Original Text
In Tianjin Garrison, there was a merchant who needed to travel far for business and borrowed several hundred taels of silver from a wealthy man as capital. A thief saw this and, come nightfall, hid himself in the merchant's house, waiting for his return. But because that day was auspicious, the merchant took the money and set off immediately. The thief hid for a long time, hearing only the merchant's wife tossing and turning on the bed, as if unable to sleep. After a while, a small door suddenly opened in the wall, and the whole room became brightly lit. From the door emerged a young and beautiful woman, holding a sash in her hand. She approached the bed and offered the sash to the merchant's wife, who pushed it away with her hand. The young woman stubbornly offered it again, and the wife accepted it, rose from the bed, tied the sash to a beam, put her head through it, and hanged herself. The young woman then left, and the small door in the wall closed. The thief, greatly alarmed, pushed open the door and fled. At dawn, the household servants found the mistress hanged and reported it to the authorities. The officials arrested the merchant's neighbor and subjected him to severe torture. Unable to bear the pain, the neighbor confessed to the murder and was sentenced to execution within a few days. The thief, feeling indignant at the neighbor's injustice, went to the authorities and confessed, recounting what he had witnessed that night. After interrogation confirmed the truth of his words, the neighbor was exonerated. When the officials questioned other neighbors, they all said that in the old owner's house, a young daughter-in-law had once hanged herself, and her age and appearance matched exactly what the thief described, thus it was known that the ghost of that young woman was responsible. As the saying goes, those who die violently must seek a substitute—could this indeed be true?
Commentary
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" contains many stories about ghosts seeking substitutes for death, with notable works including "Wang Liulang" and "Water Creeper Grass." In "Water Creeper Grass," Pu Songling, through the voice of Scholar Zhu, expresses a clear ethical stance on this folk legend. In this particular tale, Pu Songling casts doubt on the very notion of ghosts seeking substitutes. Meanwhile, in stories such as "The Plum Maiden" and "The Hanging Ghost," although they also involve ghosts who died by hanging, there are no plots of seeking substitutes. Thus, folk legends are one thing, weaving tales from them is another, and discerning the truth of such legends while making moral judgments is yet another. One cannot simply assume that Pu Songling's use of folk legends in his stories implies his affirmation and belief in them.