Dead Man Returns from His
Grave
16
Aril 2007
30-year
old Chinese man Tang Jiangshan (唐江山) has been seen as a
legend for past twenty-four years in some
part of Hainan Province (海南省), the second largest island of
China in the southern tip of the country, but
it is until quite recently his legendary
story becomes widely known in other parts of
China. The reason for him becoming a legend
is not due to the way in which he lives but
the fashion in which he died. We say he died,
because he is still alive – he died
long before he was born.
When
he was about 3, that is year 1979, just 3
years out of the ten-year Cultural Revolution
chaos, he started to show sign of his
linguistic talent: he not only spoke his
mother tongue fluently but could tell tales
in another dialect that he had never been
exposed to.
But
what set him miles apart from any other child
genius is the highly creative nature of his
tale that would make any fantasy novelist or
new age guru look pale in comparison. “Back
then in September 1967,” the three-year old
would begin in a reflective tone, referring
to a time at the fanatic height of the
Revolution, 3x3 years prior to the formation
of his current being, “I was village Youth
League secretary and militia leader, and my
name was Chen Mingdao (陳明道) and my dad is called Dandie (三爹). One day we eight guys went out
to buy diesel fuel for village rice-mill
machine, we were ambushed by a gang from a
neighbouring village, and I was stabbed in
the back of my head and the left side of my
tummy, and hit in the back by a bullet. I
died.”
Nobody
took his story seriously even though he
indeed bears a distinctive mark in his belly
ever since he was born that resembles a scar
from gunshot wound. It’s just a birthmark
with an ugly-than-usual appearance, he was
told. But the little boy kept spinning his
old yarn for the next 3 years until he was 6.
After numerous failed attempts at persuading
his father to bring him to visit Sandie, he
was fed up. The self-claimed former militia
leader developed a new fighting strategy: he
began hunger strike. This self-harming
approach has helped many great men and women
in history to secure a victory in their
battle, and when little Tang gave it a try,
the success was equally dazzling. His daddy
gave in.
It
was only a 160-kilometre journey from their
Mill-Not Village (不磨村
- think
the irony in the name of the village)
in
Gancheng Township (感城镇) of East City (东方市) to Sandie’s Yellow Jade
Village (黄玉村) in Dan County (儋县). The trip was at a brisk pace
and proceeded smoothly until they reached
North Gate River (北门江) near the Yellow Jade. Tang
junior suddenly seemed to be gripped by
terror and begged Tang senior to find a boat
to ferry them across the waterway as fast as
possible. “I was killed here,” the little
boy asserted.
When
the father and the son finally arrived at the
village, they created quite a spectacle. The
boy went to call an old man Sandie and told
him he was his dead son. That poor man was
utterly unprepared for a shock like this. His
dead son returned, bringing with him a man
who is the dad of his son – imagine! In
Sandie’s memory Chen Mingdao was a 20
year-old fully grown-up man, tall and strong,
now being face to face with this mini
replica, he was confused, very confused. So
the boy went on to identify the bed he once
slept and the items he once used to convince
the old man he was not an impostor. Finally
he found his memorial tablet (牌位) in the family shrine
and asked Sandie to throw it away. “I’m
no longer a spirit, I’m a human again,”
he announced proudly.
Eventually
Sandie cuddled the son who returned form the
grave, and cried. And the son cried more. And
the son’s dad Tang senior also cried. When
the villages heard two men and a boy cry,
they went to investigate, and all cried.
While
crying, the little boy spotted among the
crowd a thirty-some woman and said she was
his girlfriend in his past life. The woman
indeed was, but now she had grown old enough
to be his mother, so she kept nodding and
kept weeping. What an extraordinary reunion,
all thought to themselves and all said to one
another, so everyone cried a bit louder and
longer.
Chen
Mingdao's girlfriend and Tang Jiangshan
Ever
since the sudden death of his only son,
Sandie also lost his grieving wife and was
reduced to a lonely figure surviving on the
charity of the villagers. But from that day
on, his life changed. Tang returned to visit
him frequently, sometimes with the rest of
the Tang family, sometimes on his own, later,
sometimes with his wife and, still later,
sometimes with his kids. Together, with the
help of the relatives and villagers at the
Yellow Jade, Tang and his family took a good
care of Sandie’s physical and financial
needs, until 19 years later, in 1998, the old
man past away. In his final moment, his
bron-again son was by his bedside.
