Summary of “Embroidered Blanket”
Li Yan-shek, the ruler of Luoyang, is slandered and summoned to the capital for an investigation. But he is so poor (because of honesty) that he asks a usurer to lend him 10 silver coins for the journey. The moneylender Liu Yan-ming agrees if Lee’s daughter, Yu-in, signs the receipt, and the Taoist nun Liu will become the guarantor. The ruler leaves.
A year has passed, the debt grew to 20 coins, and Lee is not visible. The moneylender requires a nun to make the girl either return money, or become his wife. The nun persuades Yu-in for a long time. Finally, having pityed her with a story about the trial and torture that threaten a nun as a guarantor, she seeks the consent of the girl. On the evening a rendezvous is arranged with the moneylender, whom the nun described as a young handsome man. (The meeting takes place in a monastery, which wears the ironically sounding name “Skeet of Jade Cleanliness.”)
An old nun should pay a visit to the patrons of the
The moneylender tries to force Yu – in to cohabitation with a stick, but in vain. In revenge, he sends her to serve in his tavern. Spends two more years. And then Zhang Rui-ching comes into the tavern, who has already become chuang-yuan (winner in the capital exams) and received an appointment to one of the counties near Luoyang. He talks to Yu-in (whose faces he did not see that night). In a long conversation she talks about her misadventures. Wanting to teach the usurer a lesson, Zhang declares himself to be a brother of Yu-ying and “gives consent” to her marriage to Liu. The wedding is appointed in three days. Yu-ing in grief.
Zhang pulls out the cherished blanket. Yu-in recognizes the one who has sworn to remain faithful (“one horse does not walk under two saddles”). By the day of the “wedding” of the pawnbroker, Li Yan-shi, acquitted on all counts, comes in time; he punishes the usurer and blesses the young.