法苑珠林 74.34

74.34

According to the custom of the wards and markets of Chang'an under the Tang, from New Year's Day onwards, people would take turns preparing food and drink to invite one another, calling it 'passing the seats.' It was the turn of the brush-maker Zhao Da in the Eastern Market to host. A guest arrived first, and going out back, he saw on the mortar a young girl about thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a blue-green skirt and a white blouse, with a well-rope tied around her neck, attached to the pestle post. Weeping tears, she said to the guest: 'I am the master's daughter. Formerly, before I died, I stole one hundred coins from my parents wishing to buy rouge and powder, but died before I could do so. That money is now inside the kitchen, in the wall at the northwest corner. Although I did not spend it, because I stole it, I have incurred guilt on this account. Now I must repay my parents with my life.' Having finished speaking, she transformed into a blue-green sheep with a white head. The guest, alarmed, informed the master. The master asked about her appearance, and it was indeed his little daughter, who had died two years earlier. They retrieved the hundred coins from the kitchen wall, which seemed to have been placed there long ago. Thereupon, they sent the sheep to a Buddhist monastery, and the entire household ate meat no longer. Lu Wenli recounted this to me personally (the above two proofs are from the Mingbao ji).