Gems of Chinese Literature/Lan Ting-yüan-Dead beggar gets Wife and Son
The wife of a man, named Chêng, once came before me to complain that her husband had been driven to commit suicide. She said that he had been beadle of a certain village, and that having had some trouble in collecting taxes from a man, named Hsiao, who withheld his title-deed and refused to listen to argument, the latter, on the 13th day of the moon, had collected a number of friends and wrecked the house, beating her husband so severely that, in despair, he threw himself into the river and was drowned. She further indicated the spot at which the body was to be found; and accordingly, though suspecting in my heart the truth of her story, I had no alternative but to hold the usual inquest. Her son got the corpse on board a boat and brought it along, and I proceeded forthwith to make an examination. No wounds were visible upon it; the finger-nails were full of mud and sand―a sure proof of suicide by drowning―though at the same time I felt confident that the persons accused, who were all honestly engaged in trade, would not thus causelessly set upon and beat another man. Further, deceased had been beadle of the place, and those now arraigned on this charge of murder had frequently complained on previous occasions to my predecessor in office, of the depredations of thieves, with a view to their losses from the beadle; and I, when I took over the seals, had gone so far as to fix a limit of time within which the missing articles were to be restored, but without success. Now, there was this story of attack and suicide; but the flesh on the face of the dead man was too far decomposed to admit of his identification, and I also thought it rather strange that no one should know anything about an affair which had happened eight days previously, and that there should have been such delay in making the charge. At the same time, as the inquest was held only eight days after death, it remained to be shown why the body should be then so far gone in decomposition as if the man had been dead for a fortnight or more. On my putting this last question to the prosecutrix, her son replied that bodies naturally decompose more rapidly in water than otherwise; and as for the accused, they none of them seemed to have a word to say for themselves, while mother and son stood there jabbering away, with their hempen garments and mourning staves, the one bemoaning the loss of her husband, the other of his father, in such affecting tones as would have drawn tears from the bystanders even had they been of iron or of stone. My own conviction was, however, unfavourable to their case, and I bade them go along home and bury the body themselves. At this, there was a general expression of astonishment; and then I called the accused and said to them, “Chêng is not dead; can you not manage to arrest him?” They all declared that they “didn’t know;” whereupon I railed at them, saying, “What! you can’t find out the affairs of those who live in the same village and draw from the same well as yourselves? This indolent careless behaviour is perfectly amazing. It’s all very well to be callous when other people are concerned; but now that you stand charged with this murder and your own necks are in peril, it being my duty to commit you to prison, do you mean to tell me that you are willing to take the consequences?” The accused men then burst into tears, and implored me to save them; to which I replied, “Here is this man Chêng, who was formerly an accomplice of thieves, alarmed by my appointment to office, disappears from the scene. Now, your cities of refuge are confined to some half-dozen or so; and if you separate and go to them in search of the missing man, I have no doubt but that you will find him.” Three days passed away, when back came one of them with Chêng, whom he had caught at the city of Hui-lai. They were followed by a large crowd of several thousand persons, who clapped their hands and seemed much amused; among them being the mother and son, overwhelmed with shame, and grovelling in the dust before me. I made the latter tell me the name of the legal adviser who had egged them on to act thus, and I punished all three according to law and to the great delight of the inhabitants of the district. As for the corpse, it was that of a drowned beggar, and no one came forward to claim it. However, as the pretended wife and son had worn sackcloth and carried funeral staves, interring the body with every outward demonstration of respect, the beggar’s soul must have had a good laugh over the whole affair down in the realms below.
