Liao Ming, a Daoist of Hangzhou, collected money and set up a temple to the Holy Emperor, with an image.
On the day of consecration the men and women of the town and the countryside swarmed in to burn incense. Suddenly a ruffian came in, sat himself down insolently beside the Holy Emperor, and pointed at the image and mocked it. The crowd tried hard to stop him. The Daoist said: “Never mind. Let him do as he likes. There will surely be a retribution.”
In a moment the ruffian fell to the ground crying that his belly hurt, rolled about without stopping, and died, with blood running from all seven openings.
The crowd was terrified and took it for the Holy Emperor’s awful power. The incense trade flourished; the Daoist grew rich on it.
A year later his confederates quarrelled over the division of the money, and one of them informed: “Last year that ruffian’s insult to the god — the Daoist bribed him to do it. And as for his death: the Daoist had first given him poisoned wine, and the ruffian did not know it.”
The authorities dug up the bones and examined them: they were indeed blue-black. The Daoist was executed, and the Holy Emperor’s incense declined.
