Jia Zhengjing of Qianzhong married a wife of the Tao family who was very beautiful.
At Qingming they went to sweep the family graves together. Halfway there a whirlwind stood across the road. Suspecting a god or ghost asking for food, Jia set out offerings, poured a libation, and said: “I have brought nothing in a hurry. Here is a cup of muddy wine. Do not despise it for being unclean.” He finished the offering, and then they went and swept the graves and came home.
The next spring Jia left his wife and travelled far away. One day at dusk, with the inn still distant, he was afraid of the wilderness with nowhere to stop, when a servant in blue appeared by the road and asked: “Is the gentleman Master Jia? I have been sent to wait for you a long time.”
“Who by?”
“You will know when you arrive.” He pointed into the distance at a place where there was lamplight, and said that was his village. Jia was privately delighted and went with him.
After about a li the master was already welcoming guests at the gate, in a Daoist robe and scholar’s cap, an elegant man. His pavilions rose into the clouds, all trimmed with gold and blue.
Jia exchanged the usual courtesies and asked: “I lost my way at nightfall, and you have suddenly sent for me. We have never been introduced. How did you know in advance, and why trouble your servant so far?”
The master said: “We met on the road last year, and I received your kindness. Not very long ago — and have you forgotten so soon?”
Jia understood even less. The master said: “On the Qingming day last year, when you and your wife were sweeping the graves, the whirlwind across the road — that was me.”
“Then you are a god?”
“No. An earthly immortal.”
Asked what he had charge of, he said: “I am ashamed to say it. I manage the casual unions of the mortal world.”
Jia joked: “I am a man of some feeling. May I trouble you to look? Is there any meeting in store for me in this life?”
The immortal took the register, turned it over, and laughed. “Extraordinary! You have no share in this life. But your wife — at this moment she has a great encounter in prospect.”
Jia broke into a sweat. He thought: my wife is young; if this happened it would be the shame of my life, and he begged the immortal to remove it.
The immortal said: “It is a number fixed by fate. How could I alter it?”
Jia begged again. The immortal looked up at the sky and thought a long while. “Well! Well! Fortunately the man your wife will meet is a worthless fellow, and his greed for money is stronger than his appetite for women. Get home quickly and you may avoid the shame of the bedchamber — but you will lose money, nothing more.”
Jia counted the days on his fingers. He had been out of the house four days, and he feared he would not get back in time; and he reflected that for a trifling profit to let his wife lose her chastity was absolutely impossible. So he took his leave and went home, travelling day and night.
Forty li from home there was a great downpour and he could not go on. He entered the gate the next noon — and the wall of the bedroom had fallen down, and a single young man was living hard by. He remembered the immortal’s words and sighed in helplessness.
His wife asked: “Why do you sigh?”
“The wall has collapsed and the two rooms are joined. A young man alone in each of them — is that a thing to be spoken of? And you ask me!”
His wife said: “So it is that. It did happen, and I was lucky to lose ten ounces and get off.”
Jia asked what she meant. “After the wall fell, the young man did come and try to get round me, and I fled to the neighbour’s, but the silver under my pillow was stolen. Now he is afraid of you and has gone far away.”
Asked where the silver had come from, it was the repayment of a debt by a certain family. Jia reported it to the officials and had the young man beaten, but the silver was never recovered.
Cheng Xingfeng told me this.
