What does housebreaking mean? What story did Pu Songling tell about stealing a house?

Speaking of the novel collection "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" written by Pu Songling, most friends may remember it as a book about ghost stories. In fact, "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" is not a simple novel about gods and ghosts. Pu Songling's starting point for writing was to expose the darkness of feudal rule and the decay of the imperial examination system. Most of the stories in "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" are about love. In fact, they are meant to tell the world that they should bravely pursue love instead of being bound by feudal ethics. This time I will tell you about one of the stories called "House Robbery". What does "House Robbery" mean? Let's read on.

"Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" by Mr. Pu Songling is a collection of ancient short stories. In this immortal work, many bizarre stories are told. Although most of these short stories involve ghosts and foxes, Fairy, but upon closer inspection, isn’t it the author’s satire of the times and admonishment to the world?

Today, let’s take a look at three seemingly absurd stories. These three It's a short story that makes people laugh when they first read it, but only after reading it again can they appreciate the author's spicy writing.

The eighth volume of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" records a story of "House Robbery", which is divided into two short stories. The first story is about the Shunzhi period in Tengxian and Yixian areas of Shandong Province. Seven or eight out of ten households were thieves, and the government did not dare to arrest them. Later, they were appeased by the court, but in order to distinguish themselves from ordinary people, Common people, local officials call them "house robbers". Whenever these house robbers have any disputes with ordinary people, the government will often favor these house robbers for fear that they will rebel again. Those who later file lawsuits often use the name of house robbers. The other party often points out that they are all fake. In this way, every time they go to court, it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and there are many twists and turns, and they have to check their household registration.

At that time, many officials had foxes in their homes. There was a daughter of a county magistrate who was fascinated by foxes. The county magistrate invited a Taoist priest to come to his house to catch the fox. The Taoist priest was very powerful in his magic. He could catch the fox with a talisman and put it in the bottle. When he was about to throw the fox into the fire, he heard the fox shouting in the bottle: "I am Robbery!"

The fox incarnates as a human, which is a ridiculous story. In the short story "House Robbery", even the fox fairy with some magical powers has to pretend to be a robber to request The county magistrate is showing partiality. This shows how unfair the officials at that time were. How unfair is this to ordinary people?

There is a similar short story in "House Robbery". The corvee for transporting grain in Zhangqiu, as well as the amount of fire money collected, are often several times higher for ordinary people than for wealthy gentry families or scholars. , the common people were forced to have no choice but to transfer their own fields to the homes of wealthy gentry families or scholars.

Later, a county magistrate named Zhong discovered this problem and wrote a letter requesting to get rid of this drawback, and got permission from his superiors. At first, the county magistrate asked everyone to consciously restore the fields affiliated to the wealthy gentry families. Later, some rogue and unscrupulous people used this to blackmail the scholars. They claimed that the land sold to the scholars decades ago was later affiliated and came to the county magistrate to file a complaint. The county officials also protected these scoundrels and ordered the gentry or scholars to return the land to these scoundrels.

A scholar named Li was also sued by a scoundrel, and the two went to the county government together to file a lawsuit. This scoundrel called the man named Li "a scholar". The man named Li argued sternly, saying that he was not a scholar, and made a lot of noise. The county magistrate had no choice but to ask his subordinates. Everyone said that the man named Li was a real scholar. The county magistrate asked: "Since you are a real scholar, why don't you admit it?" The man surnamed Li said: "The scholar will be put aside in a high cabinet first. After the land is fought, it will not be too late to become a scholar again!"

Someone said based on this Regarding this matter, I compiled an anonymous complaint: "The plaintiff is Yuan Rang, and the complaint is about having his land appropriated by others. Because I am too old to work as an official, I gave fifty acres of land to the evil company in the first year of Lu Yin's reign. Under the name of scholar Yan Hui.

Now the law is strict and I should surrender, but this evil man Yan Hui refused to return it to me for a long time and took it for himself. I went to reason with him, but his teacher Confucius led seventy-two villains and beat him with sticks. He injured my legs, locked me in a shady alley, and only gave me food and drink every day. I was starving to death, and I begged you to punish me severely and give me my land back!"

For Pu Songling only commented on such a ridiculous thing: "This matter is about stealing Tuo Tuo and suing Boyi Shuqi!"

The two stories in "House Robbery" are all about the same thing. The county magistrate has no principles, no bottom line, and does not care about favoring the other side. Having such a magistrate makes such a joke, but it shows the dire life of the local people.

The third short story is recorded in the ninth volume of "Guo An": There was a man named Guo An who saw a servant's bed empty and fell asleep on the servant's bed. A man named Li Lu had a grudge with this servant and had long wanted to kill him. That night he came with a knife and killed Guo An. His father went to complain, and the county magistrate said. : "I only have one son for half my life. You killed my son, and now I punish you by becoming my son." "Guo An's father could only retreat with resentment.

There was also a murderer. The wife of the murdered person went to complain. The county magistrate was very angry. After catching the murderer, he slapped the case and cursed: "People A good couple, if you make her a widow now, I will match you with her and make your wife a widow!"

This story is also extremely ridiculous. At first reading, it makes people think that the county magistrate is confused and ridiculous. , after reading it again, it makes people laugh. With such local officials, how can ordinary people live their lives?