Zhu Shuo, magistrate of Pingyang, was a cruel man. In the county he governed he had special thick cangues and heavy batons made. Whenever a case touched a woman, he would find some way to bring in an accusation of illicit sex.
He flogged prostitutes with their clothes removed, and pressed the baton into them so that they swelled and ulcerated for months, saying: “Let us see how she receives customers now!” He smeared the blood from their buttocks onto the faces of the men who had visited them.
The pretty ones he treated worse. He shaved their heads and slit both nostrils open with a knife, saying: “Make the beautiful ugly and the trade will die out.”
When he met fellow officials he would boast: “To look on beauty and not be moved — without a face of iron and a heart of ice, who could do this?”
His term ended and he was transferred to Shandong as a vice-prefect.
On the way he put his family up at an inn at Chiping. There was an upper storey locked fast, and he asked why.
“There is something in that loft, sir. It has not been opened for years.”
Zhu was obstinate by nature. “What harm? Let it hear of my terrible reputation and it will have retired long ago!”
His wife and children begged him. He would not listen. He lodged them in another room, took a sword, lit a candle, and sat.
At the third watch there was a knock, and someone came in — an old man with a white beard and a dark red cap, who bowed low.
“What thing are you?” Zhu shouted.
“I am no thing, sir. I am the Earth God of this district. I heard that a great man had arrived, and that this is the hour when the monsters are destroyed, and I came gladly to greet you.” And he added: “In a moment, when they come, you have only to swing your sword and I will help you. Not one will escape.”
Zhu was delighted. He thanked the god and sent him away.
Presently a blue-faced one arrived, and then a white-faced one, one after another. Zhu cut them down with his sword and they fell at once. Last came one with long teeth and a black mouth; Zhu struck it, and it too cried out and dropped.
Zhu congratulated himself and called loudly for the innkeeper.
It was already cock-crow. The family came with candles to look.
The bodies lying all over the floor were his wife, his concubines, his sons and his daughters.
“So I have been made a fool of by ghosts!” cried Zhu.
And he died of it, in one scream.