Zhang Ningren(張寧人) said that the elderly man next door likes to smoke. He holds a bamboo pipe that is more than five feet long and has been using it for over thirty years.
One day, a Daoist priest walked by the door, saw the smoking pipe in the old man’s hand, and said to him, ‘This thing has absorbed human essence for a long time and has become a Smoke Dragon.
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.
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.
Scholar Cao Loyin(曹學士洛禋) once told me this story.
In the spring of the forty-third year of Kangxi(康熙)’s reign, he and his friend Pan Xichou(潘錫疇) traveled to Huangshan(黃山) and arrived at the Wenshu Monastery(文殊院), where they dined with monks including Xuezhuang(雪莊). Suddenly, the monks disappeared from the table, leaving only their heads visible. Xuezhuang said, ‘This is the ‘floating cloud atop(雲過),’ no need for the two guests to be surprised.’
The next day, they reached the Yunfeng Cave(雲峰洞) and found an old man living there.
In the autumn of the thirty-eighth year of the Qianlong reign(癸巳秋), Magistrate Zhang(張明府) encountered a Daoist named Yang(楊道人) in Changzhou. This Daoist had a youthful appearance with the exception of a one-inch square bald spot on the crown of his head, devoid of any hair. Zhang, the Magistrate, found this quite peculiar and inquired about the reason behind it. Yang chuckled and said, ‘Have you not noticed how grass grows on either side of a street, but in the middle, where people walk, not a blade of grass thrives?’
In the Hushi Pass of Suzhou(滸市關), there was a man named Chen Yiyuan(陳一元) who left home to pursue the Dao. He constructed a house solely for cultivating his practices. He would sit alone in the house, locking himself inside. At first, he stopped eating porridge, then abstained from fruits and vegetables, drinking only water from the Stone Lake. He instructed his son to bring a jug of water each month. On the second month, when his son came to visit, the jug remained outside the door, but the water had dried up.
Li Yi(李鷁), the son of Minister Li Hefeng(李鶴峰), styled as Yishan(醫山), passed the imperial examination in the 26th year of Qianlong’s reign and was selected to join the Hanlin Academy(翰林). He excelled in poetry and literature, and had a fondness for the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism(宋儒理學).
One day, while Li Yi was studying under the lamp, two exceedingly beautiful women suddenly appeared to tempt him, but he paid them no attention.
In the Baihou(白鱟) Cave of Mount Bian in Wuxing(吳興卞山), every spring and summer, a white vapor drifted out of the cave. It resembled a piece of white silk, floating aimlessly in the air. Wherever this vapor passed, silkworm cocoons were destroyed completely. Hence, during silkworm cultivation, people dreaded this white vapor. However, this vapor was particularly afraid of the sound of gongs and drums. During the Ming Dynasty, Han Shao(韓紹), the Minister of Rites(明太常卿), once ordered officials to use poisoned arrows to drive it away, documenting the process in the ‘Expulsion of the White Sea Hare’ found in the ‘Annals of Wuxing Prefecture.'(《驅鱟文》載郡志)
In Shucheng County(舒城縣), Luzhou Prefecture(廬州府), there was a villager named Chen(陳姓者). His wife was suddenly haunted by a female ghost who sometimes strangled her throat with hands and other times tied her neck with straw ropes. No one around her could see the haunting ghost. Tormented and in agony, she frequently clawed at her clothes, pulling out many straw ropes.
Chen gave his wife a bundle of peach tree branches, saying, ‘If the female ghost returns, use these to strike her!’
Master Ye Fashan(葉法善) was skilled in talismanic magic. The Emperor honored him several times as a Hongluqing(鴻臚卿), bestowing upon him lavish rewards and special treatment.
Ye Fashan resided in the Xuanzhen Temple(玄真觀), often hosting a dozen or more courtiers who would come to the temple, loosen their belts, and stay without intending to leave. The seats would be occupied, and they’d desire wine to drink.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, claiming to be Qu Xiucai.
Xie Duan was a man from Houguan County, Fujian Province, in the Jin Dynasty. He was orphaned at a young age and had no relatives, so he was raised by his neighbors. When he was 17 or 18 years old, he was a respectful and careful person who avoided doing anything illegal. He began to live on his own.
The villagers pitied and cared about Xie Duan, and they discussed together how to find him a wife, but they were unsuccessful.
Tigers are nothing to be afraid of, as long as you close your breath and store your thoughts.
Ming Siyuan, a Taoist priest from Huashan, studied Taoist talismans diligently for more than thirty years. He often taught people the “Jinshui Shape Method(金水分形之法)” and told them to hold their breath and rely on their thoughts, and many people came to him to learn from him.
During the Yongtai period, Huazhou(華州, a place) was infested with tigers.
