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The tiger of Chao-Cheng
At Chao-cheng there lived an old woman more than seventy
years of age, who had an only son. One day he went up to the
hills and was eaten by a tiger, at which his mother was so overwhelmed with grief that she hardly wished to live.
With tears and lamentations she ran and told her story to the
magistrate of the place, who laughed and asked her how she
thought the law could be brought to bear on a tiger. But the old
woman would not be comforted, and at length the magistrate lost
his temper and bade her begone. Of this, however, she took no
notice; and then the magistrate, in compassion for her great age
and unwilling to resort to extremities, promised her that he would
have the tiger arrested. Even then she would not go until the
warrant had been actually issued; so the magistrate, at a loss what
to do, asked his attendants which of them would undertake the
job. Upon this one of them, Li Neng, who happened to be gloriously drunk, stepped forward and said that he would; where-
upon the warrant was immediately issued and the old woman
went away.
When our friend, Li Neng, got sober, he was sorry for what he
had done; but reflecting that the whole thing was a mere trick of
his master's to get rid of the old woman's importunities, did not
trouble himself much about it, handing in the warrant as if the
arrest had been made. "Not so," cried the magistrate, "you said you could do this, and now I shall not let you off." Li Neng
was at his wits' end, and begged that he might be allowed to
impress the hunters of the district. This was conceded; so
collecting together these men, he proceeded to spend day and night among the
hills in the hope of catching a tiger, and thus making a show of
having fulfilled his duty.
A month passed away, during which he received several hundred blows with the bamboo, and at length, in despair, he betook
himself to the Cheng-huang temple in the eastern suburb, where,
falling on his knees, he prayed and wept by turns. By-and-by a
tiger walked in, and Li Neng, in a great fright, thought he was
going to be eaten alive. But the tiger took no notice of anything,
remaining seated in the doorway. Li Neng then addressed the
animal as follows: "O tiger, if thou didst slay that old woman's
son, suffer me to bind thee with this cord;" and, drawing a rope
from his pocket, threw it over the animal's neck. The tiger
drooped its ears, and, allowing itself to be bound, followed Li Neng to the magistrate's office. The latter than asked it, "Did
you eat the old woman's son?" to which the tiger replied by
nodding his head; whereupon the magistrate rejoined, "That
murderers should suffer death has ever been the law. Besides, this
old woman had but one son, and by killing him you took from
her the sole support of her declining years. But if now you will be
as a son to her, your crime shall be pardoned." The tiger again
nodded assent, and accordingly the magistrate gave orders that
he should be released, at which the old woman was highly
incensed, thinking that the tiger ought to have paid with its life
for the destruction of her son.
Next morning, however, when she opened the door of her
cottage, there lay a dead deer before it; and the old woman, by
selling the flesh and skin, was able to purchase food. From that
day this became a common event, and sometimes the tiger would
even bring her money and valuables, so that she became quite
rich, and was much better cared for than she had been even by
her own son. Consequently, she became very well-disposed to the
tiger, which often came and slept in the verandah, remaining for
a whole day at a time, and giving no cause of fear either to man
or beast. In a few years the old woman died, upon which the tiger
walked in and roared its lamentations in the hall. However, with
all the money she had saved, she was able to have a splendid
funeral; and while her relatives were standing round the grave,
out rushed a tiger, and sent them all running away in fear. But
the tiger merely went up to the mound, and, after roaring like a
thunder-peal, disappeared again. Then the people of that place
built a shrine in honor of the Faithful Tiger, and it remains there
to this day.
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