Original Text
In Qingzhou, there lived a man named Fan Xiaoshan, who made his living by selling writing brushes and was away from home on business. In the fourth month, his wife, Lady He, was living alone when she was murdered by a robber one night. That evening, a light rain had fallen, and in the muddy ground was left a fan inscribed with a poem, bearing the dedication: "Presented by Wang Sheng to Wu Feiqing." Wang Sheng was unknown to anyone; Wu Feiqing, however, was a wealthy householder in Qingzhou, a fellow villager of Fan Xiaoshan, and known for his frivolous and unrestrained conduct. Thus, all the villagers believed him to be the murderer. The authorities arrested Wu Feiqing and interrogated him; he steadfastly denied the charge, but under severe torture he was forced to confess and was sentenced. The case was reviewed repeatedly at the county and prefectural levels, passing through the hands of over a dozen officials, and no further objections were raised. Wu Feiqing, certain that he was doomed to die, instructed his wife to exhaust all their wealth in relieving the poor, the orphaned, and the widowed. To anyone who came to his door and recited the Buddha's name a thousand times, he would give a pair of cotton trousers; for ten thousand recitations, a cotton jacket. Thus, beggars flocked to his gate in droves, and the sound of their chanting could be heard for over ten li. Consequently, the Wu family was suddenly reduced to poverty, surviving only by selling off bits of their land. Wu Feiqing secretly bribed the jailers to procure poison, intending to take his own life. One night, he dreamed that a divine being said to him: "Do not die; formerly there was 'outer danger,' but now there is 'inner good fortune.'" He fell asleep again and dreamed the same words, and so he refrained from suicide.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Zhou Yuanliang assumed the post of Coastal Defense Intendant in Qingzhou. While reviewing the criminal case files, his gaze lingered upon the name Wu Feiqing, and he fell into deep thought. He then asked, "What solid evidence is there for Wu's alleged murder?" Fan Xiaoshan replied that a fan served as proof. Mr. Zhou examined the fan closely and inquired, "Who is this Wang Sheng?" All present professed ignorance. Mr. Zhou perused the case file once more and immediately ordered Wu Feiqing's death-row shackles removed, transferring him from the condemned cell to an ordinary prison. Fan Xiaoshan strenuously argued against this, but Mr. Zhou retorted angrily, "Do you wish to rashly execute a man to settle the matter, or are you willing to find the true culprit and be satisfied?" The onlookers suspected Mr. Zhou of favoring Wu Feiqing, yet none dared to speak. Mr. Zhou issued a red summons and forthwith commanded the arrest of the innkeeper from the southern gate. The innkeeper, terrified, knew not the reason. Upon his arrival, Mr. Zhou asked, "On the wall of your inn is a poem by Li Xiu of Dongguan. When was it inscribed?" The innkeeper replied, "Last year, when the Education Commissioner came for inspection, several scholars from Rizhao, in a drunken state, wrote it. I know not which village they hail from." Mr. Zhou then dispatched runners to Rizhao to arrest Li Xiu. After a few days, Li Xiu appeared in court. Mr. Zhou demanded angrily, "Since you are a scholar, why did you commit murder?" Li Xiu, greatly startled, kowtowed and said, "I have not killed anyone!" Mr. Zhou tossed the fan before Li Xiu and bade him look, saying, "This poem is clearly yours; why did you pretend it was by Wang Sheng?" Li Xiu examined it closely and said, "The poem is indeed mine, but the calligraphy is not my hand." Mr. Zhou asked, "Since he knew your poem, he must be your friend. Whose handwriting is this?" Li Xiu replied, "From the strokes, it seems to be that of Wang Zuo of Yizhou." Mr. Zhou then ordered an official letter to be sent to arrest Wang Zuo. When Wang Zuo arrived, Mr. Zhou rebuked him as he had Li Xiu. Wang Zuo confessed, "This was written at the request of Zhang Cheng, an iron merchant from Yidu, who claimed Wang Sheng was his cousin." Mr. Zhou declared, "The murderer is right here." Zhang Cheng was seized, and upon interrogation, he immediately confessed.
Previously, Zhang Cheng saw that He Shi was beautiful and wanted to seduce her, but feared he might not succeed. He thought that if he pretended to be Wu Feiqing, people would surely believe it, so he forged a fan belonging to Wu Feiqing and took it with him. If the affair succeeded, he would reveal his true name; if it failed, he would shift the blame onto Wu Feiqing, never imagining it would lead to murder. Zhang Cheng first jumped over the wall into the Fan residence to force He Shi into adultery. Because she lived alone, He Shi always kept a knife by her side for self-defense. Sensing an intruder, she immediately grabbed Zhang Cheng's clothes, seized the knife, and sprang up. Zhang Cheng, terrified, tried to snatch the knife away. He Shi held him tightly and shouted loudly. Growing more panicked, Zhang Cheng killed her, dropped the fan, and fled. After three years of wrongful imprisonment, justice was finally served in one morning, and everyone praised Magistrate Zhou as a divine judge. Only then did Wu Feiqing realize that the divine figure's dream message, "inner auspiciousness," referred to the character "Zhou." Yet he never understood how Magistrate Zhou had solved the case.
Later, a local gentry of the county found an opportunity to seek advice from Mr. Zhou, who smiled and said, "This is extremely simple. I carefully examined the case documents: Lady He was killed in the first ten days of the fourth month, and that night was overcast and rainy, the weather still quite cold, so a fan would have been of no use. How could anyone, in a moment of panic and urgency, bring along such an encumbrance? From this, I deduced that the fan was meant to incriminate another. Some time ago, while taking shelter from the rain outside the southern gate, I noticed that the poem inscribed on the wall of a shop bore a similar tone to the one on the fan, and thus I boldly suspected Li Xiu. Step by step, I indeed uncovered the true culprit." All who heard this sighed in admiration and were filled with respect.
The Chronicler of Strange Tales remarks: In all matters under heaven, those who delve deeply into a subject can transform what appears useless into something of great value. Poetry and prose, originally meant to celebrate peace and prosperity, were employed by the Master to examine the scholars of the realm, earning him the title of a true connoisseur of talent, like a horse appraiser who is a second Bo Le. Is this not the result of profound study? Yet, unexpectedly, the Master also applied this method of judging men to the adjudication of legal cases. The Book of Changes says: 'To perceive the subtle beginnings of things is to be divine.' The Master had indeed attained such a level of insight.
Commentary
This story recounts how the capable official Zhou Lianggong, using a poetry fan left at the scene of a murder as a clue, conducted an investigation and ultimately cleared a wrongful case. However, there were also flaws in this case. The fan was merely a clue left at the scene; the original officials in Qingzhou rashly assumed that the person whose name was inscribed on the fan was its owner, and that the owner was the murderer. Yet Zhou Lianggong’s conclusion that the actual holder of the fan was the killer also had its weaknesses, for the fan was not the murder weapon but only a valuable object left behind. To establish a chain of evidence linking the fan to the murderer, many more steps of investigation and detection were needed, and the methods of detection, once the presiding judge had determined guilt, often amounted to nothing more than "suffering under brutal torture and shackles."