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.
The so-called Four Seas is actually one sea, but people often call what they see in the south the South Sea and what they see in the north the North Sea. This can be fully confirmed in historical records.
Yan Daofu(嚴道甫), while traveling in the areas of Shaanxi and Gansu, once met with Duke Wu(伍公), the sincere and resolute. Duke Wu told Yan Daofu: During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, he was ordered to visit the area of Eluosi and heard that there was a sea at its northern border.
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 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.
Gao Yan(高公岩), a man from Rugao(如臯), served as the magistrate of Gaoling in Shaanxi(陝西高陵令). One of his friends came to visit him but found it getting dusk while still about ten miles away from the city. Worried they wouldn’t make it to the city in time, they spotted an abandoned temple by the roadside. The main hall was closed and locked, but there were two rooms on the west side. There was a small door connecting these rooms to the main hall, also locked.
In Shimen County(石門縣), Zhejiang Province(浙江), there was a local official named Li Nianxian(李念先), tasked with collecting rent in the villages. One evening, he arrived at a remote village but couldn’t find an inn. He noticed a dimly lit thatched cottage in the distance and decided to head in that direction. As he approached, he found a broken bamboo fence acting as a gate, and from within came moaning sounds.
Li Nianxian loudly announced himself, stating his purpose as a local official there to collect rent.
