The Lost Shoe

> Yangqu County Court, Taiyuan Prefecture

> Case: The Violent Death of Wang Sheng of Taiyuan

> Docket No. 17, Criminal Division, Year of Guihai, Kangxi

> Attached: seven statements, one coroner's report, three exhibits. The statements are numbered in the order they were taken, not the order of events. The reader must reconcile them for himself.

> — Signed, Clerk Liu

**EXHIBIT ONE** — One embroidered shoe. Silk upper, vermilion ground, lotus-and-stem pattern, stitches fine as silk thread. The sole is newly made—white cloth in a thousand layers—with no trace of earth, no sign of wear. Examiner's note: apparently new; never worn on a foot.

**EXHIBIT TWO** — One square of blue cotton cloth, a wrapping cloth. Coarse weave, faded, edges frayed. Nothing inside. On the cloth an oval water stain, about two inches across. Examiner's note: possibly a tear stain, or some other liquid; unverified.

**STATEMENT OF WANG SHENG — First Recorded Statement**

I, Wang Sheng, of Taiyuan, age thirty-one, licentiate. Your honor, every word I speak is true... is true... (At this point the deponent paused for a long while, and resumed as follows.)

I remember that morning clearly. The third day of the ninth month, in the year Guihai of Kangxi. Just past the mao hour. I rose early and set out for the western market to buy two sheets of Qingcheng paper. As I came along the lane outside the back garden wall, I saw in the distance a woman standing against the wall, holding a blue cloth bundle, hobbling, unable to walk steadily.

I should not have stopped. Your honor must understand, I am a careful man by nature; women in the street, I never stopped for them. But that morning I saw, at her feet, a fallen shoe—vermilion silk, lotus pattern—she must have been walking fast and lost it. Her other foot was bare, standing in the dirt, toes curled, like a person afraid of the cold.

I bent down, picked up the shoe, and handed it to her.

She took it, but did not put it on. She only held it in her hand and looked up at me. That look... (Here the deponent's voice fell so low the runner reported he could not hear it, and he was ordered to repeat himself.)

She said, "Thank you, sir." Her voice was very soft, as if afraid of being heard. She said her name was Zhang, that her parents, greedy for a bride-price, had sold her as a concubine into the Zhu household south of the city. The first wife was jealous and cruel, cursing at dawn and beating at dusk, and she could bear it no longer, so she had fled in the night, walked half the night, worn her feet raw, and lost a shoe besides. All this she said with her head bowed, glancing at me only from the corner of her eye, like a startled bird ready to fly.

I asked, "Where does the lady intend to go?"

She said, "The world is wide, and there is nowhere."

I said, "This is no place to linger. If the Zhu household comes looking, it will be inconvenient."

She raised her head and looked at me, and said, "If the gentleman does not mind, I ask only a night's shelter. To meet on the road is fate."

Your honor must believe me! I had no other thought at the time. I only... I saw her standing there alone, her shoe lost, in the morning wind, her skirt hem still wet with dew. I thought: if it were my own sister fallen into such trouble, I would hope someone would stretch out a hand.

So I said, "There is a study in the back garden of my house, long unoccupied. If the lady does not find it too humble, you may stay a few days and let the trouble blow over."

At this she sank into a deep bow and said, "I will never forget the gentleman's great kindness."

I led her in through the side gate of the back garden, past the front gate and its servants, and settled her in the study. Your honor must understand, I feared the Zhu household would come looking and bring trouble to my family; it was not that I meant to deceive. I said to her, "This place is quiet, but it is my home. Rest easy, lady, only do not go out."

She said, "Whatever the gentleman arranges."

I asked her name and origin. She said only that her surname was Zhang, that she was from Taiyuan, and would say no more. I saw that her words were evasive, but I took her for a fugitive afraid of the magistrate's pursuit, and did not press her. As I was leaving, I glanced back—she stood in the middle of the study, holding the blue bundle, head bowed, looking at neither me nor the window, simply standing, like a length of wood that had stood there a long time.

My heart tightened for no reason I could name. I closed the door and left.

(At this point the deponent suddenly asked: "Where is that shoe now?" The clerk answered that it was kept in evidence. The deponent was silent for a long time.)

**CLERK'S NOTE** — Wang Sheng grew distraught at this point and wept. Asked again what paper and ink he had bought that morning, he said "I did not buy the paper, nor the ink either," which does not agree with the testimony of the paper shopkeeper in the western market. Noted for the record. Further, the deponent says the woman wore "a white velvet flower at her temple, edges frayed," which appears in neither the testimony of Widow Liu nor of the servant Afu. Three people, three details. Set aside for the present.

**STATEMENT OF WIDOW LIU — Neighbor**

The great judge above must hear this: I, an old woman, will say a fair word. Wang Sheng, that young man, was a good person before. He smiled at the neighbors, and when a family had trouble he would lend a hand. But from the first days of the ninth month he was a changed man—he walked with his head down, slipped around people, and his face always seemed to have a layer of ash over it.

That morning I was washing clothes at the well by the lane, and with my own eyes I saw Wang Sheng bring someone in through the side gate of the back garden. A woman in red clothes, walking slowly, head down, face hidden. I took her for a new needlewoman the Wangs had hired, and wondered how his wife could stand it. Later I learned she was not one of the household at all.

Did I see her face? I tell you truly: no. She kept her head down, hiding half her face with her sleeve, and only a stretch of neck showed—white in a way it should not be, like... like cloth just taken from the starch. I have lived sixty years and I have never seen a neck so white. White enough to frighten you.

And one thing more. Did she have shoes on her feet? Yes. I remember it clearly: both feet were fine, wearing a pair of vermilion silk embroidered shoes, lotus pattern, stepping firm and steady on the ground. Not the walk of a woman who has been on the road half the night with worn feet.

Did I see it truly? I saw it truly. The ditch where I wash clothes faces the side gate of the back garden, and the sun was bright that morning. My eyes are not failing. I saw it truly.

**STATEMENT OF WANG SHENG — First Recorded Statement, Continued**

... I led her into the study and withdrew, standing outside the door a while, listening to her move about inside, her steps very light, as if on cotton. I returned to my room, and the night passed without incident.

The next morning I went by the study. She was already up, sitting by the window, cutting shoe patterns with scissors. She raised her head and smiled at me. "You are early, sir."

I asked if she had slept well. She said yes, though the insects in the back garden made a restless noise at night. I said I would buy some mugwort to smoke them out. She smiled and said, "Do not trouble yourself for me, sir. In the Zhu household I slept in a wood shed far worse than this." My heart grew heavier for her, and I said, "Rest easy, lady. I will keep an eye out for the Zhu household." She thanked me with lowered head and went back to her cutting.

I saw the blue cloth bundle lying flat on her table, as if it held nothing, and asked, "Lady, when you fled, did you bring any valuables?" She paused, then said, "In haste I brought only a change of clothes." I said, "That will not be enough." She said, "It is enough. I have eaten every kind of bitterness."

I saw that her color was better than yesterday, and some blood had returned to her cheeks, and the stone in my heart settled. I thought: this is only a poor creature fallen on hard times. She will stay a few days and go.

That is truly what I thought then.

(Here the deponent fell silent again. The clerk recorded under order: the deponent said "I had no other thought" four times, which does not agree with the servant's testimony. See the next volume.)