Original Text
Scholar Zhou was a descendant of an official family in Shuntian Prefecture and was close friends with Scholar Liu. Liu had received instruction from a master of esoteric arts and was skilled in physiognomy. Liu once said to Zhou, "You are fated not to hold office, but if you seek wealth, there may be a way. However, your wife bears a thin-blessing countenance and will likely be unable to help you establish a family." Not long after, Zhou's wife indeed passed away. From then on, his household fell into desolation and he had no one to rely on. Zhou then went to see Liu, hoping to consult him about marriage. Upon arriving at Liu's dwelling, he sat for a long time while Liu remained in the inner chamber without coming out. After being called many times, Liu finally emerged and said to Zhou, "I have been seeking a suitable match for you every day, and only today have I found one. Just now I performed a small ritual inside, beseeching the Old Man under the Moon to tie the red thread for you." Zhou joyfully asked what kind of person it was, and Liu replied, "Just now a man carrying a sack went out—did you meet him?" Zhou said, "I did, dressed in tatters like a beggar." Liu said, "That is your future father-in-law; you should treat him with courtesy." Zhou said, "Because of our deep friendship, I came to discuss such a private matter as marriage with you—why do you mock me so! Even if I am down on my luck, I am still the descendant of a great clan; how could I stoop to marrying into a lowly market peddler's family?" Liu said, "Not so. A motley ox can still bear a pure-coated calf; a base father can have a noble son—what harm is there in that?" Zhou asked further, "Have you ever seen his daughter?" Liu answered, "No, I have not. I have never associated with him before; I only learned his name just now when I asked." Zhou laughed and said, "You do not even know the motley ox, how can you know the calf?" Liu said, "I trust in the fixed decree of fate. This man is fierce and lowly, but fate has ordained that he shall father a blessed daughter. However, forcing a union will bring great calamity; allow me to perform another ritual to seek guidance." After returning home, Zhou refused to take Liu's words seriously and sent matchmakers everywhere to propose, but without success.
One day, Scholar Liu suddenly arrived and said, "There is a guest for whom I have already issued an invitation on your behalf." Scholar Zhou asked, "Who is it?" Liu replied, "Do not ask for now; please prepare a meal quickly." Zhou, not understanding the reason, followed Liu's instructions and prepared the food. Before long, the guest arrived; it turned out to be a soldier named Fu. Zhou was displeased at heart but put on a false show of civility, yet Liu treated this soldier with great respect. After a while, wine and dishes were set out, mingled with some coarse fare. Liu stood up and said to Fu, "Master Zhou has admired you for a long time and has often asked me to seek you out; only a few days ago did I finally meet you. I also heard that you will soon be embarking on a distant campaign, so I invited you at once, hastily acting as host." During the drinking, Fu worried that his horse was ill and could no longer be ridden, and Liu bowed his head, pondering a solution for him. Soon the guest departed, and Liu reproached Zhou, saying, "Even a thousand gold pieces cannot buy such a friend; why did you treat him so lightly?" With that, he borrowed Zhou's horse to ride home and, pretending it was Zhou's wish, went to Fu's house and gave the horse to him. When Zhou learned of this, he felt somewhat resentful but could do nothing about it. A year passed, and Zhou was to go to Jiangxi to serve as a secretary in the office of the Surveillance Commissioner. Before leaving, he sought Liu's divination on his fortune, and Liu said, "Great luck!" Zhou smiled and said, "I have no grand plans; I only wish to earn a little income and marry a good wife. I hope your earlier words do not come true—can that be?" Liu replied, "All will be as you wish." When Zhou arrived in Jiangxi, he encountered a bandit rebellion and could not return home for three years. Later, when peace was somewhat restored, he chose a day to set out, but on the way he was captured by bandits. Seven or eight others suffered the same fate; their money and goods were all seized, and the bandits released the others but took only Zhou back to their lair. The bandit chief questioned Zhou about his family background and then said, "I have a daughter of my own, and I wish to betroth her to you as a wife; do not refuse." Zhou remained silent. The chief grew angry and immediately ordered his beheading. Zhou, terrified, thought that it would be better to agree for the time being and later slowly find a way to abandon her. So he said to the chief, "The reason I hesitated was that I am but a frail scholar, unable to follow the troops in battle, and I feared I would only burden my father-in-law. If you would allow us to leave together, the kindness would be boundless." The chief said, "I was just worried that my daughter would be a burden; why should this not be allowed?" He led Zhou into the inner chamber and had his daughter dress up and come out to meet him. The girl was about seventeen or eighteen, as beautiful as a celestial maiden. That night they were wed, and finding such a woman exceeded Zhou's hopes. When he carefully inquired about her surname, he learned that her father was the very man with the sack he had encountered years before. Then Zhou recounted Liu's words, and they both sighed in wonder.
After three or four days, as they were about to see them off, government soldiers suddenly surrounded them, and the entire family was captured. Three officers were overseeing the execution; the wife's father had already been beheaded, and it was now Zhou Sheng's turn. Believing there was no hope of survival, Zhou Sheng was about to meet his end when one of the officers, after scrutinizing him closely, exclaimed, "Are you not Zhou Sheng?" It turned out that the soldier surnamed Fu, having distinguished himself in battle, had been promoted to deputy general. He said to his colleagues, "This man is a renowned scholar from a distinguished family in our hometown—how could he be a bandit?" He untied Zhou Sheng and asked where he had come from. Zhou Sheng lied, saying, "I had just returned from marrying in the office of the Jiangxi Surveillance Commissioner when I fell into a den of thieves on the way. By your grace, I have been granted a second life! But my wife is lost; I beseech you, by your authority, to help us survive in this wretched state." General Fu ordered the captives brought forward and allowed Zhou Sheng to search for his wife, whom he found. Fu provided them with a meal and travel expenses, saying, "I have never forgotten the kindness of the horse you once gave me. In these chaotic times, I cannot observe proper etiquette, but allow me to give you two warhorses and fifty taels of silver to aid your journey northward home." He also dispatched two cavalrymen with an arrow of authority to escort them. On the road, his wife told Zhou Sheng, "My stubborn father would not heed good advice, and my mother died because of it. I knew this outcome was inevitable, so I endured each day only because a fortune-teller in my youth said I might one day collect my father's bones for burial. There is a cellar filled with gold and silver; we can retrieve it to ransom my father's remains, and the rest will suffice to sustain us." Zhou Sheng instructed the escorting cavalrymen to wait, and the couple returned to their former dwelling, now reduced to ashes. Digging a foot deep in the embers with a knife, they indeed found the treasure, packed it all into bags, and retraced their steps. They bribed the escorting soldiers with a hundred taels of silver to help bury the father's corpse, and the wife led Zhou Sheng to her mother's grave to pay respects before they began their journey home. Upon reaching the border of Zhili, they rewarded the cavalrymen generously and sent them back. Zhou Sheng had been away so long that his servants presumed him dead and had squandered his property—grain, cloth, and utensils were all gone. When they heard of his return, they fled in terror, leaving only an old maidservant, a young maid, and an old servant. Zhou Sheng, grateful to have escaped death, did not pursue the matter. He went to visit Liu Sheng, but Liu had vanished. His wife managed the household with greater skill than any man; she selected honest and reliable people, entrusted them with capital to trade, and split the profits evenly. Whenever Zhou Sheng settled accounts with the merchants under the eaves, his wife listened from behind the curtain, and if a single bead on the abacus was off, she would point it out. Within and without, no one dared to deceive them. After several years, the number of partners in their ventures exceeded a hundred, and their wealth reached hundreds of thousands. They then arranged for the relocation of his parents' graves and buried them with lavish rites.
The Chronicler of Strange Tales remarks: If the Old Man Under the Moon could be bribed and bought, then it is no wonder that people regard matchmakers and market brokers as the same sort. Could a thief also have such a daughter? To say that a small mound cannot grow pines and cypresses is but the talk of the ignorant. If one cannot even discern the fate of women and maidens, how much less can one judge the scholars of the realm!
Commentary
This tale recounts the marvels of physiognomy. The story unfolds along two threads: Liu the Student, guided by Zhou the Student's facial features, directs him to acquire great wealth through marriage, and to escape calamity by befriending a certain companion. He Yin remarks of this piece: "Had he not sought the Moon Elder to bind this woman, he could not have obtained the vast fortune. Had he bound this woman without making him befriend Fu, he could not have escaped his peril. Thus, by twists and turns, one must recognize Liu the Student's painstaking design."
Liu Sheng played a pivotal role in Zhou Sheng's life. Pu Songling's design of this plot was not only necessary for the narrative but also carried a deeper meaning—his own longing for a discerning person like Liu Sheng to discover and elevate him from poverty and obscurity. However, Pu Songling never encountered such a person, so he wrote in the "Historian of the Strange's Commentary": "To say that no pines or cypresses grow in a mound of earth is the talk of a vulgar fellow. Even women and children can be mistaken in their judgments, let alone when appraising the talents of the world!"