Ancient Tales of Wisdom

The Wrong Done to Dòu É

In ancient times there lived a man named Dòu Tiānzhāng, whose wife died leaving him a daughter called Dòu É. He decided to move to the capital to study and take the imperial examination, so he married his daughter off to a neighbor named Cài Chāngzōng and then left for the capital, where he stayed for many years. Later on, É’s husband Cài also left to seek his fortune with the exams, leaving É with his mother, Mother Cài. On his trip, he was accompanied by Zhāng Lǘ’ér, “Donkey Zhāng,” the son of a trusted family servant, whose mother, Mother Zhāng, also lived with the Cài family.

As they traveled along, Zhāng Lǘér pushed Cài into the river, where he drowned, and then returned home to break the news that Cài had lost his footing and fallen to his death on his own.

Mother Cài was overcome with grief and took sick. One day she craved mutton-tripe soup. As É was preparing it, Zhāng took the opportunity to poison it when she wasn’t looking, hoping to kill the old lady and then seize É and the family property.

However the soup didn’t smell right to Mother Cài, and she set it aside, where it was found by Zhāng’s own mother. Mother Zhāng greedily drank it down and promptly died.

Donkey Zhāng accused Dòu É of poisoning his mother, and threatened to turn her and her mother over to the authorities if she did not agree to marry him. É refused, and he hauled the two women into court, bribing the magistrate to find them guilty. É and her mother-in-law were tortured. Finally É, faced with the prospect of her mother-in-law’s continued suffering, falsely confessed, and was condemned to death by beheading.

As the time drew nigh for her execution, she declared her innocence, and told her jailers that her innocence would be demonstrated by three miracles. When she was beheaded, her blood would not gush all over the ground, but would fall only onto a small square of cloth. Then, although it was a warm June day, it would snow until the snow covered her body. And finally, her death would be followed by three years of drought. All this came true.

Some years later, Dòu Tiānzhāng returned, now an important official. He reopened the case, and É’s ghost came and told her father what had happened. Dòu lawfully arrested both Donkey Zhāng and the corrupt official who had condemned his daughter to death based on a bribe. Thus the wrong against Dòu É was set to rights.