was that had brought her out at such an unusually early hour.
She was dressed in the very deepest mourning, and so after a little
more thought he concluded that she was a widow who was on her way to
the grave of her late husband to make the usual offerings to his spirit.

All at once a sudden, furious whirlwind screamed about the woman and
seemed determined to spend its force upon her; but beyond her nothing
was touched by it.  Not a leaf on the trees near by was moved, and not
a particle of dust on the road, except just where she stood, was in the
least agitated by the fierce tempest that for the moment raged around
her.

As Shih-Kung gazed at this strange occurrence, the woman's outer skirt
was blown up in the air, and he saw that underneath was another garment
of a rich crimson hue.  He then knew at once that there was something
radically wrong, for no woman of ordinary virtuous character would ever
dare to wear such a glaring colour, while she pretended to be in deep
mourning.  There was something suspicious, too, in the sudden tornado
that blew with such terrific violence round the woman only.  It was not
an accident that brought it there.  It was clearly the angry protest of
some spirit who had been foully misused, and who was determined that
the wrong-doer should not escape the penalty for the evil she had
committed.

Calling two of his runners to him, Shih-Kung ordered them to follow the
woman and to see where she was going and what she did there, and then
to report to him immediately.

[Transcriber's note: pages 3 and 4 missing from source book]

the coffin of the dead, and was to be solved there and there only.  His
course now seemed easy, and it was with a mind full of relief that he
entered his home.

He at once issued a warrant for the arrest of the widow, and at the
same time sent officers to bring the coffin that contained the body of
her husband from its burying-place.

When the widow appeared before the mandarin, she denied that she knew
anything of the cause of her husband's death.  He had come home drunk
one night, she declared, and had fallen senseless on the ground.  After
a great deal of difficulty, she had managed to