Yuewei Hermitage was the elegant name of the residence of Ji Xiaolan, a famous scholar and official of the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century. It was within these walls that he compiled his celebrated work, Notes from the Yuewei Hermitage. This was a collection of strange tales, supernatural accounts, moral lessons, and tales of virtue that became well-known in Chinese literature. In Volume Four, Ji recorded a remarkable story from Xian County in Hebei Province about a man surnamed Shi.
A family in despair
One day, as Shi was returning home, he saw a husband and wife in the village holding their young child and weeping in each other’s arms. Moved by their distress, he stopped to ask what had happened.
A neighbor explained that the family had fallen into debt to a powerful local man who was pressing them for repayment. With no other way out, the husband had agreed to sell his wife to settle what they owed. Because the couple cared deeply for one another and their child had not yet been weaned, the separation was especially heartbreaking.
Shi asked how much debt they owed.
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