Kongji and Patzzi - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

A childless couple was granted with a very beautiful baby girl whom they named Kongji. Her mother died when Kongji was 100 days old. She grew up with her father. The man remarried again when Kongji was fourteen years old. To replace his wife, he found a cruel widow who had a very ugly daughter named Patzzi. Her father died eventually. From that time on-wards, the stepmother and Patzzi treated Kongji very unfairly. They starved her, dressed her in rags and forced her to do all the dirtiest work in the house.

One day, the stepmother forced Kongji to plow a field with a wooden hoe. The hoe soon broke, leaving Kongji in tears, for fear that her step-mother would beat her again. A cow appeared and comforted her. He plowed the field in her place, and sent Kongji home with a basket of apples, a gift from the cow. Her stepmother accused her of stealing the apples and gave the entire basket to Patzzi. And she refused to give Kongji her supper.

The next day, the stepmother gave Kongji enormous pot with a hole in the bottom. She has to fill it with water before she and Patzzi return home from town. Kongji kept bringing baskets of water but the pot was never filled. The water leaks out from the hole. A turtle appeared and blocked the hole for her. With his help, Kongji filled the pot with water. The stepmother was even angrier. She spanked Kongji black and blue.

After a time, the King announced that he is looking for a wife. A dance will be given in his honor, to which every maiden must attend. Kongji and Patzzi are invited. The stepmother was hopeful that Patzzi would be the lucky one, but was afraid that Kongji would spoil her own daughter's chance. Before they left, the stepmother gave Kongji a huge sack of rice to hull, which she must accomplish before they return from the dance. Kongji asked for help from the heavens, and a flock of sparrows appeared and hulled the rice. A fairy came down from heaven and dressed Kongji in a beautiful gown and a delicate pair of colorful shoes. She was transported to the palace by four men in a magnificent palanquin. Kongji hurried towards the dance.

Everyone admired her because of her beauty. The King went to her to ask her name. But when Kongji saw her stepmother and stepsister among the guests, she fled with terror. Patzzi remarked to her mother that the strange girl looks like her Kongji. As Kongji crossed a bridge, she tripped. One of her shoes fell into the stream. The King found the shoe and vowed to marry the woman it belonged to. Servants tried the shoe on every woman in the land, until they arrived in Kongji's village. It fits no one, only Kongji. She was the last to try the shoe. Then she produced her clothes and the other pair of her shoes. The King and Kongji were married.

Patzzi was jealous of Kongji's marriage and drowned her in a river. Patzzi disguised herself as Kongji to live with the King. Kongji's spirit would haunt anyone in the river. A brave man confronted her ghost and she told him everything. The man reported this to the King, and the King went into the river. Instead of a dead body, he retrieved a golden lotus. He kissed the lotus and it was changed back into Kongji.

The King sentenced Patzzi to death and had the servants make sauce from her body. They sent it to the stepmother. The stepmother ate the sauce greedily, mistaking it as a gift from her daughter. A cock revealed to her everything. When she learned of Patzzi's death, Kongji's stepmother fell in a faint from which she never awoke.