Original Text
Mao Ji, a Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty from Ye County, came from a family that had always been poor. His father often worked as a cowherd for others. At that time, a prominent local family named Zhang had a new grave at the southern foot of East Mountain. One day, someone passing by heard a voice from within the tomb shouting, "Move away quickly, do not keep disturbing the residence of a nobleman!" Zhang did not take this seriously. Then Zhang was repeatedly warned in dreams, saying, "Your family's burial ground is originally the graveyard of Lord Mao's family; how can you occupy it for so long!" After this, misfortunes befell the Zhang household one after another. A guest advised Zhang to relocate the grave to a better place, and Zhang accepted the advice, moving the tomb elsewhere. One day, Mao Ji's father, while herding cattle, passed by the former Zhang family grave. Suddenly, a heavy rainstorm descended, and he took shelter in the abandoned tomb pit. Soon, the rain grew heavier, and water from the ground surged into the pit with a roaring sound, flooding it, and Mao's father drowned. At that time, Mao Ji was still a child. His mother personally went to see Zhang, hoping to obtain a small plot of land to bury her husband. Upon learning the surname of the deceased, Zhang was greatly astonished. He went to see the place where Mao's father had drowned, and it was exactly the spot where the coffin should be placed, which made him even more alarmed. He then allowed Mao's father to be buried in the original tomb pit and asked Mao's mother to bring her son to see him. After the burial, Mao's mother and son went to thank Zhang. As soon as Zhang saw Mao Ji, he took a liking to him, kept him in his home, taught him to read, and treated him as one of his own children. Zhang also proposed that his eldest daughter marry Mao Ji, but Mao's mother was too frightened to agree. Zhang's wife said, "Since the words have been spoken, how can we go back on them?" In the end, Mao's mother consented.
However, this eldest daughter held the Mao family in great contempt, her resentment and shame manifesting in her expression and words. Whenever anyone happened to mention the Mao family, she would cover her ears and refuse to listen. She often said to others, "I would rather die than marry a cowherd's son!" On the day of the wedding, when the groom entered the banquet and the bridal sedan chair stopped at the gate, she covered her face with her sleeves and wept facing the corner. Urged to dress, she refused; coaxed, she remained unmoved. After a while, the groom took his leave to depart, drums and music sounded loudly, yet she still wept like rain, her hair disheveled like tangled weeds. Zhang stopped the groom and went in person to persuade the eldest daughter, but she only wept, turning a deaf ear. Angrily, Zhang forced her to the sedan chair, but she wailed even more bitterly, leaving Zhang utterly helpless. Just then, a servant reported, "The groom is about to leave." Zhang hurried out and said, "Her dressing is not yet finished; please wait a moment." He immediately ran back in to see the eldest daughter, thus rushing in and out several times without pause. Though some time was delayed, the urging outside grew more pressing, yet the eldest daughter showed no sign of relenting. Zhang, at his wit's end, grew so anxious and desperate that he nearly wished to die. The younger daughter, observing this, thought her sister's behavior utterly wrong and earnestly tried to persuade her. The eldest daughter snapped angrily, "You little wench, learning to meddle! Why don't you marry him yourself!" The younger daughter replied, "Father never betrothed me to Master Mao; if he had, would I need you to urge me to the sedan chair?" Hearing this forthright and decisive remark, Zhang secretly consulted with his wife, planning to have the younger daughter take her sister's place. The mother then said to the younger daughter, "That unfilial girl defies her parents' wishes; we intend to have you replace your sister. Are you willing?" The younger daughter answered without hesitation, "If my parents bid me marry, even to a beggar I dare not refuse; besides, how can we be sure Master Mao will starve to death in the end?" Overjoyed, the parents immediately dressed the younger daughter in the wedding garments meant for the elder and hastily sent her off in the carriage. After the wedding, the couple's affection was most harmonious. However, the younger daughter had been thin-haired since childhood, which slightly disappointed Mao Ji. Over time, he gradually learned of the substitution and thus cherished her even more as a kindred spirit, filled with gratitude.
Not long after, Mao Ji passed the county-level examination and went to take the provincial examination, passing through the inn at Wangsheren Village. The innkeeper had dreamed the previous night that a deity said, "Tomorrow a successful candidate named Mao will arrive, and in the future he will help you escape your troubles." Therefore, rising early in the morning, he specifically watched for guests coming from the east. When he saw Mao Ji, the innkeeper was overjoyed, providing exceptionally fine food and drink without accepting payment, and earnestly entrusted Mao with the matter foretold in his dream. Mao Ji was also quite self-assured. He secretly recalled that his wife had sparse hair, and fearing that this would invite ridicule from the eminent, he planned to take another wife once he achieved wealth and rank. Later, when the official list was posted, Mao Ji had actually failed the examination. He sighed deeply, stumbled along, filled with regret and chagrin, dejected and disheartened. Ashamed in his heart, he did not dare face the innkeeper again, nor did he dare pass through Wangsheren Village, so he changed his route and returned home.
Three years later, Mao Ji went again to take the provincial examination, and the innkeeper received him just as before. Mao Ji said, "Your earlier words did not come true, and I am ashamed to have been so indebted to your kindness." The innkeeper replied, "You secretly intended to take another wife, and thus were struck from the rolls by the underworld officials. How can you say that extraordinary dream was not fulfilled?" Startled, Mao Ji asked what he meant, and it turned out that the innkeeper had dreamed again after their parting, and so spoke thus. Hearing this, Mao Ji was awakened with a shock, filled with remorse and fear, standing there like a wooden statue. The innkeeper told him, "You, scholar, should cherish your own virtue; in the end, you will become the top graduate." Soon after, Mao Ji indeed came first in the provincial examination. His wife's hair also grew back before long, her cloud-like tresses glossy black, adding even more charm to her appearance.
Now, the elder daughter had married the son of a wealthy family in the countryside and was quite puffed up with pride. Her husband, however, was dissolute and lazy, fond of idleness and gluttony, so the family gradually declined until their home was bare and their pots could not even be uncovered. When she heard that her younger sister had become the wife of a successful candidate in the provincial examinations, she felt even more ashamed, and the two sisters would avoid each other when walking. Not long after, her husband died, and the family fell into utter ruin. Soon afterward, Mao Ji passed the metropolitan examinations and became a jinshi. Upon hearing this, the elder daughter was consumed with bitter regret and, in a fit of anger, renounced the world and became a nun. By the time Mao Ji returned to his hometown as a grand secretary, the elder daughter reluctantly sent a young female disciple who had not yet taken full vows to the Mao residence to pay respects, hoping that the Mao family might bestow some money. When the disciple arrived, Lady Mao presented her with several bolts of fine silk and satin, with silver coins hidden among them, though the disciple was unaware of this. The disciple brought the gifts back to her mistress, who was greatly disappointed and complained bitterly, saying, "If they had given me money, I could have bought firewood and rice; these things are pleasing to the eye but useless—what need have I of them?" She then ordered the gifts to be returned. Mao Ji and his wife did not understand the reason, but when they opened the gifts, they found the silver still inside, and so they grasped the meaning behind the returned presents. They took out the silver and said with a laugh, "Your mistress cannot even bear the fortune of a hundred taels of silver; how could she enjoy the blessings of following me, an old minister?" They then gave the disciple fifty taels of silver to take back, saying, "Take this for your mistress to spend; if we gave more, I fear her fortune would be too shallow to bear it." The disciple returned and recounted everything to her mistress. The mistress remained silent, sighing deeply, and reflecting on her life's actions, she realized she had always acted perversely—shunning good fortune and embracing calamity—was this not the will of Heaven? Later, the innkeeper was arrested and imprisoned for a murder case, and Mao Ji exerted every effort to secure his acquittal, ultimately obtaining a pardon for his crime.
The Chronicler of Strange Tales remarks: The old burial ground of the Zhang family became the new grave of the Mao family—this was already strange enough. I have heard that people of our time jest with sayings such as 'The elder brother-in-law becomes the younger brother-in-law, the former top scholar becomes the latter top scholar'—how could these be matters for the clever and astute to calculate and scheme over? Alas! Heaven has long been unresponsive to inquiries, yet why did it respond to Master Mao as swiftly as an echo follows a sound?
Commentary
Setting aside the absurd plots of geomancy and prophetic dreams, "The Sisters Swap Marriages" raises three interrelated moral questions regarding marriage: fidelity to one's word, obedience to parental authority, and the disparity between poverty and wealth. At its core, it is a critique of those who despise the poor and curry favor with the rich.
Regarding the marriage story of Lord Mao itself, the exchange of sisters in marriage was originally a true event. However, according to the textual research by Sun Kuotu of Rencheng based on the Ye County Gazetteer, Pu Songling's "The Exchange of Sisters in Marriage" contains inaccuracies in two plot points: first, Lord Mao's father was not a poor cowherd, but rather came from a distinguished family, and Lord Mao's father served as a professor at the Hangzhou Prefecture School under the recommendation of a filial and incorrupt official. Second, the elder sister of Lord Mao's wife did not refuse the marriage due to the Mao family's poverty, but rather because Lord Mao "had literary talent but lacked physical appearance, and regretted the marriage on the eve of the wedding." It is believed that "this passage in Liaozhai is a distortion of hearsay." The commentator He Yin of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" extrapolated from this, stating that "many more accounts in Liaozhai are inaccurate." This likely confuses the distinction between history and fiction.
Why did Pu Songling alter the tales he heard, deliberately crafting narratives around the theme of despising the poor and currying favor with the rich, and in the "Historian of the Strange's Commentary" exclaim, "Alas! The azure heavens above have long been beyond questioning, yet how could it be that for Lord Mao, the response came as swiftly as an echo?" This likely relates to Pu Songling's own marital experience. According to Pu Songling's "Account of Lady Liu's Conduct," when he was betrothed, many scorned his family's poverty. It was only because his father-in-law, Liu Jidiao, firmly declared, "Though poor, what harm is there?" and insisted on the match, that the marriage was concluded. This profoundly influenced Pu Songling's views on marriage, serving both as one of the driving forces behind his repeated failures and persistent efforts in the imperial examinations, and as the reason why, in the many marriage tales of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," he championed and vindicated impoverished scholars.