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Blood Jade
The jade-merchant Shen Wanqing by a trick takes the blood-jade of the ruined scholar Tao Huaiqing, and his two sons drown in turn; the jade passes as dowry to his daughter Yueru and the Tao house, only to be cast out by her cold husband Tao Jingming; at last it enters the Zhou. Three generations on, Zhou Yanqiu uncovers the truth and sinks the jade in the river to loose the old wrong. Rendered from a fragmentary scroll of the Wu Gate Miscellany.
The Sword Spirit
The ancient blade "Autumn Water" passes through three masters across three dynasties - General Pei of Tang, the filial scholar Lu of Song, the woman swordsman Liu of Yuan - drinking blood till a spirit stirs within, following each to life and death. Found at last by the narrator, it hangs in his study, ringing on windy nights. The Chronicler sighs: a sword's spirit lies in remembrance, quickened by a man's sincerity.
The Frog God
Stone-Bank worships a giant frog as the Frog God and is answered with rain in drought; the unbelieving rich man Qian fills the pool and tears down the shrine, and is drowned in water and frogs, ruined by failed harvests, while the honest orphan Stone is repaid and his mother healed.
The Snake Groom
Old Wei frees a green snake that returns as the Snake Groom to wed his youngest, Third Maid; the jealous eldest, Yun, drowns her sister and takes her place, but is betrayed by the bracelet's mark on the true wrist, and is turned to the Wronged Bird.
The Rat Wedding
On the seventeenth-night rat-wedding, the skeptical granary-keeper Old Gou waits with his clapper to catch the thieves, and instead beholds the rats in lanterns and finery bearing their daughter in a melon-seed-shell chair — and is given three strange grains.
The Clam Maid
A-Liu of Lijiang saves a great clam from the fishing bully and rows it home to the sea by night; a blind mother is healed by a strange woman, and for three years a quiet bond holds — until Pearl, who is the clam, repays the debt and returns to the water.
The Beggar Immortal
Old Zhuo, the beggar before the City-God's temple, is in truth a hidden immortal who helps in small things—binding an axle, breaking a fever, finding a lost mule—then quietly goes in the snow.
The Stone Lion
The stone lion at Tongji Bridge leaves its pedestal at midnight and saves a drunkard from the swollen river with a single paw; the watchman Wang keeps a lamp burning beneath it.