Old Dschang

Near Yangdschou there once lived a gardener known as Old Dschang. His neighbor, Sir We, held an official post in the city, and when Sir We decided it was time for his daughter to marry, he hired a matchmaker to find her a husband.

Old Dschang heard about it and was delighted. He cooked a meal, entertained the matchmaker, and asked her to put his name forward. She stalked off grumbling. The next day he fed her again and gave her money. “You don’t know what you’re asking,” she said. “Why would a gentleman’s lovely daughter stoop to marry a poor old gardener? Even if you had money to burn, your white hair wouldn’t match her black hair. It’s impossible.” But he kept begging: “Just mention me once. If they refuse, I will accept it.” Since she had taken his money, she could not say no, and though she expected a scolding, she raised the idea with Sir We.

Sir We was so angry he nearly threw her out. “I knew you wouldn’t thank me,” she said, “but the old man pressed me so hard I had to ask.” To make fun of the old fool, Sir We replied, “Tell him that if he brings me two pieces of white jade and four hundred ounces of gold this very day, he can have my daughter.” He was sure the gardener could never do it.

The matchmaker passed on the message. Old Dschang did not argue. He went straight to Sir We’s house with exactly that much gold and jade. Sir We was horrified, and his wife wept and wailed. But their daughter comforted her mother. “Father gave his word and cannot take it back. I will bear whatever comes.” So she married Old Dschang.

Even after the wedding, Old Dschang went on as a gardener, digging his plot and selling vegetables, and his wife carried water and lit the kitchen fire herself. She did the work without embarrassment, though her relatives scolded her for it. One day a high-born relative said to Sir We, “If you were really so poor, weren’t there enough young gentlemen around for your daughter? Why marry her to a wrinkled old gardener? Now that you’ve thrown her away, it would be better if the pair of them moved off somewhere else.”

So Sir We gave a banquet for his daughter and son-in-law and, when they had eaten and drunk, let them understand what he was thinking. “I only stayed nearby because I thought you would miss your daughter,” said Old Dschang. “But since you are tired of us, I am glad to leave. I have a small country house back in the hills. We will set out early tomorrow.”

At dawn they came to say goodbye. “If we want to see you someday,” said Sir We, “my son can come and look for you.” Old Dschang put his wife on a donkey with a straw hat on her head, took up his staff, and walked behind.

Several years passed with no news. Sir We and his wife began to long for their daughter, and they sent their son to find her. Back in the hills he came across a young farmhand plowing with two yellow oxen and asked where Old Dschang’s house was. The boy left the plow, bowed, and said, “You have been a long time coming, sir. The village is near; I’ll take you.”

They crossed a hill, forded a stream at its foot, and climbed another hill, and the countryside slowly changed. From the top they looked down into a valley, flat in the middle and ringed by steep cliffs, where houses and towers peeped out from green trees. That was Old Dschang’s country house. A deep stream of clear blue water ran in front of it. Crossing a stone bridge, they reached the gate, where flowers and trees grew thick and peacocks and cranes strolled about. Flutes and strings sounded in the distance, their pure notes rising to the clouds.

A messenger in purple welcomed the visitor and led him into a magnificent hall full of strange perfumes and the tinkle of little pearl bells. Two maidservants came out to greet him, then two long lines of beautiful girls, and after them a man in a flowing turban, scarlet silk robe, and red slippers who seemed to float along. He was grave and dignified, yet looked young and fresh. Sir We’s son did not know him at first—until he looked closely and saw that it was Old Dschang.

“I am glad the long road did not keep you away,” said Old Dschang with a smile. “Your sister is combing her hair; she will see you soon.” He gave his guest tea. After a while a maid led the young man to his sister’s rooms. The beams were sandalwood, the doors tortoiseshell, the windows inlaid with blue jade, the curtains strings of pearls, and the steps green jade. His sister was splendidly dressed and lovelier than ever. She asked casually how he was and what their parents were doing, but she was not especially warm.

After a grand meal, Old Dschang said, “Your sister wants to visit the Mountain of the Fairies. We will be back around sunset; rest until then.” Clouds of many colors rose in the courtyard and sweet music filled the air. Old Dschang mounted a dragon, his wife and her maid rode phoenixes, and the servants rode cranes. Up they went and vanished toward the east. They did not return until after sunset. Then Old Dschang and his wife told the young man, “This is a home of the blessed. You cannot stay long. Tomorrow we will send you back.”

When he left the next day, Old Dschang gave him eighty ounces of gold and an old straw hat. “If you ever need money, go to Yangdschou and ask in the northern suburb for old Wang’s medicine shop. You can collect ten million copper coins there. This hat is your order for the money.” The plow-boy took him home. Some people who heard his story thought Old Dschang must be a holy man; others said the whole thing was a magic vision.

Five or six years later Sir We’s money ran out, so his son took the straw hat to Yangdschou and asked for old Wang, who happened to be in his shop mixing herbs. “The money is ready,” said Wang, “but is the hat real?” As he examined it, a young girl came out of a back room. “I wove that hat for Old Dschang myself,” she said. “There should be a red thread in it.” And there was. Old Wang paid out the ten million coins, and now young We believed that Old Dschang was truly a saint.

He went back over the hills to find him, but none of the forest keepers could tell him anything. Sadly he decided to ask old Wang, but Wang had vanished too.

Years later he was in Yangdschou again, walking in the meadow outside the city gate, when he met Old Dschang’s plow-boy. “How are you? How are you?” cried the boy, and he handed him ten pounds of gold. “My mistress told me to give you this. My master is drinking tea with old Wang at the inn right now.” Young We followed him, meaning to greet his brother-in-law—but at the inn there was no one. When he turned around, the plow-boy was gone as well. After that, nobody heard of Old Dschang anywhere.

Where this tale comes from

“Old Dschang” is told among the tales of saints and magicians in Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, in the English of Frederick H. Martens (Stokes, 1921). Like several stories in that section, it shows a humble-looking man who turns out to be one of the immortals.

Wilhelm’s note explains the matchmaker’s role as an intermediary between families in this telling. It is a historical source’s account, not a rule for every Chinese marriage or for other societies. The intermediary conveys proposals, but the daughter is still expected to accept a bargain her father made.

Read the original: The Chinese Fairy Book in Martens’s 1921 English (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 9–12 with discussion. Includes an unequal marriage bargain, pressure on a daughter to honor her father’s word and relatives shaming manual work. The magical revelations do not make that pressure a model for choosing a spouse.

Reading the story closely

Sir We mistakes an apparently impossible price for a harmless refusal, leaving his daughter to bear the result when the price is paid. Later, the relatives object to gardening and household work as losses of status. The revelation of wealth overturns their estimate of Dschang’s resources, but does not prove that ordinary gardeners deserve less respect.

Follow the straw hat from an ordinary parting gift to an order for money. Its red thread lets the maker identify her work; young We then takes the payment as confirmation of sainthood. Distinguish those two steps. Also compare the sister’s cool greeting with her later gift of gold: distance and continuing care coexist rather than forming a simple happy reunion.

Talk about it

• Why does Sir We ask for jade and gold, and why is he frightened when he gets them?
• What clues tell the brother that Old Dschang’s house is no ordinary place?
• What does the red thread confirm for the people in the shop, and what larger conclusion does young We draw from it?

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• The Miserly Farmer — a ragged stranger with hidden powers
• The Eight Immortals (I) — more immortals who walk among ordinary people
• The Two Scholars — a hidden valley where mortals meet the blessed