冥報記 3.2

3.2

Toward the end of the Kaihuang era of the Sui, there was a man of Daizhou surnamed Wang who served as a cavalry general and was garrisoned in Jingzhou. By nature he was fond of hunting and killed a great number of beasts. He had five sons and no daughters; later, a daughter was born to him who was as exquisitely beautiful as a painting. Everyone who saw her marveled at and loved her, and her parents cherished her deeply. After returning to their home village, the villagers and kin vied to make fine clothes for her and adored her together. When the girl was seven years old, one morning she went missing, and no one knew where she was. At first they suspected the neighbors had hidden her in play, but upon inquiring, no one had seen her. Her brothers rode horses to search far away, and found her among briars and brambles over thirty li from home. When they went to take hold of her, she was startled, ran far away, and could not be overtaken by horses. The brothers surrounded and captured her with ten horsemen. The sounds coming from her mouth resembled the cry of a hare. Carrying her home, she was unable to speak, and her body was wounded by briar thorns. When her mother picked them out for her, she obtained a handful of thorns. After more than a month, she died without eating. The parents were filled with sorrow and grief, and the whole family fasted and practiced ascetic discipline. Xuanming, Assistant in the Court of Judicature and Revision, who had formerly served as an officer of the law in Daizhou, related this to Lin.