Repository path: workshop/translations/wang-liulang/R06-v1/translation.md · rendered 2026-09-09

〈王六郎〉 — Pu Songling, single-pass draft (R06)

Source. 蒲松齡《聊齋志異》卷一〈王六郎〉, 1,533 characters, four paragraphs. Text and its two emendations: workshop/translations/wang-liulang/provenance.md.

Regime R06 — lead single pass, source only, no revision. This artifact is frozen before the R04 self-revision begins, per R04 §Procedure 2a; it is the paired R06 output of that run and is usable as one because it was committed separately before revision.

Contamination: none, MEASURED — see ../R04-v1/contamination.md. The selection gate on paragraph 1 (run before paragraphs 2–4 were drafted) returned a longest shared run of 6 tokens and 0 shared 7-grams against Giles 1880, below the 7-token floor of the same translator against himself on other tales in the same volume.

Paragraphing follows the source: four paragraphs, no splitting.

Translation

A man named Xu lived in the northern outskirts of Zi and made his living by fishing. Every night he carried wine down to the river and drank while he fished. Before drinking he would pour a libation on the ground and say over it, "Let the drowned ghosts of this river drink." He made a regular practice of it. Other men fished and got nothing at all; Xu alone filled his basket. One evening, while he was drinking by himself, a young man came up and lingered at his side. Xu pressed a drink on him, and he fell to willingly and drank along with him. But the whole night passed and not one fish was taken, and Xu was much cast down. The young man got up and said, "Let me go down below and drive them up for you." And off he went, light as a leaf. In a little while he was back. "A great run of fish is coming," he said. And sure enough there was a sound of smacking and gulping. Xu lifted his net and took several, all of them over a foot. Overjoyed, he thanked him. As he was about to go home he offered him some of the fish. He would not take them, and said, "I have presumed on your good wine again and again. Such a trifle as this — how is it worth calling repayment? If you do not disdain me, we should make a lasting thing of it." Xu said, "We have shared a single evening. How can you say again and again? If you are willing to come always, that is what I should most wish; but I am ashamed to have nothing to make a friendship of." He asked his surname and style-name. The man said, "My surname is Wang. I have no style-name. When we meet you may call me Wang Liulang." And they parted. The next day Xu sold his fish and laid in more wine than usual. Toward evening he came to the riverbank, and the young man was there before him, and they drank together in good spirits. After a few cups he would always go and drive the fish for Xu.

So it went for half a year. Then all at once he said to Xu, "Since I came to know your bright face our feeling has gone beyond flesh and blood. But the day of our parting is at hand." His voice was full of grief. Xu asked in alarm what he meant. Twice he began and stopped, and then he said, "With a friendship such as ours between us two, perhaps you will not be startled to hear it. Since we must part, there is no harm in telling you plainly: I am in fact a ghost. I always had a weakness for wine; I fell in dead drunk and was drowned, and I have been here some years now. Those fish you took, when you alone did better than other men — I drove them to you in secret, to repay the wine you poured out. Tomorrow my term is up, a substitute is due, and I go to be born again. We have only tonight together, and I cannot help being moved." Xu was very frightened at first; but they had been close so long that his fear did not last. He sighed too, and poured out wine, and said, "Drink this, Liulang, and do not grieve. To meet and be parted so soon is grief enough; but your term is full and your bondage is over, and that is properly a thing to be congratulated on. Grief is out of place." So they drank their fill. Then Xu asked, "Who is the substitute?" He said, "Watch from the bank, elder brother. At high noon a woman will cross the river and drown, and she is the one." When they heard the village cocks crow, they parted in tears. Next day he kept a careful watch by the river to see the marvel. Sure enough a woman came carrying a baby, and at the water's edge she fell in. The child was flung up onto the bank and lay waving its hands and kicking its feet and wailing. The woman went under and came up again and again — and then all at once, streaming wet, she pulled herself out up the bank, lay on the ground a little to rest, took up the child and went straight off. While she was drowning Xu's heart could not bear it and he thought of running to save her, but it came to him that she was the one who was to take Liulang's place, and so he checked himself and did not save her. When she came out by herself he wondered whether the words had not come true. Toward dusk he fished at the old place. The young man came again and said, "We are together once more, and there will be no more talk of parting." Xu asked why. He said, "The woman was already my substitute; but I pitied the child in her arms — to take one life in my place would have destroyed two, and so I let her go. When there will be another substitute I cannot say. Or perhaps the tie between us two is not yet used up?" Xu said with feeling, "This is the heart of a man of humanity. It may reach the Lord on High." And they were together as before. Some days later he came again to take his leave. Xu supposed a substitute had been found after all. He said, "No. That one thought of pity did in the end reach Heaven. I am appointed Earth God of Wu Town in Zhaoyuan County, and I take up the post tomorrow. If you do not forget an old friend, come once and see me, and do not shrink from the length of the road." Xu congratulated him: "That an upright man like you should become a god is a great comfort to the heart. But the road of men and the road of gods lie apart; and even if I did not shrink from the length of it, what could come of it?" The young man said, "Only come. Do not trouble about that." He said it again and again, and went.

When Xu got home he wanted to pack at once and go east. His wife laughed at him: "It is several hundred li from here; and supposing the place exists, I am afraid a clay image will not be able to hold a conversation with you." Xu would not listen, and got all the way to Zhaoyuan. He asked the people who lived there, and there was indeed a Wu Town. He found the place, set down his load at an inn, and asked where the shrine was. His host started and said, "Would the gentleman's surname be Xu?" Xu said, "It is. How did you know?" And the host said, "And would the gentleman's town be Zi?" "It is. How did you know?" The host did not answer, but hurried out. Presently men came carrying children, and young wives and girls peeped from the doorways, and they came crowding in until they stood about him like a wall. Then they told him: "Some nights ago the god said to us in a dream, 'My friend Xu of Zichuan will be here shortly; you may help him with his travelling money.' We have been waiting for you a long while." Xu thought this strange too. So he went and made offering at the shrine and prayed: "Since I parted from you, sir, you have not left my mind waking or sleeping, and I have come this distance to keep the old promise. And you have been so good as to show me to the people here in a dream; the gratitude of it is graven on my heart. I am ashamed to have nothing handsome to bring, and have only a cup of wine; if you do not disdain it, let us drink as we drank on the river." When the prayer was done he burned paper money. Presently a wind got up behind the seat, whirled about for a while, and then dispersed. That night he dreamed the young man came to him, dressed in cap and gown, trim and fine and quite unlike his old self, and thanked him: "You have taken the trouble to come so far to ask after me, and my joy and my tears come together. But I hold a petty office and it is not convenient to meet face to face; we are a foot apart and there are rivers and mountains between us, and it grieves me. The people here have a small gift for you, a poor return for our old friendship. When you fix a day to go home, I shall come and see you off." He stayed several days. The people pressed him warmly to stay, asking him in the morning and inviting him at evening, several hosts in a day. Xu firmly declined and made to go. Then they folded up notes and brought out bundles, vying with one another to give him parting presents, and before the morning was out his bag was full of them. Old servants and small children all gathered, and they made the road-offering and saw him out of the village. Suddenly a ram's-horn wind got up and went along with him for ten li and more. Xu bowed twice and said, "Take care of yourself, Liulang! Do not trouble to come so far. Your heart is a kind one, and you will bring blessing to your district without an old friend telling you so." The wind circled a long while and then went. The villagers too turned back sighing and wondering. Xu went home. His household grew somewhat easier and he fished no more. Afterwards he would ask people from Zhaoyuan about him, and they said the god answered prayer as an echo answers. Some say it is Shikeng village in Zhangqiu. Which is right is not known.

The Chronicler of the Strange says: To have got up among the blue clouds and not to forget the poor and the low — that is why he is a god. Do the great personages in their carriages nowadays still recognise the man in the bamboo hat? In my own district there was a man living retired whose household was very poor. He had a friend from childhood who held a fat post, and reckoned that if he went to him he would surely be looked after. He strained every nerve to fit himself out and travelled a thousand li — and was utterly disappointed; he emptied his purse and sold his mount before he could get home again. A cousin of his, a great joker, wrote a Monthly Ordinance to mock him: "In this month the elder brother arrives; the sable cap comes off, the umbrella is not raised, the horse turns into a donkey, and the boots begin to make no sound." The thought of it is worth a laugh.