Original Text
In Huaiyang County there lived a scholar named Ye, whose given name has been forgotten. His essays and poetic compositions were considered unmatched in his time, yet fortune never favored him, and he repeatedly failed the imperial examinations. At that time, a man from Guandong named Ding Chenghu came to serve as magistrate of this county. Upon reading Scholar Ye's writings, he greatly admired them. He summoned Ye for a conversation, found their words harmonious, and was exceedingly delighted. Magistrate Ding then invited Scholar Ye to reside in the government office, provided him with funds for lamp oil and other study expenses, and frequently sent him money and grain to support his family.
When the time for the provincial examinations arrived, Master Ding praised Ye Sheng before the academic examiner, and thus Ye Sheng obtained the qualification for the provincial examination with the highest rank. Master Ding held great expectations for him. After the examination concluded, he requested Ye Sheng's essays to read, and upon finishing, he repeatedly clapped his hands in admiration. Yet, fate is unyielding, and fortune begrudges a man's success; when the results were announced, Ye Sheng once again failed. Dejected, he returned home, ashamed of having disappointed his benefactor's hopes, his body wasted to skin and bones, his spirit as vacant as a wooden idol. When Master Ding heard of this, he summoned Ye Sheng and offered words of comfort. Ye Sheng could not stop his tears. Master Ding, moved by pity, made an agreement with him: once his term of office ended and he journeyed to the capital, he would take Ye Sheng along. Ye Sheng, even more touched, took his leave and returned home, thereafter shutting his door and refusing to go out.
Not long after, Ye Sheng fell ill and took to his bed. Lord Ding repeatedly sent gifts and words of comfort, but despite taking many medicines, Ye showed no sign of recovery. At this time, it happened that Lord Ding, having offended his superiors, was dismissed from his post and was about to depart. He wrote a letter to Ye Sheng, the gist of which was: "I have already set a date for my return eastward, and the reason I have delayed my departure is that I am waiting for you. If you come in the morning, I shall set out that very evening." Lord Ding had the letter delivered to Ye Sheng's bedside. Ye Sheng, clutching the letter, wept and asked the messenger to convey to Lord Ding: "My illness is severe and I cannot recover quickly; I beg you to go ahead first." The messenger returned and reported this, but Lord Ding could not bear to leave first and still waited patiently. After a few days, the gatekeeper suddenly announced that Ye Sheng had arrived. Lord Ding was overjoyed and went forward to greet him. Ye Sheng said, "Because of my illness, I have caused you to wait so long, and my heart is filled with unease. Now, fortunately, I am able to follow and serve by your side." Lord Ding then packed his belongings, ready to set out at dawn.
Upon arriving at his hometown, Ding Gong had his son become a student of Ye Sheng, who then spent day and night in the company of Ding Gong's son. Ding Gong's son, named Zai Chang, was sixteen years old at the time and still unable to compose eight-legged essays. Yet he was exceptionally intelligent; after reading an eight-legged essay two or three times, he would never forget it. Ye Sheng taught him for a year while residing in Ding's household, and Ding Zai Chang soon became capable of writing essays in one continuous flow. Moreover, through his father's connections, Ding Zai Chang was admitted to the county school. Ye Sheng copied out all the eight-legged essays he had prepared for the imperial examinations and had Ding Zai Chang recite them. When Ding Zai Chang participated in the provincial examination, the seven questions posed in the examination hall were all covered by the essays he had studied, not a single one missed, and he thus ranked sixth among the successful candidates. One day, Ding Gong said to Ye Sheng, "Sir, you have only employed a fraction of your talent to enable my son to achieve fame. Yet a truly gifted man remains long buried in obscurity—what can be done about this?" Ye Sheng replied, "This is perhaps my destined lot. But now, by borrowing your fortune and grace, my writings have gained recognition, allowing the world to know that my half-life of failure was not due to my lack of ability—with that, I am content. Moreover, for a scholar to find one true patron is already without regret; why must one necessarily pass the golden list and shed the commoner's garb to be considered fortunate?" Ding Gong, seeing that Ye Sheng had long been away from home as a guest, feared he might miss the regular annual examinations and urged him to return home to take them. Ye Sheng grew despondent at this. Ding Gong could not bear to force him, so he instructed Ding Zai Chang, who was about to attend the metropolitan examination, to purchase for Ye Sheng a position as a student of the Imperial Academy in the capital. Ding Zai Chang again succeeded in the metropolitan examination and obtained a post as a secretary in a ministry. He brought Ye Sheng along to his official residence, and they spent their days and nights together. After a year, Ye Sheng took the provincial examination in the capital and unexpectedly passed as a provincial graduate. Just then, Ding Zai Chang was assigned to handle official business on the Southern River route, and he said to Ye Sheng, "This journey takes us near your hometown. Sir, after years of struggle, you have finally soared to the clouds; now is the time for the joy of returning home in glory." Ye Sheng was also overjoyed. Having selected an auspicious day, they set out on their journey. Upon reaching the border of Huaiyang County, Ding Zai Chang ordered a servant to lead a horse and escort Ye Sheng back to his home.
When Scholar Ye returned to his native village, he saw the desolate and dilapidated state before his own gate, and his heart was filled with profound sorrow. He wandered into the courtyard, and just then his wife came out carrying a winnowing basket. As soon as she saw him, she dropped the basket and fled in terror. Scholar Ye said with a heavy heart, "I have now attained wealth and honor. After three or four years of separation, how is it that you do not recognize me?" His wife called from a distance, "You have been dead for a long time—what talk is this of wealth and honor? The reason I have kept your coffin so long unburied is truly because the family was too poor and the child too young. Now A-da has grown up, and we are about to find a place to inter you. Do not come as a specter to frighten us living ones!" Upon hearing this, Scholar Ye's face showed a look of disappointment and melancholy. He slowly walked into the house, saw a coffin standing there conspicuously, and then collapsed to the ground, vanishing instantly. His wife, terrified, drew near to look, and saw only his clothes, hat, shoes, and socks scattered on the ground like the sloughed skin of a cicada or snake. Overcome with grief, she embraced the garments and wept aloud. Scholar Ye's son returned from the academy, saw a horse tethered at the gate, and upon inquiring and learning the circumstances, ran in alarm to tell his mother. Wiping her tears, she recounted what had just happened. Together they questioned the servant who had accompanied Scholar Ye, and thus learned the whole story. When the servant returned, Master Ding heard of this and was deeply grieved, his tears soaking his lapel. He immediately ordered a carriage and hastened to the Ye home, where he wept and offered sacrifices before Scholar Ye's spirit, and paid for his funeral, burying him with the rites befitting a provincial graduate. Master Ding also gave much money to Scholar Ye's son, hired a tutor to instruct him, and recommended him to the academic examiner. Within a year, Scholar Ye's son passed the examination and became a xiucai.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: Can a man's soul, following its true friend, forget that it has already died? Those who hear this tale do not believe it, yet I alone am deeply convinced. In the tale of the Separated Soul, the maiden Qian could leave her body for her beloved, following him through life and death; Zhang Min and Gao Hui, bosom friends separated by a thousand li, could meet in dreams. How much more so with the writings that pour forth the heart's blood of us scholars? A true friend like Zhong Ziqi is one whose life is intertwined with ours! Alas! The meeting of kindred spirits is a thing hard to hope for; men often find themselves alone, without a soul to understand them. In solitary exile, one gazes at his shadow and nurses a long sorrow; yet, born with an unyielding pride, he cannot help but lose his way and pity himself. A poor scholar's sorry plight is such that even ghosts and demons mock him. If he fails repeatedly in examinations, every hair on his face seems ugly; once he falls from the list of successful candidates, every line of his essay is deemed faulty. From ancient times to the present, the one most famed for weeping was Bian He, whose jade was rejected; and when faced with the inversion of talent and mediocrity, who is the discerning Bo Le? Possessing a unique skill but no one to appreciate it, one can only, like Mi Heng, keep his name-card in his bosom until its characters are worn away after three years; looking around, there is nowhere in the world to turn. In this life, one should only close his eyes and take his steps, submitting to the wealth, honor, poverty, and lowliness ordained by Heaven. There are many extraordinary men in the world who, like Scholar Ye, waste their lives away; but how can we make a man like Ding Chenghe appear again, so that we may follow him through life and death? Alas!
Commentary
The life of Scholar Ye was one spent in obscurity and hardship under the imperial examination system, yet he struggled and strove unceasingly. While alive, he took the examinations without end; after death, his spirit continued to sit for them, driven by a single purpose: to pass and become a provincial graduate. In this sense, Scholar Ye stands as a quintessential victim devoured by the feudal examination system, his death a powerful indictment of how that system warped the souls of scholars. He was indeed a tragic figure, not because his talents went unrecognized by the system, but because the very struggle he devoted himself to was the cause of his ruin—and to his dying day, he never understood this!
There are two points worth noting at the conclusion of this tale. First, Ye Sheng is ultimately "buried with the rites of a Filial and Honest candidate." From the author's subjective wish, this may have been a false comfort born of sympathy for Ye Sheng's plight, yet from our present perspective, it serves only as a bitter irony. Second, the author has Ye Sheng's son, with the aid of Ding Zaichang, pass the county-level examination, the process eerily mirroring how Ding Chenghe once helped Ye Sheng. In the author's original intent, this too may have been a form of consolation for Ye Sheng, embodying the traditional Chinese ideal that "poetry and books sustain the lineage," ensuring the seed of scholarship was not extinguished. Yet to today's reader, it only deepens the tragedy of Ye Sheng's fate: one generation is destroyed, and the next, rather than learning from the calamity, continues blindly down the same erroneous path—truly a great tragedy of the age!
In the novel, Ye Sheng's understanding of the imperial examination system is precisely Pu Songling's own understanding; and Ye Sheng's tragedy likewise reflects the tragedy of Pu Songling's character and cognition. Feng Zhenluan, a renowned Qing dynasty commentator on Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, remarked: "I say this chapter is none other than Liaozhai's own biography, thus it speaks with heartfelt pain." This observation indeed holds considerable truth.