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The resuscitated corpse
A certain old man lived at Tsai-tien, in the Yang-hsin district.
The village was some miles from the district city, and he and his
son kept a roadside inn where travelers could pass the night.
One day, as it was getting dusk, four strangers presented them-
selves and asked for a night's lodging; to which the landlord
replied that every bed was already occupied. The four men
declared it was impossible for them to go back, and urged him to
take them in somehow; and at length the landlord said he could
give them a place to sleep in if they were not too particular, --
which the strangers immediately assured him they were not.
The fact was that the old man's daughter-in-law had just died,
and that her body was lying in the women's quarters, waiting for
the coffin, which his son had gone away to buy. So the landlord
led them round thither, and walking in, placed a lamp on the
table. At the further end of the room lay the corpse, decked out
with paper robes, in the usual way; and in the foremost section
were sleeping couches for four people.
The travelers were tired, and throwing themselves on the beds,
were soon snoring loudly, with the exception of one of them, who
was not quite off when suddenly he heard a creaking of the trestles
on which the dead body was laid out, and opening his eyes, he
saw by the light of the lamp in front of the corpse that the girl was
raising the coverings from her and preparing to get down. In
another moment she was on the floor and advancing towards the
sleepers. Her face was of a light yellow hue, and she had a silk
kerchief round her head; and when she reached the beds, she
blew on the other three travelers, whereupon the fourth, in a
great fright, stealthily drew up the bed-clothes over his face, and
held his breath to listen. He heard her breathe on him as she had
done on the others, and then heard her go back again and get
under the paper robes, which rustled distinctly as she did so.
He now put out his head to take a peep, and saw that she was
lying down as before; whereupon, not daring to make any noise,
he stretched forth his foot and kicked his companions, who,
however, showed no signs of moving. He now determined to put
on his clothes and make a bolt for it; but he had hardly begun to
do so before he heard the creaking sound again, which sent him
back under the bed-clothes as fast as he could go. Again the girl
came to him, and, breathing several times on him, went away to
lie down as before, as he could tell by the noise of the trestles.
He then put his hand very gently out of bed, and, seizing his
trousers, got quickly into them, jumped up with a bound, and
rushed out of the place as fast as his legs would carry him. The
corpse, too, jumped up; but by this time the traveler had already
drawn the bolt, and was outside the door, running along and
shrieking at the top of his voice, with the corpse following close
behind. No one seemed to hear him, and he was afraid to knock
at the door of the inn for fear they should not let him in in time;
so he made for the highway to the city, and after a while he saw a
monastery by the roadside, and, hearing the "wooden fish," he
ran up and thumped with all his might at the gate. The priest,
however, did not know what to make of it, and would not open
to him; and as the corpse was only a few yards off, he could do
nothing but run behind a tree which stood close by, and there
shelter himself, dodging to the right as the corpse dodged to the
left, and so on. This infuriated the dead girl to madness; and at length, as tired and panting they stood watching each other on
opposite sides of the tree, the corpse made a rush forward with
one arm on each side in the hope of thus grabbing its victim. The
traveler, however, fell backwards and escaped, while the corpse
remained rigidly embracing the tree.
By-and-by the priest, who had been listening from the
inside, hearing no sounds for some time, came out and found
the traveler lying senseless on the ground; whereupon he had him carried
into the monastery, and by morning they had got him round
again. After being given a little broth to drink, he related the
whole story; and then in the early dawn they went out to examine
the tree, to which they found the girl tightly fixed.
The news being sent to the magistrate, that functionary attended
at once in person,' and gave orders to remove the body; but this
they were at first unable to do, the girl's fingers having penetrated
into the bark so far that her nails were not to be seen. At length
they got her away, and then a messenger was dispatched to the
inn, already in a state of great commotion over the three travelers, who had been found dead in their beds. The old man
accordingly sent to fetch his daughter-in-law; and the surviving
traveler petitioned the magistrate, saying, "Four of us left home, but only one
will go back. Give me something that I may show to my
fellow-townsmen." So the magistrate gave him a certificate
and sent him home again.
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