Original Text
During the time when Shi Maohua, the Minister of the Qingzhou region, was still a xiucai scholar, there was a large water pit outside the city gate of Qingzhou that never dried up, even when no rain fell. The county of Yidu once captured several dozen great bandits, all of whom were executed by the side of this pit. Who would have thought that the restless spirits of these bandits would gather together to plague the people? Whenever anyone passed by the edge of the pit, they would often be dragged into the water by ghosts. One day, a certain man was attacked by these ghosts and, in his moment of peril, suddenly heard the ghosts scattering in all directions, shouting loudly, "Minister Shi is coming!" Shortly after, Shi Maohua arrived at the water's edge, and the man told him what he had just witnessed. Shi Maohua then wrote a proclamation on the wall with lime, which read: "I, Shi, hereby issue this decree for prohibition: I have observed that you harbored ill intentions, thus incurring the wrath of Heaven's thunder; in the past, because of your treacherous schemes, you suffered the punishment of decapitation. Now you should only repent and turn from your wrong path, vying to confess the sins committed in your former lives; perhaps you may cleanse the sinful blood from your bleached bones and escape the abyss of suffering in which you now dwell. Yet you, who have already endured the ultimate penalty in life, continue to gather and commit evil after death. Sometimes you suddenly leap before people, gathering in droves with disheveled hair; sometimes you deliberately loiter before them, beating your chests and stamping your feet, emitting chilling cries. Your ears are already stopped with yellow mud, yet you still dare to display the arrogance of malicious ghosts; under the bright sun and clear sky, you dare to practice sorcery and block the paths of travelers! Beyond your three-foot graves, all is governed by men; yet within this vast and radiant universe, how can you be allowed to persist in your ferocity? I now solemnly warn you: from this day forth, each of you must hide your traces and cease your evil deeds. You ghosts must peacefully await reincarnation; only then can the souls in your loved ones' dreams return to their homeland. If you repeat your offenses and continue to harm others, you will surely regret it beyond remedy!" From then on, no further ghostly disturbances occurred in Qingzhou, and the water in the great pit finally dried up.
Commentary
The emphasis of this chapter lies not in the tale itself, but in the admonition to the ghosts.
Since Han Yu's "Crocodile Article," many literati with official titles have imitated it, either to flaunt their literary talent or genuinely believing that a mere written proclamation to expel ghosts and demons could turn misfortune into fortune and transform calamity into auspiciousness. Shi Maohua's so-called "Admonition to Ghosts," if we exclude the possibility of self-fabricated myth, was composed under such circumstances. However, judging by the stylistic tone of the admonition, it is not Shi Maohua's work but likely Pu Songling's creation, for the "Admonition to Ghosts" bears a striking resemblance to the parallel prose style found in the "Collected Works of Pu Songling."