The Lost Brother by Pu Songling
Ch‘êng helps his elder half-brother Na cut wood despite Na's cruel stepmother, until a tiger carries Ch‘êng away. After injuring himself in grief, Na visits the underworld during a trance and awakens healed, convinced Ch‘êng lives. A year of searching brings him to Nanking, where he finds Ch‘êng and discovers that his brother's rescuer is their eldest half-brother; accompanied by their father's long-lost first wife, they return to Honan for a family reunion.
By Pu Songling · Genre: Short Story, Supernatural Fiction, Family Fiction · 3,816 words
First lines
In Honan there lived a man named Chang, who originally belonged to Shantung. His wife had been seized and carried off by the soldiery during the period when Ching Nan's troops were overrunning the latter province; [1] and as he was frequently in Honan on business, he finally settled there and married a Honan wife, by whom he had a son named Na. By-and-by this wife died, and he took another, who bore him a son named Ch‘êng. The last-mentioned lady was from the Niu family, and a very malicious woman. So jealous was she of Na, that she treated him like a slave or a beast of the field, giving him only the coarsest food, and making him cut a large bundle of wood every day, in default of which she would beat and abuse him in a most shameful manner. On the other hand she secretly reserved all the tit-bits for Ch‘êng, and also sent him to school. As Ch‘êng grew up, and began to understand the meaning of filial piety and fraternal love,[2] he could not bear to see this treatment of his elder brother, and spoke privately to his mother about it; but she would pay no heed to what he said.
Genres
- Short Story — A compact prose narrative follows the brothers' separation, Na's search, and the discoveries that reunite their family.
- Supernatural Fiction — During a trance, Na's ghost enters the underworld, where P‘u-sa's holy water heals his neck wound.
- Family Fiction — A stepmother's abuse, the younger brother's help, and the recognition of lost relatives drive the action.
Tags
brotherly devotion · stepmother cruelty · tiger attack · underworld · lost relatives · family reunion
What this Textopian page supports
The Lost Brother is listed on Textopian as a short story by Pu Songling, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Short story
- Author: Pu Songling
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Short Story, Supernatural Fiction, Family Fiction
- Length: 3,816 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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