The Book of Swindles

Translations from the Asian Classics

Translations from the Asian Classics
Editorial Board
Wm. Theodore de Bary, Chair
Paul Anderer
Donald Keene
George A. Saliba
Haruo Shirane
Burton Watson
Wei Shang
THE BOOK OF SWINDLES

Selections from a Late Ming Collection

ZHANG YINGYU

Translated by Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk

C olumbia University Press Ne w York

This publication was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss Foundation, a
private, non-profit operating foundation that sponsors research on China’s Ming dynasty
(1368–1644).

Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the
Pushkin Fund in the publication of this book.

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu

Copyright © 2017 Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Zhang, Yingyu, active 16th century-17th century author. | Rea, Christopher G.
translator. | Rusk, Bruce, 1972– translator.
Title: The book of swindles : selections from a late Ming collection / Zhang Yingyu ;
translated by Christopher G. Rea and Bruce Rusk.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2017. | Series: Translations from the
Asian classics | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017000941 (print) | LCCN 2017021726 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231545648 (electronic) | ISBN 9780231178624 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780231178631 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Swindlers and swindling—China—Anecdotes. | Fraud—China—
Anecdotes.
Classification: LCC HV6699.C6 (ebook) | LCC HV6699.C6 Z43413 2017 (print) |
DDC 364.16/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000941

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America

Cover image: Courtesy of the National Museum of China. The cover illustration shows a
detail from “Bustling Nanjing” (Nandu fanhui tujuan ⋿悥䷩丒⚾⌟), a long handscroll
painting by an anonymous Ming dynasty artist (formerly attributed to Qiu Ying ṯ劙,
1494?–1552).
 Contents

Maps x
Translators’ Introduction xiii

Type 1: Misdirection and Theft 1

Stealing Silk with a Decoy Horse 2
Handing Over Silver Before Running Off with It 6
A Clever Trick on a Pig Seller 9
Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending to Steal a Goose 11

Type 2: The Bag Drop 14

Dropping a Bag by the Roadside to Set Up a Switcheroo 15

Type 3: Money Changing 18

A Daoist in a Boat Exchanges Some Gold 19
 Type 4: Misrepresentation 23
Forged Letters from the Education Intendant
Report Auspicious Dreams 24
Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke
on Sedan Bearers 28

Type 5: False Relations 32

Inciting a Friend to Commit Adultery
and Swindling Away His Land 33

Type 6: Brokers 37
A Conniving Broker Takes Paper and Ends Up
Paying with His Daughter 38
A Destitute Broker Takes Some Wax to
Pay Off Old Debts 42

Type 7: Enticement to Gambling 46

A Stern Warning to a Gambler Provokes Others to
Entice Him to Relapse 47

Type 8: Showing Off Wealth 51

Impersonating the Son of an Official to Steal a
Merchant’s Silver 52
Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny 56

Type 9: Scheming for Wealth 59

Stealing a Business Partner’s Riches Only to
Lose One ’s Own 60
Haughtiness Leads to a Lawsuit That Harms Wealth
and Health 65

vi contents
 Type 10: Robbery 71
Robbing a Pawnshop by Pretending to Leave Goods There 72

Type 11: Violence 75

Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal a Silver Ingot 76

Type 12: On Boats 78

Bringing Mirrors Aboard a Boat Invites a Nefarious Plot 79
Porters Run Off with Cargo from a Boat 84

Type 13: Poetry 88

Swindling the Salt Commissioner While
Disguised as Daoists 89
Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms of
a Famous Courtesan 94

Type 14: Fake Silver 98

Planting a Fake Ingot to Swindle a Farmer 99

Type 15: Government Underlings 103

Swindled on the Way Out of a Court Hearing 104
An Officer Reprimands a Captured Criminal in
Order to Halve His Flogging 109

Type 16: Marriage 111

Marrying a Street Cleaner and Provoking His Death 112
Taking a Concubine from Another Province Leads to
a Disastrous Lawsuit 117

contents vii
 Type 17: Illicit Passion 120
A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good Seed 121

Type 18: Women 129

Coaxing a Sister-in-Law Into Adultery to
Scam Oil and Meat 130
Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses 135
A Buddhist Nun Scatters Prayer Beads to Lure a
Woman Into Adultery 138

Type 19: Kidnapping 144

A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic of Male Essence 145

Type 20: Corruption in Education 150

Pretending to Present Silver to
an Education Commissioner 151
Affixing Seals in a Functionary’s Chambers 154
Silver with Sham Seals Is Switched for Bricks 157
Robbed by a Gang While Sealing Silver in
an Unoccupied Room 160
A Fake Freeloader Takes Over a Con 164
Money Stashed with an Innkeeper Is Burgled 168

Type 21: Monks and Priests 173

A Buddhist Monk Identifies a Cow as His Mother 174
Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting 179

Type 22: Alchemy 186

Trusting in Alchemy Harms an Entire Family 187
A Foiled Alchemy Scam Leads to a Poisoning 192

viii contents
 Type 23: Sorcery 195
Using Dream Sorcery to Rob a Family 196

Type 24: Pandering 200

A Father Searching for His Wastrel Son Himself Falls
Into Whoring 201

Appendix 1: Preface to A New Book for Foiling Swindlers:

Strange Tales from the Rivers and Lakes (1617), by Xiong Zhenji 209
Appendix 2: Story Finding List 215
Bibliography 223

contents ix
 The Ming Empire in the Early Seventeenth Century

x maps
Southeastern China in the Early Seventeenth Century

maps xi
 Translators’ Introduction

We live in an age of deception. Words and appearances mislead.

Con artists prey on the unwary. The halls of power are choked with
hypocrites, and the markets teem with frauds. Every stranger is a
potential enemy, and one steps out the door at one ’s peril. In this
world of swindlers, one must rely on one’s wits to survive. How,
then, to guard against the duplicity that seems to lurk behind every
smiling face? Look to your kin, keep your possessions close, and
trust no one.
But first, read this book.
The Book of Swindles is said to be the first Chinese story collec-
tion focused explicitly on the topic of fraud. It contains eighty-four
stories classified into twenty-four types of swindle according to
method, location, or perpetrator. A comment by the author, Zhang
Yingyu (fl. 1612–17), follows nearly every story, and five additional
stories appear within his commentary. Overall, the collection pres-
ents a panoramic survey of deceptive practices in contemporary
 society by a critic keenly interested in the dangers faced by com-
mon people, especially traveling merchants.
The crimes and cons recounted in the Book of Swindles take place
mainly during the latter part of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Dur-
ing this period China underwent a flourishing of domestic and
international commerce that created overnight fortunes. Zhang’s
collection captures a sense of the paranoia that resulted from the
new risks and social change brought by this flow of money. Most
of the stories concern stratagems for siphoning off some of the
wealth circulating through the roads, canals, and market alleyways
of the prosperous southern regions of the empire. Swindlers and
marks hail from places as far north as Beijing, as far west as Sich-
uan, and as far south as Guangdong and Guangxi, but most of the
action takes place in the region between the southern capital in Nan-
jing (Beijing, to the north, was the primary capital) and the south-
eastern coastal province of Fujian.
Zhang Yingyu refers to the agents of illicit appropriations of
wealth as gun, which literally means “cudgel” but denoted anyone
who made a living through crime. The methods of these “crooks,”
as we translate the term, could be violent, but in Zhang’s stories
always involve some element of deception and cunning.1 He calls
their stratagems “swindles” ( pian) and focuses on the crooks’ clev-
erness and creativity in manipulating victims.
The purpose of the book, according to its original title, is to pro-
tect the reader from such crimes. The woodblocks from which the
first edition was printed, in or soon after 1617, label it A New Book
for Foiling Swindlers, Based on Worldly Experience ( Jianghu lilan
dupian xinshu), and, to be sure, knowledge of crooks’ techniques
could help a reader defend against them. Yet the Book serves equally
well as a manual for perpetrating swindles. And simply as a source
of entertainment, it offers a wealth of narrative detail and describes
crimes to which the average reader is unlikely to fall victim, such as
eunuch cannibalism. Zhang Yingyu appends to the stories com-
ments that vacillate between stern disapproval of the crooks’ pre-
dations and connoisseurial appreciation of their ingenuity. Such
equivocality permeates the book, both affirming and undermining

xiv translators’ introduction

the idea that human actions should be judged by a universal moral
standard. Perhaps this is why modern editions have been entitled
both The Book Against Swindles (Fangpian jing) and The Book of
Swindles (Pian jing).
Our translation follows the latter title, which classifies the col-
lection as a jing, or “classic.”2 In premodern China, this label was
reserved for the core texts of a particular domain of knowledge: the
philosophical classics of antiquity that served as the basis for ortho-
dox Confucian learning; the religious scriptures of Buddhism and
Daoism; and, later, the Bible. The term was eventually applied to
less weighty fields: there were classics of tea, of chess, and of the
boudoir.3 The Book of Swindles, like these other works, has been rec-
ognized as a jing for offering a topical exposition that aims to be
definitive, authoritative, and comprehensive.
In this introduction, we discuss a few ways to appreciate this
landmark work in Chinese literary history, which offers words of
warning for a world in peril.

The Swindle Story

Zhang Yingyu did not call his book a “classic,” but he did treat the
“crook’s playbook,” as he once refers to it, as worthy of familiar-
ity and appreciation. Crooks, Zhang suggests, have their own shared
body of specialized knowledge, and he treats ingenious scams as
products of learning and skill. Crooks know what is to be gained,
whom to target, where and how to lay a trap—and when to take
the touch and scram. Most impressive to Zhang Yingyu are those
swindles that reveal the perpetrator’s deep understanding of the
psychology of a particular group—miserly peasants, say, or civil
service examination candidates—or of an individual. The swin-
dler’s nemesis is the “old hand,” an experienced traveler (often a
merchant) with a similar knowledge base who knows how to rec-
ognize scams and thwart them. A recursive theory of mind under-
lies this pair’s ongoing battle of wits, in which each opponent might
say to the other: I understand your understanding of me better than
you understand it yourself.

translators’ introduction xv
 The focus on ruses and ingenuity calls to mind other classics of
strategic thinking such as the Art of War (whose author, Sun Zi, is
mentioned in the book’s 1617 preface by Xiong Zhenji) and the later
Thirty-Six Stratagems, both of which exalt the use of deception
in warfare.4 Zhang Yingyu also mentions by name Zhuge Liang
(181–234), the famed military strategist of the Three Kingdoms
period. Successful ruses on the battlefield or in the halls of power,
born of superior insight, self-possession, and desperation to sur-
vive, became the stuff of history. They changed the fates of armies,
rulers, and kingdoms. The Book of Swindles concerns itself with
similar principles and methods in the more mundane realms of
commerce and civil society.5 The effect of every individual scam is
local. Only when taken in aggregate do these stories suggest an
empire of endemic criminality.
American confidence artists of the early twentieth century dis-
tinguished between the short con—the momentary encounter in
which the victim was taken for whatever he had on his person—
and the big con, in which, over an extended period of time, the mark
was persuaded to draw on additional resources.6 This Ming dynasty
“crooks’ playbook” includes everything from simple street hustles
to elaborate put-up jobs involving several actors and multiple stages.
The takings range from nothing (in the case of foiled plots) to vast
fortunes; some victims die at the hands of crooks. If the classic
American confidence man saw his work as superior to that of the
common thug and eschewed the use of force,7 the gun employed
violence as one tool among many.
The swindle story, in Zhang Yingyu’s telling, is less a whodunit
than a howdunit. We generally know from the outset who is the
swindler and who the mark, and wait to see how the interaction
plays out. The aesthetic is procedural: the storyteller holds us in sus-
pense about how the ruse will unfold and whether it will succeed.
Chance plays a role—Zhang’s commentaries sometimes attribute
a result to the workings of fate—but human ingenuity and experi-
ence are the main drivers of narrative cause and effect.
This is one similarity that Zhang’s swindle stories share with
court case fiction, an established genre by the late Ming, which

xvi translators’ introduction

anatomizes the investigation and prosecution of a crime.8 At the
center of these stories is the magistrate, whose wisdom and perspi-
cuity enable him to crack the case. His investigative and deductive
prowess derives from his understanding both of social institutions
and of the criminal mind, and he can manipulate dissemblers into
confessing or unwittingly revealing the truth. Zhang Yingyu’s work
shares with this genre an appreciation of ingenuity, but finds this
quality on both sides of the law. Principals in the Book of Swindles
often bring their disputes to the local magistrate, who reveals new
information about the swindle in the process of reconstructing the
case. Yet, unlike standard court case narratives, many of Zhang’s
stories shows representatives of the law in an unflattering light,
notably the famously wise and incorruptible Judge Bao, whose one
appearance in the collection is as a dupe (“An Officer Reprimands
a Captured Criminal in Order to Halve His Flogging”).
The Book of Swindles overlaps with a variety of other genres,
including tales of retribution, supernatural tales, classical tales
(chuanqi ), jokes, and anecdotes. Zhang draws on stock scenarios and
character types from vernacular fiction and drama, such as the char-
latan Daoist, the duplicitous broker, and the foolish scion of a rich
family. In this, his stories are very much of their time. We find
dropped bags, ingenious thievery, and imposture in fiction by con-
temporaries such as Feng Menglong (1574–1645), Ling Mengchu
(1580–1644), and Li Yu (1610–80). Venal monks and eunuchs, lying
procuresses and go-betweens appear in a wide array of vernacular
literature, including contemporary novels such as The Water Mar-
gin (Shui hu zhuan, first extant imprint 1589) and Plum in the Golden
Vase (Jin ping mei, first extant imprint 1610). “A Buddhist Nun Scat-
ters Prayer Beads to Lure a Woman Into Adultery,” for example,
concerns a rich man who employs an old woman to help him seduce
the wife of a man away on business. The progression of the seduc-
tion in Zhang’s story parallels that in “The Pearl Vest” and the more
famous story it inspired, “The Pearl-Sewn Shirt,” which appears
in Feng Menglong’s Stories Old and New (1620). All three stories
also share specific details such as the successful attempt by the
old woman (a nun, in Zhang’s story) to incite the wife ’s lust by

translators’ introduction xvii

 discussing her own amorous past, and the streetside display of pearls
or beads to attract the wife’s attention.9
Many cultures possess a rich body of lore about tricksters who
upend the social order, swindlers who exploit its loopholes, and
thieves who sever the bonds between people and property. Such sto-
ries not only reflect social realities, they also create tropes that
shape how people imagine the world they live in. The idea of the
confidence man, for example, loomed large in the bustling cities
and burgeoning frontiers of the antebellum United States. From
the roads, rails, and riverboats, he soon became a fixture in penny
papers, city guides, and novels, ever ready to prey on the disori-
ented inhabitants of a world of strangers.10 Zhang Yingyu’s tales
of swindlers likewise reflect the anxieties and preoccupations of his
time and place. His impulses to compile, classify, and anatomize
cases of deception, however, are not unique. The growth in popu-
lation, mass printing, and urbanization propelled by the Industrial
Revolution also gave rise to commoditized versions of the cau-
tionary tale. Around the turn of the nineteenth century, for exam-
ple, travelers to London might pick up a copy of Richard King,
Esq.’s short volume The New Cheats of London Exposed; or the
frauds and tricks of the town laid open to both sexes, being a guard
against the iniquitous practices of that Metropolis (ca. 1792). Herman
Melville’s The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857) depicts the
methods of a serial scammer who adopts a variety of personæ in
his efforts to separate riverboat passengers from their money. The
quintessential nineteenth-century entertainer P. T. Barnum, a savvy
exploiter of popular interest in debunking “experts,” cast a wide
net with his best-selling anthology The Humbugs of the World: An
Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and
Deceivers, Generally, in All Ages (1866). Closer to Zhang Yingyu’s
age, Don Quixote (Part One, 1605), Francisco de Quevedo’s The
Swindler (1626), and other Spanish picaresque novels popularized
the literary archetypes of the itinerant rogue, the juvenile trickster,
and the delusive wanderer.11 Fraud and deception are endemic to
humanity, yet stories about ingenuity and cunning appear, like their
shape-shifting protagonists, in remarkable variations.

xviii translators’ introduction

Traversing River and Lake
Many of the encounters in the Book of Swindles involve a particular
and highly charged social scenario: travel among strangers.12 Por-
ters carry examination candidates only half the promised route and
then stop to extort a higher fare. Women seduce merchants far from
home, prostitute female relatives, frame innocent men, steal horses
on the highway, and enter into sham marriages for purposes of
murder and extortion. Waggish literati on pleasure trips seek out
and outwit courtesans and officials. Crooks traveling by land and
water impersonate rich scions, Daoists, alchemists, and acquain-
tances of powerful officials in order to fleece merchants and exami-
nation hopefuls. Buddhist monks and nuns, Daoist priests, and court
eunuchs are especially notorious in Zhang’s work as lechers, pro-
curesses, bogus alchemists, and murderous sorcerers. While some
swindles involve family members and hometown acquaintances,
most occur away from home or involve a visiting outsider.
Like much Chinese fiction, the tales in the Book of Swindles are
presented as history, yet Zhang Yingyu’s interest is not histo-
riographic or biographical. Only one story’s title mentions a real
person by name (“Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms of
a Famous Courtesan”), but this protagonist was by no means a
famous figure, so it seems likely that celebrity was not the draw.13
Other stories feature much better-known historical personages, yet
their titles only describe the action; in other words, Zhang presents
them as generic examples of recurring phenomena. Stories based
on real events, or that mention specific dates, place names, and his-
torical personages, are to some degree fictionalized. (Even some of
the place names in stories cannot be identified with any known
locale and are likely fictive.) Zhang Yingyu’s focus is on interac-
tions among ordinary folk, including those at the lowest levels of
the social order (peasants, street cleaners, itinerant peddlers). Their
names hardly matter; what matters is their skill in moving through
a hostile environment of untrustworthy strangers.
The “worldly experience” that Zhang shares is derived from the
imaginary realm of the jianghu, a term appearing in the collection’s

translators’ introduction xix

 full title. The Rivers and Lakes, as jianghu might be translated lit-
erally, is a transitory space of indeterminate geography and fluid
identities, a social milieu bounded on one extreme by the order of
the state and on the other by the wilds beyond civilization. It is a
place of refuge for political exiles, outlaws, martial artists, socially
marginal figures, and people hiding from the law. It is also a realm
of commerce plied by merchants, petty entrepreneurs, civil service
examinations candidates, officials heading to and from their posts,
monks, medicine men, soothsayers, entertainers, mendicants, and
swindlers. In literature, drama, and popular culture, the human
geography of the jianghu is defined less by individuals than by types
of roughly predictable appearance and behavior. But the overarch-
ing maxim of the jianghu is that people are often not what they
seem.
Vulnerability increases with distance from home—as does the
lure of profit. In the very first story of the collection, a horse trader
from the inland province of Jiangxi travels over a thousand miles
to Nanjing, only to encounter a swindler there and be dragged to
court for serving as his unwitting accomplice. In the “Showing Off
Wealth” section, a merchant from Shandong province covers a
similar distance on a cloth-buying trip to Fujian, during which he
is unknowingly pursued by a swindler in disguise. While passing
through Jiangxi province, the crook dupes the local magistrate, who
hails from Guangdong province to the south, into believing that he
is the son of a powerful Surveillance Intendant serving in Fujian.
The magistrate ’s courteous reception convinces the merchant to
trust the imposter, who leaves him drunk and broke before he
reaches his destination. Experienced swindlers know that it’s eas-
ier to hook a fish—or, in this case, two—out of water.

The Author and His Voice

Zhang Yingyu is an obscure figure. The Book of Swindles is the only
known work to appear under his name, and no record of him sur-
vives in any biographical source.14 Zhang lived during the Wanli
period (1563–1620) of the Ming dynasty; according to the 1617

xx translators’ introduction
preface, he hailed from Jianyang county in Fujian. This seems prob-
able, given that the first extant version of the book was printed
there; that over half of the stories with identifiable locales take place
in Fujian; and that terms from Fujian dialect occur in many stories.15
This biographical information is contradicted within the Book of
Swindles itself, however: chapter headings in the Ming edition iden-
tify Zhang as being from Zhejiang province (just north of Fujian);
one possibility is that his family was originally from Zhejiang but
he lived in Fujian.16
Zhang’s commentaries are one of the outstanding features of the
Book of Swindles. Commentary, including that by the author of the
main text (autocommentary), is common in many genres of pre-
modern Chinese literature, including Ming vernacular fiction. Early
historians pioneered this practice, appending statements to their
biographies and topical essays in which they spoke in their own
voice and expressed judgments about the narrative presented in the
main text. Later authors, editors, and critics were often eager to
clarify plot points or gloss expressions to make sure that the moral
of the story did not escape the reader.17 In commenting on his own
stories, Zhang Yingyu performs several roles. He speaks as a mor-
alist, apportioning blame for the swindle. Sometimes he attributes
this to the folly or naïveté of the victim rather than to the venality
of the crook—the dupe should have known better and avoided a
bad situation. He speaks as an expert on cons and crimes, judging
the deceptive technique of the swindler, the precautions or retalia-
tion of the mark, the actions of people who intervene in the pro-
ceedings, and the perspicuity of the official trying the case. He also
speaks as a witness, corroborating, contradicting, or supplying facts
based on supposed firsthand knowledge; examples include the sto-
ries “Forged Letters from the Education Intendant Report Auspi-
cious Dreams,” “Marrying a Street Cleaner and Provoking His
Death,” and “A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good Seed.”
In virtually every instance, he not only comments on the individ-
ual case but also extrapolates a general moral lesson or a piece of
practical advice. And in some cases the commentary contains addi-
tional material, even entire stories.18

translators’ introduction xxi

 To understand most of the stories in the Book of Swindles, a Ming
reader would have needed only literacy in simple literary Chinese
and familiarity with basic social institutions, the type of knowledge
one might expect of an educated merchant. Zhang’s commentaries,
however, often use more formal language and make historical and
literary allusions that only a reader with more classical training
would recognize. One recurring point of reference is the Book of
Changes (Yijing or I Ching), the ancient divination manual that
became a Confucian classic. It seems likely that Zhang was a student
of the Changes, perhaps in preparation for the civil service examina-
tions. (Xiong Zhenji mentions the Changes in his preface as a model
for the Book of Swindles itself.) Some of these allusions are unmarked
and presume familiarity with the text. The Book of Changes is
arranged around a set of sixty-four figures called “hexagrams,” each
consisting of a stack of six horizontal lines. In divination, a process
of manipulating reeds or tossing coins would yield a hexagram and a
focus on particular lines within it. The text of the Changes consists of
short, cryptic statements for each hexagram and for each line, as well
as several layers of additional commentary. A diviner would come to
the Changes with a situation in mind and interpret it using the texts
and lines that the divination process yielded. Zhang Yingyu also uses
the Changes as a general repository of wisdom and insight, invoking
its words for guidance on all sorts of ethical and practical decisions.
For example, in his comment on the story “Bringing Mirrors Aboard
a Boat Invites a Nefarious Plot,” in which a loyal servant protects his
spendthrift master who turns a business trip into a sightseeing jaunt,
he alludes to portions of the description of the fifty-sixth hexagram,
Lü 㕭 (Traveling), that mention the importance of a good serving
boy. Since the Book of Changes is not mentioned by title, Zhang either
assumed that his reader would catch the unmarked reference or was
unconcerned about readers who would not.

Late Ming Society

Most of the stories in the Book of Swindles are set in the context in
which they were written, the society of the late Ming (roughly

xxii translators’ introduction

1550–1644), and in particular the highly commercialized regions
of the southeast. The book was first printed in Jianyang, a major
center of private publishing in Fujian province, and its author,
as mentioned earlier, hailed from either there or Zhejiang to the
immediate north. Both regions figure prominently in the stories as
setting or as characters’ place of origin. These places and some of
the surrounding areas underwent profound social and economic
change from the middle of the sixteenth century onward. Com-
merce became more and more central to the lives of ordinary people
and was increasingly conducted with silver rather than through
barter. Complex regional, interregional, and international trade net-
works moved goods and people over long distances. In the south-
east this was facilitated by efficient boat travel via rivers, lakes, and
canals. Specialized intermediaries stepped in to establish trust; they
appear in the stories as brokers (who mediate transactions and hold
payments in escrow), wholesalers, innkeepers, and local agents who
act on behalf of a visiting merchant. Profits from trade concentrated
wealth in the hands of merchants and others not tied to older power
structures such as landowning and office holding. Commerce shook
up the social order by enabling new groups to acquire literacy, to
purchase luxury goods and the trappings of culture, and to prepare
for the civil service examinations.19
The Ming had no hereditary aristocracy, aside from the large but
mostly powerless extended imperial lineage. Families with a tradi-
tion of examination success and office holding, however, often
viewed themselves as leaders of local society. Many members of this
traditional elite saw the forces of commerce as eroding the proper
social order. The boom in commercial publishing, meanwhile,
spurred changes in popular culture. Thanks to the enormous output
of publishers, printers, book sellers, authors, and editors, the vernac-
ular culture of the late Ming is far more accessible to us than that of
any earlier period in Chinese history. The era saw the proliferation
of works of literature, reference books, and religious texts acces-
sible to, intended for, and in many cases produced by nonelites.20
The Book of Swindles, a book primarily for and about merchants,
is one such work. Traveling merchants are the main characters of

translators’ introduction xxiii

 most of Zhang’s stories. In stories involving merchants interacting
with brokers, innkeepers, money changers, officials, farmers, clerks,
prostitutes, or members of other professions, Zhang speaks for the
merchant. “Impersonating the Son of an Official to Steal a Mer-
chant’s Silver,” for example, shows the risks merchants face in
dealing with officialdom: a cloth merchant comes to grief when he
tries to fulfill a social obligation to a traveling companion who
appears to be the son of a powerful official. “A Eunuch Cooks Boys
to Make a Tonic of Male Essence ” begins with a screed arguing
that when taxes impede commerce they harm not just merchants
but society as a whole. In “Stealing a Business Partner’s Riches
Only to Lose One’s Own,” a traveler swindles a fellow merchant
from the same hometown, prompting Zhang Yingyu to lament the
exploitation of a lonely traveler’s desire for kinship. Many of his
appended comments address readers directly as merchants, or
assume that commerce is their profession.

Officialdom
Many of the stories involve state institutions, especially the crimi-
nal justice system and the civil service examinations. The Ming
empire was governed through a multitiered set of institutions,
staffed by centrally appointed officials, and governed by written
laws and regulations. Central government offices were located in
the capital, Beijing, with smaller shadow versions based in the sec-
ondary southern capital, Nanjing. Most of the rest of the empire
was divided up into nested administrative units: provinces, divided
into prefectures, subdivided into counties. In charge of each unit
was at least one centrally appointed official who worked with a staff
of local subordinates in an office complex called the yamen. The
smallest administrative unit, the county, could be quite large: over
the course of the Ming dynasty, the number of counties remained
roughly constant at about 1,400, while the population of a county
grew to an average of over 160,000 and a maximum of perhaps one
million at the time when these stories were written. The county mag-
istrate was in charge of almost all civilian administrative matters in

xxiv translators’ introduction

his jurisdiction: tax collection, public works, criminal and civil law,
and the performance of state religious rituals. A prefect would over-
see the same matters for the several counties within his prefecture.
Most ordinary people, consequently, had little or no contact with
their local magistrate. Given the opacity of the justice system and
its reliance on torture to extract confessions from witnesses as well
as suspects, many preferred to keep it that way. Zhang Yingyu calls
the yamen a “thicket of swindles” and advises readers to avoid it at
all costs. In his stories we occasionally catch glimpses of officials,
but we encounter more of the people who did the day-to-day work
of government: clerks, runners, constables, gatekeepers, and other
underlings. The staff of a yamen, who were generally hired locally,
were of vital importance because they acted as an interface between
the populace and the state. Magistrates and prefects, who were typ-
ically appointed for terms of just three years and forbidden from
serving in their home area, depended on them for local knowledge
and to carry out their decisions.

Civil Service Examinations

Officials were selected by a system of performance reviews and rec-
ommendations, after having been recruited through an empire-
wide system of examinations. The civil service examinations were
open to most men (and even precocious boys), though in practice
only those with the means to devote years to formal education took
them. Even those not directly involved in the system were likely
aware of it, if they had a smattering of education. Many exam tak-
ers were from merchant families and would return to commerce in
the likely event that they failed to progress beyond the lowest lev-
els of the system. Each examination lasted multiple days and
involved a series of tests, each requiring a piece of writing on a topic
chosen by the examiners and in a rigid, often formulaic format.
Knowledge of Confucian classics and their commentaries, ancient
and recent history, the forms of bureaucratic documents, and the
major policy issues of the day were essential for examination suc-
cess. Controls to prevent fraud in this high-stakes system, though

translators’ introduction xxv

 far from foolproof, were strict. Examinees were sealed within a
complex of individual carrels, and examiners, who set the topics,
were brought in from outside the jurisdiction to reduce opportuni-
ties for corruption. Responses were anonymized by assigning each
exam taker a code number, and scribes recopied written responses
to avoid the recognition of individuals’ handwriting. The examin-
ers assessed them and then posted a ranked list of those who had
passed. Those left off the list had failed. This process was repeated
regularly in every county of the empire, and each exam was taken
by thousands of men.
Those who passed local examinations (held at the county and/
or prefectural level) were known informally as xiucai, or “distin-
guished talents.” This status brought certain privileges, such as
exemption from state labor service and protection from corporal
punishment, but it generally did not qualify the holder for govern-
ment office. Xiucai could go on to take an examination held trien-
nially in each provincial capital, and those who passed (again, a
minority) became a juren or “recommended man.” Juren were eli-
gible to hold office, but by the late Ming their numbers were so great
that most received no appointment at all or only a low-ranking post,
typically that of county magistrate or below. They could, however,
proceed to the highest level of examinations, held every three years
in Beijing. Success there made one a jinshi (“presented scholar”),
from whose ranks the upper bureaucracy was drawn. In the Book
of Swindles, officials at or above the rank of magistrate can be pre-
sumed to be juren or jinshi. Xiucai occasionally assist in swindles but
feature more often as the targets of scammers promising a way to
bribe the examiner.
Examination success and office holding alike brought to an indi-
vidual and their family social prestige, legal protections, and the
possibility of material gains. While official salaries were fairly low,
the potential for income through customary payments (made osten-
sibly to offset expenses like legal fees) and outright corruption was
enormous. Families were eager to ensure examination success for
their offspring, and therefore vulnerable to predators. “Forged Let-
ters from the Education Intendant Report Auspicious Dreams,”

xxvi translators’ introduction

based on events that allegedly took place in the year 1600, drama-
tizes a type of “good news scam” targeting such families that his-
torical sources attest was being perpetrated as late as the eighteenth
century.21 Examination-related corruption (especially involving
bribery or efforts to recruit political and intellectual allies) was a
constant issue, despite extensive countermeasures. The Book of
Swindles devotes an entire section of stories to “Corruption in Edu-
cation,” all concerning perversions of the examination process.

The Silver Standard

Money is the target of most crooks’ schemes in the Book of Swin-
dles. In the late Ming, it took two main forms: silver, which circulated
unminted as ingots or lumps, and copper coins. (Paper money, which
had been used earlier in the dynasty, became so deeply devalued by
the mid-fifteenth century that it went out of circulation.) Loose
copper coins served for small, everyday purchases, and strings of
up to a thousand (attached through holes in the center) for larger
expenditures. Silver, because of its greater density, was preferable
for major transactions or long-distance transport. Private silver-
smiths cast ingots of various shapes—the most common being a
pinch-waisted oval with flat sides and raised flanges around the
top—and varying degrees of purity. For a minor transaction, one
might use a fragment of a gram or less, sometimes snipped off of a
larger ingot. In the Book of Swindles, all but the smallest transac-
tions are carried out in silver. Although gold was also valuable in
the Ming, it never served as money, only as a precious material for
making jewelry and other luxury items. Such items, of both gold
and silver, could be melted down and sold off, so both metals were
useful as stores of value. By the late sixteenth century, silver was
mainly used as a medium of exchange and served as the principal
money of account: it was how many prices were denominated and
how most taxes and larger private payments were collected. After
two parties settled on a price, they had to weigh out the appropri-
ate quantity, taking into account the proportion of silver in the alloy,
which could vary from under 70 to nearly 100 percent.

translators’ introduction xxvii

 Since silver was so ubiquitous and so variable, counterfeits were
an ever-present risk. Several stories (most obviously in the sec-
tion “Fake Silver,” but also “Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal
a Silver Ingot” in the section “Violence”) allude to the problem.
The purity of a piece of silver was assayed mainly through visual
inspection, though a suspicious-looking ingot that might contain
copper or lead could be pried open with a chisel. Other stories, in
the section “Alchemy,” describe the allure of using magic to pro-
duce silver (not gold) from base metals or even from thin air. Zhang
Yingyu seems to accept that some of these supernatural ways of
making money are real, even as he alleges that many of the “alche-
mists” one might encounter are frauds.
Large transactions might involve a process of “sealing” and
escrow. After silver of the agreed-upon quantity and purity was
weighed out it was placed, in sight of both parties, in a crate, case,
or other container that would be closed up and covered with paper
strips to which both parties affixed the impressions of their respec-
tive stamps (seals made of wood, stone, or metal). Opening or oth-
erwise tampering with such a package would damage the seal, so
an unbroken seal would assure the seller that the desired funds were
available and intact, and the buyer could hold on to the payment
until the deal was finalized.
Sealed packages of silver feature prominently in stories about
bribes to officials and government clerks: the bribe-taking party
would want to be sure in advance that the funds were available, just
as the briber would want to make sure that the desired outcome had
been achieved before handing over the silver. The complexity of this
process is evident in stories about corruption in the civil service exam-
inations. For example, “Affixing Seals in a Functionary’s Chambers,”
in which an official is bribed to ensure a candidate ’s success on the
exams, describes both parties’ close attention to the container used
as well as the location and timing of the sealing process. When the
integrity of the process is violated, as in the next story, “Silver with
Sham Seals Is Switched for Bricks,” it can seem like magic.
Silver was measured in a unit of weight called liang, which we
translate as “ounce.” It measured approximately 37 grams, though

xxviii translators’ introduction

the precise weight varied by region and context. (Government
weights were slightly different from those used in the marketplace.)
This unit is also known in English by the Malay word tael, which
was used for centuries in international trade in East and Southeast
Asia. The liang was further divided into tenths (qian, traditionally
translated as “mace”) and hundredths (fen, traditionally “canada-
reen”); for consistency, we have converted all these references to
fractions of an ounce. Ounces were the measure for other goods as
well, including gold; heavier commodities such as food were usu-
ally weighed in jin of sixteen ounces, which we translate as “pound.”
The other important unit in this collection, which we leave untrans-
lated, is the geographic measure of distance li, which is about 500
meters or a third of a mile.

Sources and Influence

The variation in content and style among the stories makes it clear
that Zhang Yingyu drew inspiration from sources beyond his per-
sonal experience and imagination. These include literary works in
the genres mentioned above, biographies of historical personages,
philosophical classics, folklore, and local gossip or hearsay. For
example, “Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as
Daoists” adapts with little modification two anecdotes from bio-
graphical sources about the poet Tang Yin (1470–1524). In other
cases, it appears that the stories are copied from another work that
we have not been able to identify. Some stories close with an explicit
moral, after which Zhang’s comment provides an additional moral.
In the case of “Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny,” for example,
Zhang draws a lesson that contradicts the internal moral, suggest-
ing that he had copied the narrative wholesale from another source.22
The six stories in the section “Corruption in Education” all end with
the formulaic phrase “This is a warning against. . . .” This pattern
appears nowhere else in the collection, suggesting that this cycle
derived from a single source. Although Zhang Yingyu generally
does not identify his sources, in the commentary on a story about
Fake Silver (not translated here), he describes finding a pamphlet

translators’ introduction xxix

 describing techniques for distinguishing grades of silver, then cop-
ies out the entire text. The account of monkey boy Xie, the third
story nested in the commentary on “A Geomancer Uses His Wife
to Steal a Good Seed,” was, Zhang says, related to him by a geo-
mancer in Xie ’s home county. Stylistic and intertextual evidence
alike suggest that this is more an edited and rewritten anthology
than a single-authored collection of stories.
Just as Zhang’s stories often involve travel, the stories themselves
traveled across space and time. Versions of some of them, or simi-
lar plot elements, appear in other works, but it is impossible to be
certain of the original source.23 For example, a version of the salt-
lick trick from “A Buddhist Monk Identifies a Cow as His Mother”
turns up, over a century later, in chapter 24 of the great Qing novel
The Scholars (Rulin waishi, 1750)—possibly drawn from the Book
of Swindles, but possibly from elsewhere; another version appears
in the 1808 travelogue The Moon Through the Cloud Rift on a Rainy
Night by the late Edo period writer Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848), a
known aficionado of the Book of Swindles.24
Despite abundant interest in the subject matter, there were no
reprintings of the book in China in the first three centuries after its
initial appearance. In Japan, however, it seems to have been more
popular and was widely disseminated. An edition in Chinese with
Japanese annotations appeared in Kyoto in 1770, followed by fur-
ther editions in the nineteenth century, including a Japanese trans-
lation in 1879 and more recent academic studies.25 In China, while
swindles and deception remained popular as subject matter of lit-
erature and drama, after the 1600s no new edition was printed, to
our knowledge, until the late 1980s or early 1990s, when reproduc-
tions of a Ming woodblock copy appeared in a series of imprints
aimed at a scholarly audience.26 These were soon followed by more
accessible typeset editions in various parts of China (Tianjin, 1992;
Beijing, 1993; Guangzhou, 1993; Zhengzhou, 1994; Shenyang,
1994; Shijiazhuang, 1995).27 A 1997 edition pairing the original
text with translation into vernacular Chinese made the work even
more approachable for contemporary readers, though the editor
cut passages he found obscene or vulgar.28 There has been little

xxx translators’ introduction

scholarship on the Book of Swindles in Western languages, mainly
two introductory but useful articles.29
Despite the longtime obscurity of Zhang Yingyu’s work, mod-
ern China has seen several surges of interest in swindle stories more
broadly. Collections of swindle stories proliferated during the late
Qing and Republican eras (ca. 1890s–1949), a period of political
turmoil, abortive modernization efforts, and rapid urbanization.30
Swindle stories came into vogue again during the Reform and Open-
ing period that followed Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, and their
popularity has if anything intensified since then. In addition to the
new editions of Zhang Yingyu’s work, since the 1990s at least half
a dozen swindle story collections have appeared in China, includ-
ing some comparing swindles old and new or appending commen-
taries. Social trust, or lack thereof, continues to be an issue of keen
popular concern.

About This Translation

This translation presents forty-four titled stories, representing just
over half of Zhang Yingyu’s collection. We have included at least
one story from each of the twenty-four sections, and all of the
stories in the sections “The Bag Drop,” “Brokers,” “Showing Off
Wealth,” “Poetry,” “Corruption in Education,” and “Pandering.”
Our sample aims to illustrate the variety of Zhang’s collection; to
highlight recurring themes such as silver, imposture, and Zhang
Yingyu’s moral touchstone of the Book of Changes; and to include
some notable outliers in terms of content or style. The last include
“Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting,” a gruesome tale of can-
nibalism with an appended “bonus story” about a true immortal who
could live without food; “Marrying a Street Cleaner and Provok-
ing His Death,” which stands out for its elaborate use of wordplay to
convey an implicit moral; and “Silver with Sham Seals Is Switched
for Bricks,” in which our editor—for once at a loss—admits that
the swindler’s technique remains a mystery even to him.
We have based our translation on the digitized version of a Ming
woodblock copy, issued by the Cunren tang of Jianyang, Fujian,

translators’ introduction xxxi

 and held at the Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo (Institute for Advanced Stud-
ies on Asia) of the University of Tokyo. It includes an illustration
at the head of each of the four juan, and several missing pages have
been replaced with handwritten supplements. We compared this
with a copy of the same edition held at the Harvard-Yenching
Library and also available in digitized form; this copy is missing the
third and final story in Type 7 (“Enticement to Gambling”), “A
Gambling Addict Falls Prey to an Ingenious Trick.” We have also
consulted a manuscript held in the National Archives of Japan,
which is the source of the 1617 Xiong Zhenji preface.31 It appears
to have been copied from the earliest woodblock edition, issued by
the Juren tang of Yu Yingke, a member of the most prominent lin-
eage of Jianyang publishers.32 No original copies of this imprint
are known, but it is likely that the Harvard and University of Tokyo
copies of the Cunren tang edition were printed from the same set
of woodblocks, modified to change the name of the publisher and
to remove the preface.33
The abundance of minor errors such as incorrect characters
and internal discrepancies (including variations in formatting and
inconsistencies between story titles in the main text and the table of
contents) suggest that the book was produced with lax editorial
oversight.34 We also consulted two modern editions: Pian jing (The
Classic of Swindles), published by Jiangxi shifan daxue chubanshe
in 2008; and Fangpian jing (The Classic of Foiling Swindles), an
expurgated edition with vernacular Chinese translation and com-
mentaries by Ding Xiaoshan, published by Zhongguo wenlian chu-
banshe in 1997, and the selected modern Japanese translation by
Itō et al.

Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Professor Robert Hegel, Professor Sarah Schnee-
wind, and two anonymous reviewers at Columbia University Press
for their comments on the manuscript, as well as to our editors,
Jennifer Crewe and Leslie Kriesel. We also received valuable assis-
tance and feedback from fellow panelists and audience members

xxxii translators’ introduction

at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in Seattle in
2014; from Rusk’s students, who were guinea pigs for some early
draft translations; and from TJ Hinrichs, Patricia Rea, Ding Xiang
Warner, and library staff at UBC, Harvard, and Cornell.

Notes
1. The book uses gun 㡵 (“cudgel” or “staff”) and guanggun ⃱㡵 (“bright
[or bare] cudgel”) interchangeably, and we use “crook” for both. On this
class of people in the Ming urban environment and related terms for them,
see Han Dacheng 杻⣏ㆸ, Mingdai chengshi yanjiu 㖶ẋ❶ⶪ䞼䨞
(Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1991), 341–58.
2. In the title we render jing as “Book,” following established translations for
classics such as Book of Documents (Shujing 㚠䴻), Book of Poems (Shijing
娑䴻), and Book of Changes (Yijing 㖻䴻).
3. For a detailed analysis of the Classic of Whoring (Piaojing ⩾䴻), see
Yuming He, Home and the World: Editing the “Glorious Ming” in
Woodblock-Printed Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013), appendix 2.
4. The Art of War (Sunzi bingfa ⬓⫸ℝ㱽) dates to ca. 500–450 b.c.e. The
Thirty-Six Stratagems (Sanshiliu ji ᶱ⋩ℕ妰) is a terse list of strategies
based on historical examples; in its present form it may have come
together only in the mid-twentieth century.
5. Only one story describes a scam with empirewide repercussions. In “Magic
Reflections in Water Incite a Rebellion” (“Fashui zhaoxing sou moufan”
㱽㯜䄏⼊⒮媨⍵), not translated here, a Buddhist monk puts a charm
on a basin of water that reflects visions of grandeur to the beholder,
leading one official to attempt an (unsuccessful) rebellion.
6. David Maurer, The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man (New York:
Anchor, 1999 [1940]), 1–4.
7. Ibid., 168–72.
8. On the Book of Swindles’ links to the court case (gong’an ℔㟰) genre,
see Daniel M. Youd, “Beyond Bao: Moral Ambiguity and the Law in
Late Imperial Chinese Narrative Literature,” in Writing and Law in Late
Imperial China: Crime, Conflict, and Judgment, ed. Robert E. Hegel and
Katherine Carlitz (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007), 215–33.
One famous collection published during Zhang Yingyu’s lifetime is the
Hundred Cases of Judge Bao (Bao Longtu pan baijia gong’an ⊭漵⚾⇌䘦
⭞℔㟰, 1594).
9. “The Pearl-Sewn Shirt” is available in multiple translations, including in
Feng Menglong, Stories Old and New: A Ming Dynasty Collection, trans.

translators’ introduction xxxiii

 Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2011), 9–47. A translation and discussion of “The Pearl Vest” appears in
Patrick Hanan, “The Making of The Pearl-Sewn Shirt and The Courtesan’s
Jewel Box,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 33, no. 3–4 (1973): 124–53.
10. For a useful introduction to the confidence man as a trope in American
literature, see William E. Lenz, Fast Talk and Flush Times: The Confidence
Man as a Literary Convention (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri
Press, 1985).
11. See Michael Alpert, trans., Lazarillo de Tormes and The Swindler: Two
Spanish Picaresque Novels, rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 2003).
12. On travel through empire and the resulting extreme ethical situations
involving seeming strangers who turn out to be kin, in Ming-Qing
literature and drama, see Tina Lu, Accidental Incest, Filial Cannibalism,
and Other Peculiar Encounters in Late Imperial Chinese Literature
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008).
13. Chen Quan is mentioned as a lower degree holder (xiucai) and writer of
humorous verse in Zhou Hui’s ␐㘱 (fl. 1610) Nanjing Miscellany. Zhou,
Jinling suoshi 慹昝䐋ḳ (Beijing: Wenxue guji kanxingshe, 1955), 1:110.
14. As with all Chinese names, we follow the original order of surname
(Zhang) then personal name (Yingyu). Zhang Yingyu ⻝ㅱᾆ was also
known by the style name (zi ⫿) Kuizhong ⢼堟.
15. According to Wu Zhaoyang, sixty-five stories have identifiable locales, of
which thirty-eight are places in Fujian. Three additional stories feature
protagonists from Fujian. See Wu Zhaoyang ⏛㛅春, “Dupian xinshu
Fujian difang shuxing kaoshu” ˪㜄槁㕘㚠˫䤷⺢⛘㕡Ⱄ⿏侫徘,
Ming-Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu 㖶㶭⮷婒䞼䨞 113, no. 3 (2014): 170–71.
16. On Fujian printing, see Lucille Chia, Printing for Profit: The Commercial
Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th Centuries) (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Asia Center, 2003). On the production and reception
of popular works in the late Ming see He, Home and the World.
17. On commentary in Ming fiction, see David L. Rolston, Traditional Chinese
Fiction and Fiction Commentary: Reading and Writing Between the Lines
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997). Of the two main forms of
commentary, concluding commentary and interlinear/supralinear notes,
Zhang uses the former almost exclusively; there are only a handful of
brief interlinear notes that explain unfamiliar terms and concepts. His final
comments are set off typographically by a line break and indentation; in
most cases they open with the word an ㊱ (“I note”).
18. “A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good Seed” contains four more
stories following the authorial commentary; one more story appears
within the commentary on “Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting.”
Only one story, not translated here, appearing in the “Marriage” section,

xxxiv translators’ introduction

 “Yin wa luchu mou qu qing” ⚈嚁曚↢媨⧞ね (“A Marriage Scam of
Passion Comes to Light Because of a Frog”) lacks an author’s comment.
19. For an overview of Ming history with a focus on these issues, see Timothy
Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
20. See He, Home and the World, for examples of how late-Ming commercial
publications mixed elements of classical and vernacular culture and of the
extremely varied ways readers could engage with these books.
21. See Mark McNicholas, Forgery and Impersonation in Imperial China:
Popular Deceptions and the High Qing State (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 2016), 98, 114.
22. This story is also unusual in containing internal explanatory notes
defining rare words, a further hint of an origin elsewhere. Another story
with both an internal moral and one in Zhang’s comment is “Swindled on
the Way Out of a Court Hearing.”
23. A longer version of “A Marriage Scam of Passion Comes to Light Because
of a Frog,” involving a millionaire who drowns his neighbor in order to
take the latter’s wife as his concubine, only to have her abhor him when he
confesses his crime years into their happy marriage, appears in chapter 7
of the story collection Huanxi yuanjia 㬉╄⅌⭞ (1630s), by Xihu yuyin
zhuren 大㷾㺩晙ᷣṢ.
24. Outside of Kumo no taema amayo no tsuki 暚⥁攻暐⣄㚰, Bakin adapted
at least five additional stories from the Book of Swindles into other works.
See Itō Kanako Ẳ喌≈⣰⫸!et al., “Tohen shinsho” yakuchū kō shohen
ˬ㜄槁㕘㚠˭姛㲐䧧⇅䶐 (n.p., “Tohen Shinsho” no Kisoteki
Kenkyū Purojekuto, 2015), 138 (and the extensive Japanese-language
scholarship referenced there).
25. See Itō et al., “Tohen shinsho” yakuchū kō shohen, 138–41.
26. A facsimile reproduction of the Cunren tang edition (see below) appeared
in Taiwan in a scholarly series with limited circulation, Ming-Qing
shanben xiaoshuo congkan chubian 㖶㶭┬㛔⮷婒⎊↲⇅䶐, which
Tianyi chubanshe ⣑ᶨ↢䇰䣦 began publishing in Taipei in 1985
(individual volumes are undated). For other facsimile reproductions, see
the bibliography.
27. For a list of major modern editions of Dupian xinshu, see the bibliography.
28. Ding Xiaoshan ᶩ㙱Ⱉ, ed., Fang pian jing 旚槁䴻 (Beijing: Zhongguo
wenlian chubanshe, 1997). Some of the objectionable material that Ding
excised was in the stories “A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good
Seed” and “A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic of Male Essence.”
In addition to translations into Modern Chinese, Ding’s edition includes
after some stories “contemporary explications” ( jinjie Ṳ妋) featuring
analogous swindles from contemporary China.

translators’ introduction xxxv

 29. Youd, “Beyond Bao,” and Roland Altenburger, “Täuschung und
Prävention: Ambiguitäten einer Sammlung von Fallgeschichten aus der
späten Ming-Zeit,” in Harmonie und Konflikt in China, ed. Christian Soffel
and Tilman Schalmey (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014), 109–27.
30. These collections borrowed extensively from a wide variety of sources. A
shorter, illustrated version of “Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses”
appears, for example, as “A Donkey Owner Is Swindled” (“Lüfu
shoupian” 樊⣓⍿槁) in Lei Junyao 暟⏃㚄, ed., Huitu pianshu qitan
丒⚾槁埻⣯婯 (Remarkable swindle tales, illustrated) (Shanghai: Saoye
shanfang, 1909), vol. 1.
31. For details of these three copies, see the first section of the bibliography.
32. On Cunren tang, Juren tang, and the Yu family within the context of
Jianyang publishing, see Chia, Printing for Profit, esp. 89, 377n140.
33. The close connection between the two editions is apparent from the
relationship between the illustrations and the 1617 preface by Xiong
Zhenji. The illustrations are keyed to allusions that appear in the preface
but nowhere else in the book, making them thoroughly opaque without
that context—yet no single early copy that we have seen contains both.
The images appear on the first page of juan 1 to 4 in the two copies
(Harvard and Tokyo) of the Cunreng tang edition that we have seen,
which both lack the preface. The National Archives manuscript, by
contrast, includes the preface but not the illustrations, which are likely to
have been present in the imprint on which it is based but left out by the
copyists.
34. For example, within the National Archives copy, the title of the collection
appears in Xiong Zhenji’s preface as Jianghu qiwen dupian xinshu 㰇㷾⣯
倆㜄槁㕘㚠 and in the table of contents as Xinke Jianghu lilan dupian
xinshu 㕘⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄槁㕘㚠. The title at the head of each juan is
slightly different, Dingke Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 溶⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄
槁㕘㚠; the same discrepancy recurs in the Cunren tang edition. The first
page of the main text also identifies a second publisher, (Zhang Huaigeng
⻝㆟俧, zi Hanchong 㻊⅚); this is effaced in the Cunren tang edition.
Another glaring inconsistency is the numbering of the twenty-four
category headings: in the first two juan they are unnumbered, but
numbering begins in the third juan—and is erroneous (Type 14 should be
Type 15). The editors apparently realized their slipup when compiling the
table of contents, whose count is accurate, but did not correct the
misnumbering in the text proper.
For a comparison of various editions, see Niu Jianqiang 䈃⺢⻟,
“Wan Ming duanpian shiqing xiaoshuoji Dupian xinshu banbenkao” 㘂㖶
䞕䭯ᶾね⮷婒普˪㜄槁㕘㚠˫䇰㛔侫, Wenxian jikan 㔯䌣⬋↲
3 (July 2000): 200–10.

xxxvi translators’ introduction

The Book of Swindles
 Type 1
Misdirection and Theft
 Stealing Silk with a Decoy Horse

Chen Qing, a man from Jiangxi province, often traveled to Nan-

jing to sell horses on Three Mountains Street, in front of the Tem-
ple of Granted Wishes.1
Once, when he had in his possession a fine silver-colored horse
worth some forty ounces of silver, he was approached by a man who
walked with a graceful gait, carried an expensive-looking umbrella,
and was dressed in resplendent attire.2 This crook—for so he was—
stopped in his tracks and stared at the horse as if he couldn’t tear
himself away from it.
“How much would you part with that horse for?” he asked.
“Forty ounces of silver,” Chen replied.
“I’ll buy it,” the crook said, “but we’ll have to go to my house
to draw up a contract and weigh out the silver.”
“Where do you live?”
“Hongwu Gate.”
 With that, the crook mounted the silver horse and set off, with
Chen riding another horse behind him. Halfway through their
journey, the crook spotted a silk shop. He dismounted, put his
umbrella down outside a nearby tavern, and told Chen: “Watch my
things while I purchase a few bolts of silk. I’ll be back in a moment.”
This guy must be rich, Chen thought. He’ll be able to close the deal
on the horse for sure.
The crook went into the shop and made a show of haggling.
When the proprietor accused him of demanding an unreasonable
price, the crook lied: “Allow me to show it to a colleague before I
respond to your offer.”
“You’re welcome to show these fine goods to anyone you wish,
just don’t go far.”
“My horse and man are right there. What are you worried
about?”
Once he had the silk in hand, the crook slipped out the door and
fled. Seeing that the horse and servant were still there, the propri-
etor was unconcerned. Chen waited until noon and, when the man
still didn’t return, concluded that he must be a crook. Picking up
the umbrella, he mounted the silver horse and started leading the
other horse back to the stables.
The silk vendor ran over and stopped him. “Your partner took
my silk. Where are you going?”
“What partner?”
“The man who rode here with you just now. Don’t play dumb.
You’d better give me back my silk.”
“I have no idea what rock that fellow crawled out from under.
All I know is that he said he wanted to buy my horse and was tak-
ing me to his house to get the money. That’s why we came here
together. He told me he was going to buy some silk from your shop
and we’d be on our way shortly. I’ve been waiting a long time and
he hasn’t shown up, so I’m heading back to the stables. Don’t get
me mixed up in this.”
“If he ’s not your partner, then why were you watching his
umbrella and his horse? I only let him take the silk because I saw

type 1: misdirection and theft 3

you and the horses here. The two of you conspired to steal my
silk!”
The two argued to an impasse and ended up bringing their dis-
pute to the Prefect of Yingtian.3 First, the silk vendor gave his ver-
sion of events. Chen then testified as follows: “I, Chen Qing, am
originally from Jiangxi province, and I make my living as a horse
trader. I often come to Three Mountains Street to sell horses at
Weng Chun’s shop. I’ve never done anything crooked! I happened
to meet a man who expressed interest in buying a horse, and I trav-
eled with him because he had to go home to get money to com-
plete the purchase. Along the way, he stopped and went into this
man’s shop and then, unbeknownst to me, ran off with some silk.
How does this make me a crook’s accomplice?”
“That will do,” the prefect said. “Bring the proprietor in for
questioning and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
The proprietor, Weng Chun, testified: “Chen often comes here
to sell horses and stays at my place. He ’s an honest, law-abiding
man.”
“If he’s so honest,” the silk vendor asked, “what was he doing
guarding the umbrella and horse of a crook? I won’t believe him
until I hear him explain that one.”
“I was just watching his umbrella because he was buying a horse
from me. I wasn’t his accomplice.”
“Did the man take the umbrella when he left?” the prefect asked.
“No,” the silk vendor replied.
“He’s a crook all right,” said the prefect. “In order to steal your
silk he feigned the purchase of a horse and used Chen Qing as
security. Using someone else ’s horse to acquire your silk is the
ruse known as ‘obtaining passage through the state of Yu to attack
the state of Guo.’4 You’re the one who fell for this scheme, so don’t
blame Chen.”
Both were released with no restitution required.

It seems to me that even being a crook requires a lot of technique. This

crook’s method for stealing the silk was to say that he was buying a horse
while doing nothing of the sort, but instead using the horse as a decoy.

4 type 1: misdirection and theft

This is why he was decked out in such finery in the first place: he wanted
people to believe that he was a real millionaire. He stopped in his tracks
and admired the horse to come across as a genuine buyer and maintained
this pretense all the way to the silk shop. There, he lied about having a
horse and an associate in order to convince the proprietor to trust him.
As for making off with the silk, leaving his umbrella with Chen Qing,
and getting Chen embroiled in a court case with the shop owner—these
were all clever techniques to hoodwink the simple-minded. If it hadn’t
been for the prefect’s discernment that this was a confidence scam of
“attacking Guo through Yu,” it would have led to what the Book of
Changes calls “the calamity of a townsman being punished when a
passerby takes an ox.” 5 Even so, Chen could not avoid getting caught
up in a court case and the vendor was conned in broad daylight. These
moral degenerates are extremely crafty, so the gentleman needs to make
his defenses airtight.6 That way, however many tricks the common crook
may have up his sleeve, you’ll never be played for a fool.

Notes
1. Three Mountains Street in Nanjing was also the location of many
publishing houses.
2. An umbrella was part of the standard regalia of a traveling government
official, though the story does not suggest that this crook was trying to
impersonate one.
3. Yingtian prefecture housed the southern, secondary capital of Nanjing.
4. This idiom, which means to borrow an associate ’s resources to attack
one ’s true target, derives from events that took place in 658 b.c.e.
5. Book of Changes, third line of hexagram #25 (Wuwang 䃉⤬).
6. Zhang Yingyu politely implies here and in other comments that his
readers belong to the class of junzi ⏃⫸, “gentlemen,” or people of
cultural accomplishment and superior moral character.

type 1: misdirection and theft 5

 Handing Over Silver Before
Running Off with It

A man from Tongzhou named Su Guang dealt in fabric from

Songjiang.1 He and his son were halfway home from a sales trip to
Fujian province, earnings in hand, when they encountered a man
named Ji Sheng who claimed to be from another county in their
home prefecture. His dialect was identical to theirs, and he too was
on his way back from selling cloth in Fujian. Ji Sheng was a green-
horn. Seeing that Su Guang was from a neighboring town and that
his financial resources were greater, he entrusted Su with twenty-
odd ounces of his silver to store in Su’s trunk. Su carefully carried
it the whole way, with Ji’s silver alongside his own as if the two men
were partners.
After several days of travel, Ji saw a chance for profit and hatched
a treacherous scheme. One night at an inn he pretended to have
diarrhea and got out of bed repeatedly, opening and closing the door
as he went in and out of the room. Little did he know that Su was
an old hand: seeing Ji going in and out again and again, he became
suspicious that Ji had some scheme in the works. Moreover, thought
Su, I’m not sure of his origins. While he does have twenty-odd ounces
of silver stored in my trunk, tonight he seems to be up to no good. The
next time Ji stepped out, Su secretly got up and hid both his money
and Ji’s in a bundle of clothes, which he kept beside him in bed. He
wrapped some bricks and stones in old clothing and placed these
in the trunk. Then he feigned deep slumber.
Ji Sheng, seeing that Su Guang and his son had both fallen asleep,
took the trunk and stole off into the night. Su lay in bed listen-
ing to Ji’s movements. When he heard him leave and not return he
said to himself, Just as I thought—he was a crook. If he’d pulled this
on anyone but me he’d have gotten away with it too.
The next day when Su got up he made a show of being shocked
at the discovery that Ji had stolen his silver and began tussling with
the innkeeper.
“Your accomplice stole my money!” he said accusingly.
Su’s son, unaware of his father’s scheme, began to beat the inn-
keeper furiously, stopping only when his father whispered, “Every-
thing’s under control.”
After breakfast, Su told his son, “I’m going to the county
office to report this. If they catch that crook I’ll need you to come
along to testify; otherwise, they’re sure to suspect that you took
it and start asking questions.” Su, certain that Ji would come
back, had a plan of his own. They hurried homeward along back
roads.
Ji, delighted at having stolen Su’s money, wandered until mid-
day, traveling nearly a hundred li. When he opened the trunk and
discovered the bricks, stones, and old clothes, he stamped his feet
in disgust and traveled all the way back to the inn, where he was
roundly beaten by the innkeeper.
“You thief! You stole someone’s money and got me involved too.
You’ll be strangled for this!” the innkeeper cursed, as he prepared to
turn Ji over to the authorities. All Ji could do was blurt out the truth
and beg for mercy by knocking his head on the ground. By then
Su was several days’ journey away—well out of reach. Ji was left
to nurse his resentment.

type 1: misdirection and theft 7

Ji Sheng was no greenhorn businessman, but he was a greenhorn crook.
First he entrusted his money to Su Guang, to keep the latter from being
suspicious. Then he faked diarrhea by repeatedly opening and closing
the door to their room and waiting for the others to fall asleep before he
stole off with the money. His scheme was ingenious, to be sure: “giving
temporarily in order to steal in the end” is a beguiling scam from the
crooks’ playbook. Little did he expect that Su was an old hand who
would see right through him. Observing Ji’s actions, he could tell what
was on his mind. This is how Su was able to match him maneuver for
maneuver and scheme for scheme. Ji was already being manipulated,
he just didn’t know it. He tried to turn another’s property to his profit
but ended up losing his own. A bright green greenhorn crook is no match
for the seasoned man of the world! Later, when he went back to the inn,
he was beaten and had to beg pathetically for mercy. There he was just
making trouble for himself—and who was to blame for that? Ample
proof that the principles of Heaven are clear as day.

Note
1. Tongzhou and Songjiang were both part of South Zhili. Tongzhou was a
subprefecture (an administrative unit that contained several counties)
within Yangzhou prefecture, close to the junction of the Grand Canal and
the Yangzi River; Songjiang lay a short distance to the south.

8 type 1: misdirection and theft

 A Clever Trick on a Pig Seller

Deng Zhaobao, from Jianyang in Fujian province, made his living

as a roving peddler. One day, he was on his way to Da’an in
Chong’an county to sell four piglets. When he reached the top of
Ma’an Hill, he encountered a crook who told him he was interested
in buying pigs. Deng thought: Here we are on a remote mountain path
with little traffic, far from any town. What’s this guy doing trying to
buy pigs?
Warily, he asked where the man lived.
“Just up ahead, in Ma’an,” the crook replied.
“If you want to buy, let’s go complete the transaction at your
house.”
“But I’m on my way to the county seat. How about this: take
one pig out of its cage so that I can inspect it. If it looks good, we
can settle on a price, and I’ll go home and weigh out the silver. Oth-
erwise I’d be going out of my way for no reason.”
 This seemed reasonable, so Deng agreed and took out a pig
to show him. Holding the pig by its tail, the crook put it on the
ground and examined it closely. Then he intentionally released his
grasp and the pig bolted. Feigning alarm, he cried out, “Oh no!
Oh no!” and hurried after the pig in an attempt to retrieve it—or
so it seemed. In fact, he was driving the pig away. Seeing the pig
getting farther and farther afield, Deng recklessly sprinted after it.
Little did he know that he was playing right into the hands of the
crook, who watched Deng give chase. Once Deng was some two
or three hundred paces away, the crook reached inside a cage and
drew out another pig, then kicked over the other two cages. As the
last two pigs scurried off, he hollered:
“Thank you kindly! Happy hunting!”
Deng wanted to go after him, but with three pigs on the loose
he worried that he couldn’t catch both pigs and thief. As the crook
got farther and farther out of reach, Deng could only rail and curse.
Fortunately, he was able to herd all three pigs back together and into
their cages. Bitterly, he continued on his way.

It appears to me that this pig theft resulted from a chance encounter. Once
the crook got the notion to steal, he used wily words to dupe Deng into
trusting him. It was a case of “taking advantage of a man’s own skills
to cheat him.” First of all, he released a pig and pretended to chase it
in order to trick Deng into running off in pursuit. Next, he snatched a
pig and kicked over the other cages to keep Deng from coming after
him. In both cases, the oblivious man fell for an obvious ruse. A trap
sprung just like that—what unparalleled cunning! Merchants, take
note! It goes without saying that one must diligently guard against
covert schemes, but even obvious traps demand vigilance.

10 type 1: misdirection and theft

 Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending
to Steal a Goose

Once there was a large shop that did a bustling business in all sorts
of fabric but was staffed solely by its owner. In a pen across the
street a neighbor was raising a goose whose constant honking
annoyed the proprietor so much that he was heard to say, “How I
wish someone would steal that miserable creature and give me some
peace and quiet.”
A crook happened to overhear him, and came into the store on
a slow business day. He raised his hands to salute the proprietor and
then let them rest on a bolt of green cloth on a shelf.
“I won’t lie to you,” he said in a low voice. “I’m a petty thief,
and I’d like to make a meal of that goose across the street. It won’t
be easy to snatch it from such a busy street, but I’ve got a plan, and
I just need your help to pull it off.”
“How can I help?” the proprietor asked.
“I’ll be out here and I’ll ask, ‘Can I take it?’ You stay inside and
shout, ‘Okay!’ I’ll ask again, ‘Really?’ And you answer again, ‘Yes.
 I’ve made up my mind: you can take it.’ Then I’ll be able to grab it
without raising suspicions from anyone on the street. Go along
with this and you’ll be safe from thieves forever—you’ll never
have to lock your door again. But you’ve got to hide in the back
and not peek out—the trick won’t work if you’re watching. You’ll
know I’m done when the goose stops honking. That’s when you
can come out.”
The proprietor agreed, so they began their dialogue.
“May I take it?” the thief called out.
“Yes, go ahead,” came the shout from within.
Another hollered question: “Really—I can take it?”
“I’ve made up my mind: you can take it.”
The shopkeepers on either side heard the entire exchange, so
when the thief left with a bolt of green cloth, they thought he was
just borrowing it. Meanwhile, the proprietor hiding in his shop, still
hearing the goose honk from time to time, didn’t dare come out.
The thief had long since made himself scarce. The goose went on
honking and the proprietor kept on waiting, worrying all the while
that no one was minding the shop. Eventually he came out and dis-
covered that the goose was still there but a bolt of green cloth had
disappeared from the shelf.
He canvassed the neighboring shops: “Did someone come into
my shop just now and take a bolt of cloth?”
The shopkeepers answered, “Yes, it was that fellow who was ask-
ing about buying something. You kept telling him he could take it.
He’s long gone.”
The proprietor, chagrined and embarrassed, said, “It looks like
I’ve been well and truly scammed. I’ll never live this down.”
When the neighbors learned the whole story, they laughed at
his foolishness and hailed the crook’s ingenuity.

The gentleman is benevolent to the people and caring toward other crea-
tures. That benevolence should first of all be extended to those in one’s
vicinity, and even a goose is a creature deserving of care. Can this shop-
keeper be called “caring toward creatures” when he was so annoyed by
the honking of a neighbor’s goose that he wanted to see it stolen and

12 type 1: misdirection and theft

killed? Where was his benevolent mind when he tried to profit from
the disappearance of the goose and helped the crook steal it? This
behavior enabled the eavesdropping crook to carry out his theft. The
shopkeeper even abetted the theft. What a rat! Wanting to do away
with someone else’s goose, he ended up losing his own cloth. He brought
this calamity upon himself and had no one else to blame. If you treat
neighbors with benevolence and treat other creatures with due consider-
ation, such a thing will never happen to you.

type 1: misdirection and theft 13

 Type 2
The Bag Drop
 Dropping a Bag by the Roadside to
Set Up a Switcheroo

Jiang Xian, from Linchuan county in Jiangxi province, was a man

of modest means.1 Every year in the seventh month, following the
early harvest, he would go to the Chong’an area in Fujian province
to work as a cobbler. With the arrival of winter, having earned ten
or so ounces of silver, he would head home with his savings. Once
during the return trip Jiang happened to find a bag in the road. He
picked it up and was overjoyed to discover that it contained sev-
eral pieces of silver weighing two or three ounces.
Just as he was about to continue on his way, a passerby
approached him. “I saw that! I deserve a share of the silver too.
How about this: you keep it in your trunk for the time being, and
when we find a quiet place, you can take it out to divvy up. Two
thirds will go to you, since you picked it up, and one third to me
since I witnessed the find.”
Jiang was amenable to this arrangement, and given that the sil-
ver was going into his own trunk he had no reason to be suspicious.
 Barely had they walked ten paces when another man came running
up, looking distraught.
“I lost a bag with three ounces of silver in it,” he cried. “I was
going to use that money to pay my taxes. If you happen to have
picked it up and would be kind enough to return it to me, Heaven
will eternally reward your good deed.”
The passerby put on a pitying expression. “This cobbler is in
charge; he picked it up and was going to split the contents with me.
Seeing as how you’re clearly in dire straits, I’m willing to give up
my share. You should offer him a modest reward and ask him to
return the bag.”
Exposed by this testimony, Jiang felt compelled to open his chest
and let the man who had lost the silver retrieve his bag. Still, since
he was receiving a little silver as a reward, he considered himself
fortunate. Unbeknownst to him, the swindler took Jiang’s own bag
of silver and swapped in a decoy bag.
That night Jiang arrived in the Wushi area and used the reward
money to treat himself to a drink. When he opened his big bag to
put away his change, he discovered that it was filled with bars of
copper and iron—not a speck of silver to be seen. All he could do
was bewail his misfortune.

Before they prepared the decoy bag trap, these crooks must have spot-
ted the silver Jiang had saved up. Lying in wait in an out-of-the-way
place, one dropped the bag on the ground where the mark was certain to
find it. He then emerged from his hiding place, asked to split the wind-
fall, and had Jiang store the bag in the trunk that contained his own
silver. The first crook later feigned sympathy and compelled Jiang to
open his trunk and return the bag. But why did Jiang allow the man to
retrieve the bag from the trunk himself? This gave the other crook the
opportunity to substitute a decoy bag for the one containing Jiang’s
silver—Jiang didn’t guard against the switcheroo! When Jiang picked
up the silver he ought to have split it with the first man on the spot
instead of putting it in his trunk. That’s the mistake that caused him to
fall for this scam. Then again, the two crooks had him in a remote

16 type 2: the bag drop

location and would have robbed him of his silver regardless. This is
why a traveler on the road doesn’t seek ill-gotten gains and keeps his
own property safely hidden. It’s the only way to prevent loss.

Note
1. Linchuan was just south of the seat of Fuzhou prefecture.

type 2: the bag drop 17

 Type 3
Money Changing
 A Daoist in a Boat Exchanges Some Gold

Fei was a student at the National University in Nanjing. He was

about to return home, as his term was ending, and he wanted to
buy a few dozen ounces of high-grade gold as a present for his
wife and concubines. Deng, a fellow National University student
from the same county, urged him not to. “People who buy gold in
the capital are often taken in by crooks who give them a piece of
copper instead. If you don’t need the gold in a hurry, why not buy
it back home?”
“You can only get good gold in the capital,” Fei replied. “If any
crook could pull one over on me, I’d bow down to his skill.”
Within a few days he had purchased more than ten ounces of
gold, all at the going rate for purity and all of high quality. Later,
he was approached by a young fellow who wanted to sell him a
twelve-ounce ingot. Fei examined it, and it seemed to be pure, so
he asked the price. “Since it’s you asking, your honor,” the fellow
said, “I’d take a rate of five gold to one silver.”
 Fei handed the gold ingot to Deng to examine, thinking: This
gold could go for six, so five to one is more than fair.
Deng looked it over and said, “It’s good, all right. Close the deal
now, and don’t let him touch it again.”
Fei paid with sixty ounces of silver and, as Deng had suggested,
held onto the gold as he handed over the silver. The seller had no
chance to pull a switcheroo—all he could do was take the money
and go home.
The young seller went to see his father and explained how the
two students had been so cautious that he’d had no chance to get
the gold back. His father was distraught. “That was our family’s
entire livelihood! What’re we supposed to live on now that you’ve
given away our capital? Go find out quick when those students are
leaving.”
The son made inquiries and reported back that they had booked
passage on a boat departing at such and such a day and time. At the
scheduled time, the students boarded the boat and took their seats.
They were shortly followed by the elder crook, disguised as a Dao-
ist priest in an immaculate robe and hat. The captain welcomed
this new passenger on board and struck up a conversation with
him. The Daoist turned out to be an eloquent raconteur with an
intimate knowledge of goings-on in the capital, both within offi-
cialdom and among the common people. The two students and the
other passengers were happily drawn into the conversation.
Two days later, as dusk approached, the Daoist steered the
conversation toward the appraisal of gems, jade, and jewels, and
everyone chatted about that for a while. He then brought up the
authentication of gold, remarking that he was an expert at distin-
guishing the counterfeit from the genuine. Fei bragged that he had
paid a very favorable price for an ingot of pure gold in the capital.
Several passengers asked him to show it to them so they could judge
its purity. Smugly, Fei took it out and handed it around; everyone
remarked enviously that the gold was fine indeed. By the time they
had each taken a turn to examine it, the sky was getting dark. When
they had given it back to Fei and he was about to return it to his
trunk, the Daoist spoke up: “Might I take a look?”

20 type 3: money changing

 Fei handed it over, and after examining it the Daoist handed the
ingot back, saying, “It’s pure gold, all right.” As Fei put the gold
away, the Daoist moved the conversation to a new topic. Soon,
dinner was ready and everyone dispersed to eat. The next day, the
Daoist paid his fare to the captain, bade farewell to the other pas-
sengers, and disembarked.
When Fei got home, he divided the gold among his wife and
concubines. A few days later he called in a craftsman to make brace-
lets. Fei had him start with the small ingots, which the craftsman
confirmed were all quality gold. Fei then boasted, “I also bought a
twelve-ounce ingot that’s even better.”
The craftsman said, “The thing with the big ingots you get in
the capital is that crooks tend to swap them out for copper ones.”
“Look, I’ll show you,” said Fei. “No crook could pull one over
on me.”
The craftsman had no sooner picked it up than he laughed. “Yup,
it’s copper!”
Astounded, Fei snatched it back and examined it. “So it is. When
Master Deng and I looked at it, it was definitely gold, and all the
other passengers said so too. How could all of us have been fooled?”
Then the truth hit him. “Ah! Of course. The Daoist was the last
one to look at it, and when he gave it back it was nearly dark and I
didn’t have a chance to examine it again before returning it to my
trunk. That’s when he switched it. But how could that Daoist have
had a piece of copper that looked exactly like my ingot, to pull off
such a seamless swap? I’d bet that young fellow in the capital who
sold me the gold was the old crook’s son. Since I didn’t give him a
chance to make the swap when he sold it, his dad must have fol-
lowed me onto the boat to retrieve it.”

People say that the old crook must have been a real pro to get Fei’s gold.
I disagree. Had Fei only kept it hidden away, even if the crook had pos-
sessed the clever stratagems of Zhuge Liang and the genius of Zhuang
Zhou, he would have had no chance to handle that gold—and then how
could he have stolen it? So the blame falls on Student Fei.1 What a pity
that he should bring this loss upon himself with his boasting!

type 3: money changing 21

 Note
1. Zhuge Liang (181–234) served as prime minister of the state of Han
during the Three Kingdoms period, and is known historically—and even
more so in folklore—as a master strategist. Zhuang Zhou or Zhuangzi
(369?–286? b.c.e.) was a thinker and writer. Both are associated with
Daoism, Zhuang as a founder of Daoist philosophy and Zhuge as the
student of a Daoist priest; popular portrayals show him in the robe of a
Daoist priest and holding a fan made from the feathers of a heavenly crane.

22 type 3: money changing

 Type 4
Misrepresentation
 Forged Letters from the Education
Intendant Report Auspicious Dreams

Most of the top successful candidates in the 1600 provincial civil ser-
vice examinations in Fujian were students of Master Shen.1 Master
Shen was, as a result, widely revered among the populace.
By the beginning of the twelfth month, all the holders of the pro-
vincial juren degree had gone to sit for the metropolitan examina-
tions in Beijing. Meanwhile, back in the capital of Fujian, a crook
hatched a scheme for which he recruited a local-level degree holder,
a xiucai, who was from the same prefecture and had a good hand
for calligraphy. The scheme involved composing fraudulent letters
in Master Shen’s name, sealing them up with a stamp, and having
the swindler deliver one to the family of each new juren.
When the swindler arrived at each house, he would tell the fam-
ily, “Master Shen has written a letter and dispatched your ser-
vant to deliver it posthaste. He also entrusted me with the message
that the young master of your noble house is certain to triumph in
the coming year’s examinations. The master foresaw this in a
remarkable dream and ordered me here to share the good tidings
beforehand—with the caution that this news must be kept in the
strictest confidence. Young Master So-and-So lives near your hon-
orable residence, and Master Shen fears that if he were to learn that
you received a special messenger he’d accuse the master of playing
favorites. Master Shen is sending a letter of greeting to that house as
well, but it’s just for appearances’ sake—nothing special.”
Arriving at the next house, the swindler would say the same
thing: he ’d come on express purpose and the other visits he was
making were just for show. When the recipient opened and read the
letter, he saw characters written in exquisite calligraphy and lines
of marvelous literary subtlety. Each letter related an auspicious
dream containing an omen indicating that the candidate would rank
first in the national examinations. Some omens derived from the
candidate’s name, others from the name of his place of origin. Each
prediction was supposedly based on words that had appeared in a
dream of Master Shen.
I once saw the letter for provincial-level degree holder Xiong
Shaozu, which read:

Fujian is home to more talented men than any other province in

the realm, the number of graduates often surpassing even Zhe-
jiang and the capital itself. Yet none of these talented men
approaches the depth and erudition of your master’s command
of the Spring and Autumn Annals, nor the vigor and breathtak-
ing acuity of his prose. Next spring will bring triumph in the
examinations at the Ministry of Rites—this is a certainty I
arrived at without recourse to divination. On the twenty-second
day of the eleventh lunar month, around midnight, I dreamed
of a flying bear [xiong] holding in its paw a red spring blossom,
which it lifted high above its head. As it passed in front of a red
sun, I saw two gilded characters: First Place. So clearly did they
appear to me that I remembered them after I awoke. The sun
represents the district of Jianyang, the literal meaning of which
is “sun maker.” Bear, Xiong, is your master’s surname. The
spring blossoms signify your master’s comprehensive and

type 4: misrepresentation 25
 dazzling command of the Spring and Autumn Annals. The gilded
characters First Place are a distinct and auspicious omen. Your
master’s talent and my dream together provide clear evidence
that he will be the top examination candidate in the realm. The
possibility that one of my disciples should be the First Place win-
ner delighted me so much that I was unable to sleep and dis-
patched a special messenger to share the news—please keep it
in confidence.

Xiong’s family members were overjoyed to read this and tipped the
messenger three ounces of silver. When he asked for more, they
tipped him another two ounces, saying: “Upon next year’s triumph,
we’ll tip you another ten.”
Virtually every letter reported an auspicious dream of this type
and earned its bearer a tip of several ounces of silver. The next year,
the exam candidates who’d had their wings clipped in the capital
flew south. When they would meet up, each would tell the story of
the letter containing Master Shen’s dream. The listener would
invariably clap his hands and laugh uproariously. “Quite the spring
dream! That crook is a genius if ever there was one. Who wouldn’t
have been gulled into happily paying him?”
All told, the crook’s takings totaled over a hundred ounces of
silver. I’ve related this story for a laugh.

This crook managed to pull off a remarkable swindle with these new
provincial-exam graduates: the painless scam. Although the gradu-
ate’s family members paid out a tip of a few ounces of silver, the scam
made his entire household happy for four months. It’s a pity that the
swindler hasn’t returned to scam again; if he did, people would still be
happy to tip him. It’s the most ingenious swindle of all.

Note
1. The text refers to the gengzi year in the sixty-year Chinese calendrical cycle,
which during the reign of the Wanli emperor would be 1600 c.e. This story
mentions two historical personages by name. Master Shen is likely Shen

26 type 4: misrepresentation
Jingkai 㰰₮䀴 ( jinshi 1589), who served as a vice commissioner of
education (duxue fushi 䜋⬠∗ἧ) in Fujian during the Wanli period. Xiong
Shaozu, a letter to whom Zhang Yingyu quotes in the story, is one of four
men from Jianning prefecture in Fujian (which includes Jianyang) whose
names appear on the list of successful juren for the year 1600; all four failed to
pass the metropolitan examination in 1601. Wu Zhaoyang speculates that
Xiong Shaozu may have been related to Xiong Zhenji, who wrote the
1617 preface to the first edition of the Book of Swindles. See Wu Zhaoyang,
“Dupian xinshu Fujian difang shuxing kaoshu,” 168–70.

type 4: misrepresentation 27
 Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke on
Sedan Bearers

The overland post route from the capital of Fujian province to Jian
Brook stretches a distance of one hundred and twenty li. The usual
fare for the trip by sedan chair is only sixteen hundredths of an
ounce of silver. When travelers are sparse the price drops to four-
teen, and sometimes sedan bearers will even carry for a mere
twelve. But once the fare is in their hands, the sedan bearers will
take passengers just five li or so before setting them down. Or, upon
reaching the slightest incline, they’ll set the chair down and refuse
to go any farther. Most people end up riding the first two thirds of
the way and walking the final third—virtually every traveler has
been ensnared by them.
During examination season and when candidates are on their
way home, the price can go as high as twenty-four, but no less than
twenty. The bearers always insist that the silver for their fare be
weighed out and paid in advance. Having pocketed the money,
they’ll carry for no more than twenty li before subcontracting to
another porter, slashing down what was a reasonable fare so that
they themselves retain half the money. These subcontracted sedan
bearers in turn only go five li before plunking the chair down and
complaining that they weren’t paid the going rate. With no alter-
native, the scholar will cough up again. But scholars pass through
relatively infrequently and they never haggle.
A certain government clerk often traveled along this road and
had been repeatedly fleeced by these sedan bearers. One day, while
preparing to set out yet again for the county seat, he composed a
satirical quatrain on two strips of paper and wrapped a large square
of paper around them. Then he took two old broom handles, sawed
them to the same length, and wrapped them in rolls of tissue paper
so that they resembled two bolts of silk. The next day, the sedan
bearers saw him setting off on his own and vied for his business.
The clerk told them, “I’ve been called home on an urgent mat-
ter and don’t have any cash on me. I’m prepared to pay twenty and
foot the bill for food and wine tonight and tomorrow morning. But
paying ready cash now or subcontracting to other porters is out of
the question.”
Two porters were willing to take the job and began trussing the
two packages onto the sedan chair.
“Secure them safely and don’t let them get damaged!” the clerk
warned them. Climbing into the sedan chair, he added, “When we
get to Muslim Kiln Street I’ll need to mail an important letter. Don’t
forget when we get there.”
They arrived at Muslim Kiln Street in the early afternoon.
“Wait here for a moment while I go mail the letter. I’ll be right
back.”
In fact, the clerk fled back home via a secondary road.
After they’d waited longer than it takes to eat a meal and he still
wasn’t back, the two porters conferred.
“While we were carrying him he said he wouldn’t be gone long.
We ’ve got two bolts of silk here. Why keep waiting? Let’s
skedaddle!”
With that they raced off, arriving home around dusk. One sug-
gested that they take a bolt of silk apiece. The other insisted that

type 4: misrepresentation 29
 they settle up later in case one was worth more. Back home, they
unwrapped the tissue paper to discover that each bolt contained
only a sawed-off old broom handle. They were accompanied by a
square package, which they supposed contained letters. Opening
it, the porters saw a piece of paper with the following words writ-
ten in a large hand:

You porters are a tricky lot,

but now you’ve fallen for my plot;
unless I’d handled both you dolts
I would have lost my silk—two bolts!

“Bloody crook! Bloody, brilliant crook!” The house rang with their
curses.
Overhearing the noise, other sedan bearers from the neighbor-
hood came in and asked who this crook was they were cursing.
When they told the story of what had happened, their neighbors
roared with laughter. Going back outside, they attached the broom
handles to a fence so that they stuck out halfway and pasted the
poem between them. Every passerby who read the poem and saw
the broom handles burst out laughing. “That clerk had you good
and proper. You two porters shouldn’t have conspired to cheat him.
It’s your own fault, and you deserve to be publicly mocked for being
handled like the dumb old brooms you are. If it really were silk that
you’d stolen, you wouldn’t want word getting out and that officer
coming after you, would you? You have only yourselves to blame,
so don’t go cursing him!”
Three days later, the clerk returned. Seeing the poems still pasted
on the fence, he asked a local, “A few days ago two sedan bearers
stole a couple of bolts of silk that I was carrying for someone. Do
you happen to have heard anything about that?”
Realizing that this was the clerk who had played the joke on the
sedan bearers, the person responded, “If you don’t go looking for
your silk, they won’t dare come looking for their fare!”
The clerk burst out laughing and went on his way.

30 type 4: misrepresentation
This clerk who hitched a free ride wasn’t the crook; the two sedan bear-
ers were the crooks. If the clerk were a crook, would he have come back
making inquiries? And when he did, why did the sedan bearers not dare
show their faces? This is called using the crook’s tricks against him—
ingenious! Be that as it may, if you ever have to hire sedan bearers or
porters when traveling, hire them through your innkeeper. He can track
them down if necessary, so there’s no risk of their absconding with your
property.

type 4: misrepresentation 31
 Type 5
False Relations
 Inciting a Friend to Commit Adultery and
Swindling Away His Land

Bi Ho,1 from Shanxi province, was a treacherous schemer, a man

full of secret vendettas and malicious intrigues. Everyone in town
had been harmed by him. His younger cousin Bi Song owned a plot
of land worth over fifty ounces of silver that bordered on Ho’s fields.
Ho had schemed several times to acquire the plot without success,
so he forged a false friendship with Song, frequently treating him
to meals and entertainments. Amusing themselves together at all
hours, the two became as inseparable as brothers.
In the same town lived a stubborn man with a violent temper
named Lin Yuan. His wife, née Luo, was a beautiful and licentious
woman who had come to despise her husband. Ho took advantage
of the couple’s falling out to seduce Ms. Luo and begin an affair.
Ostensibly the affair was to be clandestine, but actually Ho wanted
Song to know about it, so he intentionally left clues that led Song
to figure out what was going on.
 Song admonished Ho: “Some friend you are! Such a beautiful
woman—let me sleep with her once, why don’t you? Has the gal
ensnared your heart?”
“You couldn’t handle a woman this passionate,” Ho demurred.
“If I brought you along, you’d become infatuated for sure. I’m
worried that you’d start coming and going at all hours and end up
getting discovered. If her husband found out, your life would be
over.”
Song, however, suspected that Ho simply wanted to monopo-
lize Ms. Luo’s favors, so he secretly seduced Ms. Luo, who quickly
acquiesced. Passion bound them tighter and tighter. As soon as
her husband left on a trip, she would invite either Ho or Song—
sometimes all three would share a bed, their passion uniting them
as one.
After about a month, Ho secretly informed on the other two to
Luo’s husband.
“I recently learned that Brother Song has become romantically
involved with your wife. I know him well and have told him to stop
several times, but he ignores me. I’m sure you’ll want to catch him
in the act. But if you succeed, don’t beat him too hard. He ’ll defi-
nitely ask me to intercede on his behalf, and to make sure he stops
this foolishness I’ll insist that he give you some extra silver. Just
be careful not to kill him.”
He left Lin Yuan bursting with rage.
The next day, Lin told his wife that he had to go on a trip that
would last at least three days. Song watched as Lin departed. Having
asked around and learned that Lin had gone off on a trip, he threw
himself into Luo’s arms and took her into the bedroom for a romp.
Lin sprang from his hiding place and into the bedroom, where he
found the two lovers naked on the bed. Lin hauled Song to the floor
and began pummeling him. Luo, however, restrained her husband
with all her might, so Lin wasn’t able to beat him too badly.
Song begged Lin to release him. “I’ll pay you!” he promised.
“Who’ll be your guarantor?” Lin asked.
“Call my cousin, Ho.”

34 type 5: false relations

 Lin agreed and sent someone to fetch Ho. When Ho arrived, he
admonished Song: “See where your wayward behavior has led you?
You should be calling your brother to bail you out, not me!”
Song replied, “Don’t get my brother involved. Just front me the
ransom money and I’ll pay you back the day after tomorrow.”
Ho answered, “I can negotiate on your behalf, but you put me
in an awkward spot about paying. I do see that this is an emergency,
and if I don’t front the money I won’t be able to talk you out of
this predicament. But in that case you’ll need to put up something
tangible as a guarantee.”
Song duly offered to sell him the deed to the adjoining plot of
land.
“Sell at a low price.” Ho advised him. “If it’s too high, the money
will go to Lin Yuan anyway.”
They settled on a price of forty ounces of silver. Ho returned
home and retrieved thirty ounces, which he handed to Lin.
“I demand sixty,” Lin declared.
Ho replied, “The redemption price applies to both adulterers,
meaning that half the price is for the woman. Your wife, moreover,
is such a beauty that she’d be worth sixty ounces on her own. You’re
already getting half price.”
Despite further appeals, however, Lin refused to budge on his
demand.
Ho told him: “Song’s fields are worth forty ounces of silver, and
I don’t have ready cash. How about if you wait a month and then
I’ll give you another ten ounces.”
When Lin demanded a promissory note, Ho told him: “If any-
one else had handled this negotiation they’d have received a twenty-
percent commission. I deserve eight ounces of silver for putting
this matter to rest for you as it is, and here you are pressing me for
an I.O.U.!”
In the end, Lin released Song without a promissory note.
Several days later, Song brought forty-four ounces of silver,
which included the interest on the original value of his land, to
redeem the title deed to his fields, but Ho refused to sell it back to

type 5: false relations 35

 him. A month later, Lin came to Ho asking for the promised money,
and Ho told him: “I showed you how to make thirty ounces of
silver—are these few ounces more than my services deserve?”
Later, Lin told other people the story of how Ho had taught him
to catch the adulterers. Only then did Song realize that Ho had sold
him out. By then, however, he had already fallen into Ho’s trap, and
it was too late for regrets.

Ho’s scheme was to acquire Song’s field by luring him into adultery, and
it was to incite this adultery that Ho befriended him in the first place.
He also made sure that the incitement wasn’t obvious, so that Song
appeared to fall into fornication of his own accord. As for the plot of land
he coveted, he bided his time until Song was in distress and then obtained
it in a leisurely fashion by intervening to resolve his dilemma. Truly a
brilliant scheme! So long as he was expecting a future payoff, Lin Yuan
was sure not to reveal its origins. The treachery of a false friend like Ho
is too deep to fathom. That’s why, in dealing with people of habitually
immoral conduct, one must keep them from getting too close.

Note
1. This name would normally be written “He ” in pinyin romanization; it is
given here as “Ho” to avoid confusion with the English pronoun.

36 type 5: false relations

Type 6
Brokers
 A Conniving Broker Takes Paper and
Ends Up Paying with His Daughter

Shi Shouxun, a native of Da’an in Fujian province, was from a

wealthy family that manufactured and distributed paper. One day
he packed over a thousand bales of paper, worth more than eight
hundred ounces of silver, and headed to Suzhou to sell it.
He went through the shop of Weng Bin’er, a resident broker.
Weng had amassed sizable debts to previous clients, so when this
apparent greenhorn, Shi, came along Weng decided to use Shi’s
paper to repay them. He then bluffed Shi, keeping him cooling
his heels for half a year.
Shi’s family sent to Suzhou another five hundred-plus bales of
paper, which Weng sold for cash on Shi’s behalf. But even after
receiving these proceeds he continued to string Shi along with
excuses that his funds had all gone to pay off old accounts. After
waiting another half a year, Shi finally realized that he’d been taken
in and angrily lambasted Weng. Weng, having nothing to say in
response, turned for help to his relative Liu Guangqian. Liu advised
Weng to write Shi a promissory note for eight hundred ounces of
silver and then urge him to return home for the time being.
The following year Shi brought more paper to Suzhou; Weng
sold it for him but was still unable to repay the earlier debt. Shi was
again kept waiting for half a year. During that time Shi noticed that
Weng’s daughter, Yunying, was both attractive and unattached.
Figuring that he was unlikely to get his money, he engaged Liu
Guangqian to act as matchmaker and inquire about making Yun-
ying his concubine in return for the cancellation of Weng’s debt.
Weng happily agreed, but Yunying, who was just fifteen years
old, refused. Weng and his wife went to her room to cajole her:
“In ancient times Tiying volunteered to become a government
slave to save her father from punishment.1 Now, your father owes
this client eight hundred ounces of silver, and you’d be clearing
that obligation. Besides, these Fujian merchants are flush. Should
you bear him a son, you’ll get a share of his fortune and live in the
lap of luxury.” Yunying finally consented.
At the time of their marriage, Shi was over sixty years old, and
before four years had gone by he returned to Fujian and passed
away. Even before Yunying’s period of customary mourning for her
husband was over, Weng had married his daughter to another man.
She became a concubine to one Liang Enci of Lishui county in Nan-
jing, following an engagement gift of a hundred ounces of silver to
Weng.
Shi Shouxun’s son, Qin, got wind of this, and when he traveled
to Suzhou that year with a load of paper he went to pay his respects
to the Wengs, addressing Weng Bin’er as “maternal grandfather,”
but Weng snubbed him. Qin then asked to meet his father’s con-
cubine, but she refused to receive him. His fellow merchants were
incensed and cried out, “Your father gave an engagement gift of
eight hundred ounces, and yet, before they would even have been
married for four years, she was remarried to someone else. What
would be the harm in letting you see her this one time? Their behav-
ior is unconscionable! You should sue.”
So Qin lodged a complaint with Metropolitan Inspector Cai.
Weng Bin’er, however, was not in the least intimidated. With the

type 6: brokers 39
 Shis as in-laws he could ride high on his family’s restored prestige;
moreover, he was sitting on over a thousand ounces of silver. Argu-
ments dragged on for nearly two years in various administrative
offices and circuit courts, whose officers all took bribes from both
parties and made a series of ill-founded judgments. Ultimately, Shi
Qin had to petition the Ministry of Justice to obtain the following
decision:

Weng Bin’er used his daughter to pay back eight hundred ounces
of silver—nearly the price of the famous beauty Lüzhu.2 But
whereas Shi Shouxun agreed to this engagement gift, we pass
no judgment on it. Subsequently, before her mourning was com-
pleted, Weng remarried her to Merchant Liang and pocketed a
substantial sum; in doing so he treated his daughter as a com-
modity, in contravention of the law. He shall receive a total of
thirty blows of the rod, and is hereby ordered to transfer to Shi
Qin the one hundred ounces of silver he received from Liang,
along with the fifty ounces worth of clothing and jewelry that
Shi Shouxun provided to Yunying.

As a result of these protracted proceedings, Weng Bin’er’s fam-

ily nearly went bankrupt and fell into poverty.

Conniving intermediaries are second only to itinerant crooks in the harm

they cause with their thieving swindles. When itinerant crooks plot to
take things covertly, that’s burglary; when conniving intermediaries
swindle away goods to sell openly, that’s robbery. Both constitute a type
of theft. The perils of dealing with brokers are legion. They go behind
their clients’ backs to use the goods they bring in for all sorts of under-
handed deals. They often steal from their suppliers, and they invariably
use the stock of one client to pay off debts to another. Such behavior is
the impoverished broker’s stock in trade. Shi Shouxun tumbled into this
pitfall because he failed to perform due diligence in selecting a broker.
One must be picky. Likewise, someone should have stopped him from
setting his sights on the daughter. How many years does a man over sixty
have left, and what good could come of taking a concubine so far from

40 type 6: brokers
home? This left it to his son to sort things out, at not inconsiderable
expense, and even though he ended up winning in court, it was far from
complete restitution. How deplorable that the wicked blackguard Weng
Bin’er would trade his daughter for eight hundred silver—that in itself
was beyond the pale. But then he went on to bring another son-in-law
into his family. If he did want to marry his daughter off a second time,
he should at least have returned the personal gifts to Shi’s son so as to
avoid further trouble. But no, his avarice was insatiable, and it bank-
rupted his family. This is truly a parable of the consequences of duplic-
ity and immorality.

Notes
1. Tiying (fl. 167 b.c.e.) was famous as a dutiful daughter who saved her
father from execution by offering herself as a palace slave.
2. Lüzhu (d. 300) was a famously talented and beautiful woman whom the
official Shi Chong (249–300) purchased as a concubine for three bushels
of pearls.

type 6: brokers 41
 A Destitute Broker Takes Some Wax to
Pay Off Old Debts

Zhang Ba was from Sichuan province. A quick-witted and consci-

entious fellow, he was tall and gutsy to boot. One day he bought
over a hundred crateloads of wax and headed to Jianning prefec-
ture in Fujian province to sell them at Broker Qiu’s shop. Qiu had
fallen on hard times, and although he managed to maintain the
appearance of wealth he was in fact deeply in debt, having failed
to repay several dealers for their goods. When Zhang Ba showed
up with his wax, Qiu behaved like the crook he was and entered it
into his ledger under fictitious names instead of under Zhang’s. He
promised to pay Zhang soon, but a few days later Zhang was stroll-
ing down the street when what did he see but his own wax for sale
in one store after another! He asked who the supplier was, and the
consignment records all bore different names.
Suspecting some duplicity afoot, Zhang Ba went back to Qiu’s
store and confronted the broker. “You took my wax and used it to
repay other accounts. I want the details on each and every one. Tell
me the truth or you’ll find yourself talking to my fists.”
Broker Qiu went mute and couldn’t answer. Zhang flew at him
with his fists and collared him like a hawk seizing a sparrow. Then
he kicked Qiu around like a football.
Qiu cried for mercy: “You’re too clever for me, my lord! I admit
that I gave your wax to other merchants to settle old accounts and
sold some for living expenses. But at this point I can’t ask all those
vendors to give it back.”
Zhang said, “Make an account entry for every bit of wax you
used to pay others back and for every crate the stores are selling.
Indicate that it’s all on consignment and you haven’t been paid for
any of it. I’ll take your ledger in to lodge a complaint, and, with you
giving staunch testimony on my behalf, we’ll just see if those stores
don’t return my product.”
Broker Qiu did as he was told and wrote accounts receivable
entries for everything. Zhang took the ledger straight to the county
office to open a case with Venerable Mei, the acting magistrate. After
reading the complaint, Mei tossed it to the ground and denied it.
Zhang was devastated at the prospect of losing his capital and broke
down in tears. He desperately pleaded his case until Venerable Mei
finally allowed it to proceed and sent runners to check the wax in
the stores.
Zhang bribed these clerks with silver and they reported back,
“All the stores have wax with Zhang Ba’s seal mark.”
“How could they take the wax on consignment and not pay
him?” Venerable Mei responded. He thereupon issued a summons.
The shop owners conferred amongst themselves outside the
office: “We all bought some of Zhang’s wax and paid Qiu in full,
and now that broker is trying to collect for it again. Besides, Qiu
was using some of that wax to pay off his debts to us; where does
he get off demanding that we compensate him for escrow payments
that he owed? The lot of us ought to pool our money to cover the
cost of an inducement, and then go explain our situation and have
our day in court.”

type 6: brokers 43
 They collected a hundred ounces of silver, which they offered
to a relative of Venerable Mei who lived nearby. Now Venerable Mei
was an upstanding official, and he couldn’t be swayed. Instead he
had the merchants brought in for trial. One of them, from the Jiang
family store, had experience with lawsuits. He opened his case by
saying, “Broker Qiu sold us the wax in a fair and equitable exchange.
How could Zhang Ba again demand payment from us if the broker
failed to compensate him fully? So the broker’s fallen on hard
times—that’s got nothing to do with us.”
“I didn’t sell them the wax,” Qiu testified. “Rather, I had some
accounts due to these stores, and when Zhang Ba’s wax came in they
falsely offered to take it on consignment and pay me within a few
days. But once the wax was in their hands they just counted it against
what I owed them. I certainly had no intention of tricking my cli-
ent out of his money.”
Venerable Mei addressed the shopkeepers: “If Qiu owed you
money, you should have sought restitution from him. How could
you have appropriated his client’s goods to cover his personal obli-
gations to you? The rest of you will have to compensate Zhang if
you want to avoid criminal charges.”
Merchant Jiang, who had bribed Venerable Mei’s relative,
pressed their case that it was a fair and equitable exchange and
unrelated to any outstanding debt. Venerable Mei grew angry
and punished Jiang with ten strokes of the rod. Jiang insisted and
was rewarded with another twenty strokes. This terrified the oth-
ers, who said they were willing to pay restitution and make peace.
Jiang was imprisoned as surety, and the wax had to be paid for
within three days or else he would be punished further. By the third
day they had come up with the money and paid Zhang in full.
Zhang was so grateful for Mei’s grace that before leaving he burned
incense to show his respect and prostrated himself before the mag-
istrate’s office.

Life is precarious when one is abroad on business. Far from familiar ties,
one becomes dependent on intermediaries to serve as one’s eyes and ears.
If you happen to find a fair and honest broker, your goods will be taken

44 type 6: brokers
care of. But should he be wily and corrupt, your goods and compensa-
tion alike will be imperiled. So picking a good intermediary is a vital
business decision—one not to be taken lightly! If he’s plainspoken and
forthright, that means he’s fair and honest. But if, when you first meet,
he visibly sizes you up before taking you into his confidence, that’s a sign
of a wily, conniving mind. If you’re getting close to negotiating a price
but the counteroffers are a long time in coming, he surely has some kind
of scam in mind. If his rooms are not just neat and tidy but excessively
showy, he’s likely to be an ostentatious and inattentive person who is
unable to get things done. If his clothes are patched and dirty, or if he
looks lowly and devious, with a stooped posture and hungry eyes, or if
his headgear is ill suited to the season, he’s surely an impoverished sort.
If he favors natty attire or his dress and appearance are otherwise
unusual, chances are he’s not well established but in fact from a penni-
less household. If, on the other hand, his clothes are not showy and he
wears only plain cloth, don’t assume that he’s poor—this is a man of
reliable character. A merchant who understands these principles could
never be taken in by a broker the way Zhang Ba was. Save for upright
Venerable Mei choosing to listen to his plea, Zhang would have returned
home empty-handed. Hence I record this to show merchants the only way
to remain safe from worries: be scrupulous from the outset about the
intermediaries you employ to distribute your goods.

type 6: brokers 45
 Type 7
Enticement to Gambling
 A Stern Warning to a Gambler Provokes
Others to Entice Him to Relapse

Zhang Shisheng, from Juxi in Fujian province, was the spoiled son
of a rich family. His father divided his fortune evenly among him
and his brothers. The family’s land was fertile and productive, and
they had only to sit back and reap its rewards. When Zhang’s father
died, around the time when Wanli coins had just entered circula-
tion,1 Zhang was lured into gambling by a group of hoodlums. As
the immature scion of a millionaire he was enthralled by the hedo-
nistic pleasures of drinking and revelry in the gambling hall. Being
a careful steward of his wealth was the furthest thing from his
mind! Within a few months he had lost several hundred ounces of
silver, yet he carried on blithely gambling away with no intention
of stopping.
In the same town lived a certain Chen Rongyi, whom Zhang’s
father had employed as a foreman overseeing servants. Though a
rather coarse fellow, he was loyal and couldn’t stand to see Zhang
being corrupted by crooks. So he prepared a lavish banquet at which
 Zhang was the sole guest. As they ate and drank, he gradually
brought the conversation around to the topic of what things had
been like when Zhang’s father was alive. He explained to Zhang
how his father had worked all his life for his money, where his
wealth had come from, and how scrupulous his father had been
about saving and spending. He praised Zhang for being a capable
man and expressed sympathy at how hard things must be for him.
He also talked about trends in contemporary society, including the
difficulties of making a living nowadays and how hard life is for the
poor.
He then gave Zhang a piece of advice: “It wasn’t easy for your
honorable father to earn his fortune. Keep in mind how diligently
he worked and be a good custodian of the family legacy. You need
to stop gambling. You’ve already gambled away a few hundred
ounces of silver, but never mind that—what’s gone is gone. If you
turn over a new leaf now, you’ll live just as comfortably as before.”
Chen spoke so earnestly that Zhang’s conscience was momen-
tarily stirred, and he promised: “I’ll do just as you say. I vow never
to gamble again.”
Sure enough, the next day when the hoodlums invited him out
gambling, he turned them down. At first they were all surprised;
later they figured out that it was because of Chen’s advice. At a loss
for what to do, they talked it over and came to an agreement: “Who-
ever can entice him back to gambling gets ten ounces of silver.”
“I can do it,” volunteered a certain Chai Kun, so the other gam-
blers chipped in to make a sealed packet with ten ounces of silver.
Chai saw Zhang sitting idly in a roadside pavilion and sidled up
to him. He chatted about this and that for a while before asking,
“I heard that you’ve given up gambling. Is it true?”
“Yes.”
“Gambling’s bad. You’re a brave man to be able to stop on your
own like that. I’m really impressed that the scion of such a rich and
illustrious family could be so wise. There’s just one thing: the word
on the street is that you only quit after Old Chen urged you to. Is
that so?”
“That’s right, he did give me some advice.”

48 type 7: enticement to gambling

 Chai Kun gave a disappointed sigh. “Chen used to be a young lout
who ran around with a bad crowd. If it hadn’t been for your father
and your uncles, there would’ve been nothing to check his degener-
ate ways. Now, you’re the scion of a prominent family and a smart
man besides. Are you going to listen to the chidings of such a base
character and let word get out that you’re taking your cues from him?
Every man on the street will be laughing at you behind your back—
they’ll say you’re not the master of your own affairs. The way I see
it, you’d be better off doing a little gambling for another fortnight or
two, then quitting of your own accord. That way people would say
that you’d lost your taste for gambling, not that you’re taking orders
from a disreputable character. That’s what a real man would do, and
you’d be protecting the reputation of your late father’s house.”
Zhang was a gullible greenhorn; hearing this glib speech, he
reckoned, He’s right. If I stop now, everyone will say it’s at Chen’s
behest. I should gamble for another month and then quit on my own.
That’ll show ’em I’m a real man! Before long, he was back at it in the
gambling hall. Chai Kun, meanwhile, left with his payoff from
the gamblers. After another month of gambling, Zhang’s appetite
for the game was as strong as ever. Chen spoke with him again, but
this time his words fell on deaf ears. In the end, Zhang bankrupted
his family, all due to Chai’s disastrous provocation.

The only reason Zhang Shisheng would be gulled by Chai Kun’s absurd
propositions and reject Chen Rongyi’s loyal advice was that he was a
superficial fool to begin with. He considered it shameful to be repri-
manded. He was ignorant of the example of Emperor Yao, who solic-
ited advice from his subjects and sought out the opinion of a humble
woodcutter. Nor did he appreciate why the Duke of Zhou went in per-
son to receive low-ranking officials and General Han Xin begged his cap-
tured adversary Li Zuoche for advice on military strategy.2 If even an
emperor, king, or high minister would be modest enough to attend to the
counsel of their subordinates, how could someone like Zhang reject a
man’s good advice just because of his low status? What a pity that Zhang
was such an immature boy. Ignorant of past and present alike, he lacked
the discernment to avoid being taken in by slander. Alas!

type 7: enticement to gambling 49

 Notes
1. This would be after 1573, when the Wanli period began.
2. Yao was a sage ruler of early antiquity; the Duke of Zhou was a
conscientious regent early in the Western Zhou (ca. 1045–771 b.c.e.);
Han Xin (ca. 230–196 b.c.e.) assisted in the founding of the Han dynasty.

50 type 7: enticement to gambling

 Type 8
Showing Off Wealth
 Impersonating the Son of an Official to
Steal a Merchant’s Silver

Chen Dong, from Shandong province, had for many years traveled
to a place called Long Dike in Jianyang, Fujian, to trade in woven
cloth. In spring of the thirty-second year of the Wanli period [1604],
he traveled with two servants and over one thousand ounces of sil-
ver on his second cloth-buying trip to Long Dike. During the
journey, a crook secretly observed that Chen was carrying a lot of
money. Though he coveted his money, the crook could also see that
Chen was a seasoned veteran of the trade who always set out late,
retired early, and closely guarded his property. An opening would
be hard to find, so the crook took to impersonating a son of the
General Surveillance Intendant for the Jiannan circuit. He played
the part to the fullest, adopting the appropriate demeanor and bring-
ing four servants to wait on him. At every stop he stayed at the
same inn as Chen but didn’t engage him in conversation. Nor did
Chen pay him any mind.
 They reached Qianshan county in Jiangxi province, whose vice
magistrate, Cai Yuan, was from Guangdong province.1 Cai and the
circuit intendant were from different counties and did not know
each other personally, so the disguised crook paid Cai a courtesy
call. Hearing that it was the son of the circuit intendant, the vice
magistrate received him courteously. He then paid a return visit,
giving him money for traveling expenses. Chen, seeing the vice
magistrate repay the courtesy call, believed that the crook really
was the offspring of an official. That night, the crook invited Chen
to join him for a banquet, which the crook paid for using the
money he ’d received from the Qianshan vice magistrate. Chen
accepted with delight. Even so, he remained vigilant about being
robbed and dared not drink too much. The crook still couldn’t make
his move.
The next day they stopped for the night in the small river port
of Wushi. Chen was eager to reciprocate by hosting a banquet of
his own, but he was unable to acquire the necessary provisions and
had to give up on the idea. The following day they stopped for the
night in Chong’an county.
We’re getting close to Long Dike and I had better repay him, Chen
thought, especially considering his important lineage. Not to mention
that he and I will be soon be parting, and it would be extremely impo-
lite not to return the courtesy he’s shown me. He proceeded to purchase
prepared dishes and invite the man to join him for a meal.
The crook said to Chen, “We crossed the Yangzi on the same
boat and traveled all this way together. Clearly, we were destined
to be companions. Tomorrow we go our separate ways. Who knows
when we’ll meet again?”
Both of them drank to their hearts’ content. By the third watch,
Chen’s servants had all fallen fast asleep from exhaustion and he
himself, sloshed, slumped over the table and fell asleep. The crook
then stole all of Chen’s property and fled.
When Chen awoke, the crook was nowhere to be found, so he
went to the Chong’an county office and sued the innkeeper for con-
spiring against him. He then traveled to Guangxin prefecture and

type 8: showing off wealth 53

 sued the vice magistrate for having collaborated with a crook, call-
ing in the original innkeeper as a witness. The vice magistrate
retorted, “To tell the truth, the Jiannan circuit intendant and I
are from the same prefecture but different counties. I knew his sur-
name but had never actually met his son. When he came to pay me
a courtesy call and gave his surname, how could I, a lowly county
magistrate, not return the courtesy or offer a parting gift? Chong’an
is several days’ journey from here. If he stole your silver, what
does that have to do with me?”
Chen replied, “That crook followed the same itinerary as me all
the way here, and I was vigilant in keeping him at bay. Only after
he paid you a courtesy call and you returned his visit did I become
convinced that he really was the son of an official and fall into his
trap. He’s an acquaintance of yours, so of course I’m going to bring
you to court.”
The prefect could not reach a verdict, so Chen took his case to
the office of the Grand Surveillance Intendant, Venerable Shi. Shi
ruled that the vice magistrate had erred in paying respects to the
phony son of an official and in giving gifts away so lightly, mislead-
ing a traveling merchant in the process. Since all of this resulted
from a public official’s mistake, he awarded Chen one hundred
ounces of silver in traveling expenses and sent him home.

Alas! This crook’s scheme was ingenious! He impersonated the son of

an official for the entire journey, but the merchant was wise enough to
keep his guard up. But when he paid a courtesy call to the vice magis-
trate and the latter reciprocated, giving him a parting gift—who would
have doubted that he really was from such a family? He laid another
trap by inviting the merchant to drink with him, so that the merchant
would, as a matter of course, repay the courtesy. In obliging the mer-
chant to drink with him, he befuddled host and servants alike and had
no trouble pulling off his nighttime theft. That’s why I say this scheme
couldn’t have been planned more brilliantly. Had Chen kept his guard
up for just one more night, the crook’s duplicity would have been for
naught. It’s true: initial vigilance is no substitute for constant vigilance.
One can’t let one’s guard down day or night. Doing so would be like

54 type 8: showing off wealth

carrying a jug to fetch water and smashing it just as you reach the well—
the same type of carelessness. I hope that merchants can learn to be as
scrupulous in concluding their undertakings as they are in beginning
them!

Note
1. A vice magistrate (here, xiancheng ䷋᷆) was a second-in-command
appointed to manage particularly populous, strategic, or difficult-to-
govern counties. Local histories of Qianshan, located in Guangxin
prefecture, Jiangxi province, list all the holders of this office, and the
name Cai Yuan does not appear among them.

type 8: showing off wealth 55

 Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny

You Tiansheng, from Huizhou prefecture, was a man of splendid

appearance and imposing elegance; he was also something of a
clotheshorse. One day he set off to buy iron in Jianning prefecture,
taking along his servant Xu Ding and capital of more than five hun-
dred ounces of silver. Reaching Chong’an county, he boarded a
riverboat1 captained by a man named Li Ya, who was assisted by a
deckhand named Weng Yah.2 This Li Ya had earlier bankrupted his
family with his whoring and gambling, then turned to skippering a
boat as a last resort.
When the boat reached Jianyang county, Tiansheng, in prepar-
ing to disembark to visit a relative in the vicinity, opened his trunk
and took out a striking robe. Li Ya saw that the trunk was filled with
exquisite outfits, and the sight of this gave him a notion. That eve-
ning, when Tiansheng asked the captain to buy him some wine and
a meal, Li slipped some tuotuo blossoms into the wine. (Tuotuo flow-
ers are also known as datura; whoever consumes them becomes
comatose and unable to speak.)3 That night Tiansheng and his ser-
vant both succumbed to the drug and fell into a stupor. At midnight,
Li tried to bring his deckhand in on the plot, but Weng Yah told
him, “Wealth is allotted by fate, and it’s wrong to chase after what’s
not yours. If word got out, there’d be no beating that rap. Count
me out.”
Li’s rapaciousness would not be stopped by his deckhand’s
objections, and he tossed both passengers overboard into the depths.
Tiansheng drowned, but his servant Xu Ding had luckily drunk
less wine than his master, so the water revived him. An adept swim-
mer, he was able to make it to shore.
The next day, Xu Ding took a different boat to the Jianning
prefectural seat. There he submitted a complaint to Prefect Wang,
who promptly dispatched a search party of six soldiers to accom-
pany Xu to Linjiang Junction to apprehend the suspect. (Linjiang
Junction is a port where boats on their way to and from Jianning
assemble.) They arrived to find Li Ya with the loot in his posses-
sion. He’d just bought some wine and was bringing it on board his
boat, his mind fixed on revelry. Xu Ding pointed Li out to the sol-
diers, who locked him in shackles. They searched the boat for the
stolen property and, finding it on board, brought the prisoner and
the goods back to the prefectural seat.
As soon as Prefect Wang began his interrogation, Li Ya saw
that the game was up. Unable to deny the charges, he gave a
complete confession in which he implicated his deckhand as an
accomplice.
Xu Ding testified, “When I was drugged, I was in a stupor and
unable to speak, but in my dreamlike state I heard the deckhand
urge him to stop. The deckhand didn’t go along with the plot
and fled before it was carried out. If you punish the man unjustly,
it will dissuade others from doing the right thing in the future.”
Prefect Wang sentenced Li Ya to forty blows, followed by
imprisonment and decapitation, as prescribed by the statutes. Two
guards accompanied Xu Ding back to You Tiansheng’s home,
along with Tiansheng’s belongings and money. Li Ya’s death sen-
tence was carried out the following winter.

type 8: showing off wealth 57

 Later, Weng Yah gave up boating for agriculture, in which he
prospered. Li Ya, in plotting against others, hastened his own death;
by remonstrating against evil, Weng Yah was able to protect his
family. True indeed is the saying: “Goodness brings good rewards,
and evil brings evil rewards!”

You Tiansheng brought this disaster upon himself with his opulent attire,
which made the thieving captain covetous. In general, when traveling
alone by boat it is imperative to guard against the nefarious plots of boat-
men. Nap during the day so that you’ll be easily roused at night. When
cooking meals and heating wine, be especially careful of people slipping
you poison. Keep your dress modest and avoid anything flashy. Laozi
said, “A good merchant hides things away and appears to have noth-
ing,” and Confucius said, “Few go astray who comport themselves with
restraint.” 4 Wise words indeed for cultivating virtue and keeping harm
at bay.

Notes
1. Reading qingliu 㶭㳩 (“clear flow”) for the homophone 曺㳩 (“green
flow”). According to Song Yingxing ⬳ㅱ㗇 (1587–1666), the former
was a name for shallow-draft vessels that transported goods and
passengers between Chong’an and Fuzhou. Song, Tiangong kaiwu
⣑ⶍ攳䈑 (1637 woodblock ed.), 2.36a.
2. The two personal names are homonyms except for tone, so we distinguish
the latter as Yah.
3. Tuotuo flowers are used for the same purpose in the story “A Fake Scion
Rents Rooms and Robs a Widow” (see appendix 2).
4. The quotations appear in the Records of the Grand Historian and Analects.
See Sima Qian ⎠楔怟, Shiji ⎚姀 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982),
63.2141, and Lunyu, 4.23. Latter translation adapted from Edward G.
Slingerland, Confucius Analects: With Selection from Traditional Commen-
taries (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003), 37.

58 type 8: showing off wealth

 Type 9
Scheming for Wealth
 Stealing a Business Partner’s Riches
Only to Lose One’s Own

Zhang Pei was a wealthy trader from Xiuning county in Huizhou

prefecture whose capital ran into the thousands of ounces of silver.
He once traveled to Guazhou to purchase three hundred-odd bales
of raw cotton.1 Liu Xing was a destitute, orphaned commoner from
She county in Huizhou. Ten years earlier Liu had left home with a
pack on his back to be a trader, but in the course of that time he
had only scraped together seventy ounces of capital, which he had
brought to the same shop as Zhang to buy cotton. The two were
from different counties in the same prefecture, so once Zhang real-
ized that Liu spoke the same dialect and they shared a similar tem-
perament, they became as close as brothers. Having finished buying
their cotton, they traveled together to the capital of Fujian prov-
ince, both intending to sell it at the shop of the broker Chen the
Fourth, where they also shared lodgings.
Within a few days, Liu had sold all his cotton. Zhang, mean-
while, had made more than five hundred ounces of silver from
selling less than half his cotton. The sight of all that money gave
Liu an evil notion. This he shared with a certain Zhao Tong, an
unattached fellow who lived next door to the shop: “There ’s a
trader in the shop who’s got a lot of silver on him. Go to the south-
ern docks to hire a rowboat and wait for me there. I’ll bring the
money, then we’ll travel until we find a temple in the mountains to
serve as our hideout. We’ll split the loot fifty-fifty.” Zhao agreed.
Liu then lied to Zhang, saying “A relative from back home and
I were going to head to Haicheng to buy some imported goods from
the south, but he hasn’t shown up yet, so I have to wait a few more
days.”2
Then one day, when a business partner had asked Zhang to
lunch, Liu bored a hole in the wall of their lodgings and removed
the five hundred-plus ounces of silver from Zhang’s trunk. He
secreted it into his own crates and bundles, then hired someone to
come to Chen the Fourth’s and say that his relative had arrived and
was asking him to head out right away.
Liu lied: “My luggage is all ready, but Brother Zhang went out
for a drink and I haven’t had a chance to say good-bye to him.”
Zhang Pei’s servant said, “Since my master’s out at the moment,
I’ll pass along your respects.”
Liu then said farewell to the shop owner Chen the Fourth. Being
an experienced broker, Chen went to inspect Liu’s quarters, but the
hole that Liu had bored in the wall had been covered over. Liu hired
porters to take his cargo to the seaport, but changed course en route
and paid them to go to the southern docks, where he boarded the
rowboat and went upriver toward the junction.
When Zhang returned, Chen the Fourth told him, “Your
Huizhou compatriot has departed, and he asked that I send your
honor his best wishes.”
Zhang opened the door to his room and started at the sight of
the gash cut into his trunk. “For crying out loud!” He opened it up
and saw that all the silver had been stolen. A search turned up noth-
ing. Chen the Fourth went to reinspect Liu’s room and discovered
the borehole in the wall. “What’s done is done, and there ’s noth-
ing we can do for the time being,” he said. “But you and your

type 9: scheming for wealth 61

 servant should hire four runners to go straight to Haicheng. I’ll get
an official and round up seven or eight others to hire a rowboat to
follow them to the junction.”
So Chen went upriver in pursuit, and late that afternoon they
met a boat coming downriver. He called out, “On your way down,
did you see a boat with three people and three packs going upstream
in a hurry?”3
The oarsman replied, “We did see three people disembarking
with three packs at the junction.”
Chen’s boat arrived at the junction as dusk was falling, and no
one was to be seen. Then they spotted two boys heading home with
their oxen, and asked, “Three men carrying three packs passed by
here a while ago—did you boys see them?”
The herdboys replied, “They were heading up toward the
waterfall.”
“Is there a village near there?”
“No, just a temple, called Highfalls Temple.”
Chen the Fourth paid one of the boys a twentieth of an ounce of
silver to show them the way to the temple. When they got there
it was almost the third watch of the night. Chen said, “If we call
for the temple gates to be opened, they’re sure to flee. Let’s split
into two groups, one at the front gate and one guarding the back.
Come morning, the monks will open the gates, and we can rush
in before they have a chance to escape. We ’ll get ’em that way.”
“Good idea,” the others agreed.
As soon as the monks opened the gate the next morning, the
search party rushed in. “Where did you come from, gentlemen?”
asked one of the stunned monks. Chen the Fourth explained their
purpose, and asked when the three men had arrived at the temple.
The monk replied, “They arrived after dark and are sleeping in that
pavilion. They told us they had come here seeking refuge.” He led
the party in to arrest the three.
When they searched their captives they found that Zhang
Pei’s money was wrapped in one bundle while Liu’s own seventy
ounces were on his person, in a sack tied with a string. The three
thieves prostrated themselves and pleaded for mercy. “I know I was

62 type 9: scheming for wealth

wrong to take his silver, which I’ll return,” Liu said. “But I beg
you to let me keep mine.”
The pursuers ignored his pleas and pummeled the thieves half
to death with rocks. Then they packed up the cargo, tied up the
perpetrators, and escorted them back to Chen’s shop. At the time,
Zhang had not yet returned from Haicheng, but thousands of
people, both visiting merchants and locals, gathered to watch their
arrival. Liu was mortified and despondent. A few days later, when
Zhang returned, he berated Liu: “You thief! You made me go all
the way to Haicheng and back. It’s a lucky thing for both of us that
my silver’s all here—I’ll let you off this time. But from now on I
want you to turn over a new leaf. If you ever act like this again, I’ll
see that you feel the full force of the law.”
“There’s a word you’re forgetting,” Liu said, “‘hometown.’”
“Talk of ‘hometown’ is exactly what misled me,” Zhang rejoined.
“It’s because of our previous friendship that I’m letting you off. Go
on, get out of here.”
“Let me have my silver back, I beg of you.”
Liu’s silver had already been seized by the crowd, so Zhang asked
them to return it, saying he would make it up to them.
The crowd protested, “If this thief were to be tried in court, he
probably wouldn’t get away with his life. And now you’re letting
him off, and even letting him scrounge off you?”
They were about to lay into Liu Xing again when Zhang stopped
them. “Your own unscrupulousness led you to commit this act,” he
told Liu, “and now it’s come back to bite you—that’s nothing to
wring your hands about. But I’m going to be generous and give you
five ounces of silver to get by on.” Liu, moved to tears, scurried off.

Alas! Encountering a hometown acquaintance abroad is like sweet rain

after a long drought. A traveler who meets a man from his hometown is
wont to form a close fraternal bond with him and to wish to spend their
days together. This is only human. It was inevitable that Zhang Pei and
Liu Xing would share quarters, since they were in the same line of busi-
ness and from the same place. How then could Liu harbor such nefari-
ous intent, attacking from within the same house, coveting and stealing

type 9: scheming for wealth 63

 Zhang’s wealth! When he stole away on a rowboat, he told himself that
his plan had worked. Little did he know that Heavenly justice will not
countenance such treacherous thievery. So he ended up captured, beaten,
and humiliated; overnight he lost the seventy ounces of silver he’d worked
for decades to amass. He plotted for unearned gains and ended up los-
ing his own earnings. What a fool! I was astounded by this story and
record it to warn those with similar inclinations toward trickery or ava-
rice. At the same time, this story reminds traders to be wary of duplici-
tous hometown thieves.

Notes
1. Guazhou was a commercial town at the juncture of the Grand Canal and
the Yangzi River.
2. Haicheng was a seaport in Zhangzhou prefecture in southern Fujian
province.
3. How could Chen have known that he was after three people? Presumably
the pursuing party had acquired this information in the course of their
inquiries.

64 type 9: scheming for wealth

 Haughtiness Leads to a Lawsuit That
Harms Wealth and Health

Wei Bangcai was a traveling merchant from Guangdong. He was

the richest man in the whole province and extraordinarily arrogant,
always crowing about his wealth. When he traveled on business he
felt that no one was worthy of his regard.
Once he bought a hundred crates of silk thread in Huzhou and
was on his way home to sell it in Guangdong. At Hangzhou he
booked passage on a ship that was carrying twenty-some other mer-
chants. While they were held up at Fuyang for most of a week
because of high winds, his servants would get up early and fight to
be the first to cook breakfast, while he would wander the ship start-
ing arguments over any tiny thing that was not to his liking.1 The
other passengers, seeing how snooty Wei was and reckoning that
they wouldn’t have to spend too much time in his company, just let
him have his way.
Wei’s servants had taken on their master’s disposition and also
antagonized other passengers on a daily basis. Had Wei kept his
 servants in check and appeased his peers, all would have been well.
But instead he would take their side and say offensive things like,
“You vulgar riff-raff, not one of you is my equal!” He also kept
going on about his enormous wealth, claiming, “I could personally
buy all the cargo on this ship.”
Having listened to such talk one too many times, the other pas-
sengers got fed up. As they were grumbling, a certain Wang Fengqi,
who came from a prominent Huizhou lineage with a long tradition
of office holding, expressed indignation at how Wei was using his
wealth to lord it over everyone. “You’re constantly talking about
your thousands in gold, but life is long and things change. Once
upon a time, Shi Chong was even richer than you, but what did that
get him in the end?”2
Wei, incensed at this attack, shot back, “You’re all scum—every
one of you! If there ’s a man of substance on board this boat, I
haven’t heard a peep from him yet. Go ahead and show me what
you’ve got—see if you can match a hundred crates of silk thread
worth thousands in gold.”
“Vulgar wretch!” Wang replied disparagingly. “Your lack of
taste is matched only by your willful insolence. You’re finished and
you don’t even know it, loser. My fortune easily trumps yours, and
I’ll send you home in a box!”
Wei and Wang argued nonstop, and the other passengers were
secretly excited to see them duke it out. Only after one of Wang’s
supporters had urged him to back down did everyone retire to their
cabins.
The next day, a passenger named Li Hanqing went around tell-
ing people how fortunate he thought it was that they had Brother
Wang to stand up to Wei. Overhearing this, Wei laid into Li and
dragged Wang in as well, cursing them in the foulest of terms. The
other passengers were indignant at Wei’s insulting rant. “If this
whole boatload of people is going to be bullied by one man, we
should all take a blood oath against him.”
“With your help,” Wang offered, “I’m willing to take him on and
slake your thirst for vengeance. He’s got those hundred crates of

66 type 9: scheming for wealth

silk. Help me beat him half to death, and he ’ll be sure to file a
complaint; I’ll then hide half of his silk somewhere else and leave
him half for the court battle. Then we’ll destroy his original account
records. Now when he files charges against me, whatever you do,
be sure to stand firm. When you testify on my behalf, we ’ll have to
keep our stories straight. We’ll let him sell off his silk until he’s used
it up—that’s what they call ‘Wishing him a Happy New Year while
wearing the shirt you’ve taken off his back’! A court battle is a life-
and-death struggle.”
“Sounds good,” the other passengers agreed. “All we want is to
get back at him.”
Making sure there would be no leaks, they finalized the plan.
Wang then went several rounds with Wei on the deck of the boat,
and the humiliated Wei ran off to file a complaint at the county
office. Once the complaint had been accepted, Wang moved half of
Wei’s thread to a secret location and proceeded to destroy all of
Wei’s account records and all of the receipts for the taxes and duties
he’d paid. His own goods he deposited in the shop of the broker
Zhang Chun.
When Wei came back on board and found some of his thread
missing, he started another fight with Wang. He then went to amend
his complaint, adding that fifty crates of thread had been stolen, with
the merchants on board and the captain as witnesses.
Wang Fengqi smeared pig’s blood all over his head and had two
people carry him into the yamen, reporting an attempt on his life.
He gave a hundred ounces of silver to his maternal uncle Huo, who
was from his hometown and was serving in the local administra-
tion. Wei Bangcai gave a hundred and fifty ounces to a local holder
of the metropolitan jinshi degree, Wei Xian, and to nine holders of
the provincial juren degree; Wang then gave another two hundred
ounces to the same men. Wei Xian and the others had first contacted
the magistrate on Wei Bangcai’s behalf. But when they followed up
shortly thereafter with letters that contradicted the earlier ones and
supported Wang, the two submissions did not line up. Investigators
began to take testimony, and the ship’s captain said that it was true

type 9: scheming for wealth 67

 that there had been a fight but he hadn’t seen any thread being
removed. So when the magistrate ruled, he declared the matter of
the thread uncertain and based his decision only on the assault
charge, judging both parties to be partly responsible.
Dissatisfied with this outcome, Wei Bangcai appealed to the cir-
cuit court, where it was assigned to Judge Chen, who took deposi-
tions from, and was bribed by, both plaintiff and defendant. In the
end, he upheld the original judgment from the county court. Wei
tried to bump it up again to various higher civil and military agen-
cies, and ultimately to the Ministry of Justice in Nanjing, but all of
them affirmed the original verdict.
Over the course of the following year, as the two battled in
court, Wei Bangcai used up all the proceeds from selling his thread
and had to call in his brother for help. After he had burned through
another five hundred ounces from his brother, he fell sick in his
inn and an uncle was called in to check on him. This uncle was a
loyal and kind family elder, and it was only after he had inquired
into the backstory that he realized that it was his nephew’s arro-
gance that had brought this upon him. The other merchants came
forward to say they wanted an amicable resolution to the whole
affair, and to wrap things up administratively each contributed a
hundred ounces of silver, of which fifty would go to pay Wei’s way
home.
When Wei Bangcai got home, he thought back on his days as a
merchant, on all the goods and money he’d moved from one place
to another and how he had now returned empty-handed. Filled with
wistful regret, he suffered mockery and insults from his family
members, which only increased his stress. Within a few months he
was afflicted with ulcers and died.

Alas! Wei Bangcai’s wealth made him conceited, and he was spiteful
and cruel to servants and neighbors alike. People let him have his way,
but this only worsened his self-aggrandizing character and inflated his
ego beyond all reason. As a result, when he went traveling on business
he behaved like a narrow-minded fool—a frog who couldn’t see beyond

68 type 9: scheming for wealth

the well he lived in. His incessant boasting about his money showed that
he was unable to think about anyone but himself. When he provoked
Wang Fengqi and the rest into their plot of moving his silk and launching
a lawsuit, he thought at first that he could simply deploy his wealth to
dominate others with bribes. Wang and the others, to him, were mere
playthings. When magistrates, prefects, judges, and the Ministry of Jus-
tice get involved, however, wealth is all for naught. At that point, he
was a “ram stuck in a hedge” 3 who became sick with despair and full of
regret. If not for his uncle’s perspicuity in understanding the situation
and extracting him from it, he might have died of despair far from home,
becoming a ghost in a foreign land. Since antiquity it has been recorded
that “the modest receive rewards and the self-satisfied invite ruin.” 4
Hence the sages teach us again and again to treat ordinary people as
one’s betters and never to use state power to be domineering.5 Pride has
been the undoing of innumerable kings, dukes, and other great men—
to say nothing of ordinary nobodies! Vanity is to be avoided even within
the confines of the household—how much more so when in foreign parts!
Merchants traveling far from home and hearth must strike a balance
between being firm and being soft in their dealings with people from
other regions. They must remain observant and prepared for unex-
pected adversity. Never can they afford to treat others disdainfully.
Hence the saying, “Treat others amicably, and all will be your broth-
ers within the four seas; be full of yourself, and you’ll face a boatload
of enemies.” 6 Reflect upon this, merchants, and upon yourselves.

Notes
1. Fuyang was the first county inland from the seat of Hangzhou prefecture
along the Qiantang River.
2. The famously rich and haughty Shi Chong was executed for refusing to
cede his beautiful concubine Lüzhu to his ruler.
3. The image of a ram with its horns caught in a hedge, unable to move
forward or back, comes from the statement on the third line of hexagram
#34 (Dazhuang ⣏⢗) in the Book of Changes.
4. These famous adages appear (in the reverse order) in the “Counsel of
Yu the Great” (Dayu mo ⣏䥡嫐) in the Book of Documents.

type 9: scheming for wealth 69

 5. The warning against being domineering on the basis of political power
can be traced to a statement attributed to the Duke of Zhou in the Records
of the Grand Historian. Sima Qian, Shiji, 33.1518.
6. The idea that “all men are brothers” is from the Confucian Analects 12.5
(albeit with a different set of conditions). The idea of fellow passengers
being enemies appears in the Records of the Grand Historian. Sima Qian,
Shiji, 65.2167.

70 type 9: scheming for wealth

Type 10
Robbery
 Robbing a Pawnshop by Pretending to
Leave Goods There

Beside a county yamen was a huge pawnshop that stocked tens of

thousands of items and would accept anything that anyone brought,
in whatever quantity. One day a customer of dignified appearance
came in. He bowed politely as he entered, sent his people away, and
said to the proprietor, “Let me be perfectly frank with you, sir. I
come from another prefecture and have long been in the same line
of work as you. Over the years I have accumulated a large stock of
goods. Last month, I obtained from a corrupt official nine pole-
crates1 of precious goods. They happen to be stored in your fair
county, and I find myself temporarily unable to sell them. If your
establishment would be willing to take them on, I would ask to be
paid one tenth of their estimated value in advance, then after the
goods are sold to divide the proceeds at a rate of five hundred per
thousand, payable in a year.”
“I’d like to take a look at the goods,” said the pawnbroker.
 “There’s a great quantity of things, nine pole-crates full, and it
would be unwise to unpack them out in the open,” answered the
robber. “Tonight, tell the keeper of the city gate not to close up until
we’ve concluded our business,2 and hire eighteen men to meet my
boat and carry the goods into the shop. Then we can inspect the
goods, arrive at an estimate of their value, and make the exchange.
I’ll just take the prepayment now and collect the rest next year.”
“Agreed.”
That night, the pawnbroker told the gatekeeper to leave the gate
open and hired eighteen porters to go to the riverbank to pick up
the goods. They came back into the shop with the nine crates.
After the porters had left, the pawnbroker closed the doors to
the outside. The robber unlocked the crates, then shouted, “Out,
quick!” From each crate sprang two men armed with daggers. They
tied up the pawnbroker with the warning, “Make a sound and you’re
dead.”
The nineteen men forced their way into the house and tied up
all the men and women. Then they emptied the store of its goods
and loaded them into the crates, which they carried out through the
city gates, telling the gatekeeper as they passed through, “You can
lock up now.” Then they sailed away in the dead of the night.
Later that night, one member of the family managed to loosen
his bonds and untie the rest. They rushed to the city gate but found
it locked. “Did you see anyone carrying pole-crates?” they asked
the gatekeeper.
“The guys with the crates left hours ago,” he replied.
At the fifth watch the gate was opened, but the robbers’ boat
had left during the night and there was no telling which way it had
gone.

The man came to the store alone and the crates were all carried by hired
porters, so it’s no surprise that the pawnbroker didn’t have his guard up.
But even if there were nine full crateloads, why didn’t he go himself to
view them on the boat during the day? If he had inspected the goods then
and there, the robber’s scam would have been over before it began. By

type 10: robbery 73

 agreeing to a nighttime delivery and arranging for the city gate to be
kept open, the pawnbroker succumbed to the plot, opening the door and
welcoming the robbers. What a pity that “desire for profit makes even
the wise foolish.”

Notes
1. A container transported by hanging it at the center of a long pole, with
one person carrying either end. The text here reads “seven pole-crates,”
which we have emended to nine to be consistent with the text that follows.
2. Cities were usually under curfew: the gates to the city wall were closed
each night and not reopened until the next morning.

74 type 10: robbery

Type 11
Violence
 Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal a
Silver Ingot

In a county town there lived a silversmith whose family was

extremely wealthy. He prospered in part because when revenue
transporters collected the fall harvest tax they usually relied on him
to cast the silver.
One day, after he had cast an ingot, he found a spot where the
threads on the surface didn’t show through. That night he set it in
a boiling pot to clean it off.1 The door of his shop had a big gap in
it through which one could see in from the outside.
That very night, a crook who had bought a large medicinal plas-
ter snuck over and spied on him. When the crook saw that the sil-
versmith had finished washing the ingot and placed it beside his
forge, he began to cry out as if in pain.
“Open up!”
“Who’s there?”
“I’ve been beaten up by bandits! Please let me warm up this plas-
ter on your forge so I can apply it to my wounds.”
 The silversmith opened the door and let him in. The crook
gave every appearance of having a broken limb: his hands shook
and he moaned in pain; his hair was disheveled and his head was
bent. The crook took the plaster to the forge and heated up the side
with the ointment. Then, holding the cloth backing in both hands,
he pressed it onto the silversmith’s face. In a trice, he snatched the
ingot and fled. The silversmith, in unbearable pain, ripped off the
scalding plaster and frantically wiped away the ointment. By then,
however, the crook had vanished with the stolen ingot.
“Thief!” he cried, running out in pursuit. But he didn’t know
which way the crook had gone, and after running around in circles
for a while he returned home, dejected.

This thief ’s ploy of feigning injury and yelling outside the door, then
heating his ointment at the forge was a hard one to spot, to be sure. But
an ingot is a valuable item, and one should guard against loss by stor-
ing it away before one opens the door. This story goes to show that if
something seems peculiar about someone, one should be wary of letting
them get close when one has silver in one’s possession.

Note
1. A pattern of fine, concentric, ripple-like marks on the top of an ingot was
a sign of its purity, so making these visible helped to ensure that the silver
would pass muster in the marketplace.

type 11: violence 77

 Type 12
On Boats
 Bringing Mirrors Aboard a Boat Invites a
Nefarious Plot

Xiong Gao, of Zhangfu,1 was the son of a prominent family. He was

strong enough to subdue a tiger and proficient in the use of sticks
and clubs. One night he was bringing two serving girls to the rear
garden for a tryst when a tiger leaped in over a wall. They retreated
into the house and came back out with an iron poker and large
staves. The tiger charged from across the garden, but Xiong held it
at bay with the poker. Forcing it to the ground with ease, he struck
a quick blow. The tiger lurched forward again, and Xiong jabbed it
once more with the poker. The tiger immediately turned tail to flee,
but Xiong caught up with it and struck it such a blow from behind
that it collapsed. “Help, quick!” he shouted, and the two serving
girls ran up and bludgeoned the tiger to death with their staves. He
was thenceforth known as “Xiong the Fourth, Tiger Killer.”
Some time later he got a notion to take a tour of famous scenic
spots and informed his elder brother, “I’m going leave the county
to travel on business.”
 His brother tried to dissuade him: “You’re such a straight-
forward guy, don’t even think of trying to make money. You’re so
naïve that I’m afraid you’d come to grief.”
“Our old servant Man Qi is strong and wise. I should be fine if
he comes along.”
His brother was unable to deter him, and Xiong set off, taking
with him more than a hundred ounces of silver. “I’m off to find
opportunities to buy goods for trade,” he announced. “Even if I
don’t make a profit, I doubt I’ll lose my capital. No one can take
advantage of me!”
He traveled from Zhejiang province south to Guangdong. When
they came across goods worth buying, Man Qi would advise his
master, “This is a good price. If we buy them and sell them back
home we’re sure to make a profit.”
“I’ve come all this way and haven’t seen the local sights yet,”
Xiong would reply. “If we buy goods now we’ll be too laden down
to travel freely.”
Man Qi repeatedly urged Xiong to buy things, but each time
Xiong ignored his servant’s advice. Man Qi came to realize that his
master’s real goal was not money making but sightseeing. From
then on, he let his master have his way, drinking when he drank and
generally following his lead. Within half a year, they had exhausted
two thirds of their capital.
“If we don’t head back now we won’t have anything left for trav-
eling expenses,” Man Qi reminded him.
Xiong replied, “We might not have much money left, but I still
want to buy a few things to bring back as gifts from my journey.”
After frittering away another two months, they arrived in
Huzhou. Man Qi again urged him to start for home.
“What’s good to buy here?” Xiong asked.
“The brushes and ink are excellent,” Man Qi said.
“I’m not an expert and have no eye for those things—I’d prob-
ably get cheated. Shouldn’t I buy something else for my mother,
sister-in-law, and wife? The little money I have has to cover all of
them.”
“Then buy silks or mirrors,” Man Qi suggested.

80 type 12: on boats

 “I don’t have enough for silk, and that’s not my line either,”
Xiong said. “I’d be better off just buying them ten writing sets and
ten mirrors.”
“Fine.”
They made the purchases in a hurry and headed home with just
two small trunks.
“We got some great stuff,” Xiong remarked, “and this way we
can travel light.”
They made their way to the riverside to board a boat. The cap-
tain observed that Xiong possessed the dignified bearing of a rich
man and was attended by a well-turned-out servant. He found it
odd, though, that his luggage consisted only of two small trunks.
Carrying them on board, he discovered that they were extremely
heavy and concluded that they must be filled with silver.
“Where do you hail from, sir?” he inquired, sizing Xiong up.
“I’m surprised that you haven’t bought more goods.”
Xiong had little money on him and was worried that the other
merchants on board would look down on him, so he lied: “I’m on
my way home from Huguang province, where my brother is serv-
ing as an official. I haven’t had a chance to buy anything.”
“So you’re from an official family,” the captain replied.
Seeing that he had such a respectful and attentive servant who
always addressed him as “Your Excellency,” and that he was so open-
handed, unlike the common run of merchants, the captain was even
more convinced that he was dealing with a real relative of an official.
Everyone on the boat treated him with respect and deference. When
they reached the shore the other merchants all disembarked with
their cargo. The captain detained just one passenger—Xiong—with
an invitation: “During the crossing the boat was full of passengers
and I didn’t have a chance to pay my respects. I hope that Your
Excellency will be willing to join me for a drink.”
He then went ashore and bought a great array of prepared food
and fine wine. That night the captain was a most attentive host and
pressed wine on Xiong, who was in a good mood and drank heart-
ily. The captain also spared no effort in encouraging his servant to
drink. Man Qi could tell that the captain was up to no good, so he

type 12: on boats 81

 feigned putting up an initial resistance and then giving in to his
entreaties to drink. After a few cups, he excused himself, saying that
he was drunk and wanted to sleep. Xiong readily accepted the wine
and really did end up dead to the world.
Man Qi, seeing his master sound asleep, got up and told the cap-
tain: “I’m not really drunk. We’re so close to home now that I’m
too depressed to drink. This young master is a wastrel who cares
for nothing but wine and women. When his older brother was in
office he gave him several hundred ounces of silver to be rid of him
and sent him home. But my master whored away all of the money
on the road. All he’s bringing home are a few writing brushes and
mirrors as gifts for his nephews. When the old master gets home
tomorrow he’s certain to blame me for having failed to restrain him.
But how am I supposed to restrain a guy like this? He downs wine
like it’s syrup, and he’s always bragging. Here, take a look in his
luggage and you tell me if there’s a scrap of silver in there.”
He unlocked the two trunks and the captain saw that they con-
tained no money at all, only writing brushes and mirrors. Qi took
out two mirrors and presented them to the captain. “Thank you for
taking such good care of us on this journey—here ’s one mirror
from each of us.”
“You shouldn’t be giving away your master’s things,” the cap-
tain told him.
“You could take half of them and he wouldn’t notice they were
missing ’til he got home.”
Man Qi locked up the trunks again, and both he and the captain
turned in. Man Qi, however, kept watch through the night.
“The captain treated us so well on this trip,” Xiong remarked
as they were docking the next day. “Give him an extra tenth of an
ounce of silver.”
When they arrived home, Man Qi said, “Count the mirrors to
see if any are missing.”
Xiong counted them and noted, “Two are missing.”
“I gave away those two mirrors to save our hides. Were you
aware of that, Master?”
“What’s this crazy talk?”

82 type 12: on boats

 Man Qi gave a detailed account of what had happened when
they were drinking on the boat. “Why would anyone lay out such
an extravagant spread for someone who was about to leave, unless
they were up to no good and trying to butter you up?”
Xiong was shocked. “You’re right! If you hadn’t been so shrewd,
we’d have been goners!”
The family was delighted to learn of their close escape and
rewarded Man Qi.

Xiong was born into an easy life and grew into a hedonist and brag-
gart. He knew nothing of the perils of real life. If it hadn’t been for Man
Qi’s astuteness, Xiong would have tossed their lives away, and they
would be feeding the fishes. For a master who has to travel afar but lacks
experience, a conscientious servant is an invaluable companion. Hence
in “Traveling” the loss of a serving boy is treated as a calamity and
finding a serving boy is a great boon: such is the great significance that
the sages attached to “Traveling"! 2

Notes
1. There is no recorded place with the name Zhangfu 䪈⭴. This may be a
miswriting of Zhangpu 㻛㴎, a locale in Fujian province, or the name
may be intentionally fictive.
2. The closing of this comment references and draws its wording from
hexagram #56 (Lü 㕭, Traveling) in the Book of Changes.

type 12: on boats 83

 Porters Run Off with Cargo from a Boat

When a boat arrives at the riverbank near Fuzhou porters mob it,
hoping to be hired to carry a load into the city. An experienced
merchant will shout at the swarm of porters to step back until all
of his goods are unloaded onto the shore, checked, and fully
accounted for. Only then will he divide them into bundles and call
over a few porters he knows personally. When they finally set off
into town, he’ll have someone follow closely behind to ensure that
nothing goes missing. When the arrival is a greenhorn, however,
the porters don’t care whether he’s done inspecting and organiz-
ing his baggage—they’ll just pack it into shoulder crates and take
off. The owner is forced to give chase, often before all of his prop-
erty is off the boat.
Once a certain xiucai surnamed Tian, from nearby Houguan
county, had been away working as a tutor and was returning home
at year end. He had with him forty ounces of silver he’d received as
tuition payments as well as two large baskets of clothing, bedding,
and other belongings worth another ten-odd ounces. Passing
through Fuzhou, he wanted to pay his respects to a relative there, so
he hired a porter to carry his baskets ahead of him. Tian, a Confu-
cian scholar, followed with a leisurely gait. Seeing how slowly Tian
moved, the porter picked up his pace. Rushing into the city gates, he
darted into a crowded, bustling area at a breakneck pace before dis-
appearing into the twisting alleyways. Tian chased him and shouted
at the porter to stop, but to no avail. The alleys within the city walls
snaked off in all directions and he had no chance of finding him.
The next day Tian went to the prefectural office and reported
the porter to Constable Lü. Lü was a perspicacious officer. If a por-
ter has stolen the goods, he figured, it will take a porter to track him
down. He called in two runners and told them, “Take a good look
at this Master Tian. This afternoon he will be wearing a white jacket
and will arrive on a boat with some baggage, which some porter is
sure to run off with. I want you two to tail him back to his place
and then bring him here.”
He then addressed Tian. “Make up a bundle of fake luggage and
board a boat ten li from here later today. When you land, hire a por-
ter to carry your luggage just like yesterday. Wear a white jacket so
these two runners can spot you easily, and once the runners are
nearby, make sure to walk slowly so that the porter will run away.
That way we’re sure to nab the guy.”
Tian got the plan, and that afternoon he arrived on a boat that
he’d boarded with his fake luggage ten li upstream. Once he and
the runners had spotted each other, he called for a porter to take
his bags, and sure enough, when he slowed his steps, the porter ran
off. The runners tailed the porter to his house, where they appre-
hended him, saying, “Venerable Lü wants to see you.”
The porter, Huang the Third, had no clue what had happened,
and all he could do was go along with them. Lü asked him, “What
were you doing carrying off a xiucai’s baggage?”
“I was just taking it to my place for a little while, but I intended
to return it,” replied the distressed porter.

type 12: on boats 85

 The officer had just ordered five blows for Huang when Tian
came in. “Today,” Lü told Huang, “I’m giving you a chance to
atone for your crime. Yesterday, a porter ran off with this gentle-
man’s belongings. I’m giving you two days to find him; if you don’t,
know that you’ll pay for it.”
“We work at the river on alternate days,” Huang said. “Yester-
day it wasn’t my shift.”
“Then you’ll just have to track down whoever it was.”
Huang spent two fruitless days searching. On the third day, as
the runners were bringing him in, he noticed another porter, Liu
the Fifth, exchanging three tenths of an ounce of silver for coins
and then using the money to buy fish and meat. Hauled into court
again, Huang could only offer this: “I didn’t find anything, but just
now I did see Liu the Fifth changing money and buying a lot of fish
and meat, which is suspicious.”
The constable immediately dispatched four men, along with
Tian and Huang the Third, to search Liu’s place. In the cramped
quarters they found both him and the loot. Brought to the yamen,
Liu confessed: “The money and the stuff are all there. For the past
five days I haven’t dared to step out the door. Only today did I ven-
ture out to exchange just three tenths of an ounce of silver for
coins, so I could buy myself a little something. It’s true, I stole it.”
The constable ordered twenty blows for Liu on the spot, and
said, “Both of you stole from clients, so you’ll both be sentenced
to penal servitude. But, Huang the Third, you redressed your crime
by assisting in the capture of Liu the Fifth. I’ll let you go with
another ten blows as a warning. Liu the Fifth, I will take your pov-
erty into account and let you go when everything is paid back.”
Constable Lü called Tian back in to sign for receipt of his recov-
ered property. In just a few days Lü had caught the criminal—a
feat possible only for a true administrative genius!

Porters running off with people’s goods happens everywhere, so be

extremely mindful of this when traveling. Constable Lü identified the
wrongdoer only because he spared no effort to capture the thief. Success
came thanks to his move of finding one porter with another, a strategy

86 type 12: on boats

akin to “attacking barbarians with barbarians.” This is the same as the
old adage, “A thief catches a thief as a needle pricks a thorn.” This story
offers a warning to those who hire porters and a method for those who
would catch thieves.

type 12: on boats 87

Type 13
Poetry
 Swindling the Salt Commissioner While
Disguised as Daoists

Tang Yin had two style names, Bohu and Ziwei, and was from the
neighborhood of Wuqu in Nanjing. He placed first in the provin-
cial examination of 1498 but was dismissed due to a scandal and
thereafter traveled around leading an unrestrained life, dallying
with wine and courtesans. He excelled at both poetry and prose, and
was an accomplished painter as well. His friends included Wen
Zhengming, Wen Zhengzhong, and Zhu Yunming—all leading
lights of the day.1 Every day they roved the pleasure quarters of
Nanjing, entertaining themselves by matching wits and compos-
ing literary pieces off the cuff.
Once a subaltern clerk came by with a sheet of paper to request
a painting. Tang Yin picked up a brush and drew ten-odd snails,
then added a colophon:

Forget swimming crabs and razor clams,

true delicacies of the seas are these!
 Holler ten thousand times—he’s snug in his shack
’til someone gives his butt a smack.

Everyone laughed aloud.2

Another day Tang went out and happened to see a monk in a
cangue before the county offices. “Could you write a poem for this
monk?” someone in the crowd asked. Tang Yin inquired as to why
the monk was there, then picked up a brush and wrote on the cangue
around the monk’s neck,

A clerk sent out to tax the tea

sought silver as a bribe, did he.
When thirty blows in court were reaped,
on this square plate a melon heaped.3

The magistrate, leaving his office to send off a visitor, spotted the
poem and asked who had written it. When someone told him it was
Tang Yin, the magistrate set the monk free. Such was his quick wit.
On one occasion, Tang Yin, Zhu Yunming, and a dozen or so
of their comrades packed their bags and went off to Yangzhou. They
spent their days drinking with courtesans, lost in debauchery.
Within a month their spending money began to run out.
“We’re out of cash—what’s the plan?” Zhu asked.
“No problem!” Tang replied. “The salt commissioner is loaded.
The two of us can disguise ourselves as Daoist priests from the
Temple of the Lady’s Purity to ‘transform’ him.” So they dressed
up as Daoists and made their way to the salt commissioner.
Entering the hall, they prostrated themselves at the foot of the
stairs. “Daoists of the Temple of the Lady’s Purity requesting an
audience!”
The salt commissioner was furious. “Are you unaware of the
frosty winds blowing in from the censorate?4 You’ve got gall! What
Dao led you to approach me in such an improper manner?”
He was on the point of thrashing them when they calmly replied,
“Do you imagine, my lord, that we wandered here in search of

90 type 13: poetry

food? We Daoists have traveled throughout the realm, socializing
with only its most famous personages. In Suzhou, for example,
none other than Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, and Zhu Yunming
have been so kind as to befriend us, since on the spur of the moment
we can invent any manner of poem, lyric, song, or rhapsody. Should
your lordship doubt our humble skills, might we present a little
something in response to your command?”
The salt commissioner pointed to the stone ox at the entrance to
the hall and commanded the pair to compose matching couplets on
that theme. Tang Yin responded immediately by intoning the line,

An odd stone leans on the clouds of a lofty peak.

Zhu Yunming continued,
How many years has it lain abandoned there?
Tang: Its coat of shaggy moss grows in the rain;
Zhu: the vines that pierce its nose dangle in the wind.
Tang: Never has it eaten creekside grass,
Zhu: nor ever plowed the bordered fields.
Tang: Strangely silenced, the herdboy stays his whip,
Zhu: yet a note from his flute hangs on moonlit smoke.

When the salt commissioner had taken this in, he said in a molli-
fied tone, “Fine verse indeed! What is it you wish to do?”
“Of late,” they answered, “the Temple of the Lady’s Purity has
fallen into disrepair. We heard that your lordship is a generous man
and fond of good works, so we hope that you might make a contri-
bution to support the renovation of the temple. This would be of
everlasting benefit.”
The salt commissioner was delighted and immediately wrote to
the Vice Magistrate of Wuxing, authorizing him to withdraw five
hundred ounces of silver from the treasury.5 When Tang and Zhu
saw that the salt commissioner had agreed to their request, they
traveled overnight to Wuxing, where, pretending to speak on behalf
of the Daoists, they discussed the transaction with the vice magis-
trate: “An envoy from the salt commissioner will be here shortly,

type 13: poetry 91

 requesting funds to repair the Temple of the Lady’s Purity. You
should provide everything he asks for and not stint in the least.”
The vice magistrate gave them the full amount. Tang and Zhu
were delighted when they received the money, and exclaimed,
“You can’t snatch the pearl from under the dragon’s neck unless
you plumb the depths of the pool!”
Then they returned to Yangzhou, where they joined their ten-
odd comrades disporting themselves in the pleasure quarters, orga-
nizing opera performances, drinking, and reveling in every pleasure.
In less than twenty days all of the silver had been spent.
Meanwhile, the salt commissioner went to Wuxing on an inspec-
tion tour. He donned his robe and cap and visited the Temple of
the Lady’s Purity, which he found to be just as dilapidated as before.
He summoned the vice magistrate and berated him.
The vice magistrate responded, “A few days ago, Tang Yin and
Zhu Yunming came from Yangzhou, full of praise for your lord-
ship for undertaking this great act. So your humble servant provided
exactly what was asked.”
Although the salt commissioner felt miserable when he realized
that Tang and Zhu had swindled him, he admired their rare talent
and let the matter rest.6

Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming were two of the most illustrious men of their
time, but failing to achieve their ambitions they turned to worldly plea-
sures and their names were heard in every brothel and tavern. Were it
not for their flowing eloquence and dashing talent, how could they
have shaken up (and down) the state offices? This deserves to be called
a good swindle in every sense of the word. Just consider the leading tal-
ents and influential scholars of our day, all of whom think only of squeez-
ing commoners to fill their own purses and exploit popular grievances
solely to enrich their own families—how they swindle the common
people! For one of them to be swindled in turn by Tang and Zhu serves
as a warning to the corrupt. Still, the salt commissioner’s choice not to
pursue the matter after realizing what had happened shows a certain
sympathy for men of talent.

92 type 13: poetry

 Notes
1. The author here betrays his ignorance of recent history: Wen Zhengming
㔯⽝㖶!and Wen Zhengzhong 㔯⽝ẚ!are alternate names for the same
person, Wen Bi 㔯⡩ (1470–1559). Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming 䤅⃩㖶
(1461–1527) are also historical personages. All three were famous as
writers, painters, and calligraphers; Wen and Zhu were also successful
scholar-officials. Tang Yin, who rose to cultural prominence from a
humble merchant background but experienced frustration in his official
career, was the subject of extensive popular lore, of which this story is an
example.
2. A slightly different version of this anecdote appears in a collection of
biographical sketches of Tang Yin appended to a collection of his works
published in 1614. It seems likely that Zhang Yingyu adapted his version,
along with that of the main story in this entry, from that collection. See
Tang Yin Ⓒ⭭, Tang Bohu xiansheng quanji Ⓒỗ嗶⃰䓇ℐ普,
photoreproduction of 1614 Nanya tang ed. (Taipei: Xuesheng shuju,
1970), waibian 3.10a.
3. Presumably, the clerk was collecting both taxes and kickbacks from a
monastic tea plantation and punished a monk who failed to pay him off.
4. The censorate was a powerful branch of the Ming government that kept tabs
on the activities of all officials and punished corruption and other malfeasance.
5. Taking the otherwise unattested title erxian Ḵ䷋ as meaning “second in
command in the county,” following the model of erfu Ḵ⹄, a standard
term for a vice prefect. Wuxing is an informal designation for Huzhou in
northern Zhejiang.
6. Like the first anecdote about the clerk, this story appears, with significant
variation, among the biographical sketches appended to Tang Yin’s
works. One version has been translated by T. C. Lai. See Tang Yin,
Tang Bohu xiansheng quanji, waibian, 7a–8a, and T. C. Lai, T‘ang Yin,
Poet/painter, 1470–1524 (Hong Kong: Kelly and Walsh, 1971), 105–6.
He Dacheng ỽ⣏ㆸ (fl. 1614), the editor of the collection, cites a very
similar poem by the early Ming poet Gao Qi 檀⓻ (1336–1374); cf. Gao
Qi, Daquan ji ⣏ℐ普, in Wenyuan ge Siku quanshu 㔯㶝敋⚃⹓ℐ㚠,
15.35a. The modern editor of Tang’s works considers both the poem and
the anecdote spurious. See Zheng Qian 惕槓, ed., Tang Bohu shi jiyi
jianzhu Ⓒỗ嗶娑廗灳䬳㲐 (Taipei: Lianjing, 1982), 168–69.
7. See note 13 in the introduction on the historical Chen Quan.
8. Reading pei 岈 as pei 昒.

type 13: poetry 93

 Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms
of a Famous Courtesan

Chen Quan was a suave and debonair millionaire from Nanjing.1

He was also a wag who could instantly come up with a pithy rhyme
for any new thing or situation. Although he was a habitué of the
city’s brothels, only one prostitute truly struck his fancy.
One summer, just as melons were coming into season, someone
from that prostitute ’s brothel, as a practical joke, hid two melon
peels just inside the threshold of the front door and then sent a mes-
senger running to Chen in a panic: “Sister So-and-So is dying of a
sudden illness and is saying she wants to see you one more time
before she closes her eyes forever.”
Chen leaped on his horse and galloped right over. As he rushed
through the gate, his foot landed on the melon peels and he was sent
sprawling. All the prostitutes clapped their hands in delight and
burst out laughing. “Quick, Master Chen—a poem!”
Chen replied with:
 Chen Quan, too quick to his heels,
fell for a brothel trap long laid;
and on account of two loose peels
with his life he almost paid.

The courtesans were delighted and had him stay for a drink.
Yet another day, he went boating with the ladies, who, when they
came across a newly made boat, urged him, “Grace it with a verse—
quick, now!”
In a trice, Chen came out with:

A craft as new as new can be,

blushing lotus in the pond was she.
Now become but a mere ferry,
obliging thousands, for a fee.
Have money? Climb on for a ride.
No dough? You’ll be tossed aside.
Taken for a bath, drained, not dried,
yet—reach the other shore and you’ll call for more!

The courtesans all sighed with delight and admiration.

Chen Quan’s amusing verses were all of this sort.
Around that time, there was a renowned Hangzhou courtesan
known as Peerless Blossom. She carried herself with exquisite
deportment and was skilled in all the refined arts—the zither, chess,
poetry, and painting. Her price, however, was exorbitant. She dis-
dained to consort with the common herd and would receive only
superior clients. A single night with her would set you back no less
than six or seven ounces of silver.
Chen wanted this courtesan as soon as he heard of her, so he
came up with a ruse. He ordered a dozen-odd family servants to
transport a succession of boats to Hangzhou, and then traveled there
himself with two or three other domestics. When he arrived at Peer-
less Blossom’s place, he ordered his servants to use carrying poles
to bring in a leather-covered chest. The bottom layers consisted

type 13: poetry 95

 entirely of paper-wrapped bricks, while the paper on the top layer
all enclosed real silver, ten ounces to a package. Entering Peerless
Blossom’s bedroom, they opened the chest in front of her and dis-
tributed generous gifts of silver to the various servants. To Peerless
Blossom herself Chen presented ten ounces of the finest silver.
Peerless and her servants were delighted, believing Chen to be a
man of considerable substance and foreseeing a potential windfall.
“May I know where you hail from, sir?” Peerless asked.
“Nanjing,” Chen replied.
“May I ask your honorable surname?”
“Rake.”
“And your poetic name?”
“Winning.”
Peerless Blossom entertained her visitor with a lavish banquet,
and “Winning Rake” thereupon took up residence in her chambers.
After two days passed, another of his servants arrived to report that
such-and-such a boat had arrived. Rake instructed, “Keep the cargo
in the boat, but carry the leather case up here and put it in Miss Blos-
som’s place.”
This happened three or four times, and five or six leather cases
accumulated in Peerless Blossom’s bedroom. Rake, seeing that Blos-
som wore pearls, remarked, “Those pearls of yours are no good. I
own several hundred large pearls, each perfectly round. When that
boat arrives, I’ll give them to you.”
After about a month or so, the self-styled Winning Rake felt
sated. When another servant arrived to say that such-and-such a
boat had arrived, Rake said to Blossom, “This boat’s cargo is dif-
ferent from the earlier ones. It’s extremely valuable, and I’ll have
to go check on it in person. While I’m there, I’ll pick up those pearls
for you. I’ll need you to take care of these cases of mine, which we’ll
keep safe in your bedroom. I won’t be back until afternoon, so I’ll
trouble you to lend me a mount and send one of your servants to
accompany me.”
Peerless Blossom ordered a servant to attend him, and the ser-
vant set off with Rake on a donkey. Halfway there, Rake exclaimed,
flustered, “I forgot my key! I stored it in your mistress’s bedroom

96 type 13: poetry

and forgot to bring it with me when I set off. Go back and get it for
me.”
“Hold on,” the servant rejoined. “I’ll need a note in your hand-
writing before she ’ll entrust me with your key. I won’t be able to
get it otherwise.”
Rake dismounted from the donkey and went into a stationery
store, where he wrote down the following couplets:

Peerless Blossom of Hangzhou

a wealthy Rake did come to know.
She sent a man with an ass in tow,
but off they went and those pearls won’t show.2

He sealed the paper up and sent it back with the servant. As soon as
Peerless Blossom read this missive she knew she’d been tricked. She
hurriedly opened the crates to discover that they were filled with
bricks. Rake had made advance arrangements for a servant to buy
him passage on a waiting boat, and as soon as he reached the river
they sailed back to Nanjing. Although Peerless Blossom would later
make inquiries and discover that the perpetrator was none other than
Chen Quan of Nanjing, by that time there was nothing to be done.

Courtesans swindle people by habit. Get off lightly and you’ll lose only
your fortune; get in deep and you’ll lose your life. This is the first cour-
tesan I’ve ever heard of who was herself swindled. And it was none other
than Peerless Blossom, who had hiked her price sky high and defrauded
countless would-be patrons out of a fortune. Little did she imagine that
someone like Chen Quan would cook up such a diabolical scheme, and
the man she sent with a donkey to keep tabs on him was hardly up to the
task. Chen Quan’s methods might have been unconventional, but they
endeared him to the brothel set, who considered it all a grand joke.

Notes
1. See note in the introduction on the historical Chen Quan.
2. Reading pei 岈 as pei 昒.

type 13: poetry 97

 Type 14
Fake Silver
 Planting a Fake Ingot to Swindle a Farmer

There once was a man from a farming family who worked hard at
tilling his fields. His dress was plain and his diet meager, for he was
miserly by nature, but his family was rather well off. A swindler
from another province came to town and learned of this man’s greed
and foolhardiness. Having determining that the farmer would be
tilling his field at a particular spot on a particular day, the swindler
buried there two fake silver ingots, each weighing a hundred ounces.
The crook waited until the farmer was hard at work tilling to show
up on the hillside, looking like he was searching high and low for
something. “Hey you!” the farmer called out. “What are you look-
ing for over there?”
“What’s it to you what I’m looking for?” came the reply.
So the farmer kept quiet. The crook went on checking out one
tree, then another, as if he’d lost something.
The farmer spoke up again. “You look ridiculous, fella. The hill
is covered in trees—are you going to check every one?”
 “Okay, I won’t lie to you,” said the crook. “Some years ago my
dad was captured by bandits and ended up falling in with them.
Eventually he accumulated a lot of silver, but since he couldn’t carry
it all by himself he buried it in a bunch of different places, which he
wrote down on a list. He had planned to retrieve it all, but he died
before he had the chance. Now according to the list, there ’s some
under a tree around here, but I don’t know which one. It’s a good
job I ran into you—you can help me look. I’ll be happy to share
whatever I find with you.”
The farmer came over with his hoe to help search, and—lo and
behold!—under one of the trees they found the two ingots.
The crook feigned elation. “Since we found silver here, there
must be some in the other places as well. I’d be happy to break a
piece off for you, but I don’t have a hammer and awl handy.
“Since I don’t have any place to stash this silver,” he continued,
“why don’t we take it to your place for the time being? Once we’ve
found the rest of it, I’ll give you a few ingots as a reward. How
does that sound?”
“Great. But we’ve never met, and if you show up and start com-
ing and going, won’t that raise suspicions?”
“Then you should claim that I’m some kind of old friend or
relative.”
“I know—one of my wife’s brothers was sold to a river trader
when he was six or seven and we haven’t heard from him since.
Why not say that you’re him and that you’ve come back to see your
sister and brother-in-law?” The farmer told the crook the names
of his wife’s parents, described their appearance, and shared other
relevant details.
When they reached his house, the farmer called his wife out to
see her brother. When she saw him, she asked, “Brother, why don’t
you look anything like me?”
“I’ve grown different because I’ve been living in another prov-
ince with a very different environment,” the crook replied.
“What’s our father’s name? What did he look like? How about
our mother? What was her name and what did she look like?” The
crook’s answers were all accurate.

100 type 14: fake silver

 “What’s our uncle’s name, and what did he look like?”
“I was young when I left,” the crook replied, “and I only remem-
ber Mother and Father. I don’t remember Uncle.”
This convinced her, and she killed a chicken and steamed a fish
to make a feast for her brother. The farmer’s brothers each treated
him to a lavish meal as well.
The crook told his supposed brother-in-law, “I need a little
spending money. Could you give me fifteen or sixteen ounces of sil-
ver?” So the farmer got together ten-odd ounces of silver and gave
them to the crook.
A few days later, the crook showed his “brother-in-law” that
according to the list there were more than ten ingots at such-and-
such hermitage on such-and-such mountain. The hermitage was
deserted, so they packed two baskets of provisions and headed
out. The crook had instructed two bandits to lie in wait at the her-
mitage, and they seized the farmer and bound him to a pillar. The
bandits drew cutlasses and repeatedly threatened to kill him, but
the crook made a show of dissuading them. “My brother-in-law
has been so kind to me. He and his brothers have feasted me with
chicken and fish. Please don’t kill him!”
The three bandits then consumed all the food and drink and
went off.
The farmer shouted at the top of his lungs but to no avail. The
following afternoon a herdboy happened to pass by and the farmer
screamed for help, so he was finally freed from his bonds and able
to return home.
His wife asked, “Why are you only back today? And why isn’t
my brother with you?”
He answered ruefully, “Shut up about him! Shut up about him!”
So even today someone who’s been swindled will use the expres-
sion, “Shut up about him!”
Recently, in the Jiangyuan area, a man was involved in a similar
swindle, but his wife was smarter. She opened the ingot up with an
awl and showed him that it was just a lump of plated tin. So they
tied the crook up and beat him and didn’t let him go until he’d con-
fessed. If not for his wife’s astuteness, that man would have fallen

type 14: fake silver 101

 into the same hole as this farmer—better to catch on late than
never!

This farmer was well off thanks to his arduous labor and abstemious life-
style. How could he allow greed to lead him into a bandit’s trap that
cost him both his money and his pride? His wisdom did not equal that
of the woman from Jiangyuan. These are, however, dark times of per-
vasive deception and rampant criminality. Lately these “bag drop ban-
dits” have swindled a lot of people. There’s another technique used in
Jiang-Huai,1 the “sweet talk,” that’s especially tough to defend against.
The bandit asks you a question, and you need only reply to come under
his spell—it’s some kind of sorcery, and many are its victims. How can
the world have fallen so low? Ye who would venture out on the road, let
this tale be a warning!

Note
1. The large region in central China between the Yangzi and Huai rivers.

102 type 14: fake silver

 Type 15
Government Underlings
 Swindled on the Way Out
of a Court Hearing

In a village there lived a widow whose family was the richest in the
whole town. She had only one son, named Gan Shu. At age twenty,
he had just reached his majority and taken over management of his
family’s properties, which he oversaw conscientiously.
A certain Lu the Fifth, a man of the same town, twice asked Gan
Shu for a loan of silver or grain, but Gan Shu always refused him.
Resentful, Lu returned home and hatched a plot with his wife,
Ms. Hu, asking her to pose as victim and help frame Gan Shu for
rape. She assented. He then got his close friend Zhi the Ninth to
serve as a witness and went straight to the branch office of the Sur-
veillance Circuit to lodge a complaint.
The circuit intendant1 investigated the case personally. First, he
asked Ms. Hu, “Why did Gan Shu go to your house?”
“His family’s loaded,” she replied, “and he has nothing to do all
day; he just forces himself on people ’s wives. He knew my man
wouldn’t be home, so out of the blue he came over and started
flirting. When I wouldn’t go along, he hugged me and kissed me
and didn’t leave even when I started cussing at him. He only ran
off when Zhi the Ninth came looking for my husband about some
goods they were going to sell.”
The intendant then asked Zhi, “What was your purpose in going
to Lu the Fifth’s house?”
Zhi answered, “Sir, Lu the Fifth and I both make our living as
vendors, so I was looking for him to sell some goods when I heard
his wife yelling and cussing at someone inside. Then Gan Shu came
running out.”
The intendant then turned to Gan Shu. “Why were you quar-
reling with that woman?”
Gan Shu answered, “I never went to their house, so how could
we have quarreled? Just ask Lu the Fifth’s next-door neighbors and
you’ll see.”
The neighbors all testified that Gan Shu was the son of a widow
who would never dare to do anything improper. They added that
they’d never heard anything that sounded like an assault and that
it had to be a fabrication.
Lu the Fifth persisted: “They’re a hugely wealthy family;
couldn’t they have bought a couple of witnesses?”
The neighbors replied, “We live next door to Gan, and we
couldn’t tell anything was amiss, but that Zhi the Ninth lives one
street over. Chances are he’s the bought witness.”
“Lu the Fifth is a poor commoner,” the intendant pointed out,
“so he can’t afford to buy a witness.” Determined to get to the bot-
tom of this alleged rape, he had all of the neighbors and Gan Shu
given twenty strokes of the rod apiece.
Gan Shu left the courtroom in a state of terror and apprehen-
sion. After the afternoon session had concluded and the courthouse
gates had been shut, he walked in aimless circles in the rear court-
yard, lost in thought. “Wrong! It’s just wrong!” he unconsciously
cried out. He circled around a few more times, then pulled up his
sleeves and made his way back home.
It so happened that a guard, Tu Shan, had been watching him.
Watching his body language and hearing him exclaim, “Wrong!”

type 15: government underlings 105

 Tu divined that it must have to do with the rape case. In the middle
of the night Tu climbed the wall of the judicial compound and snuck
out. He knocked on the door of Gan Shu’s agent, who let him in.2
Inside he found the disconsolate Gan Shu at his wits’ end.
“That matter of yours from today, do you want it sorted out?”
Tu asked Gan.
“Yes, I’d do anything!”
“Well, it just so happens that the intendant’s brother-in-law is
in town, but he’ll be leaving again in three days. The most effec-
tive way would be to bribe him; do that, have your case heard again
tomorrow, and you can be sure of a win.”
“That sounds great,” Gan said. “How much will it cost?”
“Since it’s only a matter of overturning your own case, and no
one else is involved, a hundred ounces of silver ought to do it.”
“I’ll pay a hundred to make sure the case is heard tomorrow.”
“The intendant and his brother-in-law are at a banquet that’s still
going on; I’ll head straight over there to have a word with him.”
Gan Shu and his agent saw Tu Shan off. The main gate of the
court was closed, so Tu climbed in over the wall from the house of
a neighboring resident.
The next day, the intendant began the morning session by issu-
ing warrants for further proceedings in the rape case. Gan Shu was
delighted, thinking that he had brought this about.
That afternoon, Gan was interrogated again: “Did Lu the Fifth
ask you for a loan or not?”
“He asked me twice for loans of silver or grain, and I said no both
times. He bore such a grudge that he framed and slandered me.”
The intendant questioned Lu’s wife further: “How could Gan
Shu have raped you if he never went to your house?”
Lu the Fifth’s side had not bribed the court attendants, so the
finger-squeezers were tightened hard from the very first squeeze.
Lu’s wife couldn’t take it and blurted out the truth, that there had
been no rape and that they had filed a false report because Gan
Shu had refused to make a loan. Lu the Fifth and Zhi the Ninth
were thereupon given thirty blows, and Gan Shu was completely
exonerated.

106 type 15: government underlings

 Tu Shan followed him out to collect the promised fee. “I’m more
than happy to give it to you,” Gan Shu told him. Tu accepted the
hundred ounces of silver with such an animated show of apprecia-
tion that Gan Shu gave him a further ten ounces.
In addition to the money for getting the intendant to set Gan Shu
free, Tu Shan received ten ounces for his enthusiastic gratitude. Gan
thought that he had been exonerated thanks to the intercession of
the brother-in-law—little did he imagine that the happy outcome
was because of the intendant’s own change of mind and that he ’d
been thoroughly swindled by Tu Shan!

Yamen underlings depend on swindling for their very livelihood; it’s

how they’re able to live so comfortably. The volume of their swindles is
beyond reckoning. Everything—they swindle! Every day—they swin-
dle! Everyone—they swindle! “More numerous than the bamboo on
the southern mountain” are their swindles—you could never count them
all! And if Judge Bao himself came back to life, he’d never solve them
all!3 I myself have never set foot in a courtroom, and it’s rare for decep-
tion of this sort to come to light. I just happened to learn the truth, so
I’ve set down a record of these misdeeds. It’s true: everyone in the
yamen is a miscreant, and the place is a thicket of swindles. This is why
it’s imperative to complete your legal obligations in a timely fashion
and do your utmost to avoid lawsuits. If you do, even a corrupt clerk or
an antagonistic patrolman can’t touch you. So I say:

Their plots are far too clever, you’d best not get involved;
that feather wine is toxic, you’d best not touch a drop;4
those underlings are tricky, you’d best not get too close.

Now disasters do happen, in spite of everything, and one can end up

in court, in which case one might hope for a brilliant official to clear
one’s name. Yet to what avail? While officials are all men of learning
and thus tend to be enlightened, even they can do nothing about their
underlings, who envelop them in clouds of confusion. Whatever small
annoyances you may suffer as a result, it’s best to stay out of the
yamen.

type 15: government underlings 107

 Notes
1. The title daoti 忻㍸ used here is not the normal term for the official in
charge of a surveillance circuit branch, which oversaw judicial affairs in
one portion of a province, usually consisting of several prefectures. The
official in question may have been either the daotai 忻冢, the local circuit
intendant, or his superior at the circuit level.
2. Agents (xiejia 㫯⭞) were go-betweens in commercial transactions and
sometimes in official matters; here the xiejia may have been a kind of
consigliere or legal advisor.
3. The saying in the first part of the sentence alludes to misdeeds so
numerous that they cannot be fully recorded. Judge Bao was a famous
eleventh-century official and appears in the next story, “An Officer
Reprimands a Captured Criminal in Order to Halve His Flogging.”
4. The drink was made with the plumage of the zhen 沮, a legendary bird
whose feather turned wine poisonous.

108 type 15: government underlings

 An Officer Reprimands a Captured
Criminal in Order to Halve His Flogging

Judge Bao, known posthumously as Bao the Filial and Solemn,

enjoys a reputation as an official of incorruptible morals and keen
discernment who applied the law impartially. He never allowed
deceivers to save themselves with clever rhetoric or criminals to
exculpate themselves by recourse to power and status. Nor did he
accept inducements. This is why people praised him as follows:

Bribe and things will not go well

with Bao, the very King of Hell.

A playboy from a rich family was once caught fornicating and

knew that he was unlikely to go unpunished. He therefore hatched
a scheme with one of Judge Bao’s veteran officers in advance of the
court hearing: “His Excellency is a brilliant judge with superhuman
powers of investigation. Since in my case there are both witnesses
and material evidence, I’m sure to be convicted. If the sentence is
 severe, while I can pay whatever fine might be imposed, the one
thing I really can’t endure is flogging. Do you have any strategy
that might reduce how much I’m beaten? Money is no object.”
The officer replied: “Tomorrow, when your sentence is about to
be carried out, run up to the judge’s bench and beg for clemency.
I’ll be right there and I’ll curse you out, which will result in me tak-
ing some of the beating for you. It might even halve the number of
strokes you suffer. That’s the best we can do.”
The next day, Judge Bao discovered the facts of the case and, in
a fury, ordered forty strokes of the rod for the rich scion. The young
man immediately ran up to the judge’s bench and started babbling
about how he should be spared. The senior officer hollered at him
from the side: “Go on and take your beating! You’ve got nothing
left to say—you’re guilty and you’re not getting off!”
Judge Bao was enraged at the sight of a clerk overstepping his
authority. If he were to use this arrogated power to deceive others in the
future, Bao worried, it would only lead to greater troubles. He imme-
diately ordered twenty strokes for the officer and deducted twenty
strokes from the rich scion’s punishment, in order to demonstrate
that his officers possessed no authority of their own. Little did he
realize that he had fallen for his senior officer’s scheme. The officer
later received a handsome bribe, and Judge Bao was none the wiser.

Whenever a yamen officer engages in treachery, it’s because he under-

stands his chief ’s character and can manipulate it to his own ends. This
experienced officer knew that Judge Bao kept strict discipline and would
not brook a petty clerk usurping his authority. So when the clerk rebuked
the criminal, Judge Bao would be sure to have him beaten and lighten
the criminal’s punishment accordingly, in order to demonstrate that his
subordinates had no authority and outsiders had no reason to fear them.
Unbeknownst to Judge Bao, his underling had schemed to have the flog-
ging split with the criminal to earn a bribe—how could anyone have
solved that one? If Judge Bao himself could be duped by his officers, how
much more so officials today!

110 type 15: government underlings

 Type 16
Marriage
 Marrying a Street Cleaner and
Provoking His Death

In the capital lived a man named Fang the Eighth, a dull-witted fel-
low who made his living cleaning the streets.1 His household con-
sisted of just himself and his elderly mother.
Once, at the end of a day of cleaning the streets, Fang went over
to a stream to wash up. As evening approached, a woman in hempen
clothing2 came along and stood watching him finish. “I’m on my
way to my mother’s,” she told him, “but it’s late and I won’t make
it tonight. Could I spend the night at your house?”
“That won’t work. Why don’t you try an inn?”
“There are all sorts of people at an inn, so it’s not an ideal place.
Who else lives at your house?”
“My aged mother.”
“You have a mother? Then I can sleep next to her.”
Fang led her home, and the woman gave him money to buy rice,
wine, and some take-out dishes. That night the three of them dined
together.
 The woman asked whether he had ever been married. Fang’s
mother answered, “We barely manage to get by. We could never
find the money for a wedding.”
The woman said, “My husband passed away and I just bur-
ied him. He had no relatives, so I had to pack up my belongings
and head back to my mother’s house, which is a long way from
here. Your son seems very kind and devoted, so our chance
meeting must be by divine providence. I’d like to become your
daughter-in-law and serve you day and night. What do you
think?”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I fear my son wouldn’t be able
to provide for three people.”
“I’d bring a little silver with me, and I can support myself doing
women’s work.”3
Fang was delighted. “I had my fortune told this year and I was
supposed to find a good wife. If we’re both bringing in income, it
won’t matter that I can’t support you by myself.”
That night they slept together as bride and groom—a night of
untrammeled passion. For the longtime bachelor it was like nectar
after thirst; for the “lonesome widow” it was like coolness after
sweltering heat. They made love like fish cavorting in water. Fang’s
mother too was delighted that Heaven had bestowed upon her such
a virtuous daughter-in-law.
The next day, the woman gave her husband six tenths of an
ounce of silver to buy rice, prepared food, and vegetables. The
day after that, she asked her mother-in-law, “Why don’t we make
a set of clothes?” The mother said she had no money, so the
woman got out another six tenths of an ounce and told her hus-
band to go make a purchase at Merchant Wang’s Cloth Empo-
rium. Fang did so, and his wife made some clothes and earned
some money. He was overjoyed. He went to Wang’s store again
and bought two lengths of green cloth. He brought them home to
his wife and she cut three inches off each. Then she held up a ruler
and said, “This cloth is short; it’s not a full length. Who would be
fooled by this? You should take it back and exchange it. We paid
good money for it; how can they behave so shamefully!”

type 16: marriage 113

 Fang obeyed and went to return it. At Wang’s Emporium, they
said, “This store never sells anyone short. You must have cut it to
fool with us.” The two argued back and forth for a while, before
finally Merchant Wang had a family member give Fang two mea-
sures of cloth.
Fang brought it back to his wife, who secretly poked several
holes in it with a knife. She unrolled it and said, “How could they
give you back this mangled stuff? That store is despicable; they’re
only cheating you because they think they can take advantage of
your good nature. If they won’t exchange it this time, you should
really have it out with them. What do you have to fear from them?”
Riled up by his wife, Fang went back in a huff and said, “You
cheated me with damaged cloth!”
“Why would we go to the trouble of letting you exchange the
same cloth again and again!” Merchant Wang exclaimed, and
refused to exchange it. Fang cursed and cussed; Wang got angry
too, and told his family to give Fang a beating. Then they took two
bolts of cloth, unrolled them so he could see them clearly, and tossed
them at him.
Fang went back home with the cloth and said how upset he was
at the beating. His wife stamped her feet in anger. “You had money
and bought cloth, but you ended up with a beating. He ’s relying
on his wealth and status. We have to fight him to the bitter end. Your
mom and I can plead for justice on your behalf.”
Again, Fang was riled up by her talk and went back to the store
in a froth. And again, Wang’s family members banded together
and gave him a thrashing. He returned home badly injured. His
wife, in tears, said, “You must report this crime!” So he went to the
office of the censor to file a complaint. When he returned she bought
some fine wine and fine food, and urged her husband to drink liber-
ally to loosen his blood flow. He complied and drank himself into a
stupor. That night, taking advantage of his inebriation, she bound
his hands and feet and plugged up his nose and mouth with sand.
By the third watch he was long dead. After undoing his bonds,
she screamed, “Your son’s body’s cold and stiff—is he dead?!” The
mother, startled awake, saw that her son was indeed deceased. The

114 type 16: marriage

two of them wailed in grief. Then they went back to the censor’s
office to amend the complaint. An official was dispatched to verify
the situation and collect evidence; he found the body covered in
grievous wounds. Merchant Wang, stunned and in a panic, was
dumbfounded.
Three days later, with a verdict looming, the widow went to
Wang’s store with her mother-in-law and said, “Since you’ve beaten
my husband to death, my elderly mother-in-law and I will have a
hard time providing for ourselves. It would be pointless to have you
pay with your life; if you could offer three hundred ounces of sil-
ver to support my mother-in-law, I could tell her to drop the charges
and have the investigation ended.”
Merchant Wang was pleased to hear this and had his people draw
up an agreement that provided two hundred ounces for the support
of Fang’s mother. Fang’s mother agreed and dropped the case,
saying that she was old, her son dead, and her daughter-in-law a
widow, and that she had no means of support. At the urging of his
relatives and neighbors, Wang gave another hundred ounces to the
Fang family to support her.
The authorities agreed to drop the case, though they gave Mer-
chant Wang twenty strokes of the cane as punishment for his crime.
They sent Fang’s wife home with the silver, but after two days she
had run off in the night with two hundred ounces of it. No one knew
where she had gone. Fang’s mother wanted to report it, but Mer-
chant Wang gave her another twenty ounces to put an end to the
affair.

This woman was the wife of a major crook. He studied Fang, discov-
ered that he had only an elderly mother, then sent his wife to marry him
under false pretenses. After provoking him into getting beaten up at the
shop of a wealthy man, she engineered his death. Fang’s mother, of
course, would have to report it, and they would be sure of receiving
some silver. Then the wife would abscond with the lot. This is a case
of a crook so treacherous that he would send a man to his death for the
sake of profit, and of a man so simple-minded that he fell into the
trap.

type 16: marriage 115

 Notes
1. Zhang Yingyu signals one moral of this story through some complex
wordplay. Taojie 㶀埿 (literally “street washing”) is not the standard term
for street cleaning. Taojie, in combination with the name Fang the Eighth
(Fang Ba 㕡ℓ), calls to mind the expression pajie taokong ㇺ埿㶀䨢
(literally, “to crawl along the street until you’ve washed it clean”),
meaning to find fault persistently and unfairly, and thereby bring
misfortune upon oneself. (The first character in the phrase incorporates
the graph ℓ [“eight”] that appears in the protagonist’s given name and
can also be pronounced ba.) Zhang Yingyu reused this bit of wordplay
later in The Book of Swindles: another street cleaner (taojie), named Ban
the Eighth (Ban Ba 䎕ℓ), is a character in the final story in the “Sorcery”
section, “Molian zei guaidai youtong” 㐑共屲㉸ⷞ⸤䪍 (“A Villain
Kidnaps Boys by Touching Their Face ”), not translated in this volume.
The near-synonym taolu 㶀嶗 (“road cleaning”) also sounds like taolu
㶀䠴/㶍, a common expression meaning to exhaust one’s energy,
especially sexually; both this story and the face-touching story
feature sex followed by death.
2. Hemp was typically worn by people in mourning.
3. Spinning, weaving, sewing, embroidery, and other textile crafts were
considered “women’s work.”

116 type 16: marriage

 Taking a Concubine from Another
Province Leads to a Disastrous Lawsuit

Cai Tianshou, from Guangdong province, was a man of generous

spirit and upright character. At the age of forty he was still child-
less, but his shrewish wife forbade him from taking a concubine.
One day he went to Suzhou to sell thirty-odd loads of Guangdong
tin. There, he told his broker Xiao Hanqing, “I have no children
yet, so I’d like to take a concubine here. Do you think there ’d be
anyone suitable?”
“So long as you’ve got the money, you’re sure to find a girl to
your liking,” Xiao replied.
Xiao took Cai to see several young maidens, but Cai said, “I’m
over forty. These girls are all too young for me, so they won’t do.”
There happened to be an idler named Guo Yanji whose
mother, Ms. Deng, was a thirty-three-year-old widow of pleasing
appearance. Her husband’s death had left her with an inheritance
of a thousand ounces of silver, but Guo had gambled this down to
nothing and accrued twenty-plus ounces in gambling debts besides.
 Hard-pressed by creditors, he made a deal with a crook: he would
pretend that his mother was his wife, whom he wished to marry off
to pay his debts. A matchmaker contacted Xiao Hanqing, who
brought Cai to see her. Her age and appearance were both to Cai’s
liking, so he negotiated a bride-price of forty ounces of silver.
Guo Yanji advised him: “This woman comes from a place north
of the river, and I fear that her natal family will prevent her from
marrying into a household at such great remove. Why don’t you
seal up the silver and give it to the broker; then when you’re about
to depart I’ll have her board the boat, and you can hand over the
silver right then.”
The broker agreed to this. When Cai was ready to leave, Guo
hired a sedan chair, claiming to be taking Ms. Deng to visit her
brother’s family. Not until she had boarded the boat did she realize
that her son was marrying her off to a traveling merchant. Though
incensed, she kept her cool and asked, “Well, since my husband is
marrying me off, there ’s no need to deceive me. Who’s my new
husband?”
“This unworthy man,” said Cai.
“You look rich, at least,” replied his bride, “so I don’t mind. But
the thing is, since my old husband would just gamble everything
away, I kept all my clothes and jewelry at my parents’ house. Can
we go pick them up, and also tell my family about us?”
Cai believed her, so he accompanied her there. When she arrived,
she angrily explained to her family that her son had betrayed her
by marrying her off.
Her elder brother Deng Tianming was furious. “What kind of
son marries his mother off?! And just what sort of traveling mer-
chant is this who has the gall to marry you?” He went out and
started raining blows on Cai Tianshou.
Ms. Deng came to Cai’s defense, saying, “Forgive him—he was
just as much in the dark as I was. It’s that unfilial Yanji who deserves
to die for his impudence!”
Deng Tianming went straight to the county yamen to file a com-
plaint, and Venerable Zou took the case. He sent men to bring in
Guo, but Guo had fled, so he had Xiao Hanqing and Cai Tianshou

118 type 16: marriage

appear before him first. He interrogated them angrily, ordering
twenty blows each for the groom and the matchmaker. Then he
threw Cai in jail and made Xiao responsible for catching Guo Yanji.
Several months went by and Xiao, still unable to find Guo, was
repeatedly flogged for missing deadlines for the latter’s capture. Cai
tried to bribe his way out of prison, but Venerable Zou could not
be bought. Then someone advised Cai, “It takes a thief to catch a
thief and a gambler to catch a gambler. Why not pay a crooked
gambler to catch him?”
Within a few days, the crook revealed Guo’s whereabouts, and
Venerable Zou dispatched men to seize him. For marrying his
mother off to become the concubine of some far-flung traveler, Ven-
erable Zou sentenced Guo Yanji to a heavy punishment of forty
blows. The bride-price was confiscated by the state, and Xiao and
Cai were given further beatings. Guo’s mother, Ms. Deng, was put
under the care of her brother, Deng Tianming, and issued a certifi-
cate allowing her to remarry at her own discretion.

Taking a concubine to obtain an heir is not forbidden by the stan-

dards of propriety, but one ought to marry from a lesser household in
one’s vicinity. Marrying outside one’s province in such murky circum-
stances is asking for trouble. This case offers an unmistakable warning.

type 16: marriage 119

 Type 17
Illicit Passion
 A Geomancer Uses His Wife to
Steal a Good Seed

Geomancer Lu was skilled in finding auspicious grave sites. His

search for a good plot to bury his father took him all the way to
the walled town of Ning,1 where he found a place with excellent
fengshui located behind the tomb altar of Magistrate Yang. The
plot was as difficult to buy in the open market as it would have
been to steal for an unauthorized burial. When he heard that the
magistrate had passed on, and that his two sons were looking for a
place to bury their father, Geomancer Lu duly suggested to them
the parcel he had planned to use for his own father. He took them
to see it and they found it much to their liking. It was a propitious
location surrounded by hills and facing in the right direction, and
moreover they wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of purchasing it.
They thus buried Magistrate Yang there and compensated Lu with
thirty ounces of silver.
Lu, unable to acquire their land, decided to steal their seed
instead. He therefore rented a house close to the Masters Yang’s
 garden and used the silver he ’d earned to buy himself a beauti-
ful wife.
Lu and his new wife had been living together for two months
when he told her: “I’m going off to ply my fengshui trade and
I can’t know for sure when I’ll be back. If you find yourself run-
ning low on fuel or rice, know that I’ve already asked the Mas-
ters Yang to look out for you. These men are great benefactors
of mine—it was money I received from them that enabled me to
marry you. Should one or both of them make advances toward
you while I’m away, it’s all right for you to let him have his way.
If one of the Yang brothers becomes emotionally attached to
you, he ’s certain to provide for you generously. But whatever
you do, avoid relations with any of their many household slaves
or servants. Give yourself away lightly and the masters will
look down on you. If you were to fall into poverty or get into
some other kind of trouble, you couldn’t expect them to bail
you out.”
Lu then made a request of the Yang brothers: “I’ll be traveling
outside the county for a while, and my household is tiny, so I’m
leaving my family’s welfare in your hands. I’ll reimburse any
expense you may incur upon my return.”
The Yang brothers, who often visited the garden, had already
noticed how beautiful Mrs. Lu was and had thought of making
advances. Just two days after Lu’s departure, the elder brother went
to his house and made a pass at his wife. Following her husband’s
instructions, she accepted him with alacrity, and soon the two had
formed a close emotional bond. A little over a month later, the
younger brother also came and made a pass at her, and again she
accepted the advances.
When Geomancer Lu returned half a year later, he found his
house amply stocked with the basic necessities.
“Did the Masters Yang visit you?” he asked his wife.
“Both of them came, and I welcomed them both.”
“There’s no shame in you associating with such good men,” he
told her. “You’ll have enough to eat and wear and you won’t have
to sleep alone. Knowing that someone is always watching out for

122 type 17: illicit passion

you while I’m away, my mind will be at ease no matter how far my
travels take me.”
His wife smiled. “I’m better provided for than when you’re
home—just don’t get jealous.”
“I married you using their money, and now they’re supporting
you on my behalf—why would I be jealous? That said, with two
of them repeatedly visiting you I’m worried that you might end up
poisoning the relationship between them. You’ll need to avoid this
by setting a schedule whereby they visit you on alternate months.”
The next time Lu went on a trip, the Yang brothers sought out
his wife again. This time she told them: “If you two keep visiting
me on an irregular basis I’m worried that I’ll end up becoming an
open wound on your brotherly relationship. Let’s set a schedule that
has elder brother visiting me in odd months and younger brother
in even months.”
“You’re right,” they said. “From now on, one of us will provide
for you one month and the other will do so the next.”
In a flash, four years had gone by and Mrs. Lu had given birth
to two sons, both of the Yang bloodline. Geomancer Lu had the
sons’ fortunes told: both were destined for great wealth and high
rank. He thereupon moved back to his hometown with his wife and
sons, taking leave of the Yang brothers, each of whom gave him
generous gifts for his journey.
Later, both his sons went on to pass the civil service examina-
tions. In truth, he had drained away the Yang clan’s fengshui and
left them none the wiser.

The scions of wealthy and noble families often defile other people’s wives
and daughters, some even fathering offspring by them. This inevitably
results in their fengshui being divided and depleted. Let this geomanc-
er’s seed stealing serve as a warning to future generations.

Once there was a scion of a wealthy family who, encountering the

beautiful wife of a tenant farmer while making the rounds to col-
lect the rent, repeatedly tried to seduce her. She didn’t dare accede
to his advances, but when she confided to her mother-in-law about

type 17: illicit passion 123

 what was going on, her mother-in-law told her: “He ’s from a rich
family. If you were to have a son by him, you’d eat well for the rest
of your life.”
The next time the rich son tried to seduce her she gave in.
“You’ve rejected me so many times,” he said, as they were undress-
ing in the bedroom. “What made you change your mind?”
“I talked it over with my mother-in-law.”
“Is she planning to catch us in the act?”
“Far from it! She said that if I had a son by a rich man’s seed, I’d
never lack for food.”
Hearing her speak about him losing his seed, the man abruptly
reconsidered what he was doing and blurted out: “Absolutely not!
Absolutely not!”
Those four words no sooner escaped his lips than he com-
pletely changed his tune: “I wasn’t really looking for an affair. I
was just taken by your beauty and wanted to flirt. Here ’s three
tenths of an ounce of silver for you to buy some makeup. I won’t
dishonor you.”
His lust aroused, he raced home and had sex with his wife, who
got pregnant that very night. She later gave birth to a boy who
passed the metropolitan examinations to become a jinshi and was
appointed to the post of county magistrate.
The day the son took up his official appointment the weather was
clear and fair. On each of the two pillars flanking the main hall of
the yamen he saw two characters in gold: Absolutely not. This made
him uneasy, and he thought: This means that I absolutely must not
serve in this post! For three months, he carried out his duties consci-
entiously. He then resigned his post, claiming illness and the need
to go home to take care of his aging parents.
When he suddenly appeared at home, his father was startled to
see him. “Why are you back?”
“Because on the very day I assumed my post I saw two sets of
gilded characters, each reading, ‘Absolutely not.’ I feared that it was
an inauspicious omen and resigned my post to care for you.”
“But it’s perfectly normal to take care of one’s parents while still
in office,” his father pointed out.

124 type 17: illicit passion

 During the night the father had a revelation and called his son
to him. “Those golden characters you saw reading ‘Absolutely not’
are an extremely auspicious omen that you are sure to rise to high
office. In my youth I once dallied with the wife of one of our ten-
ant farmers. She was willing, but just before we were going to do
it she told me she coveted my superior seed. That brought me to
my senses and I blurted out, ‘Absolutely not! Absolutely not!’ and
refused to consummate it. That night I went home and conceived
you with your mother. Clearly, Heaven is rewarding me for hav-
ing the virtue not to defile another man’s wife. If it were an ill
omen, why would it be written in gold? And why would those four
words be precisely the ones I uttered back then? This is a most
excellent sign.”
“I agree,” his son replied. He thereupon wrote to classmates who
had passed the examination in the same year and, with their assis-
tance, managed to resume his post the following year. Later he
became a vice minister and brought great status and prosperity to
his house.

This anecdote makes it clear why the scions of rich and noble families
must not lose their seed to other families.

Once there was a county magistrate with four sons, all of whom had
earned the degree of xiucai and were intelligent men of noble bear-
ing. One day, the magistrate passed away. A geomancer chose a
burial plot with excellent fengshui and informed the magistrate ’s
sons: “Within the next six years, in one of the next two rounds, all
four of you will pass the metropolitan examinations.”
Six years later, the geomancer returned to receive their thanks.
The three eldest brothers had passed the exam and were off serv-
ing as officials. Only the youngest brother was left at home. He
received the geomancer cordially and asked, “You predicted that
all four brothers would pass the metropolitan examination, and so
far three of us have fulfilled that prediction. In terms of sheer tal-
ent I surpass my brothers, yet I alone have failed to pass. Why is
this?”

type 17: illicit passion 125

 The next day, the geomancer and the fourth brother went to
reexamine the father’s grave site. “Based on this topography, all four
of you should have passed. There must be a reason you didn’t.”
The fourth son implored him to reveal the truth. “How old was
your father when you were born?” the geomancer asked by way of
reply.
“He was sixty when I was born, and he passed away at seventy-
four. That was six years ago.”
“And your mother, how old was she?”
“She was thirty.”
The geomancer shook his head. “I knew it.”
“Knew what, sir?”
“Now, don’t blame me for saying this: if you really are set on
passing the examination, you’ll have to ask your mother about your
true bloodline.”
The young master caught his drift. That night he arranged a lav-
ish dinner, during which he gently but persistently pressed wine
on his mother until she became drunk. After the second watch, he
sent family members and servants off to sleep, and, when they
were alone, he knelt down before his mother. “Your son is trou-
bled by something but dares not speak of it. Tell me, Mother: do
you want me to pass the examination or not?”
His mother replied, “Your three elder brothers all passed, and I
want nothing more than for you to pass too. What is it? You can
tell me anything, be it good or ill.”
“The geomancer said that I didn’t pass because I’m not of Dad’s
bloodline. I have to know who my real father is if I’m to pass the
exam.”
The mother had always adored her youngest son, it was the dead
of night, no one else was around, and she was drunk, so she blurted
out: “The geomancer is as wise as they say! Your father was already
sixty when I met a good-looking young man who was working in
the county government office. He was the son of a high minister. I
had you with him.”
Having learned the truth, the fourth son discussed it the next day
with the geomancer, who advised him: “You’ll have to go to where

126 type 17: illicit passion

the remains of the minister’s son are buried and find a way to exhume
them and rebury them next to your father’s coffin. Do that and
you’ll pass in the next round.”
The fourth son did as instructed, exhuming and reburying his
real father’s remains, and the next time the metropolitan examina-
tions were held, sure enough, he passed.

This anecdote reveals the consequences of conceiving a bastard in secret

and leaving the illegitimate son in the dark. When people separated by
rank share the same fengshui, awkward secrets are inevitable.

Then there is the case of a certain Xie, whose father was of weak
constitution and without offspring. During a blazing hot summer
night, his wife lay asleep in bed covered only by a light skirt when
a monkey that the family kept as a pet came in and started raping
her. Startled awake, she tried to push it off, but the monkey tried to
bite and scratch her and she was unable to push it away. She fell into
a deep sleep in which her spirit became aroused and her lust was
unconsciously excited; as a result, she became pregnant. When her
husband returned home she told him of having been raped by the
monkey.
“That monster!” he exclaimed. “It must be killed.”
The monkey, feeling guilty about the rape, had climbed up a big
peach tree by the back door and refused to come down. To lure it
down, Xie’s father dallied with his wife under the tree. The mon-
key, seeing how happy they looked, finally climbed down. Xie ’s
father then clubbed it to death and buried it at the base of the tree.
Xie, once he was born, turned out to be a clever lad nimble of
both mind and body. Seeing him jump and tumble about like a mon-
key, Xie’s mother knew in her heart that he was the product of the
monkey’s seed. As she had no other children, however, she decided
not to kill him. When Xie was eight years old his father died. The
geomancer who chose the burial site told the widow: “This site is
excellent—it guarantees that your son will grow to become a child
prodigy. Though he’s not bright right now, in three years he’ll pass
the examinations with flying colors.”

type 17: illicit passion 127

 Three years later, the geomancer returned.
“You told me that in three years my son would change, but he ’s
still as unserious and wild as ever. What am I to do?”
The geomancer visited the father’s grave again and gave it a
careful look over. He then went back and asked the woman, “Did
you bear this boy yourself, or was he born of a concubine?”
“He’s not my real flesh and blood,” she replied. “A serving girl
from a neighbor’s house conceived him with a monkey and wanted
to abandon him. Since I had no children myself, I decided to raise
him as my own.”
“If you want this boy to realize his potential,” the geomancer
advised her, “you’ll need to get hold of the monkey’s remains and
bury them beside this tomb. It will bring prosperity to your
family.”
Xie’s mother found the monkey’s skeleton still buried beneath
the peach tree. She dug it up and brought it to the geomancer, “The
neighbor still had the remains. Where should they go?”
The geomancer chose an auspicious day and reinterred them.
Three years later, sure enough, Xie passed the examinations and
was hailed as a child prodigy. He went on to achieve great renown.
(This story was related to me by Geomancer Chen, of Xie ’s
home county.)

This anecdote shows how quickly and powerfully fengshui takes effect.
Even if you secure the right plot of land, your descendants must observe
proper moral conduct and avoid lust and depravity at all costs, lest your
bloodline drain into another.

Note
1. Ningcheng ⮏❶ most likely refers either to the seat of Jianning
county or to the seat of Jianning prefecture, both in northern Fujian
province.

128 type 17: illicit passion

Type 18
Women
 Coaxing a Sister-in-Law Into Adultery to
Scam Oil and Meat

A woman and her sister-in-law were sitting together when an oil

seller happened by. The woman, née Shi, remarked, “We ’re out of
cooking oil at home. Too bad we don’t have any money to buy
some.”
Her sister-in-law, née Zuo, the wife of her husband’s elder brother,
replied, “Buy a measure of oil on credit and arrange to pay later.”
Ms. Shi called the oil seller into the house and asked for two
pounds of oil. She then said to the peddler, “My man isn’t at home
at the moment. Come back for the money in two days.”
Two days later the oil seller returned.
“I have no money. What should I do?” Shi asked Zuo.
“Tell him to come back in another three days,” Zuo replied.
Shi put him off as suggested. Three days later she complained
to her sister-in-law, “You told me to go ahead and buy the oil, but
we still have no money. Go and borrow some so that I can repay
this debt.”
 “If you’re willing to do as I instruct, you’ll have no problem
repaying him,” Zuo replied.
“I’ve always taken my cues from you. What should I do?”
“That oil seller seems like a handsome young man, and you’re a
beautiful young woman. I’d bet that if you were to sleep with him
once he wouldn’t ask for the oil money.”
“You wouldn’t blab?”
“I’m the one telling you to do this, so I wouldn’t dare say any-
thing. I’ll just hide in the house while you take care of business.”
Before long the oil seller arrived. Ms. Shi, figuring that there was
no other way out, forced a smile and went out to greet him.
“I’ve asked you to come for the money twice now, but I haven’t
been able to pay you either time. Maybe it’d be best if you took me
for payment.”
The oil seller’s lust was aroused by her inviting smile, but he
balked.
“Don’t try to fool me—you’re not home alone.”
“My husband is off plowing the fields and my elder sister-in-law
is off spinning hemp at a neighbor’s. I’m only being this forward
because no one’s home.”
This put the oil seller’s mind at ease, and he followed her into
the bedroom.
Hearing the bedroom door shut, Ms. Zuo snuck out of her
hiding place and poured half of the oil from each of the peddler’s
shoulder-pole buckets into her own container and replaced it with
the same volume of water. Then she went back to the bedroom
door to eavesdrop.
“You’ve finished,” she overheard her sister-in-law saying. “You
should be off.”
“Let me stay with you a little longer,” the oil seller said.
Ms. Zuo picked up her basket of hemp and hurried out the front
door, where she called out in an intentionally loud voice: “It’s not
even noon! Back from the fields so early?”
The oil seller, overhearing this, raced out to shoulder his buck-
ets and bumped into Ms. Zuo at the front door.
“Did the missus pay you for the oil?” she asked.

type 18: women 131

 “Yes! Yes!” he hurriedly replied, and raced off to the next
village.
Ms. Zuo knew that he ’d be back and stood waiting for him by
the front door. Sure enough, around midday she saw the oil seller
approaching. “You still here?” she asked. “My sister-in-law’s younger
brother came here with some buckets to draw water and found a
carrying pole and two buckets of oil in the house. He didn’t see
anyone around but heard the sound of laughter and chitchat
coming from inside his sister’s bedroom. He suspected that the oil
seller was carrying on with his sister, so he poured the oil into his
own buckets and refilled yours with water. He then went to get his
mother, and they raced over together to catch the adulterers in the
act. By the time they got here you’d gone, and they were just here
discussing their suspicions. If they knew you were around they’d
settle scores with you for sure.”
The oil seller was about to make himself scarce when Ms. Zuo
stopped him.
“You ought to thank me for tipping you off.”
“I’ll send you two pounds of oil tomorrow,” he replied.
After the promised oil arrived a few days later, Ms. Zuo changed
her story again. Taking the oil to Ms. Shi, she said, “The other day
I was standing at the front door when the oil seller passed by, and I
teased him by saying: ‘My sister-in-law told me that she isn’t done
paying you for the oil and that there must be some reason you said
she’d paid in full when you left in such a rush. I thought you might
like to know.’ He felt so guilty that he promised me two pounds of
oil, which were delivered today. You’re the one who earned it, so I
owe it to you.”
“It looks like those few moments of my time were worth four
pounds of cooking oil. Thanks for teaching me that,” Shi said.
“If you do as I say,” Zuo replied, “there’ll be more good things
to come.”
A short while later they heard the sound of a man hawking fresh
meat. They called him in and had him measure out two pounds
apiece, telling him to come back another day for the money. Three
days later, the butcher came by to collect. Ms. Zuo weighed out

132 type 18: women

seven hundredths of an ounce of silver and told him to come back
in two days to collect the money her sister-in-law owed.
On the appointed day the butcher came back, and Zuo said to
Shi: “You pay him back with the same trick as last time; I’ll posi-
tion myself at a convenient spot inside.”
Ms. Shi came out and greeted the butcher with a smile. “I bor-
rowed meat from you without having any money to pay you back.
No one else is home today. How about I pay for flesh with flesh?”
The butcher leered at the beauty before him.
“I’d be happy with just a certain piece of flesh around your
middle.”
“I’m offering you the lot,” Ms. Shi replied. “Why settle for so
little?”
The butcher carried her into the bedroom to do the deed. Zuo
snuck out and removed all of the peddler’s meat. Then she sat down
quietly next to the empty shoulder-pole buckets.
After the butcher had taken his pleasure with Ms. Shi, he came
back out.
“Where did all my meat go?”
“Her husband took it to the village elders,” Zuo replied.
“How could he have stolen my meat?”
“You have some nerve! Her husband came home and saw a car-
rying pole loaded with meat here, then went in and found the bed-
room door shut tight. Hearing two people giggling and carrying
on inside, he knew that you were fornicating with his wife and told
me to guard the bedroom door. I couldn’t very well listen in on your
antics, which is why I’m sitting here. Have a seat for a moment, and
the man who stole your meat will be right back.”
The butcher shouldered his empty buckets and was about to flee
when Ms. Zuo grabbed him, saying, “Give me your cleaver and I’ll
let you go.”
“If it’s all right with you, I’ll give you two pounds of meat tomor-
row instead.”
Zuo released the butcher, who sped off.
Ms. Shi was upset. “You put me up to this! Now my husband
knows what’s going on—what good can come of that?”

type 18: women 133

 “I wouldn’t drag your husband into this if I were you. So long
as you’re willing to eat meat, this affair won’t be hard to cover up.”
“What’s the plan? Out with it, quick!”
Zuo went inside and hauled out an entire leg, then pulled out
another leg. “Would you prefer to eat meat or tell your husband?”
“You stole his meat! You shouldn’t scare me to death like that!”
“The butcher’s the one I wanted to scare; if I hadn’t, we wouldn’t
have gotten all this meat.”
The two women stewed some of the meat and sat down to eat it
with wine. Ms. Shi remarked, “Know what this is called? One day
of shamelessness for three days of a full belly.”
“I’d hardly say that,” Zuo said. “It’s more like a moment of
delight followed by a month of wine and meat!”
The two burst out laughing and ate their fill. The meat they
couldn’t finish they smoked as jerky.
Several days later the butcher passed by and Ms. Zuo went out
to meet him. She indicated two pounds of meat and the butcher cut
it for her promptly.
“Thanks to you my sister-in-law suffered a vicious beating the
other day,” Zuo told him. “You should give her two pounds too.”
The butcher duly cut off another slab and said, “Give this to her
for me—I’m too busy to do it myself.”
Zuo carried the two slabs of meat inside and passed the message
to Shi, adding that there was more fun to be had in the future. Shi
remarked, “I make a pretty good adulteress, but you make an even
better crook.”
With that, the door to adultery was thrown wide open, and the
men who walked through it were too many to record.

Ms. Shi was merely a stupid woman, but Ms. Zuo was a crafty one. Had
she been a man, she would have become a major crook. Encountering
such an ingenious woman, what simple-minded person would not fall
for her schemes? This is why it is not only men who should be selective
in their social contacts; women too must choose female companions of
the highest integrity.

134 type 18: women

 Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses

Many people living along the Jingnan road keep horses to rent to
travelers by the day. One day, three women traveling together with-
out luggage came across a stableman returning home with three
horses. Each rented one to ride.
“Auntie is the most skilled rider and should ride in front,” the
youngest said. “The two of us don’t ride so well and will follow
behind.”
Before they had even gone a single li, the young woman called
to the stableman to help her down off her horse so that she could
go pee. The stableman clasped her tightly as he helped her down,
making a pass at her.
“Trying to cop a feel, are you?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t dare,” the stableman replied. “I was just holding on
tight so that you wouldn’t fall.”
“Looked to me like you were getting fresh. I don’t mind your
squeezing—my husband’s long gone.”
 “In that case, there’s a small thatched hut up ahead. How about
a cuddle?”
“We ’re in a hurry. How about if we take a rest at your place
tonight?”
“I don’t have three beds.”
“My aunts will share a bed, and I’ll sleep beside them.”
“If you sleep beside me I’ll waive the horse rental fee.”
“A person’s worth more than a horse. You’re angling for a bar-
gain again.”
“We’d both come out ahead on the deal.”
As the two were planning their secret rendezvous, Second Aunt
fell off her horse.
“Quick,” the woman directed the stableman, “go and help my
younger aunt back up.”
As he walked ahead, the stableman looked back in her direction.
“Don’t you play games with me, now.”
“If my aunt’s hurt herself, she’ll need a place to rest en route,
won’t she? Our date is a sure thing.”
The stableman raced ahead to where Second Aunt was sitting
in the road with her legs crossed, holding her foot.
“I’ve hurt my foot and my leg,” she told him.
The stableman helped her back up onto her horse. “We ’ve got
to get going.”
“They’re sprained,” Second Aunt said. “You’ll have to go ahead
and buy medicated plasters for them. I won’t be able to keep up, so
I’ll have to rest here by the roadside. You go on ahead and tell First
Aunt to wait.”
Due to the two delays, the first horse was already more than ten
li ahead. After the stableman had gone off in pursuit, the two other
women vaulted onto their horses and whipped them to gallop off
in the opposite direction.
After a while, the stableman anxiously reconsidered. Let her go
on ahead, and I’ll wait here for the other two. Naturally, he was look-
ing forward to sharing a “rest.” But a long time passed with no sign
of them, and his anxiety mounted. They must have gone back the other
way to buy ointment, he told himself.

136 type 18: women

 He asked a passerby: “Did you see two women on horseback go
by?”
“Two of them flew past—they’d be over twenty li from here by
now.”
“Were they coming this direction or going the other way?”
“They were going the other way. Even if you hurried, you’d
never catch them.”
Dumbfounded, the stableman hastily retraced his steps, ques-
tioning passersby along the way. The story from each was the
same: the horses were long gone. He chased them for ten more li,
but by that time it was getting dark, and passersby now told him
that they hadn’t seen any women on horses. Three of his horses had
been stolen in two directions along the road and he couldn’t retrieve
a single one. Dejected, he returned home.

The brilliance of this theft lies entirely with the woman at the back who
went to pee and then had a tête-à-tête with the stableman, both to ensnare
his heart and to tie up his time. Having the middle woman fall from the
horse was also clever because it led him to believe that she truly was a
poor rider. This too tied up his time, allowing the lead rider to get away
free and clear. They tricked him into giving chase because he had no hope
of ever catching up.
As for the two women who fled in the opposite direction, he assumed
that they were taking so long because of the injury. It never occurred to
him that they’d speed off like that. But that stableman was done in partly
by infatuation. Why on earth would someone he’d just met on the road
agree to sleep with him? Was he so handsome that the woman fell in
love with him just like that? It is the sweetest words that are laced with
poison. That’s why from her honeyed words alone one could tell she was
a con woman. If even women can be such master swindlers, what differ-
ence is there between our world and that of the demons?

type 18: women 137

 A Buddhist Nun Scatters Prayer Beads to
Lure a Woman Into Adultery

Bai Jian’s wife, née Xiang, was a radiant beauty. Bai was so fond of
his wine, however, that he and his wife were rarely intimate. He
worked for the provincial commander, Lord Wang, who dispatched
him on business to the capital. Ms. Xiang ran a shop out of their
home making paper offerings for funerals. She was assisted by her
serving girl, Orchid, whom she often sent out to collect payment
and deliver goods. During her husband’s long absence Ms. Xiang
would often leave the shop to call on friends. A certain Ning Chao-
xian saw her on one of these outings and was so transfixed by her
beauty that he couldn’t stop staring at her. Nor did Ms. Xiang dis-
courage him. Ning went home and conferred with his good friend
Cao Zhigao about his desire to seduce this woman.
Cao said, “To dupe a woman you need a woman on the inside—
it’s the only smooth path to success. As the old saying goes, ‘It
takes a mountain bandit to beat a mountain bandit, and it takes a
pirate to catch a pirate.’ In Lotus Sutra Nunnery there ’s a nun
called Miaozhen [Marvelous Truth] who makes the rounds of
the local families. If you can get her help, this affair should be a
cinch.”
Ning was delighted with this intelligence and made his way
straight to Lotus Sutra Nunnery. There he met Miaozhen, to whom
he conveyed two ounces of silver along with a request that she make
contact with Bai Jian’s wife at the funerary offerings shop. If she
succeeded, he said, he would reward her handsomely.
“No problem at all,” the nun told him. “Check back in three
days.”
Ning carefully went over his instructions, then took his leave
of her.
The nun snipped the string of the rosary she always carried,
holding the two ends pinched together, and walked past Bai’s shop.
Having made several passes in front of the shop without spotting
Ms. Xiang, she went back to the nunnery with her mission unac-
complished. The next day when she returned, however, she spot-
ted Ms. Xiang sitting in the shop and let the beads slip off the
broken string. They scattered all over the ground, and many of
them rolled into the mud. The nun had to bend down to gather
them up. Ms. Xiang, who witnessed the incident, invited her inside
and gave her water to rinse off the beads and wash her hands. The
nun thanked her profusely and went on her way.
The next day, the nun bought pastries and cakes and had them
delivered to Ms. Xiang’s house with her thanks. Ms. Xiang was
delighted and sent back an invitation for the nun to join her for
a drink and a vegetarian meal, which Miaozhen accepted.
“How old were you when you took your vows?” Ms. Xiang
asked during the meal.
“I was already middle-aged.”
“What led you to become a nun?”
“I was married to a man who gambled and drank. Since he was
never there, it was basically the same as not having a husband.
That’s why I took vows and became a nun.”
Ms. Xiang sighed. “With the guy I got, I’d’ve been better off not
marrying.”

type 18: women 139

 The nun, seeing that she’d struck a chord, pressed on. “What
makes you sigh like that?”
“I’ve got the same problem you had. The guy I married is so
fond of drinking that he couldn’t care less about me. We enjoyed
each other’s company no more than a few times a year to begin with,
and now he’s off on a business trip—it’s like I don’t even have a
husband!”
Miaozhen could tell that this woman had springtime yearnings
and sought to encourage them further. “Most men are rascals. The
only exception I know is Ning Chaoxian, who lives across from
the nunnery. He loved his wife more than life itself, but unfortu-
nately she died young. He’s recently hired me to help him choose
a second wife. That happy woman will thank her lucky stars
every day.”
Ms. Xiang didn’t say anything to this, so the nun couldn’t
very well keep enticing her. She finished her wine and took her
leave.
The next day, Ning dressed in his finest outfit and went to the
nunnery to ask what the response had been.
“We’re nearly there,” Miaozhen told him. “When a wife is on
good terms with her husband, she’s virtually impossible to seduce.
Ms. Xiang had me over yesterday, and I learned that she secretly
despises her husband and that he’s been away for a long time now.
As soon as the opportunity arises she’ll fall right into your hands.
What you need to do now is to give me some money to arrange a
fancy dinner for her at the nunnery. I’ll get her drunk on fine wine
and she’ll be sure to fall asleep on my bed. Then you can undress
her and take her gently as you like. When she awakes you must ply
her with jewelry like bracelets, hair ornaments, hair clips, and ear-
rings. This way you can buy her affection and ensure that this affair
lasts.”
Ning bowed to the nun. “If that happens, I’ll be grateful to you
for life! Here’s five more ounces of silver to speed your arrange-
ments for the banquet.”
Miaozhen sent someone to buy delicacies and fine wine, instruct-
ing the chef to prepare an exquisite banquet. She sent a messenger

140 type 18: women

ahead to deliver the dinner invitation before going in person.
Ms. Xiang was delighted and came with Orchid by sedan chair.
Seeing such a sumptuous banquet laid out, she asked, “Who else
have you invited?”
“Only you,” Miaozhen replied. “No one else.”
“You’ve gone to such expense!” Ms. Xiang exclaimed. “How
could one person eat so much?”
Miaozhen replied, “I have no flesh-and-blood relatives and am
so grateful to have a bosom friend like you. I hope that you’ll be
my sister and confidante.”
Ms. Xiang smiled. “I’m happy to be your confidante; too bad we
can’t scratch each other’s itch!”
After drinking a few cups, she remarked, “This wine is so sweet
and fragrant—it must have cost a lot!”
“His Excellency Ning sent it the other day, so I don’t know
what it cost myself.” Miaozhen encouraged her to drink more.
Ms. Xiang said, “Wine this sweet goes down too easily. I’m
afraid I’m getting tipsy.”
The nun replied, “If you’re tipsy, you can take a nap in my room
and still wake up in time to make it home. I didn’t expect you to
reach your limit after just a few cups.”
“At night when I have insomnia I can often finish a whole
bottle—I can’t get to sleep without a drink.”
“When your husband’s at home, just slake your thirst with him
and you should be able to sleep.”
“I’ll confide in you,” Ms. Xiang said. “I get drunk, but I still
wake up in the middle of the night. But when my husband is home,
the moment he touches the bottle he won’t touch me. When I
wake up it’s absolute torture! How am I supposed to deal with this
yearning?”
Miaozhen said, “It sounds like your situation with that husband
of yours is the same as mine without one. I can struggle through
the day, but nights are hard. It’s my bitter fate for not having sown
the seeds of virtue in my previous lives.”
“You said it,” Ms. Xiang replied. “I’m going to get good and
drunk so that I can forget everything for one night at least.”

type 18: women 141

 Before long she was reeling from the wine and sent Orchid home
to watch the house while she took a nap on the nun’s bed.
Ning saw that Ms. Xiang was asleep and quickly removed her
sash. Her body was limp and warm, so he was able to besiege her as
he saw fit. He found her delectable. After a short rest he took her
again, and still she didn’t wake. Ning held her in her stupor until
the middle of the night, when she awoke to discover her clothing
off and felt the presence of a man. A pleasurable sensation around
her waist spread to permeate her whole body.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“My darling,” Ning replied, “you’ve been on my mind for so
long. Today I just had you twice without your knowing. But from
tomorrow onward I want us to enjoy ourselves together.”
“Your scheme may have succeeded, but don’t you let anyone else
learn about this.”
“Only the nun knows—how could anyone else?”
They slept until the first light of dawn, when Ms. Xiang arose.
Ning gave her the bracelets and hair ornaments and then embraced
her and kissed her again. Excited, they went another round, and
then walked out of the room hand in hand.
Miaozhen was waiting for them and couldn’t suppress a laugh.
“A fine wine!” she exclaimed.
“A fine scheme!” Xiang rejoined.
“A fine twist of fate!” Ning remarked.
“If everything’s so fine,” Miaozhen said, “how will you thank
me?” Clasping Ning tightly to her, she told him, “I’ve run my feet
sore for you; I want you to thank me yourself!”
“I’m spent at the moment,” Ning replied, “but I won’t forget to
thank you tonight.”
“I’ll let him thank you every night from now on,” Ms. Xiang
put in.
“The more often you and I meet, the more I’ll thank her,” Ning
promised.
From then on, Ning and Ms. Xiang saw each other regularly—
all thanks to a procuress nun.

142 type 18: women

Even the chastest of women, without exception, will be led into sin if
she encounters and is enticed by a licentious woman. Women are scru-
pulous about chastity for two reasons only: because they know shame
and because they fear exposure. But once a woman loses her chastity,
her sense of shame goes with it—and then she’s capable of anything.
This is why one should avoid all contact with nuns, matchmakers, and
their ilk. Beware the slippery slope off the true path.

type 18: women 143

 Type 19
Kidnapping
 A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic
of Male Essence

Court officials, persuaded by glib and specious arguments, appoint

eunuchs to travel the empire and collect taxes from merchants.
Ostensibly these taxes further the policy of using commerce to sup-
port agriculture, but that is merely a pretext. Merchants who are
subjected to heavier taxes are inevitably forced to sell at higher
prices, thus increasing the cost to buyers, who then suffer losses.
Commerce is impeded, and goods-producing regions inevitably
become impoverished. Prices decline and sellers suffer losses in
turn. Thus, although this profit supposedly comes only from mer-
chants, all four classes of people—scholars, peasants, artisans, and
merchants—see their wealth decline as it is surreptitiously appro-
priated by the court. The harm to the people is even more egregious
than would result from openly increasing the agricultural tax.
As for profits deriving from this taxation scheme, for every
ounce of silver that makes it into the imperial treasury, eunuchs
pocket ten, revenue officials a hundred, and yamen runners a
 thousand. In short, people expend thousands just to bring the court
a single ounce of revenue. The emperor on high benefits little while
the people below suffer immeasurable harm.
Yamen runners and revenue officials are, of course, insatiable,
yet with just them the people still manage to get by. The problem
with those passive parasites of the realm is that they neither till nor
weave and just feast off the labors of the populace.
Eunuchs, however, are even more excessive in their predations.
They amass enormous fortunes: brocades and silks to them are like
leaves beneath their feet; gold and jade tile their homes; the very
implements they eat with are identical to the emperor’s; and they
have subordinates waiting on them like the Son of Heaven himself.
They luxuriate in every pleasure known to humankind, their only
regret being their inability to debauch women. They lack only that
one thing! This is why they are wont to dispatch assistants to seek out
and spend enormous sums on tonics for regenerating the male organ.
A certain unorthodox Daoist, with an eye to the money he could
make from these eunuchs, trumpeted the spurious claim that
“According to ancient prescriptions: ‘A deficiency on the part of
earth calls for an earth remedy; a deficiency on the part of wood
calls for a wood remedy; and a deficiency in the part of a human calls
for a human remedy.’ In other words, a human can be made whole
only by consuming human flesh.” He went around offering a made-
up recipe that read as follows:

Cook a young boy, mince his liver, dry his flesh into jerky, and
consume his vital marrow. This will cause the semen to replen-
ish and the male organ to regenerate so well that you will even
be able to have relations with women and father children.

Eunuch Gao, from Fujian province, believed in this prescription

and paid the Daoist one hundred ounces of silver for a trial dose.
He promised that if it worked the Daoist could claim a reward of
ten thousand. He thereupon ordered his henchmen—his fangs and
claws—to travel to poor counties and remote villages to buy young
boys from impoverished commoners. These henchmen would lie

146 type 19: kidnapping

to the father, saying that the Honorable Gao wanted to raise the boy
as his own son. In time, they promised, the son would enjoy bound-
less wealth and honor. Many a poor peasant believed the messen-
ger and sold his son in return for the generous compensation offered
and in hopes of future wealth and rank. Countless boys were pur-
chased this way. Some families subsequently had people make
inquiries about the son they had sold, but there was never any
news. Even the runners in Gao’s own offices had no knowledge of
the boys being raised in the residential compound.
In fact, the eunuch, having bought a boy, would dress him in fine
clothes and feed him delicacies. His chef would later cook the boy
and serve him to the eunuch, earning ten ounces of silver per boy
for keeping this arrangement strictly secret. Each time he had to kill
a boy, the chef would chase them around with a cleaver, and all the
boys would weep and cry as they fled before him. The chef would
wait until the boys had worked up a sweat and excited their qi, then
he would select the fattest boy and cook him.
One twelve-year-old knelt before the chef in tears and kowtowed
as he begged for his life. The chef was himself moved to tears, but
he told the boy: “How can I save you? There’s nothing I can do.
You’re trapped here.”
Just then, a messenger came in to announce that a certain local
official had come to pay a call on the eunuch.
“It’s fated that I should let you escape,” the chef told the boy.
“A local official is out there meeting with the eunuch. Grab onto
his robe, wail piteously, and beg him to save you. If he ’s willing to
take you with him, then you’ll live and I’ll die in your place. You
can then spread the word that people must never, for any reason,
sell their sons into the eunuch’s mansion.”
The child raced over to the official and wailed that the cook was
trying to kill him. The eunuch immediately ordered his chef appre-
hended and beheaded, furious that he had released the boy. With a
smile on his face, Gao ordered the boy back into the house. The
boy, however, kept a death grip on the official’s garments and begged
him to save him. The official suspected that something must be
amiss, so he took the boy with him when he left. The boy told him

type 19: kidnapping 147

 about all the others who had been killed in the eunuch’s residence,
making the official gasp in astonishment. But, considering that he
had not personally seen any evidence that the eunuch had really
bought the boys, and lacking testimony from the cook, the official
didn’t dare adopt the boy himself. Instead he took the boy to another
region and found him a foster home. Later, the boy became an itin-
erant beggar and drifted around the vicinity of Fujian’s Jianning
prefecture. When people asked him about the eunuch’s mansion he
told them of riches beyond human imagining. Only when people
learned of the eunuch’s cannibalism were they dissuaded from sell-
ing him their sons.
A few years ago, Eunuch Gao was executed for his crimes, and
hundreds of parents who had sold him their sons waited for them
by the roadside. Not a single one appeared, however, and they all
shed bitter tears that their sons must have been victims of the
depraved eunuch’s cannibalism.

Destitute people who sell their sons are fools! If their livelihood is insuf-
ficient for raising a son, why not beg in father-son teams, as they do in
Fengyang prefecture?1 That way, the parents could protect their flesh
and blood. Should doing so truly be impossible, the only other recourse
would be to sell the son into servitude in a wealthy household. By no
means should they serve him up as a tasty morsel to a eunuch. Selling a
son to a chapel or temple as a servant or attendant is equally unaccept-
able. Doing so would reduce one’s son to a level below that of a beggar.
The State2 employs eunuchs for the sole purpose of keeping the palace in
order and transmitting imperial orders, yet eunuchs wield power and exact
profits, wallow in hedonism, and—worst of all—attempt to regrow their
organ in order to defile women. (Some succeed, some don’t.) Even if their
cannibalism could be considered analogous to “wanting to mend one’s
decrepit body,” did they not already accept that it was their fate not to
be whole? Such outrageous behavior is utterly intolerable. Mencius
says: “He keenest for battle deserves the severest punishment” 3—and
the eunuchs too engage in conscription and slaughter. They treat human
life as worthless, and for no good reason. If the law of the land is to
shine forth, such eunuchs must not be allowed to go on living.

148 type 19: kidnapping

 Notes
1. Taking Fengtang 沛㸗 as a miswriting of Fengyang 沛春, a prefecture in
South Zhili.
2. A blank space appears in the original text before the word State (guojia
⚳⭞); this was a standard typographical expression of respect for
imperial institutions.
3. Mencius, 4A.14.

type 19: kidnapping 149

 Type 20
Corruption in Education
 Pretending to Present Silver to an
Education Commissioner

Whenever education commissioners go on inspection tours, crooks

follow in droves. Their marks are the sons of the rich who are seek-
ing an in with the examiner. They beguile these aspirants with
innumerable schemes promising success in the exams, but these
always turn out to be scams. Should no one be buying one scheme,
the next bunch will come up with a new way to fleece their victims.
As a result, people fall for their tricks year in and year out. And since
the families are too embarrassed to report it, people keep getting
taken in.
There once was an education commissioner who was extremely
fair in his adjudication of examinations and would not accept any
inducements. A crook came along claiming he could get to the com-
missioner, but no one believed him. The crook’s explanation was
as follows: “This commissioner secretly accepts direct bribes
because he hates to let them pass through others’ hands. You have
to give it to him personally, but then it works like a charm—all it
 takes is guts! If you really want to do it, get the cash and I’ll hand
it to him in person—and then it’s a sure thing.”
“Where should one give it to him?” asked a certain Zhao Jia.1
“When he’s leaving the school, I’ll present a calling card intro-
ducing you: ‘So-and-so, from Such-and-such County, with X
amount of silver, asks to be selected for advancement.’ If he nods
approval, I’ll give him the silver; if he doesn’t, I’ll still have the
money in hand, so he can’t touch me.”
“I’ll want to be there to see.”
“Of course you can watch. When the inner gate of the school is
open just an inch, you can see straight through to the school build-
ing from outside. You’ll be able to peek in.”
“If the commissioner will really take the money himself, I’ll
do it.”
So Zhao wrote out a calling card and wrapped a package of two
hundred ounces of silver in a kerchief. In the afternoon he waited
in front of the school for the commissioner to come out. “I’ll need
that calling card and the ‘entrance fee,’” the crook told him. Zhao
handed them over. When the commissioner was about to leave the
school, the crook pushed his way in with the silver and the calling
card, having told Zhao, “As soon as the gate has closed, peek in
through the opening.”
As the commissioner emerged from the school building, Zhao
looked through the opening and saw the commissioner, still in his
gauze cap and collared jacket, making his way out. The crook
rushed up to him and presented the calling card, which an atten-
dant accepted. The commissioner opened it and read it, and then
slipped it into his sleeve. The crook then held up the packet of sil-
ver. The commissioner cast a glance at another attendant, who
accepted it, whereupon the commissioner turned around and went
back inside, followed by the attendant with the money.
The crook raced back to the inner gate and said to Zhao on the
other side, “It worked! It worked! It’s a done deal. Did you see?”
“He really took it—I saw it with my own eyes.”
“We can’t leave the school grounds tonight, so we’ll have to stay
between the two gates.”

152 type 20: corruption in education

 “Since everything’s set, I don’t mind skipping dinner.”
The next morning, they slipped out together when the gates
were opened and went to Zhao’s inn to celebrate. As Zhao treated
him to a big banquet, the crook said, “Don’t forget to thank me after
you pass with honors.”
“Of course I’ll reward you, just as we agreed.”
This is a warning against trusting crooks.

When the exam rankings were published, the student’s name was not
on the list, and the crook was nowhere to be found. Zhao then realized
that the whole procedure for offering the bribe had been a set piece cre-
ated by the crook and a yamen underling who dressed up as the commis-
sioner. Looking in from the inner gate to the school entrance, he could see
the exchange with his own eyes—but only at a distance. He could
hardly be sure of what was really going on, and so he fell for the swindle
unawares. Had it been the real commissioner taking a bribe, would he
have done so in his official robe and cap? Would he have taken the call-
ing card at the entrance to the school, and accepted the money there
too? Why on earth wouldn’t he have received the calling card in pri-
vate? Furthermore, the commissioner’s subordinates lived in the school,
so it was hardly a sufficiently private place to accept a bribe. This rich
rustic knew nothing about how officialdom works, so he just trusted what
he saw with his own eyes. Little did he know that what appears before
your eyes is precisely what has been put there to deceive you.

Note
1. Jia 䓚 is not a real name: it is the first item in the counting system called
Heavenly Stems (Tiangan ⣑⸚). The Stems are often used as placehold-
ers, for example in the names of people in hypothetical legal cases and in
algebra problems. An English approximation would be “Zhao A.”

type 20: corruption in education 153

 Affixing Seals in a
Functionary’s Chambers

When Qian the First, a wealthy man, sought to buy an examina-

tion degree for his son, his agent Sun Bing set out to swindle him.
“An official surnamed Li, from our town, is a former colleague of
the education intendant, and the two are very close.” Sun told Qian.
“He need only say a name for the candidate to be guaranteed a pass.
Shall I discuss your case with him?” “Sure!” Qian agreed.
Sun Bing went to an artisan’s stall, where he spotted two identi-
cal hanging crates. He bought one for three tenths of an ounce of
silver and put down a deposit of two hundredths of an ounce of sil-
ver for the second, telling the artisan: “I’ll send someone else soon
with another three tenths of an ounce for this one—just don’t switch
it for another.”
He also bought two identical locks, and then brought the crate
and one of the locks to a servant in the household of Li, the local
official, telling him, “Weigh out two hundred ounces of rocks and
store them in this crate, lock it with this lock, and keep it in your
master’s chambers. In a little while I’ll bring a fellow by who’ll ask
to have the old man put in a word for someone on the exam. He ’ll
give you two hundred ounces of fine silver to put a seal on. Take
the crate with the silver and give him back the one with the rocks.
Later we can split the silver fifty-fifty.”
“Okay,” Li’s servant agreed.
Sun Bing had the servant arrive to tell Qian the First, “I’ve met
with Venerable Li, and he says this should be easy. Just have his ser-
vant watch you measure out the silver and lock it up, then deliver
it to his residence, where they’ll put a seal on it. They’ll then send
the crate back to you but hold on to the key. Once your son has
passed the exam, make payment by sending the silver back in the
unopened crate.”
“I’ll borrow a crate from you, then,” Qian said.
Sun Bing said, “I’ve got a brand-new lock, but I’ll have to go
around the corner to buy a crate.” He sent one of Qian’s servants
to the stall with three tenths of an ounce of silver to buy the crate.
Qian the First, Li’s servant, and Sun Bing all doubled-checked the
two hundred ounces of silver, then Qian put it into the crate and
locked it up. Sun Bing took the silver to the Li residence, along with
Qian the First, to have the seal affixed.
Li was home sick, sitting in the chamber to the left of the main
reception room. His servant carried the crate through the doorway
and said, “We’ve already checked the silver, so we just need a seal.”
Li replied, “Since you’ve checked it, he can take it back with him.
Come get the seal.”
The servant brought forward the crate of silver and all three par-
ties affixed their seals. Qian the First removed the key and handed
it to Li’s servant.
Sun Bing then took the crate back to Qian’s lodgings for him to
keep. He said the whole thing had gone very smoothly.
When the examination results were announced, Qian’s son’s
name was not on the list. Sun Bing said, “This business didn’t work
out, but you’ve still got the silver. You should take it back home
quickly before Li’s servant comes asking you to pay his transport
costs.”

type 20: corruption in education 155

 Frustrated, Qian hurried off. Halfway home, he hired an artisan
to open the lock, only to find that the crate was filled with rocks.
Shocked, he went back to town.
“What kind of swindle did you pull on me?!” he roared at the
go-between.
“I did everything in your presence,” Sun Bing replied. “At what
point could I have swindled you? Since all three of us sealed the
crate, aren’t the Lis just as much to blame? In any case, you’ve been
gone for half a day and you opened the crate yourself; how do I
know whether it was really silver or rocks in there?”
Qian realized that Sun and Li had colluded to swindle him, but
he had no proof and it would have been impossible to get restitu-
tion. All he could do was curse the go-between and head home.
This is a warning against trusting local officials.

The two crates were identical, so one could hardly tell them apart. But
the sealing of the crate should have taken place in plain sight; what need
was there to bring it in first, then ask to have it sealed? And if at that
point one did report it, and one were to track down the stall that sold
the crate and ask why the two were identical, one might be able to prove
that Sun Bing had bought one in advance and sent someone to buy the
other later. Only the most brilliant official would have a chance of crack-
ing this switcheroo swindle.

156 type 20: corruption in education

 Silver with Sham Seals Is
Switched for Bricks

In the prefecture of Jianning there was a man named Hao Tian-

guang, who came from a very well-to-do family. They had several
estates, most of which produced white rice. Once, the price of rice
plunged in Jianning, but his business manager, Luo the Fifth, heard
that in the provincial capital its price had skyrocketed. He and his
boss thus decided to set off in that direction with two attendants and
ten-odd boatloads of rice.
At the time, His Eminence Venerable Wang had just issued an
order to hold an examination for candidates in the adjoining pre-
fectures of Jianning and Yanping. Announcements were posted in
both prefectures that Confucian Apprentices were to be tested.1
Just as the last of the rice was being loaded, a traveler with two
attendants heading for the provincial capital boarded Hao’s boat.
As they were sitting idly during the boat ride, Hao Tianguang asked
the purpose of his trip.
 “I’m in charge of anonymized records for Venerable Wang,”
answered the man, who implied that he might have a certain influ-
ence.2 Since Hao’s eldest son was taking the exam, this piqued his
interest. However, in the previous round of exams His Eminence
had been extremely fair and immune to bribes, so Hao was not
inclined to believe it could be done.
When they reached the provincial capital, the crook took his
leave, saying, “When your son’s exam comes before Venerable
Wang, we’ll be sure to look at it together, and I’ll feel him out about
what we’ve discussed, sir. Should he agree, I’ll be back in touch so
that we can reach an understanding. If you hear nothing, that means
there’s no chance of doing anything.”
Although he still didn’t trust the man, Hao said, “Sure.” He sent
one of his servants to tail the crook, who did in fact go into the
examination grounds.
A few days later the man came back and told Hao, “It’s doable.
We just need to count out the silver. We’ll keep it under seal in this
leather case of mine. I’ll let you hold on to the silver until the results
are announced, then you can hand the case over to me.” Hao
thought to himself: Even if we’re counting out the silver together, so
long as I keep it myself, what could go wrong? So he did as the man
suggested and they counted it all out.
Little did he know that this crook had an ingenious trick up his
sleeve. Hao Tianguang put the silver in the case and locked it him-
self; all the crook did was attach a strip of paper to seal it up. As he
left, he advised Hao: “Your son should be able to slip out of the
exam grounds tonight, and I’ll present him to the examiner. Then
you’ll be all set.”3
Hao waited several nights in a row but heard nothing. Eventu-
ally, Hao opened up the leather case to find nothing inside but bricks
and stones—the silver had all been nicked.
This is a warning against letting silver be swapped out from
sealed containers.

Purchases of positions in government schools, of vacant offices, and even

of provincial degrees—such things happen everywhere, every year. The

158 type 20: corruption in education

prefecture of Jianning especially is overrun with swindlers and constantly
suffers their baleful effects. No doubt this is because its residents are as
wealthy as they are shallow and gullible. Despite having been the vic-
tim of multiple swindles, they try to purchase advantages again and
again. For this particular itinerant crook, Jianning examinees were reli-
able marks. As for his technique for sealing up silver, even today no one
has figured it out: he seals the silver while you watch and then gives it
to you for safekeeping, but after he’s long gone you open it up to dis-
cover nothing but rocks and bricks. Some claim it’s a spell for making
silver disappear, like magic! It dupes even the cleverest. So the lesson is
clear: trust no one. If you really want to buy scholastic advancement,
sealing up silver in advance is not the way to go. Instead, wait until your
name appears on the official roster before making any payment; don’t
believe claims to inside information about who’s passed. It may take
three or four trips, but you want to see the final roster before handing
over any money. That’s the only way to avoid being taken.

Notes
1. The title translated as “Eminence,” zongzhu ⬿ᷣ, is not identifiable as a
standard term for any position in the examination hierarchy. It could refer
to the heir of a lineage, and in the Ming to a eunuch in the Directorate of
Ceremonial, but neither sense is relevant here. Hence we have kept it as a
vague term of respect for an official. Confucian Apprentices (rusheng
₺䓇) were students who had not yet qualified for positions in
government schools.
2. Officials who assessed examination essays did so, in principle, without
being able to tell who had written each exam. The essays were anony-
mized by replacing names with code numbers and by having scribes
recopy each answer to preclude identification on the basis of
handwriting.
3. During examinations, candidates remained locked inside the examination
hall, separated from both the outside world and the examiners.

type 20: corruption in education 159

 Robbed by a Gang While Sealing Silver
in an Unoccupied Room

Swindles come in a wide variety, but competitors for advancement

into the ranks of scholar-officialdom, being so numerous, are espe-
cially popular marks. There ’s a saying among crooks: “You can
only make real profit off of false status, and you can only make real
money off of false fame.” Those who pursue advancement are so
recklessly obsessed with status seeking that they’ll throw away a
fortune to make themselves a name. This is why they unthinkingly
fall victim to the stratagems of crooks.
Once, the son of a rich family on his way to take the provincial
examinations was on the lookout for a shortcut. He brought along
his family’s manager, an extremely capable man, and in the provin-
cial capital they stayed with an agent, whom the scion engaged to
seek out suitable connections. Over the next few days one prospec-
tive “way in” after another came by, but the manager, after observ-
ing their behavior and checking into their backgrounds, concluded
that none lived up to their claims or had sufficient bona fides—and
most were in collusion with the agent. Distrustful of their spurious
promises, he rejected them all.
He then met a certain crook disguised as a simple errand runner
who spoke in halting tones and behaved like a country bumpkin.
The man claimed to be with a retired local official who was an old
friend of His Eminence the examination chief and who had come
to town to sponge off the latter. The “errand runner” brought the
manager to see the man in question, who indeed had the look of an
impoverished minor functionary.
They decided that for the promotion of a single examinee a
donation of a hundred ounces of silver would suffice. The official’s
one condition was that the cash be sealed at his inn. “Let’s seal it
up at my inn,” proposed the manager.
“This business requires the utmost discretion,” said the
retired official. “Your inn is crowded, and it would be most
inconvenient if word were to get out. Down that way, however,
are some unoccupied quarters—they were rented out to a cer-
tain xiucai named Gu who stayed until he found it too inconve-
nient to get supplies and moved back here. That would be the
best place for you and my houseboy, Xiong, to conclude the
arrangements.”
The manager insisted that his inn was the proper place to seal
the silver up, but the official said, “In case you have any doubts,
from our side it will just be Xiong, and you can bring as many
people as you want to help.”
“No one else must know of this,” the manager replied. “It’ll be
just me and my master.”
When they arrived it was indeed just the errand runner, so they
took out the silver to count it. Suddenly a group of bandits burst
into the room and said, “Trying to buy a degree, are you? Well,
we’re turning you in!”
With that, they beat up the three men and stole all the silver.
After they’d left, the errand runner pulled himself to his knees,
seemingly in a daze. The manager grasped his hand and said, “No
need to worry. It wasn’t that much silver. Let’s go back to our inn
and prepare some more there.”

type 20: corruption in education 161

 But the errand boy refused to go, and the rich scion added, “The
whole thing’s a disaster. What’s the point of trying again?”
“I’ve got an idea,” replied the manager. “We just have to get the
errand runner to come back.”
He had the scion pack his bags and hurry home; meanwhile, pre-
senting himself as a Confucian scholar, he had the errand runner
clapped in irons and brought to the county office.
The manager reported that he had been robbed while purchas-
ing a county-level degree. The magistrate said, “Your purchase of
a degree was illegal, and both buyer and seller are guilty of a crime.
Moreover, if some bandits robbed you of your silver, what’s that
got to do with that local official?”
“The ones who stole the silver were confederates of this crook,”
the manager replied. “If I could just track them down along with
the silver, I’d happily forfeit it to the court. Furthermore, I acknowl-
edge my guilt and will accept my punishment along with this
crook.”
The magistrate sent runners out to make inquiries, but the retired
official was long gone. “He ’s a crook all right,” the magistrate
declared, and ordered a heavy flogging. The “errand runner”
couldn’t bear the torture and offered to pay back half the amount,
but the manager told the magistrate that he was adamant about
tracking down the others and willing to cover the travel costs.
But the “errand runner,” despite repeated torture, would rather
have died than give up his confederates, so the trail went cold; he
was ultimately sentenced to penal servitude. The manager was
merely beaten and sent home.
This is a warning to guard against robbery when sealing silver.

The manager, capable as he was, still ended up being robbed by crooks.

After the robbery, since he was able to capture the “errand runner” and
was willing to share the culpability, he managed to recover half the
amount, which prevented the crook from profiting from the scheme. Had
it been the rich scion himself, surely he would not have been willing to
share culpability, and the crook would have gotten off scot free. The ques-
tion arises: if the manager was able to impersonate a Confucian scholar

162 type 20: corruption in education

so successfully, shouldn’t the officials have examined him instead of the
scion? I would reply: those who negotiate bribes are worthless people to
begin with, so it’s not worth examining them. They could never pass, so
it’s no real loss.

type 20: corruption in education 163

 A Fake Freeloader Takes Over a Con

Education Intendant Jian was a man of the utmost brilliance and

integrity. Once when he was overseeing the provincial examina-
tions, a freeloading acquaintance arrived from out of town and
took up residence in the monks’ quarters at Kaiming Temple.1 The
next day, a crook arrived with three servants in tow and took up
lodging in the same temple.
Inside the temple, the crook introduced himself to the freeloader,
saying that he too was a freeloader, come to sponge off his relative
the local magistrate. Outside, his lavish dress and the retinue of ser-
vants following like bodyguards made for an impressive appear-
ance. Examination students in the temple would notice his covered
carriage going by and mistakenly say, “That’s the friend of the edu-
cation intendant from back home.” On several occasions they also
saw the genuine freeloader exchanging greetings with the intendant
or going over for drinks. By shadowing him in this public fashion,
the crook stole his identity and laid the groundwork for his scam.
 Lord Jian was a strict and perceptive man, and within a few days
the real sponger had been given a beating and sent packing. Now
the only one left in the temple was the crook, who had his confed-
erates spread the word outside that “the acquaintance of His Excel-
lency the exam chief is in such-and-such a temple.” Examination
students shared this news with each other and many showed up
seeking help to pass the exam. But they couldn’t find anyone to leave
the money with.2
The crook discreetly bribed the secretaries and clerks from the
education intendant’s office to make it known that packets of silver
could be sent to their houses. This convinced everyone that the
crook really was the intendant’s freeloading acquaintance. If he was
in cahoots with staff from the yamen and the silver packets were
being sent to their house, what further concern could they have?
The crook proposed to the staff that they set a quota of ten candi-
dates who would each pay three hundred ounces.
When the candidates got to the examination grounds they vied
for the ten spots, which were snapped up within a few days. The
crook brought the candidates to the houses of the secretaries and,
in broad daylight, deposited silver totaling three thousand ounces
in packets that were carefully sealed.
Later, they secretly divvied the money up. The crook reflected
that if the candidates didn’t pass, he wouldn’t be able to return the
money. How to make a clean getaway? His solution was to pay
someone to report to the intendant that he ’d seen certain yamen
secretaries colluding with a crook to recruit students, and that so
many ounces of silver were being kept under seal in so-and-so’s
house.
Intendant Jian reported the situation to his superiors and issued
an urgent bench warrant for the immediate arrest of the crook. By
then, however, the phony freeloader had already made good his
escape. Jian also apprehended the yamen secretaries, but even under
torture from finger presses none would confess; each was given
thirty blows and fired from his post. He also had the clerks’ houses
searched. Exam candidates who had been part of the conspiracy,
upon hearing that it had been discovered, all fled back to their

type 20: corruption in education 165

 hometowns out of fear that they would be publicly identified and
arrested. The silver they abandoned, being too afraid to try recov-
ering it.
The crook thus was able to enjoy his share of the silver in safety.
As for the secretaries, although they were fired, since there was no
hard proof of corruption they all eventually wangled their way
back in. They did have to endure beatings and torture—but because
it was carried out by fellow clerks, it was all just playacting. So they
came out ahead and lost very little.
This is a warning about the dangers of trusting spongers.

This crook pretended to be a relative of the Education Intendant.

Exchanging courtesy visits with the intendant and sharing drinks with
him would indeed have confirmed that they were related. And with sec-
retaries constantly buzzing around him, who would have suspected that
the man was a fraud? Unbeknownst to the exam hopefuls, the genuine
relative had already left and a crook was usurping his identity. The
yamen underlings, meanwhile, were just out for profit. With so much
money at stake, they didn’t mind suffering a few dozen blows; they
still got their bit of the boodle, and while they lost their jobs there
wasn’t enough to convict them. Some folks nowadays claim that it’s
the clerks who know the law best. What they fail to realize is that it’s the
people who know the law best who are most wont to abuse it! Only
through level-headedness, true accomplishment, and genuine learning
can one earn a genuine reputation. Grasp not and scheme not, and you’ll
never be taken in by crooks’ swindles. The lazy students and depraved
fools who fell for this one brought disaster upon themselves.

Notes
1. The freeloader (qiufengke 䥳桐⭊) was a recognized social type, a
hanger-on or sponger who takes advantage of a social or familial
connection to a wealthy or powerful person in order to solicit money,
lodging, food, or other benefits; he might also seek to bolster his own
prestige or, as in this story, peddle influence. His close association with the
“crook” (gun) is demonstrated by a set of puns linking them in scene 13 of
the play Peony Pavilion (Mudan ting 䈉ᷡṕ, 1598). On this category

166 type 20: corruption in education

 more generally, see Xin Yu 彃佥, “‘Da qiufeng’ xiaokao” “ㇻ䥳桐”⮷侫,
Yaowen juezi ⑔㔯♤⫿ 7 (2012): 40–42, and Li Sha 㛶匶, “‘Da qiufeng’
yuyuan kaoshi” “ㇻ䥳桐”婆㸸侫慳, Guangxi minzu xueyuan xuebao
(zhehui kexue ban) ⺋大㮹㕷⬠昊⬠⟙(⒚⬎䣦㚫䥹⬠䇰) S2 (2001):
239–40.
2. That is, the bribe would be held in escrow by a trustworthy third party,
to be paid out if the candidate were successful and returned if he did not
pass.

type 20: corruption in education 167

 Money Stashed with an Innkeeper
Is Burgled

Three crooks ganged up for a swindle that netted them three hun-
dred ounces of silver. Instead of dividing the loot among them,
however, they pooled their capital to set the stage for a joint
swindling venture. Their minds were set on a major con. First
they sent one of their number across Fujian province with seventy
ounces of silver to purchase a property in a prefectural seat two
days’ journey from the provincial capital. This property housed
an earthen strong room, and the crook converted the rooms facing
the street into an inn. He then spent fifty ounces of silver to take a
wife, also buying a maidservant and a domestic servant. The few
dozen pieces of silver left over he spent on provisioning his new
household.
Travelers were eager to stay at an inn run by such a prosperous-
looking family, which had servants, food, and furnishings to spare.
This prefectural seat was near the provincial capital. In years past,
when the examiners were unable to hold exams in every neighboring
prefecture, they would, to make their own travel more convenient,
summon those examinees to the prefectural seat for joint examina-
tions. Examinees from rich families looking for lodgings invariably
chose to stay there.
The sixth month of 1612, when the examinations were to be held,
was fast approaching, and students from two other prefectures had
also been summoned to sit for the examinations.1 Staying at the inn
were three first-level degree holders, or xiucai, from the surround-
ing circuit of Jianning-Shaowu. All came from fabulously wealthy
households.
One day, a traveling Confucian scholar, richly attired in immacu-
late new clothes, docked his boat outside the city and came to the inn.
He asked the innkeeper in private: “Of the xiucai here for the exami-
nations, do you happen to know of any from wealthy families?”
“Three such men are staying at my inn,” the innkeeper replied.
“Why do you ask?”
“I have an attractive proposition to discuss with them,” the
scholar replied.
“What proposition? Why don’t you tell me?”
“You’re not a scholar, so you wouldn’t understand. I’d best dis-
cuss this with the xiucai.”
The innkeeper went to the guest rooms and approached the
three xiucai. “A gentleman is asking to speak with the richest xiucai
sitting for the examinations. He says he has some attractive propo-
sition to discuss, but when I asked for details he wouldn’t tell
me. Would one of you gentlemen be willing to find out what it is?”
Together, the three xiucai went to the innkeeper’s quarters and
bowed in greeting. “Reverend sir, we understand that you’re look-
ing for men of wealth. We, your juniors, are all from families of
means. What is this proposition you speak of?”
“What would you gentlemen be willing to do for a guaranteed
pass in the examinations?” the traveler asked.
“We’re open to anything,” they replied, “but what special con-
nections do you have?”
“I can’t do anything myself, and I don’t have any special con-
nections. But since you’re open to anything, each of you should

type 20: corruption in education 169

 prepare one thousand ounces of silver and bring it to this inn. Once
I’ve weighed and wrapped it I’ll return it to you for safekeeping.
The route to success will follow.”
The three xiucai made plans to procure the money from home
and reconvene at the inn to have it weighed. The scholar bade them
farewell and departed. The three xiucai had someone follow him
in secret, and the person returned to report that he had observed
him get on a boat that carried only his family.
The three xiucai were delighted. “He’s one of the chief exam-
iner’s men, for sure.”
The innkeeper came over. “What was the proposition he told
you about just now?”
“It’s not a sure thing,” they replied, “but if it succeeds there ’s a
big tip in it for you.”
Four days later, the three returned to the inn with the money.
The scholar met them at the appointed time, and each xiucai
reported that he had prepared the full amount.
“We ’ll check and seal up the silver tonight,” the scholar told
them. The xiucai told him that it would be inconvenient to carry so
much money at night and suggested that they do it in the inner
courtyard of the inn the next day.
“I’m afraid that the innkeeper won’t keep mum. It would be more
private to seal it up in an outer guest room,” the scholar said.
“We ’ll see tomorrow,” they replied, and the scholar took his
leave.
After dinner, the innkeeper came to their rooms and said to
them: “You all should be cautious in your financial dealings with
this traveler. The doors and walls here are thin, so you’d better take
precautions against him robbing you at night. If you take my
advice, you’ll store your money in my strong room. That way
when you’ve retired to your rooms you can rest assured that you’ve
taken prudent measures and that your property will be safe.”
“You’re right,” they agreed. All told, they stashed six leather
crates of silver in the innkeeper’s quarters. Without telling his
wife or servants, the head of the household then absconded with
the money out the back door and fled with his gang of crooks in

170 type 20: corruption in education

the dead of night. Before he left, the only thing he said to his wife
was, “Tomorrow, if the three xiucai ask for me, tell them I went
out early looking for someone and will be home soon.”
The next day, the scholar arrived to weigh the silver with a big
smile on his face.
“We left the money with the innkeeper for safekeeping. He went
out early this morning and will be back soon,” the xiucai told him.
The scholar waited until noontime with no sign of the innkeeper,
so he took his leave and returned to his boat. That afternoon he sent
someone from his family to inquire if the innkeeper had returned
yet, but the answer was negative. At noon on the third day, the
xiucai asked the innkeeper’s wife to retrieve their leather chests, but
she claimed she’d never seen any. And when they went to the stream
to look for the traveling scholar, his boat was gone. Again they
asked the innkeeper’s wife for their money back, but she firmly
insisted that she hadn’t seen it. They forced their way in and
searched the place, but no trace of it was to be found.
“Where’s he gone?” they asked.
“He left two nights ago, and instructed me to say what I already
told you.”
Just as the three xiucai were panicking, the three crooks had
crossed the border and made good their getaway, loot in hand. That
night they put up at an inn. The innkeeper, noting that they had
arrived late and were carrying six heavy chests, suspected that they
were robbers or thieves, so he began recruiting people to apprehend
them the next morning. The three crooks, catching wind of his
plan, made off before dawn, taking just four chests with them and
leaving the other two at the inn. The innkeeper became even more
convinced that they were thieves and reported them to the local
government office. The prefect had the seals broken, and inside one
packet of silver discovered a contract stating that So-and-So had
tried to purchase the title of Provincial Examination Graduate. The
prefect summoned the government students named in the contract.
At first they were unwilling to admit it, but after a little coaxing the
prefect was able to hoodwink them into confessing and promptly
threw them in jail. To be released, the xiucai had to bribe the prefect,

type 20: corruption in education 171

 who extorted another four hundred ounces of silver from them to
block the referral of the case to his superiors.
The prefect also seized the innkeeper’s house, sold off his wife
and maidservant as state property, and sent the thousand ounces
of silver from the two remaining chests to the treasury. The
crooks who’d made off with the other four chests are fortunate that
their names were never discovered, or they’d have been swindled
by him as well. The prefect too was a crook.
This is a warning against trusting innkeepers.

Innkeepers with families are the most reliable, and anyone would trust
a family man who offered to safeguard a traveler’s money. Who would
have imagined that this one’s women were but purchased props on his
swindling stage, whom he’d abandon once he had the profits in hand?
Later on, this crook took other wives and concubines and enjoyed a life
of wealth and status. If even innkeepers with families are not to be
trusted, the world has become perilous indeed. Oh, why can’t people stay
level-headed enough to avoid being gulled by crooks!

Note
1. The text identifies the year as the renzi year on the sixty-year calendrical
cycle, likely referring to 1612 but possibly to 1552.

172 type 20: corruption in education

 Type 21
Monks and Priests
 A Buddhist Monk Identifies a
Cow as His Mother

One summer, during the sixth month, an itinerant monk walking

down a road came across a little boy leading a herd of oxen. Among
them was a large, plump yellow cow. The cowherd stuck his left leg
out for the cow to lick, which it did, and then he did the same with
his right leg. “Why is that cow licking your leg?” the monk asked.
“She’s the tamest,” said the cowherd, “and I’m especially fond
of her. She loves to lick my legs when they get sweaty and salty.”
From this the monk realized that the cow, which he secretly cov-
eted, liked licking salty things.
The cow belonged to a husbandman. The next day, the monk
slathered himself in thick brine from his head and face down to his
hands and feet. He found his way to the house of the husbandman
and knelt at the door crying, “I implore you to show mercy on my
grieving heart and save my mother!”
“I’ve never practiced Buddhism or recited scriptures,” the hus-
bandman said. “How could I save anyone?”1
 “When my late mother was alive,” replied the monk, “she
wouldn’t follow a vegetarian diet or perform acts of virtue. Seven
years ago, after she died, I was certain that she would be sent to the
underworld as punishment for her sins, but my family was too poor
to perform rituals or sutra recitations on her behalf. So I followed
the example of Mulian saving his mother and voluntarily shaved my
head and took on a master,2 and have devoted myself to her salva-
tion ever since. Last month I met a skilled fortune-teller who told
me she was in your household, reborn as a yellow cow. I have come
to respectfully ask to save her.”
“There are four head of cattle in my barn. Would you be able to
tell which one she is?”
“Let me take a look at them. All creatures have a spirit, and when
mother and son meet there’s bound to be a feeling of love that sets
her apart from the others.”
The husbandman took the monk to the barn and let the cattle
out. When the monk saw the yellow cow, he opened his collar and
removed his cap, then began to weep and knelt facing it.
“Mother!” he cried.
The cow smelled the salt and began to lick him all over his head
and face, seemingly out of genuine affection. The monk cried even
more and undid his robe; the cow licked him all over, unwilling to
leave. The husbandman was astounded by the sight—it really did
look like a mother who was unable to speak doting on her son. He
asked the monk, “If this cow really was your mother in its former
life, what do you need to do to save her?”
“If I had any money I’d gladly buy her at half market price and
take care of her. But I’m a poor monk with nothing to my name but
a robe and an alms bowl. If you’d be willing to give her to me, I
would take her to my mountain chapel, where I could collect grass
and prepare gruel for her every day until her sins are completely
expiated. I’d care for her until her allotted years come to an end,
and then I’d recite scriptures so that she can be reincarnated as a
human being rather than a beast of burden.”
“She ’s yours,” the husbandman said, moved by this heartfelt
speech.

type 21: monks and priests 175

 The monk kowtowed his thanks and led the cow away to his
mountain chapel, where they arrived after three days’ journey.
There he looked after the cow until the chill of the tenth month set
in. Then he hired a butcher to slaughter it and sell half of the meat,
which netted him an ounce and a half of silver. The other half
the monk made into jerky, which he kept in his robe during his
travels.
His wanderings eventually took him to the house of a powerful
man. He entered the main hall and sat there cross-legged until the
man came out and asked, “Monk, what are you doing sitting in my
hall?”
“Don’t you recognize me?”
“Why should I? I have no idea who you are.”
“Doesn’t my face look even a little familiar?”
“How could it? I’ve never seen you before.”
The monk gave a long sigh. “All the liveliness of your spirit has
been exhausted; no wonder you don’t even recognize the face of
an old friend.”
“How could you be an old friend?”
“Back when Foyin enlightened Su Shi, or when Master Yuan
called back Bai Juyi, weren’t they old friends of Su and Bai?3 In
your previous life, you and I were devout practitioners, but because
you did not fully separate your mind from the world you’ve come
back to enjoy life in the human realm. I’m here to save you. In
order to avoid losing the accumulated merit from your previous
life, you must immediately clear your karmic debt from this world
by returning to devout self-cultivation.”
“How can you know about previous lives?”
“I have twice the accumulated merit you do. You’ve already
enjoyed half a lifetime; I want to add another half lifetime of stren-
uous practice. After that, understanding past, present, and future
lives will be easy.”
“What devotions have you been practicing in this life?”
“I’ll say no more about my previous lives for the moment. In
this lifetime I’ve been fasting for the past three years.”

176 type 21: monks and priests

 “Well then, could you fast here in my house for a month?” asked
the man, astonished.
The monk smiled. “It’s already been three years—what’s one
more month!”
“Do you drink tea or water?”
“Clear tea or hot water, one pitcher a day.”
The man agreed and swept out an empty room for him to sit in.
Each morning he brought in a pot of tea, and each night one pot of
boiled water. After seven days he invited the monk to come out,
and they conversed normally. The man thought this so remarkable
that he was convinced. “What sort of practice should I engage in?”
he asked.
“Just give up your property and secular life and the right form
of practice will be obvious.”
“My wife would become a widow and my children orphans; to
whom could I entrust my estate? I can’t do this; what’s the next-
best form of practice?”
“Only by making donations to support temples and promote
worship of the Buddha will you be rewarded in the next life. On
Mount Lu is a hermitage that a lone monk is building all by him-
self. With a donation of five hundred ounces of silver he could
complete it—that would bring you great merit.”
The man agreed, sending a servant to accompany the monk
with the silver and to stay for several days to gather information
and report back. Later the monk took half of the silver and left.
His supposed “fasting” that convinced the rich man? He was eat-
ing the beef jerky. If only there really were people who could live
without food!

This monk’s theft of the cow was a relatively minor offense; turning
around and selling it was no big deal. But for him to claim it was his
reincarnated mother and then to butcher and eat it was a crime that
reaches all the way up to Heaven. Using the jerky to feign fasting was
an even greater swindle. Giving half the money to a chapel was a good
thing, so this monk might have had some benevolent motives, but the

type 21: monks and priests 177

 money ought to have been shared with the less fortunate—why give it
all to a chapel? This is the error of those fools who expect to reap
rewards from the “field of benevolence.” 4 They must never have read
Fu Yi’s Record of Lofty Knowledge.5

Notes
1. According to Buddhist theology, the fate after death of a human or other
being depended on its actions in life: those who behaved morally would be
rewarded with reincarnation in a desirable form (as a human in this world,
or, even better, in paradise) while those who behaved immorally would
suffer as an animal or, worse, as a tortured spirit in one of many hells.
People could, however, influence not only their own fate (karma) but also
that of others, by means of good deeds and religious rituals on others’
behalf. This included the individual study and recitation of Buddhist
scriptures (sutras) and the performance of rites by Buddhist monks.
2. In a popular story, retold in many folktales and operas, the monk Mulian
descends into the underworld to save his sinful mother. The initiation of
Buddhist monks included shaving off one ’s hair as a sign of renunciation
of the world and one ’s body; this was one of the most visible indications
of membership in the Buddhist clergy.
3. Su Shi 喯度 (1037–1101) was a famous poet, artist, and government
official; he was a friend of the Chan (Zen) monk Foyin ἃ⌘ (1032–98).
Their friendship, and various means by which Foyin tried to bring Su
closer to enlightenment, are the subject of several poems by Su and many
later anecdotes. Bai Juyi 䘥⯭㖻 (772–846) was a renowned poet; the
famous monk Huiyuan ㄏ怈 (334–416) is paired (under the name “Master
Yuan”) with Foyin in one of Su’s poems, but given that Huiyuan lived
centuries before Bai, either the name refers to someone else or the writer
is misinformed about their chronology.
4. The “field of benevolence ” is the Buddhist idea that support for charitable
causes (such as donations to temples, road building, feeding the poor, etc.)
brings karmic rewards to the giver.
5. Gaoshi zhuan 檀嬀⁛ (Record of lofty knowledge) is a collection of
anti-Buddhist essays compiled by Fu Yi ‭⣽ (555–639).

178 type 21: monks and priests

 Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting

There once was a Buddhist monk who claimed to be able to live

without eating. Many rich families summoned him to test his abili-
ties and observed that over the course of a week or so not one grain
would pass his lips; every two or three days he would merely take
a single bowl of boiled water. His renown grew such that people
would vie for his attention by offering him money and silks.
A certain local official had an audience with the county magis-
trate, surnamed Chu, and the topic of this monk happened to come
up. A monk of such lofty attainments existing in the mortal realm,
he said, must be the genuine reincarnation of an immortal or a
buddha.
Magistrate Chu, a man of strong and upstanding character, was
distrustful of Buddhists and Daoists. “Can the material body with
which man is endowed survive if he foreswears material nourish-
ment? These fake fasters simply hide dried goods on their person
to dupe common fools! How could an enlightened gentlemen
 believe such a fraud? If he were really able to live a life of fasting,
he would keep himself hidden away deep in the mountains. His con-
cern would be to avoid fame—what on earth would he be doing
wandering the villages and markets? And just what use would
people ’s silver and silks be to him?”
This reproach made the local official feel like he was being
accused of heterodoxy, and he became even more determined to
persuade Magistrate Chu to believe him.
“If you don’t believe it, my lord,” he replied, “you should sum-
mon the man here and test him yourself. That’ll convince you that
what I’ve told you is wholly legitimate.”
Magistrate Chu promptly set a runner out to bring the monk in.
He ordered a body search and forbade the monk from bringing
in anything other than a string of twenty-four prayer beads. He then
had him ushered into a clean-swept room and seated on a cloth mat.
He posted sentries to spy on the monk in shifts. By day, another ser-
vant would go in the room and observe the monk directly, locking
the door behind him when he left. For two days, sure enough, the
monk sat there with crossed legs and an unchanging countenance.
On day three, they looked in on him and saw that he was sweating
slightly. The monk requested some boiled water to drink, and Mag-
istrate Chu ordered that it be given to him. After the water was
delivered, the servant went out and locked the door, then spied on
the monk from outside. He reported to the magistrate, “The monk
added one of his prayer beads to the water, and, from the look on
his face, he recovered after drinking it.”
Thenceforth, the servant took in one bowl of boiled water every
two days and each time he reported what he spied from the out-
side: “He’s eating the beads.”
After eleven days, Magistrate Chu had the monk brought out
and saw that only nineteen of the prayer beads he had brought in
were left. Chu confiscated the beads and gave orders that the monk
be imprisoned under light guard and left undisturbed in order to
observe him meditating and wait for his next move. Chu also
secretly instructed the jailer, “Don’t allow any Buddhist or Daoist

180 type 21: monks and priests

clergy to visit him. In two days he is certain to beg you for food; at
that point, ask him how he made the prayer beads he ’s been mix-
ing with water. If you can make beads identical to his, I’ll reward
you handsomely.”
The next day, the monk asked the jailer for food, and the jailer
replied with a request: “Teach me how to make your prayer beads
and I’ll give you food.”
“This medicine is nearly impossible to get hold of,” the monk
replied. “But if you feed me, when I get out I’ll pay you a hand-
some reward. Just don’t ask for the recipe.”
The jailer refused to give him food, and in three more days the
monk’s complexion had taken on an inhuman pallor and he col-
lapsed from hunger.
Magistrate Chu had him brought for interrogation. “I’ve known
all along that these beads are made from human fetuses. Tell me the
process for making them and I’ll spare your life.”
The monk, too afraid to answer, feigned being on the brink of
death.
Magistrate Chu just laughed. “Take a good look at this fasting
monk, everyone! Three days of fasting under Magistrate Chu’s
supervision and he’s nearly starved to death! These pills are made
from fetuses taken from a woman’s womb. To make them, you must
kill a pregnant woman and then extract the unborn child. Just how
many lives have you taken in this evil enterprise of yours? You’d
never dare say. And why would I bother to get your recipe? Death
by beating would be too good for you.”
With that, he ordered his subordinates to set up a platform on
which he displayed the nineteen beads, four of which he used to
demonstrate the preparation method to the populace. When he
stirred them in boiling water, the liquid in the bowl turned into a
viscous slurry. Those bold enough to taste it found it both sweet
and fragrant. A mouthful was enough to keep one full for a day.
Magistrate Chu distributed the remaining fifteen beads to doctors
for use in treating invalids. He then had the monk bound on a plat-
form and executed by slow slicing.

type 21: monks and priests 181

 “The county magistrate is a parent to his people,” Magistrate
Chu declared, “and while he cannot bear to kill, he is doing this on
their behalf to vent their indignation.”
The people declared themselves satisfied, and the local official
never again trusted Buddhists or Daoists.

Such fake fasters mainly eat concealed dried provisions; eating human
fetuses is rare. They don’t keep the food on their person for fear of being
searched, instead having a mendicant carry it and deliver the food to
them while they’re being tested. Some eat pine needles or bamboo leaves,
the former with sowthistle tasselflower and the latter with tender ferns,
both of which are edible and go down easy. Buddhist monks have duped
others by claiming to survive on such things. Although stories about peo-
ple surviving without food have been told since ancient times, this prac-
tice comes from the land of the immortals and is not a feature of the
human realm. Yet some have encountered marvelous persons who have
passed on the secret of fasting. Here is one such story.

In a grotto in the Wuyi Mountains,1 a poor commoner built him-

self a hut just large enough to accommodate a bed and a stove. He
cleared the mountainside to plant tea, which he sold to feed him-
self. After a decade or more, his plantation had grown to the point
where it brought in three or four ounces of silver a year. Day in
and day out he labored tirelessly, resting only in times of extreme
heat, cold, or stormy weather. Those days he would spend sitting
alone in his grotto hut. He had neither knowledge of scriptures nor
other people to keep him company.
Then one day a Daoist appeared by his hut and addressed him,
saying, “You work so hard farming these mountains. Why don’t
you hire someone to operate your plantation for you? You could
earn an ounce of silver a year to buy clothing, and I could teach
you my fasting method, so that you wouldn’t need to buy food. You
could avoid the toil of mountain farming and enjoy an easy life.”
The mountain man replied, “I’ve heard that there are practitio-
ners of such fasting methods. If you’d be willing to instruct me, I’d
gladly serve as your humble disciple.”

182 type 21: monks and priests

 The Daoist told him, “Your tranquil disposition is perfectly
suited to the practice. From now on you need only do the follow-
ing: every morning, boil two crocks of pure spring water until half
of it has boiled off, then combine them into a single crock. Morn-
ing, noon, and night, drink two cups of this water. After drinking,
purify your heart and empty your thoughts, press your tongue
against your upper palate, close your mouth and your eyes, and
spend the day in meditation. Should the weather be amenable and
your spirit invigorated, you might wish to take a stroll. Should you
do so, just maintain a slow pace and roam as your fancy leads you,
taking in the scenery at your leisure. The important thing is that,
be it morning, afternoon, or any other time of day, and no matter
whether you are active or at rest, you should follow without resis-
tance the guidance of your mind. Should you come across fruits or
edible plants on the mountains, feel free to nibble on them. Just
don’t actively go seeking them out. This, then, is how to live a life
of fasting. Remember it well, and do not lightly share it with
others.”
The mountain man followed the Daoist’s instructions for one
year and, sure enough, not a single grain passed his lips. His face
took on a golden radiance, and he remained as spry and healthy as
ever. His neighbors in the mountains never saw him buy rice, and
those who passed by his hut noted the absence of pots and pans.
When asked about this, the man told them, “This past year I
learned a fasting method.”
The remarkable news passed from one resident to another,
and some sought out the man and asked him to teach his fasting
method to them. But he evaded them all, explaining, “My master
instructed me not to share it lightly.”
By the following year, word had spread far and wide, and the
mountain man was besieged with callers. One person even brought
provisions and took up residence in his hut, but over a full month
of watching all he saw the man do was drink boiled water and
silently meditate. He did nothing else, not even engage in conver-
sation. Some ignorant visitors would pester him with questions
or speak to him about self-cultivation, but he would just smile and

type 21: monks and priests 183

 get up for a walk along the mountain paths, not returning until
midday or evening, when he would reheat and drink his boiled
water. He never greeted these visitors, never saw them off, and said
not a word in response to their queries. When questioned about
mundane matters he might offer a casual word or two, but when
asked about anything beyond that he would shake his head and
remain silent. When anyone tried to harass him, he would simply
go off and meditate. In speech and action, he treated everyone
with utter indifference.
Another year passed and the man’s fame grew. Now many rich
and noble personages would send sedan chairs to invite him to their
residences; invariably, he would refuse these entreaties. Then these
rich and noble personages began to come to press their invitation
in person. When prevailed upon to travel to their residences, he
would not touch a mouthful of their food but instead meditate in
an empty room, as silent and immobile as a wooden buddha yet
still able to speak and move.
After two and a half years, a rich man from Tanyang2 extended
the mountain man a courteous invitation, treating him with the
solemn respect due to a supernatural being. On one occasion, the
rich man plied his guest with tea and fruit, of which the man con-
sumed a little. The host then prepared a light meal of tea and plain
rice and earnestly entreated the man to eat. His guest strenuously
refused, but was eventually prevailed upon to eat one bowl. Soon,
the mountain man became ravenous. He took a bowl of boiled
water, but it didn’t quell his hunger and he requested more food.
The rich man was happy to oblige him, and respectfully fed him.
Over the following three days, the man had to eat five meals a day
just to satisfy his hunger. In shock, the mountain man asked to
return to the mountains at once. There, he drank water and medi-
tated as before, but he was beset by hunger. Eventually, he had to
resume eating three meals a day, just like normal people.

The Daoist this mountain man encountered was clearly an immortal,

and if the mountain man had been able to fast a full three years he would
certainly have achieved transcendence himself. What a pity that fame

184 type 21: monks and priests

took such a toll! First it was invitations, then he was forced to eat, and
in the end he squandered his earlier accomplishments. That stupid rich
man who urged him to eat thought that by treating him with respect and
devotion, some of the good fortune of this living buddha would rub off
on him. Earnest devotion to the Dao indeed! As for the mountain man,
though he did make a mistake, his good fortune remained unaffected.
The rich man, however, by committing this major sin surely set himself
up to be a sworn enemy of the mountain man in the next life. As I see
it, fasting is a practice of the immortals that involves more than just
drinking boiled water and meditating—otherwise, he could just have
gone back to his regimen of drinking and sitting, once more avoiding
all food. So those Buddhist and Daoist monks who purvey fasting
methods while asking for money and food are out-and-out robbers and
thieves. No one who really knew how to survive without eating would
dare to share this knowledge with others.

Notes
1. The Wuyi range, located on the border of Fujian and Jiangxi provinces,
was home to many Daoist and Buddhist temples and a center of tea
cultivation.
2. Here, Tanyang seems to be a literary designation for Jianyang, Fujian.

type 21: monks and priests 185

Type 22
Alchemy
 Trusting in Alchemy Harms
an Entire Family

Magicians have duped countless victims over the course of history

with alchemical hoaxes. Only the most perceptive people are able
to recognize their spuriousness and reject them as false.
There once was a Daoist surnamed Bing whose magic was
extremely powerful. He was lame in one foot. He let out that he was
the inheritor of a genuine alchemical method but was reluctant to
refine metals for others. His trick was to let others use his alchemi-
cal elixir, and, whether they smelted it with copper or lead, the prod-
uct would be silver. When he used the elixir himself he didn’t even
need to refine it, he would just pick something up and it would
become silver. Encountering a destitute person, he would hold the
elixir in his palm and, with a flick of the wrist, produce some silver
for them. Or he would reach into his sleeve and bring out silver, a
great deal of which he distributed to the poor. Hence he was known
as the “semi-seraph.”
 One time, someone treated Bing to a lavish banquet on silver
dishes. When the meal was over, Bing had a rice barrel brought in
and placed on the mat. One by one he placed the silver dishes into
the barrel, but when the host looked inside the barrel was empty.
“I’ve removed your dishes, and they won’t be coming back,” he told
his host. The host politely asked for their return. “They’re back in
your house, in the place where you usually store them,” Bing told
him. And when the man looked, sure enough, there they were.
Were someone to use unpleasant language to force him to give
something back, however, it would be gone forever. The Pentade-
mon Transport Spell, as it is known, was but one of his many strange
and amazing powers.
A rich man named Yao Lu came to believe in Bing and had him
stay in his home. Yao worshiped him day and night, extended every
sort of ritual deference, and sought to learn his powers. The Dao-
ist received all of this worship serenely but would not transmit his
teachings. Every day he would sit there soaking up this veneration
and then drink himself into a stupor, not taking any of this defer-
ence seriously. But he did have real powers: everyone who wor-
shiped him became joyful converts, and, having shared a drink
with him, would sing praises of his mastery of the Way.
Yao Lu’s entire household, young and old, and even the maids
and servants, revered the Daoist. Only Yao’s wife, Ms. Xin, dis-
trusted him from the start. Again and again, she urged her hus-
band to stay away from this evil man. When Daoist Bing learned
of this, he gave one of the household servants two tenths of an ounce
of silver and said, “Next time your mistress combs her hair, take a
strand of it from her comb and bring it to me.” The next morning
the servant brought him the hair, and the Daoist used it to cast a
spell.
By mid-morning, Ms. Xin’s mind was focused on just one thing:
intercourse with the Daoist. She told her maid, “Today I’m feeling
a little odd inside.”1 By noon the feeling had intensified, and she
repeated, “I’m really feeling quite odd inside.” By mid-afternoon,
she couldn’t restrain her feelings and blurted out to her maid, “Until

188 type 22: alchemy

now I’ve loathed Daoist Bing, but today for whatever reason I’m
infatuated with him. Tell me, how does my face look?”
“You look like you’re falling asleep,” said the maid.
After dinner that night, Ms. Xin was lusting after the Daoist, and
the only thing holding her back was the presence of the rest of her
family. Holding herself together with great effort, she whispered
to her maid, “From now on, you must stay close by my side. If you
see me going into the Daoist’s room, slap me twice, right on the
cheek. Don’t forget!”
By the time she went to bed, her husband was already asleep. Ms.
Wei undid her robe, revealing her naked nether regions, opened the
door, and rushed over to the room of the Daoist, who just then was
drawing her in with a magic talisman. The maid ran after her, shout-
ing, “That’s the Daoist’s room, don’t go in there!”—but Ms. Xin
did not respond.
“Go outside,” the Daoist told the maid, pulling Ms. Xin in by
the hand. The maid advanced and gave her mistress two slaps on
the cheek, to no effect, and then twice more on the face, saying,
“You’re not dressed!”
Ms. Xin finally began to come to.
“I was just dreaming that I came here,” she remarked. “How is
it that I find myself here in the flesh? It’s a good thing you roused
me.” Taking her maid by the hand, she said, “Quick, back to my
quarters. How embarrassing!”
She went into her bedroom and kicked her husband awake. Then
she gave him a detailed account of everything that had happened,
up to when she’d be roused by her maid.
“How is that possible?” her husband replied. “You’ve always
hated him, so you must have concocted the whole thing. How could
you have had a mind to go, but also instructed the maid to restrain
you? You’re lying—I don’t believe a word of it.”
The next day, Ms. Xin had no option but to relate the whole story
to her husband’s elder brother. The brother told her husband to get
rid of the Daoist, but Yao wouldn’t, so the brother reported it to
the county court. The magistrate had the Daoist brought in and

type 22: alchemy 189

 given twenty strokes of the rod, but he was able to take the blows
with no pain at all, so the magistrate threw him in jail. The Daoist
went into prison with nothing, but from his hands he produced sil-
ver. This he used to bribe the guards, having them buy wine and
meat and bring it to his cell. The guards practically worshiped him,
in hopes of learning his secret. He was subsequently acquitted by
the prefectural and circuit courts, as officials tried to lay additional
charges that all had to be dropped for lack of evidence. Finally, he
paid a bribe and escaped, and his whereabouts are currently
unknown.
A succession of Yao Lu’s family members from different gen-
erations ended up dying of illness, poisoned by the Daoist’s witch-
craft. Only the chaste and upright Ms. Xin enjoyed a long and
healthy life, managing household affairs and raising her children
and grandchildren. She lived to over ninety.

Dark sorcery beguiles like a fox spirit: it can lead astray only a mind
that already has some evil in it. Keep your mind upright, and even if
evil spirits surround you they will not be able to harm you. That is why,
when Fu Yi did not believe in the death hex, the barbarian monk who
cast it himself died, and, when Zhongyan did not believe in the ghost
that killed his son, the ghost simply did not haunt him.2 Since Ms. Xin’s
mind was upright, even when confused by devilish magic she was able
to give advance instructions to her maid and avoided being poisoned by
its evil. Indeed, even the most ingenious magic cannot overcome genu-
ine rectitude. So should you ever encounter such witchcraft, fortify your
mind and pay it no heed; then the evil will have no way in!

Notes
1. Literally, she felt odd in her xin ⽫, anatomically the heart but also
considered the seat of thought and emotions, hence sometimes translated
as “mind-and-heart” or, as in this story, simply “mind” or “inside.”
2. Both references are anecdotes about skeptics overcoming sorcerers. In the
Zhenguan period (627–649) of the Tang dynasty, a foreign monk came to
court and claimed to be able to kill people—and bring them back to

190 type 22: alchemy

life—with a magic spell. The courtier Fu Yi, a vehement anti-Buddhist,
rejected the claim and allowed the spell to be tried on him. Not only did it
fail, soon afterward the monk keeled over and died. See Li Fang et al.,
Taiping guangji, juan 285. Zhongyan was the zi of Fu Yi’s contemporary,
Wang Tong 䌳忂 (584–617); we have not identified the source of this
anecdote.

type 22: alchemy 191

 A Foiled Alchemy Scam Leads
to a Poisoning

Ding Yuhong, a young fellow from Gutan, was a master of

clever ruses. He had an unerring nose for imposture and was
impossible to cheat. On one occasion he encountered a sorcerer
who claimed to be an alchemist. Yuhong could tell at a glance
that the man was a fraud and decided to swindle him. Playing
dumb, he plied the sorcerer with all sorts of questions about his
methods.
The sorcerer told him, “Alchemy is a supernatural practice that
since antiquity has been passed down to men of virtue, expressly
to relieve the suffering of the indigent. The first step is to select the
chemicals to be decocted into an elixir.1 Boiling a tenth of an ounce
of silver with the elixir yields three tenths of an ounce of silver—
you can turn one ounce of silver into three.”
“Can you make even more than that?” Yuhong asked.
“So long as you have the elixir, you can make a hundred ounces,
or even a thousand.”
 Yuhong gave him a tenth of an ounce to decoct first. The sor-
cerer added three parts elixir and boiled it into three tenths of an
ounce of silver. Yuhong was delighted, and gave him an additional
ounce to boil, yielding three. Yuhong was beside himself and invited
the sorcerer back to his house, where he waited on him attentively.
He gave the man all of the silver he had and asked him to create
some more from it. The alchemist went on to produce another
thirty-odd ounces of silver. Yuhong plied him continually with
ingratiating questions about his methods. But instead of fronting
any more money for alchemy, he ended up swindling away all of
the sorcerer’s capital.
The sorcerer figured that he couldn’t very well deal with Yuhong
in his own home, so he told him, “My elixir’s all used up. If you
bring more silver, I can go get more ingredients and we can head
elsewhere to do wholesale alchemy.”
Yuhong was well aware that the man wanted to lure him onto
the road, the better to swindle him, but he thought to himself, So
long as I stay on my guard, he won’t be able to get the better of me.
Eager to clean out the alchemist’s remaining funds, he brought
along fifty ounces of silver and left with him. He refused, however,
to pay for any expenses. When the sorcerer asked for money to buy
ingredients, Yuhong said, “Since you can turn elixir into silver, why
be stingy with the silver you’ve already made? Just decoct some
more for traveling expenses and I’ll hold on to my silver to buy the
ingredients later.”
The sorcerer took out his three remaining ounces of elixir and
Yuhong put in ten ounces of silver to make another thirty, which
they divided evenly between them. They traveled a great distance
over the next two days, and Yuhong remained vigilant even when
he ate and slept. Unable to rob him, the sorcerer secretly bought
some arsenic and hid it on his person. That night he bought a fresh
fish and took it to their inn, where Yuhong cooked it and divided it
into two bowls. As the sorcerer carried the first bowl over to where
they were sitting, he slipped the poison into it. As he carried the
second bowl over, he intentionally sneezed on it, spraying the fish
with mucus. “This bowl’s contaminated,” he said. “I’ll eat from it.”

type 22: alchemy 193

 By midnight Yuhong was suffering stomach pains, which con-
tinued into the next morning. The sorcerer went to a doctor to get
a painkiller, but after taking the decoction Yuhong’s pain just got
worse. By noon, Yuhong’s hair was disheveled, his lips were crack-
ing, and the pain in his stomach was unbearable. Suspecting that the
sorcerer had poisoned him, he begged him, “I only have fifty-five
ounces of silver on me. If you can save my life, I’ll give you half.”
At this point, Yuhong couldn’t even get out of bed. The sorcerer
took Yuhong’s silver and put it in his own bundle, then came over
to the bed and handed Yuhong a packet of medicine.
“I’m a traveler who relieves folks of their silver, and now you
come along, you devious fellow, and swindle fifty ounces from
me. Now I’m only taking five more ounces than you took from me.
Consider this an act of charity: I’ve given you the antidote, but
whether you make it or not depends on whether you’re fated to live
or to die.”
With that he took his bags and fled. Yuhong, in a panic, had the
innkeeper prepare the drug, which someone recognized as the rem-
edy for arsenic poisoning. After several doses, the pain subsided
and then ceased. Yuhong sought further treatment nearby; it took
him three days to recover fully. The sorcerer had stolen all his
money, so he had to beg his way home.

No one knew better than Yuhong how to guard against alchemy scams.
He was impervious to all manner of swindles and even managed to swin-
dle the bogus alchemist out of almost all of his capital. In this, he was
brilliant. In the end, however, he was cleaned out of all of the money he
had gained, plus five ounces of silver besides, getting poisoned and nearly
losing his life in the process. He was lucky to survive and beg his way
home, suffering hardship and indignity along the way. Never trust in
the alchemy of sorcerers!

Note
1. Dantou ᷡ柕, literally cinnabar, but also a generic term for medicines,
pills, and powders, especially miraculous ones.

194 type 22: alchemy

Type 23
Sorcery
 Using Dream Sorcery to Rob a Family

Foxes rest in mountain caves during the daytime and come out at
night to feed on the fruits of the forest. Once, one of them happened
to absorb from among the plants the primal essence of Heaven and
Earth and underwent a magical transformation. This fox gained the
ability to transform into a beautiful woman and would seduce men
and steal their yang essence to increase its own powers.
A Buddhist master caught this fox and cooked it. A monk from
his temple asked for the heart, which he baked slowly and smoked
with fine incense. The monk then built a thatched hut deep in the
woods and placed the fox heart inside as an object of veneration.
By day he would incant all manner of repentances and sutras for
its salvation. Nighttime would bring a host of demons and bizarre
phantoms who would howl, scream, moan, weep, cry, and shriek.
These apparitions could even speak—sometimes in human lan-
guage and sometimes in barbarous tongues. Contorting themselves
into all manner of bizarre shapes, they wailed outside the hut with
laments for the dead, making a chillingly desolate sound. Only
the bravest of men would dare to remain there. The laments con-
tinued for seven days, then gradually diminished. The monk con-
tinued reading sutras, casting spells, and making food offerings day
and night. After forty-nine days, he burned down the hut and took
the fox heart back to the temple, where he burned incense and can-
dles to it.
The night before he planned to visit someone, he would put the
fox heart into an embroidered sack and place it over his own heart.
Invariably, he would then dream of a woman guiding him to the
person in question. When he visited the person the following day,
they would be so astounded at already having just met the monk in
a dream that they would accede to whatever request he might make.
This is just one of the methods Buddhist monks use to swindle
through transformation.
Another story concerns a rich man named Yang Lao who had
two married sons. Despite all of his accumulated wealth, Yang was
a miser unwilling to tithe a single coin. One night he dreamed that
two monks of high repute came to him begging for alms. Sure
enough, the next day he was visited by two monks whose faces
looked identical to those he’d seen in his dream.
“You’ve been too reckless in accumulating wealth and have made
many people resentful,” they told him. “We share with you a fate
inherited from previous incarnations and have come here specially
to help you to repent.”
“How must I repent?” Yang asked credulously.
The monks replied, “First, your entire family must undertake a
vegetarian fast for three days. Next, purchase fruits, cakes, and noo-
dles, and sacrifice a pig, sheep, and ox to make up a meal that is half
meat and half vegetarian. We will then perform magic and make
entreaties on your behalf, and recite Buddhist sutras to absolve you
of sins committed in previous lives. Once the prayers are completed
your blessings will increase, your house will be purified, and you’ll
avoid an afterlife in Hell.”
Yang did as they instructed, fasting and purchasing the food
offerings.

type 23: sorcery 197

 On the third day two other monks arrived, and Yang retained
them to assist with chanting sutras. When night fell one of the
monks uttered incantations and burned talismans, then put a charm
on Yang that made him jump about and yell. He put a sword in
Yang’s hand and pointed to his wife and sons, telling Yang, “Those
are demons.” Yang stabbed them all, then started chasing after
his two daughters-in-law, who appealed to the monk for help.
The monk pointed at Yang and yelled “Sit!” Yang immediately
put up his sword, gnashed his teeth, and fell to the ground,
unconscious.
The four monks came in and gang-raped the two daughters-in-
law. They then bound the women with rope and stripped the house
of its valuables, tying them into bundles on four carrying poles, and
fled into the night.
The next day a neighbor came into the house and saw Yang lying
sprawled out over his sword with his eyes wide open, speaking in a
trance. The neighbor rushed out and called for everyone to come
and look. A group of relations jostled their way inside, where Yang
Lao was still going on about wanting to kill demons. The crowd
came up and wrested the sword away from him.
“Yang Lao,” they asked, calling him by name, “why did you do
this?”
Gradually, Yang regained his senses. Someone repeated the
question until he was finally able to answer: “I dreamed I saw a host
of demons in my house and was slaughtering them. Then you woke
me up.”
Yang then went into the back room and saw that his wife and
sons had all been killed.
“I remember killing three demons here,” he wailed. “I also
remember trying to kill two she-demons before a monk stopped me.”
Going into the bedroom, he found his two daughters-in-law tied
up on the bed and called a female neighbor over to go in and release
them. His daughters-in-law told him that they’d been raped by
monks who had taken all of the family’s gold, silver, silk, and other
valuables. Consumed by bitter hatred, the Yangs had the three
corpses encoffined and dispatched people in all directions to pursue

198 type 23: sorcery

the monks. After two days with no sign of them, the search was
called off.

Yang Lao was an avaricious man who had come by some of his wealth
through immoral means. This is why he believed the monks’ story and
shivered in fright when they spoke of people’s resentment. He retained
them to do penance on his behalf due to his sense of shame. In first appear-
ing in a dream and then using magic to effect their theft, these monks
were using the same technique as the monk who projected himself into
dreams using a fox heart. Though they appeared in the dream to be
esteemed monks, they turned out to be bandit monks. One would have
to be deluded to give more credence to nighttime dreams than to day-
time actions. And one would have to be stupid to think that one can go
through life doing no good deeds but then gain absolution through dis-
cipline and fasting. All too often nowadays people abandon benevo-
lence and righteousness for cruelty, greed, and violence—yet these same
people will feed monks, worship Buddha, and make shows of piety and
repentance. They’re trapped in the same old rut as Yang Lao! This
story offers chilling proof of the old saying: never do evil, and never trust
a monk.

type 23: sorcery 199

 Type 24
Pandering
 A Father Searching for His Wastrel Son
Himself Falls Into Whoring

Zuo Dongxi was a rich man whose only son, Shaoshan, once1
went to Nanjing on business, taking with him a thousand ounces
of silver in capital. Upon arrival in Nanjing he took up with a
prostitute called Moon Blossom in the house of Madame Mao.
When Shaoshan had been gone for an entire year, Zuo made inqui-
ries and learned that his son, having fallen into whoring and hedo-
nism, had abandoned all thought of returning home. Zuo wrote
letter after letter urging his son to come home. At first Shaoshan
would write back with excuses about accounts that needed collect-
ing, but eventually the replies stopped. When Zuo learned that
Shaoshan had already squandered half of his capital, he became
incensed and resolved to go find his son himself. Not wanting
the journey to be a total loss, he brought with him goods worth
three hundred ounces of silver and set off for Nanjing with a ser-
vant, Shi Lailu.
 Long before they and their goods had arrived in the capital,
someone tipped off Shaoshan: “Your father’s coming here on a sales
trip and will be looking for you.”
Distressed by this news, Shaoshan hurriedly summoned
Moon Blossom’s “mother,” Madame Mao, to discuss what to do.
“My father’s on his way here to persuade me to go home. If you
can come up with a plan to lure him into whoring too, I’ll be able
to stay longer. Otherwise, I’ll have to say my good-byes
tonight.”
“Just hide yourself inside and don’t let him catch sight of you,”
Madame Mao told him. “I know how to handle this.”
With that, she sent a servant to invite over Madame Xun, who
presided over the girls in the front courtyard, and asked her to help
set a cunning trap. Madame Xun agreed and left.
Zuo asked a fellow merchant sojourning in Nanjing where he
could find Madame Mao’s brothel and learned that his son was
courting the proprietress’s “daughter,” Moon Blossom. He soon
found his way to Madame Mao’s place, intending to order his son
home. Madame Mao herself came out and welcomed him with the
utmost courtesy.
“It’s taken me ten days to get to Nanjing, so could you please
just call that good-for-nothing son of mine to show himself?” Zuo
said to her.
Madame Mao’s reply was deferential and courteous. “Ah, so you
are the honorable father of Young Master Shaoshan? How fortu-
nate your unworthy servant is to meet you! Your son did stay at my
humble abode for two or three months, but I saw him off over a
month ago.”
She then called Moon Blossom out to meet Zuo.
“Pay your respects to the gentleman,” she said, indicating Zuo,
who did not acknowledge her bow. Madame Mao then ordered a
banquet to be prepared.
“I came here to fetch my worthless son,” Zuo told her, “not to
inveigle a banquet out of you. Hurry up and tell him that we ’re
going. Don’t try to detain me with false courtesy.”

202 type 24: pandering

 “But he really did leave over a month ago,” Moon Blossom
put in. “He said he was going to collect some accounts and then
return home. If he were actually here, we wouldn’t dare to deceive
you.”
Zuo didn’t believe it and was determined to hunt the boy down.
Madame Mao told him, “Our humble dwelling has only a few
rooms, which you are more than welcome to search. How could we
possibly be hiding him here?”
Moon Blossom led Zuo to the inner chambers, which he searched
thoroughly but fruitlessly.
“The broker told me he was here!” Zuo exploded. “Where have
you hidden him? Don’t lie to me! If my son doesn’t turn up, that
means you must have killed him, and I’ll sue you before the magis-
trate. Find him or else!”
Moon Blossom reacted with shock. “We’d never do anything to
harm our customers! Don’t make false accusations, sir.”
Zuo cursed them roundly and left. Just as he was storming
through the courtyard, a girl at the window dumped out a basin of
water, drenching him from head to toe.
“Who was that?!” he hollered.
“It was someone from the brothel,” Lailu replied.
As Zuo was cursing and gesticulating at her door, an alarmed
Madame Xun came out and asked what had happened. When she
learned that one of her girls, Auspicious Cloud, had accidentally
poured water on Zuo, she had her brought out and beaten with
innumerable strokes of the rod. Auspicious Cloud begged for mercy,
but Zuo turned a deaf ear.
Madame Xun then commanded the girl: “You will now fetch
Master Zuo a new set of clothes, kowtow to beg his forgiveness, and
keep him company here tonight to make it up to him. Otherwise,
you’ll be asking for trouble.”
Auspicious Cloud completed a full kowtow and then led Zuo
into her chamber, where she took out a new set of clothing for
him to change into. She then kneeled before him. “People in my
line of work fear nothing more than giving offense. I pray that in

type 24: pandering 203

 your boundless magnanimity you’ll see fit to forgive this slave ’s
crime.”
Zuo replied, “It’s not that I blame you, but I can’t very well go
out in wet clothes. Now that I have these new clothes, I’ll be off.
I’ll have them returned tomorrow.”
He gathered up his robe and rose to go, but she caught him. “Let
me offer you a drink to apologize first. If you go now, Madame will
take it out on me again.”
“How could I impose?” Zuo asked. A banquet had already been
laid out and, with Auspicious Cloud solicitously keeping him com-
pany, Zuo relaxed and enjoyed his wine. By evening he was ready
to depart, but Auspicious Cloud entreated him to stay, telling him:
“I’ve had no guests for a long time. If you don’t stay tonight, I won’t
be able to show my face again. Just stay the night and Madame will
be delighted and praise me for being able to retain a guest. Aren’t
I worth the money?”
They continued drinking until the second watch and then retired.
Zuo thought that he’d end up paying for her services eventually,
but he feigned disinterest and didn’t touch her, waiting to see what
she’d do.
Auspicious Cloud cuddled up and caressed him. “Sir! You’re
being a real Liuxia Hui—a pretty girl sits on your lap and you’re
completely unmoved.2 Do you plan on going home empty-handed
from Treasure Mountain? Besides, ‘no one knows what happens in
the dark’: they’re not going to praise you for playing the chaste
man tonight!”
Dongxi laughed and followed her lead. The next day, by the time
he arose and did his toilette it was nearly noon. A banquet was
already waiting, and Auspicious Cloud urged more and more
drink on him, playing music and singing to keep him company.
As evening approached Zuo again wanted to be off, but Auspi-
cious Cloud entreated him, “If you’re willing to stay another
night, Madame will be so happy. But if you leave after only one
night, this will have been just a casual encounter—‘a falling
petal full of feeling, swept away by a heartless current’! I know

204 type 24: pandering

that I’ve failed to wait on you properly, but I’ve suffered such a
long drought of guests—you won’t leave me high and dry, will
you?”
Zuo was persuaded to stay yet another night. The third day he
insisted on leaving no matter what and asked for his old clothing
back, to which Auspicious Cloud replied: “I’ve already ordered a
servant to deliver it to your lodgings.”
“Tomorrow I’ll return the borrowed clothing I’m wearing,” Zuo
told her.
“My only fear is that you don’t like it. And why don’t you take
a keepsake?”
She then pulled out a chest of trinkets, intending to select a gift.
Zuo saw that the chest was filled with pearls, jades, and expensive
knickknacks. Auspicious Cloud took out a fan pendant, saying, “I
hope you’ll accept this unworthy token of my regard—it’s made of
silver.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but why silver?”
“This pendant was given to me by the scion of an official from
the Board of Rites; you can see his poetic name engraved on the
side. All of Mr. Fan’s gifts to me are made of silver. The hairpins
and ornaments and the like I have to hold on to, so that if I receive
him again and he asks for them, they’ll be right there and he ’ll see
that I haven’t forgotten him. For this reason, I don’t dare give them
away to anyone else. This silver fan pendant, however, he gave me
in return for a favor, so I’m willing to give it to you. It has my name
cast into the side.”
Zuo took the fan pendant and left. The next day, he remarked
to Lailu, “This prostitute sure is in a difficult position, it seems to
me. She makes one mistake in pouring out a basin of water and
ends up having to make up for it by being such a painstaking host-
ess. I wouldn’t take a thing from her, except that I’m worried she ’d
be upset if I refused. I’ll give her four ounces of silver for the two
nights I stayed and the four banquets I ate. In return for the silver
fan pendant, I’ll give her three hairpins. You can take them to her
when you return this clothing—I’m not going there again.”

type 24: pandering 205

 But Lailu, as it turned out, had for the past two nights enjoyed
the company of the maidservant Guiying, and the two had grown
so affectionate that each couldn’t do without the other. Just before
Lailu had left, Guiying had told him, “If your master comes back,
we’ll be able to meet again,” so Lailu wanted nothing more than
for Zuo to resume whoring.
“The other day you went there empty-handed, but she still
treated you so respectfully,” Lailu reminded him. “If you take her
the money and hairpins today yourself, even if you don’t stay the
night you could at least stay for a drink. Why not enjoy another
meal on her?”
Zuo took his advice and went back to the brothel to present the
silver and hairpins in person. Auspicious Cloud beamed as she
received the gifts, which she took to show Madame Xun, boasting,
“Master Zuo gave me four ounces of silver and three hairpins! He
must have been really pleased with my services to have given me
so many gifts.”
Madame Xun too was thrilled and came out with a bow to
thank Zuo.
“We shouldn’t be accepting such lavish gifts, but given your con-
siderate patronage we hope you’ll enjoy yourself a few more days
at our humble establishment.”
Zuo made some insincere protest that he had to leave, but Aus-
picious Cloud pulled him into her chambers, where a banquet was
already laid out.
“Another banquet!” Zuo said. “How can I ever repay you for
going to so much trouble yet again?”
Auspicious Cloud replied, “The earlier banquets were just to
apologize for my mistake. Today’s can be deducted from the silver
you just brought me.”
“The money I’ve already given you can be used to repay past
expenses,” Zuo told her. “But if I’m going to be your patron, you’ll
have to count my expenses starting from today.”
With that, he whored day and night, losing all track of time.
Lailu was reunited with Guiying, and the two servants, beside
themselves with joy, became even more attentive and obedient in

206 type 24: pandering

their duties, ever anxious to please. Master and servant alike wal-
lowed in pleasure and set aside all thoughts of leaving.
Zuo would occasionally remark to Lailu, “This should stop.
We’ve wasted too much money.”
Lailu would respond by persuading him as follows: “Men of
wealth ought to spend their money on enjoying the pleasures of
women. Here you are, the head of a great household, finally able
to enjoy a few rare months of happiness. Even if you were to spend
all of your money, you wouldn’t have to worry about family mem-
bers back home going hungry. Besides, a man of your age should
enjoy himself while he can. Even if you live to a hundred, why live
as a miser?”
Zuo was infatuated to begin with, and following Lailu’s repeated
inducements he never looked back. Before he knew it, half a year
was gone, and with it three hundred ounces of his silver. Guiying
would periodically ask Lailu for gifts of clothing and jewelry, and
Lailu would beseech his master for the money. Zuo asked him,
“How much have I spent? I have no idea. We ’ll have to have
Madame Xun do the calculation and hold on to enough to pay our
way home.”
When their bill was totaled up, they had already spent over three
hundred ounces of silver. Zuo liquidated his stock, but even this was
not enough to pay his debts, much less to have any left over for trav-
eling expenses.
Lailu suggested, “Your son has plenty of funds; you could bor-
row some from him.”
“I’m not in a position to open my mouth,” Zuo replied. “You
go and find some tactful way to bring it up with him.”
When Shaoshan learned that his father had spent all his money
on prostitutes, he clapped his hands and laughed uproariously.
He had Moon Blossom arrange a farewell banquet and invited his
father and Auspicious Cloud. He then went home with his father,
not saying a word about what had transpired. Zuo imagined that
his encounter with Auspicious Cloud had come about thanks to
the workings of fate, completely unaware that he had fallen into a
well-laid trap.

type 24: pandering 207

 A femme fatale can corrupt a man; a beautiful woman can topple a city.
Since antiquity this has been a cause for regret. How can a man whose
will has been bent like a caterpillar remain pure and unsullied? Zuo had
not come seeking female company—his only desire was to fetch his son
and go home. He was well aware that prostitutes have the power to
bewitch and that their clients end up bankrupt, yet he ended up sinking
even deeper into the mire than his son. Rare indeed is the man able to
stay away from carnal pleasures and avoid addiction to sexual passion!
As Confucius put it: “I have yet to encounter a man who is as fond of
virtue as he is of sex.” Even a worthy man, if he is cavalier about
matters pertaining to sex, will find himself in trouble. That’s why the
saying in brothels is: “Don’t worry that comers will be clever custom-
ers; just worry that customers will be too clever to come!” Only those
who never set foot in the prostitute’s domain can stay free of her snare.
As for those who do take that step, none has avoided falling under her
spell.

Notes
1. Reading chang ▿ for chang ⷠ.
2. Liuxia Hui 㞛ᶳよ (720–621 b.c.e.), of the Kingdom of Lu, is regarded
as a paragon of moral propriety for having kept his hands to himself when
he had a woman sitting on his lap. In some versions of the story, he let her
sit there throughout a cold winter night because he was worried she would
freeze to death.

208 type 24: pandering

 Appendix 1
Preface to A New Book for Foiling Swindlers:
Strange Tales from the Rivers and Lakes

I have heard it said that eras of decline are rife with vice and thievery.
Armies pillage to the east while bandits run riot in the west. Yet even for
such threats there exist remedies, both offensive, like those of Lu Ban, and
defensive, like those of Mo Di.1 Hence the master of his times fears not
the rushing torrent but remains a bulwark in the face of roiling waters.
He does not disdain to learn from even the humble woodcutter; he also
draws lessons from past failures, avoiding roads that once tipped the cart.
Softer stones can be used to cut into jade, and the light of a candle on one’s
brow is enhanced by a basin of water.2 Likewise, even medicines that do
not extend life can replace rich fare as a means of attacking an ailment;
puppets that can hardly defend against an assault may yet stand in for
infantry in lifting a siege.3 Even an ointment for chapped hands can help
to defeat an enemy.4 Excessive focus on minutiae, of course, is akin to try-
ing to carve a monkey onto a thorn—such ingenuity cannot make good
every deficiency.5 In an age at the mercy of wind and waves, only a pre-
cious raft can assure safe passage.6
 In these times far removed from antiquity, morals degenerate and fraud
flourishes with every passing day. The crafty take advantage of the artless
and the wise deceive the foolish. A person’s glib tongue may well conceal
the dagger in his heart. This one harbors deceit, that one suspicion—no
human interaction nowadays can be heartfelt and candid. Demons and
spirits haunt the world and phantasms sweep the heavens. Everyone is
secretly armed, pitting mental pikes against shields of the will. Intrigues
blanket the benighted earth, like imps spitting poison at shadows in the
dust.7 Still, bright sunshine can unmask mountain demons and a cunning
rabbit may magically escape the snare.
As light turns swiftly to dark, all might well seem lost. Some curry
favor by letting a deer be called a horse, while others arrogate the author-
ity of the powerful like the fox walking before the tiger.8 Some fraudu-
lently claim to bear miraculous seals, while others perspicaciously dodge
an awl hidden within a sack. Everyone falls over themselves in their strug-
gle for victory through clever rhetoric, their subtlety and deceit making
every place a battleground. Compared to this, the Qutang Gorges of the
Yangzi were never so perilous and the treacherous cliffs of Mount Taihang
present an easy path. You might possess greater acumen than the elite
troops of Sun Zi and still lose twice for every victory won. Your clever-
ness might surpass that of the monkey master, yet you would not outdo
his scheme of pleasing his charges by reversing their ration to four acorns
in the evening and three in the morning.9 Only the rhinoceros horn of Ji
Huanzi was able to cast light on the river monster at Ox Islet, but even
with the mirror of the Qin ruler it would be difficult to illuminate a heart
in this dark sea.10
The decline in morals has reached such a crisis that a gentleman of con-
science cannot help but be alarmed. Such a man is Master Zhang Yingyu
of Jutan,11 who is both wise and deeply concerned for the world’s wel-
fare. Lamenting the now-distant golden age of the Xia, he reflected long
and hard on his own experiences. Having personally hazarded routes as
dangerous as the Ninefold Slopes, seen through the false and the vulgar
with his own eyes, and broken through the barrier of a hundred fears, he
proceeded to research earlier accounts with meticulous care, hunting out
examples near and far to create a book that captures the true state of the

210 appendix 1
populace and the spirit of the age. All underhanded dealings he reveals as
if he held them in the palm of his hand. Treacherous hearts and thieving
ways he plucks from their hidden recesses and presents before our very
eyes. Once a cataract has grown, only a metal needle can pierce it; when
tricksters have arisen by the hundreds, only the power of the Law can wash
them away.
Master Zhang’s work is akin to that of Yu the Great, who cast into his
Nine Cauldrons the form of every kind of animal, monster, human, and
demon. So too is it like that of the Divine Farmer, who described all the
medicinal plants and recorded their mild, cool, sweet, and bitter proper-
ties. Of old, the Duke of Zhou, troubled by the world’s decline and wor-
ried about its precarious state, put his ideas into the explanations of lines
in the Book of Changes.12 Master Zhang also resembles Master Han Fei,
who, reacting to the political machinations of his day, poured his anger
into the chapters the Forest of Persuasion and On Difficulties. Each of these
men spoke out because he could not help himself—there was no lack of
instigation. Mencius, likewise, sought to stop hypocrites in order to bring
back the constant norms, and Master Ouyang Xiu, by rebutting the Bud-
dhists, restored the fundamentals.13 Although their efforts to save the world
differed in each case, the solutions are the same in their essentials.
This collection does more than correct minor deficiencies: it exposes
the seedlings of falsehood in this age of decadence and uproots every
last shoot; it lays bare the fiendish motivations of the treacherous and
their closely guarded secrets. The elder head of household can use it to
guide his sons and grandsons away from the clutches of evildoers. The
young man on the road who follows its teachings can ward off villains
and avoid the traps of experienced crooks. Let them try their thousands
of tricks—their cleverness will not exceed what is found in this collec-
tion. It carries the title Strange Tales from the Rivers and Lakes because it
records the vices of this late age. It is also known as A New Book for Foil-
ing Swindlers because it reveals methods for salvation. Its prodigious con-
tributions will endure far into the future; these few words of mine merely
summarize its content.
Written on an auspicious day in the first month of the dingsi year of
the Wanli period [1617] by Xiong Zhenji, Hermit of the Three Peaks.

appendix 1 211
 Notes
1. Lu Ban 欗䎕 (trad. fifth century b.c.e.) was famed as an engineer, master
craftsman, and inventor, notably of siege weapons; his contemporary the
philosopher Mo Di ⡐侇 was expert in defensive warfare. The whole
preface is dense with classical allusions, which we have annotated only
where further information is necessary to understand the text. It does not
appear in any Ming imprint that we have seen, but is preserved in a
handwritten copy in the National Archives of Japan (see bibliography for
details). For an annotated version and Japanese translation see Itō Kanako,
et al., “Tohen shinsho” yakuchū kō shohen, 2015, 121–29.
2. Because of its extreme hardness, jade cannot be cut with ordinary tools;
instead it was worked with an abrasive (typically wet sand). The basin of
water presumably reflects candlelight onto the face of a person using a
mirror for their toilette. In both cases, as elsewhere in this passage, the
author gives examples of how one might use humble or indirect means to
achieve a more lofty objective. His suggestion seems to be that countering
swindles and knavery calls for similar resourcefulness.
3. The latter alludes to a stratagem employed by the Han military leader
Chen Ping 昛⸛ (d. 178 b.c.e.), who lifted a Xiongnu siege by using
mannequins to create a false show of strength.
4. Zhuangzi records a story in which such a balm was crucial to a military
victory. Zhuangzi jijie 匲⫸普妋, ed. Wang Xianqian 䌳⃰嫁 (Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, 1987), 7.
5. In a story recorded by the Warring States thinker Han Fei, thorn carving
is a frivolous and perhaps impossible skill: an artisan who boasts that he
can sculpt a tiny simian from a thorn is kept on as a court retainer but flees
when called upon to demonstrate his art. Han Fei zi jishi 杻朆⫸普慳, ed.
Chen Qiyou 昛⣯䋟 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1958), 626–27.
6. “Precious raft,” baofa ⮞䫷, is a Buddhist term for the dharma that ferries
souls to salvation.
7. On these yu 囖, a kind of water demon, see Carla Nappi, The Monkey and
the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009), 101–5.
8. In the first of these well-known parables, a treacherous eunuch offers a
deer to the Second Emperor of the Qin (r. 210–207 b.c.e.), insisting that it
is in fact a horse; he then identifies as allies and enemies respectively those
who acquiesce to or reject his patently false description. (The Qin dynasty
collapsed later that year.) In the second, a fox about to be devoured by a
tiger saves itself by claiming to be the most fearsome of all beasts; it asks
the tiger to follow and watch as all creatures flee before it. The tiger is

212 appendix 1
 convinced, not realizing that itself, not the fox, is the one scaring the other
animals.
9. This alludes to a story told in the early medieval text Liezi about a trainer
who tricks his intelligent simian charges by redistributing, rather than
increasing, their feedings. Liezi jishi ↿⫸普慳, ed. Yang Bojun 㣲ỗⲣ
(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), 86.
10. According to his biography in the Jin shu 㗱㚠, the official Wei Jiao 㹓ⵈ
(288–329) revealed a hidden aquatic creature near Ox Islet by burning a
rhino horn; Ji Huanzi ⬋㟻⫸ is an unrelated figure who discovered a
strange animal in a well. The author may have conflated these two stories
because they appear in close proximity in a famous tenth-century
encyclopedia, the Imperial Conspectus of the Taiping Era. See Li Fang 㛶㖱
(925–996), et al., Taiping yulan ⣒⸛⽉奥 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1963), juan 885. Cf. Fang Xuanling ㇧䌬漉, ed., Jin shu (Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 67.1795–96. The Qin palace, according to legend,
had full-length mirrors whose reflections, like medical scans, revealed the
viscera of the person imaged. The illustrations that start each of the four
juan of the Ming woodblock edition of the Book of Swindles are based on
allusions in this paragraph.
11. Jutan refers to a site in Jianyang, Fujian, where an academy was con-
structed in the Song period (960–1279). This attributed place of origin
contradicts the chapter headings of the book, which identify Zhang as a
native of Zhejiang province. There are several possible explanations.
Xiong shows no evidence here that he knew anything about Zhang beyond
what he could have gleaned from a draft, or even a mere description, of the
book, so he might have mistakenly assumed that since Zhang contacted
him from Jianyang he was also a native of that area. It is equally possible
that although Zhang lived and was even born in Jianyang, his family had
migrated there from Zhejiang and retained its nominal registration in
Zhejiang. It is even conceivable that the publisher imagined that labeling
the author Zhejiangese would increase the appeal of his work.
12. Yu 䥡 was a legendary sage-ruler of early antiquity and the founder of the
Xia dynasty; he is said to have cast a set of nine vessels with encyclopedic
representations of creation that later became insignia of legitimate rule.
To the Divine Farmer, Shennong 䤆彚, is attributed an early pharmaco-
poeia recording the nutritional and therapeutic properties of materia
medica, especially botanicals. The Duke of Zhou, regent for the third
Zhou king in the eleventh century b.c.e., is the reputed author of part of
the Book of Changes.
13. Both the Warring States philosopher Mencius (372–289 b.c.e.) and the
Song period thinker Ouyang Xiu 㫸春ᾖ (1007–1072) critiqued what
they saw as the heterodox teachings of their times.

appendix 1 213
 Appendix 2
Story Finding List

The table that follows lists all the stories in Dupian xinshu in their original
order. It indicates, under the heading CRT, the juan and pages where the
story can be located in our base text (the copy of the Cunren tang edition
held in the library of the Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo of the University of
Tokyo). For example, “Handing Over Silver Before Running Off with
It” can be found on pages 4a (first side of the leaf numbered 4) to 5b (sec-
ond side of the leaf numbered 5) in juan 1. The rightmost column, BoS,
gives page numbers for the stories translated in this book.
Note that there are discrepancies between the titles of stories as they
appear in the table of contents and the main text of the Cunren tang edi-
tion. We have generally relied on the title appearing in the text but have
corrected obvious errors.
Type Chinese Title English Title CRT BoS

僓∅槁 `楔僓䶆 Stealing Silk with a Decoy Horse 1.1a–4a 2–5

Misdirection and ⃰⭬戨侴⼴㉸徫 Handing Over Silver Before Running Off with It 1.4a–5b 6–8
Theft
㖶槁屑尔 A Clever Trick on a Pig Seller 1.5a–7a 9–10
忯慴攟⍲僓勞⢢ Encountering the Village Head and Then Stealing a Teapot 1.7a–9a
Ḁ櫏㖶䩲⸿ᷕⶫ Taking Advantage of the Bustle in a Shop to Brazenly Steal a Bolt of Cloth 1.9a–10a
姸䧙‟洅僓曺ⶫ Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending to Steal a Goose 1.10b–12a 10–13
ῇṾṢ⯳ẍ僓ⶫ Borrowing a Storefront to Steal Cloth 1.12a–14a
姸⋈ᾖ㎃拊㟴⺂ A Fake Carpenter Fixes a Money Changer’s Desk Drawer 1.14a–15a

᷇⊭槁 嶗徼᷇⊭埴僓㎃ Dropping a Bag by the Roadside to Set Up a Switcheroo 1.15a–16b 15–17
The Bag Drop

㎃戨槁 ㆸ拈`戨㎃䛇戨 Swapping Fake Silver for a Pure Ingot 1.16b–18a

Money Changing 忻⢓凡ᷕ㎃廱慹 A Daoist in a Boat Exchanges Some Gold 1.18a–20a 19–22

姸⑬槁 姸⬠忻㚠⟙⤥⣊ Forged Letters from the Education Intendant Report Auspicious Dreams 1.20a–22a 24–27
Misrepresentation 姸䃉ⷠ䅺䇺㋽Ṣ Gulling People by Impersonating an Envoy from the Netherworld and 1.22a–24a
Burning a Register
 姸ẍⷂ㝬侵延⣓ Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke on Sedan Bearers 1.24a–26a 28–31
⶟攨⎋姸屟僓ⶫ Stealing Cloth by Pretending to Purchase It at an Alley Entrance 1.26a–27a

‥Ṍ槁 ⑬梚⩾⭛℞幓⎵ Incitement to Drinking and Whoring Ruins Health and Reputation 1.27a–29a
False Relations ⑬⍳䉗⤠媨℞䓘 Inciting a Friend to Commit Adultery and Swindling Away His Land 1.29b–31a 33–36
⢀䬿⍳屉⁦℞⭞ Debts Accumulated Against a Friend’s Property Bankrupt a Family 1.31a–33a
㽨⍳姇⤠ẍ㓿⭞ Spurring a Friend to Launch a Fornication Suit to Ruin a Family 1.33a–36a

䈁埴槁 䊉䈁僓䳁ẍ⤛⃇ A Conniving Broker Takes Paper and Ends Up Paying with His Daughter 1.36a–38a 38–41
Brokers 屏䈁僓埇怬冲⁝ A Destitute Broker Takes Some Wax to Pay Off Old Debts 1.38a–41a 42–45

⺽岕槁 ⌙妨㽨Ṣ⺽ℵ岕 A Stern Warning to a Gambler Provokes Others to Entice Him to Relapse 1.41a–43a 47–50
Enticement to 墅℔⫸⣿⤻僓岕 Posing as a Wealthy Scion and Enlisting a Prostitute in a Gambling Scam 1.43a–46a
Gambling
⤥岕⍵句Ṣ埻ᷕ A Gambling Addict Falls Prey to an Ingenious Trick 1.46a–48b

曚屉槁 姸䧙℔⫸䚄⓮戨 Impersonating the Son of an Official to Steal a Merchant’s Silver 2.1a–3a 52–55
Showing Off 䁓侨堋⥅┇䚄⽫ Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny 2.3a–5a 56–58
Wealth

(continued )
Type Chinese Title English Title CRT BoS

媨屉槁 䚄⓮ề屉⍵╒屉 Stealing a Business Partner’s Riches Only to Lose One’s Own 2.5b–8b 60–64
Scheming for ⁚㯋农姇 屉␥ Haughtiness Leads to a Lawsuit That Harms Wealth and Health 2.7a–12b 65–70
Wealth
延㉔䪍䓇ℍ₣嶗 Sedan Bearers Take a Confucian Apprentice Off the Beaten Path 2.12b–14a
檀㉔慵₡⍵⣙⇑ Jacking Up the Price of Goods Only to End Up Ruined 2.14a–15b

䚄≓槁 ℔⫸䦇⯳≓⮉⨎ A Fake Scion Rents Rooms and Robs a Widow 2.15b–17b
Robbery 姸僓屐䈑≓䔞抒 Robbing a Pawnshop by Pretending to Leave Goods There 2.17b–19a 72–74
Ṕ❶⸿ᷕ枧楔屲 A Highwayman Robs a Shop in the Capital 2.19a–20b

⻟㏞槁 䥩ㇻ⌘姀⌈抒昛 Acquiring a Bedroll by Marking It in Secret 2.20b–22a

Violence 儷喍層䛤㏞⃫⮞ Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal a Silver Ingot 2.22a–23a 76–77
䞛䀘㐺䛤ẍ㏞戨 Stealing Silver by Throwing Lime in the Eyes 2.23a–23b
⣏妋塓㡵䘥㖍㏞ Robbed by Crooks in Broad Daylight While Taking a Dump 2.23b–24a

⛐凡槁 凡庱⭞Ṣ埴㛶徫 Luggage Aboard a Boat Disappears, Along with a Family Member 2.24a–25b
On Boats ⧞⥦⛐凡⣄塓㉸ A New Concubine Is Kidnapped from a Boat at Night 2.25b–27b
屟戭䈑塓凬媨㬣 A Purchase of Copperware Incites Boatmen to Murder 2.27b–30b
 ⷞ掉凡ᷕ⺽媨⭛ Bringing Mirrors Aboard a Boat Invites a Nefarious Plot 2.30b–34a 79–83
埴㛶婌㊹⼨⇍凡 Loading Cargo Onto the Wrong Boat 2.34a–35b
儛⣓㊹崘崟凡屐 Porters Run Off with Cargo from a Boat 2.35b–38b 84–87

娑娆槁 ‥墅忻⢓槁渥ἧ Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as Daoists 2.38b–40b 89–93
Poetry 昛ℐ怢妰⩾⎵⤻ Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms of a Famous Courtesan 2.41a–43b 94–97

`戨槁 姕`⃫⮞槁悱彚 Planting a Fake Ingot to Swindle a Farmer 2.43b–46a 99–102

Fake Silver ℺ⶆ㍍叿㺪䘥排 Passing a Whitewashed Ingot in Maozhou 2.46b–52b

堁⼡槁 ℍ倆⭀妨侴↢槁 Swindled on the Way Out of a Court Hearing 3.1a–4a 104–108
Government 㓭㒔慵伒慳䉗Ṣ A Trumped-Up Death Sentence Is Commuted to Exile 3.4a–6a
Underlings
⎷␝伒⚂ẍ↮屔 An Officer Reprimands a Captured Criminal to Halve His Flogging 3.6a–7a 109–110

⨂⧞槁 ⨎⩩㶀埿侴⭛␥ Marrying a Street Cleaner and Provoking His Death 3.7a–10a 112–116
Marriage ⨺岢㗍⃫⧞␥⨎ Matchmakers Defraud a Provincial Graduate Seeking to Marry a Lady 3.10a–13b
of Rank
䔘䚩⧞⥦ァ姇䤵 Taking a Concubine from Another Province Leads to a Disastrous Lawsuit 3.13b–15b 117–119
⚈嚁曚↢媨⧞ね A Marriage Scam of Passion Comes to Light Because of a Frog 3.15b–20b

(continued )
Type Chinese Title English Title CRT BoS

⦎ね槁 䓐戨⍵屟䃁䳁⨎ Money and Guile Buy a Paper Maker’s Wife 3.20b–22a
Illicit Passion ␴⯂−䴡婧ừ⨎ A Monk Seduces a Tenant Farmer’s Wife with a Length of Silk 3.22a–24b
⛘䎮⭬⨎僓⤥䧖 A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good Seed1 3.24b–29b 121–128
⦎Ṣ⨊农䚄⍣戨 Robbed of Silver After Fornicating with a Maidservant 3.30a–31a
⦎䈁Ṣ⤛塓僓槁 Fleeced After an Affair with a Broker’s Daughter 3.31b–33a

⨎Ṣ槁 ⑬⫠ㆸ⤠槁㱡⭊ Coaxing a Sister-in-Law Into Adultery to Scam Oil and Meat 3.33b–37a 130–134
Women 䇔䀘⽑槁⤠⦣㭵 A Man Rapes His Daughter-in-Law and Then Tricks Her Mother Into Sex 3.37a–39b
ừ⨎岋⤠僓ᷣ䓘 A Tenant Farmer’s Wife Prostitutes Herself to Steal the Master’s Land 3.39b–42b
ᶱ⨎榶崘ᶱ⋡楔 Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses 3.42b–44b 135–137
⯤⥹㐺䎈ẍ婀⦎ A Buddhist Nun Scatters Prayer Beads to Lure a Woman Into Adultery 3.44b–48a 138–143

㉸ⷞ槁 ⇢䛤↾儛星㭀䕦 A Gang Maims Girls and Forces Them Into Beggardom 3.48b–50b
Kidnapping ⣒䚋䂡Ṣ㚵䱦橻 A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic of Male Essence 3.51a–53b 145–149

屟⬠槁 姸朊忚戨㕤⬠忻 Pretending to Present Silver to an Education Commissioner 4.1a–3a 151–153

Corruption in 悱⭀㇧ᷕ㉤⮩㡅 Affixing Seals in a Functionary’s Chambers 4.3b–5a 154–156
Education
姸⮩戨ẍ䢂㎃⍣ Silver with Sham Seals Is Switched for Bricks 4.5b–7a 157–159
䨢⯳⮩戨⣿Ṣ㏞ Robbed by a Gang While Sealing Silver in an Unoccupied Room 4.7a–9a 160–163
 姸䥳桐⭊ẍ㓔槁 A Fake Freeloader Takes Over a Con 4.9a–11a 164–167
戨⭬⸿ᷣ塓䩲徫 Money Stashed with an Innkeeper Is Burgled 4.11a–14a 168–172

₏忻槁 ␴⯂娵䈅䈃䁢㭵 A Buddhist Monk Identifies a Cow as His Mother 4.14a–17a 174–178
Monks and 㚵⬑⃺ᷡ姸彇㭪 Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting2 4.17a–22a 179–185
Priests
ᾉ₏⑬べ⸦㝻䤵 Believing a Deceitful Monk Leads to a Chain of Calamities 4.22a–23b
₏Ụụ啵姸⊾䔷 A Buddhist Monk Impersonates Guan Yu to Scam a Major Donation 4.23b–26b
姸䧙⃰䞍槁䴡㚵 Scamming a Silk Robe with Feigned Foresight 4.26b–28a

䃱ᷡ槁 㶙⛘䃱ᷡ伖攟䫎 An Alchemist in a Pit Uses Amulets to Escape 4.28a–30a

Alchemy ᾉ䃱ᷡ履⭛ᶨ⭞ Trusting in Alchemy Harms an Entire Family 4.30a–32b 187–191
䃱ᷡ暋僓㈽㭺喍 A Foiled Alchemy Scam Leads to a Poisoning 4.33a–35a 192–194

㱽埻槁 㱽㯜䄏⼊⒮媨⍵ Magic Reflections in Water Incite a Rebellion 4.35a–37b

Sorcery ⤾埻㈀⣊≓℞⭞ Using Dream Sorcery to Rob a Family 4.37b–40a 196–197
㐑共屲㉸ⷞ⸤䪍 A Villain Kidnaps Boys by Touching Their Face 4.40a–42a

⺽⩾槁 䇞⮳⫸侴冒句⩾ A Father Searching for His Wastrel Son Himself Falls Into Whoring 4.42a–47a 201–208
Pandering
1
Includes four additional stories.
2
Includes one additional story.
 Bibliography

Early Copies of Dupian xinshu

Dingke Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 溶⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄槁㕘㚠. Late-Ming wood-
block edition, Cunren tang, Jianyang, Fujian. Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo (Insti-
tute for Advanced Studies on Asia) of the University of Tokyo, formerly in
the Sōkōdō 暁䲭➪. A woodblock illustration appears at the head of each of
four juan. Some leaves replaced with handwritten copies in a Japanese hand.
Photoreproduction at http://shanben.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/main_p.php?nu=
D8624000&order=rn_no&no=04481 (accessed November 13, 2016).
Dingke Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 溶⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄槁㕘㚠. Late-Ming wood-
block edition, Cunren tang, Jianyang, Fujian. A woodblock illustration
appears at the head of each of four juan. Harvard-Yenching Library. Leaf 1.47
missing. Photoreproduction at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:26866101
(accessed November 13, 2016).
Dingke Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 溶⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄槁㕘㚠. Early Edo period
manuscript copy of Ming woodblock edition of Juren tang, Fujian, Jianyang.
Includes 1617 Xiong Zhenji preface; no illustrations. Owned, and likely anno-
tated, by Hayashi Razan 㜿伭Ⱉ (1583–1657). National Archives of Japan,
Call No. 300–054, formerly in the Cabinet Library. Photoreproduction at
 http://www.digital.archives.go.jp/das/image/F1000000000000102866
(accessed November 13, 2016).
Dingke Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 溶⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄槁㕘㚠. Wanli-period
woodblock edition. National Archives of Japan, formerly in the Cabinet
Library. Call No. 300–059. Not seen.
Dingke Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 溶⇣㰇㷾㬟奥㜄槁㕘㚠. Wanli-period
woodblock edition. Sonkeikaku ⮲䳴敋, Tokyo. Not seen.

Selected Modern Editions of Dupian xinshu,

in Chronological Order
Dupian xinshu 㜄槁㕘㚠. In Ming-Qing shanben xiaoshuo congkan chubian 㖶㶭
┬㛔⮷婒⎊↲⇅䶐, Series 3. Taipei: Tianyi chubanshe, [1985?]. Photore-
production of copy at Harvard-Yenching Library.
Dupian xinshu 㜄槁㕘㚠. In Guben xiaoshuo jicheng ⎌㛔⮷婒普ㆸ, Series 3.
Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, [1990?]. Photoreproduction of copy at
Harvard-Yenching Library.
Dupian xinshu 㜄槁㕘㚠. In Guben xiaoshuo congkan ⎌㛔⮷婒⎊↲, Series 35,
Vol. 3. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991. Photoreproduction of copy at Harvard-
Yenching Library.
Jianghu qiwen dupian xinshu 㰇㷾⣯倆㜄槁㕘㚠. Ed. Meng Zhaolian ⬇㗕忋.
Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 1992.
Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu 㰇㷾㙮奥㜄槁㕘㚠. Beijing: Tuanjie chubanshe,
1993.
Fangpian midian 旚槁䦀℠. Ed. Kang Huiyi ⹟㘱⭄. Guangzhou: Guangzhou
chubanshe, 1993.
Jianghu qiwen dupian xinshu 㰇㷾⣯倆㜄槁㕘㚠. Ed. Liao Dong ⹾㜙. Zheng-
zhou: Zhongzhou guji chubanshe, 1994.
Dupian xinshu 㜄槁㕘㚠. In Zhongguo gudai zhenxiben xiaoshuo ᷕ⚳⎌ẋ䍵䦨
㛔⮷婒. Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chubanshe, 1994.
Xinke jianghu dupian shu: Zhongguo gudai diyi bu fan zhapian qishu 㕘⇣㰇㷾㜄
槁埻: ᷕ⚳⎌ẋ䫔ᶨ悐⍵姸槁⣯㚠. Ed. Ji Fan 䲨↉. Shijiazhuang:
Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe, 1995.
Fangpian jing: Jianghu qiwen dupian xinshu jinyi jinjie 旚槁䴻烉˪㰇㷾⣯倆—
㜄槁㕘㚠˫Ṳ嬗Ṳ妋. Ed. Ding Xiaoshan ᶩ㙱Ⱉ. Beijing: Zhongguo
wenlian chuban gongsi, 1997.
Pian jing 槁䴻. In Zhongguo jinhui xiaoshuo baibu ᷕ⚳䤩㭨⮷婒䘦悐. Beijing:
Dazhong wenhua chubanshe, 1999.
Pian jing 槁䴻. Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2008.

224 bibliography
 Other Sources Cited
Alpert, Michael, trans. Lazarillo de Tormes and The Swindler: Two Spanish Pica-
resque Novels. Rev. ed. New York: Penguin, 2003.
Altenburger, Roland. “Täuschung und Prävention: Ambiguitäten einer Sammlung
von Fallgeschichten aus der späten Ming-Zeit.” In Harmonie und Konflikt in
China, ed. Christian Soffel and Tilman Schalmey, 109–27. Jahrbuch der
Deutschen Vereinigung für China-Studien, 9. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Ver-
lag, 2014.
Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Chia, Lucille. Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian
(11th–17th Centuries). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003.
Fang Xuanling ㇧䌬漉, ed. Jin shu 㗱㚠. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974.
Gao Qi 檀⓻. Daquan ji ⣏ℐ普. In Wenyuan ge Siku quanshu 㔯㶝敋⚃⹓!
ℐ㚠. Photoreproduction of late-Qing manuscript copy. Taipei: Shangwu
yinshuguan, 1983.
Han Dacheng 杻⣏ㆸ. Mingdai chengshi yanjiu 㖶ẋ❶ⶪ䞼䨞. Beijing: Zhong-
guo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1991.
Han Fei zi jishi 杻朆⫸普慳. Ed. Chen Qiyou 昛⣯䋟. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1958.
Hanan, Patrick. “The Making of The Pearl-Sewn Shirt and The Courtesan’s Jewel
Box.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 33, no. 3–4 (1973): 124–53.
He, Yuming. Home and the World: Editing the “Glorious Ming” in Woodblock-
Printed Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Asia Center, 2013.
Itō Kanako Ẳ喌≈⣰⫸, et al. “Tohen shinsho” yakuchū kō shohenˬ㜄槁㕘㚠˭!
姛㲐䧧⇅䶐. N.p.: “Tohen Shinsho” no Kisoteki Kenkyū Purojekuto, 2015.
Lai, T. C. T’ang Yin, Poet/painter, 1470–1524. Hong Kong: Kelly and Walsh,
1971.
Lei Junyao 暟⏃㚄, ed. Huitu pianshu qitan 丒⚾槁埻⣯婯. 4 vols. Shanghai:
Saoye shanfang, 1909.
Lenz, William E. Fast Talk and Flush Times: The Confidence Man as a Literary Con-
vention. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985.
Li Fang 㛶㖱, et al. Taiping guangji ⣒⸛⺋姀. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1961.
——. Taiping yulan ⣒⸛⽉奥. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963.
Li Sha 㛶匶. “‘Da qiufeng’ yuyuan kaoshi’” “ㇻ䥳桐”婆㸸侫慳. Guangxi minzu
xueyuan xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) ⺋大㮹㕷⬠昊⬠⟙ (⒚⬠䣦㚫
䥹⬠䇰) S2 (December 2001): 239–40.
Liezi jishi ↿⫸普慳. Ed. Yang Bojun 㣲ỗⲣ. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979.

bibliography 225
 Lu, Tina. Accidental Incest, Filial Cannibalism, and Other Peculiar Encounters in Late
Imperial Chinese Literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center,
2008.
Maurer, David. The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man. New York: Anchor,
1999 [1940].
McNicholas, Mark. Forgery and Impersonation in Imperial China: Popular Decep-
tions and the High Qing State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016.
Nappi, Carla. The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations
in Early Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Niu Jianqiang 䈃⺢⻟. “Wan Ming duanpian shiqing xiaoshuoji Dupian xinshu
banbenkao” 㘂㖶䞕䭯ᶾね⮷婒普˪㜄槁㕘㚠˫䇰㛔侫. Wenxian jikan
㔯䌣⬋↲ 3 (July 2000): 200–10.
Rolston, David L. Traditional Chinese Fiction and Fiction Commentary: Reading and
Writing Between the Lines. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Sima Qian ⎠楔怟. Shiji ⎚姀. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982.
Slingerland, Edward G. Confucius Analects: With Selection from Traditional Com-
mentaries. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003.
Song Yingxing ⬳ㅱ㗇. Tiangong kaiwu ⣑ⶍ攳䈑. 1637 woodblock ed.
Tang Yin Ⓒ⭭. Tang Bohu shi jiyi jianzhu Ⓒỗ嗶娑廗灳䬳㲐. Ed. Zheng Qian
惕槓. Taipei: Lianjing, 1982.
——. Tang Bohu xiansheng quanji Ⓒỗ嗶⃰䓇ℐ普. 2 vols. Photoreproduction
of 1614 Nanya tang ed. Taipei: Xuesheng shuju, 1970.
Wu Zhaoyang ⏛㛅春. “Dupian xinshu Fujian difang shuxing kaoshu” ˪㜄槁
㕘㚠˫䤷⺢⛘㕡Ⱄ⿏侫徘, Ming-Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu 㖶㶭⮷婒䞼䨞
113, no. 3 (2014): 161–72.
Xin Yu 彃佥. “‘Da qiufeng’ xiaokao” “ㇻ䥳桐”⮷侫. Yaowen juezi ⑔㔯♤⫿
7 (2012): 40–42.
Youd, Daniel M. “Beyond Bao: Moral Ambiguity and the Law in Late Imperial
Chinese Narrative Literature.” In Writing and Law in Late Imperial China:
Crime, Conflict, and Judgment, ed. Robert E. Hegel and Katherine Carlitz, 215–
33. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007.
Zhou Hui ␐㘱. Jinling suoshi 慹昝䐋ḳ. 2 vols. Beijing: Wenxue guji kanxing-
she, 1955.
Zhuangzi jijie 匲⫸普妋. Ed. Wang Xianqian 䌳⃰嫁. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1987.

226 bibliography
Translations from the Asian Classics
Major Plays of Chikamatsu, tr. Donald Keene 1961
Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu, tr. Donald Keene. Paperback ed. only. 1961; rev. ed. 1997
Records of the Grand Historian of China, translated from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch’ien, tr.
Burton Watson, 2 vols. 1961
Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-ming, tr.
Wing-tsit Chan 1963
Hsün Tzu: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson, paperback ed. only. 1963; rev. ed. 1996
Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson, paperback ed. only. 1964; rev. ed. 1996
The Mahābhārata, tr. Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan. Also in paperback ed. 1965; rev. ed.
1997
The Manyōshū, Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai edition 1965
Su Tung-p’o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet, tr. Burton Watson. Also in paperback
ed. 1965
Bhartrihari: Poems, tr. Barbara Stoler Miller. Also in paperback ed. 1967
Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hsün Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu, tr. Burton Watson. Also in separate
paperback eds. 1967
The Awakening of Faith, Attributed to Aśvaghosha, tr. Yoshito S. Hakeda. Also in paperback
ed. 1967
Reflections on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology, comp. Chu Hsi and Lü
Tsu-ch’ien, tr. Wing-tsit Chan 1967
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, tr. Philip B. Yampolsky. Also in paperback ed.
1967
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō, tr. Donald Keene. Also in paperback ed. 1967
The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, tr. Ivan Morris, 2 vols. 1967
Two Plays of Ancient India: The Little Clay Cart and the Minister’s Seal, tr. J. A. B. van
Buitenen 1968
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, tr. Burton Watson 1968
The Romance of the Western Chamber (Hsi Hsiang chi), tr. S. I. Hsiung. Also in paperback
ed. 1968
The Manyōshū, Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai edition. Paperback ed. only. 1969
Records of the Historian: Chapters from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch’ien, tr. Burton Watson.
Paperback ed. only. 1969
Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by the T’ang Poet Han-shan, tr. Burton Watson. Also in
paperback ed. 1970
Twenty Plays of the Nō Theatre, ed. Donald Keene. Also in paperback ed. 1970
Chūshingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, tr. Donald Keene. Also in paperback ed.
1971; rev. ed. 1997
The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, tr. Philip B. Yampolsky 1971
Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from the Han and Six Dynasties Periods, tr.
Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed. 1971
Kūkai: Major Works, tr. Yoshito S. Hakeda. Also in paperback ed. 1972
The Old Man Who Does as He Pleases: Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Lu Yu, tr.
Burton Watson 1973
The Lion’s Roar of Queen Śrīmālā, tr. Alex and Hideko Wayman 1974
Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China: Selections from the History of the Former Han by
Pan Ku, tr. Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed. 1974
Japanese Literature in Chinese, vol. 1: Poetry and Prose in Chinese by Japanese Writers of the
Early Period, tr. Burton Watson 1975
Japanese Literature in Chinese, vol. 2: Poetry and Prose in Chinese by Japanese Writers of the
Later Period, tr. Burton Watson 1976
Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gītagovinda, tr. Barbara Stoler Miller. Also in
paperback ed. Cloth ed. includes critical text of
the Sanskrit. 1977; rev. ed. 1997
Ryōkan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, tr. Burton Watson 1977
Calming the Mind and Discerning the Real: From the Lam rim chen mo of Tsoṇ-kha-pa, tr.
Alex Wayman 1978
The Hermit and the Love-Thief: Sanskrit Poems of Bhartrihari and Bilhaṇa, tr. Barbara
Stoler Miller 1978
The Lute: Kao Ming’s P’i-p’a chi, tr. Jean Mulligan. Also in paperback ed. 1980
A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnō Shōtōki of Kitabatake Chikafusa, tr. H. Paul
Varley 1980
Among the Flowers: The Hua-chien chi, tr. Lois Fusek 1982
Grass Hill: Poems and Prose by the Japanese Monk Gensei, tr. Burton Watson 1983
Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China: Biographies of Fang-shih, tr. Kenneth J.
DeWoskin. Also in paperback ed. 1983
Theater of Memory: The Plays of Kālidāsa, ed. Barbara Stoler Miller. Also in paperback ed.
1984
The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century, ed. and
tr. Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed. 1984
Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical
Tamil, tr. A. K. Ramanujan. Also in paperback ed. 1985
The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War, tr. Barbara Stoler Miller 1986
The Columbia Book of Later Chinese Poetry, ed. and tr. Jonathan Chaves. Also in paperback
ed. 1986
The Tso Chuan: Selections from China’s Oldest Narrative History, tr. Burton Watson 1989
Waiting for the Wind: Thirty-six Poets of Japan’s Late Medieval Age, tr. Steven Carter 1989
Selected Writings of Nichiren, ed. Philip B. Yampolsky 1990
Saigyō, Poems of a Mountain Home, tr. Burton Watson 1990
The Book of Lieh Tzu: A Classic of the Tao, tr. A. C. Graham. Morningside ed. 1990
The Tale of an Anklet: An Epic of South India—The Cilappatikāram of Iḷaṇkō Aṭikaḷ, tr.
R. Parthasarathy 1993
Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince, tr. with introduction by Wm. Theodore de
Bary 1993
Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees: A Masterpiece of the Eighteenth-Century Japanese
Puppet Theater, tr., annotated, and with introduction by Stanleigh H. Jones Jr. 1993
The Lotus Sutra, tr. Burton Watson. Also in paperback ed. 1993
The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, tr.
Richard John Lynn 1994
Beyond Spring: Tz’u Poems of the Sung Dynasty, tr. Julie Landau 1994
The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair 1994
Scenes for Mandarins: The Elite Theater of the Ming, tr. Cyril Birch 1995
Letters of Nichiren, ed. Philip B. Yampolsky; tr. Burton Watson et al. 1996
Unforgotten Dreams: Poems by the Zen Monk Shōtetsu, tr. Steven D. Carter 1997
The Vimalakirti Sutra, tr. Burton Watson 1997
Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing: The Wakan rōei shū, tr. J. Thomas Rimer and
Jonathan Chaves 1997
Breeze Through Bamboo: Kanshi of Ema Saikō, tr. Hiroaki Sato 1998
A Tower for the Summer Heat, by Li Yu, tr. Patrick Hanan 1998
Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays, by Karen Brazell 1998
The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and His Successors
(0479–0249), by E. Bruce Brooks and A. Taeko Brooks 1998
The Classic of the Way and Virtue: A New Translation of the Tao-te ching of Laozi as
Interpreted by Wang Bi, tr. Richard John Lynn 1999
The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom: An Anthology of Poems from Classical Tamil,
The Puṛanāṇūṛu, ed. and tr. George L. Hart
and Hank Heifetz 1999
Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism, by
Harold D. Roth 1999
Po Chü-i: Selected Poems, tr. Burton Watson 2000
Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New Documents Found at Guodian,
by Robert G. Henricks 2000
The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair 2000
Mistress and Maid (Jiaohongji), by Meng Chengshun, tr. Cyril Birch 2001
Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays, tr. and ed. C. Andrew Gerstle 2001
The Essential Lotus: Selections from the Lotus Sutra, tr. Burton Watson 2002
Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900, ed. Haruo Shirane 2002;
abridged 2008
The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry, ed. Peter H. Lee 2002
The Sound of the Kiss, or The Story That Must Never Be Told: Pingali Suranna’s Kalapurno-
dayamu, tr. Vecheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman 2003
The Selected Poems of Du Fu, tr. Burton Watson 2003
Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women, tr. Makoto Ueda 2003
Just Living: Poems and Prose by the Japanese Monk Tonna, ed. and tr. Steven D. Carter 2003
Han Feizi: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson 2003
Mozi: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson 2003
Xunzi: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson 2003
Zhuangzi: Basic Writings, tr. Burton Watson 2003
The Awakening of Faith, Attributed to Aśvaghosha, tr. Yoshito S. Hakeda, introduction by
Ryuichi Abe 2005
The Tales of the Heike, tr. Burton Watson, ed. Haruo Shirane 2006
Tales of Moonlight and Rain, by Ueda Akinari, tr. with introduction by Anthony H.
Chambers 2007
Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600, ed. Haruo Shirane 2007
The Philosophy of Qi, by Kaibara Ekken, tr. Mary Evelyn Tucker 2007
The Analects of Confucius, tr. Burton Watson 2007
The Art of War: Sun Zi’s Military Methods, tr. Victor Mair 2007
One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, tr. Peter
McMillan 2008
Zeami: Performance Notes, tr. Tom Hare 2008
Zongmi on Chan, tr. Jeffrey Lyle Broughton 2009
Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, rev. ed., tr. Leon Hurvitz, preface and
introduction by Stephen R. Teiser 2009
Mencius, tr. Irene Bloom, ed. with an introduction by Philip J. Ivanhoe 2009
Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown: Poems by Zen Monks of China, Charles Egan 2010
The Mozi: A Complete Translation, tr. Ian Johnston 2010
The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China, by
Liu An, tr. and ed. John S. Major, Sarah A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold
D. Roth, with Michael Puett and Judson Murray 2010
The Demon at Agi Bridge and Other Japanese Tales, tr. Burton Watson, ed. with
introduction by Haruo Shirane 2011
Haiku Before Haiku: From the Renga Masters to Bashō, tr. with introduction by Steven D.
Carter 2011
The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair and
Mark Bender 2011
Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, tr. and ed. Martha
Ann Selby 2011
The Teachings of Master Wuzhu: Zen and Religion of No-Religion, by Wendi L. Adamek
2011
The Essential Huainanzi, by Liu An, tr. and ed. John S. Major, Sarah
A. Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth 2012
The Dao of the Military: Liu An’s Art of War, tr. Andrew Seth Meyer 2012
Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi Jing
(I Ching) and Related Texts, Edward L. Shaughnessy 2013
Record of Miraculous Events in Japan: The Nihon ryōiki, tr. Burton Watson 2013
The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, tr. Burton Watson 2013
Lust, Commerce, and Corruption: An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard, by an Edo
Samurai, tr. and ed. Mark Teeuwen and Kate Wildman Nakai with Miyazaki Fumiko,
Anne Walthall, and John Breen 2014; rev. ed. 2017
Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lienü zhuan of Liu Xiang, tr. Anne Behnke Kinney
2014
The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama, ed. C. T. Hsia, Wai-yee Li,
and George Kao 2014
The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi to Lu Xun, by Wilt L. Idema 2014
The Sarashina Diary: A Woman’s Life in Eleventh-Century Japan, by Sugawara no Takasue
no Musume, tr. with introduction by Sonja Arntzen and Itō Moriyuki 2014
The Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters, by Ō no Yasumaro, tr. Gustav Heldt 2014
The Orphan of Zhao and Other Yuan Plays: The Earliest Known Versions, tr. and
introduced by Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema 2014
Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn, attributed to Dong Zhongshu, ed. and tr. Sarah
A. Queen and John S. Major 2016
A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep (Hidden): Selected Writings, by Li Zhi, ed. and tr. Rivi
Handler-Spitz, Pauline Lee, and Haun Saussy 2016
The Shenzi Fragments: A Philosophical Analysis and Translation, Eirik Lang Harris 2016
A Record of Daily Knowledge and Poems and Essays: Selections, by Gu Yanwu, tr. and ed.
Ian Johnston 2017
The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China, by Shang Yang, ed. and
tr. Yuri Pines 2017
The Songs of Chu: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poetry by Qu Yuan and Others, ed. and
trans. Gopal Sukhu 2017
Ghalib: Selected Poems and Letters, by Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, tr. Frances W.
Pritchett and Owen T.A. Cornwall 2017
Quelling the Demons’ Revolt: A Novel from Ming China, attributed to Luo Guanzhong, tr.
Patrick Hanan 2017
Erotic Poems from the Sanskrit: A New Translation, R. Parthasarathy 2017