The Boy Zhang Enters the Nether World 張童入冥

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)

Guo Zhiyun 郭知運

During the Kaiyuan era (713-41 CE), Military Governor of Liangzhou Guo Zhiyun set out on an inspection tour. He had travelled a hundred li from the prefecture when he died suddenly at a postal station. His po cloud-soul then emerged, ordering the postal station chief to lock the room and not re-open it. It then returned home, [2620] where his retinue were still unaware. Reaching home after forty days, once it had wrapped up his affairs, it sent people to the postal station. They arrived to find him already dead. On arriving there, it watched him be prepared for burial, and, when this was complete, said farewell to his family, throwing itself into the coffin and never being seen again.

From Guangyiji.

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, 330.2619-20:

郭知運

開元中。涼州節度郭知運出巡。去州百里。于驛中暴卒。其魂遂出。令驛長鎖房勿開。因而却回府。 [2620] 徒從不知也。至舍四十餘日。處置公私事畢。遂使人往驛。迎己喪。既至。自看其殮。殮訖。因與家人辭訣。投身入棺。遂不復見。出廣異記

Miss Zheng 鄭氏女

In Tongzhou there lived the reclusive scholar Wang, who possessed the arts of the Way. During the Huichang era (841-47 CE), the governor, a Mr Zheng, had a young daughter, on whom he doted greatly, but who since childhood had suffered many illnesses, as if her state of mind was unbalanced. Mr Zheng therefore asked the retired scholar about it. The scholar told him: “This girl is not ill, but the living cloud-soul has not yet returned to her body.” Mr Zheng asked him further about the matter, and the scholar replied: “Magistrate so-and-so of such-and-such county is this girl’s former incarnation. He ought to die in a few years. As he has been virtuous in life he has been blessed by the underworld deities and received extra longevity. He is now over ninety years of age. On the day his passing is ordained, this girl will recover.” Mr Zheng urgently sent people to hurry over and call on him, and the Magistrate was indeed over ninety. After a month, the girl suddenly awoke as if from drunkenness, her illness quite cured. Mr Zheng again sent envoys to verify it, and indeed the magistrate, on the very day of the girl’s recovery from illness, had died without illness.

From Xuanshizhi.       

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), viii, 358.2827:

鄭氏女

通州有王居士者。有道術。會昌中。刺史鄭君有幼女。甚念之。而自幼多疾。若神魂不足者。鄭君因請居士。居士曰。此女非疾。乃生魂未歸其身。鄭君訊其事。居士曰。某縣令某者。即此女前身也。當死數歲矣。以平生為善。以幽冥祐之。得過期。今年九十餘矣。令歿之日。此女當愈。鄭君急發人馳訪之。其令果九十餘矣。後月。其女忽若醉寤。疾愈。鄭君又使往驗。令果以女疾愈之日。無疾卒。出宣室志

Cai Mo 蔡謨

Around the time Cai Mo[1] was appointed to serve as Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, he was at home and suddenly heard the sound of weeping and wailing coming from the southeast, as if someone had just died. Soon after, he saw a young girl, a dead person who also wailed at their separation. He did not understand what was going on, but feared that this was the result of a family conflict. Suddenly, he heard the cry of an immortal soul, and soon after witnessed the living girl ascend through thin air into the heavens above. The meaning of this could only be extremely inauspicious. Before long he fell ill, and then died.

From Lingyizhi.

Moreover 又

Someone reported that Mo was seated at the place of honour in the government hall when he suddenly heard a voice ‘calling back the mortal soul’[2] from the neighbours to the left. He thus left the hall and went to the front to look. Straight away he saw a newly bereaved family, and an elderly woman, wearing a yellow half-sleeved garment of silk gauze on top, and a pale green skirt below, floating in the air and ascending into the heavens. He heard a cry, and turned his head to look, then came three cries, and he turned his head each time. He paced up and down for a long time, and when the sounds finally stopped, there was nothing more to be seen. He questioned the family attending the burial, and they told him that the clothing worn by the deceased was just as he had described it.

From Youminglu. 

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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, 320.2533:

蔡謨

蔡謨徵為光祿大夫。在家。忽聞東南啼哭聲。有若新死。便見一少年女。死〈明鈔本死作此。〉人並離〈明鈔本離作籬〉啼哭。不解所為。恐是人家忿爭耳。忽聞呼魂聲。便見生〈明鈔本生作此〉女。從空中去上天。意甚惡之。少時疾患。遂薨。出靈異志

又

一說。謨在廳事上坐。忽聞鄰左復魄聲。乃出庭前望。正見新死之家。有一老嫗。上著黃羅半袖。下著縹裙。飄然升天。聞一喚聲。輒廻顧。三喚三顧。徘徊良久。聲既絕。亦不復見。問喪家。云。亡者衣服如此。出幽明錄

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[1] On Cai Mou 蔡謨, 281-356 CE, courtesy name Daoming 道明, see Jinshu 晉書 77.2033-41.

[2] A funeral ritual involving entreating the deceased to return to their body before burial.

Shao Yuanxiu 邵元休

During the Tianfu era (901-4), the Han Councillor to the Bureau of the Left Shao Yuanxiu, who was not yet twenty years old, lived in a government residence in Yanzhou. In the house there was only a midwife and a maidservant. At the southernmost end of the wing running west from the hall was a study. When night fell the whole household extinguished the lamps and slept soundly. The lamp in the study was also extinguished, and Shao rested his head on a volume and dozed, but heard, coming from the west of the hall, soft light sounds, like a woman’s footsteps. They ascended the hall stairs, and arrived first at the eastern wing, where the rooms of the female servants lay. Pausing whenever they passed a door, he then heard them continue and reach the south wing. There stood an unbolted door to the chamber, and it pulled open the door and entered. Next he heard a great crash, as if of porcelain thrown to shatter on the floor. Xi then entered the study. Outside the window the moon showed new and thin. He saw something. It seemed extremely large, he could not discern its face, but it was six or seven chi in height (i.e., two metres or more), seeming to have its head swathed in deep black silk, and it stood below the door. Shao, unafraid, rebuked it in a stern voice, and shouted at it several times. It did not make the slightest attempt to respond, but departed, moving like the wind. Shao wanted to pick up his pillow and strike it, but it was already gone. He heard it again, moving to the west of the hall, but the sounds then ceased. When dawn broke, he made a careful examination of the objects inside the southern room, finding, laid on the tea couch, white porcelain that had been smashed against the ground. When he subsequently questioned people about the matter he was told: “A military commissioner frequently stays at this residence. When his daughter died, he used the western hall as a chapel of rest for a time, and she still visits her servants.” There was a near neighbour who had known the girl, and said: “She was very tall in stature; that must have been her mortal soul.”

From Yutang xianhua.

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), viii, 353.2794:

邵元休

漢左司員外郎邵元休。當天復年中。尚未冠。居兗州廨宅。宅內惟乳母婢僕。堂之西序。最南是書齋。時夜向分。舉家滅燭熟寐。書齋內燈亦滅。邵枕書假寐。聞堂之西。窸窣若婦人履聲。經于堂階。先至東序。皆女僕之寢室也。每至一房門。即住少時。遂聞至南廊。有閣子門。不扃鍵。乃推門而入。即聞轟然。若撲破磁器聲。遂西入書齋。窓外微月。見一物。形狀極偉。不辨其面目。長六七尺。如以青黑帛懞首而入。立于門扉之下。邵不懼。厲聲叱之。仍間數聲。都不酬答。遂却出。其勢如風。邵欲捫枕擊之。則已去矣。又聞行往堂西。其聲遂絕。遲明。驗其南房內。則茶牀之上。一白磁器。已墜地破矣。後問人云。常有兵馬留後居是宅。女卒。權於堂西作殯宮。仍訪左右。有近鄰識其女者。云。體貌頗長。蓋其魄也。出玉堂閒話

Li Dairen 李戴仁

On riverbanks there are many chan gui, who call out people’s names. Those who reply will surely drown, their dead souls then enticing others in. Li Dairen was once mooring his boat at Qupu in Zhijiang County, the moonlight clear and bright, when he suddenly saw an old woman and a young boy emerge from the water’s surface and look around. Unable to speak, he whispered: “They are humans!” Surprised, they ran across the surface of the water as if travelling on dry ground, climbed the bank and departed.

The governor of Dangyang Su Rui resided in Jiangling. Once, when returning home at night, he saw a beautiful woman with unbound hair. Her clothes were extremely fine, but appeared to be very wet. Rui spoke in jest: “You’re not a chan gui, are you?” The woman replied furiously: “You call me a ghost?!” She then began to run after him, so Rui fled, only stopping when he bumped into a watch patrol. He then saw the woman return down the street from whence she had come.

From Beimeng suoyan.

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), viii, 352.2788:

李戴仁

江河邊多倀鬼。往往呼人姓名。應之者必溺。乃死魂者誘之也。李戴仁嘗維舟於枝江縣曲浦中。月色皎然。忽見一嫗一男子。出水面四顧。失聲云。此有生人。遽馳水面。若履平地。登岸而去。當陽令蘇汭居江陵。嘗夜歸。月明中。見一美人被髮。所著裾裾。殆似水濕。汭戲云。非江倀耶。婦人怒曰。喚我作鬼。奔而逐之。汭走。遇更巡方止。見婦却返所來之路。出北夢瑣言

Ma Daoyou 馬道猷

Under the Southern Qi (479-502 CE) Ma Daoyou served as Director of the Department of State Affairs. In the first year Yongming (483), seated in the palace he suddenly saw spirits filling the space before him; the people around him saw nothing. Soon after, two spirits entered his ears, pulling out his ethereal soul, which fell onto his shoes. He pointed at it to show people, saying, “Gentlemen, do you see this?” None of those around him could see anything, so they asked him what his ethereal soul looked like. Daoyou said: “The ethereal soul looks exactly like a toad.” He said: “There can be no way to survive. The spirits are now in the ears. Look at how they swell up.” The following day he died. Taken from Shuyiji.

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, 327.2992

馬道猷

南齊馬道猷為尚書令史。永明元年。坐省中。忽見鬼滿前。而傍人不見。須臾兩鬼入其耳中。推出魂。魂落屐上。指以示人。諸君見否。傍人並不見。問魂形狀云何。道猷曰。魂正似蝦蟇。云。必無活理。鬼今猶在耳中。視其耳皆腫。明日便死。出述異記

Immortal Lü Composes Fu 呂仙賦詞

The Phoenix Pavilion Bridge is thirty li north of Ancheng. One day, Immortal Lü (Lü Dongbin, 796-) sat on top of it, protecting those crossing the bridge and brewing fine tea to give to them. The immortal asked for paper and brush and wrote out a poem:

As the sun sets the sound of birdsong multiplies,

A fragrant wind fills the road and caresses the blooms.

Travellers on the way ask me to brew fresh tea,

Cleansing to leave heart and mind pure and untrammeled.

Unable to face the cares of this world,

The dreaming soul winds around the furthest corners.

The banks at Phoenix Pavilion Bridge are my home,

I am greatly absorbed by the moonlight tonight.

As he wrote these characters he flew and danced, and where he is now nobody knows.

Anon., Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 後1.129-30 (Tale 225):

呂仙賦詞

鳳停橋，在安成之北三十里。一日，呂仙坐其上，守橋道人煎佳茗供之。仙索紙筆書一詞云：「落日數聲啼鳥，香風滿路吹花。道人邀我煮新茶，盪滌胸中瀟洒。世事不堪回首，夢魂猶繞天涯，鳳停橋畔即吾家。管甚月明今夜。」字畫飛舞，今不知所在。

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).

A Dead Soul Returns Home 死魂歸家

In the autumn of the renwu year in the Zhiyuan era (1282), the lady née Chen, wife of Zhao Ruosu, fell ill and died. A little after three weeks later, her nephew Chen Hong came, lodging anxiously in the library. Zhao’s mother, lady Chen, lay in her coffin in the neighbouring room. Suddenly, during the night, the sound of a human voice emanated from the coffin, continuing indistinctly for some time. Not long after, there came several loud raps on the table, and a stern voice called: “Girl! I’m quite unable to help myself, and then you come to stir up trouble!” Chen, terrified, gathered candles and unlocked the door, but all was quiet with nothing to see. On the table the sustaining offerings were covered in dust, but visible among this were two fresh palm-prints. The next day at noon, news of their neighbour’s daughter’s death arrived. They then realised that the previous night’s voice was the dead woman’s soul receiving advance warning of this.

Anon., Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 後2.241 (Tale 436):

死魂歸家

至元壬午秋，趙若涑妻陳氏病卒。越二旬，其姪陳紘來，懸宿於書館內。隔房乃趙母陳氏柩在焉。忽中夜聞柩間有人語聲，良久莫辨。未幾忽拍桌兩下，厲聲曰：「女兒，我自也沒奈何，你又來相攪！」陳大恐，朋燭啟鑰，寂無所見。供養桌上皆塵埃，視之有二掌痕獨新。次日午，果趙之適女訃音至。始知昨夕之聲，（「聲」，明刻本作「怪」。）魂已先知矣。

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).

Embalmed Corpses Accept Service 殯柩受役

In Jiangling Fu there was a Magistrate Shen, who, having been in office for a year, sighed out his last breath and died. His orphaned child, only just ten years old, was unable to bear the coffin to its burial place, so left it temporarily at the Water And Land Temple outside the city walls. Only after some ten years were his son and relatives able to take the coffin back to his homeland. That night in a dream he appeared to his son, saying: “While waiting for burial in this temple I have been put to use among its guardian spirits, and up to now have had no means of escape. Fortunately I can now return to my true home, my spirit and soul can begin to return to themselves, and I can find a chance of reincarnation.”

Also, in Lin’an Fu, during the Song era, a minister’s wife died in the official residence and before they were able to return for her burial, her coffin was stored in the Puji Temple outside the city walls. She suddenly appeared in a dream to her household, saying: “You who I call my family, day and night I suffer bitter service as a guardian spirit; if I gain a quick return for burial I can be spared this.” Her followers said: “You are a noble lady and forced into service? How can this be?” The lady [247] said: “In life I enjoyed titles bestowed by the realm and could only be noble, but in death I too am merely a spirit. Besides, because filth of my remains pollute this pure realm, how could I not be punished, and, serving for a while, be fortunate in this?” These two affairs, though separated by several thousand li, tally closely, and can only be seen as a warning.

Anon, Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 後2.246-47 (Tale 445):

殯柩受役

江陵府有沈察推者，到任一年，感時氣而死。遺孤始十歲，未克扶柩歸葬，因權厝城外水陸寺。凡十餘年，其子與親戚始能取柩歸鄉。是夜見夢於其子曰：「我自旅殯此寺，即為伽藍神驅役，至今未得生路。幸得歸掩真宅，神魂始得自如，而轉生有期矣。」

又臨安府有宋朝時相夫人，終於相府，未獲歸葬，權厝城外普濟寺。忽見夢於其門人云：「為我語家人，日夕苦於伽藍神之役，得速歸葬，則免此矣。」門人曰：「以夫人而見役，何也？」夫 [247] 人曰：「我生享國封，不為不貴，而死亦鬼耳。況以遺骸滓穢淨界，得不獲罪，而姑役使之，亦幸矣。」二事相去數千里，符合如一，不可不以為戒也。

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).