Mei Zhu employed the arts of Tao Zhugong (i.e., the pursuit of wealth),[1] his daily profits amounting to millions upon millions, and his treasure-houses numbering in the thousands. Zhu’s character and behaviour could command even life and death. To one side of his family stables there was an ancient tomb, and a corpse lay within it. One night Zhu followed the sound of weeping, and suddenly saw a woman, backing towards him and uncovered above the waist. She said: “Long ago at the end of the Han era my tomb was opened by the Red Eyebrows,[2] who smashed my coffin and exposed my skin. Now my bare flesh lies upon the ground, and more than two hundred years have passed. I request that the general might rebury me more deeply, and beg some old cloth that I might cover myself.” Zhu thus ordered she be placed in a stone outer and baked clay inner coffin, setting out offerings when this was complete, and clothing her in black skirt and gown, placing all of this upon the tomb.
A year had passed when, passing a bend in the road, he suddenly saw that, at the woman’s burial place, a black cloud was winding about like a dragon serpent. Some people questioned Zhu: “Is this not a dragon demon?” Zhu had doubts about this strange occurrence, and so asked a household page about it. He said: “I have sometimes seen a Qing Luzhang coming and go through the gate as if it were quite natural. I wondered whether he was a deity, and didn’t dare speak up.” Zhu was by nature very suspicious, believed in avoiding those who made requests, and punishing those who spoke up with additional harshness. His page had therefore not spoken.
Zhu’s treasures were piled like hills and mountains, quite beyond reckoning, with all the utensils required to equip the land of immortals, and pearls as big as eggs scattered across the whole courtyard. It was therefore named the Treasure Court, but outsiders never got even a peep inside it. After a few days had passed, he suddenly saw a number of black-clothed youths, who came and told him: “Mei Zhu’s home will suffer a disastrous fire, and not one in ten thousand things will survive. Fortunately, because the gentleman was able to feel sympathy for an old skeleton, the Heavenly Way cannot unjustly punish the gentleman’s virtue. Therefore we will come and repulse this fire, and make sure that the gentleman’s property is not entirely destroyed. From now on, the gentleman should also take steps to defend himself.” Zhu then dug irrigation ditches to surround his inner treasure-house. Ten days later, a fire broke out within the treasure-house and burned his pearls and jades, leaving only one item in ten. It was all caused by a bronze mirror which caused dry things to ignite in the sun spontaneously.
As the fire reached its peak, [2512] he saw several dozen black-robed youths arrive and attack the flames. A dark energy arose like a cloud, then fell back upon flames to extinguish them. The youths also said: “You should gather many birds of the stork family to avert disaster. Storks are able to gather water on their nests. Your family should therefore gather a thousand jiaojing pond herons, and tend to them among the ditches. They hate fire.” Zhu sighed: “A person’s luck in gathering money has limits, and it must not brim over.” Zhu feared suffering disaster, but at that time the Three Kingdoms were waging war and expenditure increased ten-thousand-fold, so he contributed his treasures, buying chariots and robes for his former lord. Of his hundred million jin of gold, his woven silks, embroidered silks, felts and rugs, piled like hills and mountains, his thousand head of thoroughbred horses, when Shu were later defeated, not a thing remained. He died harbouring a grievance in his heart.
From Wangzinian shiyiji.
Li Fang 李昉, et al., Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Extensive Gleanings from the Era of Great Harmony), 10 vols (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), vii, 317.2511-12:
糜竺
糜竺用陶朱公計術。日益億萬之利。貲擬王侯。有寶庫千間。竺性能振生死。家馬廄屋側。有古冢。中有伏尸。竺夜尋其泣聲。忽見一婦人。袒背而來。云。昔漢末為赤眉所發。扣棺見剝。今袒肉在地。垂二百餘年。就將軍求更深埋。並乞弊衣自掩。竺即令為石椁瓦棺。設祭既畢。以青布裙衫。置於冢上。經一年。行於路曲。忽見前婦人葬所。青氣如龍虵之形。或有人問竺曰。將非龍怪耶。竺乃疑此異。乃問其家童。云。時見青蘆杖。自然出入於門。疑其神也。不敢言。竺為性多忌。信厭求之士。有言中忤。即加刑戮。故家童不言。竺貲貸如丘山。不可算記。內以方諸為具。及大珠如卵。散滿於庭。故謂之寶庭。而外人不得窺。數日。忽見有青衣童子數人來云。糜竺家當有火厄。萬不遺一。賴君能惻愍枯骨。天道不辜君德。故來禳却此火。當使君財物不盡。自今以後。亦宜自衛。竺乃掘溝渠。周繞其庫內。旬日。火從庫內起。燒其珠玉。十分得一。皆是陽燧得旱爍。自能燒物也。火盛之 [2512] 時。見數十青衣童子來撲火。有青氣如雲。復火上即滅。童子又云。多聚鸛鳥之類以禳災。鸛能聚水巢上也。家人乃收集鵁鶄數千頭。養於池渠之中。厭火也。竺歎曰。人生財運有限。不得盈溢。竺懼為身之患。時三國交兵。軍用萬倍。乃輸其珍寶車服。以助先主。黃金一億斤。錦綺繍氈罽。積如丘山。駿馬千匹。及蜀破後。無所有。飲恨而終。出王子年拾遺記
[1] Tao Zhugong was a minister of Yue who abandoned imperial service to become immensely rich, and whose name came to serve as a byword for extreme personal wealth.
[2] An uprising towards the end of the Western Han era (220 BCE – 8 CE), on which see http://chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/chimei.html.
Zhiguai Translations 