Duhova v podobi vnukov

Besedilo

Duhova v podobi vnukov

Qin Jubo of Langya was sixty years old. One night, as he was walking home after drinking, he passed the temple on Mount Peng and suddenly saw his two grandsons coming to meet him. They supported him for a hundred paces or more, then seized him by the neck and threw him to the ground, cursing, “You old wretch! You beat me that day, and now I’m going to kill you!” Jubo thought back and recalled that he had indeed beaten that grandson on a certain occasion. He feigned death, and they left him where he lay. When he reached home, he meant to punish his two grandsons, but they were shocked and distressed. Bowing their heads to the ground, they said, “How could any grandson do such a thing? We fear they were ghosts. Please put them to the test again.” Jubo saw their point. A few days later, he pretended to be drunk and walked past the temple again. Once more, his two grandsons appeared and came to support him. This time he seized them firmly, so that the ghosts could not move. He brought them home, where they had the appearance of two men. Jubo roasted them over a fire until the skin of their bellies and backs was charred and split, then put them out in the courtyard. During the night, both escaped. Jubo regretted not having killed them. More than a month later, he again pretended to be drunk and went out at night with a blade concealed in his clothes, without his family’s knowledge. When it grew very late and he had still not returned, his grandsons feared that the ghosts had waylaid him again. They went out together to meet him, and Jubo stabbed them both to death.