Original Text
Song Guoying was a native of Dongping, who, having served as a county instructor, was appointed magistrate of Lucheng County. He was greedy and tyrannical in office, especially harsh in pressing for taxes, and those who died under the bastinado lay scattered about the courtyard of the yamen. A fellow villager of mine, Xu Baishan, happened to visit him and witnessed his cruelty, remonstrating, "As a father and mother to the people, can your authority and fury go so far?" Song Guoying, swelling with pride, replied, "Indeed! I dare not claim such! Though my office is humble, within a hundred days of my arrival, I have already killed fifty-eight men." Half a year later, as he sat at his desk handling official business, he suddenly opened his eyes wide, stood up, and began flailing his hands and feet wildly, as if wrestling with someone. He muttered to himself, "I deserve death! I deserve death!" His attendants helped him into the inner chambers, and shortly thereafter he died. Alas! How fortunate that the underworld oversees the affairs of the mortal realm; otherwise, those who amass wealth through murder would gain renown for "outstanding governance," and their poison would spread without end.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: Lucheng County was the ancient fiefdom of the Viscount of Lu during the Spring and Autumn period, where the spirits of those unjustly slain were resolute and fierce, thus their ghosts are bold and formidable. Nowadays, whenever a high official holds the seal of office, there are invariably one or two base sycophants below who, catching the wind, rush to flatter him, licking his pustules and sucking his hemorrhoids. When the official is in power, they exhaust every effort to extract the last drop of the people's fat and marrow that has not yet been drained, offering it to their superior for extravagant indulgence; when the official is about to fall from grace, they drive the surviving populace, not yet entirely annihilated, to plead for his retention. Whether the official is corrupt or incorruptible, upon every appointment, these two things are certain to occur. As long as the powerful figure remains in office for a single day, the honest and simple folk dare not disobey. This long-standing, ingrained corrupt custom, passed down as an unwritten rule, will surely be mocked by the ghosts of Lucheng.
Commentary
Both the tale and its commentary are concise and masterful.
As for the tale itself, the author recounts the story of a magistrate of Lucheng named Song Guoying, who during his tenure was "greedy, cruel, and devoid of benevolence" and thus met with retribution. It includes narration, description, dialogue, and soliloquy. Though brief, it is vivid and concise. As for the commentary, the "Historian of the Strange" in a very short space clearly and explicitly lays bare the malpractices of early Qing officialdom, along with the author's own stance and lamentations.
At the story's conclusion, the author remarks: "Fortunately, the underworld also oversees earthly governance; otherwise, when the plunder of goods grows rampant, the cry of 'extraordinary merit' would arise, and where would the poison of such corruption end?" This reveals that the author's critique is not directed solely at a single magistrate of Lu, but at the entire system of officialdom and judicial administration.