Original Text
Deng Chengde of Kaifeng Prefecture traveled as a wandering scholar to Yanzhou in Shandong, where he lodged in a dilapidated temple and was employed by the government office compiling household registers to do copying work. At year's end, all the officials and clerks went home, leaving Deng alone in the temple to cook his meals. One day at dawn, a young woman entered, strikingly beautiful; she came before the Buddha statue, lit incense, kowtowed, and left. The next day, she did the same, burning incense and bowing. That night, Deng rose and lit a lamp, intending to write something, when the woman arrived earlier than usual. Deng asked, "Why have you come so early today?" She replied, "After dawn, there are many eyes and much commotion, so it is better to come in the quiet of night. Coming too early might disturb your sweet dreams. Just now I saw lamplight and knew you were awake, so I came." Deng teased her, saying, "There is no one in the temple; you could stay here to spare yourself the journey back and forth." The woman smiled and said, "If there is no one in the temple, are you a ghost?" Seeing she was amenable to intimacy, Deng waited until she finished her devotions, then pulled her down to sit and sought her favors. She said, "How can such things be done before the Buddha? You yourself have not even a tile over your head, yet you dare to harbor such wild fancies!"
Deng Chengde pleaded insistently without ceasing. The young woman said, "Thirty li from here there is a village, and in that village there are six or seven boys who need a tutor but have not yet found one. You may go and call upon Li Qianchuan, and you will obtain this position. Then pretend that you have a wife with you, and ask them to provide an additional room, so that I can prepare meals for you. This would be a long-term plan!" Deng Chengde worried that if the matter were discovered, he would be punished, but the young woman said, "It is of no consequence. My surname is Fang, and my given name is Wenshu. I have no relatives, and have long lodged at my uncle's home. Who could possibly know?" Deng Chengde was greatly pleased upon hearing this. After parting with Wenshu, Deng Chengde went to that village, called upon Li Qianchuan, and the plan indeed succeeded. Deng Chengde arranged with the people to bring his family before the new year. He returned to the temple, informed Wenshu of the situation, and she agreed to meet him on the road. Deng Chengde then bid farewell to his colleagues, borrowed a horse, and set off. Wenshu was indeed waiting for him halfway, so Deng Chengde dismounted, handed her the reins to let her mount, and then drove the horse forward from below. When they arrived at the school, the two loved each other dearly and were very happy.
Thus passed six or seven years, and the two lived together in harmony like husband and wife, with no one pursuing them. Wen Shu suddenly gave birth to a son, and Deng Chengde, whose wife had been barren, was overjoyed to have a child now, naming him "Yansheng." Wen Shu said, "A false marriage cannot last forever. I was about to leave you, and now I have given birth to this troublesome burden—what use is it?" Deng Chengde replied, "If fate is kind and we can save a little more money, I wish to take you back to my hometown. How can you speak such words?" Wen Shu said, "Many thanks, many thanks! I cannot flatter others, nor can I bear to look upon the face of a first wife and act as a nursemaid for others—even a child would find it unbearable!" Deng Chengde tried to explain that she was not a jealous woman, but Wen Shu remained silent. After more than a month, Deng Chengde resigned from his teaching post and planned to go into business with Li Qianchuan's son. He told Wen Shu, "I think that being a tutor and running a school will never bring wealth. Now I wish to learn commerce, so that we may not lack money to return home." Wen Shu made no reply. That night, Wen Shu suddenly rose with the child in her arms. Deng Chengde asked, "What are you doing?" She answered, "I am leaving." Deng Chengde hastily got up and pressed her on where she was going, but before the door was opened, Wen Shu had vanished without a trace. Deng Chengde was terrified, and only then realized that Wen Shu was not human. Because her actions were suspicious, he dared not tell anyone the truth and pretended that she had returned to her mother's home.
At first, when Deng Chengde left home, he had promised his wife Lou that he would return by the end of the year, but after several years passed without any word, people began to say he was dead. His elder brother, seeing that Lou had no children, wanted her to remarry, but she insisted on a three-year term, living day by day on what she earned from spinning. One evening, as dusk fell, Lou went to close the gate when a woman suddenly entered, carrying an infant in her arms. She said to Lou, "I was returning from my mother's home and found it dark by the time I reached here. Knowing you live alone, I came to ask for a night's lodging." Lou invited her in, and inside the room, she saw a beautiful woman of about twenty. Lou was pleased to share a bed with her, and together they played with the child, who was plump and white like a gourd. Lou sighed and said, "A widow like me has no such lovely little one!" The woman replied, "I find him too troublesome; why not let me give him to you as your own child? What do you think?" Lou said, "Not to mention that you cannot bear to part with him, even if you could, I have no milk to nurse him." The woman said, "That is no trouble. When this child was born, I also lacked milk, but after taking half a dose of medicine, it came. I still have some left, so I will give it to you." With that, she took out a small packet and placed it on the windowsill. Lou casually agreed, without giving it much thought. Then they slept, and when Lou woke and called for the woman, she found the child still there, but the woman had already opened the door and left. Lou was greatly alarmed. By morning, the child was crying from hunger, and Lou, having no other choice, took the medicine the woman had left. Soon her milk flowed, and she fed the child. Over the next year, the child grew plumper and stronger, gradually learning to speak, and Lou loved him more than her own son would have been. From then on, she abandoned all thoughts of remarriage, but rising each morning to nurse the child, she could no longer support herself by spinning, and her circumstances grew ever more straitened.
One day, the woman suddenly arrived. Lou Shi, fearing she would reclaim the child, first reproached her for the offense of leaving without a word, then recounted the hardships of raising the child. The woman smiled and said, "Sister, you tell me of the difficulties in raising a son—do you think I would abandon my own child?" With that, she called to the boy, but he wept and clung to Lou Shi. The woman said, "This little wretch does not recognize his own mother! He is worth a hundred taels of silver; if you want the child, you may pay the silver and we will draw up a deed to transfer him to you." Lou Shi believed her and her face changed color at once. The woman laughed and said, "Sister, do not be afraid. I have come precisely for the child. After we parted, I feared you had no money to raise him, so I managed to scrape together a dozen or so taels of silver." With that, she produced the silver and handed it to Lou Shi. Lou Shi, fearing that accepting the silver would give the woman more reason to reclaim the child, firmly refused to take it. The woman placed the silver on the bed, went out the door, and walked straight away. Lou Shi, holding the child, chased after her, but the woman was already far off and did not turn back when called. Lou Shi suspected the woman had ill intentions, but with this silver, she could at least earn some interest, and the household became prosperous and well-off. After another three years, Deng Chengde had earned some money through trade, so he packed his bags and returned home. As he was exchanging greetings with Lou Shi, he suddenly saw the child and asked whose child it was. His wife told him the whole story. Deng Chengde then asked, "What is his name?" Lou Shi replied, "His mother called him Yunsheng." Deng Chengde exclaimed in surprise, "This is truly my son!" When he asked about the time of the child's arrival, it was the very day of his parting with Wen Shu at night. Deng Chengde then recounted in full the tale of his joys and sorrows with Fang Wen Shu, and both husband and wife felt even more comforted. Deng Chengde still hoped that Wen Shu would come, but in the end, there was no further news.
Commentary
This story is not very long, nor does it possess intricate or lingering plots, yet it contains genuine insights and ideals about life. Among its episodes, the teacher Deng Chengde, enduring a lonely and arduous bachelor existence, laments, "I reflect that a master setting up his teaching post must never expect a day of wealth. Now, learning to peddle goods, perhaps I may yet have a time to return." This evokes the author's own melancholy over his teaching career, while the emotional journey between Deng Chengde and Fang Wenshu is filled with a rich and warm humanity. Fang Wenshu, who comes and goes with ethereal grace, embodies a romantic and idealistic hue; she brings vibrant color to Deng Chengde's solitary and dreary life and even bears him a child. She then delivers the child to Deng's barren wife, providing her with a pillar of support in her own lonely and difficult existence. For the couple Deng Chengde, Fang Wenshu is no less than a living Lei Feng, a merciful Bodhisattva who rescues them from suffering. Feng Zhenluan comments, "The woman comes unbidden and departs without cause. Having already borne him a son, and knowing his wife is not jealous, how can she bear to abandon this crying infant and instead give gold to them? Is she a fairy, or a ghost? Or perhaps there is a karmic bond from a former life, and this is her repayment?"