Yue Shuixuan was passing the salt pools of Puzhou in Shanxi when he noticed something odd inside the temple of Lord Guan.
There was a statue of Zhang Fei seated facing south, alongside Guan Yu himself. And beside them stood Zhou Cang, eyes glaring, one hand dragging an iron chain — and chained to nothing but a rotten piece of wood.
He asked the locals what it meant.
“That,” they said, “is the salt rebel.”
“In the Yuanyou reign of the Song, the water of the salt pools was drawn off and boiled for several days, and no salt would form. The merchants were terrified, and they prayed at the temple.
“That night Lord Guan appeared to them in a dream and said:
“‘Your salt pool has been seized by Chi You, and that is why it will not make salt. I accept the offerings here, so it is my business to deal with it. But Chi You’s soul I can bind. His wife, whose name is Xiao, is fiercer and worse than he is, and I cannot bind her. Only my brother Zhang Yide can capture her. I have sent to Yizhou for him.’
“They woke. That very day they added a statue of Zhang Fei to the temple.
“That night there was a great wind and thunder — and a rotten piece of wood was lying on the iron chain.
“The next day they drew water and boiled it, and the yield was ten times what it had been.”
And that, they said, is where the word for a salt smuggler comes from.
