A certain Xing, magistrate of Shangyu, had long been on bad terms with his wife. In the course of a quarrel he slapped her face, and she in her rage hanged herself.
Three days later she appeared and began to haunt him. Whenever Xing lay down with his concubine she would blow a cold wind that lifted the bed-curtains, or put out the lamp. Xing was angry and called in a Daoist to recite spells and work his arts; he took the ghost and confined her in the eastern side-room, sealed it with a talisman and stamped it with the official seal. After that the ghost did not come at all.
Before long Xing was transferred to the magistracy of Qiantang. His successor at Shangyu came and opened the side-room, and the ghost got out. She then possessed a young maidservant and haunted them as before.
The successor called to the ghost and spoke to her: “Madam, your quarrel is with Master Xing and has nothing to do with this maid. Why do you harm her?”
The ghost said: “I would not presume to harm the girl. I am borrowing her body so that I can ask you something.”
He asked: “What do you ask?”
She said: “Send me to Master Xing at Qiantang.”
He said: “Why do you not go yourself?”
She said: “I am a ghost who died wrongfully. Along the road the river gods block the way. Without your sealed dispatch to pass me through, I cannot go; and I ask you further to sign off two runners to escort me.”
He asked: “Which two?”
She said: “Chen Gui and Teng Sheng.” Both were runners already dead.
The successor did as she asked, burned the warrant, and had her escorted away.
Master Xing was at supper in his bedchamber when his concubine suddenly fell to the ground and cried out: “You have no conscience! You drove me to my death, and then you shut me up in the eastern side-room to starve! Now I have come back, and I will not let you alone.”
From that time the Qiantang magistracy was disturbed day and night. Xing had no choice but to call in a Daoist again, who added a talisman and applied the seal, and sealed her away into the Qiantang gaol.
As she was taken off the ghost cried: “You are utterly heartless! Before, you shut me up in the eastern side-room, and that was at least a room. Now what crime have I committed, that you put me in a prison? I shall have my revenge on you.”
Within a month a felon under heavy sentence in the gaol hanged himself, and for this Xing was impeached and dismissed. He was terrified, and swore he would shave his head and become a monk and wander the world. His fellow officials contributed to buy him his bowl and robe, but before he could set out he fell ill and died.
