The Three Evils

Long ago there lived a young man named Dschou Tschu. He was stronger than any ordinary man, and no one could stand up to him. He was also wild and lawless, and wherever he went, quarrels and fights broke out, yet the village elders never dared to punish him properly. He wore a tall hat decorated with two pheasant wings and clothes of embroidered silk, and at his side hung the sword called Dragonspring. He loved gambling and drinking, and his hand had a way of reaching for things that belonged to other people. Anyone who crossed him had reason to fear what would follow, and he was forever pushing into other people’s disputes. He went on like this for years and was the plague of the whole neighborhood.

Then a new mandarin came to the district. When he arrived, he first went quietly around the countryside listening to the people’s complaints, and they told him that there were three great evils in their district.

So the mandarin dressed himself in coarse clothes and stood weeping in front of Dschou Tschu’s door. Dschou Tschu was just coming home from the tavern, where he had been drinking, slapping his sword and singing at the top of his voice. When he reached his house, he asked, “Who is crying so pitifully here?”

“I am weeping over the people’s suffering,” the mandarin replied.

Dschou Tschu looked at him and burst out laughing. “You are wrong, my friend,” he said. “All around us rebellion is bubbling like water boiling in a pot, but here in our little corner of the country everything is calm and peaceful. The harvest was good, there is plenty of grain, and everyone goes cheerfully about his work. When you talk to me of suffering, you remind me of a man who groans without being sick. And who are you, anyway, grieving for others instead of yourself? What are you doing at my door?”

“I am the new mandarin,” the other answered. “Since I stepped out of my litter, I have been looking around the district. I find the people honest and simple in their ways, and everyone has enough to wear and eat, just as you say. And yet, oddly enough, whenever the elders gather, they sigh and complain, and when they are asked why, they say, ‘There are three great evils in our district.’ I have come to ask you to get rid of two of them. As for the third, perhaps I had better say nothing. That is why I am weeping at your door.”

“Well, what are these evils?” said Dschou Tschu. “Speak freely and tell me plainly everything you know.”

“The first evil,” said the mandarin, “is the wicked dragon at the long bridge, who makes the water rise so that people and animals drown in the river. The second is the white-browed tiger that lives in the hills. And the third evil, Dschou Tschu, is you.”

Dschou Tschu’s face burned red with shame. He bowed and said, “You have come from far away to govern this district, and yet you feel so much for its people. I was born here, and all I have done is make our elders grieve. What kind of creature must I be? Please go home. I will see to it that things get better.”

Then he ran without stopping into the hills and hunted the tiger out of its den. The tiger leaped up so that the whole forest shook as if in a storm, then came charging and roaring at him, its claws stretched out to seize him. Dschou Tschu stepped back one pace, and the tiger landed right in front of him. With his left hand he pinned the tiger’s neck to the ground, and with his right he struck it again and again until it lay dead. He slung the tiger over his back and carried it home.

Next he went to the long bridge. He took off his clothes, gripped his sword and dived into the water. The moment he vanished, the river began to boil and hiss, and the waves foamed and heaved with a sound like thousands of hoofs pounding wildly. After a while a stream of blood spurted up from the depths and the river turned red. Then Dschou Tschu came up out of the waves holding the dragon in his hand.

He went to the mandarin, bowed and reported, “I have cut off the dragon’s head and finished off the tiger as well. So I have carried out your command. Now I will go far away, so that you are rid of the third evil too. My lord, take care of my homeland, and tell the elders they need not grieve any longer.”

With that he joined the army as a soldier. Fighting against bandits, he won great fame. Once, when the bandits had him hard pressed and he saw that there was no escape, he bowed toward the east and said, “At last the day has come when I can pay for my wrongs with my life.” Then he offered his neck to the sword and died.

About this story

“The Three Evils” is chapter LXI of Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921), among his “Historic Legends.” Wilhelm’s brief note calls it a legendary tale rather than a folk story, “with a fine moral.”

The new mandarin’s clever approach drives the story: instead of arresting the district bully, he directly tells Dschou Tschu that he is the third evil, and the young man’s strength is turned against the dragon and the tiger.

Read the original: The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: older readers. Includes bloody fights and a man accepting death as repayment for past wrongdoing. Repair and changed behavior do not require a person to die.

Reading the story closely

Dschou Tschu believes the district is peaceful because its harvest is good and nobody successfully confronts him. The mandarin has listened to people who are afraid to challenge the strong man. Naming him beside the monsters changes whose experience defines ‘peace.’ His subsequent choice to stop harming neighbors is meaningful before the final battle ever occurs.

Write two descriptions of the village, one from Dschou Tschu’s opening speech and one from the elders’ complaints. Identify what each leaves out. Then list ways a powerful person could repair harm while remaining alive and accountable; the fatal ending is the legend’s honor code, not the only possible completion of reform.

Talk about it

• Why does the mandarin weep at Dschou Tschu’s door instead of simply punishing him?
• How does Dschou Tschu feel when he learns he is the third evil? What does he decide to do?
• Do you think Dschou Tschu had truly changed by the end of the story? Why?

Related stories

• The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge — the historic legend just before this one
• How Three Heroes Came by Their Deaths Because of Two Peaches — the next legend, about proud warriors and a clever minister
• Yang Oerlang — a mighty hero who battles monsters