談生

列異傳 (trs. from The Man Who Sold a Ghost, by HY Yang and Gladys Yang)

The prince of Suiyang's daughter 睢陽王女 :

The scholar Tan was still unmarried at forty, much to his distress. One night he was studying The Book of Songs at midnight when a girl of about sixteen came in. Her beauty and splendour had no equal on earth, and she offered to be his wife.

談生者，年四十，無婦，常感激讀詩經。 夜半有女子，可年十五六，姿顏服飾，天下無雙， 來就生為夫婦。

She warned him, though: "I am no ordinary woman. For three years you must not look at me by torchlight."

乃言：「我與人不同，勿以火照我也，三年之後方可照。」

They married and had a son, and when the boy was two years old, Tan could contain his curiosity no longer. While his wife lay asleep he held a torch over her. From the waist up she was flesh like any other woman, but from the waist down she was nothing but dry bones!

為夫妻，生一兒，已二歲，不能忍。 夜伺其寢後，盜照視之，其腰已上生肉如人，腰下但有枯骨。

Just then his wife woke up. "You have wronged me, husband!" she cried. "I was soon to have become a mortal. Why couldn't you wait for one more year instead of holding that torch over me?" Tan made abject apologies.

婦覺，遂言曰：「君負我。我垂生矣，何不能忍一歲而竟相照也。」 生辭謝。

"Now we must part for ever," she said in tears. "You must take good care of my son. If you are too poor to support yourself, come with me now and I shall give you a present."

涕泣不可復止，云：「與君雖大義永離，然顧念我兒， 若貧不能自偕活者！暫隨我去，方遺君物。」

若 = 你 ? (非如果)
方 = 將

He followed her into a splendid hall --- a rare building richly furnished --- where she gave him a robe made of pearls. "You can live on this," she told him. And she tore a strip from his gown.

生隨之去，入華堂，室宇器物不凡。 以一珠袍與之，曰：「可以自給。」 裂取生衣裾，留之而去

Later Tan sold the robe to the prince of Suiyang for ten million coins. As soon as the prince set eyes on it, he said: "That belonged to my daughter. This fellow must be a grave-robber."

後生持袍詣市，睢陽王家買之，得錢千萬。 王識之，曰：「是我女袍，此必發墓。」

He had Tan tried, and refused to believe his story. But upon inspecting the grave, they found it unbroken. And when they opened it, under the coffin lid they discovered the strip of Tan's garment. They perceived that his son resembled the princess too.

乃取拷之，生具以實對，王猶不信，乃視女冢，冢完如故。 發視之，果棺蓋下得衣裾。呼其兒，正類王女。

So at last the prince was convinced. Summoning Tan, he returned him the robe and made him his son-in-law, while the child was recommended for a post in the palace guard.

王乃信之，即召談生，復賜遺衣，以為主婿，表其兒以為侍中。