Original Text
Xu Xing, a man from Yizhou, claimed that at night he served as the King of Hell. A scholar named Ma in the same prefecture also made the same claim. Upon hearing this, Xu Xing visited Ma and asked what affairs he had handled in the underworld the previous night. Ma replied, "Nothing else, merely escorting Zuo Luoshi to ascend to heaven. Lotus flowers fell from the sky, each blossom as large as a house."
Commentary
Zuo Luoshi was a man of unwavering integrity and martyrdom in the late Ming dynasty, whom contemporaries likened to Wen Tianxiang of the Southern Song. This tale, by bestowing upon him the highest honors in the realm of the netherworld, conveys the author's profound reverence.
In this tale, whether Pu Songling's reverence for Zuo Luoshi stemmed from traditional notions of moral integrity, from ethnic sentiment, or from a combination of both, has long been a point of focus for scholars debating whether Pu harbored loyalist feelings toward the fallen Ming dynasty. Due to the politically sensitive nature of this story, it was not included in the Qingke Pavilion edition of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.