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.
Zhang, a gentleman from Hangzhou, said: When my father, Mr. Xingzi(星子先生), served as the educational commissioner in Jiangxi, there was a maidservant who was originally dull but suddenly became clever, surprising the family.
One day, this maid closed the door to take a bath and didn’t come out for a long time. Calls to her went unanswered. Peeking inside, no one was there. Breaking in, they found the bathwater untouched. All the windows were tightly shut, and everything inside was normal, without a speck of dust disturbed.
A Zen master on Mount Wutai once took on a disciple who was only three years old at the time. Mount Wutai is extremely high, and the master and disciple practiced on the summit, never descending the mountain. After more than ten years, the master and the disciple descended the mountain together. The young monk saw cows, horses, chickens, and dogs but didn’t know what they were.
The master pointed and told him, “This is a cow, used for plowing fields.
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.
A man named Zhang from Hezhou traveled to Yangzhou(揚州) and stayed at the Xingjiao Temple(興教寺). The monks’ quarters in the temple were haunted by a fox immortal, so no one dared to stay there. Zhang, with his carefree personality, decided to reside in the monk’s room.
Not long after Zhang moved in, an old man claiming to be Wu Gangzi(吳剛子) came to visit. After exchanging greetings with a bow, they began to converse.
The county magistrate Zhong Liquan(鍾醴泉) of Tiantai County(天台縣) told me: when his father served as the governor of Guizhou(貴州) Dading Prefecture(大定府), he established a lead mining bureau. One noon, a bull suddenly rushed into the lead factory, and despite the efforts of dozens of people whipping it, they couldn’t drive it away. Liquan went to observe, and the bull knelt on the ground as if bowing. Therefore, he asked the person who brought the bull, “Is this a plowing ox or a slaughter ox for meat?”
In Hangzhou, there was a scholar named Sun who, on a summer night, was reading in his study. He felt something crawling on his forehead and, upon brushing it with his hand, saw countless strands of white beard hanging down from the plaque on the ceiling. On the plaque was a large face, about the size of a seven-stone jar, with eyebrows and eyes like an ordinary person, smiling and looking down.
Ge Zuliang(葛祖亮), an official in the Ministry of Rites, told me: A neighbor named Cheng, who was wealthy but childless for many years, unexpectedly had a son in his old age. This son was intelligent and clever, with bright features that Cheng cherished dearly. However, by the age of twelve, the child fell seriously ill, incurring countless medical expenses. As he grew older, instead of engaging in productive activities, he took pleasure in cockfighting and dog racing, squandering away the family fortune.
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.
Shen Yutan(沈雨潭) also said, on a day in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong, thunder and lightning raged, and thunderbolts spun over the Huai’an(淮安) Orphanage. It was about to strike an old woman in the courtyard. At that time, this old woman was urinating. Suddenly, a loud thunder directly struck above her head. The old woman panicked, immediately lifted the chamber pot, and threw it in the direction of the thunder. Afterwards, a golden-armored Thunder God circled around the roof for a few rounds and then landed on the ground.
