Explore Chapter 5 of 'The True Story of Ah Q' with the original Chinese text, English translation, detailed Chinese vocabulary explanations, and audio of the Chinese original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
Ah Q having finished his ritual, returned to Tutelary God's Temple. The sun had set, and he gradually began to feel something strange about the world. He thought it over carefully and finally understood: the reason was that he was bare-backed. He remembered that his tattered lined jacket was still there, so he threw it on and lay down. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sun was once again shining on the western wall. He sat up and muttered, "Damn it..."
After getting up, he still wandered the streets. Although it was not as acutely painful as being bare-backed, he gradually began to feel that something was strange about the world. It seemed that from that day on, the women of Weizhuang had suddenly become shy. As soon as they saw Ah Q approaching, each of them would slip into her house. Even Zou Qisao, who was nearly fifty, hurried away with the others, and she even called her eleven-year-old daughter inside. Ah Q found this very strange and thought, "These creatures have started to act like young ladies. These bitches..."
But it was not until many days later that he found the world even stranger. First, the tavern refused to give him credit. Second, the old man in charge of Tutelary God's Temple started muttering nonsense, as if urging him to leave. Third, although he could not remember exactly how many days, it had indeed been many days since anyone had called on him for odd jobs. He could bear the tavern refusing credit, and he could put up with the old man nagging him to go. But not being called for work made Ah Q hungry - this was really a "damn nuisance."
Ah Q could no longer endure it. He had to go to the houses of his regular customers to ask - but he alone was forbidden to set foot over the threshold of the Zhao residence. Even there the situation was different: a man would come out, with a look of extreme annoyance, and waving his hand as if replying to a beggar, say, "Nothing, nothing! Get out!"
Ah Q found it even more strange. He thought, these families always used to need help; surely they don't all have nothing to do now. There must be something fishy. He inquired carefully and learned that when they had work, they all called on Young D. This Young D was a poor wretch, thin and worn, who in Ah Q's eyes ranked even below Wang Hu. Who would have thought this fellow had stolen his job? So Ah Q's anger was more intense than usual. As he walked along fuming, he suddenly waved his hand and sang, "I'll thrash you with a steel whip!..."
A few days later, he unexpectedly encountered Young D in front of the screen wall of the Qian residence. "When enemies meet, their eyes especially bright," Ah Q stepped forward, and Young D also stopped.
This humility only made Ah Q angrier, but since he had no steel whip in hand, he could only hurl himself forward and reach out to grab Young D's queue. Young D used one hand to protect his own queue root and the other to grab Ah Q's queue. Ah Q then also used his free hand to protect his own queue root. In the eyes of the former Ah Q, Young D had always been beneath contempt, but recently Ah Q had gone hungry and become as thin and worn as Young D. So they were evenly matched. Four hands pulling two heads, both bent at the waist, cast a blue, rainbow-shaped shadow on the white wall of the Qian residence. This went on for nearly half an hour.
But neither listened. Ah Q advanced three steps, and Young D retreated three steps, both standing still. Young D advanced three steps, and Ah Q retreated three steps, again standing still. After about half an hour - there were few striking clocks in Weizhuang, so it was hard to say, perhaps twenty minutes - smoke seemed to rise from their hair and sweat from their foreheads. Ah Q relaxed his grip, and at the same instant Young D also relaxed his grip. They straightened up simultaneously, retreated simultaneously, and pushed their way out of the crowd.
This "battle of dragon and tiger" seemed to have no winner or loser, and it was unknown whether the spectators were satisfied. None of them made any comment, but Ah Q still had no one calling him for odd jobs.
One day it was very mild, with a gentle breeze that felt almost like summer, but Ah Q felt cold. He could endure that, but the first thing was his hunger. His cotton quilt, felt cap, and cotton shirt had long since been sold. Then he had sold his cotton-padded jacket. Now he still had his trousers, but he absolutely could not take them off. He had a tattered lined jacket, but apart from giving it to someone to make shoe soles, he was sure it would fetch no money. He had thought of picking up a coin on the road, but had not seen any so far. He thought of suddenly finding a coin in his ramshackle hut, and looked around frantically, but the hut was empty and bare. So he decided to go out in search of food.
As he walked along "in search of food," he saw familiar taverns and familiar steamed buns, but he passed them all without stopping, and indeed without even wanting them. What he sought was no longer these things. What he sought, he himself did not know.
Weizhuang was not a large town, and he soon walked through it. Beyond the village were mostly paddy fields, filled with the tender green of new seedlings, dotted with a few round moving black spots - the farmers plowing. Ah Q did not appreciate this pastoral happiness; he just kept walking, because he intuitively knew that it had little to do with his "search for food." But finally he arrived outside the wall of Convent of the Shrouded Lady.
Around the convent were also paddy fields, its whitewashed wall protruding from the fresh green. Behind it was a vegetable garden enclosed by a low earthen wall. Ah Q hesitated for a moment, looked around, and saw no one. He then climbed onto the low wall, grabbing hold of the fleece-flower vines. But the soil kept crumbling down, and his feet trembled. Finally, he grabbed a mulberry branch and jumped inside. Inside was lush and verdant, but it seemed there was no yellow wine or steamed buns, nor anything else edible. By the western wall was a bamboo grove with many bamboo shoots below, but unfortunately they were all uncooked. Besides, the rapeseed had already gone to seed, the leaf mustard was about to flower, and the Chinese cabbage was quite old.
Ah Q felt as aggrieved as a scholar who had failed the examinations. He walked slowly toward the garden gate when suddenly he was overjoyed: there was clearly a bed of old turnips. So he crouched down to pull one up. But at the gate a very round head suddenly appeared and then immediately withdrew. It was clearly The Little Nun. Ah Q had always regarded people like The Little Nun as beneath his notice, but in worldly affairs "one must step back and think," so he quickly pulled up four turnips, twisted off the green leaves, and tucked them into the front of his jacket. But then The Old Nun had already come out.
Ah Q did not finish his sentence; he turned and ran. A large black dog came chasing after him. This dog had originally been at the front gate but had somehow come to the back garden. The black dog growled and chased, already about to bite Ah Q's leg. Fortunately, a turnip fell from the front of his jacket, startling the dog into a brief pause. By then Ah Q had already climbed the mulberry tree, crossed onto the earthen wall, and rolled over the wall with the turnips. All that remained was the black dog barking at the mulberry tree and The Old Nun chanting her sutras.
Ah Q was afraid the nun would release the black dog again, so he picked up the turnips and walked away. Along the way he also picked up a few small stones, but the black dog did not reappear. So Ah Q threw away the stones, eating as he walked, and thought, "There's nothing to be found here either. I might as well go to town..."