In the early Ming dynasty, there was once a respectable merchant named Jiang Xingge who married a respectable wife named Wang Sanqiao. The match was such a happy one that Xingge put off traveling for his business for over two years, but alas, finally he did have to go south to trade. Despite the many precautions he took to preserve his wife's chastity, she is undone when a wealthy merchant named Chen Dalang catches sight of her. Unable to make her acquaintance directly because she stays indoors, cloistered by her servants, Chen obtains the services of an earthy old lady merchant, Granny Xue, who slyly befriends Sanqiao, arouses her to sexual fervor, and throws Chen into her bedroom stark naked, where they both make love the entire night. Sanqiao grows to love Chen, and Chen's feelings for Sanqiao are true even though he is married as well.
The following spring, Chen travels for business as well, so on their parting Sanqiao gives him a pearl-sewn shirt, which is an heirloom of the Jiang clan. Later, in the south, he meets Jiang Xingge, to whom he confesses his love affair, not knowing that all the while he is speaking to Sanqiao's husband. When Chen shows Xingge the pearl shirt, Xingge knows. Soon after Xingge returns home and sends his wife back to her parents along with a writ of divorce. Investigating the matter further, he also orders thugs to smash up Granny Xue's house, forcing her out of the county.
But the story does not end in simple divorce. Pivoting to follow Chen's estranged wife, Pingshi, we observe as Chen leaves her again after a fight over the pearl shirt, which she hides from him out of jealousy. On his journey he becomes ill, so Pingshi travels out to care for him, but she finds him already dead, and his body stranded in a different province. Following the advice of others, she decides to marry to be able to afford her husband's burial and provide for her own welfare. The man arranged is none other than Jiang Xingge. The two are well-matched, and when Xingge sees the pearl shirt that Pingshi has kept, he believes that fate has intervened to make the marriage happen.
But this is still not the end of the story! In a surprise fourth act, we follow Xingge again on his business travels to discover how, in a heated argument in a market, he accidentally caused the death of an old man, and has charges pressed against him. The judge presiding over his case is none other than -- Sanqiao's new husband! Sanqiao pleas for her new husband to save Xingge's life, and he does; when he hears the rest of the story, he himself is moved to tears by it, and seeing that the two are still obviously in love, he allows Sanqiao to leave him and be Xingge's second wife, or concubine. Of course, a second wife might find conflict with the first wife, but Sanqiao and Pingshi manage to get along well, and so Xingge's family is made whole again.
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Questions:
What can Granny Xue teach us about China?
What are the biggest differences between Ming dynasty ideas of marriage and our own? (Are the two institutions really that different?)
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