Biography of a Girl Surnamed Chao
P’i Jih-hsiu (c. 833–c. 883)
She was a young girl with the surname Chao who was from Salt Hill in Shan-yang commandery.1 Her father was a salt merchant who stole some government salt for personal profit and failed to pay the statutory taxes on it.2 He was arrested by officials and, according to the law, was to be put to death. He had already confessed and the execution date was imminent. His daughter, whom we will call the Chao girl, sought an audience with the commissioner for the salt and iron monopoly and told her tearful tale before the court.
“When I was seven, my mother died. Thanks to my father’s salt-running, he was able to make enough money to provide me with food and clothing. Father’s kindness in keeping me alive is truly immeasurable. Now that his crime has been exposed, I should be adjudged together with him. If the law cannot permit that, would your honor please forgive him? Please allow me to be adjudged together with him.” The judge, Ts’ui Chü of Ch’ing-ho district, swayed by her righteousness, declared, “It is only fitting that I reduce the sentence.”
The Chao girl burst into tears and said, “My life was previously preserved by my father. Now, sir, it has been saved by you. I swear that I shall shave my hair and become a Buddhist in order to repay your virtue.” Concerned that others might not believe the words of a girl, she took out a stiletto that she carried in her bosom and forthwith cut off her ear to demonstrate that she would certainly keep her oath. Ts’ui Chüs was all the more impressed by her and, in the end, preserved her father’s life intact. After nursing her father back to health from the punishment he had received when he was arrested, the Chao girl bid him adieu and entered a Buddhist nunnery.
P’i Jih-hsiu comments: “In times of danger or disaster, many were the ancients who would make a show of their trustworthiness, but after their family or nation had been preserved whole, they would go back on their oath. Yet the Chao girl, who was still wet behind the ears, declared herself willing to die together with her father to plead for his life—such was her filial devotion. And she mutilated herself to seal her oath—such was her trustworthiness. Having a firm grasp both of filial devotion and trustworthiness, she strode loftily above the world. Not even fabled gems are adequate to describe her spotless purity; not even redolent orchids are adequate to describe her luxuriant fragrance. She was far superior to those ancients who rescued their families or countries from disaster and danger, but then went back on their oaths.
“The gentleman of today, when faced with adversity, does not maintain his high moral principles and, when enjoying security, does not fulfill his pledge of trustworthiness. Let him take the Chao girl as his model! May those in the future who compile women’s history not forget the Chao girl!”
Translated by Victor H. Mair
For information on the author, see selection 52.
1. In modern-day Kiangsu province.
2. The T’ang government strove to exercise total monopoly on the production and sale of salt. Naturally, this was achieved only through ruthless control over the sources of salt and those who actually extracted the salt from the land.