薛素素-文功武技超越威廉退耳的妓女

陈水明（1962届） 撰写

薛素素，字素卿，明代北京妓女。

她是个多才多艺的文武全能的神女，风流独步一时，引起无数文人和风流贵公子折腰。她的名声甚至远播国外，可不幸流入风尘，才无所用，只能当人玩物，著有《花琐事》，《南游草》从中看来她足迹曾及神州大地。可惜她是妓女，她的著作现在已经见不到了。她的一些书画作品现藏于美国火奴鲁鲁美术馆，我国故宫博物馆，南京博物馆。她同时代作家王稺登曾送她砚台一块供调脂粉用，是为脂砚，该砚后来落到点评《红楼梦》者手中，《脂评红楼梦》即由此而来；再后为著名文人张伯驹购得，献给吉林省博物馆，于文革中遗失。

胡文楷先生《历代妇女著作考》引证有关文献载她：

“能画兰竹，作诗词，喜挟弹走马，以女侠自命。少游燕市，与五陵少年垂鞭连骑，日猎斗鸡之场，观者如堵。。。能书作《兰亭》小楷，尤工兰竹，下笔迅扫，各具意态，虽名画高手不能过。。。人称其有十能：诗、书、画、琴、弈、箫，而驰马、走索、射、弹尤绝技也。”

有一次“置弹于小婢头上，弹去而婢不知”。诗人陆碧，曾专门写诗以记此事。

她曾有心上人，是位姓李的将军，她给他写过不少诗，可“落花有意，流水无情”，由于她是妓女，还是被抛弃了。她只有倾诉于诗中。如：
良夜思君君不归，孤灯照客影微微。
携来独枕谁相问？明月空庭泪湿衣

《无声史诗》载：“薛素素善驰马挟弹，能以两弹先后发，必使后弹击前弹，碎于空中。又置弹于地，以左手持弓向后，右手从背上反引其弓以击地下之弹，百不一失。”

凭她的文才和武技，如果她是男子，或者不是妓女，也许早建功立业，名垂青史；她的弹技不下于瑞士的William Tell,而她的文才和其它技艺则远远超过他的。可他是西方家喻户晓的英雄，而她，出身和道路都不由她选 择。她的结果是“中年长斋礼佛，数嫁皆不终，晚归吴下一富翁为方老（即妾）以死”（列朝诗集小传）。她像一颗流星，辉煌一刻，又马上流失，只是使人在一些文献中偶然发现她不胜怅怅。著名诗人吴梅村，钱廷烺曾写有追记她的诗篇，可又谁会一读和回忆她呢？

Xue Susu---- A Prostitute whose literary and martial arts surpassed those of William Tell

陈水明 译

Xue Susu, another name Sunqing, a prostitute of Beijing in the period of Ming dynasty, She was a versatile prostitute with both literary and martial arts unequaled in her generation that attracted countless literati and noble young men to throw themselves at her feet. Her fame even spread to foreign countries. Unfortunately she was driven to prostitution and had no place to develop her abilities thus could do nothing but be man’s playing thing.

She had works <On Follower Matters >, <Note of South Tourism>, from which it can be seen she had travelled many places of China. Regrettably, her works had already been lost; only some paintings and calligraphy works of hers now are kept in Beijing and Nanjing Museums and Honolulu Galley Mr. Wang Zhideng, a writer of her same time, had presented her with a small ink-stone for her mixing rouge, which was called ‘rouge ink-stone’. Afterward that ink-stone was obtained by the man who noted the novel <The Dream of Red Mansions>, thus the version is called ‘rouge reviewed version’; again afterward the  ink-stone was bought by a well-known man of letters, Zhang Boju. He presented it to Liaoning Museum. Unfortunately it was lost in the period of ‘Cultural Revolution’.

In his work <The Textual Research of the Woman Works of Various Dynasties> Mr. Hu Wenkai quoted some concerned literature where it records:“Xue Susu could paint orchid, bamboo, compose poems, loved riding with a slingshot in hands, boasted of herself as ‘female chivalrous woman’…she often rode a horse playing in the cockfighting fields of the capital together with noble young men, which attracted the attention of countless audiences. … She could write regular script in small characters of the <Lanting Calligraphic Model> style, specially be good at painting orchid, bamboo, did it swiftly with special flavor, even the well-known experts couldn’t surpass her in this respect…It was called that she had ten kinds of skills including: composing poem, calligraphy, painting; playing string-music instruments, chesses and xiao (a kind of blowing music instrument); especially was good at riding horses, walking on the iron cords, archery and slingshot.”

It was also recorded that once she put a piece of small stone on the head of a girl, and shot the stone with a slingshot, the stone was hit away and the girl didn’t feel. Mr. Lu Bi, a well-known poet, had specially written a poem to record this matter.

She had an intended lover, who was a general. But ‘the faded flower has an intention, while the flowing water has no passion’; because she was a prostitute, she was given up at last. She had only to complain it in her poems, such as:

<Silent Epic> by Mr. Jiang Shaoshu records: “Xue Susu was good at riding a horse with a slingshot in hand. She could successively shoot two pills, with the later one shoot the former one and break it. Still, she could put a piece of stone on the ground, hold a bow with her left hand to the back of her shoulder and with her right hand from her back shoot the stone, surely hit it without any failure.” 

With her literary talent and marshal arts, if she was a man, or not a prostitute, perhaps she could make contributions for the country and went down in history as a heroine; her slingshot skill was not less than that of William Tell and her literary talent and other skills were those not owned by him. But William Tell was a famous hero; while she could neither choose her family background, nor choose the way to take. Her result was “In her middle age, she practiced abstinence from meat and worshiped Buddha; several married but got divorces; in her old age, married a rich merchant as his concubine and passed away.”

Like a shooting star, she sparked and soon disappeared, which make people occasionally discover her in some kinds of literature and disappointed.

Two well-known poets Wu Meicun and Qian Tinglang had composed poems to memorize her, but who will read them and recall her at present?