Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library) Read Online Free PDF

Ch’ing-ch’eng county in the year A.D . 759. He was a colleague of the assistant magistrate, Mr. Tsou, and the chief constables, Mr. Lei and Mr. P’ei. In the autumn of that year Hsüeh Wei was ill for seven days. Then he suddenly stopped breathing and did not respond to persistent calling. But the area around his heart was slightly warm, and the family, reluctant to bury him too quickly, stood guard over him and waited.
    Twenty days later, Hsüeh Wei gave a long moan and sat up. “How many days was I senseless?” he asked.
    “Twenty days.”
    “Find out for me whether or not the officials Tsou, Lei, and P’ei are now having minced carp for dinner,” Hsüeh Wei said. “Tell them I have regained consciousness and that something most strange has happened. Bid them lay down their chopsticks and come to listen.”
    A servant left to find the officials, who were indeed about to dine on minced carp. He conveyed Hsüeh Wei’s request, and they all stopped eating and went to Hsüeh Wei’s bedside.
    “Did you gentlemen order the revenue officer’s servant, Chang Pi, to get a fish?” Hsüeh Wei asked them.
    “Yes, we did,” they replied.
    Hsüeh Wei then turned to Chang Pi and said, “Chao Kan, the fisherman, had hidden a giant carp that he had caught; he offered to fill your order with some small fish instead. But you found the carp in the reeds, picked it up, and brought it back. When youentered the magistrate’s office, the revenue officer was sitting east of the gate; one of the sergeants was sitting west of the gate. The revenue officer was in the midst of a game of chess. As you entered the hall, Mr. Tsou and Mr. Lei were gambling. Mr. P’ei was chewing on a peach. When Chang Pi told them how the fisherman had withheld his fine catch, they had him flogged. Then they turned the fish over to the cook, Wang Shih-liang, who was delighted with the carp and killed it. Is not all this true?”
    The officials turned and consulted one another and confirmed everything, saying, “But how did you know?”
    “Because that carp you had killed was me!” Hsüeh Wei replied to the astounded group.
    “Tell the whole story,” everyone said.
    “When I first took sick,” Hsüeh Wei began, “the fever was so intense that I could hardly bear it. All at once I felt stifled and forgot that I was ill. Burning as if I had caught fire, I sought to cool myself. I began to walk with a staff in my hand, unaware that I was dreaming.
    “When I had gone past the city wall, an ecstatic mood came to me, as if I were a caged bird or beast gaining its liberty. No one could know how it felt! I made my way into the hills, but I felt more stifled there than before. So I went down to wander by the edge of the river. It was deep and quiet, like a pool. The autumnal quality of the water made my heart ache. Not even a ripple was moving, and the water mirrored remotest space. Suddenly I had a desire to enter the water. I left my suit of clothes on the bank and dove in.
    “Ever since my youth I have been fond of the water, but in adulthood I no longer went swimming. Now I felt eager to enjoy myself so freely and satisfy a long-held desire. But I thought to myself, ‘Swimming in the water, man is not as fast as fish are. I wonder if I could enter somehow into the life of a fish and swim rapidly?’

     
    “A fish beside me said, ‘There’s nothing stopping you if you really want to. We can easily turn you into a regular fish; let me arrange it for you.’ And the fish was quickly gone. Shortly a fish-headed man several feet long arrived on the back of a sea monster. Several dozen fish were following him. The fish-headed man read me an edict from the river god:
    Living on dry land and swimming free in the deep are ways apart. Those on land never know the waves unless they love the water.
Hsüeh Wei has expressed a wish to swim and dive, yearning for the leisure of the carefree deep. Finding pleasure in its boundless realm, he would give himself