There was an old man of Hangzhou named Qiu who made his living selling cloth. One day, coming back from collecting debts, he put up at an inn, and the inn was full. The road ahead was desolate and there was nowhere else to stop, so he spoke to the innkeeper.
The host said: “Is the old guest a bold man? Behind my back wall there are a few dice rooms where nobody has slept for a long time. I fear they harbour something unclean, and have not dared to offer them.”
Old Qiu said: “I reckon that in half a lifetime I have travelled not less than tens of thousands of li. What should I fear a ghost for?”
So the host took a candle, and went with him through the house and out past the back wall. What they found was a patch of open ground, four or five mu of it, with a few low rooms against the wall, quite clean. Old Qiu went in, found tables, chairs, bed and curtains all complete, and was well pleased. The host took his leave, and Old Qiu, because the night was hot, sat out of doors doing his accounts.
That evening the moon was faint and hazy, and in a blur it seemed to him that a figure flitted past in front. Thinking a thief had come, he looked hard — and another shadow flitted by. In a moment he had seen twelve of them, moving with no fixed course, like butterflies threading flowers, impossible to catch hold of. Looking carefully, they were all beautiful women.
Old Qiu said: “The reason people fear ghosts is that ghosts have horrible forms. Since they are as alluring as this, I may as well look at ghosts as beautiful women.” And he sat up straight to see what they would do.
Not long after, two ghosts settled at his feet, one climbed onto his shoulders, nine followed one after another, and one floated lightly to the top — exactly like what the theatre calls building a pagoda.
A little later still, each of them took a great ring and put it over her neck at the same moment, with her hair all down and her tongue hanging out a foot and more.
Old Qiu laughed: “Too beautiful by half, too horrible by half, and turning over from one to the other exactly like the manners of the world just now. I am only waiting to see what conclusion you come to.”
At that, the whole company of ghosts burst out laughing, each resumed her original form, and they dispersed.
