The Righteous Monkey Saves Its Master
The Righteous Monkey Saves Its Master: In Suoxi there was an old monkey catcher named Shi Er-ye. Forced by family hardship, he often made his living catching monkeys. One day, as usual, he went up the mountain to catch monkeys and saw an old mother monkey nursing her baby on a cliff face. He wanted to shoot but couldn't bear to. Seeing him, the old monkey was not alarmed; she tucked her baby behind her and pointed at her own chest, meaning: shoot me here! Don't...
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The Righteous Monkey Saves Its Master
In Suoxi there was an old monkey hunter named Shi Er-ye. Driven by family hardship, he often made his living hunting monkeys. One day, he went up the mountain to hunt monkeys as usual, and saw on a cliff face an old female monkey nursing her baby in her arms. He wanted to shoot but could not bear to. Seeing this, the old monkey was not alarmed; she tucked the baby behind her and pointed at her own chest with her finger, meaning: shoot me here! Don't harm my child! Shi Er-ye was shaken to the core, and his gun fell from his hands with a clatter to the ground. From then on, Shi Er-ye swore never to hunt monkeys again. Even if he could not put food on the table, he would rather starve to death than do such a heartless thing again.
One day at noon, he went to the Jundi Ping market to buy rice, and saw a monkey seller hawking monkeys. Some young gentlemen and young ladies from out of town, fond of curiosities, vied to buy them. Several good monkeys were quickly sold, leaving only a small monkey with a harelip that no one wanted. He thought: this monkey is quite pitiful. If I don't save it, it will end up as someone's dish. Moved by compassion, he exchanged the money for buying rice to purchase this small harelip monkey and brought it home to raise. It happened that the two elders of the Shi family had no kin by their side, and the little harelip monkey became their comfort in loneliness. They called it 'Grandson.' When Shi Er-ye went out, it was always inseparable from him, just like grandfather and grandchild.
One early morning, Old Master Shi was going to Yongding City on business. He had not wanted to bring Little Snaggletooth Monkey along, but the creature was so clever that before he could even step over the threshold, it had already leaped to his side. The two set off one behind the other, and when they reached the Hundred-Zhang Gorge, several masked men armed with spears suddenly sprang out of the woods, shouting in unison: "If you want to keep your life, leave your toll money!" Old Master Shi, relying on his martial skills, was not about to give in. He raised his fists and struck, but was outnumbered and overpowered. Not content with seizing the few copper coins on his person, they tied him to a tree. Seeing this, Little Snaggletooth Monkey tore and bit at them wildly. Old Master Shi, afraid the monkey would come to harm, shouted: "Hurry home!" The clever little monkey ran straight home. As soon as it saw Old Mistress Shi, it clamped its teeth onto her trouser leg and dragged her toward the Hundred-Zhang Gorge. The mistress understood its meaning and knew at once that the old master was in trouble. She immediately called several young men from the village and rushed to the Hundred-Zhang Gorge. Sure enough, they found Old Master Shi bound to a tree, unable to move. Everyone went up and rescued him. The old master said to them all: "I owe it to my little grandchild here. If it hadn't carried the message, how would you ever have known where I was!"
As time went on, Old Master Shi and his wife grew older and older. They thought: if we die, who will look after Little Snaggletooth Monkey? Better to set it free in the mountains! So they said to it: "We are soon going to die. Go up into the mountains!" Little Snaggletooth Monkey wept streams of tears and clung to the old master's leg, refusing to let go. The two elders said again and again: "Go on, or we won't pay attention to you anymore." Still it behaved the same way. For the sake of its future, the old master had no choice but to steel his heart and send it deep into the remote mountain forests. But within a few days, it ran back again, nuzzling and crying out to the two elders. The old master had never been a man to shed tears, yet even he could not hold back the hot tears welling in his eyes. Stroking its head, he said: "Good grandchild, be obedient! You must never come back again!" This time they took it even farther away — to Shentang Bay.
Perhaps Little Snaggletooth Monkey understood the old master's intentions and became obedient, only coming home quietly every ten days or half a month to take a look.
One night, past midnight, it returned to the door as usual, only to feel that the house was empty and desolate. So it slipped in through a gap in the wooden siding, looked carefully around, and saw no one. It searched everywhere, and finally, following the paper funeral money scattered along the road, it found a new grave at Heicao Valley. It turned out that the two elders had passed away, and their deaths were only half a month apart. The local people had buried them together here. Little Snaggletooth Monkey pulled up leaves to use as incense and paper offerings and placed them before the grave. After that, it kept watch at the graveside every day, neither eating nor drinking, letting out long and short wails. Not a single mountain villager who heard it could hold back their tears. After a long time, the villagers no longer heard the monkey's crying. They went to look and found Little Snaggletooth Monkey dead beside the grave. The villagers, deeply moved by this strange and wondrous thing, buried the dead monkey beside Old Master Shi's grave mound.