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Pearl Sewn Shirt

The Pearl Sewn Shirt is a Chinese story from the Ming Collection, written by Feng Menglong and published in 1620. It was during the period of vernacular storytelling and translated by Cyril Birch in 1624. Birch, Cyril (1958). Stories from a Ming Collection: Translations of Chinese short Stories Published in the Seventeenth Century.

Genre

This is considered to be widely accessible to the average reader because it was written in the Chinese vernacular. The story contains the literary provenance of the main short story and offers an opening to critic the story before reading. It is a cautionary tale and highlights the luckless effects of having an illicit affair. It penetrates into the topic of having a broken marriage and the tragedy that comes from it.

Plot

The story takes place in early Ming Dynasty, it begins with a short excerpt explaining what the purpose of this story serves. It gives insight on how the the issues that will play out will lead to the downfall of one's marriage.

It starts out with a small poem, telling the reader to find joy in the life we are giving, and how it can be easy to become consumed by the four vices that lead to bad decision making. This includes drinking, lust, anger, and riches.

Chiang Hsing-Ko had married a beautiful young woman by the name of Fortune. They were a good pair and were considered to be well matched with one another. He received notice that he had to go on a year long journey, which meant that he would have to leave his beloved wife. Before he bid her goodbye, he made her promise to not leave the house or go to certain areas that would expose her to the public. He wanted to keep her safe in the house and away from the those that could lead to temptation. To prevent his wife from becoming lonely, he hired a servant to look after her and give her company so she wouldn't be by her lonesome.

While Chiang Hsing-Ko was gone, his wife began to become weary and lonely. One day she snuck to a part of the house and waited there. A man by the name of Ch'en Ta-lang was passing by and caught site of her beauty. He wanted to spend a night with her but needed a way to get inside the house. He made a deal with an old lady who would help him conduct an affair with Fortune. When it was time for Ch'en Ta-lang to leave, Fortune gave him her husband's pearl sewn shirt as a promise that they would return to one another. One day Chiang Hsing-Ko came across Ch'en Ta-lang and recognized the shirt, connecting the story that he was told of the woman that Ch'en Ta-lang met. He returned back to his wife furious and divorced her. Ch'en Ta-lang fell ill and died, only to leave his wife as a widow. The wife meets Chiang Hsing-Ko and the two become married. He later decided to take Fortune in as a second wife but, only as a concubine of some sorts.

Themes

In the story it appears that both men are not righteous in the way that men should be. Ch'en Ta-lang participates in an affair with a married woman while he himself is also married. He sacrifices his own marriage to have several lustful nights with someone he knows he shouldn't be with. As for Chiang Hsing-Ko, he left his wife to go on a long journey and did not bother to check up on her or ensure that she would not be completely led astray. He then is furious at her for also having an affair despite the fact that he had basically abandoned her.

There is also the theme of sympathy because the viewer become saddened by the life Fortune has succumbed to. She was desperate to feel loved and gave in to the woes of lust just to remember the feeling of being wanted by a man.

Confucian morals can also be noted as there is an obligation of marriage. There is the societal expectation that you do not carry on with having an affair and when that is not upheld, it is looked down upon, especially when the wife is the cause for ruining the marriage. It seems that it is okay for the men to do it but not the women.

Analysis

This story shows that when a wife is neglected or left for a long period of time, she will start to lose her faith that her husband will return, resulting her feeling lonely and forgotten. The affairs that take place in this story not necessarily looked down upon but slightly encouraged especially when Ch'en Ta-lang uses riches to persuade the old lady to help him conduct his affair with Fortune. It seems that if money or materialistic objects are brought into the equation then someone will most likely aid the person offering these jewels.