A long time ago, a prime minister named Cui Peng died. His wife, Madam Cui, and daugh ter, Cui Yingying. es corted his cof fin back to his home town, hun dreds of miles from the capi tal. Among the en tou rage was Yingying’s maidser vant, Hongniang. As they ap proached the town of Puzhou, they heard that an army of ban dits had been ha rass ing the town and its sur round ing ar eas. Madam Cui had every rea son to worry, for the large num ber of valu ables she brought with her and the beauty of her daugh ter were huge risk fac tors. Be sides, the small number of guards that Madam Cui com -manded was no match for the ban dits.

From a lo cal farmer, Madam Cui learned of a nearby sanc tuary, the famed Pujiu Tem ple. Its nu -mer ous yards and houses were ideal ac commo da tions for the liv ing, and its sa cred en vi ron ment was a per fect tem po rary rest ing place for the dear de parted. Madam Cui de cided to take ref uge in the tem -ple. There she hoped to buy some time and figure out how to cope with the sit u a tion.

Mean while, a young scholar named Zhang Gong stopped at the same tem ple. He was on his way to the cap i tal to take an im pe rial ex am i na tion. He had just called on a friend, known as the White Horse Gen eral, sta tioned a hun dred miles from Puzhou. Hav ing heard of the beauty and fame of Pujiu Temple, Zhang Gong had al ways wanted to visit it. When he ar rived at the quiet, wooded tem -ple in the sub urbs of Puzhou, he found it to be a per fect place to study for the ex ami na tion, which was to take place in a few months. He de ter mined to stay un til the ex am i nation day approached. He set -tled down in a small court yard, which hap pened to be next to a big ger one where Madam Cui and her daugh ter Cui Yingying took shel ter. Sepa rat ing the two yards was a brick wall as high as a person, with its top part hol lowed out so that peo ple in the two yards could see each other.

Night fell. Zhang Gong stud ied for awhile. Tired and bored, he took a break to write a poem. When he fin ished, he could not help read ing it aloud, loud enough for the resi dents in the next yard to hear:

“Quiet in the bloom ing spring,

Alone in the se rene night,

Why in the moon light clear,

Not a pretty girl I sight?”

No sooner had he stopped read ing than a ten der fe male voice drifted over the wall that sep a -rated the two courtyards:

“Con fined to my lonely cham ber,

For noth ing my youth I squan der;

I wish the one that listens yon der

Could be the un der stand ing chanter.”

Ap par ently Zhang Gong and Cui Yingying, who had chanced to see each other dur ing the day, were now in love. How ever, in a so ciety where com mu ni ca tion be tween a young man and a young woman with out their par ents’ permis sion was ta boo, the two youths could only use veiled love po -ems to ex press their af fec tions. Even so, they ran the risk of be ing dis cov ered and chas tised by Madam Cui. Cui Yingying’s clever and un der stand ing maid ser vant Hongniang agreed to serve as their se cret li ai son.

The next morn ing, Hongniang ac costed Zhang Gong, who in turn asked her to pass a hand ker -chief to her mis tress. On it was a new veiled love poem. Hongniang knew that even though Cui Yingying loved the young scholar, she might feel too em bar rassed for her maid ser vant to act openly as a go-be tween. Hongniang had to help in a roundabout way. Instead of handing the hand ker chief to Cui Yingying in per son, she placed it on her mis tress’s dresser with out her know ing it, so that she would pick it up her self. Cui Yingying read the poem and got the mes sage, but she was too shy to re -spond in writ ing.

Days passed with out a word from Cui Yingying. Zhang Gong’s anx i ety in ten si fied. Then, out of the blue, there came an op por tu nity. The bandits’ chief tain, Sun Feihu, had learned that Madam Cui and her beau ti ful daugh ter Cui Yingying were stay ing in the Pujiu Temple. Lay ing siege to it, he demanded that Madam Cui marry her daugh ter to him. Oth er wise, he would storm the sanc tu ary and take Cui Yingying by force. Facing the threat of grave dan ger, Madam Cui had to de ploy a stall ing tac tic. She told the chief tain that it would be impropriate for her daugh ter to get married be fore her fa -ther’s burial. She asked him to put off the wed ding un til they lay the de ceased prime min ister to rest. Sun Feihu gave Madam Cui a grace pe riod of half a month.

Madam Cui had won some time, but she did not know what to do with it. As days went by, her wor ries weighed heavier. Both the mother and the daugh ter were at their wit’s end. Fi nally, Madam Cui made a dif fi cult de ci sion. She gath ered all the peo ple in the tem ple and an nounced, “I will marry my daugh ter to any one who can pull us through.”

To Cui Yingying’s re lief and plea sure, Zhang Gong of fered to help. He man aged to sneak out of the tem ple and escaped through the ban dits’ en cir cle ment. Then he pur chased a horse from a lo cal and gal loped to where his friend, the White Horse Gen eral, was sta tioned. Sur prised, White Horse Gen eral asked Zhang Gong why he came in such a hurry. Zhang Gong told him what had hap pened and asked him to res cue Madam Cui and her daugh ter.

The gen eral came to the tem ple and wiped out the ban dits. To gether they cap tured the chief tain Sun Feihu and turned him over to the au thor i ties. Madam Cui and Yingying were both very grate ful for his help. Par tic u larly thankful to White Horse Gen eral was his friend Zhang Gong, be cause hav -ing saved the Cui fam ily from a ca tas tro phe, he would cer tainly be able to marry his be loved Cui Yingying.

Af ter seeing off White Horse Gen eral, Zhang Gong went to see Madam Cui.