He sang the dirge “Dew on the Garlic."[3] His voice rose so shrill and clear that “its echoes shook the forest trees.”  Before he had finished the first verse, all who heard were sobbing and hiding their tears.

[3] See p. 58, “170 Chinese Poems,” Alfred A. Knopf, 1919.

When the performance was over, every one made fun of the western undertaker, and he was so much put out that he immediately removed his exhibits and retired from the contest.  The audience was amazed by the collapse of the western undertaker and could not imagine where his rival had procured so remarkable a singer.

It happened that the Emperor had recently issued an order commanding the governors of outside provinces to confer with him at the capital at least once a year.

At this time the young man’s father, who was governor of Ch`ang-chou, had recently arrived at the capital to make his report.  Hearing of the competition, he and some of his colleagues discarded their official robes and insignia, and slipped away to join the crowd.  With them was an old servant, who was the husband of the young man’s foster-nurse.  Recognizing his foster-son’s way of moving and speaking, he was on the point of accosting him, but not daring to do so, he stood weeping silently.  The father asked him why he was crying, and the servant replied, “Sir, the young man who is singing reminds me of your lost son.”  The father answered:  “My son became the prey of robbers, because I gave him too much money.  This cannot be he.”  So saying, he also began to weep and, leaving the crowd, returned to his lodging.

But the old servant went about among the members of the troupe, asking who it was that had just sung with such skill.  They all told him it was the son of such a one; and when he asked the young man’s own name, that too was unfamiliar, for he was living under an alias.  The old servant was so much puzzled that he determined to put the matter to the test for himself.  But when the young man saw his old friend walking towards him, he winced, turned away his face, and tried to hide in the crowd.  The old man followed him and catching his sleeve, said:  “Surely it is you!” Then they embraced and wept.  Presently they went back together to his father’s lodging.  But his father abused him, saying:  “Your conduct has disgraced the family.  How dare you show your face again?” So saying, he took him out of the house and led him to the ground between the Ch`uu-chiang Pond and the Apricot Gardens.  Here he stripped him naked and thrashed him with his horse-whip, till the young man succumbed to the pain and collapsed.  The father then left him and went away.

But the young man’s singing-master had told some of his friends to watch what happened to him.  When they saw him stretched inanimate on the ground, they came back and told the other members of the troupe.