Original Text
In the final years of the Ming dynasty, the region around Jinan Prefecture was rife with bandits. Soldiers were stationed in every county and town, and whenever they captured a bandit, they would behead him on the spot. The area of Zhangqiu was particularly plagued by thieves. One soldier possessed an exceptionally sharp blade; each time he executed a man, he could slice cleanly through the bone joints without a second stroke. One day, more than ten bandits were captured and escorted to the execution ground. Among them was a thief who recognized this soldier and stammered, "I have heard that your blade is the swiftest, never requiring a second cut. I beg you to be the one to kill me!" The soldier replied, "Very well. Keep close to me and do not stray." The bandit followed the soldier to the execution ground, where the soldier drew his sword and swung it in one fluid motion, sending the thief's head tumbling cleanly to the ground. As the head rolled several paces away, it continued to spin, and from its mouth came a loud cry of praise: "What a swift blade!"
Commentary
This can be regarded as a very popular piece of black humor from the early Qing dynasty.
In folk tales, the scholar Jin Shengtan is also said to have a similar legend before his execution. It is told that Jin Shengtan, at the moment of his beheading, slipped a letter wrapped with a heavy object to the executioner. The executioner, thinking it was a red envelope of money, opened it after the deed was done, only to find that the heavy object was a stone, and within the letter was a slip of paper on which was written, in neat and upright characters, the three words: "A fine, swift blade."
It is unknown whether Pu Songling's tale was adapted from the legend of Jin Shengtan, or whether the folk tradition, drawing upon this story from "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," transferred the motif of "the excellent swift blade" to Jin Shengtan himself. In either case, it is a laughter tinged with tears that reflects the grievous suffering inflicted upon the people by the upheavals of the early Qing dynasty.