Original Text
Zhang Wozhong once served as a soldier in Quzhou, and he recounted: "In the deep stillness of the night in Quzhou, no one dared to walk alone. On the bell tower there was a ghost with a single horn on its head, its visage ferocious and hideous; whenever it heard the sound of footsteps, it would descend. People would flee in terror, and the ghost would then depart. Yet whoever laid eyes upon it would fall ill, and most of them perished. Moreover, there was a pond within the city walls, where at night a length of white cloth would appear, spread out like a sheet of white silk upon the ground. If a passerby picked up the cloth, they would be dragged into the water. There was also what they called the Duck Ghost; in the dead of night, the pond's edge would be utterly silent and empty, but if one heard the quacking of a duck, they would fall sick."
Commentary
In the Song dynasty vernacular stories, there are works such as "The Three Monsters of Ding Mountain," "The Record of the Three Monsters of Luoyang," and "The Record of the Three Pagodas at West Lake," and this volume also contains "The Three Immortals," all of which record multiple strange occurrences in a certain place and are named with the number "three," which in Chinese fiction is a customary numeral indicating plurality.
Pu Songling's account of the "Three Monsters of Quzhou" presents bizarre imagery, with their positions arranged in a staggered manner, each possessing distinct forms, sounds, and colors. The author's narration is rich in rhythm, subtly imbued with musicality, closely resembling a prose poem.