Some Chinese Ghosts

Some Chinese Ghosts

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio
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Title: Some Chinese Ghosts
Author: Lafcadio Hearn
Release Date: July 11, 2005 [EBook #16261]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's Note: The letter o with a caron is indicated as [)o] in this
text version.]

SOME CHINESE GHOSTS
BY LAFCADIO HEARN

Copyright, 1887, by ROBERTS BROTHERS
* * * * *
To my friend HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
THE MUSICIAN WHO, SPEAKING THE SPEECH OF MELODY
UNTO THE CHILDREN OF TIEN-HIA,-- UNTO THE
WANDERING TSING-JIN, WHOSE SKINS HAVE THE COLOR OF
GOLD,-- MOVED THEM TO MAKE STRANGE SOUNDS UPON
THE SERPENT-BELLIED SAN-HIEN; PERSUADED THEM TO
PLAY FOR ME UPON THE SHRIEKING YA-HIEN; PREVAILED
ON THEM TO SING ME A SONG OF THEIR NATIVE LAND,--
THE SONG OF MOHLÍ-HWA, THE SONG OF THE
JASMINE-FLOWER
[Illustration: Line drawing of a man's head]
* * * * *

PREFACE
I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volume is
the very character of the material composing it. In preparing the
legends I sought especially for _weird beauty_; and I could not forget
this striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations of
the Ancient Ballad": "The supernatural, though appealing to certain
powerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human
race, is, nevertheless, a spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its
elasticity by being too much pressed upon."
Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as a
whole have had the way made smooth for them by the labors of
linguists like Julien, Pavie, Rémusat, De Rosny, Schlegel, Legge,
Hervey-Saint-Denys, Williams, Biot, Giles, Wylie, Beal, and many

other Sinologists. To such great explorers, indeed, the realm of
Cathayan story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the
humbler traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast and
mysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted
to cull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing,--a self-luminous
_hwa-wang_, a black lily, a phosphoric rose or two,--as souvenirs of
his curious voyage.
L.H.
NEW ORLEANS, March 15, 1886.

CONTENTS
THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL
THE STORY OF MING-Y
THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU
THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING
THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT
THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD
* * * * *
NOTES
GLOSSARY

[Illustration: Decorative motif]
[Illustration: Line drawing of a head]

The Soul of the Great Bell
_She hath spoken, and her words still resound in his ears._
HAO-KHIEOU-TCHOUAN: c. ix.

THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL
The water-clock marks the hour in the _Ta-chung sz'_,--in the Tower of
the Great Bell: now the mallet is lifted to smite the lips of the metal
monster,--the vast lips inscribed with Buddhist texts from the sacred
_Fa-hwa-King_, from the chapters of the holy _Ling-yen-King_! Hear
the great bell responding!--how mighty her voice, though
tongueless!--_KO-NGAI!_ All the little dragons on the high-tilted
eaves of the green roofs shiver to the tips of their gilded tails under that
deep wave of sound; all the porcelain gargoyles tremble on their carven
perches; all the hundred little bells of the pagodas quiver with desire to
speak. _KO-NGAI!_--all the green-and-gold tiles of the temple are
vibrating; the wooden goldfish above them are writhing against the sky;
the uplifted finger of Fo shakes high over the heads of the worshippers
through the blue fog of incense! _KO-NGAI!_--What a thunder tone
was that! All the lacquered goblins on the palace cornices wriggle their
fire-colored tongues! And after each huge shock, how wondrous the
multiple echo and the great golden moan and, at last, the sudden
sibilant sobbing in the ears when the immense tone faints away in
broken whispers of silver,--as though a woman should whisper,
"_Hiai!_" Even so the great bell hath sounded every day for well-nigh
five hundred years,--_Ko-Ngai_: first with stupendous clang, then with
immeasurable moan of gold, then with silver murmuring of "_Hiai!_"
And there is not a child in all the many-colored ways of the old Chinese
city who does not know the story of the great bell,--who cannot tell you
why the great bell says _Ko-Ngai_ and Hiai!
* * * * *

Now, this is the story of the great bell in the Ta-chung sz', as the same
is related in the _Pe-Hiao-Tou-Choue_, written by the learned
Yu-Pao-Tchen, of the City of Kwang-tchau-fu.
Nearly five hundred