Yang Shilun of Henan was the son of a great family, betrothed from childhood to his maternal cousin. His uncle was promoted to be prefect in Jiangnan, and Yang, by his mother’s order, went to complete the marriage, and fell ill on the way at a travellers’ lodge.
In his illness he vaguely saw demon bailiffs come with a warrant to fetch him. Taken to the underworld, the king examined his village and name and found they did not match, and cursed the bailiffs: “I told you to fetch Wang Shilun of Hunan. How can you have erred like this?” He had them heavily beaten, and ordered Yang to return to the world of the living.
As he left the hall he met his dead friend Yin Zhongqi, who asked why he had come. Yang told him. Yin said: “I am lately a clerk under the King of the Chu rivers. Today I happen to have some leisure, and I fear you will not know the road home, so let me see you off.” Yang was delighted and went with him.
After about three li they came to a place of carved windows and embroidered galleries, houses standing row on row. Outside the doors were women powdering their faces and shielding their sleeves, three or five together, who did not much avoid the guests. Yang thought this strange. Yin said: “This is the hell of face powder.”
Yang asked: “What sort of people are these?” Yin said: “Officials in the world of the living who have been found guilty of the two words greed and cruelty are punished by the law of the state. Those who slip the net are recorded by the underworld, and their young daughters-in-law and beloved daughters are put into the green rooms to pay the debt of their wickedness. Those who now lean on doorways selling smiles are all the thousand-gold maidens of the women’s quarters.”
As they sighed, an old woman came out of the left door, who seemed to know Yin, and laughed: “The honoured guest has not trodden this low place for a long time. Today the fair wind has blown you here — will you pass the door without entering?” She took hold of Yin’s sleeve. He had no choice but to go in with Yang, and two powdered girls came out laughing and asked after him. Yang asked their names. Yin said: “This one is called Cuijuan and this one Sainu, both the leaders of the northern quarter.”
Presently the old woman brought wine and food, and blue sleeves and red skirts sat crowded round them. After three cups Yin told Cuijuan to sing to encourage the wine. Cuijuan turned and passed it to Sainu, whose face showed displeasure.
Cuijuan urged her repeatedly, and Sainu said: “You rely on your father being a county lieutenant — will you bully me, the daughter of a registrar? In the world of the living there is a hierarchy; in the underworld we speak only of the courtesy between sisters. Do not order people about as you please and make it hard for them.”
Cuijuan’s face flushed scarlet, and she pressed her hand to the beat and sang the Balcony Dream. Sainu said: “The rhythm is wrong; very hard to listen to.”
Cuijuan’s colour changed and she said: “I grew up in a famous house and am not used to it. Not like your father, the Shandong jujube peddler, who bought two pointed horn-wings and personally taught you the Guazhi’er tune, humming it when he came off duty.”
Sainu was speechless and swept her sleeve to rise. Yin and Yang mediated again and again, and at last they sat down.
Suddenly there was a great clamour outside. A bailiff, by the king’s order, was bringing in a woman newly assigned to the green room. Hair loose, weeping delicately, her jade face without mastery. Yang hurriedly glanced at her — it was his uncle’s daughter, his own betrothed.
In great alarm he asked what had happened. She said: “My father took eight hundred in stolen gold and destroyed a man’s good name, and I am punished here to fill the sum of the theft. Now you are a guest at the table. Will you not lift a hand to help me?”
Yang consulted Yin. Yin said: “The underworld differs from the world of the living; it is not something bribery can open. What can I do?” Yang thought desperately and had no plan, and was sick with grief.
Word came from outside: “The Third Gentleman of the Palace of the Nine Darknesses has come.” The old woman welcomed him in respectfully, and Yin and Yang both moved from their seats. The gentleman laughed: “I hear your house has newly acquired a money tree, so I have prepared several lengths of brocade and a pair of gold swaying hairpins, to plight troth with the newcomer.” The old woman thanked him repeatedly and told the woman to go in and dress. The woman was at the end of her endurance and could not speak; she fell to the ground and wept bitterly.
At this sight Yang’s anger blazed up, and he advanced and retreated in confusion, and begged Yin to intercede for a moment. Yin called the old woman into the inner room and told her his purpose, and she looked very reluctant. Then he tempted her with much gold, and the old woman’s colour relaxed; she went out and spoke in the gentleman’s ear, and nobody knows what she said. The gentleman went off resentfully, and Yin pressed Yang to be on his way.
Yang said: “My wife has suffered this disgrace. How can I show my face in the world of the living again?” The woman also wept. Yin said: “Short of the yellow springs, how can we meet? There must be a fate in this. Let us first take the green room as our bridal chamber.” He ordered the east gallery swept and the woman lodged with Yang, and he himself took Cuijuan and Sainu to the west gallery. They lingered a night and a day, and nearly forgot they were in the ghost country.
One day a clerk in black came with a warrant, saying the prefect had donated eight hundred in gold and established six charitable schools. The king had approved the city god’s report and ordered his daughter to return to the light, and she was carried off in a clumsy cart in haste. Yin raised his hand to congratulate Yang: “The lady has gone, and you too will depart from here.” He took his leave of the old woman’s house and saw Yang thirty or forty li, and turned back as they neared the travellers’ lodge.
Yang also woke as though from a dream. After ten days’ recovery he packed and went to his uncle’s office and asked about the schools. His uncle said: “I had the idea at first but have not carried it out. How do you know?” Yang set out the whole business, and his uncle was astonished. The next day they chose a lucky day and the marriage was completed.
On the wedding night Yang told the story as a joke, and the woman firmly refused to acknowledge it: “You have acted out a demon dream. How could I have done such a thing?” Yang was blank for a long while. And when he sought the spring in the cave, there was no longer any fallen red on the quilt.
The Duo comment: “Women entering office become prostitutes — a cruel policy of the former Ming, and one would not expect the underworld still to follow that law. A father’s greed for white silver, a daughter’s fall into the green room: a hundred myriads in an official’s purse are all the brocade of the women’s quarters. Yet one day of changing the heart secures her chastity for a thousand autumns. The laws of the underworld are strict, but they have never refused a man the right to redeem himself. Take heed!”
