釋氏要覽 3.324

3.324

世人凡冥夜行。忽毛寒心悸。疑有鬼物。故四散唾之。法苑云。列異傳。南陽宋定伯。少時夜獨行逢一鬼。鬼問定伯。誑云。我是鬼又問何往。曰往苑市。鬼言。可遞負行定伯。曰大善鬼先負定伯怪重。伯誑曰。我新死故重。次定伯。負鬼果輕。伯問鬼曰。我新死不知畏何物。鬼曰唯畏人唾。將近市。伯乃緊持急唾之。鬼遂化為羊。入市。賣得壹貫五百文。于時石崇聞。諺之曰。定伯賣鬼得錢千五。

Whenever worldly people walk in the dark of night and suddenly feel a chill across their skin and palpitations of the heart, suspecting the presence of a ghost, they spit in all directions. The Fayuan zhulin says: "The Lieyi zhuan relates that Song Dingbo of Nanyang, when young, was walking alone at night and met a ghost. The ghost asked Dingbo [who he was], and he lied: 'I am a ghost.' It further asked where he was going. He said: 'Going to the Wan market.' The ghost said: 'We can take turns carrying each other on our backs.' Dingbo said: 'Very well.' The ghost carried Dingbo first and found it strange that he was so heavy. Dingbo lied: 'I have only just died, so I am heavy.' Next, Dingbo carried the ghost, and it was indeed light. Dingbo asked the ghost: 'I have only just died and do not know what we fear.' The ghost said: 'We fear only human spit.' As they neared the market, Dingbo held it firmly and spat on it repeatedly. The ghost then transformed into a sheep. Entering the market, he sold it and got one string and five hundred coins. At that time, Shi Chong heard of it and made a proverb of it: 'Dingbo sold a ghost and got fifteen hundred coins.'"