Stories to Awaken the World, Volume I

Stories to Awaken the World, Volume I

Apart from the Six Classics and the official histories, all writings may be called fiction. Yet works that exalt principle often suffer from abstruseness and profundity, while those devoted to literary ornament may be marred by excessive embellishment; thus they fail to reach the ears of ordinary people or stir their constant hearts. This is why the forty tales of Constant Words to Awaken the World were engraved after Illustrious Words and Comprehensive Words. “Illustrious” means that they may guide the ignorant; “comprehensive” means that they may suit common custom; “constant” means that one may become accustomed to them without tiring of them and that they may be transmitted for a long time. The three collections bear different names, but their meaning is one and the same.

In their ordinary lives, people differ little in their movements and speech. Yet once drunk, they shout and stagger, regard a ditch as a shallow furrow and a city wall as a low threshold. Why is this? Because wine has clouded their spirits. But drinking has its occasions; even Bi of the Ministry of Personnel and Liu the Grand Master of Ceremonies were not always wallowing in drunkenness. Is it not true that sobriety is constant while drunkenness is temporary?

From this one may infer that trembling vigilance is sobriety and casting stones upon another is drunkenness; refusing a shouted offer is sobriety and eating food offered with contempt is drunkenness; cutting open jade is sobriety and inscribing upon stone is drunkenness. Extending the analogy further, loyalty and filial piety are sobriety, while rebellion and disobedience are drunkenness; restraint and frugality are sobriety, while lust and extravagance are drunkenness; hearing harmoniously, seeing clearly, speaking properly, and keeping the heart upright are sobriety, while choosing deafness, following darkness, and indulging stubbornness and perversity are drunkenness.

The constant heart of mankind is indeed worthy of reflection. Those who follow constancy meet with good fortune; those who turn against it meet with calamity. Let the heart be constant in heart, speech constant in speech, conduct constant in conduct. Enter into the relations of husband and wife without alarm; stand before Heaven and Earth without shame. At the lowest level one may become a shaman or physician; at the highest, a good man, a gentleman, or even a sage may appear. How great indeed is the significance of constancy in its proper time!

From ancient times, ages of confusion and disorder have been called “Heaven’s drunkenness.” Heaven does not become drunk of itself; men make it drunk. Heaven does not awaken of itself; men awaken it. The power to awaken Heaven lies with men, and the power to awaken men lies with words. If words are constant, men become constant; if men are constant, Heaven too may recover its constancy. Who can measure the blessings of peace for ten thousand generations that may follow?

Thus this engraved collection might fittingly be transmitted forever alongside the songs of Kangqu and Jirang. In an age that reveres Confucianism, the two other teachings are not abolished, for they too may help guide the ignorant and suit common custom; they may serve as auxiliaries to Confucianism. Why, then, may Illustrious Words, Comprehensive Words, and Constant Words not likewise serve as auxiliaries to the Six Classics and official histories?

As for obscene tales and lewd speech that give pleasure for a moment but leave corruption for a hundred generations, their authors first become drunk themselves and then administer a maddening drug to others. I do not know how their gains and losses compare with those of these Three Words.

Written by the Layman Keyi of Longxi at the Qixia Mountain Studio in Baimen, at Mid-Autumn in the dingmao year of the Tianqi reign.

Geomancy among men cannot be dispensed with, Yet hidden virtue must support it too. People today cannot fathom Heaven’s intent, And vainly spend their hearts and minds in scheming.

It is told that in recent times, in Quzhou Prefecture of Zhejiang, there lived a man named Wang Feng. His elder brother was Wang Chun. Each brother had a daughter. Wang Chun’s daughter was named Qiongying, and Wang Feng’s was named Qiongzhen. Qiongying had been betrothed to Pan Hua, son of a wealthy man of the prefecture known as Millionaire Pan; Qiongzhen had been betrothed to Xiao Ya, son of Assistant Prefect Xiao. Both engagements had been arranged in childhood.

When Qiongying was only ten, her mother died, and her father soon followed. On his deathbed Wang Chun entrusted Qiongying to his younger brother and said, “I have no son, only this daughter. Regard her as your own legitimate child. When she comes of age, marry her properly into the Pan family. Give her all the trousseau, clothing, and ornaments left by your sister-in-law. The fields purchased with the Pan family’s original betrothal gifts are also to be hers for her personal expenses. Do not betray my words!”

Having spoken, he breathed his last. After the funeral was completed, Wang Feng brought his niece Qiongying into his own household to keep company with his daughter Qiongzhen.

One New Year’s Day, Pan Hua and Xiao Ya happened to come to Wang Feng’s house at the same time to pay their New Year respects. Pan Hua had a powdered face and vermilion lips, as beautiful as a young woman, and everyone called him the Jade Boy. Xiao Ya, by contrast, had a face covered with pockmarks, sunken eyes, and ugly teeth, looking like a flying demon. With one handsome and the other ugly standing side by side, the handsome one seemed all the more radiant like polished jade, while the ugly one appeared all the more colorless like mud.

Moreover, Pan Hua wore dazzling clothes and deliberately displayed his wealth, changing from one fine outfit into another. Xiao Ya came from an honest family and cared little for dress. As the saying goes, “A Buddha is adorned with gold, and a man with clothes.” Most people have shallow eyes: they judge only outward appearance, not inner worth. Every man and woman, old and young, in the Wang household admired Young Master Pan’s beauty as though Pan An had been reborn, while secretly twisting their lips and whispering about the hideousness of the “flying demon.” Wang Feng himself could scarcely bear the sight and was greatly displeased.

Before long, Assistant Prefect Xiao died in office. Xiao Ya hastened home for the funeral, escorting his father’s coffin back. Though his was an old-established family, its members had been honest officials for generations and had accumulated no wealth. After the assistant prefect’s death, the household gradually declined.

Millionaire Pan, on the other hand, was newly rich, and his fortune grew greater every day. An evil thought suddenly occurred to Wang Feng: “The Xiao family is terribly poor, and their son is ugly. The Pan family is rich, and their son is handsome. Why should I not secretly switch Qiongying and Qiongzhen? Who would know? Then my own daughter would not have to suffer in a poor man’s house.”

Once he had settled on this plan, when the time came for the marriages he passed Qiongzhen off as his niece and married her to the Pan family, giving her all the clothing, ornaments, fields, and property left by his elder brother. Qiongying, meanwhile, he passed off as his own daughter and married to that “flying demon,” providing only a meager trousseau. Qiongying had no choice but to submit to her uncle’s arrangements; she dared to be angry but dared not speak.

Who could have known that after marriage, Pan Hua, relying on his family wealth, refused to study literature or attend to any proper livelihood, devoting himself entirely to prostitutes and gambling. His father repeatedly admonished him, but he would not listen, and the old man died in anger. Pan Hua then became even more unrestrained, spending every day drinking, feasting, and amusing himself with worthless companions.