Prevod

Xin Daodu of Longxi was traveling in pursuit of learning when, four or five li from the city of Yongzhou, he came upon a great mansion with a maid in blue standing at the gate. Daodu approached and asked for a meal. The maid went inside to report to the daughter of the King of Qin, who ordered that he be admitted. Daodu hastened into her chamber, where she sat on a couch to the west. He gave his name and offered the customary greetings; when he had finished, she bade him sit on the couch to the east and had food and wine prepared. After he had eaten, she said to him, “I am the daughter of King Min of Qin. I was betrothed to a man of Cao, but unhappily died before I could marry. Twenty-three years have passed since my death, and I have lived alone in this house. Now that you have come, I wish us to be husband and wife for three nights.” When the three days were over, she said, “You are a living man, and I am a ghost. A bond from a former life has brought us together, but this meeting can last only three nights. If you remain any longer, disaster will follow. Yet in these few nights we have scarcely had time to share our tenderness. Now that we must part and fly our separate ways, what can I give you, my love, as a token of my faith?” She ordered a box fetched from behind the bed, opened it, and took out a golden pillow, which she gave Daodu as a keepsake. Then they parted in tears, and she sent the maid in blue to escort him beyond the gate. He had gone no more than a few paces when the mansion vanished, leaving only a tomb. In a panic, Daodu fled. But when he looked at the golden pillow in his arms, he found it unchanged. Soon afterward he reached the state of Qin and offered the pillow for sale in the market. As it happened, the King of Qin’s consort was making an excursion to the east and saw Daodu selling it. Suspicious, she demanded to examine it and questioned him about where he had obtained it. Daodu told her everything. On hearing his account, she wept uncontrollably, though she still harbored doubts. She therefore sent men to open the tomb and inspect the coffin. Everything originally buried there was still in place; only the pillow was missing. When they undressed the body to examine it, the signs of lovemaking were plain. Only then did the consort believe him. “My daughter possessed extraordinary powers!” she exclaimed. “Though dead these twenty-three years, she could still consort with a living man. This is truly my son-in-law.” She thereupon had Daodu invested with the title of Commandant of the Imperial Equipage, bestowed gold, silk, carriages, and horses upon him, and sent him back to his native land. From that time onward, later generations called a son-in-law a “fuma,” or Commandant of the Imperial Equipage; even today, a sovereign’s son-in-law is called a “fuma.”