法苑珠林 31.72

31.72

Under the Song dynasty, Liang Qing of Anding, styled Daoxiu, lived in the former residence of Regional Inspector Huan of Xuzhou, in the Youshangfang quarter of Yangzhou. In the second month of the fourteenth year of the Yuanjia reign (437 CE), there were repeatedly strange lights, and the sound of breaking bamboo fences was heard. He sent his maidservant Songluo to look, and she saw a person who, upon being questioned, said her surname was Hua and her given name Furong; she had been dispatched by the Supreme Sovereign of the Six Jia, had descended from the Purple Palace of the Grand Subtlety, and had encountered her former dwelling, where she remained without leaving. Sometimes it had a bird's head and a human body, completely covered with eyes; it balled up and flung foul feces. Qing shot at it, and it vanished at the twang of the bowstring, with crimson juice staining the arrow. Again, they saw a creature shaped like a monkey hanging from the bough of a tree; he ordered someone to stab it, which struck its thigh, and it fell to the ground and vanished. The next day, it returned, limping across the roof to beg food from the maidservant; she rolled rice into a ball and gave it, and it consumed two sheng at once. After a few days, a horde of ghosts arrived in crowds, unspeakably hideous and vile, smashing beds and screens, kicking up dust and flying stones without ceasing for several mornings. While picking chrysanthemums along the road, the maidservant met a ghost wearing robes and a cap, riding a horse, with several dozen attendants, who said to Caiju, 'I am an immortal of the high heavens; do not call me a ghost.' When asked why they constantly threw foul filth, it replied, 'Dung and filth are the sign of wealth and property; being cast about is the omen of rapid promotion.' Shortly thereafter, Qing indeed became General of the Martial Guard and Grand Administrator of Beilu Commandery. After Qing had suffered these annoyances for a long time, he called upon the foreign monk Bo Luodie to recite incantations. The ghosts were terrified; some leaped over walls or escaped through holes, all making bird sounds, and from this time they ceased entirely. Shortly after he was at the commandery, at night Songluo again saw tens of thousands of people with weapons and ceremonial regalia. One wearing a cap delivered a letter on coarse paper containing about seventy characters, whose calligraphy was charming and graceful, distantly imitating Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi. They also sang: 'Ascending our Peacock Tower, / From afar we hear the Phoenix Drums. / Descending the crest of our Chu Mountain, / Faintly appears Liang of Lu.' Among the ghosts was Shucao; Cao wept and responded to condolences just like people of the world. A ghost messenger once begged a letter from Songluo, inscribed: 'The deceased Kong Xiuzhi, under penalty of death, writes this plain letter to offer condolences on the mourning for his uncle,' expressing sorrowful feelings in very clear order. It also said, 'Recently, traveling to the West, I saw a śramaṇa who called himself Damocha; he asked for news of you and sent five pellets of incense to give you.' Qing had previously been sent as an envoy to Dunhuang and remembered seeing this monk. When a maidservant in Qing's household gave birth, it ceased from then on.