Mouse vs Cat in Chinese Literature Page 18
Who chewed through that candle,
And so saved
The Tang Son of Heaven
And all civil and military officials.
When the Tang ruler
Saw my ancestor,
His heart was filled with pleasure:
Of each stone of grain
He allowed my ancestor
To dissipate three cups of grain.
But later when
The Great Founder of the Song
Had changed the name of the state,
There appeared
In his court
An oh-so-powerful vicious minister.
That vicious minister
Ascended the hall,
Submitting a report to the throne,
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In which he stated
That of each stone of grain
Rats and mice took exactly one-half!
When the king of the Song
Had heard his report,
His heart was all filled with hatred
And he issued an edict
Ordering all of us
To be chased from the capital city.50
In vernacular fiction the “vicious minister” of the early decades of the Song dynasty is Pan Renmei, who hated the heroic and loyal generals of the Yang
family and frustrated their efforts to defeat the Khitan. In the statement of the mouse, however, the “vicious minister” may well be a reference to Judge Bao, who, as we saw, was instrumental at a later date in chasing the Five Rats from the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng. The Rat Seeks Redress was repeatedly reprinted in Sichuan in the first half of the twentieth century.51 In the late twentieth century, this version was also recorded in a somewhat simplified
version in Yunxi District (northwestern Hubei).
Other Genr es
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the tale of the court case
of the mouse against the cat circulated in many genres of ballads and pro-
simetric narrative.52 The popularity of the story was, however, not limited to those genres. As might be expected in view of its wide popularity, the
story also circulated as a folktale, and many versions were recorded in the last two decades of the twentieth century. More remarkably perhaps, in
view of its contents, the story was also adapted for the stage. In southern Shaanxi the story circulated as a prosimetric ballad but also was printed in 1897 as a play in the local genre of Qinqiang Opera. Both the ballad and the story were titled The Mouse Accuses the Cat (Laoshu gao mao). In the local tradition these ballads would be performed by a group of singers, each of
whom would be responsible for singing the words of one of the characters
in the story. It should be obvious that the court case of the mouse against the cat lends itself quite easily to such a treatment. It should also be obvious that the adaption of the ballad text as a play script under these circumstances was an easy step, especially in a theatrical tradition that does not insist on naturalism. In this little farce, the mouse is accompanied onstage This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:04:36 UTC
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by his wife. King Yama here is not the Fifth Yama King, but has been
replaced by the Eleventh Yama King in Charge of Animals, and it is the
latter’s wife who pronounces the final verdict. After she has sent the cat
back to the world of light with words of praise, she addresses the mouse
couple as follows:
You gray mice, husband and wife, listen to my order:
I this queen will explain the matter quite clearly to you.
The dragon brings clouds and the tiger stirs up storms;
The plow ox and the battle horse each have their use.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
So eleven of the birth-year images benefit the people,
But what on earth is the skill of you, the gray mice?
Boring holes and seeking cracks you are detestable,
Breaking cups and plates you’re damnable vermin.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I order my ghostly soldiers to listen to my orders:
Now strip the two of these completely of their skins.
Next get three feet of cloth and one bucket of oil,
And immerse them to make two mouse-oil lamps.
When praying to the gods on the first and fifteenth,
We will then light the two of them in the courtyard.
In this way they will be unable to cause damage on earth,
And they’ll also be unable to lodge accusations as ghosts.
Now I’ve clearly established reward and punishment,
I will go back to the palace and report to my husband.
As queen I should not linger here in the court of justice—
Ghost soldiers, line up so we may return to the palace. 53
The Mutual Accusations
of the Cat and the Mouse
This text is included in Wu Shouli’s Annotated Selection of Minnanese Songbooks of the Daoguang and Xianfeng Periods of the Qing Dynasty (Qing Daoguang Xianfeng minnan gezaice xuanzhu), but despite the title of this compilation The Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse is completely written in prose (with the exception of a final quatrain) and hardly shows any influence of the Minnanese dialect. It ended up in Wu’s compilation because it is part of a small This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:04:36 UTC
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collection of rare popular printed materials from the period 1820–60 now
housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. The materials in this
collection were acquired in southern Fujian, and it is believed they were
donated to the Bodleian by the early missionary and translator Alexander
Wylie (1815–1887). The Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse is, by the way, not the only prose text in this collection, as it also includes the Methods to Physiognomize the Six Domestic Animals (Liuchu xiangfa). Wu’s publication provides both reproductions and critical editions of the texts he includes.
The Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse presents itself as a case file, as it provides the accusation of the mouse, the counterstatement by the cat, and the final verdict by King Yama. The anonymous author apparently
believed that the content of the documents, which faithfully adhere to the
formal requirements for such legal writings, would speak for themselves.
Even readers who were not dealing with the law on a regular basis would be
able to appreciate the parodic nature of these texts, because household encyclopedias and specialized publications presented model statements for each
purpose involving the court. The original date of composition of The Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse cannot be determined.54
Newly Composed: The Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse
Anonymous
Printed by the Shiwentang
T h e accus at ion of t h e mouse
I, the person lodging this accusation, am surnamed Old; my personal name
is Mouse, and my style name is Rat. This concerns a case of murder without
gu
ilt followed by the chewing and devouring of the corpse.
Our family of mice has been settled in a hole in the earth in the Eastern
Wall Lane, and I am now ninety-nine years old. Originally we were registered in heaven as the Rat, and later our old name was Market-Day.55 The Rat was
in charge of the twelve cyclical years of birth, so ox and horse ceded the first place to the Rat, and dragon and tiger accepted the Rat as the leader. But
when unexpectedly Huge Waters rose in rebellion, Heavenly King Li ban-
ished us to the common dust.56 We were deeply grateful to His Majesty the
Emperor for his great grace: of every stone of grain that was entered into the granaries, three cups were deducted as grain for rats.57 But nowadays those most vicious and depraved people tightly seal up the granaries with chalk,
and so we mice have nothing to eat by night or day.
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Alas, during broad daylight we can only hide ourselves to the east and
make ourselves scarce to the west, and only when dusk has arrived do we
dare go out and enter the home of people. All along the road we search for
some leftover rice and some discarded food; in each and every place, we look for some chicken bones and fish heads. We do so only to still our hunger and pass the days, hoping to survive for our remaining days. And because we
are afraid that the owner may notice us, we stretch our neck and retract our head with flustered gall and fearful mind. Who could have known that when
I had not yet gone for a few paces, disaster would strike! On the wall I ran into an evil cat: his body resembled wolf and tiger, his eyes resembled bronze bells. When he saw me, this mouse, he showed off his tiger- and leopard-like might, and displayed his power like thunder and lighting. Baring his fangs
and stretching his claws, he slowly approached with raised tail. I, this mouse, was so scared that my body turned to soft cotton and I was covered in cold
sweat; my heart was terrified, my gall was flustered, and I couldn’t move my legs anymore. That evil cat jumped forward and grabbed me with his left
paw, his evil words earnest and sincere. He carried me hither and thither to dispel his gloom and amuse himself. At first he grasped me one moment to
release me the next, but later the play became reality. Suddenly we were seen by the dog, and he rushed over to save me, but who would have thought that
that evil cat would come up with a plan. Clenching me between his teeth,
he jumped on the roof in one leap, and there he sat down at ease, chewed me fine, and slowly devoured me from head to tail. It is my honest opinion that I did not violate any rule or break any law—how will my unjust death be
avenged?
Moreover, the owner of the cat treats him with great favor and indul-
gence. He provides him with food, and whether it may be vegetarian or
meat, it always is enough for him to eat his fill, but on top of that he has to eat me, the mouse, as his dessert! That evil cat enjoys a hundred kinds of
pleasures. During daytime he is free to go wherever he wants, and at night
he sleeps on the blankets of his master. When depressed he stretches his
waist and displays his claws; when happy he rolls on the floor and jumps
about. In wintertime he warms himself in front of the stove; in summertime
he enjoys the cool below the bamboos. In my opinion that evil cat enjoys
a hundred kinds of pleasures—is there anything that does not please his
heart? For us mice the most galling thing is that we have to hide ourselves to the east and make ourselves scarce in the west and that we have to spend our days in constant fear. At all times we just sit quietly in our hole, and we have no enmity with the cat at all.
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Humbly I beseech Your Honor King Yama to scrutinize the injustice I
have suffered and to take pity on me, this little mouse, for my gruesome death.
I request that the dog may be summoned to appear in court so he may be
interrogated and testify to the facts. If you will redress this injustice and execute the evil cat, we little mice will be indebted to you from generation to generation.
If one word is a lie in this statement of facts, I will be happy to be con-
demned for false accusation.
Accused criminal: Tabby Cat
Witness: House Dog.
T h e cou n t e r stat e m e n t of t h e ta bby c at
I, the one lodging this counterstatement, am surnamed Tabby and my name
is Cat. This concerns a case of patrolling the place by night and day at the order of my owner. We cats were originally registered as domiciled in the
Western Heavens, but I was brought to the Eastern Capital by the Tang
monk, where I followed him in the hall and listened to his sermons, read
the sutras and recited the name of the Buddha, without any evil or vicious
intention.
This case originated because, in the lane by the wall live old mice that
time and again act as crooks, so I am dispatched to the houses of these
people to make an arrest. In the past the only intention was to scare them
away. But alas, these damned mice commit hundred and thousand kinds
of crimes. During daytime they enjoy leisure and pleasure in their hole, but at night they rob and steal from east and west. In groups and crowds they all squeak; with friends and buddies they create a ruckus and everywhere prowl
about. When stealing the five grains, they make no distinction between rich and poor, and when they chew up people’s clothes, they don’t distinguish
between old and new. They chew through the most precious baskets and
boxes and destroy the most important official documents. When they enter
a study, all books meet with bad luck, and when they enter a closet, the
clothes suffer destruction. There are old mice, mountain mice, field mice,
barbarian mice, sable mice, water rats, pine rats, countryside rats, silver rats, ash rats, white mice, brown rats, rock rats, and chaff rats: they have different surnames but share the same name, and each and every one of them lacks
virtue. In hills and fields they make their holes, and in forest trees they also make their nests. It is only Old Mouse who lives in the houses of men and
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whose character is most vicious. Irrespective of how important things may
be, he will destroy everything with his chewing. When he enters a Buddha
hall, he will tear and destroy the texts of the sutras, and when he goes into a granary, he will call for his wife and his brood, and when they have taken
[the grain] back home, old and young will all feast on it. When they enter
the kitchen, they will move the bowls and manipulate the plates; stealing oil and sauce, they break and destroy jugs and bottles. They steal the oil from the lamps in front of the Buddha and time and again destroy by their chewing boxes and baskets. Because of their hundred plans and cunning tricks
the owner is roused to rage in his heart; clenching his fists and gnashing hi
s teeth, he will loudly curse them, filled with fury. The ancient saying is “one feeds a cat to catch mice, one keeps a dog to guard against thieves.” Whenever I run into a mouse, I catch it alive. At the order of my master I patrol the place by day and night, because vicious Old Mouse recognizes neither law
nor Heaven.
Humbly I beseech you, Lord Yama, to hang up high your bright mirror
and to establish the true facts of the case, so you may act on behalf of the cat and exterminate those damned mice. When you remove this harm for
the people of the world, they will not need to rely on the cat patrolling the place by day and night. Every family will be moved to gratitude, every house will bathe in your grace.
Submitted as counterstatement.
Accused criminal: Old Mouse.
T h e decision of K i ng Ya m a
Concerning that whole bunch of damned felons—the accuser, the accused,
and the witness:
We find upon investigation that Old Mouse commits a myriad of evils
and on top of that dares make a false accusation of a crime. He will forever be locked up in the Fengdu Hell. Old Mouse will be escorted to the earth-prison below the Dark Mountains to suffer for his crimes in the vats of
boiling oil, in the saws, and between the steel millstones below the moun-
tains. When he has served out his punishment he will forever be locked up
in the Fengdu Hell as a prisoner. On the day of this verdict he will be put on transport.
Tabby Cat arrested him for the common good and acted only properly.
He will be gifted with one piece of red silk, two golden flowers, and three This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:04:36 UTC
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cups of wine from our stores. These will be released and gifted to him in
person so he may for generations on end continue to arrest these vermin.
He is otherwise without guilt.