The History of China - #202 - Special: Strange Tales V

Episode Date: October 17, 2020

The chill of autumn is in the air once again, which can only mean one thing! It’s time for more tales to terrorize & titillate, baffle & bemuse… it’s time to once again venture into the studio of Pu Songling and listen to his strange tales. So gather round the light of the fire… or the iPhone… and get ready for seven strange stories of sly foxes, flights of fancy, monstrous appetites, unusual encounters, otherworldly lessons, tricky traders, and enchanting apparitions... 00:58: The Half-Fox Girl 10:55: The Painted Wall 18:27: The Monster In the Buckwheat 21:48: The Girl From Nanjing 25:45: A Most Exemplary Monk 28:07: Stealing a Peach 33:38: The Hungry Bride 36:07: The Magic Sword & the Magic Bag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to the History of China. Episode 201, Strange Tales 5.

The chill of autumn is in the air once again, which can mean only one thing. That's right, it's time for more tales to terrorize and titillate, baffle and bemuse. It's time to once again venture into the studio of Pu Songling and listen to his strange tales. So gather round the light of the fire, or the lantern, or the iPhone, and get ready for seven strange stories of sly foxes, flights of fancy, monstrous appetites, unusual encounters, otherworldly lessons, tricky traders, and enchanting apparitions. Please enjoy. The Half-Fox Girl Once upon a time, there was a young man called Wang Zifu. Wang lived an affluent life with his widowed mother. Now, at the age of 17, he had still not gotten a wife, which was a headache for his mother.

At that time, people usually got married at a very early age. On the day of the Lantern Festival, Wong took a tour around the countryside. On his trip, he came across a girl and fell in love with her immediately. Not knowing the strange girl, he just ogled her silently. The girl was young and elegant, holding flower twig in one hand. She giggled loudly as she talked, not noticing that someone was watching her. Oh, I see that a stealthy pair of eyes is watching you, the girl's maid informed her. The young girl turned around and saw Wong looking in her direction. Instead of getting angry, she gave him a friendly smile. Then she

dropped the flower twig to the ground and walked away with her maid. When the girls walked too far away to see, Wong picked up the flower twig and took it home. From that day on, Wong could not stop thinking about the girl and hoped to meet her again. Lovesick, he became very depressed, and gradually his health became worse and worse. However, he would not reveal his secret to his mother. Since she could do nothing to bring relief to her son, the mother had her nephew, a Mr. Wu, come over to comfort her son. Wang spilled his guts to his cousin and pleaded with him to find that girl. His cousin promised to help. Several days later, Wang was delighted to receive a letter from his cousin.

The girl was none other than a cousin of theirs living in a hilly village a few miles away. Long was anxious to meet her and set out for the hills in the early morning of the next day. At noon, he reached his destination and spotted a large house surrounded by trees. As he hesitated to knock on the door, he saw an old lady, who stepped out and invited him to come in. There were all kinds of flowering trees in the garden of the house, and all were in full bloom. Amid the flowers, he heard a girl giggling. To his pleasure, it was the same girl that he'd met several days ago. The old lady invited him to dinner. During the dinner, he told the old lady his surname, and said that he was the son of his dear sister. The old lady invited him to dinner. During the dinner, he told the old lady his surname,

and said that he was the son of his dear sister. The old lady was not sure whether she was really his dear aunt. She indeed had a sister, who had married Mr. Wong, said the old lady, but had not had any news from her for many years. Wong then asked to see his cousin, the young girl he was missing so much. His aunt said that the young girl he was missing so much. His aunt said that the young girl was with her stepdaughter and born of the concubine of her late husband. Both the poor girl's parents died when she was still a baby, and she had been brought up by the old lady herself. Her name was Yingning, and she was 16 years old. After dinner, Wang found an opportunity to be alone with Yingning in the garden. He presented her the withered flower twig that he had treasured from their first meeting.

You like the flowers from this twig, cousin? Yingning giggled. Yes, I do. Good. I like flowers too. See, this garden, you can take as many flowers as you like when you leave. I do not love these flowers. I love the lady who was holding this very flower twig that day we first met. It's you. Ridiculous. We are dear cousins and we should certainly love each other. I do not mean that kind of love between relatives. I mean a man's love for a woman. Is there any difference?

The girl asked seriously, still missing the point. If a man and a woman love each other, then they can sleep together. Wong said bluntly, hoping to win her affections. Oh, sleeping with a stranger makes me uneasy, the girl answered. The maid suddenly appeared at that moment and said that the old lady wanted to see them. You two stayed in the garden for such a long while. What were you talking about? The old lady inquired. My cousin wanted to sleep with me, mother, Yingning replied bluntly, which embarrassed Wang awfully. Fortunately, he found that his aunt was hard of hearing. He quickly gave Yingning a

glance, hinting at her to say no more. Later, Yingning asked her cousin why he had interrupted her. Those words can be said between couples, not in front of others, Wang said. Not even in front of my dear mother? Yes, not to anybody else. Although she nodded in agreement, the naive girl still seemed to not have the faintest idea about her cousin's intentions. Several days later, Wang confessed to his aunt that he loved Yingning and wanted to marry her. He humbly asked for consent from his

aunt. Since I am not the birth mother, you can take her as your wife. But you know, she is too innocent to be seduced by scoundrels. Therefore, I am glad that my own nephew will marry my dear stepdaughter. Long then took Yingning to his own home. The mother welcomed her son with joyful tears, for he had been absent from home for many days. It gave her a great shock to see a beautiful young girl come in with him. She wanted to know what had happened. Wang told his mother that her nephew, Wu, had told him to find his aunt in a hilly village,

and he had met the aunt there and gotten her consent to marry her stepdaughter, the beautiful girl. Oh, cried his mother. Wu has lied to you. The hilly village and the aunt were completely his invention. This is very strange. Wang then described his aunt's appearance in detail to the mother. The mother pondered for a moment. I do have an elder sister who married a Mr. Tin, but she died twenty years ago. How can a dead person come back to life? Although the old lady's appearance is the same as my sister, I still feel

it's unnatural, said the mother. My elder sister died before my husband. Your uncle, Chin, lived as a widower for some time, and then he fell in love with a fox spirit. They lived together as husband and wife. The fox then gave birth to a baby girl. Shortly after that, Mr. Chin died too, leaving the girl and her fox mother alone. And later the fox took her daughter away and we never saw them again.

If the girl is alive today, she would be sixteen. The mother then turned her face at the girl standing beside her son and cried out, Oh! Isn't this the daughter of your Uncle Chin? What's her name? She's called Yingning. Oh, yes. The baby girl's name was Yingning, too. The mother took great pity on the girl and agreed to let her stay with the family. Yingning was a good girl, elegant and cheerful.

She soon won the favor of everybody. She was always giggling. There seemed nothing that could upset her. She loved planting flowers, thus all kinds of flowers were soon flourishing within the yard. But just as her stepmother warned, she was too guileless to be seduced by scoundrels. The neighbor's son was a womanizer and wanted to take advantage of the pretty girl. One day, he sent a message to the girl for a date at the foot of the bordering wall. Yingning placed a thick log there in advance and put a scorpion as large as a small crab in the hole of the log. When night came, in the pitch darkness, the bad guy took the log for the girl and wanted to have sex with her.

His penis was stung by the large scorpion, and he yelled in agony. In this way, the clever girl saved herself and gave the scoundrel a good lesson. One day, Yining told the mother and son about her life. When her father died, her fox mother took her away. But soon after, her mother became very sick. The dying mother asked the ghost of Mr. Qin's wife to come and take care of her child. As Yingning was also the child of her husband, Mr. Qin was obligated to do so. She agreed to bring up Ying Ning as her own child. Ever since, they had lived together in the isolated hills.

Wang sent some people to visit the hills to try to find the house and his aunt, but when they reached the place where the old lady lived, there was neither house nor old lady, and what they saw were flowers surrounding a lonely tomb. Wang and Yingning were soon married. A year later, Yingning gave birth to a baby boy, who always giggled as his mother did. One year after the birth of the child, Wang passed the imperial examination and became a government official. The family lived happily together ever after. The Painted Wall

Meng Longtan, a gentleman of Jiangxi province, was staying in Peking with his friend, the provincial graduate, Zhu. One day, they went to visit a monastery together. Not a particularly spacious establishment, with a modest hall took them on a tour of the precincts. In the main hall stood a statue of the Zen master Bao Zhi, and there were superb murals on the two flanking walls, representations of men and animals that seemed to breathe with life. On the eastern wall was a painting of the Apsaras scattering flowers, beautiful fairy-like beings, among whom Jew noticed one maiden with unbound hair, a flower in her hand, and a magically smiling face. Her lips seemed to move, and the light in her eyes rippled like water. Du stared at this maiden like a man transfixed and was soon utterly transported by the vision. He was wafted bodily up to the wall and into the mural itself.

He felt himself pillowed on clouds and saw stretching before him a grand panorama of palaces and pavilions, a veritable fairy realm. He could see an aged abbot preaching the Dharma from a pulpit, surrounded by a throng of robed monks. Zhu was mingling with the crowd, when presently he felt someone secretly tugging at his sleeve, turned to look, and saw the maiden with the unbound hair walking smilingly away from him. He followed her down curving balustraded pathways to the doorway of a small pavilion, where he hesitated. The maiden looked back and beckoned him on with the flower that she still held in her hand. So he followed her to the pavilion, where they found themselves alone, and where, with no delay, he embraced her and, finding her to be far from unreceptive, proceeded to make love

to her. Afterwards, she left him and went away, closing the door behind her and bidding him to not make the slightest sound. That same night she returned, and so their liaison continued for a further two days. Her female companions perceived soon enough that there was something afoot, and discovered Zhu in his hiding place. Look at you, they teased the girl. You've most probably got a baby on the way by now, And still you wear your hair like a little girl They brought out hairpins and pendants And helped her put her hair in like a grown woman While all along she maintained coy silence

Come on sisters, let's go! Cried one among them We're spoiling their fun And off they went, giggling among themselves Du now gazed at her once more their fun, and off they went, giggling among themselves. Du now gazed at her once more, with hair now piled high in a black cloud-like chignon and phoenix ornaments hanging down from it. She seemed even more adorably beautiful than before. They were alone again, and soon felt a further sports of love. His senses suffused with the heady perfume that emanated from her body, a scent of orchid

mingled with musk. The raptures were, however, rudely interrupted by the clomping of boots, the clanking of chains, and a confused and raucous shouting outside. The fairy girl leapt up, and she and Jew hurried to the door. Peeping through, they saw a guard standing there in full armor, with a face black as pitch, carrying chains and cudgels, and surrounded by throngs of maidens. Are you all present? he barked. All present, came the reply. Are you quite sure one of you is not harboring a man from the world below? cried the guard. If so, bring him out this instant. Don't go causing trouble for yourselves. There's no one here, they all protested.

The guard cast a piercing gaze around him, implying that he was about to search the place. Jew's fairy went ashen pale. Hurry, she whispered, turning breathlessly to her lover and trembling with fear. Hide under the bed. She herself opened the little side door in the wall, through which she escaped, while Jew took refuge beneath the bed, hardly daring to breathe. The heavy boots came marching into the room,

then left again, and as they stomped away into the distance, he heaved a sigh of relief. But he could still hear a great deal of coming and going and talking outside the door, and remained in a state of unbearable suspense, his eyes burning and his ears buzzing like crickets. He resigned himself to waiting quietly for his lady friend to return, barely remembering any more who he himself was or where he had come from in the first place. Meanwhile, his earthly friend, Meng Longtan, who had been waiting in the main hall of the monastery, suddenly noticed that Zhu was no longer by his side and asked the monk guy where he'd gone. The monk gave a wry smile.

He is listening to the sermon. Where? Not far from here. Then, after a little while, the monk tapped on the wall with his fingers. What kept you so long, sir? He called out. At that very instant, the outline of Jew became visible on the painted wall. Standing there, his ears inclined as if he were listening to something. Your friend has been waiting for you all this time, the monk called again. All of a sudden, Jew drifted effortlessly down from the wall and stood before them, dazed and deeply abstracted, like a lifeless block of wood, his legs swaying unsteadily from side to side, his eyes staring in front of him.

Meng Longtang was absolutely flabbergasted and inquired as nonchalantly as possible, what had happened to him? Du told him the whole story, concluding, So there I was, waiting quietly under the bed when I heard a tapping noise like thunder, so I hurried out of the room to see what was going on. They all looked up at the maiden in the painting, the Apsara with the unbound hair. Sure enough, her hair was no longer hanging down, but had been dressed into fine coils on her head. Zhu was utterly amazed. He bowed respectfully to the old monk and begged him for some sort of explanation. The monk chuckled. The source of illumination lies within man himself. Who am I to explain these things?

Zhu seemed altogether downcast by his experience, while Meng was simply living out of his depth and heaved a sigh of incomprehension. The two men took their leave, walked down the monastery steps, and went on their way. The Monster in the Buckwheat An older gentleman from Changsha County by the name of An enjoyed working on his land. One autumn, when his buckwheat was ripe, he went to supervise the harvest, cutting it and laying it out in stacks along the sides of his fields.

Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity to become the most powerful and significant figure in modern history. Over 200 years after his death, people are still debating his legacy. He was a man of contradictions, a tyrant and a reformer, a liberator and an oppressor, a revolutionary and a reactionary. His biography reads like a novel, and his influence is almost beyond measure. I'm Everett Rummage, host of the Age of Napoleon podcast, and every month I delve into the turbulent life and times of one of the greatest characters in history, and explore the world that shaped him in all its glory and tragedy. It's a story of great battles and campaigns, political intrigue,

and massive social and economic change, but it's also a story about people, populated with remarkable characters. I hope you'll join me as I examine this fascinating era of history. Find The Age of Napoleon wherever you get your podcasts. At that time, someone was stealing the crops of the neighboring village. So the old gentleman asked his men to load the cut buckwheat onto a cart that very night and push it into the threshing ground by the light of the moon. He himself stayed behind to keep watch over his remaining crops, lying in the open field with spear in hand as he waited for them to return. He had just begun to doze off when he heard the sound of feet trampling on the buckwheat stalks,

making a terrific crunching noise, and suspected that it might be the thief. But when he looked up, he saw a huge monster bearing down upon him, more than ten feet tall, with red hair and a big bushy beard. Leaping up in terror, he struck out at it with all his might, and the monster gave a great howl of pain and fled into the night, afraid that it might reappear at any moment, onshouldered his spear and headed home, telling his laborers when he met them on the road what he'd seen, and warning them not to proceed any further. They were reluctant to believe him. The next day, they were spreading out the buckwheat in the sun,

when suddenly they heard a strange sound in the air. It's the monster again, cried old An in terror and fled, as did all the others. A little while later that day, they gathered together again, and An told them to arm themselves with bows and lie in wait. The following morning, sure enough, the monster returned a third time. They each shot several arrows at it, and it fled in fear. Then, for two or three days, it did not return. By now all the threshed buckwheat was safely stored in the granary,

but the old stalks still lay higgledy-piggledy on the threshing floor. Old An gave orders for the straw to be bound together and piled into a rick, and then he himself climbed up onto the rick, which was several feet high. He was treading it down firmly when suddenly he saw something in the distance. The monster is coming again! He cried aghast. Before his men could get up their bows, the creature had already jumped at him and knocked him back onto the rick. It took a bite out of his forehead and went on its way again. The men climbed up and saw that a whole chunk of the old man's forehead, a piece the size of a man's palm had been bitten off, bone and all. He had already lost consciousness and they carried him home where he died. The monster

was never seen again. No one could even agree on what sort of creature it was. The Girl from Nanjing A youth by the name of Zhao from Yishui was on his way home from a commission in town when he caught the sight of a girl in white standing by the side of the road, weeping and seemingly in great distress. One glance sufficed to convey her beauty, and his eyes lingered on her with delight. Alas, sir, sobbed the girl. Why do you not walk on? Why do you keep staring at me so? I feel sorry for you, replied Dao, seeing you here all alone and weeping in this lonely place. My husband is dead and I have nowhere to go. That is the cause of my distress.

Dao asked her why she did not try to find another husband. How can I hope to marry again, she replied. I am so alone in the world and helpless. If I could only find a man to turn to, I would happily be his concubine. Zhao gladly offered to take her in himself, and she accepted his offer. It was still a long way to his home, and Zhao proposed hiring a carriage, but she declined, walking on ahead of him, flitting effortlessly along like a fairy. When they arrived at Zhao's house, she applied herself diligently to household tasks, fetching water and hauling rice. Well over two years went by this way, and then one day she

addressed Zhao in the following words, I have been touched by your love for me. Soon we will have been together almost three years. Now I must go my own way. But you said you had nowhere to go, protested Zhao. I was not speaking in earnest. Of course I have a home. My father has an herbalist's shop in Nanjing. If ever you want to see me again, bring some herbs with you and come to visit us. We'll give you some money to help with your expenses.

Zhao busied himself hiring a horse and cart for her, and she took her leave and then went on her way, vanishing from his sight before he knew what had happened. As time went by, Zhao found himself pining for the girl greatly. He bought some herbs and set off for Nanjing. On arrival in the city, he deposited his herbs at an inn and was wandering through the streets, when suddenly, an old herbalist hailed him from the doorway of his shop. There goes my son-in-law! The old man invited him in.

The girl was out at the back of the shop washing clothes, and even when she saw Zhao come in, she neither spoke to him nor smiled, but continued her washing. Zhao was greatly put out by this, and would have left at once had not the old man prevailed upon him to return. But even then, the girl continued to ignore him. The old man told his servant to set the table and cook them a meal, and was about to give Zhao a handsome present when the girl came out and stopped him. His luck is thin, she said. Give him too much and he will never live to enjoy it. Give him a little money and write out ten prescriptions for him.

That will be enough to set him up for life. The old man asked Zhao what herbs he'd brought with him. They are already sold, said the girl. Here's the money. The old man wrote out what herbs he'd brought with him. They are already sold, said the girl. Here's the money. The old man wrote out a number of prescriptions, gave Zhao the money for his herbs, and saw him on his way. Back at home, Zhao tried out the prescriptions and found them to be extraordinarily effective. To this very day, there are folk at Yishui who know how to make up Zhao's patent prescriptions,

one of which, a highly effective remedy for warts, consists of pounded garlic steeped in rainwater collected from the eaves of thatched roofs. A Most Exemplary Monk A man named Zhang died suddenly and was escorted at once by devil attendants into the presence of Ya Ma, the king of the underworld. Ya Ma checked his registers and turned angrily to the attendants, informing them that they had brought the wrong man and were to take him back immediately. As they left, Zhang secretly entreated his devil guards to let him have a quick look at hell, and they led him all the way through the nine dark places, past the Mountain of Knives and the Forest of Sw swords, pointing out the various sights by each one. By and by, they reached a place where a Buddhist monk was hanging upside

down in the air, suspended by a rope through a hole in his leg. He was crying out in excruciating pain. As Zhang approached, he saw, to great horror and distress that the man was his own brother. He asked his guards the reason for this appalling punishment, and they informed him that the monk had been condemned to this torment for having collected alms on behalf of his order, which he then squandered on gambling and debauchery. Nor will his punishment cease until he repents his misdeeds, they added. When Zhang regained consciousness,

fearing that his brother must already be dead, he hurried off to Xingfu Monastery, where he had been in residence. As he went in at the door, he heard a loud shrieking, and on proceeding to his brother's cell, found him upside down,

just as he had seen him in hell, with his thighs tied above him to the wall, and an abscess oozing blood and pus between his thighs. Appalled, he asked him for an explanation, and his brother told him that he was in terrible pain, and that this was the only position in which the pain was bearable at all. Zhang now described what he'd seen in hell to his brother, and the monk was so terrified that he at once gave up drinking liquor and eating meat, and devoted himself humbly to the recitation of the sutras and mantras of his religion. In a fortnight, he was well again, and became known ever afterwards as a most exemplary monk.

Stealing a Peach When I was a boy, I went up to the prefectural city of Jinan to take an examination. It was the time of the spring festival, and, according to custom, on the day before the festival, all the merchants of the place processed with decorated banners and drums to the provincial yamen. This procession was called Bringing in the Spring. I went with a friend to watch the fun. There was a huge crowd milling about, and ahead of us, facing each other to the right and left of the raised hall, sat four mandarins in their crimson robes.

I was too young at the time to know who they were. All I was aware of was the hama voices and the crashing noise of the drums and other instruments. In the middle of it all, a man led a boy with long, unplated hair into the space in front of the dais and knelt on the ground. The man had two baskets suspended from a carrying pole on his shoulders, and seemed to be saying something which I could not distinguish from the din of the crowd. I only saw the mandarin smile, and immediately afterwards an attendant came down and in a loud voice ordered the man to give his performance. What shall I perform? said the man, rising to his feet. The mandarins on the dais consulted among themselves, and then the attendant inquired of

the man what he could do best. I can make the seasons go backwards and turn the order of nature upside down. The attendants reported back to the mandarins, and after a moment returned and ordered the man to produce a peach. The man assented, taking off his coat and laying it in one of his baskets, at the same time complaining loudly that they had set a very hard task. The winter frost has not melted. How can I possibly produce a peach? But if I fail, their worships will surely be angry with me. Alas, woe is me! The boy, who was evidently his son, reminded him that he had already agreed to perform and was

under an obligation to continue. After fretting and grumbling a while, the father cried out, I know what we must do. Here it is still early spring and there is snow on the ground. We shall never get a peach here. But up in heaven, in the garden of the Queen Mother of the West, they have peaches all year round. There it is eternal summer. It is there we must try.

But how are we to get up there? asked the boy. I have the means, replied his father, and immediately proceeded to take out from one of his baskets a cord some dozens of feet in length. He coiled it carefully and then threw one end of it high up into the air, where it remained suspended as if somehow caught. He continued to pay out the rope, which kept rising higher and higher until the top end of it disappeared altogether into the clouds, while the other end remained in his hand. Come here, boy, he called to his son. I am getting too old for this sort of thing, and anyway I am too heavy. I wouldn't be able to do it. It will have to be you. He handed the rope to the boy. Climb up on this. The boy took the rope, but as he did so,

he pulled a face. Father, have you gone mad? He protested. You want me to climb all the way up into the sky on this flimsy thing? Suppose it breaks and I fall. I'll be killed. I have given these gentlemen my word, his father pleaded, and there's no backing out now. Please do this, I beg of you. Bring me a peach, and I am sure we will be rewarded with a hundred tails of silver. Then I promise to get you a pretty wife. So his son took hold of the rope and went scrambling up it, hand over foot, like a spider running up a thread, finally disappearing out of sight and into the clouds.

There was a long interval, and then down fell a large peach the size of a soup bowl. The delighted father presented it to the gentleman on the dais, who passed it around and studied it carefully, unable to tell at first glance whether it was genuine or a fake. Then, suddenly, the rope came tumbling to the ground. Oh, the poor boy! cried the father in alarm. He's done for! Someone up there must have cut my rope! The next moment, something else fell to the ground, an object which was found on closer

examination to be the boy's head. Oh, me! cried the father, bitterly weeping and holding the head up in both his hands. The heavenly watchman caught him stealing the peach! My son is no more! After that, one by one, the boy's feet, his arms and legs, and every single remaining part of his anatomy came tumbling down in a similar manner. The distraught father gathered all the pieces up and put them into one of his baskets, saying, This was my only son. He went with me everywhere I went. And now, at his own father's orders, he's met this cruel fate. I must away and bury him.

He approached the dais. Your peach, gentlemen, he said, falling to his knees, was obtained at the cost of my boy's life. Help me, I beg you, to pay for his funeral expenses, and I will be ever grateful to you for your kindness. The Mandarins, who had been watching the scene in utter horror and amazement, immediately collected a good purse for him. When the father had received the money and put it in his belt, he rapped on the basket. Babar! he cried out. Out you come now, and thank the gentleman. What are you waiting for? He had no sooner said this than there was a knock from within, and a tousled head emerged from the basket, out jumped the boy, and bowed to the dais.

It was his son. To this very day, I've never forgotten this extraordinary experience. I later learned that this rope trick was a specialty of the White Lotus sect. Surely this man must have learned it from them. The Hungry Bride Wang Shun was a kind-hearted man who lived at the Wangyuan Caravansary, west of Chang'an, during the reign of the Tang Emperor Dezong. Wang planted elm trees by the roadside to give shade to the travelers, and built thatched cottages where they could rest and enjoy beverages and fruits that he would provide. Wang had a son who was 13 years old and often served to the guests. One afternoon, a young woman wearing green robes and a white turban

passed by, asking for a drink of water. The boy brought her into the house. She said, My home is more than ten li to the south of here. My husband is dead and I have no sons. Now that I've fulfilled my morning obligations, I'm going to stay with relatives. As I am passing through this area, I beg you to provide me with some food to eat. The woman was well-spoken and charming. Wang invited the woman to join the family for dinner, saying, You may stay here tonight and leave tomorrow. The woman agreed readily. After dinner, Wang's wife took her into the house, calling her sister, and asked her for some help with sewing. The stitches that the woman made were so fine that they didn't seem like they were made by an ordinary person. Wang and his wife were impressed,

and Wang's wife teased, Since you have no family, would you like to become my daughter-in-law? The woman smiled and said, Since I'm alone and poor, I am willing to do as you say. The woman and Wang's son married that same day. It was the height of summer. As they retired, the woman told Wang's son, I heard that there are many burglars around these days. Better sleep with the door closed. As she spoke, she drew a thick wooden bolt across the door to the room. In the middle of the night, Wang's wife was suddenly wakened by a nightmare.

She had dreamed of her son clutching his head and crying, Mother, I am about to be devoured by a demon! Wang's wife woke her husband, but he scoffed. Are you so happy to have gotten a good daughter-in-law that you started talking in your sleep? Wang's wife had to go back to sleep, but she dreamed of her son again. This time, both husband and wife lit a candle and walked down the hall, calling for their son and daughter-in-law. Their son's room, though, was silent as a tomb. Panicked, Wang broke down the door. A creature with a dark blue body and sharp teeth rushed out and disappeared.

Inside, some pieces of skull and a few hairs were all that was left of their son. The Magic Sword and the Magic Bag In Zhejiang, a young man named Ning Taicheng was searching for somewhere to stay when he stumbled across an apparently vacant Buddhist temple. There was no sign of any monks, and the temple seemed to be in good condition. At dusk, he finally found another young man there, who he believed to be a scholar. He'd been living there for a while. He introduced himself as Yan Chixia and welcomed Ning. At night, Ning climbed into his bed and was just about to fall asleep

when a beautiful woman entered his room and asked if she could share his bed. Naturally, he was shocked. Remembering his sense of ethics, however, Ning rejected her advances and instead threatened to call Yen, who was staying in a room close by. The woman suddenly appeared to be frightened and set out to leave. However, just as she got to the door, she turned around and left a piece of gold on Ning's bed. Ning immediately picked it up and threw it out the courtyard and said, The ill-gotten wealth will defile my pocket.

This man is so cold-hearted, said the mysterious woman as she was leaving. The next day, another scholar came to stay in the room at the temple with his servant. The very next morning, however, the scholar was found dead. A little hole, like a stab wound, was found on the soles of his feet, with traces of blood around them. On the third morning, the scholar's servant was found dead too, with the exact same wound on his feet. Yan told Ning that these murders had been committed by ghosts. That night, the beautiful woman came to Ning again, but this time with a different purpose. I have seen many people, but no one is as upright as you.

You have the virtues of a saint, and I can't deceive you anymore, the woman said. My name is Nie Xiaoqian, and I died when I was eighteen and was buried near the temple. She was a ghost, Ning was sure of it, and despite his horror, he continued to listen. It turned out Nie was being controlled by a mysterious monster, and was sent to seduce those staying in the temple and would kill them when they gave in to her charms. When I get close to them, I stab their feet to make them pass out, then suck their blood out for the monster to drink.

Sometimes I use gold. It's not real gold, but the bones of demons. Once the tenants take the gold, it will deprive their hearts and guts, explained Nye. Just when Ning was about to congratulate himself for not accepting her offers, Nian told him, Terrified, Ning asked how he could survive another day. Nian told him to stay with Yen, as no ghosts or monsters were able to touch him. Yen agreed to stay with Ning the next night, and put a little box on the windowsill before they went to bed. Yen was sound asleep when Ning became more and more frightened.

As a black shadow moved towards the window in the middle of the night, a bright object flew out of the box and cut through the stone window frame, shooting towards the shadow. Yen got up and went outside to check. Ning heard him talking to himself. How dare that big old monster break my box? Yan then explained to Ning that he was not a scholar, but a swordsman, and showed him the object in the box, a small bright sword.

He said if it wasn't for the stone window frame, the monster would be dead by now. When Ning finally finished with his business affairs, he prepared to leave. He dug the bones out of Nya's grave and took them with him, hoping to keep her out of reach of the monster. He reburied her near his studio in the countryside and poured a cup of wine in front of her new grave. You are a poor and lonely girl. I buried you near my studio to keep you company. I hope you're not bothered by the monster anymore. Just when he was about to return home, someone called out, Please wait for me! Ning turned around and found it was Nie herself. I couldn't possibly pay you

back for the favor you did for me. Please let me serve you and your mother in the future. Believe it or not, it is possible for ghosts to gradually become more and more like humans. In the end, Ning married Nie, and a few years later, even gave birth to a baby boy. Well, that includes our septuagy of strange and weird tales from the studio of Pusong Ling, wrapping up our strange tales number five. I hope you are as creeped out and weirded out in listening to these tales as much as I was in producing them. Have a great rest of your October, and I will see you next time back on the main story in the main. Until then, as always, thanks for listening.

Hi everyone, this is Scott. If you want to learn about the world's oldest civilizations, find out how they were rediscovered, follow the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra's descendants over ten generations, or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era, then check out the Ancient World Podcast. Available on all podcasting platforms or go to ancientworldpodcast.com. That's the Ancient World Podcast.