Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part B – How the River God’s Wedding Was Broken Off

The Yellow River at Hukou Falls

(Source: Wikipedia Commons)

How the River God’s Wedding Was Broken Off

There was a man named S-Men Bau who was a governor of a district on the Yellow River, in which all of the people revered the river-god. The sages in the district said that every year, the river-god would look within the population of a district in search of a bride. If he did not find a lucky girl to marry, the winds would not sweep the plains and the rains would not fall from the sky when it was time for crops to be cultivated and there would be droughts and floods. The sages would find the wealthiest family in the district with a daughter that was old enough to be married. They would them give them the choice: either give up your daughter to marry the river-god or give the sages enough money where they would turn away and find the next candidate to be the river-god's bride. The money would then be used to pay a poor family a small amount of money for their daughter to be sunk into the river for the river-god and they would pocket the rest of the money.

When Si-Men became the governor, he had learned about this custom of the sages and so he asked the sages to come see him in his chambers. He told the sages, "Tell me when you all know the date of the river-god's wedding. I will be there and he will love knowing that I, the governor, honor his presence in my district, and he will shower us with rain and give us abundant harvests." The sages were so down for this plan, as the people of the district would celebrate the sages for their contributions to their crops.

The sages picked a day and let Si-Men know and on the day of the wedding, Si-Men showed up at the river in his jewel encrusted chariot and his gold trimmed ceremonial robes. The sages placed their designated river-bride that was adorned in jewels and in luxurious silk robes onto a couch, and sang wedding hymns. As the sages were about to direct the bride's couch to be dropped into the water, Si-Men said, "Wait! I came to this wedding just so I can escort the bride. Someone needs to go to the river-god's castle and tell him that I am here to personally hand his bride off to him." "You, with the blue robe, go fetch the river-god", Si-Men said as he pointed at one of the sage's. The sage said, "Uhhh?" and before he could say another word, Si-Men's servants took the sage and threw him into the river.

After an hour passed and the sage did not return, Si-Men said, "What the heck?! Why is blue-robe guy not back yet? Let's send someone else." and he had his servants throw another sage into the water. Neither of the sages that were thrown into the water returned and Si-Men said, "They obviously don't understand their task. You need to go get the two of them", as he pointed at an old sage. The old sage fell down to his knees, begging that Si-Men did not throw him into the river and all of the other sages there did the same. "Shame on you all for making the river-bride wait. If you EVER make another bride go through this again, I will throw all of you into the river", Si-Men said, letting the river-bride safely return home, ceasing the thousand year custom of finding a bride for the river-god.

Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).