法苑珠林 91.75

91.75

During the Jin dynasty, Wang Fan, the magistrate of Fuyang County, had a concubine named Taoying of remarkable beauty. She engaged in illicit relations with two men in his service, Ding Feng and Shi Huaqi. Once, when Fan went on a journey and had not yet returned, Sun Yuanbi, the superintendent of his inner chambers, heard the clinking of girdle-pendants in Ding Feng's room. Peering in, he saw Taoying sleeping under the same quilt with him. Yuanbi knocked on the door panels and scolded them; Taoying immediately got up, gathered her skirts, adjusted her temples, stepped into her shoes, and went back inside. Yuanbi also saw that Huaqi was wearing Taoying's musk sachet. The two men were terrified that Yuanbi would report them, so together they slandered him, claiming that Yuanbi was having an affair with Taoying. Without investigating carefully, Fan executed Yuanbi. A man named Chen Chao was present at the gathering then and urged Fan on, cementing Yuanbi's conviction. Later, when Fan was relieved of office and returned, Chao also left for the capital. Going along to see Fan, he arrived beneath Mount Chiting and encountered thunder and rain. At dusk, someone suddenly took Chao by the armpits and dragged him straight into a desolate marsh. In the flash of lightning, he saw a ghost whose face was dark blue-black and whose eyes had no pupils. The ghost said: 'I am Sun Yuanbi. I appealed my grievance to Imperial Heaven, which has already granted me redress. I have waited for you continuously across time, and now at last we meet.' Chao kowtowed until he bled. The ghost said: 'Wang Fan is the primary instigator, so he must be killed first. Jia Jingbo and Sun Wendu are beneath the Dark Hall of Mount Tai, jointly determining the registers of the living and the dead. Taoying's hun and po souls have also been arrested and are at Nuqing Pavilion. Nuqing Pavilion is the name of the Third Hell, beneath the Yellow Springs; it specifically punishes female ghosts.' Just as day was dawning, the ghost vanished. When Chao reached Yangdu and called upon Fan, he did not dare speak of it, but then saw the ghost enter from outside and go straight into Fan's bedchamber. When night fell and Fan first went to sleep, he suddenly suffered a severe nightmare, calling out incessantly without waking up. His family led a black ox to stand over Fan, and applied peach-wood figurines and left-twisted ropes; toward dawn he slightly revived, but died ten-odd days later. The concubine also died suddenly. Chao then fled to Changgan Temple and changed his surname and personal name to He Gui. Five years later, on the third day of the third month, when he was intoxicated with wine beside the water, Chao said: 'Today I need no longer fear this ghost!' Looking down, he saw the ghost's shadow already in the water, which struck Chao with its hand. His nose bled profusely, perhaps about one sheng, and he passed away several days later.