Gomei - 倩女離魂 "Sennyo Rikon" (A young woman loses her soul)

Shiumon Kattoshu, Case 28-1 Entangling Vines koan collection "Qiannu and Her Spirit"

Hand-carved chashaku and tsutsu made from bamboo grown in Arizona

chashaku- 19.1, 19.3cm tsutsu- 22.8cm

The tale of Qiannu was a popular Tang-dynasty story, found in such sources as the Extensive Record of the Era of Great Peace. Qiannu was in love with a young man named Wang Zhou whom she had known since childhood and who fully returned her affection. However, when a promising young government official asked for the hand of the beautiful Qiannu in marriage , her father quickly agreed to the advantageous match. Zhou, deeply distressed, could not bear to live nearby with Qiannu married to another man, so he decided to travel upriver to start a new life. The night he departed, however, he heard someone behind him. When he looked to see who it was, he was overjoyed to find that Qiannu had followed him. The two decided to proceed onward to the region of Shu where they settled, married, and had two children. Qiannu could not forget her parents, however, so after years she and Zhou decided to return to their hometown to ask her father's forgiveness for their rash act. Upon arriving, Zhou proceeded alone to Qiannu's home to explain the situation. Greeted warmly by Qiann's father, Zhou said that he and Qiannu had run off together, but that they were now married and living comfortably with two children. The father, greatly astonished, replied that his daughter had been there in the house for the entire five years, though incapable of speaking. Zhou, visiting the sick woman's room, saw that it was indeed Qiannu. He thereupon led her father to the river, where the other Qiannu, his wife, was waiting with their two children. They returned to the house, and as they approached, the sick Qiannu left her bed and came to meet them. Seeing the married Qiannu, she smiled and walked toward her, and suddenly the two women merged, becoming one person.