Water Margin, Volume II: Chapters 26–50

Water Margin, Volume II: Chapters 26–50

A poem says:

To fathom the Zen of love and passion is to know that a fortunate bond may be an evil one.

When the heart is infatuated, everyone finds it charming; viewed with a cold eye, everyone finds it hateful.

Do not pluck the wild grasses and roadside flowers; preserve your integrity, firm and unshaken.

A faithful wife, young children, and ordinary meals at home bring neither the torment of longing nor the loss of money.

Now, when Uncle He Jiu fell to the ground, the funeral attendants hurried to support him. Granny Wang said, “He has been struck by an evil influence! Bring some water at once!”

After she had sprayed two mouthfuls of water over him, Uncle He gradually began to stir and showed signs of recovering consciousness.

“Help Uncle He home first,” Granny Wang said. “We shall see to everything afterward.”

Two funeral attendants fetched a door panel and carried him straight home. His family came out to meet him and laid him on his bed.

His wife wept. “You went out smiling and cheerful. How have you come back in such a state? Never before have you suffered an attack like this!”

She sat beside the bed and cried.

Uncle He waited until the attendants were out of sight, then nudged his wife with his foot.

“Stop worrying. There is nothing wrong with me. Just now, I went to prepare Wu the Elder’s body for burial. When I reached the entrance to his lane, I met Ximen Qing, the man who owns the pharmacy in front of the county offices. He invited me to a feast and gave me ten taels of silver, saying, ‘When you lay out the corpse, be sure to conceal anything suspicious.’

“When I arrived at Wu the Elder’s house, I saw that his wife had the appearance of a thoroughly disreputable woman. I was already eight or nine parts suspicious. When I lifted the funeral banner to examine the body, I saw that Wu the Elder’s face was purplish-black, blood was oozing from his seven orifices, and faint marks of his teeth showed upon his lips. There could be no doubt that he had died from poison.

“At first I intended to raise the alarm. But there was no one to bring a complaint on his behalf, and offending Ximen Qing would be like stirring up a hornet’s nest. On the other hand, if I pretended not to notice and simply placed the body in the coffin, there was another danger. Wu the Elder has a younger brother, none other than Captain Wu, who killed the tiger on Jingyang Ridge the other day. That man does not blink at killing. If he returns sooner or later, this whole affair is certain to come to light.”

His wife replied, “I also heard someone say the other day that Yun Ge, the son of old Qiao who lives in the back lane, went to Purple Stone Street to help Wu the Elder catch his wife in adultery and caused a disturbance at the teahouse. It must be connected with this affair. You should quietly make inquiries of him.

“As for the difficulty before you, there is a simple way. Send the funeral attendants to prepare the body and ask when the funeral is to take place. If they keep the corpse at home until Wu Song returns to arrange the burial, there will be no great complication. Even if they bury him at once, that is not necessarily suspicious. But if they insist upon cremating him immediately, there must be something wrong.

“When the time comes, pretend you are attending the funeral. While everyone is distracted, take two pieces of bone. Preserve them together with the ten taels of silver. They will provide powerful evidence.

“If Wu Song returns and never asks about it, so be it. But if he does investigate, you will have saved yourself and spared no consideration for Ximen Qing. Would that not be the sensible thing to do?”

A poem says:

Those who spend their lives doing good receive Heaven’s blessings; those who rely upon violence may bring calamity upon themselves.

The tongue is soft and yielding, and so it survives; the teeth are hard and rigid, and therefore suffer injury.

Peaches and apricots fall in autumn, while pines and cypresses grow greener in the depths of winter.

Good and evil receive their just rewards in the end; even those who flee far away cannot remain hidden forever.

Wu Song now said to the four neighboring householders:

“I have avenged my elder brother, and it is only right that I should answer for the crimes I have committed. Even if I must die, I shall have no regrets.

“I frightened you greatly just now, and for that I apologize.

“When I leave here, I cannot know whether I shall live or die.

“I shall now burn the spirit altar of my brother.

“As for the belongings remaining in this house, I ask you four honored neighbors to sell them and keep the money for the expenses of my case and imprisonment, to be used whenever necessary.

“I shall go to the county offices and surrender myself.

“Do not concern yourselves with the severity of my punishment. I ask only that you testify truthfully to what you have witnessed.”

He immediately took the spirit tablet and the paper money and burned them.

Then he brought down two trunks from upstairs, opened them, and entrusted their contents to the four neighbors for safekeeping and eventual sale.

Having done this, he escorted Granny Wang, carried the two severed heads, and went directly to the county offices.

The whole of Yanggu County was thrown into an uproar.

Countless spectators gathered along the streets.

When the magistrate received word of the affair, he was greatly shocked and immediately took his seat in the courtroom.

Wu Song brought Granny Wang before the hall and made her kneel.

He placed the murder weapon and the two severed heads at the foot of the steps.

Wu Song knelt on the left, Granny Wang in the center, and the four neighboring householders on the right.

Wu Song took the written confessions prepared by Hu Zhengqing from his clothing and gave a complete account of everything that had happened.

The magistrate ordered his chief clerk to question Granny Wang first.

Her testimony agreed with the written confession.

The four neighbors also confirmed the circumstances.

Uncle He Jiu and Yun Ge were summoned, and their statements were recorded.

The magistrate then ordered the official corpse examiner and another appointed officer to take the witnesses and prisoners to Purple Stone Street.

There they examined the woman’s corpse.

Afterward they went to the wine house beside Lion Bridge to examine Ximen Qing’s body.

The examiners recorded their findings in the prescribed forms and returned to the county offices, where the documents were submitted to the court and entered into the official record.

The magistrate ordered heavy wooden cangues to be placed on both Wu Song and Granny Wang, and the two were imprisoned.

The innocent witnesses were temporarily detained in the gatehouse.

Now the county magistrate regarded Wu Song as a man of courage and righteousness.

He also remembered that Wu Song had undertaken the journey to the Eastern Capital on his behalf and wished to protect him if possible.

Considering Wu Song’s merits, he summoned his clerks and discussed the case.

“Wu Song is a righteous and honorable man,” he said.

“Let us rewrite the statements to make the circumstances appear as follows:

“‘Wu Song was performing sacrifices for his deceased elder brother, Wu the Elder, when his sister-in-law attempted to prevent the rites.

“‘A quarrel arose, and the woman overturned the spirit altar.

“‘In trying to protect his brother’s memorial tablet, Wu Song struggled with his sister-in-law and killed her in the heat of the moment.