Belolasi starec iz kotla

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Belolasi starec iz kotla

In Donglai there was a family named Chen whose household numbered more than a hundred. One morning, the pot would not boil as they prepared their meal. They lifted the steamer to look, and suddenly a white-haired old man emerged from the pot. They went at once to consult a diviner. “This is a most ominous sign,” he told them. “Your entire household is doomed. Go home at once and make a great many weapons. When they are ready, set them along the walls inside the gate, then shut the gate firmly and stay indoors. If mounted men come with banners and canopies and knock at the gate, take care not to answer.” They returned home and all set to work cutting wood, making more than a hundred weapons, which they placed beneath the gatehouse roof. Sure enough, people arrived and called out, but no one answered. Their commander grew furious and ordered his followers to climb over the gate. One of them peered inside, saw more than a hundred weapons of every size, and went back to report what he had seen. The commander was greatly alarmed and dismayed. “I told you to come quickly,” he said to his attendants, “but you delayed. Now there is not a single person here we can take away. How are we to answer for this failure? About eighty li north of here is a household of a hundred and three. Take them instead.” Ten days later, everyone in that other household had died. It is said that their surname, too, was Chen.