法苑珠林 46.50

46.50

周宣帝宇文贇。在東宮時。武帝訓篤甚嚴。常使官者成慎監察之。若有纖毫罪失匿而不奏。許慎以死。於是慎常陳太子不法之事。武帝杖太子百餘。及即位顧見膊上杖瘢。乃問成慎所在。慎于時已出為郡遂勅追之。至便賜死。慎奮厲曰。此是汝父所為。成慎何罪。勃逆之餘濫以見及死。若有知終不相放。于時宮掖禁忌相逢以目。不得輒共言笑。分置監官記錄愆罪。左皇后下有一女子。欠伸淚出。因被奏劾。謂其所思憶。便勅對前考竟之。初打頭一下。帝便頭痛。次打項一下帝又項痛。遂大發怒曰。此是我怨家。乃使拉折其腰。帝即腰痛。其夜出南宮。病遂漸增。明旦早還患腰不得乘馬。御車而入。所殺女子處有黑暈如人形。時謂是血隨掃刷之。旋復如故。如此再三。有司掘除舊地以新土埋之。一宿之間亦還如本。因此七八日舉身瘡爛而崩。及初下屍諸床並曲。牢不可脫。唯此死女子所臥之床。獨是直脚。遂以供用。蓋亦鬼神之意焉。帝崩去成慎死僅二十許日（右此一驗出冥祥記）。

When Emperor Xuan of the Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yun, was in the Eastern Palace [as Crown Prince], Emperor Wu instructed him with great severity. He constantly dispatched the eunuch Cheng Shen to supervise and inspect him, decreeing that if there were the slightest fault or transgression concealed and not memorialized, Shen would be punished with death. Thereupon Shen constantly presented the Crown Prince's unlawful deeds, and Emperor Wu had the Crown Prince caned more than a hundred times. Upon ascending the throne, looking back and seeing the caning scars upon his shoulder, he asked where Cheng Shen was. Shen had by that time already gone out to govern a commandery, so [the Emperor] issued an edict recalling him, and as soon as he arrived, ordered him to commit suicide. Shen said with indignation and vigour: 'This was done by your father; what crime did Cheng Shen commit? From the excess of your rebellious perversity, calamity has wrongly overtaken me and I am put to death. If there is consciousness after death, I shall never let you off!' At that time within the palace, prohibitions and taboos were such that people merely greeted one another with their eyes, not daring to speak and laugh together casually. Supervisory officials were stationed separately to record errors and transgressions. Beneath the Left Empress there was a young maidservant who yawned and wept. Because of this, she was impeached and accused of longing for someone. He then ordered her interrogated to the end before him. When her head was struck for the first time, the Emperor's head immediately began to ache. When her neck was struck next, the Emperor's neck also began to ache. He then flew into a great rage and said, 'This is my mortal enemy!' and ordered her waist broken. The Emperor's waist immediately began to ache. That night he went out to the Southern Palace, and his illness grew progressively worse. The next morning when he returned early, suffering from waist pain, he was unable to mount a horse and entered riding in an imperial carriage. At the place where the maidservant was killed, there was a black silhouette in the shape of a human figure. At the time it was thought to be blood, and so it was swept and scrubbed away, but soon it returned as before. This happened repeatedly. The officials in charge dug away the old ground and buried it with new earth, but over a single night it also returned as before. Because of this, after seven or eight days, his entire body festered with sores and he died. When his corpse was first laid down, all the couches were bent and curved, rigid and immovable; only the couch upon which that deceased maidservant had slept had straight legs, and so it was used for him. This was surely the design of ghosts and spirits. The Emperor's passing occurred barely twenty or so days after Cheng Shen's death. (This one verification above is taken from the Mingxiang ji.)