Old Zhang, of Hantou Village in southern Pinghu, made his living by trapping quail, so people named him ‘Quail’. Already quite old, he had only one son, who, having reached childhood, died suddenly one day. The elderly [5] couple, thinking they would have nobody to rely on in their old age, wailing in great sadness, regretting that they had not all died. The following day they had planned to bury him, but still could not bear to, instead building a mound of bricks one or two chi (30-60cm) from the ground, and saying: “Our child will come back to life.” People scoffed at their foolishness, but some also mourned with them.
When after three days they returned to the grave, wailing and crying ceaselessly, they suddenly heard a groaning sound from within the tomb; the old couple said, shocked: “Our son’s immortal soul really has returned!” Scattering boards and bricks, they hauled out the coffin and carried it back home. Presently he asked for congee, and, after a good while had passed, said: “In the beginning, I was arrested by somebody and taken to the nether world officials, and I was sad and told their master: ‘Think of my old parents; I beg to live a full life. I will regret terribly never seeing them after my funeral is complete.’ The nether world official felt some sympathy, and told him: ‘You will now be released to return. Tell your father that if he can give up hunting and fishing as his profession, your lifespan will be extended.’”
His father, on hearing these words, burned all his nets and equipment, and carried his son to a temple to make offerings. In the temple there was a monk surnamed Lü, not yet forty years of age and unusually majestic in appearance, who had formerly been the leader of a merchant caravan supplying the prefecture. The Zhang boy asked him: “Has the Master returned to life too?” Lü asked, “How could he have died?” The Zhang boy replied: “When I was in the nether world waiting to be advised I saw the master on a copper column in a corner of the hall, feet bound with iron ties. A prison guard went and beat him under the arm until blood dripped out. When I was about to be released and come back, I asked: ‘Why is Master Lü being punished?’ They replied: ‘He often omits scripture readings at refectory meals, and therefore receives this retribution.’” On hearing this Lü was deeply shocked. He had suffered a weeping ulcer in his armpit, which had persisted over three years, and which the boy could not have known about. Lü then took up a clean and solitary existence, chanting sutras daily as his work. After three years his ulcer was cured.
Senior Officer Zhao witnessed this himself.
Yuan Haowen 元好問, Xu Yijian zhi 續夷堅志 (Continued Records of the Listener), 1.4-5 (Tale 10)
張童入冥
平輿南函頭村張老者，以捕鶉為業，故人目為鵪鶉。年已老，止一兒，成童矣，一旦死。翁 [5] 媪自念老無所倚，號哭悶絕，恨不俱死。明日欲埋之，又復不忍，但累甎作邱，入地一二尺許，云：「吾兒還活。」人笑其癡，而亦有哀之者。三日復墓，慟哭不休，忽聞墓中呻吟聲，翁媪驚曰：「吾兒果還魂矣！」撒棺甎，曳棺木出，舁歸其家。俄索湯粥，良久，說：「初，為人攝往冥司，兒哀訴主者：『爹娘老可念，乞盡餘年，葬送畢，死無所歸恨。』冥官頗憐之，即云：『今放汝歸，語汝父，能棄打捕之業，汝命可延矣！』」其父聞此語，盡焚網罟之屬，挈兒入寺供佛。寺有一僧呂姓者，年未四十，儀表殊偉，曾上州作綱首。張童即前問僧：「師亦還魂耶？」呂云：「何曾死？」張童言：「我在冥中引問次，見師在殿角銅柱上，鐵繩繫足，獄卒往來以棓撞師腋下，流血淋漓。及放歸時，曾問監卒：『呂師何故受罪？』乃云：『他多脫下齋主經文，故受此報。』」呂聞大駭，蓋其腋下病一漏瘡，已三年矣，兒初不知。呂遂潔居一室，日以誦經為課，凡三年，瘡乃平。 趙長官親見之。
Yuan Haowen 元好問, Chang Zhenguo 常振國 (ed), Xu Yijian zhi 續夷堅志 (Continued Records of the Listener), and Anon., Jin Xin 金心 (ed.) Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi 湖海新聞夷堅續志 (Continuation of Records of the Listener with New Items from the Lakes and Seas) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986)
Zhiguai Translations 