We’re turning to the city of Chang’an in Shanxi Province, the capital city for many generations of emperors. Through the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, the flowers bloomed like brocade and waters flowed around the city. It really was a beautiful sight. It was the Tang Dynasty,1 and the Emperor Taizong had been on the throne for thirteen years. It was a peaceful era, and nations in all directions paid tribute.
One day, as the ministers and officials assembled at court, the prime minister Wei Zheng presented a memorial to the emperor: “In these peaceful times, we should revive the tradition of civil examinations to recruit men of merit and talent to serve the country in government and administration.”
Emperor Taizong replied, “The memorial of our worthy official is sensible,” and written proclamations were sent to every town, county, and province so that any man, soldier or peasant, who could read and was versed in the Confucian classics, who was educated and skillful with prose, and who passed three rounds of examinations, could travel to Chang’an to take the civil exam.
The proclamation went all the way to a place called Haizhou, where a man named Chen E, known to all as Chen Guangrui,2 saw it. He quickly went home to his mother, Madam Zhang,3 and said, “The emperor issued a proclamation that examinations shall be held here in the southern provinces. Your child wishes to go take these exams. If I can get even a minor position, I can bring honor to this family and this village.”
“My child,” Madam Zhang replied, “educated people should ‘study when they are young and travel when they are grown.’ This is only right. However, be careful as you travel to the exam, and after you receive a position, return as soon as you can.”
Guangrui ordered a servant to pack his bags, bid farewell to his mother, and arrived in Chang’an as the tests were about to begin. In three rounds of examinations,4 Guangrui exceeded all of the rest of the examinees. The Tang Emperor personally awarded him the distinction of zhuangyuan,5 and he was paraded around the city on horseback for three days.
As he was paraded past the house of the chief minister, Yin Kaishan, the chief minister’s unmarried daughter, Wenjiao, was up in the tower about to toss down an embroidered ball from the window to divine her husband. When she saw that he was handsome as well as the new zhuangyuan, she was delighted, and threw her embroidered ball at him. The ball hit Guangrui squarely on his black gauze hat.6 The sound of flutes and pipes filled the air, and ten or more maidservants went downstairs to stop Guangrui’s horse and to invite the new zhuangyuan into the house to get married. The chief minister and his wife immediately came outside and summoned the guards to begin the wedding ceremony and give the young lady to Guangrui as his wife. The new couple bowed to Heaven and Earth, bowed to each other, bowed to the mother and father of the bride, and were married. The chief minister threw a banquet, and they celebrated for a night. The two then walked hand-in-hand into the bridal chamber.
Then next morning, Emperor Taizhong asked his ministers and officials, “What position should the new zhuangyuan Chen Guangrui receive?”
The prime minister Wei Zheng said, “Your servant has found that, of the provinces in our country, Jiangzhou lacks a governor. I beg your majesty to assign him to that position.”
So the Emperor assigned him governor of Jiangzhou, and ordered him to make ready to leave without delay. Guangrui thanked the Emperor and left the court, returned to his bride’s house, discussed the matter with her,7 said goodbye to his in-laws, and set off for Jiangzhou with his new wife.
As they left Chang’an, spring was coming to a close. The breeze blew the willows green, and the light rain painted the flowers red.
On the way to Jiangzhou, Guangrui stopped by his home. He and his bride bowed to Madam Zhang.
“Congratulations, my son,” Madam Zhang said. “You’ve even come home with a wife!”
Guangrui said, “Thanks to the hard work of my mother, your son became the zhuangyuan. As I was paraded around the city, I passed by the house of the chief minister and was hit by a embroidered ball. It was by chance that the daughter of the chief minister chose me for a husband. The imperial court appointed me governor of Jiangzhou. I’ve come to fetch you so you can come with me to my new post.”
Madam Zhang was ecstatic and quickly packed her things for the trip. After some days, they came to the Thousand Flower Inn run by Liu Xiao’er. Madam Zhang suddenly fell ill and said to Guangrui, “I am not well. Let us rest here for two days before continuing on.”
Guangrui obeyed. The next morning, he saw a man in front of the inn selling a golden carp. He was about to buy it and cook it for his mother to nurse her back to health when he saw the carp blinking at him. Guangrui was amazed. “I’ve heard that when a fish or snake blinks this way, it must not be an ordinary creature,” he thought, and asked the fisherman, “Where did you catch this fish?”
“I caught it fifteen li from here,” the fisherman said, “in the Hong River.”
So Guangrui released the fish into the Hong River and told his mother about it back at the inn.
“It’s good to release wild creatures,” Madam Zhang said. “I’m glad.”
“We’ve already stayed here three days,” Guangrui said. “The imperial appointment is an urgent one. Your child wishes to leave in the morning, but doesn’t know whether Mother is feeling better.”
“I’m still not well,” Madam Zhang said, “and the road at this time of year is too hot. I’m afraid I may get worse. You can rent a room here for me and leave me some money. You two can go on ahead and come fetch me in the fall when it’s cooler.”
Guangrui discussed it with his bride, rented a room, left his mother an allowance, and bid her farewell.
It was hard going. Traveling from daybreak to nightfall each day, they soon reached the ferry crossing at the Hong River. They saw two men, Liu Hong and Li Biao, punting a boat toward the shore to greet them. You see, in a previously incarnation, Guangrui had already been destined to be met with calamity. That is why he encountered these two villains. Guangrui ordered his servant to carry their luggage onto the boat, and then the couple also stepped aboard.
Liu Hong saw that Lady Yin had a face like the full moon and eyes like gentle waves in the autumn, a small mouth like a cherry and a waist like a young willow. It was a beauty so breathtaking that fish would forget to swim and birds forget to fly, an appearance so stunning to make the moon and flowers feel too shy to show their faces. He suddenly felt a covetous stirring in his heart, and hatched a plan with Li Biao. They punted the boat to an isolated place. At the third watch of night, they killed the servant boy and Guangrui, tossing the bodies into the water. When Lady Yin saw that her husband had been killed, she tried to throw herself overboard, but Liu Hong grabbed her and said, “If you obey me, everything will be fine. But if you don’t, I will cut you in two!”
Beauty so breathtaking
Liu Hong is not a particularly poetic man, describing Lady Yin’s appearance this way. There are two classic Chinese idioms being used here. 沉鱼落雁 literally means “Fish sink and wild geese fall.” 闭月羞花 literally means “Moon hides and flowers are shy.”
Lady Yin could not think of a way to escape, so she acquiesced and promised to do as Liu Hong said.
That villain punted the boat to the south shore, gave the boat to Li Biao, and put on the clothes of Guangrui. With the official appointment in hand, he took Lady Yin with him to assume the post of governor in Jiangzhou.
The body of the servant boy floated downriver with the current, but Chen Guangrui’s body sank to the bottom of the river where it was thrown. It was found there at the Hong River mouth by a patrolling yaksha, who reported it to the Dragon Palace as the court was opening.
The Dragon King8 ordered the body to be brought and examined it carefully. “This is the person who saved my life!” the Dragon King said. “Why has he been murdered? A good deed must be repaid with good. I must save his life to repay him.”
He dispatched the yaksha with a message to guardian deity and tudi spirit of Hong City to bring back the dead scholar’s soul so that he could be saved.
The guardian deity and tudi spirit ordered the soul to be given to the yaksha, and the yaksha brought the soul back to the Dragon King at the Crystal Palace.
“Scholar, what is your name and where are you from?” the Dragon King asked. “How have you come to be beaten to death?”
Guangrui bowed and replied, “My name is Chen E, known as Guangrui. I am from Hongnong County in Haizhou. I became the new zhuangyuan and received the post of governor of Jiangzhou. As I was traveling to my new post with my wife, I boarded a boat to cross this river when the villain Liu Hong coveted my wife and beat me to death, throwing my body into the river. I beg your Majesty to save me.”
“I see,” the Dragon King said. “Sir, I was the golden carp you released the other day. You were my savior. Today disaster has befallen you. How can I not save you?”
He put Guangrui’s body to one side and placed a Pearl of Preserving into its mouth to prevent it from decomposing, so that in the future, he could return to life and take revenge.9
The Dragon King then said, “As for your soul, why don’t you become a governor for me in the meantime?”
Guangrui bowed in thanks. The Dragon King threw a grand banquet to welcome him, but we won’t speak of that.
1 618-907AD ↩
2 Guangrui is Chen E’s courtesy name, given to him when he reached adulthood. Peers would call him Guangrui, while his family and people close to him may call him Chen E in informal settings. This isn’t really practiced anymore, but even in my grandmother’s time it was common to have two names. ↩
3 Women in Chinese culture don’t take their husband’s name when they marry, so Guangrui doesn’t share a surname with his mother. ↩
4 the text implies that each exam consists of a single essay ↩
5 Valedictorian of the whole country. ↩
6 signaling him as an imperial official. ↩
7 What a good husband! ↩
8 We’re not told which Dragon King this is. ↩
9 Why later? Why not now? ↩
Etymology Adventures 
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