Duh neveste Ding

Besedilo

Duh neveste Ding

In Quanjiao County in Huainan there was a young bride named Ding. Born into the Ding family of Danyang, she married into the Xie family of Quanjiao at the age of sixteen. Her mother-in-law was harsh and cruel, setting strict quotas for her work and beating her unbearably whenever she failed to finish in time. On the ninth day of the ninth month, she hanged herself. Afterward, her spirit manifested its power, and word of her spread among the people. Through a spirit medium she declared, “I pity the women of every household, who toil without respite. Let them set aside the ninth day of the ninth month and do no work.” She appeared in a pale blue robe, beneath a blue canopy, with a maidservant attending her, and came to Niuzhu Ford seeking passage across the river. Two men were fishing together from a boat, and she called to them to take her across. Laughing, they began to tease her. “Agree to be our wife,” they said, “and we will ferry you over.” Lady Ding replied, “I took you for decent men, but you have no sense at all. If you are men, I shall have you die in the mud; if you are ghosts, I shall send you into the water.” Then she withdrew into the reeds. Before long, an old man came along in a boat laden with reeds, and she asked him for passage. He said, “There is no shelter aboard. How could you cross exposed to the weather? I fear this boat is hardly fit to carry you.” She told him it would be no hardship. The old man unloaded about half his reeds and left them behind to make room, then slowly ferried her across. When they reached the southern bank, she said to him before leaving, “I am a spirit, not a human being. I could have crossed by myself, but it is fitting that people should hear something of me. Your kindness in unloading your reeds to ferry me across leaves me deeply grateful, and I must find some way to repay you. Go back at once: you are sure to see something, and you will gain something too.” The old man replied, “I was only afraid I could not keep you dry. How could I presume to accept a reward?” Returning to the western bank, he saw the two men floating dead in the water. A few miles farther on, he found thousands of fish leaping at the water’s edge, blown ashore by the wind. He abandoned his reeds, loaded his boat with fish, and went home. Lady Ding then returned to Danyang. Throughout the lands south of the Yangtze, people called her Aunt Ding. On the ninth day of the ninth month they did no work, all observing it as a day of rest. To this day, shrines are maintained for her in many places.