The Chang of the Tiger

He saw a little ghost, shaped like a seven or eight year old boy, without clothes.

Towards the end of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Yuzhou experienced numerous cases of tigers attacking people. Despite setting up traps with mechanisms, none proved successful in catching a tiger.

One moonlit night, a man climbed a tree and patiently waited. He spotted a small ghost resembling a seven or eight-year-old boy, unclothed, strolling nearby. The boy wore turquoise-colored top and bottom clothes. Upon reaching the trap, he deliberately triggered and deactivated it.

As the boy passed by, the man quickly descended from the tree, reloaded the trap, and shortly after, a tiger approached and succumbed to the trap.

Later, the ghost child returned, witnessed the fate of the tiger, wept, and then entered the tiger’s mouth. At dawn, when the man opened the tiger’s mouth, he discovered a jasper piece the size of an egg lodged in the tiger’s throat.

Original text in 《廣異記》:

開元末,渝州多虎暴。設機阱,恒未得之。月夕,人有登樹候望,見一倀鬼如七八歲小兒,無衣輕行,通身碧色,來發其機。及過,人又下樹正之。須臾,一虎徑來,為陷機所中而死。久之,小兒行哭而返,因入虎口。及明開視,有碧石大如雞子在虎喉焉。

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