Offered to Gao Pian, Zhao Jing

Pian was having a second outer city wall built, and many were sent to dig up ancient burial mounds to take their bricks. Upon one burial mound, a ghost howled at night who called himself Underworld Manager Zhao Jing. He offered a message, which roughly read, “Jing is an outstanding wandering spirit—receive the benefit of the palm of this Underworld Manager. Strive to build ten-thousand crenelated walls, but avoid this one you took from. If this mane-shaped tomb (remains) entirely sealed, I shall venture to overlook your boss’s shadow.” Appended to it on another strip was a poem:

I formerly defeated former rulers—
The rulers of today defeat me today.
Men’s lives concern a single generation:
What are you doing, bitterly raiding me?

This poem and Murong Chui’s “Replying to Taizong from Upon His Burial Mound” have many similarities. Because each was recorded in the chronicles, they were both preserved.

献高骈
作者：赵𤰳
〈骈筑罗城，多发掘古冢取砖。有一冢上鬼夜啸，自称冥司赵𤰳。献书，略曰：“𤰳一介游魂，叨掌冥司，希于万雉，免此一抔，倘全马鬣之封，敢忘龙头之庇。”并附一诗于后幅。〉
我昔胜君昔，
君今胜我今。
人生一世事，
何用苦相侵。
〈此诗与慕容垂冢上答太宗多同，以各载事迹，故两存之。〉

Yeah yeah, I said I was working systematically, but this final poem of chapter 865 is textually tangled with its first, so I’m bumping it up. (NB: “Many similarities” is 60%, including the identical first two lines.) Note that the dating puts this incident more than 200 years later.

General and poet Gao Pian lived 821-887, and ordering his commandery to erect a second city wall as an outer layer of protection suggests a significant threat. The ghost’s personal name 𤰳 (jǐng) is a very rare character—rare enough it may not render on all screens—and I’ve only found it in this ghost story (there’s a couple other tellings, none of which identify the city) and lists of Unihan glyphs. Very old tombs had specific shapes, one of which was thought to look like a horse’s mane. Yeah IDK.

The ghost’s speech is thoroughly arrogant, with words used only by superiors talking to inferiors. I’m deeply amused by the phrase 叨掌, “receive the benefit of (my) palm” —even more compact than “Imma slap ya.”

---L.