Original Text
In front of Fragrant Mountain east of Qingzhou City lived a man named Zhou Shunting, who served his mother with utmost filial piety. His mother developed a large, painful abscess on her leg that caused her constant agony, moaning day and night without respite. Zhou Shunting massaged and applied medicine to her wound, neglecting sleep and meals in his devotion. Yet after several months, her condition showed no improvement, and Zhou Shunting was consumed with anxiety, finding no remedy. One day, he dreamed that his father told him, "Your mother's illness is fortunate to have your filial care, but this abscess can only be cured by applying a plaster made from human flesh; worry and distress are of no use." Zhou Shunting awoke, finding the dream extraordinary. He immediately rose, took a sharp knife, and cut flesh from his ribs; the flesh came away without much pain. He quickly bound his waist with cloth, and there was little bleeding. Then he boiled the flesh into a paste and applied it to his mother's abscess, whereupon the pain ceased at once. His mother asked joyfully, "What medicine is this, so wonderfully effective?" Zhou Shunting fabricated an excuse to evade her question. Soon, the abscess healed completely. Zhou Shunting often concealed the wound on his side, and even his wife knew nothing of it. After the wound healed, it left a scar as large as a palm. Only when his wife pressed him did he reveal the truth.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: Cutting one's own flesh to heal a parent is an act that harms life, and gentlemen do not commend it. Yet how could ignorant men and women know that harming life is also unfilial? They merely do what their hearts cannot refrain from doing. When such people exist, one realizes that the true face of filial piety still dwells between heaven and earth. Those who oversee customs and moral instruction have many important affairs and lack the leisure to commend such deeds; thus, the illumination of hidden virtues must rely on ordinary folk among the people.
Commentary
This passage describes the extreme form of what China calls "filial conduct," namely using one's own flesh to cure ailing parents. Since Chen Cangqi of the Tang Dynasty wrote in his "Supplement to the Materia Medica" that "human flesh cures wasting diseases," it has misled many people. Qian Yi of the Song Dynasty, in his "New Records of the Southern Capital," said: "Chen Cangqi compiled the 'Supplement to the Materia Medica' stating that 'human flesh cures wasting diseases,' and from then on, people in villages imitated this practice, and cutting off a piece of one's thigh is still honored today."
It is worth noting that Pu Songling's words in the "Historian of the Strange says" encompass two layers of meaning. The first is a commentary on the tale, holding that though cutting flesh from one's thigh to cure a parent is the act of "foolish common folk," it nevertheless embodies filial piety. The second is his declaration of taking pride in moral instruction, assuming the responsibility of spreading edification. This helps us understand why there are so many works in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio that promote the teachings of ritual propriety and morality.