Yin Tunan of Wuchang had a second house, just outside his own residence. The house had been rented by a scholar. Yin had not bothered to see the house or his tenet for the last six months.
One day, Yin met the scholar at the gate of his own residence. The scholar was young and handsome and had gracious manners. He was riding on a handsome horse and wore a luxurious fur coat. Yin went up, talked with him and found he was cultured and handsome. Yin was very much surprised and told his wife of his encounter with the scholar.
The wife sent a maid to look into the scholar’s room, on the excuse of borrowing something from him. A beauty was sitting in the room, more beautiful than fairy ladies. The decorative pieces, flowers, garments and everything were such as not to be found anywhere in ordinary people’s houses.
Yin could not figure out where the scholar was on the social ladder. So he paid a visit to the scholar. But the latter happened to be out. The next day, the scholar returned Yin’s visit. Yin looked at his card and learned his name was Yu De. In conversation, Yin asked details of his career in officialdom but only got vague answers. Yin pursued his questions, Ye De had to say: “Since you want to be a friend of mine, I will not keep you at arm’s length. But one thing you should be sure — I’m not a robber or a thief. Why all the pressing to learn of my career and background?” Yin apologized and ordered dinner. They talked and laughed, in a very agreeable way. At night, two servants, leading a horse and holding lanterns, came to take the guest home.
The next day, Yu De sent Yin an invitation for a return dinner. Yin went to his house and saw the walls were covered with decorative wall paper, shiny and smooth like a mirror. Rare fragrant incenses were burning in a golden lion-shaped incense burner. A jade vase was filled with long phoenix and peacock plumes. In a crystal pot were a bunch of pink flowers and their long boughs hung over the table. The leaves were more luxuriant than the flowers, most of which were in buds. The shapes of the flowers were like butterflies withdrawing their wings at the touch of water. The stamens were like butterfly attennae. There were only eight dishes on the table but each was extremely delicate and delicious.
When the dinner began, Yu De ordered his page boy to beat the drum for drinking games. At the beating of the drum, the flowers in the vase began to shiver so vehemently that they bent very low. Then, the butterfly wings started to open. When the drum stopped, the long and thin stamen of a flower fell to the ground and turned into a real butterfly. It flew up and then landed on Yin’s clothes. Seeing this, Yu De got to his feet, smiling, and poured Yin a full cup of wine. Hardly had the wine filled the cup when the butterfly flew away. The drinking game went on. A moment later, two butterflies landed on Yu’s hat. Yu smiled and said: “I just got caught in my own trap.” He therefore drank two cups of liquor as forfeit. After three rounds of drum beating, the flower petals began to fall, littering the sleeves and the fronts of their clothes. The page boy came up to count the butterflies and concluded that Yin should drink nine cups of wine and Yu four cups. Yin had grown a little drunk and could not drink so much. So, after drinking three cups, he withdrew from the dinner. He therefore felt all the more that Yu De was not a common man.
Yu De, however, was inward-looking by nature and often shut himself up in his house. He even refused to take part in the wedding and funeral ceremonies of the neighbors. Yin told everyone of his extraordinary encounter with Yu. So people rushed to Yu’s place to establish relations with him. As a result, carts, carriages and horses often crowded the place outside Yu’s house. It was more than Yu could bear. One day, he bade farewell to Yin and was gone.
When Yu was gone, Yin went into his place and found that the empty courtyard was very clean and tidy. The burnt candles were piled underneath the stone steps. Yu’s fingerprints seemed to remain in the broken cloth and threads on the window panes. He also saw a small white-stone vat that could contain about a dan of rice. Yin took the vat to his own house and filled it with water for raising goldfish. A year had passed and the water in the vat remained clear and clean, as if it just poured into the vat. Later, the servants broke the vat when they removed the artificial rockery. The water retained its original state, without running out. At first glance, one could have the illusion that the vat was still there. But touching it with a hand, one really had the feel of water. The water would splash out when hand was immersed into it. It would recover its original state when the hand was withdrawn. In winter, no ice was formed. One night, the water suddenly turned to crystal but the fish continued to swim in it. Yin, fearing that others would know about the precious water, kept it in his own secret room and showed it to nobody except his son and son-in-law.
With the passage of time, however, people learned about it. They crowded the entrance of Yin’s house, asking to see the treasure. One night in December, the crystal suddenly melted into water and the floor became wet and cold. The golden fish disappeared. Only the wreckage of the broken vat was there. Presently, a Taoist priest came to the house and asked to see the vat. Yin showed it to him. The Taoist priest said: “It is a water container from the Dragon Palace.”Yin told him the strange phenomenon of the water that did not run out when the vat broke. The priest said: “This was because the soul of the vat was still there.” The priest asked Yin for a piece of the broken vat. The latter asked him for what purpose he would use it. The priest answered:”I’ll grind it into powder and mix it with other medicines. It will give me longevity.” Yin gave him a piece and he went away happily.
Leave a Reply