The Cricket

During the Xuande Reign period of the Ming Dynasty, cricket fighting became a popular amusement in the imperial palace. Every year, the insects were collected from localities across the country.

Crickets were not native to Shaanxi, but the magistrate of Huayin County in the province once presented one to his superiors in order to win some favor with his boss. After a trial bout, the insect proved itself a worthy fighter. Consequently, the superiors ordered the magistrate to provide crickets to the court regularly. The magistrate, however, assigned the duty to local township officials. The loafers in the streets then began to keep good crickets in bamboo cages and tried by all means to force up the price and corner of the market. Meanwhile, the wicked township officials used the cricket levy as an excuse for imposing a head tax on the peasants. As a result, each cricket levy usually brought several families to ruin.

In the county there lived a scholar named Cheng Ming, who had failed the county examinations several times. Seeing that Cheng was an impractical and inarticulate fellow, a crafty administrator recommended him for the position of messenger for the township official. Cheng tried time and again to avoid those duties, but failed. Within a year, the scholar had used up his slight resources to carry out his obligations as a messenger. Then, it was time for the cricket levy. Cheng did not dare collect the head tax. But he was not able to pay the charges out of his own money. Misery had driven him to the verge of killing himself.

Cheng’s wife said: “Would your death help to mend the situation? Rather, you should go out to hunt crickets yourself. Maybe, there is still a slight chance of catching one.” The suggestion sounded reasonable to Cheng. So, in the following days he spent long hours among ruined walls and thick grass looking for crickets. Armed with bamboo tubes and wire cages, Cheng turned almost every stone and dug up every hole, but all in vain. Though eventually he did catch a few, none met the criteria. The county magistrate was very strict on meeting the deadline for the cricket levy. In a dozen days or so, Cheng was caned a hundred strokes for failing to collect the insects as scheduled. With blood and puss oozing from his buttocks and thighs, he could no longer go out hunting crickets by himself. Lying restlessly on his bed, Cheng thought of nothing but the word suicide.

Just at that time, a hunchbacked sorceress who practiced divination came to the village. Cheng’s wife put together a small sum of money and went to see the sorceress. When she got there, she found throngs of young ladies and grey-haired old women were waiting outside the house. When her turn came, the woman was led into an inner chamber where an incense burner was standing in front of a curtain. All the petitioners put joss sticks into the incense burner and kowtowed. Gazing at the ceiling, the sorceress stood on one side praying. A string of unintelligible murmurs kept dropping from her twisted lips. Everyone listened with great respect. Shortly, a piece of paper carrying messages about the petitioner’s wishes was thrown out from behind the curtain. Every message was found to be direct to the point.

Cheng’s wife put her money on the table, lit joss sticks and kowtowed just like others there. After a while, the curtain was slightly lifted and a piece of paper was tossed out onto the floor. Picking up the paper, the woman saw no words on it. Instead, she found a drawing of buildings, pavilions and temples. At the foot of a hill, there was a cricket named”Black Spotty Head,” sitting amid eerie stones and thick bushes. Next to the cricket, a toad was poising for a leap. The woman could not figure out the meaning of the drawing, but the cricket did have something to do with her hidden concerns. So, she folded up the paper and took it to her husband.

Looking at the drawing, Cheng wondered: Could this be a map for me to catch a cricket? After carefully studying the sketch, he found it resembled the layout of the Grand Buddha Temple to the east of the village. Painfully getting up, Cheng walked to the backyard of the temple with a cane in one hand and the drawing in the other. There was an old tomb standing in thick bushes and, further ahead, there was a pile of eerie fish-scale-shaped stones just like those in the drawing. Groping slowly in the bush, the man was paying the utmost attention to any tiny sign or sound of a cricket. He was startled when a toad suddenly jumped across his path and vanished into a thick growth of grass. When the man rushed to the place and carefully parted the blades of grass, he saw a cricket there. But the insect dodged into a stone crack as the man pounced upon it. Using a blade of grass, he still failed to dig it out. So, the man used water to flush the cricket from the crack. As soon as the insect was out, Cheng immediately grabbed it. The cricket was a big one with a black head, golden wings and long tail. Ecstatically, Cheng put it into a bamboo cage and brought it home. The whole family was overjoyed as if they had found the legendary jade more valuable than a dozen cities. Cheng put the cricket into an earthen pot and fed it with crab meat and chestnut powder, waiting for the cricket-levy deadline.

Cheng had a nine-year-old son. One day when his father was out, the child lifted the lid off the pot. In a split second, the insect jumped out. It moved so fast, the child could not follow. When he finally grabbed the cricket in his hand, he broke its leg and crushed its body. The insect died immediately. The son was so scared that he ran crying to tell his mother what had happened. The woman’s face instantly turned pale as ashes. She shouted to her son: “You little bastard; you’re dead meat now. When your father comes home, he definitely will make you pay for it!” The kid then ran out weeping.

Soon, Cheng was back. After hearing the story, he felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured on his head. Outraged, he rushed out to look for his son, but could not see him anywhere. Later, when he found the kid’s body in a well, his rage turned to deep sorrow. Husband and wife wept and lost their appetite for food. They did not know what to say to each other, but both believed that any hope for their future life had died.

When it was getting dark, the couple went to wrap up their son’s body with a straw mat for burial. But they found the kid still breathing weakly. Delighted, they put their son on a bed. At midnight, the boy came back to life, making his parents feel a little relieved. However, the kid looked dumb and sleepy. A look at the empty cricket pot reduced Cheng to sobbing again and pushed his concern about his son to the back of his mind. Cheng lay awake the whole night. As the sun rose in the east, he was still lying on his bed lost in thought. Suddenly, he heard a cricket chirping outside. He jumped up and rushed out. He saw the cricket and tried to catch it. But the insect hopped away very quickly after uttering a squeak. Cheng cupped his hand to cover the insect. However, he could not feel the cricket in his hand. As soon as he raised his hand, the insect leapt out immediately. Cheng hastily chased the insect to the foot of a wall and then lost sight of it. Looking all around, he suddenly spotted it clinging to the wall. A close inspection revealed that this was a different cricket, small and with a short, reddish-black body. It was not a great one, so the man kept looking for the insect he had chased. Just then, the small cricket on the wall hopped onto Cheng’s sleeve. The plum-shaped wings, square head and long legs of the insect convinced the man it was a nice cricket. So, he was glad to keep it for the levy. As he was not sure whether it was really a good insect which could meet the levy criteria, Cheng decided to put the insect through several dry runs.

In the village, there was a young loafer who kept a cricket and called it “Crabshell Blue.” Every day, he took his insect to fight with others and always came back triumphant. In order to make a lot of money, the young man placed very high bets on his cricket. That scared away all potential betters. One day, he paid a visit to Cheng’s house and saw the small cricket. Laughing up his sleeve, he took out his cricket and put it into an earthen pot. Seeing the regal figure of the insect, Cheng felt embarrassed and did not dare to drop his small cricket into the ring. The young man, however, insisted on a match. Cheng thought the small insect would not be of any use, so why not. He thus put it into the fighting pot.

The small cricket crouched in the pot, looking as dumb as can be. The young man had to laugh at seeing it. He used a boar bristle to tease the tiny insect, but it remained motionless. The young man heehawed again. Under his continuous provocation, the small cricket suddenly charged forward to attack the other insect, chirping defiantly. In a flash, the small one, with erect tail and searching antennae, jumped upon”Crabshell Blue” and bit into the latter’s neck. The young man was shocked and hurried to pull the two insects apart. Then, the small cricket raised its head twittering conceitedly, as if it were reporting the victory to its master. Cheng was exhilarated. While the two men were admiring the winner, a rooster saw the small insect and directly launched a peck. Cheng cried out in alarm. Fortunately, the rooster missed its target as the small cricket hopped a foot away. But the fowl decided not to give up and began to chase the insect. It almost crushed the cricket under its claw Cheng’s face turned pale and stood there helplessly. In the next moment, however, the rooster began to stretch out its neck and flap its wings. Taking a closer look, he found that the small insect had bitten into the fowl’s comb and was holding on to it. Cheng then was extremely pleased. He quickly took the cricket off the rooster’s comb and put it into a bamboo cage.

The next day, Cheng sent the cricket to the county magistrate. Looking down at its small size, the official reprimanded the runner. When Cheng explained to the magistrate the unique capabilities of the small cricket, the latter did not buy the story immediately. So, he put it into a fight with many other crickets. The small insect wori all the battles and proved again that it could even fight a rooster. Convinced, the magistrate rewarded Cheng and then handed the insect over to the provincial governor. The governor was very happy and presented it to the emperor in a cage made of gold wire. Along with the present, the governor submitted a message detailing the unusual talents of the insect. In the palace, the small cricket defeated all the specimens, including Butterfly, Mantis, Oily Beater and Black Silky Forehead, contributed by various localities. It would even dance to the music of lutes and zithers. Therefore, it was deemed a divine insect. The emperor was very much pleased, so he rewarded the provincial governor with thoroughbred horses and satins. The governor did not forget who had brought him such good fortune. Soon, the county magistrate was lauded for his”excellent performance.” The magistrate then was pleased too, so he relieved Cheng of his duties and asked the county chief examiner to let the scholar pass the county examination, The governor also rewarded Cheng generously.

A little more than a year later, Cheng’s son totally recovered. The boy said that he had been transformed into an agile and militant cricket until this moment. In a few years, Cheng became the owner of a hundred hectares of fine farmland, numerous buildings and large herds of cattle and sheep. When going out, Cheng always donned light furs and rode fine horses, looking more luxurious than many celebrities and rich people of that time.