Original Text
A merchant from Qingzhou, residing abroad as a sojourner, often did not return home for an entire year. He kept a white dog at home, and his wife seduced it into coupling with her. The dog grew accustomed to this practice. One day, the merchant returned home and lay in bed with his wife. Suddenly, the dog rushed in, leaped onto the bed, and savagely bit the merchant to death. Later, the neighbors gradually learned of the affair and, indignant at the injustice, reported it to the authorities. The officials interrogated the woman under torture, but she steadfastly refused to confess, so she was thrown into prison. The magistrate then ordered the dog to be bound and brought forth, and the woman was taken from the jail. As soon as the dog saw the woman, it dashed forward, tore her clothes, and assumed the posture of copulation. At this, the woman had no words to defend herself. The officials dispatched two constables to escort the prisoners to the provincial governor's yamen—one constable guarding the woman, the other the dog. Some meddlesome folk, eager to witness the spectacle of human and beast coupling, pooled their money to bribe the constables, who then tied the woman and the dog together to perform the act. Wherever they passed, onlookers often numbered in the hundreds, and the constables thereby gained considerable wealth. In the end, both the woman and the dog were executed by slicing. Alas! Vast as heaven and earth are, nothing is beyond existence. Yet, with a human face, to engage in bestial union—was this woman the only one?
The judgment written by the Historian of the Strange says: Secret trysts at the riverside have been mocked since ancient times; rendezvous among the mulberry groves have also been deemed shameful. Yet there was a certain person who could not bear the solitude of the boudoir, indulging in wild thoughts of illicit union. A night-crawler lay upon the bed, only to be a domestic beast; the dog’s member entered the orifice, becoming the lover beneath the covers. During the union, the dog’s tail wagged wildly; amid the pleasure, the snake-like waist twisted repeatedly. The sharp awl emerged from its sheath, leaping forth with a lift of the leg; the passion was tied to the arrowhead, and as soon as it was shot, it took root upon landing. Suddenly, one ponders the strangeness of intercourse between different species—truly beyond comprehension. A dog at home should bark to warn of a paramour, yet it itself became the paramour, killing out of jealousy—such a crime is beyond the reach of earthly law. Humans are not beasts but have become beasts in truth, their lewdness so foul that even wolves and tigers would disdain to eat their flesh. Alas! The woman, for adultery and murder, may be sentenced to dismemberment; but for the dog, for adultery and murder, the mortal world has no fitting punishment. If a man does evil, he is punished by being reborn as a dog; but for a dog’s evil, the underworld likely has no recourse. The dog should be dismembered, its soul seized, and sent to the underworld to consult the King of Hell on how to proceed.
Commentary
The focus of this piece lies not in the tale itself but in the "Commentary by the Historian of the Strange," which is composed in parallel prose and contains a ribald passage. This story appears in the manuscript, the Zhuxuezhai transcription, and the twenty-four-volume edition, yet it is absent from the Qingke Pavilion edition of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" published during the Qianlong reign, likely due to its being deemed unsuitable for young readers.
First, regarding the story itself, whether the merchant's wife actually engaged in relations with the dog remains a great unresolved mystery. Gossip from the streets is hardly credible, and to judge that adultery occurred solely on the basis that "the dog suddenly saw the woman, rushed forward, tore her clothes, and made motions of mating" seems to be grasping at shadows. Second, even if the dog indeed killed the merchant out of jealousy, the dog was the murderer, but the merchant's wife was not necessarily the murderer. "Tearing clothes and making motions of mating" could only serve as evidence of their relationship, not as proof of her being the murderer. Third, even if the merchant's wife could be convicted for her relationship with the dog, the crime would not warrant that "both the woman and the dog be cut to pieces and die." As for Pu Songling writing, "The constable then led the dog to mate with her; wherever this occurred, hundreds of onlookers gathered," and in the "Historian of the Strange's Commentary" filling the text with lewd remarks, dwelling on them with relish, sinking into base tastes—all this reveals another side of traditional Chinese culture and even of Pu Songling's own character and inclinations.
In ancient Chinese society, due to merchants traveling for business and remaining away for extended periods, both merchants and their wives were high-risk groups for extramarital affairs, a theme frequently depicted in classical urban literature and likewise in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. For instance, in the first volume, besides this tale, there is also The Merchant's Son. In The Dog's Adultery, a merchant's wife commits bestiality with a dog, while in The Merchant's Son, the wife is seduced by a fox spirit. Influenced by Confucian thought, society often regarded male merchants' philandering as commonplace and tolerated it with leniency; however, for the sexual frustrations of merchants' wives, societal tolerance was exceedingly low. Pu Songling, coming from a merchant family background, stood from a merchant and chauvinistic perspective, lacking humane sympathy for the sexual deprivation of merchants' wives, gnashing his teeth with bitterness and holding extreme attitudes, which is understandable; in this regard, the concepts in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio are far less enlightened than works such as Jiang Xingge Reclaims the Pearl Shirt from the Three Words and Two Slaps collections.