by Pu Songling
Second Brother anxiously wanted to see her. Xiangqun grasped a writing brush as though she intended to write a letter, but then flung it aside, crying, “I can’t! I can’t!” He strongly reiterated his request several more times, till she answered him, “Just don’t let yourself be seduced.” Yan promised he’d behave. Then she divided the paper into several strips and wrote characters on them, like talismans, and proceeded to set them on fire outside Yan’s gates.
Shortly thereafter, the curtains began to move, accompanied by the sound of stifled laughter. Xiangqun got up and dragged in a woman whose hair was coiled sky-high on her head, almost like someone one might see in a painting or drawing. Xiangqun took her hand and sat her down on a bed, then poured wine so they might chat together like friends who hadn’t seen each other for a long time.
Initially, Lingxian glanced at Yan while covering her mouth coyly with her sleeve, as though she was wasn’t going to speak freely with him; after drinking several cups of wine, however, she began joking and talking uninhibitedly, gradually extending one of her feet to press up against Yan’s clothing. Yan was so utterly infatuated with her, he no longer knew whether his will was his own or not.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she distracted him from Xiangqun, who became defensive and in moments refused to leave his side. Wei Lingxian suddenly stood up, pulled aside the curtains, and left the room; Xiangqun followed her, as did Second Brother.
Wei Lingxian took Yan by the hand and hurried him away into another room. This made Xiangqun very angry, but she couldn’t do anything about it, so she returned to her room, furious, where she listened to hear what they were doing. In moments, when Yan entered, Xiangqun told him, “You didn’t listen to me, and in the future, you’re going to have a hard time saying no to her.” Second Brother began to suspect that Xiangqun was jealous, and hence she seemed unhappy and disoriented.
The next night, Wei Lingxian wasn’t summoned, but showed up on her own. Xiangqun was quite disgusted to see her, and haughtily treated her without any courtesy; Lingxian subsequently spent some time together with Second Brother and then left. This pattern continued for several nights. Whenever Xiangqun spotted her approaching, she reviled and insulted Lingxian, but she was unable to drive her rival away.
A month went by and Yan grew so ill that he couldn’t get out of bed, so he began to regret his actions deeply, thus he called for Xiangqun to come and sleep with him there, hoping that she could help him avoid further contact with Lingxian; though she guarded him day and night, without relaxing for an instant, the ghostly Lingxian still managed to appear and engage in sex once again with Yan. Xiangqun grabbed a stick to chase her away, but the ghost angrily fought back till Xiangqun began weakening, receiving wounds all over her hands and feet.
Second Brother fell into a deep sleep. Weeping, Xiangqun cried, “How will I ever see my elder sister again?” Over the next several days, Second Brother Yan’s condition continued to deteriorate until he finally died.
Immediately afterward, he witnessed two servants holding official documents enter, so he unconsciously followed them when they left. When they arrived at the roadway, Yan was worried that he didn’t have any money for traveling expenses, so the servants showed him a shortcut to his elder brother’s home. His elder brother went pale with panic when he saw him and demanded, “Second Brother, what have you done to end up here?”
“It wasn’t me,” replied Yan, “but a ghost who made me ill.” He proceeded to tell him all about Lingxian.
“She’s definitely the one responsible,” declared his brother. Then he took out some silver that was wrapped up and told the servants, “You have to accept this, please. My brother shouldn’t have died for his misdeed, so please explain that when you return and I’ll send my son to go with you, so perhaps everything will work out.” He called for A-Da to reward the servants with some drinks.
Turning around, he went inside the house, where he related his plans to everyone. Then he directed Gan to go next door and summon Wei Lingxian. Presently they arrived, and when Lingxian saw Yan, she wanted to flee. His brother seized her and scornfully berated her, “You lewd slut! When you were alive, you were an unfaithful woman, and now that you’re dead, you’re just a despicable ghost, long despised and avoided by everyone; then you decide to haunt my brother!” He stood and slapped her, causing the tall coil of hair on her head to collapse into disarray, her seductive power suddenly diminished.
After some time, an old woman appeared and prostrated herself on the ground to make a sorrowful apology. The older brother scolded the old woman for allowing Lingxian, her pampered daughter, to become involved in lascivious activities in public, then after cursing at her, he ordered the old woman and her daughter to go away.
The older brother then accompanied Yan as he came out, floating through the air, soon arriving at his house’s gates and continuing straight inside until Second Brother was lying down in his room, and suddenly it was as if he’d just awakened, and he realized that until then, he’d been dead. His elder brother reproached Xiangqun: “I treated you with the respect accorded an elder sister, telling you my brother was virtuous and talented, and hence I sent you to be with him; instead, you precipitate my brother’s death! If I wasn’t forbidden by the traditional family decorum for brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws, I’d give you a good beating!” Xiangqun felt so ashamed and intimidated that she sobbed piteously, till at length the elder brother accepted her abject apologies.
He turned happily to A-Xiao and said, “You‘ve unexpectedly become a living person!” Xiangqun wanted to prepare some millet meal for him, but elder brother took his leave, explaining, “My younger brother’s affairs haven’t been settled, so I have no time to rest.”
A-Xiao was thirteen and over time had come to realize how much he loved his father; when the elder brother prepared to leave, the boy tearfully wished to go with him. “Staying with your uncle will give you the greatest happiness,” he told his son, “while I return.” He turned around then and disappeared—henceforth, no further communication passed between them.
After A-Xiao was married, his wife gave birth to a son, and at the age of thirty, A-Xiao died. Second Brother Yan cared for the child like he was his own son. When Yan reached the age of eighty, A-Xiao’s son was twenty, and so Second Brother turned his estate over to him.
Xiangqun didn’t give birth to any children. One day, she said to Yan, “I guess a spirit like me should precede you to the grave, eh?” Dressing in splendid attire, then, she lay down on her bed and died. Yan was inconsolable, and six months later, he, too, died.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “In all the world, how many people experience the kind of fraternal affection that Second Brother received! Not only did he not die early, he was even given an extra complement of years. To have no children in this world, but then to receive them as Yan did through the death of his elder brother, shows the sincere benevolence of heaven; if people didn’t acknowledge this, would heaven allow this to happen as often as it does? In the case of Second Brother Yan, there might be many children who, if they were born among the dead, would desire to inherit property in the real world; what I fear is that there are few brothers like Yan virtuous enough to accept such children and raise them, however, since he could’ve just inherited all of his brother’s property himself!”
396. Three Incarnations
There was a certain fellow from Hunan who could remember three of his previous incarnations. In one incarnation, while serving as a district magistrate, he participated as an official for the provincial level civil service examination. There was a literary scholar, Xing Yutang, who had failed the examination and became so angry that he died, so when he arrived in the underworld, he was grasping his examination essay and immediately filed a suit.
Once this written complaint was delivered, his cause of death was found to be the same as thousands of other dead folk, so they chose Xing to serve as their representative. The district magi
strate was then assimilated into the underworld so he might be examined in its court. The Hell King accordingly asked him, “After you’ve judged the literary essays, how is it possible that you can fail a scholar of virtue and ability, but pass a scholar of mediocre talent?”
“There’s a chief examiner presiding,” the magistrate offered by way of clarification, “and I just follow his recommendations.” The Hell King then issued a warrant for the arrest of the responsible party.
After a long time, the chief examiner was brought forward. The Hell King informed him of what the magistrate had said. “The magistrate,” replied the man, “introduced the general procedure; but if there was an elegant essay that for some reason wasn’t recommended by the room official, how could I possibly have a chance to examine it?”
“You can’t just go shifting blame to someone else,” the Hell King declared to the magistrate, “so for neglecting your duty, we’ll make an example of you both by having you whipped.” Just as they were about to carry out this punishment, Xing loudly yelled that this was unsatisfactory; suddenly the ghosts on the steps outside of the Hell King’s office joined his shouts with their own cries of outrage.
When the Hell King asked why he was dissatisfied with the punishment, Xing explained, “The pain of torture is too slight—you should dig out his eyes as punishment for not recognizing the value of my essay.”
The Hell King was unwilling to countermand the punishment, and the assembled throng of ghosts shouted for him to be even more severe. “He wasn’t the one who failed to find this an excellent essay,” announced the Hell King, “but simply one who closed his mind to the possibility.” The assembled ghosts then called for the Hell King to have the magistrate’s heart cut open.
Deciding that he had no choice but to do so, the Hell King had servants remove the magistrate’s robe and other clothing, then take a bared sword and slice into his chest, while he screamed himself hoarse as his blood began pouring from the wound.
The entire mob of ghosts instantly began crying, “We, the dead, have been depressed because we never get a chance to express our angry frustration; now because of you, Master Xing, all of our resentment has disappeared.” They cheered boisterously and then dispersed.
After the magistrate had been cut open, he was escorted to Shanxi, where he was reborn as the son of peasants there. When he reached the age of twenty, it happened that a group of ill-mannered bandits sprang up and he was forced to become a member of their gang. Military forces had been sent to track and suppress the bandits, so when they finally captured the entire enclave, they also captured the reincarnated magistrate.
Since he certainly knew he was no thief, he hoped he’d be able to persuade others of his innocence.
They brought him to a hall where he saw a high official who also looked to be about twenty years old, and as he examined the man carefully, it became clear to him that it was scholar Xing. In shock, he cried out, “We’ve been through this before!”
After all the other prisoners of the thieves had been released, only the former magistrate was brought forward, his comment making his guilt seem incontestable, and consequently he was chopped in two. As soon as the former magistrate arrived again in the underworld, he initiated a suit against Xing. The Hell King didn’t call for Xing’s immediate arrest, but determined to wait for his career as an official to conclude.
Thirty years later, Xing finally appeared in the underworld to face the charges against him. It was judged that Xing had acted with utter disregard for human life, so he was to be punished by being reincarnated as an animal. When the Hell King investigated the former magistrate further, however, it was discovered that he had once beaten Xing’s parents, so his guilt was considered to be just as great as Xing’s.
The former magistrate and prisoner was afraid of what kind of rebirth he’d receive as a consequence, so he begged to be reborn as a large animal. Thus the Hell King pronounced that he would become a large dog while Xing would become a little dog.
The Hunan fellow was then reborn at a shop in northern Shuntian prefecture. One day, as he was lying in the street, a traveler from the southern midlands arrived, bearing a golden-haired dog that was the size of a raccoon. When the Shuntian dog saw it, he knew it was Xing.
He figured the other dog would be an easy target since it was small, so he leapt up and bit it. The little dog then sunk its teeth into his throat, like a bell fastened around it; the big dog began howling and running around in panic. The townspeople were unable to get the little dog loose, and in moments, the two dogs were dead.
_______________________________
Shuntian prefecture: Part of modern Beijing.
Upon their arrival in the underworld this time, the ongoing conflict between the former magistrate and Xing continued. “Time and time again, you’ve brought this punishment upon yourselves,” said the Hell King, “so when are you going to put an end to it? Now’s the time just to let it go.” Then his judgment was that Xing should become the former magistrate’s son-in-law in their next life.
He was subsequently reborn in Chuangyun, and at the age of twenty-eight, he had the honor of successfully passing the imperial civil service examination at the provincial level. His wife gave birth to a daughter who was demure, beautiful, and kind, and influential families began competing for her hand in marriage. But the former magistrate refused to betroth her to any of them.
He happened to be passing through a neighboring prefecture, to make a one-year appointment for an individual who’d passed the first level of the civil service examination, a scholar whose examination essay identified him as someone named Li—who was actually Xing. Thus he made arrangements for the young man to join him at an inn and treated him with munificence.
In asking about Li’s family, he learned that Li was unmarried and accordingly made a betrothal agreement with him. People said that he simply had a soft spot for individuals of not-yet-recognized talent, but they didn’t know about the long-standing judgment from his previous incarnation. Afterwards, Li married the daughter and they were very happy together.
However, son-in-law Li always bullied the old gentleman and cut him off from the outside, so that all year long, no one came to his gates. Yet his father-inlaw endured it all. After a year, Li became frustrated with his lack of advancement, so the old man offered him hundreds of strategies for success and soon he began to see his ambitions fulfilled in the examination halls. From this point forward, the two were reconciled and became as close as father and son.
The collector of these strange tales remarks, “With just one act, enmity of such a degree is created that even in three successive incarnations it can’t be resolved! It’s a good thing that the Hell King mediated the dispute; yet in our world, there are many cases like this, so are all the beloved son-in-laws in the world former aggrieved spirits from the underworld?”
_______________________________
Chuangyun: A county in Shandong province.
397. Changting
Shi Taipu, from Mt. Tai, was fascinated with the practice of magic to ward off evil. He happened to run into a Daoist priest who appreciated his intelligence and accepted Shi as a student. The Daoist opened a box with an ivory seal and took out two volumes—the first one on the subject of driving away foxes and the second of driving away ghosts. Then he took the second volume and passed it to Shi, declaring, “Pay earnest attention to this book, and clothing, food, and a beautiful woman will all be yours.”
Shi asked the Daoist his name, and the priest replied, “I’m Wang Chicheng, from the Temple of the Dark Emperor, in the village north of Bian.” Wang stayed there for several days, until he finished passing on his secrets. From that point forward, Shi proved proficient in Daoist talismanic writing, and as a consequence, people began crowding outside his gate to offer gifts, in hopes of being able to make his acquaintance.
One day, an old man who called himself Weng arrived, displaying a stunning amount of money, as he explained that his daug
hter’s life was in danger from an illness caused by a ghost, then frantically begged for Shi to pay her a visit. When Shi heard that she was critically ill, he took his leave, refusing any further gifts from the people at his gate, and immediately left with Weng.
_______________________________
Mt. Tai: Located in Shandong province.
Bian: Another name for Kaifeng, in Henan province.
Weng: While a surname, this character (翁) also means “old man.”
They traveled more than ten li to a mountain village, where they arrived at Weng’s home, which featured impressively attractive buildings and verandas. When they went inside, a maidservant pulled aside a thin, gauzey curtain with a hook, enabling Shi to observe a young lady lying wrapped in a thin sheet. From where he was standing, he could see that she was fourteen or fifteen years old, breathing so shallowly that she looked already corpselike.
As he approached her, she suddenly opened her eyes and exclaimed, “The learned doctor has arrived.” The members of her family in attendance all rejoiced at this, explaining that she hadn’t spoken for several days.
Shi then went back outside, to inquire about the nature of her malady. “It was in the daytime,” reported old Weng, “that we saw a young man appear and get into bed with her, but by the time we tried to grab him, he’d already vanished; a bit later, he’d come back, which is why we believe he’s a ghost.”
Shi replied, “If he’s a ghost, it’ll be no problem to drive him away; but I’m afraid he might be a fox, in which case I can’t guarantee anything.”
“It can’t be that, certainly not that,” exclaimed the old man. Shi proceeded to give them a talisman and lodged that night in their home.