Review of “The Story of Ming-Y” by Lafcadio Hearn: Halloween Countdown

Plot:

This little morality tale is set during the Ming Dynasty (ruled 1368-1644). Ming-Y’s father is the Inspector of Public Instruction at the city of Tchin-tou. Though only eighteen, Miny-Y stands out for his scholarship, grace, and polite accomplishments. Thus, when the wealthy Lord Tchang seeks a worthy tutor for his children, he engages Ming-Y.

Because Lord Tchang’s house is several miles away, he agrees to let Ming-Y live with him. When the second moon of spring and “The Birthday of a Hundred Flowers” arrive, Ming-Y wishes to see his parents. Lord Tchang grants permission and gives him silver, thinking he would like to buy his parents a present for the festival.

On his way home, he catches a glimpse of a woman’s face in the woods where no one lives. He does the right thing and looks away, but not before their eyes meet.

In that moment, Ming-Y could not avoid discerning the loveliness of her face, the golden purity of her complexion, and the brightness of her long eyes, which sparkled under a pair of brows as daintily curved as the wings of the silkworm butterfly outspread.

Of course, the two later meet and spend a long night drinking and reading the poetry of the masters. The woman seems to have copies of many poets who are long dead.

Ming-Y now does something he has never done before. He lies. He tells his employer that he’s walking home to his parents’ house every night, when in fact he’s spending time with this lovely lady.

Thoughts:

The story may be a little heavy-handed with finger-wagging and tsk-tsking, but the writing is lovely and dreamy. Ming-Y is led astray by a graceful, learned woman who is both more and less than she appears—drinking and reading poetry. She tells him she is a relative of his employer. Maaaybe.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to read poetry.

Do you ask me who she was,—the beautiful Sië-Thao? For a thousand years and more the trees have been whispering above her bed of stone. And the syllables of her name come to the listener with the lisping of the leaves; with the quivering of the many-fingered boughs; with the fluttering of lights and shadows; with the breath, sweet as a woman’s presence, of numberless savage flowers,—Sië-Thao.

The story has just the right amount of creepiness and dreaminess. If there are few surprises, at least the ride was pleasant. Ming-Y and the lady love each other, but sumpthin ‘taint right. I enjoyed this tale.



Bio: Patrick Lafcadio Tessima Carlos Hearn (1850-1904) was born on the Greek Ionian Island of Lefkada, from which came one of his given names. His mother was Greek, and his father was an Anglo-Irish member of the British military. He was sent to Ireland to live with a paternal aunt after his parents’ divorce.

After his father’s death and his aunt’s bankruptcy, his aunt’s financial manager sent him at the age of nineteen to relatives in Cincinnati, Ohio, who offered him little but good wishes.

Hearn became a reporter for the Cincinnati Daily Journal. He also spent time reporting from and writing about New Orleans and the West Indies. He later went to Japan to teach English and became enamored of all things Japanese, eventually becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen and assuming a Japanese name, Yokuma Koizumi.

Among his works are Two Years in the French West Indies (1890), Youma, The Story of a West-Indian Slave (1890), and Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894). He also translated some of the works of Guy de Maupassant and Théophile Gautier from French.


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Title: “The Story of Ming-Y”
Author: Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)
First published: Some Chinese Ghosts, 1887
Length: short story