The novel begins with part One: The Observers. The action takes place in China, in the district T’an-ch’eng in the year 1668, on the 25th of July. On that day, a great earthquake affected the region and many people died. Some people lost all their family members while others lost their houses and everything they owned.
The author mentions a man named Feng K’o-ts’an who lived in the province when the tragedy happened. Feng lived in the province in poverty after he first went there as a magistrate. Feng left behind accounts of the people who lived in the province. Feng mentioned how the province was often stuck by disasters and how many people died as a result. The situation in the province changed for the worst in the last few years as Feng was able to notice.
Feng mentions a couple of instances where many people died, such as the uprising from 1668. The region also had to deal with famine, attacks from outlaws and having their crops destroyed by locusts. After the fall of Peking, things became even worst and the country became even more violent as there was no army to protect the people from the bandits. Things went to relative normality when the Nanchu took control over China.
For the people in the province, things did not get better as they had to see year after year as their crops were ruined by flooding and natural disasters while also having to deal with bandits and outlaws pillaging their lands. The situation became so bad that everyone feared for their lives and had to bury members of their family on a regular basis, often in common graves as they could not recognize them from the ever-growing pile of bodies.
In 1670, another magister named Huang Liu-hung came to the province and he wrote about the time he served there. Among the first things he wrote about was the dire conditions in which the people lived. The area had to deal with various problems for a period of more than 30 years and no one had the energy or the means to look after other people than their own. Huang noticed how the one who were still young and had power moved to other regions and he predicted that if the situation were to continue, all will die. The rich stopped supporting the poor and they stopped rebuilding the public buildings destroyed by the floods and by the earthquake. Faced with these problems, the officials and the wealthy decided to invest their money into their own houses and to keep their children at home.
After the earthquake, Huang Liu-hung tried to make the officials to grant the people tax reductions and other benefits but the government did little to help the people. Their argument was that other areas were affected as well and they did not see it necessary to act in a radical manner. His efforts were unfortunately in vain and many people resorted to commit suicide when they felt as if they had no other choice. The country officials tried to shame the people into fighting for their lives by telling them that those who decide to kill themselves will not be given a proper burial or by telling them how their should will be dammed forever and cursed to roam the earth. The reason why the officials resorted to these strategies is because many people were religious and thus they could be scared more easily.
The vast population believed in the teachings of Confucius and even though some emperors and rulers tried to convince the people to change their beliefs, they were unable to do it. The people believed that Confucius visited their district when he was being enlightened and thus the place and the religion was sacred to them.
Huang also notes how some abandoned their former good morals and became promiscuous, mingling with anyone they wanted and having sexual relationships outside marriage. Huang reprimands both the men and the women for their behavior and notes how many behaved just like prostitutes.
The novel then moves to P’u Sung-ling who was together with his cousin when the earthquake happened. He recalls how the earthquake lasted for about an hour and how after it was done, people were rejoicing and talking with one another while everything they owned was destroyed.
Sung-ling also wrote about the great famine from 1640 and how a man wanted to sell his wife because they were starving. The man, a merchant, refused to buy the woman, claiming that women are too cheap in comparison with grains for example. A kind man overheard the conversation and offered to give the couple enough money so they could run away to another region and star their life over again.
Sung-ling dealt with problems form an early age as he saw just how bandits can affect a city when he was six and the city where he lived was sieged. Then, years later, he was witness to the uprising form 1661 and saw how the ones involved where executed and thrown into mass graves without giving the family the possibility of taking care of the dead. The rich were tortured to give away their money and many had to make a choice of either turning to prostitution or becoming a bandit in order to survive. The situation became so bad that even the officials were afraid to publicly shame and punish the bandits so many families claimed to be bandits as well so they could escape punishment.
Sung-ling also wrote about his family, his wife and children and mentioned how happy he was to have them. Sung-ling’s wife was entirely devoted to him and would do anything to make her husband happy. She was also a hard-working woman who did not shy away from doing everything she could to better their lives.
Sung-ling and his family was not wealthy but they were happy and he found great happiness in writing. When Sung-ling was over 30, he began writing a collection of short stories entitled Strange Stories Written in the Liao Studio in which he mentioned some of his childhood memories. Sung-ling mentioned a time when he saw a magician during a Spring Festival and also various stories he came up with.
The second part is entitled The Land and it starts in the winter of 1671. That winter it snowed and many hoped it would be a good omen for the year to come. Unfortunately, the snow did not stop and it snowed so much that it reached the roofs of many houses. Many people died frozen to death and those remaining had to deal once more with having their crops destroyed. Despite this, the country was still expected to pay the same amount of taxes even though they have been struck by tragedy once more.
The county had no fertile lands as they have been given to neighboring regions. The country had lands to grow some food but the harsh weather often destroyed the crops and the people were left with nothing to eat.
The author describes the process of planting and taking care of the plants and he describes it as being a lengthy process that has to be done gently. The people did everything they could to ensure they had something planted on their fields at all times and did everything they could to maximize the amount of produce the land produced.
No matter the time, the people had to pay taxes to the government. The people had to pay taxes almost every month, either by giving away money of through labor. To make sure everyone paid their taxes, a complicated system was put into place so that everyone paid their share.
The author notes that in 1670, in the country there were about 60.000 people from which one in six were adult males considered capable of paying taxes. The men were also registered to the military so that if the country needed them, the ruling class would know who they were. Each family was responsible for registering their family members and to declare their statues when it came to their possibility to fight in case of emergency.
The author talks about the taxes the people were expected to pay and notes how they were not excessive. Despite this, the country was almost always behind on its taxes and had troubles paying even for the taxes on the previous years.
The county’s financial problems were given by the big costs they were asked to pay for postal service and couriers. The county was placed on a strategic road which was frequented often by various officials and by couriers rushing to deliver important information. While other counties profited from the roads, the county was expected to host the people going on the roads and maintain the roads on a regular basis. This put a strain on the already weak local economy and with no financial help from the outside, it was hard for the people to pay for everything on their own.
In time, the government reduced the taxes in the area according to the natural disasters that struck so often. The population of abled men reduced so much in the span of 10 years that one of the magister wrote how only 3 in ten men were still alive in 1670 in comparison with a period of ten years earlier.
Many of the lands remained barren because there were no more people to work on them. When the officials were sent to investigate the matter, they found many villages almost deserted and those remaining told the officials about the flooded lands and how every flood brought more sand that made it even harder to farm.
When people had the money to pay the taxes, they were often tricked by ill-intended people in either trading their produce for coins that were not composed of the mental they were told they were or by people who claimed to want to help them and then run away with the people’s money and produce.
Apart from the normal taxes, the citizens had to pay a number of other taxes for their animals and other produce they may have profited from. Some writings implied that the people who owned crickets were taxed for the insects and how devastating it was for them to be taxed for such possessions.
Sometimes it was hard to determine who owned a piece of land as those who could would often bribe and threaten other people into giving up their lands. The author mentions other six methods through which the landowners lowered their tax land assessments. Among the methods used was hiring someone to take care of the land, lying to get the land put into a lower class and even claiming that the produce they had came from other lands.
The rich were the ones who had the means to employ various methods of reducing their taxes and as a result the ones who suffered were the poor who were taxed even more. The rich usually paid fewer taxes and if someone had a public position, he was required to pay even less. This prompted many to become dependent on their rich friends and family who did not had to pay taxes and many had to pay as a result lower taxes. The people put in charge to collect taxes had no problems getting the taxes from the poor but they were afraid to use the same methods on the rich who would often act out if pressed too hard. There are multiple recollections about instances when a tax collector would send some men to persuade a land owner to pay his taxes and the people sent would be badly beaten and sometimes even killed.
The third part is called The Widow and the author begins by talking about a woman named Woman P’eng who lost her husband in 1661. In the Local History there are many stories about widows who survived and even thrived even after they lost they husbands.
These women, some of them widowed before they turned twenty and already having children, raised they children to be good members of the society and some of them even ended up having good positions as a result.
Some men mocked these women and their piety. One of these men was Sung-ling who wrote a story highlighting the hypocrisy of those old women. He also criticized the hypocrisy of the gentry as they would often compile writings of their virtues.
Women had to deal with a great deal of problems and Sung-ling also discusses the problem of marriage once a woman’s husband died and in what conditions it was acceptable for the woman to remarry.
Sung-ling mentions the story of a woman names His-liu. She married a man who already had a son of five years old but His-liu loved him like her own. After living happily with her husband for five years, he died suddenly and His-liu remained alone to take care of the children and the household. Her step-son became unwilling to learn so His-liu did everything she can to correct his attitude. When His-liu saw her own son was unable to learn, she sent him to the fields.
When the harvest was done, His-liu gave her son some money and sent him away to try and be a merchant but he lost all the money while gambling. His-liu began beating her son but her step-son intervened before she could kill him. His-liu stopped beating her son but kept a close eye on him.
A while later, His-liu sent her son away once more with a group of merchants. Her son, Ch’ang-hu, spent all the money he was given less than ten days with various women. When he saw he no longer had any money, he tried to spend some gold his mother gave him but find the gold was fake. Because of this, he was imprisoned and badly beaten.
Back at home, His-liu told her step-son about what she had done and then sent him to save his brother. Ch’ang-hu was brought home and he began behaving in a better manner. His mother trusted him again with trading and even pawned some of her own possessions to give him money. This time, he did not disappoint his mother and made a great fortune out of trading. The end of the story notes how His-liu remained a simple woman even though she had a great fortune.
Many widows were pressured into remarrying but some decided not to and resorted to killing themselves when the pressure became too great. There were laws and regulations women had to obey and they faced even more pressure if their husbands died. Many widows were driven away from their own houses and had their properties taken away from them after their husbands died and in many cases, there was nothing they could have done.
The author mentions the experience of a woman called P’eng whose husband died. After she remained a widow, her dead husband’s relatives tried to take advantage of her and take all her possessions. Woman P’eng refused to go away and remarry and she and her son were in danger because their relatives planned to kill the son to take Woman P’eng’s properties. They came up with a plan to kill the son and reduce the chance of them being punished by the state by claiming they revenged someone his father had killed while he was still alive.
One of the men took Woman P’eng’s son while he was at school and killed him. The plan did not worked however and the man was found guilty of murdering the young boy and was sentenced to die.
The fourth chapter is entitled The Feud and Sung-ling admits they he knew everything about the family feuds taking place in his area. He admits that there were feuds in his family as well as his wife was preferd by his mother and his sister-in-laws were jelous of that. As a result, the patriarch had to divide his wealth and Sung-ling and his wife had to move to another property where they did not had the same conditions.
The author then presents a fictional story written by Sung-ling about a man named Ts’ui Meng, a violent man from his youth. In time, he became appreciated for his strength and for his sense of justice. Meng was controlled only by his mother but when she would leave, Meng would return to his ways.
Meng killed one of his neighboring women who mistreated and starved her mother-in-law and as a result Meng’s mother refused to eat until her son was sorry for his actions. She then took a needle and marked her son while also beating him. Meng is warned also by a monk to stop being so violent but he claims he must do everything he can to get justice for the people. The monk told Meng he will be able to survive only if he befriends a boy who is outside the door so Meng went outside.
Once outside, Meng meet with a boy named Chao of twelve years old who moved there with his family because the region where he lived before was affected by famine. Meng and Chao remained together for a year until Chao moved with his family once more. Soon after Chao left with his family, Meng and his mother stumbled upon a procession of a number of men carrying another man in shackles.
The men told Meng how the man in shackles tricked another man named Li Shen into gambling his own wife. Then, he sent other men to collect the debt and they beat Li Shen until he signed a paper promising not to pursue the matter any further. Meng became angry upon hearing this but his mother stopped him from acting in any way.
Meng returned home but he could not stop thinking about the man and for a few days he was restless, unable to sleep and eat. Then, he disappeared one night and things returned to normal the next day. The man who stole the wife was also found dead together with the woman he had stolen. Li Shen was found guilty of killing the man after he was tortured for almost a year and was sentenced to death.
Soon after the incident, Meng’s mother died and Meng turned himself in, not being able to bear knowing that an innocent man was going to die for his crimes. Li Shen refused to let Meng die for him and continued to claim he was the one who killed the man but he was eventually released.
A few days before his execution, an official came in the area and offered Meng a reduced sentence. The man in question was Chao, the little boy Meng took care off a few years before. Meng was sent to battle as a part of his punishment and Li Shen went along with him as his servant. A few years back, the two returned and Meng tried his best to change his old ways and no longer act in a violent manner. Li Shen remained with Meng and worked for him for a long time and Meng took care of Li Shen in return.
In the area there was another man named Wang who behaved in a bad way and when his brothers tried to get Meng to help them, they were stopped by Li. Meng was sadden to hear about this and Li even went as far as the attack Meng in court, saying he was not paid any wages. Li eventually killed the man named Wang and left for a while the area but returned home after things calmed down and he and Meng became friends once more.
A few years later, a relative of the man Wang who was killed became a robber and one day robbed Meng’s house while he was away. Li came up with a plan and sent one of the servants with pieces of rope on one side of the hill and told him to light them in fire. Then, he dressed in the same clothes the robbers were dressed in and went to their camp. When the robbers saw fires all over in the wood, they ran to fight the attackers. Li returned back to the camp where he killed the guards left there and took back Meng’s wife.
The next day, Meng planned an attack on the robbers but the people in the village were not courageous enough to fight. The villagers found two spies and Li came up with the plan to destroy the band of bandits. He told the villagers to let the bandits go and then sent everyone to go and try to find weapons. Li went as well and took two canons from another village and then put them in strategic places in the mountains and waited. When the bandits came, the villages attacked them with everything they had and almost every robber was killed.
The villagers went to the robbers’ camp and they took from there everything they could. The remaining robbers who were captured had their ears and noses cut off and the villagers assembled a guard to take care of the village.
The author notes that the Wang in the fictional story may have actually be inspired by a real person called Wang San. It soon became clear that the family was involved in illegal activities but no one dared to report them to the police. The Wangs had a conflict with another person and they killed in one night the patriarch of the family and his sons. The remaining family members tried to seek justice for the fallen but were unable to as the Wangs did everything they could to be acquainted of the charges brought against them.
Another official was sent to the area to investigate and he soon found another man whose brother was killed by Wang San. He was asked to appear before the official and he told them everything he knew while also expressing his opinion about who was the perpetrator of the other murders. The man was assured by the official he will get the chance to revenge his brother and he was told he must go to Wang’s house.
The strategy did not went as planned and Wang escaped but Huang followed him when he ran away. Wang and his son were captured and Wang confessed to his killings before dying. The surviving son was moved to another more secure prison out of fear of the general public. Many people fled the village as well and it was believed that those who fled were protected or worked at some point with Wang.
The son involved in the killing was sentenced to death and all the property was given to the families affected by Wang’s crimes.
The fifth part is entitled The woman who ran away and talks about a collection of stories about virtuose women. The author notes how from the women mentioned there, only a small procentege were unmarried. The rest had a husband and a family and the author focused on their devotion and loyalty towards their husbands and the women’s willingness to die for them.
Other women manifested loyalty to men who were not even their husbands and the author mentions an instance of a girl whose fiancé died and she insisted she moves in with his parents and serve them as if she were married to their son. Another girl of only13 killed herself when she was told she will have to marry another man after her first fiancé was discovered to have cheated on her and after being castrated.
Many women died during the Manchu conquest and many women decided to take their own life rather than be killed or humiliated by the soldiers. Some of the women killed their infant children as well when they knew there was no escape from them.
Other women managed to flee to safety or were left alone by the Manchu soldiers when they realized the women were not willing to give up their lands and children.
The narrator then presents another story written by Sung-ling named Chang’s wife.
The story takes place in 1674 during a great rebellion. The villages were devoid of men and the women tried everything they could to escape. Unfortunately, many were raped as they tried to flee their villages. A woman who stayed behind was Woman Chang. She remained in her home and dug a pit in her kitchen and covered it with leaves. When the rebels came, she took them into her house, making them believe she was going to sleep with them and tricked them into falling into the pit. She then set the pit on fire, killing the soldiers. To hide what she has done, Woman Chang told the people the beings that died in the fire were pigs.
The woman in the story was praised for her actions and because she did everything she could to make sure she was not taken advantage of.
Some stories did not present women in such a good light and made them out to be depraved and just as keen to have illicit sex as any other man. Women were sold by their poor parents for little money and given to however wanted to marry them or take them as concubines. Of course, there were also women who were more expensive and the ones who only the rich could afford.
The author mentions other women who decided not to marry and who instead had children outside of marriage and yet still raised them and took care of them on their own. The author mentions women who took the roles men had such as in the fictional story of Mu-lan and other women who proved their husbands they could pass the governmental exam when they could not do such thing.
Sung-ling tells another story of a rich man named Nam who spend a night at a peasant’s house. There, he saw the man’s daughter and felt attracted to her. Nam tried to convince the girl to have sex with him but she refused until he promised her he will ask her father’s permission to marry. Nan did not hold his end of the bargain and instead married a beautiful and rich girl. Meanwhile, the poor girl remained pregnant and her father threw her out with the baby after he beat her. The young girl went to Nan’s house, beginning him to take at least the child but he refused. The next day, the woman was found dead, with a baby in her arms.
Another story is mentioned about a man named Liang who was unmarried and who was not exceptionally rich. He had the habit of going to the mountain with the rest of the village to pray and during one of those instances he saw a beautiful 17 year old girl. Liang tried to make himself noticed to the girl but she refused to acknowledge him and left. When Liang saw her again, she was together with her mother, ready to return him. Liang approached the two women and convinced the mother to give her daughter to him. The mother accepted even if the girl refused in the beginning and the three left for one of the women’s relatives where they held the wedding.
The next day the couple let to Liang’s home and there the mother saw the house was barren. She sent men to her own home and they brought back furniture, clothes and food and also a maid servant. The couple lived together but soon Liang stated stealing his wife’s jewelry so he could gamble. When he remained without money, one of his friends suggested he sells his wife as a concubine to a rich man. From that point on, Liang started complaining about his poverty until his wife was the one who suggested he sells her to a rich household. Liang pretended to be outraged by the suggestion but made the arrangements to sell her.
The wife asked for permission to go and visit her mother to inform her about what had happened and he agreed. The two go there together and Liang is astonished to see the magnificent house in which his wife used to live. The young wife told everything that had happened to her mother and gave her the gold she still had left. Liang was asked to go outside and there he was surprised to see the house disappear. When he returned home, the possessions his mother in law sent him were gone as well and he lived a life in poverty until the day he died.
The author notes that generally, there were fewer women than men in those times and it was sometimes hard for poor men to find a wife as they could not afford to pay the family and to bring them gifts.
The author then presents the story of a couple though their named are not known. The husband was poor and it is told his wife used to work for him as a house maid. The two lived together for some years but then the wife ran away with another man. The author tries to explain why their act was problematic.
In those times, a woman could not leave her husband unless he was treating her with extreme violence or make her have sex with other men. If a woman ran away from her husband and was caught, she would be punished by being given 100 blows and her lover would have suffered the same consequence. What is even more, the husband had the legal right to kill both the woman and the lover if he caught them so the two had to do everything they could to escape. Those who helped them were also in danger as they could be considered as being partners and punished in a similar manner as the two lovers by the law.
Woman Wang was left alone when her lover left her and she had few choices as a woman. She could either hope of finding some type of job in a rich household or become a prostitute but she decided to return home. As she neared her village, she became scared and look for refuge in a temple. For a while she remained there but her husband found out about her and went there to talk with her but the monk fought him and he had to leave.
Woman Wang could no longer remain with the priest so she was taken to her father in law who told his son to take her back. Legally, her husband would have had to divorce her since she was unfaithful to him but he decided not to do it and took her back instead. In that winter, Jen killed Woman Wang and took her to the forest in the middle of the night and left her there.
The epilogue is entitled The trial and it concerns Jen and his crime. After a few days after Woman Wang was killed, Jen went to the magister and filed a complaint, accusing Kao and his wife of murdering Woman Wang. Kao and his wife were sent to prison but Hunag felt as if something was not right and decided to investigate the matter further.
During the trial, Jen’s story was hard to believe while Kao and his wife both had a much credible story. What is more, Kao’s wife told the judge she saw the village guard near their house that night and that the guard saw them too. With this new evidence, the judge released Kao and his wife and imprisoned Jen until the guard could be found.
Wang went to investigate the house where Jen and Woman Wang lived and talked with the village watchmen who told the same story as Kao and his wife. In the end, Jen confessed to his crimes. Instead of killing him, Huang put Jen to be beaten and wear a sign of his shame for a long time around his neck. It was decided that Woman Wang should be buried in a good coffin near her house as to avoid coming back as a bad spirit and terrorizing the village. The person who paid for the funeral was Kao as a form of punishment for hitting Jen.
The book ends with the author explaining why the people receive the punishments they did and by explaining the argument behind his reasoning.
