In the reign of Kangxi, Wang Yixin, magistrate of Shitai, was on the closest terms with a friend named Lin. Lin died, and became the earth god of Shitai. Every night, though the living and the dead are apart, the two of them kept company as they had in life.
The earth god said to Wang privately: “Your family has a calamity coming, and I dare not keep it from you; but once I have told you, I am afraid I shall not escape Heaven’s punishment.”
Wang pressed him again and again. At last he said: “Your honoured mother is destined to be struck by lightning.”
Wang was horrified, and wept and begged for a way out. The god said: “This is a debt of evil from a former life. My office is low and my rank small — how could I save her?”
Wang wept and pleaded without stopping. The god said: “There is only one way. Set about the duties of a filial son at once. Whatever your mother eats and drinks, whatever bed-hangings and clothes she uses — make it ten times as much. Let her waste and gorge, so that her allotted fortune runs out and she dies; then she may end well, and though the thunder comes it will be of no use.”
Wang did as he was told, and his mother died within a few years.
Three years after that the sky rained, and the thunder came indeed. It circled the coffin, lighting it up, and the whole room smelled of sulphur. But it did not strike. It broke out through the roof, flew across and struck the earth god’s shrine. The clay image was reduced to mud.
