Han shih wai chuan :: :: University of Virginia Library

The king of Ch`i offered his daughter with a rich dowry in
marriage to Butcher T`u.[1] Butcher T`u declined on the pretext of
illness. His friend said,[2] "You will just be in a stinking shop to
the end of your life. Why did you refuse him?"

T`u answered, "His daughter is ugly."

His friend said, "How do you know?"

T`u said, "From my butchery I know it."

His friend said, "What do you mean?"

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T`u said, "When my meat is good I can dispose of it [by weight]
and regret only that there is too little.[3] When my meat is not
good, even though I add on more meat[4] to increase [the weight],
I still cannot sell it. Now if he offers his daughter with a rich
dowry, it is simply because she is ugly." Later on his friend saw
her, and she really was ugly. As the saying has it,

Eyes like apricots split open,
Teeth like a file of slugs.[5]

[1]

[OMITTED]; properly "Beef butcher T`u." Ch`u-hsüeh chi 19.7b, TPYL 382.6b
have [OMITTED]. (CHy.)

[2]

[OMITTED]: Ch`u-hsüeh chi and TPYL have [OMITTED] "urged him" before [OMITTED]. (CHy.)

[3]

For [OMITTED] read [OMITTED] ○ [OMITTED] with CHy
after TPYL and Ch`u-hsüeh chi. (Chou 227.)

[4]

[OMITTED] is corrupt. Either invert [OMITTED] and [OMITTED], or follow Ch`u-hsüeh chi to read
[OMITTED] for [OMITTED].

[5]

[OMITTED] "teeth like shells in a row." Chu I-tung [OMITTED] (quoted by Chao 227-8) points out that this metaphor is frequently employed of a person's beauty, and so is not appropriate here. The quotation of this line in Lu T`ien's Pei ya reads [OMITTED] "insect larva" for [OMITTED], and I follow Chu to emend to that reading. Chao in adition cites TPYL 382.6b, which has [OMITTED] "crab," a possible graphic error for [OMITTED] *g'αng and [OMITTED] *χi̯ang rhyme.