Chapter Three: A Counterfeit Virtuous Woman Forgets Her Husband and Loses Her Chastity — A Beast in a Gentleman's Coat Steals Another Man's Name and Deceives a Wife

To the tune of "Nanke Ziye":

Do not resent a mistaken marriage —

entrust your faithful heart to the cuckoo's cry.

If you speak the hidden thing to others,

the perfumed thief, lurking in darkness, will breed villainy.

Why did you follow a stranger's footsteps,

knowing full well in whose bed you now lie?

Even if you have recovered the old bond,

you have already suffered defilement that may not wash away.

Let us speak of women who have been betrothed and then, through some unforeseen change, cannot complete the marriage and must be wed to another. The highest course is for a woman who refuses remarriage and dies in faithful widowhood. Consider the events of the Wanli reign, when a rumour spread that the court intended to select palace ladies: a general panic broke out, with brides given and husbands found as fast as possible, in confusion and disorder, causing no small number of mistakes. At that time, a man in Qingtian County had just returned from a journey abroad. Upon hearing this news, he immediately betrothed his daughter, while still on the road, to the son of a farmer, using a cloth sash as the only pledge, there being nothing else at hand. When he arrived home, however, a wealthy family had already sent a proposal through his wife, and she had accepted. That evening the wealthy family sent a sedan chair to receive the bride. The daughter, her father's promise having come first, refused to obey her mother's command; she concealed a small knife on her person and stabbed herself to death in the bridal sedan chair. The county magistrate, learning of this, commended her as a woman of chastity and martyrdom, erected a shrine in her honour, and appointed her betrothed as the shrine's keeper. This is one in a thousand — it is a pity that her name has been forgotten. The next level below this is the woman who is forced, against her will, to remarry, yet keeps the memory of her first husband until she dies.

As for the woman in the state of Liang: she had already been betrothed. Her intended husband went abroad on business and did not return for a full year. Her parents compelled her to remarry. Though she did remarry, she spent every day thinking of her first husband and died of grief and illness. When her husband returned and learned that she had pined for him and died, he went directly to her grave, dug down, and opened the coffin — and the woman came back to life. Together they returned home. Her second husband heard of this and brought a lawsuit. The magistrate declared: "This is no ordinary matter and cannot be decided by ordinary reasoning," and gave the woman back to her first husband.

As for women who cannot die and are moved by considerations of age, appearance, or wealth — such that though they do not forget their father's pledge, they yield their bodies to another — even if they carry a lingering longing for their original betrothed, they are not greatly to be admired.

In earlier times, in the west quarter of Liyang County, there lived an official named Tang Kun, styled Xiaochun, about twenty years old, of clean and elegant appearance, altogether free of any vulgar air. In the east quarter of the same town there was a man of wealth named Feng Xuan, who had no sons, only a single daughter named Shu Niang, nearly twenty years old herself. Old Feng looked upon Tang Xiaochun as a man of fine appearance who would likely prosper in time, and with all his heart wished to take him as a son-in-law through resident marriage. He sent a matchmaker to the Tang family to propose. The Tangs, seeing that the difference in wealth between the two families was too great, did not dare accept. The matchmaker went back and forth several times, conveying Feng's intentions, before they finally agreed. Yet having agreed was one thing; actually having the means to proceed and complete the marriage was another. They had nothing to offer on the spot. A year passed, and the Feng family again sent the matchmaker to press for the wedding. The Tangs replied: "We gratefully accept our prospective father-in-law's kind intentions, but we have not had the means to send a betrothal gift, and how can one present oneself with empty hands to make a marriage?" The matchmaker replied: "Your prospective father-in-law has already said: all that is asked is that your family be willing to have your son come to reside with them. There is no need to mention a betrothal gift — indeed, gifts will be sent to your son, and provision made for his passage there." Tang's parents, hearing this, were overjoyed: "In that case, let our prospective father-in-law on the other side choose a date." The matchmaker reported back to Old Feng, who set the fifteenth day of the ninth month as the wedding date. This conversation took place in the sixth month.

But then, unexpectedly, in the seventh month, Old Feng contracted a seasonal illness and was dead within a few days. After the spirit tablet was set in its place, matchmakers from all sides came calling on behalf of others who had their eye on the Feng family's property and the dowry. The household, having accepted Feng Xuan's promise during his lifetime to give their daughter to Tang Xiaochun, could not properly change course, and so they declined all proposals. The Tang family, for their part, saw that Old Feng was dead and reckoned that the disparity in wealth was too great, that no betrothal gift had been given, and that a change was probably inevitable — so they too let the matter drop and said nothing more about it. A few more months passed. Shu Niang's paternal uncle — her father's brother, named Feng Qi — seeing his niece growing older with no family to lean on, took the matter entirely into his own hands and gave her in marriage as a second wife to a scholar in the south quarter named Qian Yan, styled Guanmin, a man of about forty, whose household was completely without resources — he made his living by teaching composition and poetry.

Three days after the wedding, Qian Yan, in a moment of idle conversation, asked Shu Niang: "Madam, your late father was a man of means — how is it that he left you until such an age before sending you out of the house?" At this question, her brows furrowed and silent tears rolled down her cheeks; she nodded her head and sighed, but said nothing. Qian Yan, seeing her expression and not knowing what lay behind it, drew near with a smiling face, addressing her in the warmest of terms, and asked: "Madam, if there is some private sorrow, surely you can share it with me? Perhaps I may even help to ease it." Shu Niang sighed again: "What I have to say is not something I should tell you. And even if I told you, it would come to nothing. What is the use of speaking of it?" The scholar was even more at a loss than before, and went on coaxing her in the most endearing terms until at last Shu Niang said: "You ask what private sorrow I carry. It is only this: when my father was alive, he had already betrothed me to Tang Xiaochun of the east quarter. The date was set in the sixth month, for the wedding on the fifteenth of the ninth month. But then, unexpectedly, my father died in the seventh month. The Tang family, having sent no betrothal gift, let the matter drop entirely without raising it again. And so that bond — that thread of fate — was lost like water flowing east. Speaking of it now, one cannot help but feel a fresh pang of grief." With these words, tears began to fall one by one again.

Now, dear reader: this story of Shu Niang's was well-intentioned on her part, but it ought to have been kept in her heart. Once said aloud, it marked her as a woman whose heart was not truly with Qian Yan. The scholar was a man of honest and direct nature. If she had said this to someone of a more calculating disposition, it would have raised all manner of suspicion and displeasure. As it was, Qian Yan merely laughed and said: "There is no need to speak of that now. In the end, those who are fated to be husband and wife will find their way to each other however things may turn and twist; those who are not fated to be together, even when matched up, will ultimately be separated. This is what is meant by a bond from a previous life — it is not something one can calculate for oneself. What use is weeping?" Before he had even finished speaking, the Feng family's third-day gift baskets arrived. Shu Niang dried her tears, changed her sorrowful face to a pleasant one, rose to attend to the baskets, and distributed the contents to those to be given gifts. Nothing more was said that day.

On the fifth day, a group of companions from the literary society, along with several of the scholar's students, each pooled a share and held a feast to celebrate the newlyweds' settling into their new home. Amid the drinking, the company said: "Brother Qian, we hear that your honoured wife's dowry is quite substantial — no less than a thousand taels, people say. You might truly be said to have made your fortune overnight!" Qian Yan replied: "There is a good deal, apparently, but it certainly doesn't amount to a thousand taels. Besides, my wife has a private matter about which she has not yet opened her hands, and I don't yet know the actual sum. How can one speak of making one's fortune?" The company laughed: "What private matter can a first-time bride have? The only thing could be that she finds you too old for her. 'I only blame myself for being born too late — I never saw Brother Lu in his youth.' What do you say to that, Brother Qian?" Qian Yan replied: "It is not that." The company pressed: "If it's not that, what is it? If in the space of five or six days she has already confided a private matter to you, it can hardly be something that cannot be spoken aloud — why do you conceal it and not say?" Qian Yan, unable to withstand their questioning and their teasing, had no choice but to recount what Shu Niang had told him, word for word, to the assembled company. The company found this difficult to respond to and all fell silent.

Among them was one Yu Lin, a man of twenty-five or twenty-six, who was known for his sly and scheming ways in everything he did. Even as he listened to Qian Yan's account, his mind was already at work on a plan. This was the point at which Qian Yan had been exceedingly careless. For Shu Niang to tell her new husband the story was already evidence that her heart was not truly given to Qian Yan; to then repeat it to the whole company was surely to let people see through her — and how could it fail to awaken thoughts of seduction and scheming? This was plainly the equivalent of Qian Yan letting a dog into his own stockade. That day the party ended and the guests dispersed.

As it happened, just over ten days later came the Dragon Boat Festival. Yu Lin, knowing that Qian Yan would certainly have wine at his employer's house for the occasion, deliberately strolled over to Qian's house around midday. He peered around to make sure, and finding Qian Yan indeed absent, lowered his voice and called out: "Is anyone at home?" Shu Niang, from inside, asked who was there. Yu Lin replied: "I am Tang Xiaochun, from the west quarter — I have come to speak with Mr Qian." Upon hearing the name Tang Xiaochun, Shu Niang's heart gave a violent leap. She at once set down whatever she had in her hands, came to the inner gate, and looked out. Before her she saw: truly a handsome young man, of fine appearance, not very old at all. Seeing this graceful young man in front of her, she found Qian Yan's age and looks instantly disagreeable. She said: "Please sit for a moment, honoured guest, and take some tea." Yu Lin, hearing these words, knew that what he had been told was not mistaken, and sat down comfortably. Shu Niang, taking him to be Tang Xiaochun in truth, came a step forward and said: "May I ask whether you are truly Tang Xiaochun, sir?" Yu Lin gave a feigned laugh: "Is there anything so distinguished about Tang Xiaochun that one would want to claim to be him?" Shu Niang said: "Had you, sir, any acquaintance with the east quarter Feng family?" Yu Lin made a show of hesitation: "Do not speak of it. When that Old Feng was alive, he was kind enough to wish to take me as a resident son-in-law. But then the date was set and Old Feng died. To this day the match has never been completed — it is nothing but an empty story." And he heaved a sigh. Shu Niang said: "I am that very Feng Shu Niang. You were the son-in-law my father favoured in his lifetime." And she began to weep: "Oh, you wretched man — when my father was alive, why did you not come to complete the marriage?"

Yu Lin said: "Our circumstances were not equal to the occasion, and I could never get hold of that sum of money, and so never even managed to send the betrothal gift. Had I sent it, things would not have come to this pass." Shu Niang said: "Blame falls on my uncle, who took charge of things with no justification and gave me to this old pedant, ruining my whole life." Yu Lin said: "Though Mr Qian is a poor scholar, he is sure to prosper one day — how can I compare to him? Now that you have married him, Madam, you will be a wife of rank and standing, far better than marrying one like me, a countryman. Why, then, do you still so bitterly think of me?" Shu Niang said: "What are you saying! Husband and wife should be suited in age and in feeling. From the day my father betrothed me to you, my thoughts have never left you. How could I know this change would come about, to bury me in the hands of this old pedant?" Reader, these two sentences are precisely the reason for her dissatisfaction with Qian Yan, and the root of her willingness to flee with Yu Lin. Seeing that she had taken the bait, Yu Lin also produced some false tears: "This being so, it is all my fault for ruining you. But matters have come to this — speaking of it is no use, and only increases one's grief." He rose and made to leave. Shu Niang seized hold of him: "Not a day has passed that I have not thought of you, and now that I have finally seen you, can you bear to leave without a thought for me?" Yu Lin sat back down and drew Shu Niang to sit beside him: "Since you are so steadfast, and have not forgotten me — I now have a plan: why not choose a day and run away together?" Shu Niang said: "That plan is excellent, but where would we find shelter? We would need somewhere safe and secure." Yu Lin said: "Fifty li east of the city gate is Mu Family Village, where my uncle lives. It would be perfectly good for living there, and no one could find us." Shu Niang said: "No time should be wasted — whatever the case, come to the back gate at the fifth watch tonight, give a cough as the signal, and we will slip out of the city together." The two had settled their plan. Yu Lin put his arms around Shu Niang, kissed her, and left. Shu Niang, believing this to be Tang Xiaochun and thinking her old wish now fulfilled, immediately began gathering her trousseau and valuables into two large bundles.

She lay awake all night until about the third watch. She heard someone cough at the back gate and, thinking Tang Xiaochun had come, quietly lit the lamp, rose, and opened the gate — to find a man collapsed against the doorpost. She held the lamp up to look carefully. It was not Tang Xiaochun but Qian Yan. How had he come to be at the back gate at this hour, coughing? The explanation is this: he had been drinking wine at his employer's house, and being a man with some capacity for drink, he had succumbed nonetheless — probably because of his newly married state and the many demands on him lately — and had drunk himself insensible. He had stumbled home drunk and collapsed outside the back gate, utterly unconscious, already past midnight. If he had not coughed and had slept there until dawn, Yu Lin would have come and not dared to act, and the plan would have dissolved of itself. But as it was, the sound of his coughing brought Shu Niang to open the gate. Seeing he had not yet come to his senses, she helped him inside to sleep. Not long after, as the fifth watch approached, a cough sounded once more at the back gate. Shu Niang knew this time it was the man she was expecting. She quickly picked up her bundles, went out, and opened the gate — and sure enough, it was Yu Lin. The two were delighted, beyond words. Each shouldered one bundle, and like a puff of smoke they ran straight for the east city gate.

A poem mourns this:

She did not dare forget her old pledged vow;

faithful at heart, she pined for her Tang all night.

But in her haste she followed a scheming man,

mistaking a common rascal for the young man of her dreams.

Qian Yan slept until the next day. Though the wine had left him, he still could not get out of bed, and kept calling for tea without pause. He called the name of his wife ten times or more, but his wife did not come. He had no choice but to spring up and look in every direction — no trace of his wife to be seen. He walked to the back gate and found the two doors thrown wide open and an oil lamp discarded on the ground, and only then understood that she had flown away in the night. He at once roused the neighbours on both sides. When the neighbours heard that Qian Yan's new wife had run away, they all said it was extraordinary and came crowding in to ask what had happened. Qian Yan said: "Yesterday I was at my employer's house and came home drunk. I fell down at the back gate, and it was she who opened the gate and helped me inside to sleep. I don't know when she left." One of the neighbours said: "Mr Qian, if you had fallen down outside, had you knocked?" "No," said Qian Yan. "If you had not knocked, how did your wife know to come out and open the gate? She must have been lying in wait, and most likely left at that very time." Another said: "Mr Qian, ten thousand faults are yours and yours alone. Between a husband and wife just come together, no matter what else demands attention, one ought to put it aside and stay at home with one's new bride. How is it that before three or five days had even passed, you were off chanting poems and reciting the classics, leaving your new wife alone at home, cold and desolate? How could she bear it? Of course she would run away." Qian Yan, at a complete loss, asked the neighbours: "Do you think there is any chance she might come back?" The neighbours laughed: "A man of letters, and you say something like that! If she had been willing to come back, she wouldn't have left in the first place." The scholar said: "May I trouble one of you to bear witness while I go first thing to the magistrate and file a complaint?" Some said filing a complaint was correct; otherwise the Feng family might have something to say. Others said that a scholar whose wife had run away should think of his face, and there was no need to file a complaint — just post a notice. Others still said that a notice was also unseemly, and the better course was to quietly investigate her whereabouts and then act. Qian Yan, seeing the neighbours disagreed, said: "According to everyone's opinion, all things considered, it seems that posting a notice is the best course." At once he composed a notice, quite unlike the format in use today, amounting to some ten sentences or so: "Qian Yan, through his own carelessness, on this night of the Dragon Boat Festival, has had his wife, Madam Feng of the surname Shu Niang, aged twenty-one or twenty-two, carried away by an unknown scoundrel. The household goods have not been touched, but all the jewels and ornaments have been taken. Being a poor scholar without connections, I have no power to bring a lawsuit before the authorities. Should any gentleman of any region find word of her whereabouts, I am willing to pay a reward of such-and-such an amount of silver. This notice has been posted truthfully." He had just completed the notice and was looking for someone to go and post it in all directions when a neighbour woman came by and said: "Mr Qian, do not be alarmed — the person who abducted your wife, I know something about him." "Mother, since you know something, who was it really?" The old woman replied: "I don't know the man myself. Only, yesterday at noon, while I was at home unwrapping rice dumplings, I heard someone come to your house and say he was that — what was his name — Tang Xiaochun from the west quarter. Your wife came out to meet him, talked to him and cried, the two of them talking for half the day before he went. Most likely it was this man who lured her away!" Qian Yan slapped his hand on the table: "That must be it! She had said her father had betrothed her to Tang Xiaochun, and she had been thinking of him all along. They must have been in contact all this time and used this opportunity to make off. Let me go to the west quarter and find out what I can, and then come back to discuss it with everyone." The old woman added: "If you do happen to find the wife, by all means don't say it was I who told you — I don't want her to blame me when she returns."

Qian Yan parted from the old woman and walked straight to the west quarter to find the Tang family. He asked the neighbours on all sides, in thorough detail, but found not a single hint of anything. He then asked: "What does Tang Xiaochun look like?" and before he could stop his questioning, a young man walked out from inside. A neighbour said: "That is Tang Xiaochun." Qian Yan looked closely at the young man and saw:

Clear brows and bright eyes, white teeth and rosy lips.

Though he wore none of He Lang's powdered beauty,

his pale complexion was no less than Chen Ping's;

though he had never acquired Dong Zhongshu's bewitching manner,

his graceful bearing was not unlike that of Song Yu.

He wore a modish square cap, one panel before and one behind,

looking quite at his ease;

a few well-fitting garments, half-new and half-worn,

with a very proper and tidy air.

Difficult to compare to the sons of wealthy households in grandeur and dignity;

but not lacking the refinement and elegance of a scholarly family.

Without talent, one would not dare to pluck the cassia;

without beauty, one would not stoop to steal a flower.

Qian Yan thought to himself: "A young man like this — he looks as if he wouldn't disturb a fly. Could he possibly have the nerve to do such a thing? Besides, if he had done it, he would surely be hiding and shrinking, covering his tracks before and behind, showing every sign of being in a panic. How could he look so perfectly at ease and untroubled?" As the old saying goes: when matters are taken slowly, they come round. He would go back, make further enquiries, and then come to speak with him. There was nothing for it but to swallow his frustration and walk home.

As it happened, the old woman met him on the way back and asked: "Did you find out anything?" Qian Yan shook his head: "There's a connection, though something isn't clear. The neighbours on both sides say they know nothing about it." The old woman said: "You should have gone to the Tang family and made enquiries there." Qian Yan said: "I was about to do just that, when Tang Xiaochun himself happened to come out. Looking at that young man carefully, he didn't seem the sort to do this kind of thing!" The old woman said: "You'd better go quickly now and let the Feng family's clan elder know, so you won't have trouble later on." "That makes sense," said Qian Yan. He turned around and walked out the gate. As the proverb says, "Good news goes no farther than one's door; bad news travels a thousand li." Feng Qi had already heard and came walking straight toward him. Qian Yan told him what the old woman had said. Feng Qi asked: "Were any of the trousseau items left behind?" "Not a single one," replied Qian Yan. "Given this situation, it can only mean this was no sudden impulse. Now: based on the old woman's account, it is not hard to draft a complaint, bring Tang Xiaochun before the magistrate, and demand the return of the person through him." Qian Yan said: "A scholar whose wife has been abducted — if he goes to file a complaint, I'm afraid others will only laugh at him." Feng Qi said: "Though it is not the most dignified course, there is no principle by which one simply does nothing when his wife has been abducted. Better to file a complaint." Qian Yan agreed. He immediately drafted the complaint, with Feng Qi as a witness. The next morning he filed it at the county court. The magistrate at once sent men to summon Tang Xiaochun.

Xiaochun's parents had no idea what this was about, and had no choice but to bring along the heads of the ten-household neighbourhood unit and the neighbours to appear together before the court. When the magistrate asked about the circumstances of the case, Tang Xiaochun explained clearly the matter of Old Feng's betrothal during his lifetime; as for today's flight, he said he knew nothing of it. The magistrate put on a stern face and declared: "Since there was a prior arrangement between you, the abduction today is an established fact." And he had this tender young lad twisted and gripped like a criminal, subjected to the squeezing of his fingers, and demanded that the person be produced from him. The neighbourhood representatives all cried out on his behalf that an injustice was being done, but the magistrate refused to hear it. Xiaochun's parents, seeing their son suffer this unjust torment, could not restrain themselves from knocking their foreheads until the skin broke, pleading over and over: "We beg Your Honour to give us a few days to find the person — that would be the grace of Heaven." The magistrate, hearing this, had Tang Xiaochun released on the surety of the neighbourhood and warned to appear again in five days. All bowed their thanks and withdrew.

A poem praises the Constable:

At the first sound of the dawn horn he came riding up on a single horse —

in his haste he still knew how to detect treachery.

A single word cracked open an unjust case,

and in catching the runaway he also served as matchmaker.

The Constable returned to his office with some misgivings. Before the magistrate he had readily agreed, but where in the world was he to find someone at a moment's notice? He was just turning over in his mind how to approach the matter when a man came from the main hall to say: "The Master is in the rear hall receiving the Fourth Master in conversation." The Constable thought: had he only just given his word, and they wanted him to report already? He hurriedly dressed and went to the rear hall to pay his respects. The magistrate said: "A friend of mine is skilled in the arts of the Book of Changes. Just now I asked him to cast a reading on this matter. He says the missing person has been taken no more than fifty li to the southeast, to a place whose name contains the character for wood. One of the gate-keepers said: 'Fifty li east of the city gate, there is a place called Mu Family Village — Wood Family Village. Could those two be hiding there?' You would be doing me a great service by going there immediately. Leave today, return tomorrow, and this matter can be concluded." The Constable received his instructions, changed into plain clothes, took a company of constables, swung into the saddle, and rode out of the east gate. Before long they were approaching Mu Family Village. Several of the farmers working in the fields recognised the Constable and at once threw down their hoes and rakes, came forward, kowtowed, and asked: "What brings Your Honour to the countryside today?" The Constable replied: "I am here on orders from the magistrate to arrest a suspect at Mu Family Village. You are all busy; this is the planting season — do not let me disturb your farm work. Go about your tasks." Two of the men were from Mu Family Village itself, and they asked: "Which person is Your Honour coming to the village to arrest?" "I am to arrest a pair of fugitives," said the Constable. "Could it be the village's own nephew, Young Master Yu?" said the two men. "Yu Da is the very one. He arrived on the sixth day of the month, with a woman in his company." The two men replied without hesitation: "There is indeed a woman with him, a young one — both of them are at the village." The Constable had them lead him to Mu Family Village. The villagers, seeing the Constable come in person to make an arrest, had no idea what great matter was involved; afraid of being drawn into trouble, they immediately brought out both Yu Lin and Madam Feng and presented them. By this time it was already late in the day, so the Constable had the two of them held in the custody of the villagers, and spent the night at the village. The villagers killed chickens and slaughtered sheep, and set out a lavish spread for his entertainment, as goes without saying. The next morning he had his constables bring the two back and deliver them to the court. The county magistrate was greatly pleased to see the Constable had captured them.

He immediately took the bench, and ordered the original summoners to bring Qian Yan the scholar and Tang Xiaochun and the others to attend the hearing. The magistrate first brought Madam Feng forward, then called Qian Yan up and asked: "Is this your wife?" Qian Yan replied: "Yes, this is my wife. Now that my wife has been found, has Your Honour also arrested the man who carried her off?" "He is here as well," said the magistrate. Qian Yan said: "I beg Your Honour to let me see him — I would like to see what manner of person he is." The magistrate had Yu Lin brought over. Qian Yan took one look at Yu Lin, stamped his feet and struck his chest, and cried out repeatedly: "So it was you! So it was you!" Yu Lin, conscious of his guilt, hung his head and dared not speak. The magistrate said: "What acquaintance did this fellow have with you?" Qian Yan replied: "Your Honour, do not remind me. This Yu Lin was originally a member of my own literary society. I had been married barely five or six days when my friends arranged a celebration feast. At that time I had no way of knowing that this beast in gentleman's clothing was among the guests. In the middle of the drinking, I happened to mention the circumstances of my wife's betrothal — I cannot understand how this scoundrel managed to lure my wife away after that." The magistrate, smiling and laughing at the same time, turned to question Yu Lin: "A friend's household — you had no right to do such a thing. Now tell me: what words did you use to move Madam Feng? And how was it that she followed you without having seen you before? Speak plainly and you will do well; if you equivocate and make excuses, the finger-press comes first, and then you speak." Yu Lin said: "Because Qian Yan had said that his wife had originally been contracted to Tang Xiaochun — though they had never wed, she could not put him from her mind — I conceived the idea of going to Qian Yan's house. When Madam Feng came out and started asking questions, I claimed to be Tang Xiaochun. Madam Feng believed it completely and wished to fulfil her old bond, so she was willing to flee with me. I gave way to a momentary weakness and we agreed to go that very night at the fifth watch." Before he had even finished speaking, Tang Xiaochun, who was kneeling to the side, began pounding his head on Yu Lin with great force: "You passed yourself off under my name, lured her away, and then dragged me in here to be beaten!" The magistrate said: "Stop that commotion — you will have your grievance addressed soon enough." Qian Yan said: "Your Honour, Tang Xiaochun cannot be blamed for this, and I myself feel badly on his account." The magistrate questioned Madam Feng: "How did you come to listen to his scheming all in a moment and flee with him?" Shu Niang, suppressing her shame and holding back her tears, gave a detailed account of her father's betrothal of her to Tang Xiaochun during his lifetime. The magistrate then turned to Qian Yan: "Mr Qian, step forward. According to Madam Feng's account — could it be that you took her by force?" Qian Yan replied: "My household is bare as four walls, and I have neither money nor influence. How could I dare take anyone by force? It was her uncle Feng Qi who took matters into his own hands, and gave her willingly to me as a second wife. Now there is no need to speak of her as my wife: Madam Feng's heart is set on returning to Tang Xiaochun. If I keep her in my house, there will be further incidents eventually. Better for Your Honour to decide: give Madam Feng to Tang Xiaochun, to complete what those two had originally planned." The magistrate smiled: "That is all very well to say, but perhaps you speak from your mouth and not from your heart." Qian Yan said: "Poor scholar though I am, I have some sense of principle. What I have said once I will not change. Besides, my wife, having already been compromised, cannot in principle return to me anyway." The magistrate said: "That is true. But since the person is being given to Tang's household, the betrothal gift should naturally be returned to you. Tang Xiaochun shall provide the betrothal gift here in court, and then take her home to complete the marriage." Qian Yan said: "When I originally took Madam Feng, there was no betrothal gift at all. If I were to make Tang Xiaochun pay me silver now, it would look as though I am profiting from my wife. If my friends were to hear of it, they would say I, being poor to the extreme, had sold my wife — that would be ugly. I simply ask Your Honour to hand Madam Feng to Tang Xiaochun here in court to take home and complete the marriage; this would actually be more dignified for me, and clean besides." The magistrate replied: "This matter is most rare — it truly shows your sense of honour. As for Yu Lin — seducing and deceiving a respectable woman: there is a clear provision in the law, and he cannot escape punishment." He ordered those on both sides to drag Yu Lin down, administer thirty heavy blows with the paddle, and banish him to a relay station in the southern passes to serve as a runner for three years. Madam Feng was released to Tang Xiaochun to take back and make his wife. The two kowtowed their thanks. Outside the great gate, a small sedan chair was called; Madam Feng was helped into it and carried home. The scholar went home by himself.

After two or three days, Qian Yan went again before the magistrate and reported: "Madam Feng's trousseau was very substantial, and all of it was carried to Mu Family Village. Though she left in secret, these are not stolen goods — by right they belong to Madam Feng. I ask that constables be sent to the village to retrieve them, to be returned to their original owner." The magistrate approved the petition and sent two constables to retrieve them, though by the time they arrived, no more than fifty or sixty percent remained. The magistrate by this point thought highly of Qian Yan as a man, and instructed the clerks to have the official matchmaker find him a good match. He also helped him with several official matters, from which Qian Yan earned a hundred taels or so of silver, and his circumstances were quite different from before.

A few days later, Tang Xiaochun came in modest attire to thank the magistrate. The magistrate said: "Do not thank me. If the day before yesterday the Constable had not seen what he saw, you would nearly have had your person demanded of you — how would you have found a way out? Today you should go and thank the Constable's office." Xiaochun agreed at once, went and kowtowed his thanks to the Constable. The Constable laughed and said: "If I had not witnessed this affair personally, might you not have been wrongly convicted? When you go home, be sure to give genuine thanks to that friend of yours, Mr Qian. What kind of man willingly gives his wife away to someone else so lightly? That is something rarely seen in the world. And as for Yu Lin — though he brought trouble on you and you suffered some punishment on his account — if he had not lured her out, how would you have come to be reunited? He is both the ringleader of the wrong done and the prime contributor to the good outcome. I have one more thing to say: I stayed up all night on patrol — not to catch thieves, but to serve as your matchmaker. I never got the wedding feast on the house. I'll have to come some other day to offer congratulations and claim my wine." Tang Xiaochun was delighted and immediately said: "Of course, of course!" He bowed two deep bows, took his leave, and went home. He prepared two bolts of cloth and four taels of silver, and sent them to the Constable. The Constable received them graciously — which, given the circumstances, was both the right thing and no transgression.

A poem attests:

Arresting criminals ordinarily means dividing criminal property —

in this case, distinguishing the wrong done was the finest service of all.

Furthermore, he brought together a marriage long deferred —

how much silver from the four seas could adequately repay this?

Afterward, it was heard that Feng Shu Niang and Tang Xiaochun made a good couple for some twenty years, and that they were well-suited to each other and had several children. Yet her readiness to believe a stranger's deceit and lose her virtue — and then to make a public spectacle of herself — means that, even if it may be said she did not betray her original bond, it is no substitute for being a woman of pure and wholesome character. Moreover, there were those words of hers: "Married to this old pedant, my whole life is ruined" — which reveals that if Qian Yan had been young and wealthy, she would not have given Tang Xiaochun another thought. As for Qian Yan: he was careless and imprudent, and lightly repeated his wife's private matter to others, which gave rise to this whole disgrace. Fortunately, he was a man of backbone — he did not take back the runaway wife, he refused to demand any betrothal gift, and so earned the magistrate's esteem, and did not entirely lose his dignity. He also managed to accumulate a modest sum, and did not fall entirely into ruin — and this too is the reward for a good heart well acted upon. As for Yu Lin — a beast in a gentleman's coat — he is of course contemptible. But had Shu Niang not harboured this infatuation, and had Qian Yan not let slip this particular confidence, there would have been no gap for Yu Lin to creep through. "A man first betrays himself, and then others betray him" — does this not apply to Mr Qian? When the Empress Wu Zetian said: "Hereafter, when you invite guests, choose them well" — let all who read this tale take care with their words and be discriminating in their friendships.

A poem mocks the affair:

Shu Niang clung to her old betrothed bond —

within a single month she changed hands three times.

To Qian Yan the wedding night was sweet as the night-blooming flower;

Yu Lin was sent to serve as a relay runner — the price of a matchmaker.

Passing yourself off as Li to praise Zhang is hard to lose one's way;

going along with the crooked to deceive the straight is no virtue either.

Pity the cracked pot that was returned to its original owner —

though the outcome was romantic, there was still much to blush for.