Explore Chapter 9 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.
After the Zhao family was looted, the people of Weizhuang were for the most part both pleased and panicked, and Ah Q was both pleased and panicked as well. But four days later, Ah Q was suddenly seized in the middle of the night and taken to the county town. It was a dark night; a squad of soldiers, a squad of militiamen, a squad of policemen, and five detectives quietly arrived at Weizhuang, surrounded the Tutelary God's Temple in the darkness, set up a machine-gun directly opposite the gate. Yet Ah Q did not rush out. After a long time with no activity, the local captain grew anxious. He offered a reward of twenty thousand cash before two militiamen took the risk of climbing over the wall, and with cooperation from within, they all rushed in and dragged Ah Q out. It was not until he was carried out near the machine-gun in front of the temple that he began to regain some awareness.
By the time they reached the city, it was already noon. Ah Q saw himself being led into a dilapidated government building, twisted through five or six turns, and then pushed into a small room. He had just stumbled when the gate made of whole tree trunks closed behind his heels. The other three sides were walls. When he looked carefully, two other people were in the corner of the room.
Although Ah Q was somewhat uneasy, he was not very distressed, because his sleeping quarters in the Tutelary God's Temple were not any better than this room. The other two seemed to be country folk as well, and gradually they began to converse with him. One said that the provincial graduate wanted to collect old rents his grandfather had owed; the other did not know what he was there for. They asked Ah Q, and Ah Q replied straightforwardly, “Because I want to rebel.”
Later that afternoon, he was dragged out of the gate again and brought to the main hall. At the head sat an old man with a completely shaved head. Ah Q suspected he was a monk, but when he saw a row of soldiers below, and on both sides a dozen men in long gowns-some with shaved heads like the old man, some with hair over a foot long hanging down their backs like that of The Fake Foreign Devil, all with fierce faces staring angrily at him-he knew that this man must have some standing. His knee joints immediately and naturally loosened, and he knelt down.
Although Ah Q seemed to understand, he still felt he could not remain standing. Involuntarily he squatted down, and finally took the opportunity to change to kneeling.
“Confess everything now, so you don’t suffer. I already know everything. If you confess, you can be released.” The bald-headed old man fixed his gaze on Ah Q’s face and spoke calmly and clearly.
“I originally wanted to ... come ... surrender ...” Ah Q thought confusedly for a moment, then said haltingly.
“They didn’t come to get me. They moved out on their own.” Ah Q spoke indignantly when he mentioned it.
Then a man in a long gown brought a piece of paper and a brush and placed them before Ah Q, trying to put the brush in his hand. Ah Q was very startled, almost “frightened out of his wits,” because this was the first time his hand had anything to do with a brush. He did not know how to hold it; the man pointed to a place on the paper and told him to make his mark.
Ah Q was about to draw a circle, but the hand holding the brush only trembled. So the man spread the paper on the ground for him. Ah Q bent down, using all the strength of his life to draw a circle. He was afraid of being laughed at, and determined to draw it round. But the cursed brush was not only very heavy but also unmanageable. Just as it was quivering and almost closing the circle, it jerked outward, forming a melon seed shape.
Ah Q was ashamed that he had not drawn the circle round, but the man did not care; he had already taken the paper and brush away, and many people again dragged him into the gate a second time.
After he entered the gate for the second time, he was not particularly upset. He thought that in this world, a man was probably sometimes taken in and out, and sometimes had to draw a circle on paper. Only the fact that the circle was not round was a stain on his life. But he soon felt at ease, thinking: Only a grandson would draw a perfectly round circle. Then he fell asleep.
But that night, the provincial graduate could not sleep instead: he had quarreled with the local captain. The provincial graduate insisted that the first priority was to recover stolen goods, while the local captain insisted that the first priority was to stage a public display. The local captain had recently shown little regard for the provincial graduate, and he slapped the table, shouting, “Make an example of him! Look, I haven’t been a revolutionary for twenty days, and there have been over a dozen robberies without a single one solved. Where is my face? Now that we’ve solved the case, you want to be fussy! No! This is my affair!” The provincial graduate was cornered, but he still insisted, saying that if they did not recover stolen goods, he would immediately resign his post as assistant in civil affairs. But the local captain said, “Do as you please!” So the provincial graduate did not sleep that night, but luckily he did not resign the next day.
The third time Ah Q was dragged out of the gate was the morning of the day after the night when the provincial graduate could not sleep. He arrived at the main hall, where the usual bald-headed old man still sat at the head. Ah Q knelt down as usual.
Suddenly many men in long and short gowns put a white cotton vest on him with some black characters on it. Ah Q felt bitter and distressed, because it looked very much like mourning, and mourning was unlucky. But at the same time his hands were tied behind his back, and he was dragged straight out of the yamen.
Ah Q was lifted onto a cart without a cover, and several men in short clothes sat with him. The cart moved off at once. In front were a squad of soldiers and militiamen carrying foreign rifles; on both sides were many onlookers with open mouths; what was behind, Ah Q did not see. But suddenly it dawned on him: Was this not going to behead him? In panic, his eyes went black, and there was a buzzing in his ears, as if he had fainted. But he did not completely faint; at times he was anxious, at times calm. In his mind, he seemed to think that in this world, a man was probably sometimes bound to be beheaded.
He still recognized the road, so he was somewhat surprised: Why were they not heading toward the execution ground? He did not know that this was a parade through the streets, a public display. But even if he had known, it would have been the same; he only thought that in this world, a man was probably sometimes bound to parade through the streets and be publicly displayed anyway.
It dawned on him that this was the road leading to the execution ground; this must be the “swish” of beheading. He looked around dazedly; everywhere were people like ants. And inadvertently, among the crowd by the roadside, he spotted an Amah Wu. It had been a long time; she was working in the city now. Ah Q suddenly felt ashamed of his lack of spirit: he had not even sung a few lines of opera. His thoughts whirled in his mind like a cyclone: “The Little Widow Visits Her Husband’s Grave” was not grand enough; the “I regret not ...” from “The Battle of Dragon and Tiger” was too insipid. Better to sing “I’ll beat you with a steel whip in hand.” At the same time he wanted to raise his hand, but remembered that both hands were tied, so he did not sing “With steel whip in hand” either.
The cart moved on without stopping. In the midst of the cheers, Ah Q, rolling his eyes, looked at Amah Wu. It seemed that she had not noticed him at all, but was only gazing blankly at the foreign rifles on the backs of the soldiers.
In that instant, his thoughts whirled in his mind like a cyclone again. Four years before, he had met a hungry wolf at the foot of a mountain. It kept following him, never near, never far, wanting to eat his flesh. At that time he was nearly frightened to death. Fortunately, he had a woodcutter’s knife in his hand, which gave him courage to hold out until he reached Weizhuang. But he had forever remembered the eyes of that wolf: ferocious yet timid, gleaming like two will-o’-the-wisps, seeming to pierce through his skin and flesh from afar. And this time he saw even more terrible eyes that he had never seen before: dull yet sharp. They had not only chewed his words but were also about to chew something beyond his flesh and blood, following him endlessly, neither near nor far.
But Ah Q did not say it. His eyes had long gone black, and his ears buzzed. He felt his whole body burst apart like specks of dust.
As for the immediate impact, the greatest was on the provincial graduate, because in the end they had not recovered stolen goods, and his whole family wailed loudly. Next was the Zhao family. Not only had the licentiate, who went to the city to report the crime, had his queue cut off by bad revolutionaries, but they had also wasted the reward of twenty thousand cash. So the whole family also wailed loudly. From that day on, they gradually all began to smell of the old loyalist.
As for public opinion, in Weizhuang there was no dissent. Naturally everyone said Ah Q was bad, and being executed by shooting was the proof of his evil: if he were not bad, how could he have been executed by shooting? But public opinion in the city was not favorable; most people were not satisfied. They thought that being executed by shooting was not as exciting as being beheaded, and what a ridiculous condemned man he was, paraded through the streets for so long without even singing one line of opera. They had followed him for nothing.