Explore Chapter 4 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.
Some say that certain victors prefer their enemies to be tigers or eagles, for only then can they savor the joy of triumph. But if their foes are like sheep or chicks, they find victory insipid. Other victors, having overcome all, see the dead dead and the vanquished vanquished, and hear them cry, "Your servant in trembling awe deserves death ten thousand times." With no enemies, no opponents, no friends left, and only themselves above, alone, solitary, desolate, lonely, they feel the sorrow of victory instead. Yet our Ah Q was not so feeble; he was forever complacent. This may well be evidence that Chinese spiritual civilization surpasses all the world.
Yet this victory felt somewhat different. He floated on air for most of the day, drifting into Tutelary God's Temple, where according to habit he should have lain down and snored. But that night, he found it hard to close his eyes. He felt something odd about his thumb and index finger-they seemed smoother than usual. Had some sticky substance from The Little Nun's face stuck to his fingers, or had his fingers become slippery from rubbing against her face?
These words rang again in Ah Q's ears. He thought: It is true-a man should have a woman. If he dies sonless, no one will offer him a bowl of rice… He should have a woman. Now "There are three unfilial acts, of which having no posterity is the greatest," and "suffer the fate of Ruo'ao's ghost" is also a great sorrow in life. So his thoughts were indeed in perfect accord with the canonical teachings. It was only a pity that later he could not "keep his heart from straying."
We cannot know at what hour Ah Q finally snored that night. But from then on, he always felt his fingers somewhat slippery, and thus he remained perpetually buoyant. "Wo…" he thought.
Chinese men, for the most part, could have become sages, but they were ruined by women. The Shang dynasty was overthrown by Daji; the Zhou dynasty was wrecked by Baosi; the Qin dynasty, though history does not clearly state the reason, we may assume was also undone by a woman, and we should not be far wrong. As for Dong Zhuo, he was indeed killed by Diaochan.
Ah Q was originally a righteous man. Though we do not know what enlightened master had instructed him, he had always been scrupulous about "strict segregation between sexes." He also possessed the righteous spirit to reject heresies-such as The Little Nun and The Fake Foreign Devil. His doctrine: any nun must be carrying on with a monk; any woman walking outside must be trying to seduce a strange man; any man and woman talking together must be plotting something illicit. To punish them, he often glared furiously, or shouted a few words to "condemn the heart," or, if in a secluded spot, threw a small stone from behind.
Little did he expect that when he was approaching the age of "standing firm," he would be rendered buoyant by The Little Nun. This buoyant state of mind, according to ritual decorum, should not exist. So women truly are loathsome. If The Little Nun's face had not been slippery, Ah Q would not have been bewitched. And if a cloth had covered The Little Nun's face, Ah Q would not have been bewitched either-five or six years ago, he had pinched a woman's thigh in a crowd under a stage, but because a layer of trousers intervened, he had not felt this buoyancy afterward. But with The Little Nun it was different. This too shows the abominability of heresies.
He often watched carefully for women he believed were "trying to seduce strange men," but they never smiled at him. He also listened carefully to women he spoke with, but they never mentioned anything about illicit affairs. Oh, this too was a detestable thing about women: they all pretended to be "proper and strait-laced."
That day, after hulling rice all day at Zhao Taiye's house, Ah Q had supper and sat in the kitchen smoking a pipe. At any other house, he would have gone home after supper, but the Zhao family had supper early. Although it was a fixed rule that no lamps were allowed and one had to sleep right after eating, there were occasional exceptions: one was when Zhao Taiye had not yet become a licentiate and was allowed to light a lamp to read essays; another was when Ah Q came as a day laborer and was allowed to light a lamp to hull rice. Because of this exception, Ah Q was still sitting in the kitchen smoking his pipe before starting work.
Amah Wu, the only maidservant in the Zhao household, having washed the dishes, also sat down on a bench and started chatting with Ah Q: "The mistress hasn't eaten for two days, because the master wants to buy a concubine…" "Woman… Amah Wu… this little widow…" thought Ah Q. "Our young mistress will give birth in the eighth month…" "Woman…" thought Ah Q. He put down his pipe and stood up. "Our young mistress…" Amah Wu kept rambling. "I want to sleep with you! I want to sleep with you!" Ah Q suddenly rushed forward and knelt down before her.
Ah Q, still kneeling facing the wall, also stood dumbfounded. Then, supporting himself with both hands on the empty bench, he slowly stood up, feeling that something had gone wrong. He was indeed flustered now. Hastily sticking his pipe into his belt, he was about to go hull rice. Wham! A heavy blow landed on his head. He turned his head quickly and saw the licentiate standing before him with a large bamboo pole.
"You rebel… you…" The bamboo pole came crashing down again. Ah Q raised his arms to shield his head, and the blow landed squarely on his knuckles, which hurt quite a bit. He dashed out of the kitchen door, as if another blow had struck his back.
Ah Q ran into the hulling yard and stood alone. His fingers still hurt, and he still remembered the word "bastard," because the villagers of Weizhuang never used such language-it was reserved for the wealthy who had seen officialdom. So it was especially frightening and left a particularly deep impression. But at that moment, his thoughts of "wo…" had vanished. Moreover, after the beating and cursing, it seemed as if the matter had been closed, and he felt strangely unburdened. So he started hulling rice. After hulling for a while, he grew hot and stopped to take off his clothes.
As he took off his clothes, he heard a commotion outside. Ah Q had always loved to watch excitement, so he followed the sound outside. Following the noise, he gradually came to the inner courtyard of Zhao Taiye's house. Though it was dim, he could make out many people: the whole Zhao family, including the mistress who had not eaten for two days, as well as their neighbor Zou Qisao, and genuine clansman Zhao Baiyan and Zhao Sichen.
The young mistress was dragging Amah Wu out of the servants' quarters, saying, "Come outside… Don't hide in your room brooding…" "We all know how proper you are… You must not think of ending your life by any means," Zou Qisao chimed in from the side. Amah Wu just cried, interspersed with words that were hard to make out.
Ah Q thought: "Hmph, how interesting. What sort of mischief has this little widow gotten into?" He wanted to find out, so he moved closer to Zhao Sichen. Then suddenly he saw Zhao Taiye charging toward him, a large bamboo pole in his hand. Seeing that bamboo pole, he suddenly realized that his earlier beating was somehow related to this commotion. He turned and fled, trying to escape back to the hulling yard, but the bamboo pole blocked his way. So he turned again and fled, and naturally ran out through the back gate. In no time, he was inside the Tutelary God's Temple.
Ah Q sat for a while. His skin began to prickle; he felt cold. Though it was spring, the night was still chilly, not suitable for going bare-chested. He remembered that his cotton shirt was still in the Zhao house, but the thought of fetching it filled him with dread of the licentiate's bamboo pole. Then the constable entered.
"Ah Q, you son of a bitch! You even try to molest the Zhao family's servant. That's outright rebellion. You've made me lose sleep all night. Son of a bitch!…"
After being thus lectured, Ah Q naturally had nothing to say. Finally, because it was night, a double tip of four hundred cash was due to the constable. Ah Q had no ready money, so he pawned a felt cap as security and agreed to five conditions: First, tomorrow he must take a pair of red candle-each weighing half a catty-and a packet of incense to the Zhao residence to apologize. Second, the Zhao family would hire a Taoist priest to exorcise the ghost of a hanged person, with expenses borne by Ah Q. Third, from now on Ah Q was forbidden to cross the threshold of the Zhao house. Fourth, if anything untoward happened to Amah Wu, Ah Q would be held responsible. Fifth, Ah Q was not to demand any wages or his cotton shirt.
Ah Q naturally agreed to all, but unfortunately he had no money. Luckily it was already spring, so he could do without his cotton quilt. He pawned it for two thousand cash and fulfilled the terms. After kowtowing with a bare back, he still had a few coins left. He did not redeem his felt cap, but spent it all on drink. The Zhao family, however, did not burn the incense or light the candles, because the mistress could use them when worshipping Buddha; they kept them. Most of the torn cotton shirt was made into diapers for the baby born to the young mistress in the eighth month; the smaller, ragged pieces were used as soles for Amah Wu's shoes.