Sun Chou, a retired general, was a man of Dengzhou. He had been a commander of a thousand under the Jin and gained office after defecting back to the Song at the end of the Shaoxing era; in the Chunxi years he became vice commander of the Jingxi garrison. He bought land and built a house at Gucheng, and he was a very brave man.
A kitchen maid reported that, night after night when she entered the kitchen, there would be a thing crouched below the stove — hair wild and loose, its face impossible to make out. Called to, it would not answer; driven off, it would not leave. “It must be a ghost,” she said.
Sun said: “Next time it comes, tell me.” The following evening it came again. Sun went to look, and it was as she said. He laughed: “This is only the soul of a man eaten by Sang Shen’s army.” Then he lunged with a fist to its crown, and it vanished into the ground at once.
At dawn he ordered a servant to dig, and they found a single set of old bones; he had them carted away and thrown in the wilds.
