冥報記 3.15

3.15

Pan Guo of Jingzhao was not yet twenty years of age when, during the Wude era, he served as a minor clerk in the Directorate of Waterways. After going off duty, he returned home and went out to the fields to amuse himself with several young men of his village. Passing among the graves, they saw a stray sheep that had been lost by its owner, grazing on the grass alone. Guo and the village youths caught it and were going to take it home. On the way, the sheep began to bleat; fearing that its owner would hear, Guo pulled out the sheep's tongue, and it made no more sound. That night they cooked and ate it. A year later, Guo's tongue gradually shrank until it completely melted away. He submitted a petition to be relieved of his office. Zheng Yuqing, the county defender of Fuping, suspected that he was feigning, and opened his mouth to inspect it, finding that he had no tongue at all; looking at the original site, only a remnant the size of a small bean was left unconsumed. Marvelling at this, he questioned him, and Guo fully reported the truth of the matter. The county magistrate instructed him to cultivate merit on behalf of the sheep. Guo then received the five precepts and extensively cultivated merit. A year later, his tongue gradually regrew, and soon became fully restored as before. He went to the county office to report in person, and the county magistrate employed him as a village headman. In the eighteenth year of the Zhenguan era, Yuqing was an investigating censor, and he personally related this to Tang Lin.