Mirror Divination

The Zheng brothers of Yidu were both men of letters. The elder Zheng made his name early, and his parents doted on him, and because of him on his wife as well. The younger Zheng was down on his luck and found little favour with his parents, so they took a dislike to his wife too, to the point of denying her even common courtesy. The warmth on one side and the chill on the other were plain to see, and there was no little ill feeling. The younger wife would often say to her husband, "You're a man just like him — why can't you win some respect for your wife and children?" And she shut him out and would not share his bed. Stung and roused, the younger Zheng threw his whole heart and mind into his studies, and he too made his name. His parents began to treat him a little better, but never as well as his brother. The younger wife longed desperately for her husband to succeed. That year was the year of the provincial examination, and on New Year's Eve she secretly went out to divine by mirror-listening. Two men who had just got up were shoving each other in play, and one said, "You go and cool off too!" She came home unable to tell whether the omen was good or bad, and put it out of her mind. After the examination both brothers came home. The summer heat was still fierce, and the two wives were in the kitchen cooking food to take to the farmhands, suffering badly from the heat. Suddenly a herald on horseback came to the gate to announce that the elder Zheng had passed. Their mother-in-law came into the kitchen and called to the elder wife, "Our eldest has passed! You can go and cool off." The younger wife, angry and hurt, wept as she cooked. A moment later another herald arrived announcing that the younger Zheng had passed. The younger wife flung down her rolling pin with all her strength and stood up: "I'm going to cool off too!" In that moment the words burst out of her on a surge of feeling, without her thinking; only afterwards, when she reflected, did she realise that the mirror divination had come true.

The chronicler comments: "When a man is poor, even his parents will not treat him as a son — and not without reason! The family home is certainly no place for outbursts of indignation; yet the way the younger Zheng's wife spurred her husband on is in a different class altogether from the grumbling of the resentful and shiftless. Flinging down the rolling pin and standing up — that was truly one of the most satisfying moments of all time!"