A-ch’ien, the rat wife

Overview

A-ch’ien enters Pu Songling’s story as the daughter of an old man named Ku who shelters the traveller Hsi Shan. Hsi Shan arranges her marriage to his younger brother San-lang. On returning, he learns that her father has died beneath a collapsed wall, helps her mother sell stored grain, and brings both women home. A-ch’ien becomes a quiet, industrious wife, and the household prospers. This account follows Giles’s1880 translation rather than a collation of the Chinese text.

Suspicion begins when Hsi Shan hears that the apparently inhabited building had been deserted and haunted. Its owner found a cat-sized rat beneath the fallen wall, but it disappeared while he fetched help. The correspondence with Ku’s reported death suggests the family’s animal identity. A-ch’ien herself is never visibly shown transforming. Hsi Shan threatens to obtain an excellent mouser; soon she and her mother disappear, despite San-lang’s continued affection. Years later he finds her mourning her mother and accepts her condition that they live separately from his brother.

The reunion is delayed by a landlord who had wanted A-ch’ien as a concubine and now demands unpaid rent in silver. Selling her grain resolves the dispute. Back home she builds a granary that fills within a year, restoring San-lang’s wealth while Hsi Shan remains poor. Giles’s note attributes this grain to her activities as a rat, an editorial explanation beyond the narrated accumulation. She nevertheless supports her husband’s parents and sends money to the brother who distrusted her, acknowledging his part in bringing the couple together. The ending says there are no further supernatural manifestations. Her conduct is consequently more than a deceptive-wife episode: the story preserves estrangement, negotiated return and generosity.

Origins & earliest records

Pu Songling’s literary collection, in Giles’s selected English translation.

Records & interpretation

Complete English story and attached notes read; full introduction and transcriber notice checked.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

   Pu Songling; translated and annotated by Herbert A. Giles · 1880

   Volume I, pp.355–364; LIII, The Rat Wife; electronic notes288–291; complete story and all attached notes read.

Family & connections

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Primary records and illustrations

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical literary translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio — I, pp.355–364; LIII, The Rat Wife; electronic notes288–291Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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