In “The Painted Skin,” the Daoist Caught the Ghost but Could Not Revive the Man

The ghost had been sealed inside a gourd, and the human skin rolled up and put away in a bag. As the Daoist was about to leave, Wang Sheng’s wife, Chen, knelt at the doorway, weeping and begging him to bring her husband back to life.

The Daoist said, “My arts are limited; I truly cannot raise the dead.”

Chen remained prostrate at the doorway, waiting for the Daoist to show her a way to save her husband.

1. He Trusted Neither the Daoist Nor His Wife

Wang Sheng in Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio was from Taiyuan. One morning, he met a young woman walking alone. She said her parents had sold her as a concubine to a wealthy household, where the principal wife abused her, so she had secretly run away and had nowhere to go.

Wang Sheng brought her home, hid her in a private room, and lived with her. A few days later, he quietly told his wife. Chen suspected the woman was a concubine who had fled a wealthy household and urged him to send her away. He refused to listen.

One day at a market, Wang Sheng met a Daoist. The Daoist saw an evil aura clinging to him and asked what he had encountered. Wang Sheng repeatedly denied anything was wrong. As the Daoist left, he remarked that some people really did remain blind even when death was at their door.

Wang Sheng had his doubts too, but then thought: she was plainly a beautiful woman, so how could she be a demon? He decided the Daoist was probably trying to make a living by invoking the pretext of warding off evil and disasters.

His wife’s advice and the Daoist’s warning could not outweigh the beauty he believed he had seen with his own eyes. Only when he returned home to find the door bolted from within did he climb the low wall and peer through a window, where he saw what was really happening inside.

A demon with a blue-green face and sawlike teeth had spread a human skin on the bed and was painting it with a colored brush. When it finished, it lifted the skin and shook it out as one would a garment. It draped it over itself and became the woman he knew.

2. The Fly Whisk on the Door Could Not Save His Life

Wang Sheng fled in terror, crouching low, and searched everywhere for the Daoist. At last he found him in the outskirts and knelt for help. The Daoist still felt pity for the ghost, saying it too had suffered and had only just found a substitute, so he could not bear to take its life.

He gave Wang Sheng a fly whisk and told him to hang it by the bedroom door, then arranged to meet him at the Temple of the Green Emperor. Wang Sheng returned, too frightened to enter the room where he had hidden the woman. He took refuge in the inner chamber and hung up the whisk.

Around the first watch, faint sounds came from outside the door. Wang Sheng was afraid to look and told his wife to do it instead. Seeing the whisk, the woman initially dared not enter. She stood there for a long time, gritting her teeth, then turned away.

But she had not gone far. She returned, cursing that the Daoist could not frighten her: once something was already in her mouth, why should she spit it out? She tore the whisk to pieces, smashed through the door, rushed to Wang Sheng’s bed, and took his heart.

Chen screamed. A maid brought in a candle and saw that Wang Sheng was dead, his chest and abdomen covered in blood.

3. After the Ghost Was Caught, Another Plea for Help Began

The next day, Wang Sheng’s younger brother Erlang hurried to ask the Daoist for help. When the Daoist heard that the ghost he had spared had killed a man, he rushed over in anger, but the woman had already vanished.

He looked around and asked who lived in the south courtyard. Erlang said it was his own home. The Daoist was certain the ghost was inside and asked whether a stranger had come. Erlang went back to inquire and learned that an old woman had come that morning seeking work as a servant, and his wife had taken her in.

The Daoist stood in the courtyard with a wooden sword and shouted, “Wicked demon! Return my whisk!” The old woman tried to flee, but he caught and struck her down. The human skin fell away, revealing the fierce ghost in its true form.

The wooden sword severed the ghost’s head, and its body turned into thick smoke. The Daoist opened his gourd and collected all the smoke, then rolled up the human skin, complete with its brows, eyes, hands, and feet, and put it in a bag. He was preparing to take his leave.

Chen blocked the doorway, begging the Daoist to bring her husband back to life, and remained prostrate on the ground. After a moment’s thought, the Daoist pointed her toward another path: she should seek the mad beggar in the marketplace.

The Daoist warned her not to get angry if the man insulted her with wild words. Erlang knew the man and went with his sister-in-law.

4. She Endured the Humiliation in the Street

The beggar was disheveled, singing and behaving wildly in the street. Chen approached on her knees and explained why she had come. He first mocked her, then retorted: a man is dead, and you come to me asking for life—do you take me for the King of Hell?

He struck her with his staff, and Chen endured it. Onlookers gathered until they formed a wall around them. Then he spat a palmful of phlegm and ordered her to eat it. Chen flushed with embarrassment and hesitated. Remembering the Daoist’s instruction, she finally forced it down in full view of the crowd.

It went down her throat, hard like a wad of cotton, lodged there, and stopped in her chest. The beggar laughed and walked into a temple; when they searched for him, he had disappeared. Chen and Erlang looked everywhere but could not find him.

Humiliated and without a single clear instruction on how to save her husband, Chen returned home in shame, resentment, and grief. The family stood guard over the body, none of them daring to approach. She still had to be the one to prepare her husband for burial.

5. The Heart Came Up from Her Chest

Back home, Chen tended Wang Sheng’s body. She bent over him, gathered his scattered entrails, and worked as she wept. As her voice gave out, something suddenly surged in her chest. A hard object shot from her mouth and fell into her husband’s chest.

It was a human heart, still beating and giving off heat. Chen saw it and quickly closed the wound, binding it tightly with strips torn from cloth. After a little while, the body gradually grew warm, and she covered him with a quilt.

At midnight, Wang Sheng began breathing again. When he awoke at dawn, he said he felt as if he had dreamed, and that his abdomen ached faintly. The wound had already closed and scabbed over; it would heal in time.

At the end of the story, Pu Songling rebukes people for mistaking demons for beautiful women and sound advice for nonsense. He then writes of men who lust after another’s beauty while their wives must swallow someone else’s phlegm. Wang Sheng lost his life through his own infatuation; Chen, who had urged him from the start to send the woman away, had to endure humiliation to bring him back.