Yu Chong drowned at Jiangzhou in the middle of the Jianyuan reign (343–344).8 On the same day he returned home, showing his form as usual. Mostly he stayed in the room of his wife, Nee Yue.
At first his wife was fearful, and she frequently called her nieces to accompany her. Because of this the ghost gradually came less.9 Sometimes he came temporarily, then cursed angrily, “You are fond of associating with living persons, yet that causes you to suspect me and dislike me. How could this be fair to my intention of returning?”
Her nieces were spinning and weaving inside when they saw the loom rise into the air, with a creature spinning it in disorder and throwing it to the ground. Her nieces were terrified and all left. Afterward the ghost appeared more frequently.
They had a three-year-old boy who approached his mother, asking for food. His mother said, “I have no money, where would I get food?” Then the ghost felt sorrowful.
The ghost put his hands on his son’s head, saying, “It was unfortunate that I died this early, and it now causes you to be needy. I wronged you, yet I care for you. What a vexing feeling!” Suddenly he showed his form and put two hundred cash before his wife, saying, “You can buy food for our son now.”
Things like this happened for years, yet his wife became more impoverished and could not even support herself. The ghost said, “You have kept chaste, yet you are in such a poor condition. I should indeed take you away from here.”
Not long afterward, his wife died of an illness, and the ghost was never seen again.
(GXSGC, #88. 378; TPGJ, 322. 2552)
116. WANG MING’ER MANIFESTS HIS PHYSICAL FORM
Wang Ming’er, a native of Donglai Commandery,10 once lived in Jingxi. One year after his death, he showed up in his physical form, returned to his home for a whole day, and requested that his relatives and friends be summoned to chitchat. He said, “The heavenly government allowed me to temporarily return home.”
While saying that he was about to depart, he started shedding tears. By greeting his fellow villagers, he expressed his deep feeling to them. He said to his son, “Since I left the human world, it has been a whole year. I have longed to see my hometown again.” He ordered his son to visit the village with him.
When they passed the temple of Deng Ai (197–264),11 he ordered his son to burn it down. His son was astonished, saying, “Ai was the General of Pacifying the East when he was alive and has been numinous after his death. Commoners offer sacrifices to him for blessing. Why do you want to set his temple on fire?”
Ming’er became angry, saying, “Ai is now polishing armor at the imperial store, and his ten fingers will be gone very soon. How can he be numinous?” He said further, “Also, the Grand General Wang [Dun] is now an ox;12 he is driven back and forth and is about to die. Huan Wen is but a soldier.13 All of them are in hell. In such inexplicable dilemmas, how could they bring disaster or blessing to others? If you intend to seek blessing, you should just be respectful, submissive, and loyal, and love your parents. In addition, don’t be angry at others. This will be extremely good for you.”
He also ordered, “You may collect fingernails, which can be used to redeem your crimes.” He asked people as well to make tall thresholds, so that when a ghost came and entered their rooms to record their crimes, they would stumble over it and then forget everything.
(GXSGC, #215. 414–15; TPGJ, 320. 2537)
117. RUAN ZHAN14
Ruan Zhan (fl. 307–312) persistently believed that ghosts do not exist,15 and nobody in the world was able to refute him. He himself always thought that his theories were sufficient to distinguish and justify things in both this world and the netherworld.
Suddenly a ghost appeared. He reported his name and went to see Ruan as a guest. After greetings, they discussed how to distinguish right from wrong. The guest had unmatched ability in this area.
At the end of their talk, they spoke of ghosts and spirits. They had a bitter debate, and the guest yielded. Then he suddenly became angry, saying, “Ghosts and spirits have been talked about by the sages and worthies from ancient times to the present. Why do you alone say that they do not exist? I myself am a ghost!” Thus he suddenly changed his form into something not human, and a moment later he dissolved.
Ruan was terrified, and both his mood and his look were very bad. A little over a year later, he died of sickness.
(GXSGC, #67. 371; TPYL, 617. 2774a–b; TPGJ, 319. 2526)
118. THE DEITY OF YANGSHA
Peng Huzi was young and strong, possessing great muscular strength. He frequently said that there are neither ghosts nor spirits.
After his mother’s death, a vulgar shaman admonished him, saying, “Someday the deity of Yangsha will return and kill someone again. It is proper for you to leave home and yield to him.” Then all those who were young or weak in his family fled and hid, and Huzi was left alone in the house.
At midnight, someone pushed down the door and entered. He searched the east room and west room respectively, but failed to find anyone. Then he entered the main room and rushed toward the mourning hall. Huizi was terrified and did not know what to do, so he entered an earthen jar, which had been placed there previously, and covered his head with a wooden board. He felt that his mother was on the board, and someone asked her, “Is anybody under the board?” His mother replied, “No one.” Then they left together.
(GXSGC, #259. 432–33; TPGJ, 318. 2521)
119. ADJUTANT HE
When Commander-in-Chief Huan was garrisoned at Zheqi Ridge,16 Adjutant He went out in the morning, talked in the field, and urinated on a skeleton. After returning, he slept in the daytime and dreamed of a woman who said, “You are a decent man, why did you defile me? I’ll let you know me this evening!”
At that time there were fierce tigers around that area, so nobody dared to walk outside at night. Adjutant He often dug a hole in the wall as his urinating pit. That night, he approached the pit intending to urinate. Enraged by his urinating, a tiger bit his penis off, and he died right then and there.
(GXSGC, #106. 384; TPYL, 892. 3961a)
120. SUO YUAN
When Suo Yuan was at Liyang,17 he contracted an illness. From the western border came a young girl with a certain surname, who said herself that she was sent down by spirits and came to inform Suo Yuan, and promised to treat and take care of him.
By nature Yuan was upright and outspoken; he considered her a bewildering demon. He detained her, put her in jail, then killed her and displayed her corpse in the market. Before death the girl said, “Seventeen days later, I’ll let Suo Yuan know [the consequence of] his crime.”
By the expected time, Yuan truly died.
(GXSGC, #120. 387; annotation in “Shangshi” of SSXY, 17. 647)
121. WUHUAN
Yu Hong was an assistant in the official residence of the Prince of Jingling,18 and his home was at Jiangling.19 Yu Hong asked Wuhuan, his servant, to deliver some rice to support his family.
Having walked no more than three li, Wuhuan met robbers and was killed. His corpse floated down a river and stopped alongside Chakou Village.
At that time, a man named Wen Xin lived by the side of the river, and his mother was ill. A doctor told him, “She needs to take some human skull powder. After taking it, she will fully recover.” Xin promised a handsome reward for the powder. His neighbor, Mrs. Yang, saw the corpse of Wuhuan, so she cut off his head and sent it to Wen Xin.
Xin set it on fire, intending to get rid of the skin and flesh. Three days passed, yet the head was not burned, and the eyes opened and scanned the area. Even though he felt it was strange, Wen Xin still treasured the head and did not throw it away. Accordingly, he scraped some powder from its ear and cheek bones and gave it to his mother to take.
Immediately his mother felt the bones choke her throat, and after seven days she passed away. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Yang fell ill, and her body was all red and swollen, resembling an ox or a horse. She saw Wuhuan’s head come and curse her, “How could y
ou avoid the retribution for good and evil?”
Mrs. Yang told this to her son. When she finished speaking, she died.
(GXSGC, #165. 400; TPGJ, 119. 838)
122. DISASTERS FROM STEALING COFFIN BOARDS
Mr. Xu of Dongwei,20 whose forename has been forgotten, returned to his own commandery to be the governor. After he died, his tomb was built at Lingshan of Dong’an.21
Previously, someone opened his tomb, and the coffin was destroyed. When Xie Xuan was the Governor of Pengcheng,22 the generals under him included Sima Long of the Qi Commandery,23 his brother Xie Jin, Wang Xiang of Andong,24 and others. All of these men fetched the destroyed coffin and divided the pieces to make their carriages. Shortly afterward, the three men all met with disasters, and the series of disasters never stopped.
The soul of Wang Xiang’s mother passed word to her sons and grandsons, saying, “In the past Xiang and the brothers of Sima Long fetched the coffin in the tomb of Governor Xu to make carriages. The deaths and ruination of Long and others were all because of this.”
(GXSGC, #231. 420; TPGJ, 320. 2540–41)
123. LÜ SHUN’S WIFE
Lü Shun’s wife died, so he remarried his wife’s younger cousin. Accordingly he tried to build three tombs. Each time, when the construction was almost done, the tombs abruptly collapsed.
One day when Lü was lying in bed in the daytime, he saw that his wife had come. She came and shared the quilt with him, and her body was as cold as ice. In order to maintain the division between the living and the dead, Shun talked with her and asked her to leave.25 Later, his wife saw her cousin and said angrily, “There is no limit to [the number of] men in the world, yet you share a single husband with me! You made the tombs but could not finish them. I caused it to be so.”
Not long after, both the husband and his [second] wife dropped dead.
(GXSGC, #218. 415; TPGJ, 322. 2551–52)
124. OLD YAO
In Xiang County,26 there was a boy by the name of Yao Niu. When he was just over ten years old, his father was killed by a villager. One day Niu sold his clothes and purchased a knife and a halberd, intending to avenge his father. Later he met the villager in front of the county government and stabbed him to death among a crowd of people.
The officials caught him, [but] the magistrate was sympathetic with him for his integrity of filial piety and postponed [the date to deal with] his case. It happened that there was an amnesty; he was able to avoid the punishment. Furthermore, the magistrate spoke with someone in [the government of] the commandery and the region so as to save him; finally he was able to avoid trouble.
Afterward, the magistrate went hunting. While chasing a deer, he entered the grass, among which there were several deep old wells. His horse was about to approach them when he saw an old man who lifted a stick to hit the horse. The startled horse evaded him and could not reach the deer.
The magistrate became angry. He drew his bow and was about to shoot him. The old man said, “There are wells there, I was afraid that you would fall into them.”
The magistrate asked, “Who are you?”
The old man kneeled down and replied, “Father of Yao Niu, the commoner. I’m grateful to you for saving Niu; therefore I came to repay your favor.” Then he disappeared.
Having experienced this event related to the netherworld, the magistrate granted many favors to the commoners for several years while he was in an official position.
(GXSGC, #179. 404; TPYL, 482. 2207b, 479. 2196b, & 353. 1622a; TPGJ, 320. 2538–39)
125. A DECEASED MOTHER TAKES CARE OF HER SON
In recent years a man hired a young clerk who frequently requested to return home, yet didn’t fulfill his wish.
Quite a few days later, when the clerk was sleeping under the southern window, the man saw an old, fat, and large woman around the age of fifty or sixty walking in the door with great difficulty.
While sleeping, the clerk failed to cover himself with his quilt. The woman went to the side of his bed, took the dropped quilt, covered him with it, and then went out the door and left.
Then the clerk turned over and his coat fell off. The woman returned and covered him with it again just like she had previously.
The man felt strange, so he directly asked the clerk why he constantly requested to return home. The clerk replied, “My mother has been ill.”
Then the man asked for his mother’s appearance and age. Both resembled what he had seen. The only difference was that the clerk said his mother was thin.
The man asked again, “What is your mother’s illness?”
The clerk replied, “Her illness is merely edema, that’s all.”
The man immediately gave the clerk a vacation, and asked him to leave right away. Yet at that moment the clerk received a letter from his home, saying that his mother had died.
Thinking back to the fatness he had seen, the man realized that it was her appearance when she was swollen.
(GXSGC, #250. 428; TPGJ, 323. 2561)
126. CHENG BIAO AND HIS DECEASED BROTHER
Cheng Biao’s elder brother passed away. Cheng was grieving and had an obstruction in the circulation of his vital energy, crying and weeping day and night.
Carrying two liters of wine and a plate of pears, his elder brother appeared and approached him, and they drank to please each other. Biao asked him a question, yet his brother did not reply.
Biao, choked with sad sobs, asked, “Now you, my brother, are up in heaven. Is there more good fortune or more bitterness?”
For a long while his brother did not respond. In silence, he poured the rest of the wine into a cup and left, holding the wine jar.
Later, [Biao] was fishing on the lake. When he passed by the place where he had drunk together with his brother, he released his fishing line and felt sad. A big fish jumped into the boat and looked down at the small fish. Facing heaven, Biao cried bitterly. Looking down, he saw the big fish, and he released all the small fish. Then the big fish leaped out of the boat itself and swam away.
(GXSGC, #168. 401; TPYL, 936. 4158b; YWLJ, 86. 1473)
127. A LAME GHOST
Zhao Ji, the previous commandant of Ye County,27 often stayed in the field.
Previously, a crippled man had died and was buried by the footpath. More than twenty years later, a man from afar passed by the door of Zhao’s residence. After walking more than ten steps, the man suddenly pretended to be crippled.
Zhao Ji immediately asked him the reason. The man from afar replied with a smile, “There was a lame ghost before. I imitated him for fun, that’s all.”
(GXSGC, #214. 414; TPGJ, 320. 2540)
128. AVOIDING A DISASTER
Wang Biaozhi (305–377) of the Jin,28 a young man who was not yet an official, once sat alone in his studio, in front of which there were some bamboo stalks.
Suddenly he heard a sigh. Biaozhi became cautious and was astonished that the voice resembled his deceased mother’s. Thus he went forward to have a look, and saw his mother wearing the same clothes as she had before her death. Biaozhi kneeled down to greet her and sobbed.
His mother said, “You are going to have an enormous calamity. From today, when you see a white dog, if you can walk eastward for one thousand li [and stay there for] three years, you will be able to avoid the disaster.” Then his mother disappeared. Biaozhi felt sad and upset until the next morning.
At dawn, he noticed a white dog constantly following him. Then he prepared his luggage, and was about to go to Guiji. When he had walked for one thousand li, the disturbances he had seen all disappeared. He stayed there for three years, then returned to his studio.
Again he heard the voice and saw his mother as she had appeared before. She said, “You were able to follow my words, so I come to congratulate you. From now on, you will live to an age over eighty, and hold the position of prime minister and duke.”
Later, everything occurred exactly as his mother had predicted.
(GXSGC, #103. 383; TPYL, 883. 39
24b; TPGJ, 320. 2538)
129. DEAD FRIEND GUAN SHUANG
Both Hu Zhang of Shan County and Guan Shuang of Shangyu County were fond of fighting with weapons.29 After Shuang died, Hu Zhang dreamed of Shuang, who jumped back and forth with a knife in front of him. When he awoke, Zhang felt extremely unhappy. The next day, he pasted a talisman onto the wall.
Zhang intended to travel to a distant place and had untied his boat and taken out his paddles when he saw Shuang coming. To urge Zhang to stay on, Shuang said, “When two people know each other’s mind, their feeling may last for a thousand years. Yesterday night when I approached you to play, you were just sleeping. Therefore I left. Now why did you use the talisman to reject me? As a man you don’t understand the ways of the world. Do you think I am afraid of the talisman?”
(GXSGC, #211. 413; TPGJ, 319. 2528)
130. CAI KUO’S DEAD SON
Cai Kuo (379–425) was appointed Governor of Yuzhang Commandery and had not yet set off to assume office.30 His eldest son was waiting for his bride while lodging on an island. He intended to pull his bride’s boat through, but his shirt got caught on the bow and he fell into the water and sank immediately.
Xu Xianzhi (364–426) was the Governor of Yangzhou,31 and he ordered the officials on both sides of the river to offer handsome rewards to fishermen and the Kunlun (southeast Asia) servants for finding his corpse, but they could not find it until the second watch.
While his bride was weeping, she heard her husband telling her as if in a dream, “I am now under your boat.”
She told her maid, and her maid told others.
Hidden and Visible Realms Page 15