Fang Yu of Poyang county was a clerk in the prefectural administration. He had a feud with a ruffian of the town, Yang the Fifth, who worked as a broker. Yu was forever being pushed around by him.
Once, when the two of them met with drink in them, Yang caught hold of his coat. Yu reckoned he was no match for him in strength and humbly begged for his life. Yang took no notice. He dragged him to the ground and beat and kicked him as he pleased, until the hurt was very great. People standing by tried to talk him off; he still had his grip and would not let go. In the end they carried Yu home inch by inch, worn out and all but gone.
He said to his wife and children:
“Between him and me there is a hatred from a former life. Now he has beaten me. If I do not get up from this — on no account bring suit before the authorities and have my body examined. It would only spread shame and grief for nothing. Just put paper and a brush into my coffin. I shall see to the matter with Heaven above.”
When he had said this he died.
His wife and children swallowed the wrong and the bitterness of it and made no public complaint. Yang believed he had had his way, and grew more violent and cruel than before.
Months went by. It was late autumn, and the sun stood at the middle of the sky, when Yang saw Fang Yu coming towards him from a long way off, with two ghosts following behind him.
In a moment Yu was in front of him, and shouted:
“You killed me without cause. I went and laid my plaint in the courts of the dark, and was granted these two officers to help me take you.”
Yang tried to run. Yu seized him by the hair, and the ghosts came on and struck him. Yang howled and begged forgiveness.
“When you were making me suffer,” said Yu, “the extremity I was in looked just like this. A life for a life, coin for a debt. Do you imagine loose, easy words can undo it?”
People passing on the road saw Yang with his head hanging, trembling, talking to himself over and over, and slapping his own face until the blood ran and would not stop. Someone carried word to his family, and they came to look at him. He could still tell them what had happened to him.
Presently he died.
