"Xuanmu Zhi", by Zhang Reading, a Tang Dynasty native.
Holy paintings
There is a holy painting hall in yunhua temple, and the people of Chang'an call it the Seven Sacred Paintings.
When the temple was first built, the monks in the temple looked for painters to paint, and their asking price exceeded the monks' expectations, so they did not negotiate.
A few days later, two young people came to the temple, and they said, "We are good at painting, and I heard that there are painters in the temple, and we don't want to pay for them, but we just accumulate merit, can you see?" "The monks wanted to know how good their painting skills were, so they asked where they had painted and wanted to see it. The young man said: "There are seven of our brothers, and they have never painted in Chang'an, and they have no works to see. The monk thought the two were lying, so they didn't want to use them.
The young man added, "We don't want to pay, and if you don't paint well, it won't take much effort to repaint the walls." The monk agreed because he was saving money.
The next day, seven people arrived, and when they were about to paint, they instructed the monks, "Please close the door of the main hall, and do not open it for seven days, nor do you have to deliver food." In addition, the painted murals are afraid of wind erosion, and we must seal the gaps in the temple door with mud, otherwise we will not be able to perform our skills. ”
The monks did as they were told, and for six days there was silence in the hall. The monks talked to each other, "There must be something strange here, and you can't do what they say." So I removed the mud and opened the door. Only to see seven pigeons flying out of it, and the youth were gone. All four sides of the main hall walls have been painted, except for the northwest corner, which has not yet been colored. Later, the painters came to visit and said in surprise: "What a magical brushwork!" "No one dared to finish the painting any further.
Merriam-Webster
There is a temple of Zhang Girl in Fengyang County, and during the Lantern Festival, a man surnamed Wei came to Fengyang. Passing by the Zhang Girl Temple on the way, I got off my horse and entered the temple to rest. He saw two straw shoes on the lobby floor. The straw shoes are very delicately woven, the texture is fine and even, and the grass used is white and soft. Merriam-Webster picked up the straw shoes and put them in his bag.
He stayed after seeing the taishou, and that night, he put his straw shoes in front of the bed and fell asleep. The next morning, the shoes were gone and there was nowhere. After a meal, the servant saw the shoes on the roof tiles and hurriedly told the master. Webster asked the servant to climb up to the roof and remove the straw shoes.
The next day, the shoes reappeared on the roof, and this was repeated several times. Webster whispered to the servant, "Are these shoes a monster?" You sneak a peek. That night, the servants were observing through the gap next door. In the middle of the night, the shoes turned into a pair of white birds and flew to the roof. In the morning, When Merriam-Webster learned about the grass shoes turning into birds, he asked the servants to take them off and burn them. Before the servant could fetch it, the straw shoes turned into white birds again and flew away.
Yang Shenwei
During the Kaiyuan period, Yang Shenyan served as the imperial court imperial historian. One day at dawn, he was going to go to the court, but the servant could not open the gate, and the whole family was amazed. At dawn, the entourage outside the door saw a night fork standing there, standing tall, with two hands pressed against the door. Eyes sparkling, turning your head to look left and right. The retinue scattered in fright, until the carriages and horses on the street rose up, and the night fork released its hand and walked south. When people passing by saw it, they were frightened and fell to the ground. Yang Shenyun felt ominous after knowing it, and his heart was very afraid. More than a month later, he was framed by Li Linfu, and both brothers were killed.
Jiangnan Wusheng
There was a Wu Sheng from Jiangnan who once married a concubine surnamed Liu in Huiji. A few years later, Wu Sheng went to Yanmen to make a county order and took Liu Shi to his post. At first, Liu Shi was very gentle, but after a few years, he suddenly became violent and fierce, and Wu Sheng couldn't control her at all. She unleashed her anger and bit the servant maid to the point of bloodshed. Wu Sheng became more and more disgusted with her.
One day, Wu Sheng and his subordinates went hunting and harvested a lot of wild game such as foxes and hares, which were placed in the kitchen. The next day, Wu Sheng went out, and Liu Shi came to the kitchen and ate the wild game raw. Wu Sheng came back and couldn't find those things, and asked Liu Shi, who was silent. Wu Sheng was very angry and interrogated the maid, who said that she had been eaten by Liu Shi. After Wu Sheng heard about it, he began to suspect that there was something strange about Liu Shi.
More than ten days later, the county magistrate sent a live deer. Wu Sheng put the deer in the yard and pretended to go out. In fact, hide in the dark to observe. Only to see Liu Shi's hair scattered, bare arms out of the door, the appearance also became vicious and terrible. She grabbed the deer leg and tore it in half and chewed it up.
Wu Sheng fell to the ground in shock, and after waking up, he gathered more than ten pawns, each of whom broke into the courtyard with a blade. Liu Shi saw the crowd, took off his clothes, and completely turned into a night fork, his eyes were like lights, his teeth were like saws, his skin turned blue, and his whole body was in cahoots. The pawns were trembling and did not dare to lean forward, and the night fork seemed to be afraid of something, looked around, and walked quickly south, and soon disappeared.
[sic] There are Wu Sheng, Jiangnan people, who taste youhui ji and marry a daughter of the Liu clan as a concubine. A few years later, Wu Shengzai County was in Yanmen County, and liu shi was an official. At the beginning of the Liu clan, he smelled softly and gracefully, and after a few years, he suddenly felt arrogant and unforgivable. There are often those who are rebellious, that is, angry. Beat his servants, or gnaw on his muscles, and the blood is even worse, and the anger is incomprehensible. Wu Sheng knew that Liu Shi was fierce, and his heart was slightly out of the ordinary. In one day, Wu and the Yanmen clan hunted several generations in the wild, and they received many foxes and rabbits.
Tomorrow, Wu sheng, Liu Shi will sneak into the house, take the fox rabbit, and finish it. Wu Shenggui, because of the location of the fox rabbit, and Liu Shi was silent. Wu Sheng was angry, and he called his wife, "Liu Shi's food is exhausted." "I suspected that Liu Shi was strange to him. In the tenth month, there were county officials who sacrificed a deer, and Wu's life was given to the court. Wu Sheng's initial words will be far away. If you go out, you will hide and sneak in. Seeing that the Liu clan was emitting a brachial brachio, the eyelids were all cracked, and the appearance was suddenly different. In the standing court, the deer is held in the left hand, and the hip is plucked by the right hand and eaten. Wu Sheng was terrified, and the servant land could not rise for a long time. He summoned more than a dozen generations of officials and marched in with his troops. When Liu Shi saw Wu Shenglai, he stripped off his sleeves and stood up straight, but it was a night fork. His eyes were like electric light, his teeth were like blades, his muscles and bones were coiled, and his body was cyan. The guards were afraid to approach. And the fork of the night looks around, if there is some fear. Only the food is eaten, and suddenly the east is moving east, and its momentum is so bad that it does not know where it is.
Zhu Da Nang
There is a large temple in Wuling County, and the floating pagoda inside is more than ten meters high, facing the river. Whenever the river stirs, the pagoda seems to shake, so no one dares to climb it.
There was a businessman Zhu Dan whose family was very rich, and one day her daughter disappeared for no reason. The Zhu family searched everywhere, and they were not seen for more than ten days.
One day, when the rain was beginning to clear, someone saw a man standing on the top of the tower, dressed in colorful clothes. The crowd thought it was a monster. After Zhu Da heard about it, he rushed to see it, and saw from a distance that the man's dress seemed to be his own daughter, so he let people climb the tower next. Sure enough, it was The Daughter of the Chu Clan. The father and daughter repeated, Zhu Da was very happy, he asked his daughter what was going on.
Zhu Shinu said: "One day I was alone at home, and suddenly a night fork came, a foot high, and it jumped off the roof and took me to the stupa. Night Fork Daytime Tower took something for me to eat, and no one could see him. One day, the night fork went down the tower and saw a man dressed in white, and it hid far away. I asked him why he was afraid of the man in white, and the fork said, 'This man in white doesn't eat beef, and I don't dare to go near it.' I asked why, and the night fork said, 'The cow can plough the field, and is the parent of man's food and clothing, and the emperor of heaven will bless him who does not eat beef.' The next day, after the Night Fork left, I silently prayed: I am a person, leaving my parents and being with the aliens, how sad it is, and from then on I also swore not to eat beef, hoping that the Emperor of Heaven would let me return to my parents. When the Fork of the Night came back, he looked at me at the bottom of the tower and said, 'Why did you have the ambition to abandon me?' Never see each other again! After saying that, I went east, not knowing where I went. ”