Sun Zichu, of western Guangdong, was a famous scholar. He was born with a webbed finger; and his nature was so simple and stammering that whatever the world said he believed. When there was a singing-girl at a feast he would look the other way and hurry off. Those who knew his ways would entice him, and set a singing-girl to besiege him, whereupon his face would redden to the very neck and the sweat would drip from him, to the delight of all, who would set his folly about in verses and call him "Fool Sun."
Now there was in the county town a rich old merchant, richer than princes or marquises, whose relatives were all of noble blood. He had a daughter named Abao, of peerless beauty. He was daily seeking a husband for her, and all the great houses vied in sending betrothal gifts, but none pleased him. Sun, whose wife had lately died, was urged in jest by some wag to send a matchmaker; and Sun, who had no very high opinion of himself, followed his advice. The old man had heard of Sun's fame, but he was poor. As the go-between was coming out she met Abao and told her. "If he will cut off his webbed finger," the girl jested, "I will marry him." The go-between told Sun. "That is not difficult," said Sun. When the matchmaker had gone he took an axe and cut off his finger himself. The pain pierced him to the heart, and the blood poured out till he was near death. It was some days before he could rise; then he went and showed the finger to the matchmaker, who was alarmed and ran to tell Abao. The girl was struck by the strange deed and jested that he should also cut off his folly. Sun, on hearing this, protested loudly that he was not a fool, but had no way of meeting her to prove it. Then he thought that Abao was perhaps not so beautiful as a heavenly being, that she should hold herself so high. And his desire cooled.
At the Qingming festival, when by custom the women go out to walk and the gay young men follow in bands, freely criticizing, some members of Sun's club dragged him along with them. One of them jeered, "Are you not wishing to see your charmer?" Sun knew he was being made game of, but, since Abao had made fun of him, he too wished to see her, and went willingly with the crowd to look. Far off they saw a girl resting under a tree, while a ring of young ruffians surrounded her like a wall. "That must be Abao," said the others, and hurried up—it was indeed she. Looking at her closely, Sun found her beauty without peer. Presently the crowd grew thicker, and the girl rose and went away. The young men's hearts were all a-flutter; they critiqued her head and her feet, madly discussing her; only Sun was silent. When the others went off elsewhere, they looked back and found him still standing stupidly where she had been. They called to him, but he did not answer. "Has your soul gone with Abao?" they laughed, dragging him; still he made no answer. But knowing his dullness they thought nothing of it, and, pushing and pulling him, brought him home. When he got there he went straight to bed and lay down, and for days would not rise, dazed as if drunk, and would not wake when they called him. His family feared he had lost his soul and called it back in the open fields, but with no effect. When they shook him and questioned him he would answer, vaguely, "I am at Abao's house." But when they pressed him for particulars he was silent again, and the family knew not what to make of it. Now when Sun had seen the girl go, he could not bear to part with her, and felt his body follow after hers, clinging to her girdle and sash; and no one scolded him. So he went home with her, sitting and lying close to her, and every night he made love to her with great satisfaction. But he felt a strange hunger in his belly and wished to go home for a while, yet could not remember the way. As for the girl, she dreamed every night of lying with a man, and when she asked his name he said, "I am Sun Zichu." She thought it strange but could tell no one. Sun lay three days, his breath coming faintly, as if he would expire. His family was in terror and, begging some friend to tell the old merchant, hoped to summon the soul at his house. The old man laughed. "We have never had dealings with each other," he said; "how could his soul have wandered into my house?" But his family begged so hard that at last he consented. A sorceress, taking one of Sun's old garments and a straw mat, went to the house. The girl, learning the reason, was greatly alarmed, and would not let the sorceress go elsewhere, but led her straight into her own room, where the summons was performed, and the sorceress went away. When she reached Sun's door he was already groaning on his bed. Waking, he described the furnishings of the girl's room, its colors and names, one by one without a mistake. When the girl heard of it she was the more amazed, and secretly felt how deep was his love.
After Sun rose from his bed he sat in thought, as if he had lost something, ever watching for Abao, hoping to catch another glimpse of her. On the Bathing of the Buddha festival, hearing she was to offer incense at the Temple of Water and Moon, he went early and waited by the roadside, straining his eyes. The sun had passed noon before the girl came, and from her carriage, catching sight of Sun, she drew the curtain with her slim hand and gazed fixedly at him. Sun, more moved than ever, followed after her. The girl bade a maid come and ask his name. Sun, making himself known with great eagerness, felt his soul shake all the more. Only when the carriage had gone did he turn home. Once home he fell ill again, dazed, refusing food, and in his dreams calling aloud upon Abao's name, grieving that his soul would not work again. The family had a parrot, which had just died, and a boy was playing with it on the bed. Sun thought: if I could but become a parrot, I could spread my wings and reach her room. The fancy had hardly taken shape when his body turned into a parrot and flew away, straight to Abao's house. The girl, delighted, caught it and, putting a cord on its leg, fed it with hemp-seed. "Sister, do not tie me!" it cried. "I am Sun Zichu!" Greatly startled, the girl loosed it, but it would not go. "Your deep love," she said, "is engraved upon my heart. But now you are of a different kind—a bird—how can our union be renewed?" "To be near your fragrance is enough for me," said the bird. Fed by another it would not eat; fed by the girl it ate. When she sat, it perched on her knee; when she lay down, it clung to her bed. After three days the girl was quite fond of it. She sent someone secretly to find out about Sun, and was told he had lain dead three days, only his heart not yet cold. "If you can become a man again," the girl prayed to the bird, "I will follow you even unto death." "You are deceiving me!" said the bird. She swore it was so. The bird, glancing sideways, seemed lost in thought. Presently the girl was binding her two feet and, setting her shoe by the bed, the parrot darted down, seized the shoe in its beak, and flew away. The girl called to it, but it was already far off.
She sent an old woman to inquire, and found Sun was already awake. His family, seeing the parrot come with the embroidered shoe and fall dead on the ground, were all astonished. Sun, on waking, asked for his shoe, and none knew why. The old woman came and, seeing Sun, asked where the shoe came from. "It is the pledge of Abao's promise," said Sun. "Pray tell her that I have not forgotten her golden word." When the old woman went back and told her, the girl wondered the more, and purposely let her maid tell her mother all. The mother, making sure it was true, said, "This young man's reputation is not bad, but he is poor as Sima Xiangru. After choosing for years, to get such a son-in-law—I fear it will be the laughing-stock of the great." But the girl, for the sake of the shoe, vowed she would marry none else. Father and mother yielded, and sent word posthaste to Sun. He was overjoyed and his illness vanished. The old man proposed that Sun come to live with them. "A son-in-law should not stay long at his wife's house," said the girl. "And since he is poor, the longer the worse he would be despised. I have given my word; I am content to live in a thatched cottage and eat herbs." So Sun fetched her in marriage, and they met as lovers reunited after a lifetime.
From then on the family, having the dowry, grew richer in goods. But Sun was so lost in books that he did not know how to manage the family affairs. The girl was good at saving and did not trouble him with anything else; in three years the family grew rich. Suddenly Sun fell ill of the wasting disease and died. The girl wept for him bitterly, her eyes never dry, till she could neither eat nor sleep. She would not be comforted, and one night hanged herself. A maid, finding her, cut her down and revived her, but still she would not eat. On the third day the relatives gathered to enshroud Sun, when they heard a groaning in the coffin and, opening it, found him alive again. "I saw the King of the Nether World," he said, "who, because I had been simple and honest all my life, appointed me a clerk in the Ministry. Suddenly someone announced, 'The wife of Clerk Sun is coming.' The King consulted the register of the dead and said, 'She is not yet due to die.' Another announced, 'She has not eaten for three days.' The King turned to me and said, 'Moved by your wife's chastity and duty, I grant you life again.' So he sent an attendant to bring me back on horseback." From this time his health mended. Now it chanced to be a year of the great examination. Before he went in, the young wits made game of him, and, devising seven out-of-the-way questions, drew him aside and said, "These are the secret questions of such a family; keep them strictly to yourself." Sun believed them and, poring over them day and night, composed essays on all seven, while the others hid their smiles. But the examiner, fearing that familiar questions would be plagiarized, departed from all precedent; and when the paper came out, all seven questions were exactly those. So Sun took the first place. The next year he passed the highest examination and was appointed to the Hanlin Academy. When the Emperor heard of the strange affair and summoned him to ask about it, Sun told the whole story, to the Emperor's great delight; and afterwards, summoning Abao, he loaded her with gifts and honors.
The Historian of the Strange remarks: "A man's will is fixed by his obsession; hence the book-worm's writings are always polished, and the craftsman's obsession makes his craft excellent. The failures and ne'er-do-wells of the world are all men who call themselves not obsessed. And as for those who squander their substance on painted flowers and lose their fortunes over dice, were those obsessed men's doings? From this we may know that the over-clever are the truly foolish—where was Sun Zichu a fool?"
The collection of the ten obsessions: hoarding buried treasure while living in poverty; praising one's son's cleverness to every guest; loving one's son so much one cannot bear to have him taught; hiding an illness lest it be known; paying to trick a man into whoring; stealing to a drinking-party and tricking a man into gambling; getting another to write one's essays to cheat father and brother; keeping too exact accounts between father and son; using trickery in the family; delighting in one's children's skill at gambling.