冥報記 3.12

3.12

The father of Bian Shiyu of Yangzhou was granted the rank of Yitong under the Sui for his merit in pacifying the Chen dynasty. By nature he was stingy. He once hired workers to build a house but did not pay them their wages. When a laborer demanded money, Bian's father whipped him. The laborer resented him, saying, 'If you truly wrong me, when you die you shall become an ox for me!' Shortly afterward, Bian's father died. That laborer's cow became pregnant and gave birth to a yellow calf. Across its waist were black markings, encircling it all around like a man's waistband. On its left hip was a white marking running diagonally across, exactly the size and shape of an ivory tablet. The cow's owner called to it, 'Duke Bian, why did you wrong me?' The calf came forward, bent its two front knees, and knocked its head on the ground. Shiyu offered one hundred thousand coins to redeem it, but the cow's owner refused. Only when it died was it buried (Zhen Tuo recounted this to me).