Gems of Chinese Literature/P‘u Sung-ling-Chang Pu-liang

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Gems of Chinese Literature
translated by Herbert Allen Giles

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P‘U SUNG-LING.

17th century a.d.

[After taking his first or bachelor’s degree before he was twenty, this now famous writer, popularly known as “Last of the Immortals,” failed to secure the second and more important degree which would have brought him into official life; the reason being that he neglected the beaten track of academic study and allowed himself to follow his own fancy. His literary output consists of a large collection of weird fantastic tales, which might well have disappeared but for the extraordinarily beautiful style in which they are written, a style which has been the envy and admiration of authors for the past two hundred and forty years. They have been translated into English by the present writer under the title of “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.” All that we really know about him is given in the document translated below.]

1524392Gems of Chinese Literature — Chang Pu-liangHerbert Allen GilesP‘u Sung-ling

A certain trader who was travelling in the province of Chih-li, being overtaken by a storm of rain and hail, took shelter among some standing crops by the wayside. There he heard a voice from the sky, saying, “These are Chang Pu-liang's fields; do not injure his crops!” The trader began to wonder who this Chang Pu-liang could be, and how, if he was pu liang (no virtue), he came to be under divine protection; so when the storm was over and he had reached the neighbouring village, he made inquiries on the subject and told the people there what he had heard. The villagers then informed him that Chang Pu-liang was a very wealthy farmer, who was accustomed every spring to make loans of grain to the poor of the district, and who was not too particular about getting back the exact amount he had lent,―taking in fact whatever they brought him without discussion; hence the sobriquet of pu liang “no measure” (i.e., the man who doesn't measure the repayments of his loans).^[1] After that, they all proceeded in a body to the fields, where it was discovered that vast damage had been done to the crops generally, with the exception of Chang Pu-liang's, which had escaped uninjured.

↑ The two phrases, “no virtue” and “no measure,” are pronounced alike.

[1] The two phrases, “no virtue” and “no measure,” are pronounced alike.

[1]