Chapter 1: Main Text Chapter 1 White Paper Person

Main Text Chapter 1 White Paper Person

My grandfather was called Hu Guohua; the Hu family ancestors were well‑known big landowners in the surrounding ten miles and eight villages, and at their most prosperous they bought more than forty connected houses in three lanes in the city, and they also produced some officials and merchants who had donated to the Qing grain platform and transport bureau.

As the folk saying goes, 'Wealth does not last three generations.' This is very reasonable; even if a family has mountains of gold and silver, it cannot withstand the squandering of prodigal descendants.

In the Republican era, when it came to my grandfather's generation, the family began to decline; first the household was split, and Hu Guohua also received a share of the property, enough to support him for life without worry, but he stubbornly refused to reform—of course this also had to do with the social environment of the time—first he became addicted to gambling, then he took up the Blessing and Longevity Ointment (opium), and squandered the vast family fortune down to nothing.

In his youth Hu Guohua indulged in drinking, eating, whoring, gambling, and smoking—all five vices—until he ended up so poor he didn't even have a copper coin left. When someone is addicted to smoke, it's unbearable, a feeling of heart‑scraping and liver‑itching, but without money who would let you smoke? In the days when he had money, the bosses and staff of the smoke houses greeted him with obsequious deference, calling him 'Master Hu' this and 'Master Hu' that; but once he was penniless, they treated him like a stinking beggar, coaxing and driving him away, unable to get rid of him fast enough.

When a person is driven mad by poverty, notions of shame and morality become unimportant; Hu Guohua thought of a plan and went to his maternal uncle to swindle some money. His uncle knew he was a prodigal opium addict and normally wouldn't give him a single cash coin, but this time Hu Guohua lied to his uncle, saying he wanted to marry a wife, and asked the uncle to chip in some money.

Upon hearing this, the uncle was moved to tears, feeling that this unworthy nephew had finally done something proper; if he married a virtuous wife who could manage him well and straighten out his heart, perhaps he would later reform.

So he gave him twenty silver dollars, urging him to marry a wife and live a decent life, strictly forbidding him from ever touching the Blessing and Longevity Ointment again, and said that in a few days, when he had free time, he would personally go to Hu Guohua's house to see his nephew's wife.

Hu Guohua, full of wicked ideas, to deal with his uncle went home and then to the village found a papier‑mâché artisan who makes paper effigies and paper horses for burning to the dead. This papier‑mâché master was highly skilled; whatever you could name, he could make it lifelike.

According to the request, he made for Hu Guohua a papier‑mâché white‑paper woman, and with watercolor painted on her eyebrows, eyes, nose, clothing and hair; from a distance, hey, she really looked like a living person.

Hu Guohua carried the paper figure home, placed it on the inner room's kang (heated brick bed), covered it with a quilt, feeling quite pleased with his plan; when his uncle came a few days later, he would say his wife was ill, lying in bed unable to receive guests, and let the uncle just take a quick glance from afar. Feeling pleased with himself, he couldn't help humming a little tune, then slipped into the city to smoke opium.

Not many days later, the uncle came to the door, bringing some flower‑patterned cloth and snacks to see his nephew's wife; Hu Guohua followed his pre‑prepared excuse, saying his wife was unwell and could not receive visitors, and let the uncle lift the door curtain at the entrance, take a quick look, then let it fall again.

The uncle was unwilling, saying, 'Oh, you brat, is this how you treat your own maternal uncle? No, today I must see the new wife; if she's ill I'll pay to have a doctor see her.'

Hu Guohua desperately tried to block him from seeing her, but the more he obstructed, the more suspicious he looked; the uncle's doubts grew, and they began to argue. Just then the inner room's door curtain was lifted, and a woman came out, fair‑skinned and clean‑looking, with a round face, big buttocks and small feet. Hu Guohua's heart gave a jolt: 'Oh dear, isn't this the paper figure I had someone make? How did it come to life?'

The woman bowed to the uncle and said she had been unwell lately, so she hadn't come out to greet him earlier; please forgive her lapse. Now she suddenly felt much better, and she would keep the uncle for a simple meal at home. Having said that, she turned and went inside to cook.

Hu Guohua's uncle was delighted upon seeing her; he thought the nephew's wife was exceedingly virtuous and had a prosperous husband's appearance, and his deceased sister, wherever she was, would be pleased to see her son marry such a good wife. Feeling happy, the uncle gave Hu Guohua another ten silver dollars.

Hu Guohua stood there dazed, his heart in turmoil, not knowing whether to feel relieved or afraid; time passed quickly, and before he knew it it was evening. The paper woman had prepared a full table of dishes, and the uncle was so pleased he couldn't stop grinning, but Hu Guohua had no appetite; looking at the woman sitting opposite him, he felt as nauseous as if he had swallowed a fly. Her face was very white, with no trace of blood, the rouge on her cheeks being nothing but makeup.

The uncle's old eyes were dim, and he didn't notice anything wrong with the woman; after downing seven or eight cups of old liquor he was roaring drunk, and Hu Guohua borrowed a donkey cart to send him home.

On the way back, the more he thought about it the more frightened he became, so he simply didn't go home but spent the night in the city's pleasure quarter, smoking and whoring away the ten silver dollars his uncle had just given him.

Finally, having no money to pay the bill, he was kicked out, with nowhere to go he had to steel himself and return home. Upon arriving, he saw the house dark with no lights, the paper figure lying motionless on his bed, covered with a quilt, as if everything that had happened before had never occurred.

Hu Guohua thought, 'If I keep her, what will I do when she turns into a living person at night?' Better to burn her cleanly. He carried the paper woman to the courtyard, took out a match, and was about to set her alight when the paper figure suddenly spoke: 'You heartless wretch, I helped you wholeheartedly, and you want to burn me!'

Hu Guohua jumped in fright; in the dead of night he heard the papier‑mâché woman continue: 'I pitied you; although you indulge in drinking, whoring, gambling and smoking, your heart is not altogether bad. I want to marry you—are you willing?'

Hu Guohua shook his head desperately and asked the paper figure, 'Are you a demon or a ghost?' The paper person replied, 'I am certainly a ghost, merely temporarily attached to this paper body; but you poor wretch, don't despise me—when I was alive I was very rich, and the gold and silver jewelry buried with me would be enough for you to smoke opium for ten lifetimes. Haven't you heard that a wealthy dead ghost is a hundred times stronger than a poor living person?'

When money was mentioned, Hu Guohua felt a stir; lately he had been so destitute even his clothes had been pawned away, but he did not want to gain wealth only to lose his life spending it. He had heard old people talk about female ghosts luring men, gradually sucking away their yang energy, leaving those entangled men as nothing but skin and bone. So he told the paper figure, 'Even if you truly mean well by me, I cannot marry you, for we are of different realms—human and ghost—and yin and yang are separated; doing so would go against the Heavenly Way.'

The paper woman said, 'Since you are so hard‑hearted, I won't force you, but someday you will surely regret this. Remember, if your days ever become so impoverished you cannot get by, go to the desolate graves at Shisanlipu; in the very center of that graveyard there is a nameless lone tomb, whose coffin holds my remains, and inside are plenty of gold, silver and jewels. As long as you dare come, you may freely take and spend those riches.'

Having said that, the paper woman became motionless again; Hu Guohua steeled himself, lit a match, and burned the paper figure to ashes.

Later, on several occasions when he was truly destitute and had no other recourse, he thought of going to Shisanlipu to dig up graves, but each time he managed to restrain himself and scraped by by borrowing and making do. After two years, when he was utterly exhausted and had nowhere else to turn, he finally went to that graveyard—but that is a story for later, which we will not relate now.