Original Text
Mei Ouchang, a provincial graduate from Jiangnan, once recounted a strange case that his fellow townsman Mr. Sun tried when he served as prefect in Dezhou. At first, in a certain village, a family took a bride for their son, and after the new wife was brought into the home, all the relatives and neighbors in the village came to offer congratulations. When the drinking had continued past the first watch, the bridegroom came out of the room and saw the new bride, dressed in bright and splendid garments, swiftly turning toward the rear of the house. He grew suspicious of her and followed closely behind, chasing after her. Behind the house there was a long stream, with a small bridge spanning its banks. The bridegroom watched as the bride walked directly across the bridge, and his suspicion deepened. He urgently called out to her, but she not only refused to answer, but from a distance made gestures beckoning him to come. The bridegroom hurried over, and though the two were only about a foot apart, he could never quite catch up to her. After walking several li in this manner, they entered a village. Only then did the bride stop and say to the bridegroom, "Your home is so cold and cheerless; I am not used to living there. Please stay with me for a few days at my parents' house, and then we will return together to visit your family." Having said this, she took a hairpin from her head and tapped it against the courtyard gate with a clatter; a young maidservant answered the door and came out. The bride entered first, and the bridegroom, seeing this, had no choice but to follow her inside. As soon as he stepped through the door, he saw his father-in-law and mother-in-law both seated in the hall. They said to the bridegroom, "Our daughter has been spoiled since childhood and has never been apart from us for a single moment. Once she leaves home, her heart is filled with sorrow and distress. Now that she has returned with you, it eases our longing. Stay a few days, and we will surely send you both back to your home." With that, they prepared a room for them, making the bed and laying out the bedding. And so the bridegroom took up residence there.
The relatives and guests at the groom's house, seeing that he had gone out for a long time and not returned, went together to search for him. Inside the bridal chamber, only the new bride remained, and no one knew where the groom had gone. From then on, the groom's family searched far and wide, but there was no news at all. The parents grieved and wept incessantly, believing that their son must have perished. After nearly half a year had passed, the bride's family, sorrowful that their daughter was left without a spouse, petitioned the groom's father to allow her to remarry. The groom's father, his heart even more pained, said, "I have not seen my son's bones or garments, and there is no proof; how can I be certain that he is dead? Even if he truly is dead, it would not be too late to let the bride remarry after a full year. Why are you so hasty?" The bride's father, hearing this reply, grew even more resentful and thus brought the matter to the authorities. Magistrate Sun, upon hearing the bride's family's accusation, found the case exceedingly strange, yet was at a loss for how to resolve it. He ruled that the bride's family should wait three years, and after having the case recorded in the official registry, he sent both families away.
The bridegroom resided in his bride's home, where he was warmly received by her family. Each time he discussed returning home with his bride, she would agree, yet always delayed and refused to set out promptly. Thus, one postponement after another, he stayed for over half a year, his heart filled with hesitation and unease, unable to find peace. He prepared to return alone, but his bride firmly insisted on keeping him. Suddenly, one day, the entire household was thrown into panic and confusion, as if some urgent calamity were about to befall them. The father-in-law hurriedly said to the bridegroom, "We had intended to send you and your wife home together in two or three days, but before we could prepare the gifts and luggage, misfortune has suddenly struck our door. Out of necessity, I must send you back immediately." Thereupon, the father-in-law escorted him out the main gate. No sooner had they reached the threshold than the father-in-law turned and rushed back inside, his farewell gestures hasty and perfunctory. As the bridegroom sought the road home, he looked back and saw that the father-in-law's residence had vanished, leaving only a towering grave in its place. Greatly startled, he found his way and hurried home. Upon arriving, he recounted the entire affair in detail, then went with his family to the magistrate's office to report the matter. Mr. Sun summoned the bride's father, informed him of the bridegroom's departure and the reasons behind it, and offered words of persuasion. The bride's family then sent the daughter back to the bridegroom's home, and only then were the couple able to be wed.
Commentary
Ancient Chinese classical-language novels with courtroom-case themes began to diverge into two categories from the Tang dynasty onward: one type, influenced by official case documents, was relatively brief and focused on narrating the details of the legal case, such as the courtroom cases recorded in Zhang Zhuo's "Records of the Court and Country" from the Tang dynasty; the other type, influenced by historical biographical literature, provided more detailed narratives and emphasized revealing the characters' fates and personalities, such as Li Gongzuo's "The Tale of Xie Xiao'e" from the Tang dynasty. The courtroom-case novels in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" also fall into these two categories in terms of structure.
"The Newlywed" is a civil litigation case. On the night of his wedding, the groom was mysteriously lured by a so-called bride to live at a supposed father-in-law's home, while the real bride waited in vain at home. After more than half a year, the groom left and discovered that the father-in-law's residence was actually a large grave mound.
Whether that so-called bride was a ghost or a fox spirit, and why she resorted to such means to deceive in marriage, the case left many perplexing questions, including whether the groom, the protagonist of this tale, was truly deceived and lured astray, or whether he was merely spinning his own tale and orchestrating an extramarital affair himself—all of which remains unknown. Yet it is precisely this that constitutes the "strange case" the story seeks to portray.