



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 lift him up on to the
bed, where he lay in a drunken slumber, just as men under the influence
of liquor often do, so that she was not in the least anxious or
disturbed about him.  During the night she fell asleep as she watched
by his side, and when she woke up she found to her horror that he was
dead.

"That is all that can be said about the case," she concluded, "and if
you now order an examination of the body, it simply means that you have
suspicions about me, for no other person was with him but myself when
he died.  I protest therefore against the body being examined.  If,
however, you are determined to do so, I warn you that if you find no
signs of violence on it, you expose yourself according to the laws of
China to the punishment of death."

"I am quite prepared to take the responsibility," replied the mandarin,
"and I have already ordered the Coroner to open the coffin and to make
a careful examination of the body."

This was accordingly done, but no trace of injury, not even the
slightest bruise, could be discovered on any part of the dead man's
body.

The county magistrate was greatly distressed at this result of the
enquiry, and hastened to Shih-Kung in order to obtain his advice as to
what steps he should now take to escape the punishment of death which
he had incurred by his action.  The Viceroy agreed that the matter had
indeed assumed a most serious aspect.  "But you need not be anxious,"
he added, "about what you have done.  You have only acted by my orders,
and therefore I assume all responsibility for the proceedings which you
have adopted to discover the murderer."

Late in the afternoon, as the sun began to disappear behind the
mountains of the west, Shih-Kung slipped out by a side door of his
yamen, dressed as a peddler of cloth, and with pieces of various kinds
of material resting on his shoulders.  His disguise was so perfect that
no one, as he passed down the street, dreamed of suspecting that
instead of being a wandering draper, he was in reality the
Governor-General of the Province, who was trying to obtain evidence of
a murder that had recently been committed in his own capital.

Travelling on down one street after another, Shih-Kung came at last to
the outskirts of the town, where the dwellings were more scattered and
the population was less dense.  By this time it was growing dark, so
when he came to a house that stood quite apart by itself, he knocked at
the door.  An elderly woman with a pleasant face and a motherly look
about her asked him in a kind and gentle voice what he wanted.

"I have taken the liberty," he replied, "of coming to your house to see
whether you would not kindly allow me to lodge with you for the night.
I am a stranger in this region," he continued, "and have travelled far
from my home to sell my cloth.  The night is fast falling, and I know
not where to spend it, and so I beg of you to take me in.  I do not
want charity, for I am quite able to pay you liberally for any trouble
I may cause you; and to-morrow morning, as early as you may desire, I
shall proceed on my wanderings, and you will be relieved of me."

"My good man," she replied, "I am perfectly willing that you should
lodge here for the night, only I am afraid you may have to endure some
annoyance from the conduct of my son when he returns home later in the
evening."

"My business leads me into all kinds of company," he assured her, "and
I meet people with a great variety of dispositions, but I generally
manage to get on with them all.  It may be so with your son."

With a good-natured smile, the old lady then showed him into a little
room just off the one which was used as a sitting room.  Shih-Kung was
very tired, so he threw himself down, just as he was, on a trestle bed
that stood in the corner, and began to think over his plans for solving
the mystery of the murder.  By-and-by he fell fast asleep.

About midnight he woke up at the sound of voices in the next room, and
heard the mother saying:--"I want you to be very careful how you treat
the peddler, and not to use any of your coarse language to him.
Although he looks only a common man, I am sure he is a gentleman, for
he has a refined way with him that shows he must have come from no mean
family.  I did not really want to take him in, as I knew you might
object; but the poor man was very tired, and it was getting dark, and
he declared he had no place to go to, so that at last I consented to
let him stay.  It is only for the night, and to-morrow at break of day
he says he must be on his travels again."

"I do most strongly dislike having a strange man in the house," replied
a voice which Shih-Kung concluded was the son's; "and I shall go and
have a look at him in order to satisfy myself about him."

Taking a lantern in his hand, he came close up to where Shih-Kung was
lying, and flashing the light upon his face, looked down anxiously at
him for a few moments.  Apparently he was satisfied, for he cried out
in a voice that could easily be heard in the other room: "All right,
mother, I am content.  The man has a good face, and I do not think I
have anything to fear from him.  Let him remain."

Shih-Kung now considered that it was time for him to act.  He stretched
himself and yawned as though he were just waking out of sleep, and
then, sitting up on the edge of the bed, he looked into the young man's
face and asked him who he was.

"Oh!" he replied in a friendly way, "I am the son of the old lady who
gave you permission to stay here for the night.  For certain reasons, I
am not at all anxious to have strangers about the house, and at first I
very much objected to have you here.  But now that I have had a good
look at you, my objections have all vanished.  I pride myself upon
being a good judge of character, and I may tell you that I have taken a
fancy to you.  But come away with me into the next room, for I am going
to have a little supper, and as my mother tells me that you fell asleep
without having had anything to eat, I have no doubt you will be glad to
join me."

As they sat talking over the meal, they became very friendly and
confidential with each other, and the sam-shu that the son kept
drinking from a tiny cup, into which it was poured from a steaming
kettle, had the effect of loosening his tongue and causing him to speak
more freely than he would otherwise have done.

From his long experience of the shady classes of society, Shih-Kung
very soon discovered what kind of a man his companion was, and felt
that here was a mine from which he might draw valuable information to
help him in reaching the facts he wished to discover.

Looking across the table at the son, whose face was by this time
flushed with the spirit he had been drinking, and with a hasty glance
around the room, as though he were afraid that some one might overhear
him, he said in a low voice, "I want to tell you a great secret.  You
have opened your heart a good deal to me, and now I am going to do the
same with you.  I am not really a peddler of cloth, as I have pretended
to be.  I have been simply using that business to disguise my real
occupation, which I do not want anyone to know."

"And what, may I ask, may be the trade in which you are engaged, and of
which you seem to be so ashamed that you dare not openly confess it?"
asked the son.

"Well, I am what I call a benevolent thief," replied Shih-Kung.

"A benevolent thief!" exclaimed the other in astonishment.  "I have
never heard of such a thing before, and I should very much like to know
what is meant by it."

"I must tell you," explained the guest, "that I am not a common thief
who takes the property of others for his own benefit.  I never steal
for myself.  My practice is to find