Original Text
A man from Hunan could remember the events of his three previous incarnations. In his first life, he served as a local official and participated in the grading of the imperial examinations. At that time, there was a renowned scholar named Xing Yutang, who failed the examinations and, filled with indignation and resentment, died of melancholy. Upon reaching the underworld, he filed a lawsuit against this official. As soon as the complaint was submitted, countless other ghosts who had also died of frustration over examination failures gathered, with Xing Yutang as their leader. The official's soul was summoned to the underworld to confront the accusers face to face. The King of Yan asked, "Since you were responsible for reviewing the essays, why did you dismiss talented candidates and admit mediocre ones?" The official defended himself, saying, "I had a chief examiner above me; I was merely following orders." The King of Yan immediately issued a summons to arrest the chief examiner. After a long while, the chief examiner was brought in. The King of Yan relayed the official's words to him, and the chief examiner said, "I was only in charge of the final decisions; even if there were excellent essays, if the associate examiners did not recommend them, how could I have seen them?" The King of Yan said, "In this matter, you cannot shift blame to each other; both of you are equally negligent, and according to the rules, you shall both be flogged." Just as they were about to be punished, Xing Yutang, dissatisfied with this judgment, burst into loud wailing, and the wronged ghosts standing on both sides of the steps echoed in unison. The King of Yan asked what the matter was, and Xing Yutang argued, "Flogging is too lenient; their eyes must be gouged out as retribution for their inability to recognize good writing." The King of Yan refused, and the ghosts cried out even more fiercely. The King of Yan said, "It is not that they did not wish to find good essays; it is merely that their judgment was poor." The ghosts then demanded that their hearts be cut out. Forced into a corner, the King of Yan had their official robes removed, and with a gleaming knife, their chests were slit open; blood gushed forth as they screamed in agony. Only then did the ghosts feel satisfied, and they all said, "We have suffered injustice in the underworld, with no one to avenge us; now, thanks to Mr. Xing, our grievances are dispelled." With that, they scattered in a clamor.
After his heart was cut out, the clerk escorted him to Shaanxi, where he was reborn as a son in an ordinary family. When he reached over twenty years of age, local bandits were causing unrest, and he found himself caught among them. A general came to suppress the rebels, capturing many bandits, and this man was among them. He thought to himself that since he was not a bandit, he might explain the situation and be released. When he saw the official seated in the hall, also in his twenties, and looked closely, he realized it was Xing Yutang. Startled, he exclaimed, "My fate is sealed!" After a while, all the captives were released, leaving only this man. Xing Yutang gave him no chance to argue and had him beheaded. In the underworld, the man filed a complaint against Xing Yutang. The King of Hell did not immediately summon Xing Yutang but waited until his allotted lifespan ended, delaying thirty years before Xing Yutang arrived for a face-to-face confrontation. Xing Yutang was sentenced to be reborn as a beast for his crime of treating human lives like grass. The King of Hell then examined the man's deeds and found that he had once struck his parents, making his sins comparable to Xing Yutang's. Fearing further retribution in his next life, the man begged to be reborn as a large beast. The King of Hell thus sentenced him to become a large dog, while Xing Yutang became a small dog.
A man was born in the marketplace of the Northern Shuntian Prefecture. One day, as he lay sprawled on the street, a traveler from the south arrived, leading a golden-haired dog about the size of a civet cat. The man took one look and recognized it as Xing Yutang. Seeing that it was small and seemed easy to bully, he lunged at it to bite. The little dog turned and bit the man beneath his throat, hanging like a bell tied to his neck. It bit so fiercely that the larger dog thrashed wildly, yelping and dashing about in panic. The crowd in the marketplace tried to separate them but could not. In a short while, both dogs lay dead. The two of them went together to the underworld to file complaints, each insisting on their own version of events, arguing endlessly. The King of Yan said, "If you continue this cycle of vengeance, when will it ever end? Today, I shall resolve it for you." So he decreed that Xing Yutang would be reborn as the man's son-in-law. The man was reborn into Qingyun Prefecture, and at twenty-eight years of age, he passed the provincial examination as a juren. He had a daughter, gentle and refined in nature, with a comely appearance. The prominent families of the region vied to betroth her to their sons, but the man refused them all. By chance, one day he passed through a neighboring prefectural city and happened upon the academic examiner grading examination papers. The top-ranked candidate was a man named Li, who was in fact Xing Yutang. The man pulled him into an inn, treated him with great hospitality, and asked if he was married. It turned out he was not yet wed, so they settled the betrothal. Onlookers thought the man was simply cherishing talent, unaware of the predestined bond between them. Xing Yutang married the man's daughter, and the couple lived in great harmony. However, the son-in-law, proud of his own talent, often bullied his father-in-law, sometimes going a year or two without visiting his home. The man endured it patiently. Later, when the son-in-law encountered hardship in middle age and struggled to pass the imperial examinations, the father-in-law spared no effort in pulling strings for him, enabling him to achieve success in the arena of fame and fortune. From then on, the two reconciled and became as close as father and son.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: To be dismissed from office in one lifetime, and yet for three generations to remain unreconciled—how deep and bitter must such enmity be! Though the methods of the King of Yama to mediate are indeed proper, yet beneath the palace steps there are countless multitudes; could it be that all the beloved sons-in-law under heaven are those who cry out in anguish within the underworld?
Commentary
How great is the hatred caused when a talented man is cast aside and his path to officialdom is blocked? The tale "Three Lives" provides a clear explanation.
Although the title of this tale is "Three Lives," it actually recounts four generations. It tells of the scholar Xing Yutang and the magistrate who, due to a grudge born in the examination hall, pursued vengeance against each other through successive lifetimes. Only in the fourth generation, through the arrangement of the King of Yama, did they become father-in-law and son-in-law. The father-in-law then exerted every effort to scheme and maneuver on behalf of his son-in-law, ensuring that he "achieved success in the realm of fame," and only then was the enmity finally resolved.
This piece cannot be considered a proper tale, but merely a fable, and Dan Minglun believed that "the satire seems excessively harsh"; then, for whom is such a work written? Whom does it seek to intimidate? While this piece certainly contains elements of personal catharsis, its greater purpose in writing, the object of its intimidation, is likely those officials who hold the power to promote or dismiss talented individuals yet "cannot recognize literary merit."