法苑珠林 31.63

31.63

桂陽太守江夏張遺。字昇高。居𨻳陵。田中有大樹。十餘圍。蓋六畝。枝葉扶疏蟠地不生穀草。遣客斫之。斧數下樹大流血出。客驚悑歸白昇高。昇高怒曰。老樹汁赤此等何怪。因自斫之血大流出。昇高更斫枝。有一空處白頭老公長四五尺突出赴昇高。昇高以刀逆斫殺之。四五老公並死。左右皆驚悑伏地。昇高神慮恬然如舊。諸人徐視。似人非人。似獸非獸。此所謂木石之怪蘷魍魎者乎。其伐樹年中。昇高作辟司空御史兗州刺史。

Zhang Yi, styled Shenggao, was from Jiangxia and served as Grand Administrator of Guiyang. He lived in Xianling. In his field was a great tree, over ten girths wide, whose canopy covered six mu; its branches and leaves spread luxuriantly and trailed upon the ground, so that neither grain nor grass would grow. He sent a client to chop it down. After several strokes of the axe, the tree bled profusely. The client, terrified, returned and reported it to Shenggao. Shenggao said angrily, 'The sap of an old tree is red; what is anomalous about this?' Thereupon he went to chop it himself, and the blood flowed profusely. When Shenggao chopped further at the branches, from a hollow space a white-haired old man, four or five feet tall, suddenly sprang out and rushed toward Shenggao. Shenggao met him with the blade, hacked, and killed him. Four or five old men all died together. The attendants were all terrified and prostrated themselves on the ground, but Shenggao's mind was tranquil as before. The people examined them slowly: they seemed like human beings yet were not human; they seemed like beasts yet were not beasts. Were these what are called the kui and wangliang, the anomalies of wood and stone? In the year he felled the tree, Shenggao was recruited as a clerk to the Minister of Works, then served as Censor and Inspector of Yanzhou.