The Theme of "Water Chestnut" in Pu Songling's Liaozhai

There was a man named Hu Dacheng, whose mother believed in Buddhism and devoted herself to goodness. One day, he saw a beautiful girl named water chestnut in Kannonji where he was going to school. As soon as the girl was interested, she went to her relatives, and the girl's family reluctantly agreed.

Later, Hu Dacheng went to attend his uncle's funeral, but because of the rebellion, he stayed outside for several months and could not go home. On the way, he met an old woman who betrayed herself but wanted to be a mother when she was not a slave. Many people thought it was a joke, but Hu Dacheng saw that she looked a bit like her mother, so he took her over and waited on her like a mother.

One day, the old lady said, I will marry you even if I wander outside. Hu Da Cheng said, I have had a marriage in my hometown. The old lady said, now the world is in chaos, who is waiting for you? But Hu Dacheng insisted. The old lady still prepared a new house and married a woman one night. The woman cried in the tent that she had a husband named Hu Dacheng, who turned out to be a water chestnut. Only then did I know that water chestnut and her family also went to Changsha, and her parents forced her to marry a surnamed Zhou. Water chestnut escaped halfway, but was carried here again. The two were reunited, and the old lady said that your mother would come soon and then left. Hu Dacheng suspected that the old lady was a fairy.

Hu Dacheng's mother also fled because of the war. One day, a boy appeared and put her in front of a big house. When she knocked at the door, it was Hu Dacheng's home. They think the old lady is the embodiment of Guanyin tuas.