The emperor asked him, “What is your surname? Where do you live? What are you suffering that you come to appeal to me?”
The old man came down along a pillar, put down his stick, kowtowed to the emperor with his head to the ground, yet kept silent without speaking a word. Then he lifted his head to look around the room, lowered his head to point at the emperor’s feet, and suddenly disappeared.
Seized by shock and fear, the emperor did not know what to do. He said to himself, Dongfang Shuo must know of him.4 Thus he summoned Dongfang Shuo and told him what had happened.
Shuo said, “His name is Zao, the spirit of rivers and woods. In the summer he dwells in the deep forest, and in the winter he dives in the deep river. Your majesty frequently built palaces and houses by cutting down what he takes as residence. For this reason he came to appeal, and that is all. That he lifts his head to look around the room and lowers his head to point to your feet indicates ‘This is enough’; he hopes that Your Majesty’s palaces and rooms are enough from now on.”5 The emperor was touched, and thereupon he stopped palace construction.
Later, when the emperor went on an inspection tour to the Huzi River,6 he heard string music and songs coming from the bottom of the river. The old man who had been on the beam and several teenagers appeared in red garments and white belts with extremely bright ribbon. All of them were eight or nine inches in height. One of them, a bit more than one foot tall, came out by lightly walking on the surface of the water, his clothing not wet at all. Some of them carried musical instruments.
The emperor had just started eating, but he stopped for this and asked them to sit in a row in front of the dining table.
The emperor asked, “I heard someone playing music under the water. Was that for me?”
The old man replied, “Previously this old vassal appealed at the risk of his life. Luckily, because of Your Majesty’s favor, which is comparable to the favor of heaven and earth, the axmen were stopped immediately, and we were able to keep our residences intact. Being overjoyed, we therefore privately celebrated with music ourselves.”
The emperor asked, “Could you please play music for me?”
“We especially brought musical instruments, how would we dare not to play?” was the answer. The tallest man then played strings music while singing, and the song went,
The virtuous Heaven and Earth sent down a message that was most human;
taking pity on souls in the netherworld, they stopped the axmen.
Having kept our cavernous residences which shelter our bodies,
we wish you live ten thousand years, the Son of Heaven!
The volume of the song was not different from that of human beings. It was clear and loud, circling the beam for a long time. Furthermore, two people played music with a vertical bamboo flute and a zither. The sound of their playing matched well and their tones were harmonious.
Delighted, the emperor raised a cup and toasted them: “This unworthy man is not good enough to accept your kind offering.”
The old man and others all stood up to kowtow and receive cups of wine. Each of them drank several liters, yet none was drunk.
The old man presented the emperor with a purple spiral shell, inside which there was a substance of the consistency and appearance of ox fat.
The emperor asked, “I’m not knowledgeable, and do not know what it is.”
The old man replied, “Dongfang Shuo knows it.”
The emperor said, “You may send me some more precious and unique things.”
The old man looked back and asked for the treasure of the cave to be fetched. Receiving the order, a man dove to the bottom of the deep pool and returned in moments. He brought back a large pearl, several inches in diameter, with a brightness matchless in this world. The emperor enjoyed playing with it very much. The old man and the others, however, suddenly disappeared.
The emperor asked Shuo, “What is the substance inside the purple spiral shell?”
Shuo replied, “It is the marrow of river dragons, which makes one retain good skin color when one puts it on his or her face; in addition, if a pregnant woman uses it, her delivery would certainly be easy.”
By chance there was a woman who was suffering a difficult delivery. They tried the marrow on her, and it had a divine effect. The emperor put it on his face, which then became more lustrous.
The emperor asked again, “Why is this pearl called a cave pearl?” Shuo replied, “At the bottom of the river there is a cave, several hundred zhang deep. Inside it there is a red clam that produces pearls. Therefore it is called a cave pearl.”
The emperor not only deeply admired the story but also was convinced by Shuo’s unique knowledge.
(GXSGC, #31. 358–60; TPGJ, 118. 822–23; TPYL, 886. 3937a; YWLJ, 84. 1438; & BTSC, 144. 305a)
74. A BLEEDING BOARD
In the Yixi reign period, on the Nie Lake of Jiangsheng County,7 a board appeared unexpectedly. It was several feet wide, more than twenty feet long, and stayed constantly on the river. The water chestnut pickers and fishermen used it to cross the river themselves. Later, when several people rode on it entering the lake, someone tried to cut it and blood oozed from it. Subsequently, the board sank and several people were drowned.
(GXSGC, #139. 393; TPYL, 767. 3403a)
75. STONE MIRRORS
By the Gongting Lake and next to the mountain8 there were several stones. Each was shaped like a mirror, and so bright that people’s faces could be reflected; thus they were called stone mirrors.
Later, when a traveler passed by, he singed one of them with fire. As a result, it was no longer bright, and the man became blind.
(GXSGC, #17. 357–58; TPYL, 717. 3179b)
76. A DOG DEMON
A year after Wen Jinglin of Taiyuan,9 director of the palace library of Jin, had died, his wife, Nee Huan,10 unexpectedly saw him returning. They stayed and slept together, yet he was reluctant to see men. When the son of his older brother came to see him, he opened the window slightly, exposing his face to meet the boy. Later he exposed his real shape while drunk; it turned out that he was the yellow dog of the neighbor. Then he was killed.
(GXSGC, #159. 398–99; TPGJ, 438. 3564)
77. A COCK SPIRIT
In the Dai Commandery,11 there was an inn that was often haunted and could not be lodged in. Once a few strong and brave young scholars walked and sang along the street, intending to stop and lodge there. The clerk of the hotel tried to stop them. The young men said, “We ourselves can dispel this.” So they lodged and ate at the inn.
At night, a ghost appeared playing a five-holed flute with one hand, seemingly almost unable to hold the flute. The young men became impatient; they laughed, saying, “You have only one hand. How can you cover all the holes? Let us play it for you.” The ghost said, “You think I lack fingers?” Then it stretched out its other hand, which had several dozen fingers.
The young men knew that the ghost could be attacked; thereupon they drew their swords to cut it, and they got an old cock, its followers all chicks.
(GXSGC, #181. 405; TPGJ, 461. 3784; TPYL, 580. 2617b)
78. THE GIRL IN FUNERAL GARMENTS
In the Jianwu period of Jin (317–318), Feng Fa of Shan County was transporting his goods.12 Having lodged by a reed dyke at night, he saw a short, white-skinned girl in funeral garments, asking for a free ride.
The next morning, when the boat was about to set off, the girl said she would go shortly to fetch her luggage. After she left, Fa lost one bolt of silk. The girl brought two bunches of hay and placed them in the boat. Something similar occurred more than ten times, and he lost ten bolts of silk.
Fa suspected that she was not human, so he tied up her feet. The girl said, “Your silk is in the grass over there.” Then she transformed into a big egret. Fa boiled it and ate it. Its meat was not very delicious.
(GXSGC, #79. 375; TPGJ, 462. 3791)
79. A BAT
At the beginning of the [Liu] Song dynasty, in Huainan Comm
andery a creature kept removing people’s chignons.13 The governor, Zhu Dan, said, “I know what the creature is now.” He then purchased a lot of gum and smeared it over the walls.
At night, a bat as big as a chicken fell onto the gum and could not free itself. After the bat was killed, the trouble stopped. When people went to look, beneath the hooked curtain there were several hundred chignons.
(GXSGC, #236. 421; TPYL, 946. 4199b; TPGJ, 473. 3900)
80. LOSING KNOTTED HAIR
In the ninth year of the Yuanjia reign period (432), an attendant of Ming Yizhi, the adjutant of the General Conquering the North,14 had a terrible nightmare. Yizhi went to wake him in person. The attendant could not respond for quite a while, and furthermore, he had lost his knotted hair. After three days he awoke, saying that three people had held his feet and one had tied his hair. Suddenly he dreamed of a Buddhist monk,15 who gave him a pill resembling the seed of a tung oil tree and asked him to eat it with water. When he awoke, the pill was in his hand. He took it and then recovered.
(GXSGC, #242. 423; TPGJ, 276. 2185)
81. AN ALLIGATOR SPIRIT
Cai Xing, a native of Jinling,16 suddenly became crazy. He sang and chanted intermittently, and frequently talked to and laughed with the air as if with several people.
Someone said, “Whose daughter should I marry?”
Another one responded, “There are already many families.”
Late at night, people suddenly heard the voices of more than ten people sending something into villager Liu Yuzhi’s home.
When Yuzhi drew a knife and dashed out his door, he saw a black man who cursed him, saying, “I am the governor of lakes and I am visiting you. Yet you intend to kill me?” Then he asked his partners, “Why don’t you help me?”
Yuzhi raised his knife and cut them wildly; in the end he obtained a big alligator and a fox.
(GXSGC, #229. 419; TPGJ, 469. 3865–66)
82. A MALE FOX
When Xi Zaochi (d. 383) worked as the Recorder of Jingzhou,17 he once went out hunting with Huan Wen (312–373), the posthumous Emperor Xuanwu.18 Seeing a yellow creature, he shot it, and it immediately died. It was an old male fox, with a crimson silk sachet tied to its foreleg.
(GXSGC, #109. 384; TPYL, 704. 3142a)
83. A DEER SPIRIT
Xie Kun (281–323),19 a native of Chen Commandery,20 once lodged at an inn where many people had been killed. At the end of the fourth watch, someone in yellow yelled, “Please open the door, Youyu!” Kun asked him to stretch his arm through the window; thereupon the person gave him his wrist. Kun pulled it with all his strength. The arm was broken off, allowing the person to escape.
The next day, when Xie Kun looked at it, it turned out that it was the front leg of a deer. Following the traces of blood, he caught it.
(GXSGC, #65. 371; CXJ, 29. 715)
84. A SNAKE SNORES
Xue Zhong, a clerk of Guiji Commandery and a native of Mao County,21 was allowed a vacation during which he returned home.
When he arrived, it was night and the door of his house was closed, and he heard the snore of a man from his wife’s bed. Zhong called his wife, and she took quite a while to get out of bed.
Before his wife completely opened the door, Zhong approached her with a knife, asking, “Who is the drunk man?”
His wife was startled, declaring persistently that there truly was nobody there.
Zhong’s house had only one door. He searched thoroughly yet found nothing. Then he saw a big snake hidden in the corner of the bed, with the bad smell of a drunkard. Zhong cut the snake into pieces and discarded it into the backyard ditch.
Several days later the wife died. A few days after that, Zhong died as well, but he was revived after three days.
He said that at the beginning of death, someone put fetters around his neck and brought him to an official residence where he met an official.22
The official asked, “Why did you kill someone?”
Zhong replied, “I did not kill anyone, indeed.”
The official said, “You cut someone into pieces and threw the dead body into your backyard ditch. Who was that?”
Zhong said, “It was a snake, not a person.”
The commandery governor realized his mistake in astonishment, saying, “I often took him as a spirit. Yet he ventured to rape another’s wife as well as groundlessly launch lawsuits against others.” He ordered his attendants to summon him, and the clerks brought a man wearing a flat-top cap. The governor questioned him and accused him of raping Zhong’s wife and sentenced him to jail.
Zhong was then sent back.
(GXSGC, #198. 409; TPYL, 934. 4151b)
85. THE MONK ZHONGZUO
Zhongzuo, a monk of the Northern Monastery of Wu Commandery,23 was lying in his room when a rat came out from a pit, saying that Zhongzuo would die in a few days.
Zhongzuo summoned his servant and ordered him to buy a dog. The rat said, “I will not be afraid of it. If you let a dog enter through this door, you will definitely die.”
In a short while, a dog arrived as expected. Zhongzuo then told his servant in a low voice, “Tomorrow hire someone to bring twenty buckets of water here.”
The rat had already known of this and said, “Stop! You want to fill my den with water? My den connects to everywhere.”
They poured water into its den for a whole day, yet obtained nothing.
Secretly, Zhongzuo asked his servant to hire more than thirty men. The rat said, “I’ll go up to live on the roof of this house. What can you do to me?” When the thirty men came, the rat was on the roof.
Zhongzuo’s servant was named Zhou. The rat said, “Zhou has stolen two hundred thousand cash, and he will desert you and flee.” Later when Zhongzuo checked his storage, he found that what the rat said was true, and the servant had also fled.
When Zhongzuo had to do business, he closed his door and told the rat, “You are making me rich. Now I have a long trip. Please diligently guard my house, allowing nothing to be lost.”
At that time, Huan Xuan urgently forbade killing oxen in Nanzhou.24 Zhongzuo loaded several dozen thousand cash,25 secretly purchased ox skins, and returned to the east. After he sold them, he obtained two hundred thousand cash. When he returned, his house was still closed. Nothing was gone, and the rat had vanished as well. Then he became very wealthy.
(GXSGC, #117. 386–87; YWLJ, 95. 1659; TPYL, 885. 3933a & 911. 4037b–38a; and TPGJ, 440. 3586–87)
86. THE RAT HAT
During the time of Prince Qi of the Wei,26 Wang Zhounan of Zhongshan was the magistrate of Xiangyi County.27 A rat suddenly emerged from its den and said, “Zhounan, you will die on a certain date.” Zhounan did not respond.
When that day arrived, the rat changed its attire and came out with an official hat, handkerchief, and black clothing, saying, “Zhounan, you will die at noon.” Zhounan still did not respond, and the rat entered its den again.
At noon, the rat came out again with the official hat and handkerchief, saying, “Zhounan, you don’t respond; what should I say?” After finishing, it fell down and died, and its clothes and hat disappeared.
Zhounan approached and looked at it. It was just a rat, no different from others.
(GXSGC, #52. 367; TPGJ, 440. 3586)
87. THE RAT OF QINGHE
Each time a governor of Qinghe Commandery arrived to assume his post,28 he would die immediately.
When the new governor arrived and went to the restroom, a tiny man, three inches tall and wearing an official hat and black clothing, told him, “You will die on a certain day.”
The governor did not respond, yet was extremely unhappy. He urged his clerk to be the host [to prepare for his funeral]. Outsiders felt it was fairly strange.
At noon on the day of his assumed death, when the governor went to the restroom, he saw the tiny man he had seen previously, who told him, “You will die today at noon.” He repeated his words three times, yet the governor still did not respond.
Then the tiny man said, “You should speak yet you do not. I, this rat, shall die on your behalf.” Then it fell down to the ground and appeared as big as a pig. Thus the commandery became peaceful.
(GXSGC, #227. 419; TPGJ, 440. 3587)
88. THE FOX SPIRIT
The servant of Dai Miao of Wuxing,29 surnamed Wang, had a young and beautiful wife, but the second younger brother of Dai Miao had approached her intimately.
The servant privately harbored resentment and anger, and he told Miao everything, saying, “Your second younger brother did this. It was extremely impertinent. I’d like to hear what you have to say.”
When Miao questioned his brother about this, his brother cursed bitterly, saying, “Where was such a thing! It must be a demon or ghost.” He ordered Miao to kill it.
At the beginning, the servant dared not hit the man [with his wife], and he reconfirmed the agreement seriously and clearly with Miao.
Later, when the man came again, the servant closed the door and intended to tie him up with a rope. Then the man became a big fox and dashed out the window.
(GXSGC, #195. 408; TPYL, 912. 4041a)
89. A ROOSTER’S TRANSFORMATION
Zhu Zong of Linhuai Commandery had just experienced the disaster of his mother’s death,30 and he constantly lived away from home. His wife was ill, so he went back to see her.
The woman said, “Due to the importance of your mourning, there is no need for you to return so many times.”
Zong replied, “Since the torment occurred, when have I come back home?”
The woman said, “You have come back numerous times.”
Hidden and Visible Realms Page 12