Strange Tales from Liaozhai’s “The Cloth Merchant”(or “The Cloth Dealer”) tells a peculiar yet touching story about a cloth merchant and a ghost.
A man from Changqing County, Shandong, lived by selling cloth. While he was in Taian, Jiangsu, he heard there was a very good fortune teller, so he asked the man to forecast his future. The fortune teller told him:”You’re in trouble. Hurry home.”
The verse — “With flowers and wine, spring ever stays; Without lamp or candle, night self-illumines” — originates from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio: The Examination for the Post of City God (Kao Cheng Huang or Candidate for the City God).
The maxim — “Intentional good deeds deserve no reward; unintentional wrongdoings warrant no punishment” — originates from Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio: The Examination for the Post of City God (Candidate for the City God). It was Song Tao’s answer during his underworld examination.
In “The Examination for the Post of City God” from Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio, why would Song Tao go to Changshan to inquire about Scholar Zhang?
In “The Examination for the Post of City God” from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Liaozhai by Pu Songlin, the story begins with Song Tao bedridden by illness.
My brother-in-law’s grandfather Master Song Tao, a local recipient of a government stipend for bachelors of letters, was lying sick in bed one day when an officer bearing a summons and leading a white-blazed horse came to him and said, ”You are requested to be present at the examination.”