Mouse vs Cat in Chinese Literature Read online

true Humane Ancestor, the false Humane Ancestor, the true empress dowa-

  ger, the false empress dowager, the two ministers, and the two Shi Juns all stood at the foot of the platform, while the civil officials and military officers were arranged on both sides. Only the true Bao Zheng was seated in the hall, while that false Bao Zheng was still arguing at the foot of the platform. When the hour of noon approached, Zheng first took from his sleeve the gatha that the Buddha earlier had recited. When he had recited it once, that jade-faced cat stretched out one pair of legs with a might like a tiger’s. When it saw those rats, a golden glare burst from its eyes, and with a roar it descended from that platform. It first killed the third rat with one bite—that was the false This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:04:32 UTC

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  Humane Ancestor. The second rat showed its shape and wanted to flee, but

  was caught by the stretched-out left claw of that divine cat, and when the cat also stretched out its right claw, it also caught the first rat. Opening its maw, it killed them both. The soldiers and civilians at the foot of the platform who saw this loudly cheered the cat on. The two rats of the false minister and Shi Jun changed their shape and fled into the clouds, but the divine cat soared up and killed one more: the fifth rat. Only the fourth rat escaped, yet the jade cat did not let it go but straightaway pursued it, following its golden glare.

  When the civil officials and military officers saw that these monsters had

  been annihilated, they all cheered. Bao Zheng descended from the terrace

  and saw that these four rats were roughly ten feet long; they had hands and feet like humans and from their wounds poured a white fat. Zheng reported,

  “They have grown to this size on the seed and blood of common people, so

  we should order the soldiers of each government office to slaughter, cook,

  and eat them, because it will enhance their strength.” The emperor agreed

  to this proposal and ordered the soldiers to carry them away. His Majesty

  returned to court with his retinue, and the civil officials and military officers all came to offer their congratulations. The Humane Ancestor was greatly

  pleased and summoned Zheng to ascend the hall. He comforted him per-

  sonally and said, “Her Ladyship, your wife, informed us at length. We are

  greatly indebted to your efforts in the extermination of these monsters. You are a true celestial being!” Zheng kowtowed and replied, “This is all due to Your Majesty’s extensive blessings!” The emperor set out a banquet to which he invited the civil officials and military officers and commanded the Confucian scholars to compile a brief account of these miraculous events.

  When the banquet was finished, Zheng returned to his offices and he

  sent Shi Jun back home with his wife. They were thus reunited in the end.

  Later, when Lady He suffered from unbearable stomach pains because she

  had had sex with the monster and had been greatly affected by its evil

  poison, Shi Jun had her drink from the cinnabar medicine he had obtained

  from Immortal Dong, whereupon Lady He spat out the poisonous air and

  recovered. Husband and wife were deeply grateful to Judge Bao for his help

  and erected a tablet in their home and paid their respects at dawn and at

  dusk without intermission.

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  3

  A Wedding and a Court Case

  T h e m a r r i a g e o f t h e m o u s e wa s w i d e l y o b s e r v e d throughout China in late-imperial times, and while the event was often

  depicted in New Year prints and in papercuts, it rarely resulted in independent texts of any length. The story of the underworld court case of the mouse

  against the cat, in contrast, was only very rarely depicted in popular prints but was retold again and again in songs and ballads of various kinds.

  The Marriage of the Mouse

  During the Qing dynasty, the date for celebrating the marriage of the mouse varied, falling anywhere between the last days of the final lunar month to the earliest days of the second month.1 In most places lamps were not lit and

  children were put to bed early, so the mice could conduct their marriage

  ceremony undisturbed that night. In some places food was placed outside

  mouse holes as a contribution to the festivities. In many places the local tales about the origin of the custom were quite simple: if people were to disturb the wedding of the mice during the night, the mice would be a nuisance

  throughout the following year. In other places, however, the stories were

  more detailed and fanciful, and contemporary folklore scholars have col-

  lected tens, if not hundreds, of such tales.

  In traditional China, marriages were arranged by parents, and the union

  of bride and groom was very much an alliance between two families. A full

  wedding ceremony would involve a procession taking the bride’s trousseau

  from her natal home to the house of the groom; a procession of a bride-

  fetching party from the home of the groom to the natal home of the bride;

  and the return procession of that party, now escorting the bride in her bridal sedan chair, back to the home of the groom (in some places the trousseau

  would be carried to the house of the groom together with the bride). At the 82

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  house of the groom, the bride and groom would meet for the first time, bow

  together to the groom’s parents and the ancestors of his family, and later that night consummate the marriage. If the emphasis in stories is on the groom’s family, the marriage of the mouse is called “the mouse acquires a bride”

  ( laoshu quqin); if it falls on the family of the bride, it is called “the mice marry off their daughter” ( laoshu jianü).2

  The Qing-dynasty scholar Fang Xunshi (1830–1889) tried, not quite con-

  vincingly, to trace the custom back to an incident from the Han dynasty:

  In the Ninth Month of the first year of the reign period Yuanfeng (80 BCE)

  of Emperor Zhao of the Han, in Yan a brown rat was dancing with its tail

  in its mouth in the main gate building of the palace [of the prince of Yan].

  As they looked, it kept on dancing, so the king ordered his wife to offer it wine and dried meat as sacrifice, but it kept on dancing without end.3 Now, the modern custom is to put wine and snacks in an empty room each year

  on New Year’s Eve, because one believes one will thus be spared damage

  by rodents. So this goes a long way back. It is also said that New Year’s Eve is the date of the wedding of the mouse. Little boys and girls stick wild flowers in buns and scatter them in out-of-the-way places, and this is called “sending off the bride.” Someone once wrote the lines, “For weddings they employ

  the same procedures as we humans: / Who said you will not have a house

  once you are married?” This is truly superb.4

  One of the rare, more detailed legends from Qing-dynasty China that

  explains the origin of the observance of the marriage of the mouse, and even allows the happy couple to have a baby, hails from Wuxi and was recorded

  in the early nineteenth century by Q
ian Yong (1759–1844) as “The Rats That

  Have Eaten the Herb of Immortality” (Shu shi xiancao). In this tale, the

  account of the marriage of the rodents is speedily followed by the birth of a little rat, which as quickly grows up and goes to school. When, in human

  guise, the leaders of the rodent community try to trick the owner of the house they have occupied into providing them with food but the owner refuses to

  cooperate, the rats become a real plague, forcing the owner to appeal to the Heavenly Master, who eventually succeeds in exorcizing the pests. Qian Yong concludes his tale as follows: “The above events took place during the Wanli period (1573–1619) of the preceding Ming dynasty. The custom nowadays in

  our district is to go to bed very early on the night of New Year’s Day and not light a lamp, while telling the children, ‘Listen! The mice celebrate a wedding.’

  We do so because of this.”5

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  ch a p t e r 3

  The Cantonese poet Feng Xun (1796–1871), describing a marriage of the

  mouse that was observed on New Year’s Eve, imagined that the mouse maiden

  each year would marry a new husband, as we learn from his “Ballad of the

  Mice Marrying off Their Daughter” (Laoshu jianü ci):

  We wait for New Year but the hours won’t move,

  And yet it’s said this night the year will leave.

  We hear about the features of the groom:

  He may be balding but he has large whiskers.

  What kind of night will it now be tonight?

  To share a couch they have to share a hole.

  This rodent maiden slights the constant Oxherd:

  Each year again she marries someone else.6

  Year in, year out the wedding is repeated,

  And on the bed one thinks one hears her sigh.

  To have a boy she will eat millet ears7

  But would that be effective for this purpose?

  Eventually the moment of great joy:

  The light will not be covered anymore.

  This is the happiest event in life—

  Everywhere one sees the burning lamps.8

  In the case of the marriage of the mouse, each of the wedding processions

  as well as the boisterous wedding party at the home of the groom might easily draw the attention of the cat, with terrible consequences for bride and groom and the wedding guests. After all, the custom of the observance of the marriage of the mouse originated in ancient exorcist ritual, so the hoped-for result of the marriage of the mouse would be that the mice would leave one’s home

  in large numbers, never to come back. So the cat, here called “the tiger’s uncle,”

  is dutifully invoked at the end of a long poem by the Hangzhou scholar Liang Yusheng (1745–1819), who provides a detailed description of the custom.9

  Bal ad of the Marriage of the Mouse

  Local custom has it that on New Year’s Eve the mouse marries off his daugh-

  ter and steals a woman’s shoe to serve as the sedan chair, so I wrote this ballad in jest.

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  What night is it tonight? It is the last night of the year

  And local lore proclaims the little mouse leaves home to marry.

  The rodent’s parents busily accept congratulations,

  As rodent guests from east and west jump up and down.

  Some live below the wall behind the house

  And one by one come to the place in front,

  While others from the walls besides the house

  Move rapidly while running on the roof.

  They stole the rice and filched the meat that makes up the trousseau;

  The hole is filled with roaring noise: no moment here of rest!

  For a good union, that they know, the hour must be a zi;10

  They use a shoe to serve as chair: the groom is here to fetch her.11

  The mouse bride on arrival bows before her mum-in-law;

  The rodent mum-in-law, while standing, thanks her with a nod.

  The many rodents who are present want to catch a peek,

  But only see her for a second when her veil gives way.

  The kinds of creatures may be many, but they live the same,

  So bean-like eyes and wheat-like whiskers cause me no alarm.

  They squeak and shriek and pipe and scream, creating quite a hubbub,

  But once the tiger’s uncle roars, they hold their breath in fear.

  I visited the holes of mice a few times in my dreams,

  So how can I determine what is true and what is fiction?

  I tell it as an entertainment, take it please as such—

  I wrote this poem after drinking only for a laugh.12

  When the mouse marries off his daughter, it is not a foregone conclusion

  that the groom, too, will be a mouse.13 In some local traditions of “the mice marry off their daughter” the parents want the most powerful man in the

  world as the husband of their daughter, and they only settle on a mouse after considering the sun, a cloud, the wind, and a wall, before they conclude that a mouse is the mightiest person on earth, as it can topple a wall. But because the mice fear the cat, in a minority of cases the conclusion is that the perfect son-in-law must be a cat. The arguments are detailed in the following contemporary folk song from Guannan District in Jiangsu:

  “The Mouse Selects a Husband for His Daughter”

  Little miss mouse has reached the age she should be married off,

  So father mouse and mother mouse are having quite a fight:

  As groom they want to choose a man that’s really number one,

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  ch a p t e r 3

  With power and with influence and richly blessed by heaven.

  It’s the old mouse, the father mouse, who is the first to speak,

  “It is the sun up in the sky: no one receives more incense!

  Because the world will sink in darkness if there is no sun.

  So let’s select the sun to be the husband of our daughter!”

  But the old mouse, the mother mouse, then shakes her head and says,

  “The sun is not as strong by far as just one pitch-black cloud.

  As soon the sun is covered by that cloud, the sky turns black:

  The pitch-black cloud will have to be the husband of our daughter.”

  But the old mouse, the father mouse, does not agree at all,

  “The wind will blow that pitch-black cloud away in all directions.

  If we would choose the wind as groom, I would be very pleased:

  The awesome power of a storm is praised throughout the world.”

  But the old mouse, the mother mouse, waves this idea away,

  “Far better let her wed a wall than give her to the wind!

  A wall around is capable to keep the storm wind out,

  So all us mice, both young and old, can live in peace, at ease.”

  But the old mouse, the father mouse, now shakes his head and says,

  “No, even when a wall is strong, we mice can still dig holes!

  The mightiest creature in the world turns out to be a mouse,

  So let miss mouse be married to a man who is a mouse!”

  But the old mouse, the
mother mouse, opposes the proposal,

  “A cat is most efficient when it comes to catching mice.

  So it’s the cat that in the end is truly number one,

  It’s clear it has to be the cat who’ll be our daughter’s husband!”

  The drummers beat a booming roll, the trumpets blare out loudly,

  Firecrackers are exploding with the sound of roaring rattles:

  Little miss mouse is seated as the bride in the sedan chair

  And enters filled with happiness the couple’s wedding room.

  On seeing this cute little mouse, the cat meows and smiles:

  With hide and hair he swallows her and does not leave one bone,

  Meows again and turns around and sets out in pursuit

  And all the mice, both young and old, don’t have a place to hide.14

  Stories of the marriage of the mouse in which the parents of the bride want as her husband the mightiest person on earth have long attracted the attention of China’s folklorists, because the theme is evidently borrowed from South

  Asia.15 A very comparable story is included in several ancient Indian collections, for instance, the famous Indian fable collection Panchatantra. The Pan­

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  chatantra has been translated into many Asian languages (and even reached medieval Europe by way of retranslations and adaptations), but it was never rendered into Chinese before the twentieth century and only a few of its individual tales eventually made it to China. In the Indian version of the tale, a holy man who has saved an infant mouse from the claws of an eagle and raised her, eventually decides to marry her to a mouse after he has considered various other possibilities, starting with the sun.16 Chinese versions of this tale that preserve the role of the holy man (now in the Chinese guise of an immortal) are encountered in Sichuan and on Hainan, suggesting that the tale entered

  China through oral channels from neighboring countries.17 The final choice

  for the cat as groom may well be a Chinese addition inspired by the large