Relating a Secret Wrong, Zheng Qiongluo

The younger male cousin of Duan Wenchang, whose name is unknown, was virtuous from beginning to end. During a leisurely return to Luo, after his boat stopped for the night at Guazhou, he heard sighing and sighing. That night, he dreamed of a woman 20 or more years old, who said her surname was Zheng, personal name Qiongluo, living in Dantu; when she came to the Yangzi, Wang Wei, a son of the market administrator, forced insult upon her, and she hung herself with no one to avenge her shame. After this, the ghost followed (the cousin) till he arrived north of Luo, where a certain Fan Yuanze knew methods to dispel her. The ghost asked for paper and brush, and wrote a miscellaneous poem in lines of seven characters, expressing considerable grief and hatred. In return, Yuanze presented her with wine, dried foods, and paper money, and taking advantage of dusk he burnt the money by the road. A wind revolved above the ashes many times, until they heard a sorrowful weeping sound. The poem was 30 or more lines in all, of which only these 4 are recorded.

Pain fills up the heart, ah! —I cannot speak.
Small cuts to the gut, ah! —accuse what place?
Spring grows ten-thousand things—but this one doesn’t live.
More hatred for that “fragrant soul” —for didn’t we meet?

叙幽冤
作者：郑琼罗
〈段文昌从弟某者，贞元末，自信安还洛，舟宿瓜洲，闻有嗟叹声。是夜，梦一女，年二十馀，自言姓郑，名琼罗，居丹徒，来扬子，为市吏子王惟举逼辱，绞颈自杀，无人为雪冤。后此鬼相随至洛北，有樊元则者作法遣之，鬼请纸笔书，若杂言七字，辞甚悽恨。元则复令具酒脯纸钱，乘昏焚于道，有风旋灰直上数尺，及闻悲泣声，诗凡二百馀字，止载其中二十八字。〉
痛填心兮不能语，
寸断肠兮诉何处。
春生万物妾不生，
更恨香魂不相遇。

Oh hey, a female ghost poet yay. Who was raped boo. The setting is Jiangsu: Guazhou is in modern Hanjiang, on a branch of the Grand Canal, Dantu is a district of Zhenjiang, and Luo is in the general area. Short shameful confession: the Yangzi River is so rarely actually called that in Chinese—usually it’s “the Long River”—that I had to look up 扬子 to confirm that’s how it’s written. As for the poem, yup that’s a fragment—fragmentary enough, I’m not sure whether to understand the “fragrant soul” (idiomatically, the spirit of a beautiful person) as her rapist or herself.

Of note: this is this chapter’s first poem without a clear date—fwiw, Duan Wenchang lived 773-835. Also of note: the other chapter has a LOT more interesting poems by women ghosts, and I’m looking forward to them.

---L.