Nebeški meč in duh zemlje

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Nebeški meč in duh zemlje

He Yu of Kuaiji, whose courtesy name was Yanju, once fell ill and lost consciousness. Only the area beneath his heart remained warm. After being dead for three days, he came back to life. He said, “An official escorted me up to Heaven, where I saw government offices. I was led into an inner chamber with a tiered rack. On its upper shelf lay a seal, and on the middle shelf a sword. I was told to take whichever I pleased, but I was too short to reach the upper shelf, so I took the sword and went out. The official asked, ‘What did you get?’ I replied, ‘A sword.’ He said, ‘A pity you did not get the seal—you could have commanded all the spirits. With the sword, you can command only the local god of the soil.’” When he recovered from his illness, a spirit did indeed come to him, calling itself the local god of the soil.