Prevod
During the Han dynasty, He Chang of Jiujiang served as Inspector of Jiaozhou. While touring his jurisdiction, he came to Gao’an County in Cangwu Commandery and lodged for the night at Huben Posthouse. Before midnight, a woman emerged from beneath the tower and called out, “My surname is Su, my given name E, and my courtesy name Shizhu. I originally lived in Xiuli, in Guangxin County. I lost my parents early and had no brothers. I married a man of the Shi family in the same county, but ill fortune took my husband from me. I had a hundred and twenty bolts of assorted silk and a maidservant named Zhifu. Alone, destitute, and frail, I could not support myself. Wishing to sell the silk in a neighboring county, I hired an ox cart from a man of our county named Wang Bo for twelve thousand cash. I loaded the silk onto it and rode with it, letting Zhifu hold the reins. On the tenth day of the fourth month of the year before last, we reached the grounds outside this posthouse. It was already growing dark, and there were no travelers left on the road. We dared go no farther and stopped here. Zhifu was suddenly seized with a pain in her belly. I went to the posthouse keeper’s quarters to ask for something to drink and a light for a fire. The keeper, Gong Shou, came to the cart carrying a dagger-axe and a halberd. He asked me, ‘Where have you come from, madam? What are you carrying in the cart? Where is your husband? Why are you traveling alone?’ I replied, ‘Why trouble yourself to ask?’ Shou seized my arm and said, ‘You are young and lovely. I hope we may enjoy ourselves together.’ Terrified, I refused him. He drew a knife and stabbed me once beneath the ribs, killing me on the spot. Then he stabbed Zhifu, killing her too. He dug beneath the tower and buried us together, with me below and my maid above, then took away our belongings. He killed the ox and burned the cart, and put the cart fittings and the ox’s bones into the dry well east of the posthouse. The anguish of my unjust death moved Heaven, yet I had nowhere to plead my case. That is why I have come to place myself under your protection, enlightened governor.” He Chang said, “If I have your body unearthed now, what proof will identify it?” The woman replied, “I am dressed in white, both above and below, and wear shoes of blue silk. They have not yet rotted. I beg you to make inquiries in my home district and send my bones back to lie beside my dead husband.” They dug there and found everything just as she had said. He Chang hurried back and sent officers to arrest Gong Shou. Under interrogation and torture, he confessed in full. Inquiries were sent to Guangxin County, and the findings agreed with Su E’s account. Shou’s parents and brothers were all arrested and imprisoned. He Chang submitted a memorial concerning Shou: “Under the ordinary statutes, murder does not warrant the execution of the offender’s entire family. Yet Shou was the perpetrator of this evil, and though he concealed it for several years, he cannot escape the law of the throne. For a ghost to bring an accusation is something that scarcely happens once in a thousand years. I request that they all be beheaded, to make manifest the power of spirits and give effect to the punishment decreed by the unseen world.” The emperor approved the request.
