Xu, the household registration secretary of Shanyin County, fell ill and in a daze saw his deceased brother come to him and say, “I’ve bought an official vacancy for you in the underworld. After you die, you’ll still be the secretary in the underworld, so there’s nothing to worry about.” Shortly after, another deceased local constable named Zhu came and said, “You don’t have to die, but you have to give me a large sum of money.
A scholar named Xie from Wuyuan(婺源) was studying on Mount Zhanggong(張公山). One morning, he heard the chirping of birds in the woods, resembling the cries of parrots. Upon approaching, he discovered a beautiful woman, about five inches tall, naked and without feathers, her entire body pure white like jade. Between her eyebrows, there was a look of sadness. Xie captured her and brought her home. Surprisingly, the woman showed no sign of fear.
The official residence of Yao Tingdong(姚廷棟), the governor of Huai-Xu Dao(淮徐道), was located in Suqian(宿遷). He celebrated his father’s birthday and invited a group of pear garden disciples to perform a play in the hall. The wall next to the hall was very high, and thousands of people could be seen outside the wall, all with wide-open eyes watching the performance. Initially, he thought they were subordinates such as soap slaves and officials, scolding them, but they still did not leave.
In Changle County(長樂縣), Fujian Province, there was a woman surnamed Li. At the age of twenty-five, she gave birth to a son. Unfortunately, six months after the birth, her husband passed away. She was determined to raise the orphaned child. In the Li household, there was only a maidservant and an elderly servant. Apart from them, even close relatives rarely visited. The people in the village and surrounding areas who knew her held great respect for her.
In the capital, there was an elderly woman who could see ghosts. She once told people, “I once saw a ghost at a certain family, utterly infatuated to the extreme. However, the situation was pitiful, evoking a poignant and touching feeling. The ghost’s name was unknown, residing in a certain village. The family was moderately well-off, and the ghost died at the age of around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. About a hundred days after his death, the deceased’s wife invited me to accompany her.
In the maternal family of Fa Jiasun(法嘉蓀)’s grandmother, there was a nephew named Sun who was a wealthy man in the local area. In the early Qing Dynasty, piracy was rampant along the coastal areas, so Sun moved his family to Jintan(金壇). One day, an old man surnamed Hu, accompanied by dozens of descendants and servants, along with some valuable luggage, passed by Sun’s house. The old man claimed to be from Shanxi(山西) and, due to the chaos of war, couldn’t proceed further, requesting to borrow an empty room in Sun’s house for temporary residence.
During the Kangxi era, the City God of Longxi County(隴西城隍) had a black face and a large beard, with a very dignified appearance. However, during the Qianlong era, it suddenly changed to a handsome young man’s image. Someone asked the monk in the temple, ‘Why did the appearance of the City God change so much?’
The monk told him, ‘We heard from the elders that in the seventh year of Yongzheng’s reign(雍正七年), there was a scholar named Xie, just twenty years old, who lived in the temple with his teacher to study.
When Jintan(金壇) Yu Yunshi(于雲石) was working in the Hanlin Academy(翰林), he had to bring his father to the capital for support.
Mr. Yu traveled alone to the capital. One day, halfway there, it was getting late, and there was no one around. After searching for a while, he finally found an inn and went in to stay for the night. However, the innkeeper said the rooms were all full and couldn’t accommodate him, asking him to find another place.
Outside the southern gate of Jurong County(句容), there lies a grave known as the Nine Husbands’ Grave. Legend has it that there was a woman, exceedingly beautiful. After her husband passed away, leaving behind a son, their household became very wealthy. So, she remarried and bore another son. The second husband also passed away and was buried beside the first husband. Later, she married a third time, yet this husband, like the others before him, met the same fate.
Two men from Shaoxing(紹興), Wang and Xu, fled to Henan in the late Ming Dynasty to escape the chaos caused by Li Zicheng(李自成) and Zhang Xianzhong(張獻忠). Everywhere they passed, they saw corpses strewn across the fields. One night, Wang and Xu encountered two soldiers under Li Zicheng’s command. Realizing they had no way out, they crawled into a heap of corpses within the city. At midnight, they suddenly saw bright lights, and a procession descended from the city tower.
In Tianchang County(天長), there was a magistrate named Lin who served in the capital city’s district. In his home, there was a spirit-writing altar occupied by a monster. This monster claimed to be the ‘True Man of the White Stone(白石真人)’ and accurately foretold fortunes and misfortunes for those who sought its advice.
The monster often persuaded Magistrate Lin to cultivate the Dao and practice immortal arts, claiming that by opening a third eye on his face, he could see the palace where the Heavenly Emperor resided and the immortals frolicking in the clouds.
In Haichang(海昌), there was a scholar named Chen(陳秀才某) who once visited the Yusu Temple(于肅愍廟) to seek dreams and divine the fortunes of his future. In his dream, Yusu opened the main gate to receive him, but instead of feeling at ease, Chen became restless. After a few steps, he stopped. Yusu said, ‘You are to be my future student, so according to protocol, you should enter through the main gate.’ Once settled, messengers arrived to report that the City God of Tangxi County(湯溪縣城隍) wished to see him.
