A Missing Bride

This is a strange but true story.

In Wuxiu County, Henan Province, China, a family married their daughter in February, in the year 714. The father asked his son to escort his older sister to her husband’s house. According to local customs, relatives, friends, and neighbors would stop marriage carriages on their way and ask for money. The people thought it would bring them good luck, but in the end, this act became a de facto robbery.

In order to avoid this robbery, the father took his donkey and borrowed a fast horse and asked his son and daughter to set off at dusk so they wouldn’t be seen by the local people. The daughter rode the horse, and the brother rode the donkey. They traveled together, shoulder to shoulder.

They were not far out of the village when two men suddenly darted forth from behind some tall grass by the road. The two men jumped onto the horse’s back behind the young woman. One man held onto the reigns, and the other one smacked the horse’s side to make it go faster.

The horse was frightened after being hit, and ran as fast as it could.

The brother couldn’t catch up to the horse on his donkey, and soon fell behind. He went back to the village and reported the kidnapping to his father. The father panicked. He and his relatives spent all night looking for his daughter, but found nothing.

There was a village 15 kilometers away from the bride’s home, and in that village, there was a school. It had night classes, and the roads were very bad, so many students spent the night at the school. It was dark before dawn the following day. A student got up early, opened the school’s gate, and found a woman lying outside, all naked, her private parts covered with blood.

The student called to her, the women just opened her mouth, unable to say anything. Her tongue was cut off. The student rushed back to report to his teacher. The teacher came out and looked at the bloody bride. Then the teacher gathered all his students together, saying “I heard Confucius say that there are stone monsters, water monsters, and soil monsters in this world. We are very close to the Taihang Mountains. I believe she is a monster from it. Let’s stone her away.” The teacher thought that was the wisest thing he ever said.

So the teacher and his students threw stones at the bride. The tongueless girl couldn’t explain for herself, and so she was stoned to death.

After the sun rose and the sky grew brighter, they found it was not a monster, but a pretty girl. It was too late!

Her father came all the way to the village with other family members and found that his daughter had died tragically. Everyone cried their eyes out. The father took the teacher and his students to see the county judge. The case was clear cut. The judge reported the case to his superior. After a short while the superior sentenced the stupid teacher and his students to lashes. Three of them were lashed to death.

The two criminals were never caught.

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