"Woman, woman!" he pondered. "Woman, woman, woman!" he meditated again. We do not know when Ah Q snored off this evening; but nevertheless we are sure, in a general way, that after he had perceived that his thumb had become smooth, a fluttering thought obsessed his mind. "Woman," he thought. So from this example, we may see that woman is a deadly creature.
Of the males of the species in China, more than half are capable of becoming saints and men of virtue, but it is regrettable that they are ruined by women. The Shang dynasty was brought to ruin by Ta-chi; Chou was brought to decadency by Pao-szu; as for the Ch'in — although history does not state clearly why it fell, if we assume that its downfall was due to a woman, we may not be far from the truth; but Tung-cho's death was surely brought about by Tiao-ch'an.
In the past, Ah Q had been a man of strict morals. Although we are not sure that he had received the gracious and beneficent guidance of a great instructor, still, it is certain that he was very careful and strict about the customary barrier between the sexes. Possessing orthodox views, he also vehemently condemned heresy in any form, such as that of the little nun and that of the "False Foreigner." As for the nuns, according to his own theory, they were sure to have clandestine relations with the monks. When
