Manboksa jeopogi — The Dice Game at Manboksa萬福寺摴蒲記
南原有梁生者，早喪父母，未有妻室，獨居萬福寺之東。房外有梨花一株，方春盛開，如瓊樹銀堆，生每月夜，逡巡朗吟其下。詩曰：
In Namwon there was a man called Scholar Yang (梁生). He lost his father and mother early, and he had taken no wife yet, so he lived alone east of Manboksa. Outside his room stood a single pear tree, and when spring was at its height it opened in full bloom, like silver heaped on a tree of jade. On every moonlit night Scholar Yang walked to and fro beneath it and chanted aloud. His poem said:
一樹梨花伴寂廖，可憐辜負月明宵。靑年獨臥孤窓畔，何處玉人吹鳳簫。
A single pear tree in flower keeps my loneliness company; how pitiful, to waste this night of a bright moon. Young, I lie alone beside a solitary window; where is the jade-like one who plays the phoenix pipes?
翡翠孤飛不作雙，鴛鴦失侶浴晴江。誰家有約敲碁子，夜卜燈花愁倚窓。
The kingfisher flies alone and makes no pair; the mandarin duck has lost its mate and bathes in the clear river. At whose house is a promise made, that someone taps the go stones? At night I read the lamp flower for an omen and lean on the window in sorrow.
吟罷，忽空中有聲曰：「君欲得好逑，何憂不遂。」生心憙之，明日卽三月二十四日也。州俗燃燈於萬福寺祈福，士女騈集，各呈其志。日晩梵罷人稀，生袖摴蒲，擲於佛前曰：「吾今日，與佛欲鬪蒲戱，若我負，則設法筵以賽，若不負，則得美女，以遂我願耳。」祝訖，遂擲之，生果勝，卽跪於佛前曰：「業已定矣，不可誑也。」遂隱於几下，以候其約。
When he had finished chanting, all at once a voice came out of the air and said, "You wish to win a good mate. Why do you fear it will not come to pass?"
Scholar Yang was glad at heart. The next day was the twenty-fourth day of the third month. It was the custom of that district to light lamps at Manboksa and pray for blessing, and men and women gathered side by side, each setting out what was in his heart. When the day grew late, and the chanting ended, and the people thinned, Scholar Yang drew jeopo (摴蒲) dice from his sleeve, threw them before the Buddha, and said,
"Today I wish to play a match of jeopo against the Buddha. If I lose, I will hold a dharma assembly (法筵) to repay you. If I do not lose, grant me a beautiful woman and let my wish be fulfilled."
When his prayer was done he threw at last, and Scholar Yang won. He knelt at once before the Buddha and said, "The matter is settled now. You may not deceive me." Then he hid beneath the low table (几) and waited for what had been promised.
俄而有一美姬，年可十五六，丫鬟淡飾，儀容婥妁，如仙姝天妃，望之儼然，手携油甁，添燈揷香，三拜而跪，噫而歎曰：「人生薄命，乃如此邪？」遂出懷中狀詞，獻於卓前。其詞曰：「某州某地居住，何氏某，竊以曩者，邊方失禦倭寇來侵，干戈滿目，烽燧連年，焚蕩室廬，盧掠生民，東西奔竄，左右逋逃，親戚僮僕，各相亂離，妾以蒲柳弱質，不能遠逝，自入深閨，終守幽貞，不爲行露之沾，以避橫逆之禍，父母以女子守節不爽，避地僻處，僑居草野，已三年矣。然而秋月春花，傷心虛度，野雲流水，無聊送日，幽居在空谷，歎平生之薄命，獨宿度良宵，傷彩鸞之獨舞，日居月諸，魂銷魄喪，夏日冬宵，膽裂腸摧，惟願覺皇，曲垂憐愍，生涯前定，業不可避，賦命有緣，早得歡娛，無任懇禱之至。」
Before long a beautiful young woman came. She was perhaps fifteen or sixteen, her hair bound in two coils and her dress plain, and her form was so fine and lovely that she seemed an immortal maiden or a queen of heaven, stately to look upon. In her hand she carried a jar of oil. She filled the lamp and set incense in place, bowed three times, knelt, and sighed and said,
"Is a human life so poor in fortune as this?"
Then she drew a written plea from her breast and offered it before the table. The plea said,
"A woman of the Ha (何氏) family, living in such a district and such a place, speaks with respect. In days past the frontier failed to hold, and Japanese raiders came and invaded. Shield and spear filled the eye, and the beacon fires ran on year after year. They burned the houses and plundered the people, so that all fled east and west and ran away left and right, and kinfolk and servants were scattered one from another.
I was a frail thing, a willow by the water, and could not go far. I went into the deep inner room and kept my quiet uprightness to the end. I was not wetted by the dew of the road, and so I escaped the violence that would have been done to me. My father and mother, seeing that their daughter had kept her honor without fault, fled to a remote corner and made a lodging in the wild fields, and three years have passed.
Yet the autumn moon and the spring flowers wound my heart as they pass in vain, and the clouds over the fields and the running water carry my days away with nothing to hold them. I live hidden in an empty valley and sigh over the poor fortune of my whole life. I pass the good nights alone and grieve like the painted luan bird that dances by itself. The days go and the months go, and my spirit melts away and my soul is spent; through summer days and winter nights my gall is split and my bowels are torn.
I ask only this, that the Awakened King bend down and take pity on me. The road of my life was settled before me, and karma (業) cannot be escaped; but if the fate given me holds a bond, let joy come to me soon. I cannot bear the weight of this earnest prayer."
女旣投狀，嗚咽數聲。生於隙中，見其姿容，不能定情，突出而言曰：「向者投狀，爲何事也？」見女狀辭，喜溢於面，謂女子曰：「子何如人也，獨來于此？」女曰：「妾亦人也，夫何疑訝之有，君但得佳匹，不必問名姓，若是其顚倒也。」時寺已頹落，居僧住於一隅，殿前只有廊廡，蕭然獨存，廊盡處，有板房甚窄。生挑女而入，女不之難，相與講歡，一如人間。
When the woman had offered her plea she sobbed aloud a few times. Scholar Yang saw her face through the gap, and he could not hold his feelings. He burst out and said, "What was the matter of the plea you offered just now?"
He had seen the words of her plea, and joy overflowed his face. He said to the woman, "What manner of person are you, that you come here alone?"
The woman said, "I too am a person. What is there in that to doubt? You have only to win a good mate. There is no need to ask my name and family. Why do you speak so, with everything turned about?"
By that time the temple had fallen into ruin, and the monks who lived there stayed in one corner. Before the hall only the side gallery was left, standing bare and alone, and at the end of the gallery was a room of boards, very narrow. Scholar Yang drew the woman in, and she did not hold back. They shared their joy together, and it was in every way as it is among the people of this world.
將及夜半，月上東山，影入窓柯，忽有跫音，女曰：「誰耶？將非侍兒來耶？」兒曰：「唯。向日娘子，行不過中門，履不容數步，昨暮偶然而出，一何至於此極也？」女曰：「今日之事，蓋非偶然，天之所助，佛之所佑，逢一粲者，以爲偕老也。不告而娶，雖明敎之法典，式燕以遨，亦平生之奇遇也。可於茅舍，取裀席酒果來。」
As midnight drew near, the moon rose over the eastern hill and its shadow came in over the window branches. Suddenly there were footsteps, and the woman said, "Who is there? Is it not my maid come?"
The girl said, "Yes. In the old days my lady did not walk past the middle gate, and her shoes did not carry her more than a few steps. Last evening you went out by chance, and how have you come to such a pass as this?"
The woman said, "What has happened today is no chance thing. Heaven helped and the Buddha aided, and I have met a fair one and have agreed to grow old with him. To marry without telling one's parents is not, it is true, the rule of the bright teaching, but to spread a feast and take our pleasure is also a rare meeting in a lifetime. Go to the thatched house and bring the mats, the wine, and the fruit."
侍兒一如其命而往，設筵於庭，時將四更也。鋪陳几案，素淡無文，而醪醴馨香，定非人間滋味。生雖疑怪，談笑淸婉，儀貌舒遲意必貴家處子，踰墻而出，亦不之疑也。觴進，命侍兒，歌以侑之，謂生曰：「兒定仍舊曲，請自製一章以侑，如何？」生欣然應之曰：「諾。」乃製滿江紅一闋，命侍兒歌之曰：
The maid went as she was bidden and spread a seat in the courtyard, and by then it was near the fourth watch of the night. She laid out an armrest and a table, plain and without pattern, but the wine was fragrant, and it was surely no flavor of the world of men.
Scholar Yang thought it strange, yet her talk and her laughter were clear and gentle and her bearing unhurried, so he supposed she must be a girl of some noble house who had climbed the wall and come out, and he did not doubt her.
As the cup went round she told the maid to sing and raise their pleasure, and she said to Scholar Yang, "The girl knows only the old tunes. Will you not make a piece of your own to raise our pleasure?"
Scholar Yang agreed gladly and said, "I will." Then he made one song to the tune Manjianghong (滿江紅) and had the maid sing it.
惻惻春寒羅衫薄，幾回腸斷金鴨冷。晩山凝黛，暮雲張繖。錦帳鴛衾無與伴，寶▩半倒吹龍管。可惜許光陰易跳丸，中情懣。燈無焰銀屛短，徒收淚誰從款。喜今宵，鄒律一吹回暖。破我佳城千古恨，細歌金縷傾銀椀。悔昔時抱恨，蹙眉兒眠孤館。
In the chill of a bleak spring my silk gown is thin; how many times has my heart broken, and the golden duck censer gone cold. The evening hills gather like brow-black, the clouds at dusk open like a parasol. In the brocade curtain, under the mandarin-duck quilt, there is no one to pair with me; the jewelled □ leans half over, and the dragon pipe is played. What a pity, that the years go as lightly as a bouncing pellet, and the heart within is choked. The lamp has no flame and the silver screen is short; I dry my tears for nothing, and whom shall I follow and take my joy with? What gladness tonight: one note of the pipe of Zou Yan (鄒衍) has turned the warmth back. It breaks the grief of a thousand years that lay about the grave, and I sing Jinlüyi (金縷衣) softly and tip the silver bowl. I repent that in days gone by I held my grief, knit my brows, and slept in a lonely inn.
〔One character after "jewelled" is missing in the base text.〕
歌竟，女愀然曰：「曩者蓬島，失當時之約，今日瀟湘，有故人之逢，得非天幸耶。郞若不我遐棄，終奉巾櫛，如失我願，永隔雲泥。」生聞此言，一感一驚曰：「敢不從命？」然其態度不凡，生熟視所爲，時月掛西峯，鷄鳴荒村，寺鐘初擊，曙色將暝。女曰：「兒可撤席而歸，隨應隨滅不知所之。」女曰：「因緣已定，可同携手。」生執女手，經過閭閻，犬吠於籬，人行於路，而行人不知與女同歸，但曰：「生早歸何處？」生答曰：「適醉臥萬福寺，投故友之村墟也」
When the song ended the woman said with a sorrowful look, "In days past on the isle of Penglai I lost the promise of that time, and today on the Xiaoxiang (瀟湘) I have met an old friend. Is this not good fortune from Heaven? If you do not cast me off, my lord, I will serve you with towel and comb to the end. If I lose what I hope for, we shall be parted forever, as cloud from mud."
Scholar Yang heard these words and was moved and startled both, and he said, "How should I dare not follow what you say?"
Yet her bearing was not that of an ordinary woman, and Scholar Yang watched closely all that she did. By then the moon hung on the western peak, cocks were crowing in the desolate village, the temple bell struck its first stroke, and the light of dawn was about to turn grey.
The woman said, "Child, take up the mats and go home." The girl answered, and at once she faded away, and no one knew where she went.
The woman said, "Our bond is settled already. Let us take each other's hand and go together."
Scholar Yang took the woman's hand and passed through the village. Dogs barked at the hedges and people walked the road, but those going by did not know that Scholar Yang went with a woman, and they only said, "Where are you off to so early, sir?"
Scholar Yang answered, "I happened to lie drunk at Manboksa, and I am on my way to the village of an old friend."
至詰朝，女引至草莽間，零露瀼瀼，無逕路可遵。生曰：「何居處之若此也？」女曰：「孀婦之居，固如此耳。」女又謔曰：「於邑行路，豈不夙夜，謂行多露。」生乃謔之曰：「有狐綏綏，在彼淇梁。魯道有蕩，齊子翺翔。」吟而笑傲。遂同去開寧洞，蓬蒿蔽野，荊棘參天，有一屋，小而極麗，邀生俱入，裀褥帳幃極整，如昨夜所陳。留三日，歡若平生然，其侍兒，美而不黠，器皿潔而不文，意非人世，而繾綣意篤，不復思廬，已而女謂生曰：「此地三日不下三年君當還家以顧生業也。遂設離宴以別。」生悵然曰：「何遽別之速也？」女曰：「當再會，以盡平生之願爾，今日到此弊居，必有夙緣，宜見鄰里族親，如何？」生曰：「諾。」卽命侍兒，報四鄰以會。
The next morning the woman led him into the middle of a thicket, where the dew lay heavy and there was no path to follow.
Scholar Yang said, "How can your dwelling be like this?"
The woman said, "The dwelling of a woman left alone is simply like this."
The woman teased him again and said, "Walking the road of the town, how should one not go at dawn or at night? They would say there is much dew on the road."
At this Scholar Yang teased her back and said, "A fox goes slinking, slinking, there on the bridge over the Qi (淇水). The road of Lu is broad and level, and the daughter of Qi goes soaring along."
He chanted it, then laughed and made light of it.
At last they went together to Gaeryeongdong, where mugwort covered the fields and thorn trees reached the sky, and there stood a house, small but exceedingly fine. She welcomed Scholar Yang and they went in together, and the mats and bedding and curtains were laid out in perfect order, just as they had been set out the night before.
They stayed three days, and their joy was like a whole lifetime. The maid was beautiful and not sly, the vessels were clean and without pattern, so that it seemed after all not to be the world of men; but their feeling for each other was deep, and he thought no more of it.
Before long the woman said to Scholar Yang, "Three days in this place are not less than three years among men. You must go home, my lord, and look to your living." Then she spread a parting feast and took her leave.
Scholar Yang said sadly, "Why is the parting so sudden?"
The woman said, "We shall surely meet again and fulfil the wish of a lifetime. That you came today to this poor house must also come of an old bond. What would you say to meeting my neighbors and my kinfolk?"
Scholar Yang said, "I would be glad to." At once she told the maid to send word to the four neighbors and call them together.
其一曰鄭氏。其二曰吳氏。其三曰金氏。其四曰柳氏。皆貴家巨族，而與女子，同閭閈親戚，而處子者也。性俱溫和，風韻不常，而又聰明識字，能爲詩賦，皆作七言短篇四首以贐，鄭氏態度風流，雲鬟掩鬢，乃噫而吟曰：
The first was of the Jeong family, the second of the O, the third of the Kim, the fourth of the Yu. All were of noble houses and great clans, kinswomen of the woman and living in the same village, and all were unmarried girls. Their natures were gentle and warm, their manner out of the common, and they were clever and knew letters and could make poems and rhapsodies. Each made four short pieces in seven-character lines as a parting gift.
Jeong was graceful in her bearing, and her cloud-like coils covered her temples. She sighed and chanted:
春宵花月兩嬋娟，長把春愁不記年。自恨不能如比翼，雙雙相戱舞靑天。
The flowers and the moon of a spring night are both lovely, yet I have held a spring sorrow so long I have not counted the years. I grieve that I cannot be like the birds that fly joined wing to wing, playing two by two, dancing in the blue sky.
漆燈無焰夜如何，星斗初橫月半斜。惆悵幽宮人不到，翠衫撩亂鬢鬖*사。
The lacquered lamp has no flame, and what shall I do with this night? The stars have just gone slanting, and the moon too is halfway down. How sad: no one comes to this hidden palace, my kingfisher gown is in disorder and the hair at my temples hangs loose.
摽梅情約竟蹉跎，辜負春風事已過。枕上淚痕幾圓點，滿庭山雨打梨花。
The promise of feeling pledged when the plums were thrown went astray at last, and the time when I wronged the spring wind is already past. How many round drops are the tearstains on my pillow? The mountain rain fills the courtyard and beats the pear blossoms.
一春心事已無聊，寂寞空山幾度宵。不見藍橋經過客，何年裴航遇雲翹。
A whole spring of the heart's business is without savor now; how many nights have I passed in these still, empty hills? I do not see the traveler who passes Lanqiao (藍橋). In what year will Pei Hang (裴航) meet Yunqiao (雲翹)?
吳氏，丫鬟妖弱，不勝情態，繼吟曰：
O had her hair in coils, bewitching and frail, and she could not master her feeling and her air. She chanted next:
寺裏燒香歸去來，金錢暗擲竟誰媒。春花秋月無窮恨，銷却樽前酒一盃。
I burned incense in the temple and came away; though I threw the gold coin in secret, who in the end will make the match? The endless grief of spring flowers and autumn moons I melt away in one cup of wine before the jar.
漙漙曉露浥桃腮，幽谷春深蝶不來。却喜隣家銅鏡合，更歌新曲酌金疊。
The morning dew falls thick and wets the peach-blossom cheek; spring is deep in the hidden valley, yet no butterfly comes. But I am glad that the neighbor's bronze mirror is joined again, and I sing a new song once more and pour the golden cup.
年年燕子舞東風，腸斷春心事已空。羨却芙蕖猶竝蔕，夜深同浴一池中。
Year after year the swallows dance in the east wind; my heart is broken, and the business of spring has come to nothing. How I envy the lotus, whose stems still stand side by side, bathing together in one pond deep into the night.
一層樓在碧山中，連理枝頭花正紅。却恨人生不如樹，靑年薄命淚凝瞳。
A storeyed pavilion stands among the blue hills, and at the tip of the joined branches the flowers are full red. I grieve that a human life is less than a tree's, that in youth, poor in fortune, the tears freeze in my eyes.
金氏，整其容儀，儼然染翰，責其前詩，淫佚太甚，而言曰：「今日之事，不必多言，但叙光景，胡乃陳懷，以失其節，傳鄙懷於人間。」遂郞然賦曰：
Kim set her bearing in order and wet her brush with dignity. She blamed the poems before hers for being far too wanton, and said,
"There is no need for many words about what happens today. It is enough to set out the scene before us. Why lay open what is in the breast, and so lose all measure and carry a mean heart into the world of men?"
Then she chanted clearly:
杜鵑鳴了五更風，寥落星河已轉東。莫把玉簫重再弄，風情恐與俗人通。
The cuckoo has finished calling, and the wind of the fifth watch blows; the lonely river of stars has already turned to the east. Do not take up the jade pipe and play it over again; I fear such feeling will reach the ears of common men.
滿酌烏程金叵羅，會須取醉莫辭多。明朝捲地東風惡，一段春光奈夢何。
Fill the golden poluo (叵羅) cup with the wine of Wucheng (烏程); we should drink until we are drunk, and not refuse because it is much. Tomorrow morning, when the east wind rolls over the ground in fury, what will one stretch of spring light be, even in a dream?
綠紗衣袂懶來垂，絃管聲中酒百巵。淸興未闌歸未可，更將新語製新詞。
The sleeves of my green gauze gown hang down in idleness; amid the sound of strings and pipes the cups of wine are a hundred. The clear pleasure is not spent, so we cannot go back yet; let us take new words again and make a new song.
幾年塵土惹雲鬟，今日逢人一解顔。莫把高唐神境事，風流話柄落人間。
How many years has the dust clung to my cloud-coiled hair? Today I have met someone, and my face has opened once. Do not take what happened in the holy ground of Gaotang (高唐) and let it fall among men as a tale of love.
柳氏，淡粧素服，不甚華麗，而法度有常，沈默不言，微笑而題曰：
Yu was plain in her dress and wore white and was not greatly adorned, but she kept a constant measure. She was silent and said nothing, then smiled faintly and wrote:
確守幽貞經幾年，香魂玉骨掩重泉。春宵每與姮娥伴，叢桂花邊愛獨眠。
How many years have I held firm to my quiet uprightness, my fragrant soul and jade bones buried by the deep springs? On spring nights I kept company with Chang'e (姮娥), and loved to sleep alone beside the clustered cassia flowers.
却笑春風桃李花，飄飄萬點落人家。平生莫把靑蠅點，誤作崑山玉上瑕。
How laughable are the peach and plum blossoms in the spring wind, tossing down in ten thousand petals on the houses of others. Never take the spot left by a blue fly and make of it by mistake a flaw on the jade of Kunlun.
脂粉慵拈首似蓬，塵埋香匣綠生銅。今朝幸預鄰家宴，羞看冠花別樣紅。
Too idle to touch rouge and powder, my hair is like mugwort; dust has buried the incense box and green rust has risen on the bronze. This morning I am lucky to join the feast at a neighbor's house, and I look with shame at the flower in my hair, so strangely red.
娘娘今配白面郞，天定因緣契闊香。月老已傳琴瑟線，從今相待似鴻光。
Now my lady is matched with a fair-faced young scholar; the bond was fixed by Heaven, and their parting and meeting again is sweet. The old man of the moon has passed them the strings of lute and zither already. From now on let them face each other as Liang Hong (梁鴻) and Meng Guang (孟光) did.
女乃感柳氏終篇之語，出席而告曰：「余亦粗知字畵，獨無語乎。」
The woman was moved by the words in the last piece of Yu's. She came forward from her seat and said, "I too know a little of letters. Shall I alone say nothing?"
乃製近體七言四韻，以賦曰：
Then she made a poem in the recent style, in seven-character lines with four rhymes, and chanted:
開寧洞裏抱春愁，花落花開感百憂。楚峽雲中君不見，湘江竹下泣盈眸。
Inside Gaeryeongdong I held a spring sorrow; flowers fell and flowers opened, and a hundred cares moved me. In the clouds over the gorges of Chu (楚峽) I did not see you; under the bamboo by the Xiang (湘江) my eyes filled with tears.
晴江日暖鴛鴦竝，碧落雲銷翡翠遊。好是同心雙綰結，莫將紈扇怨淸秋。
On the clear river the sun is warm and the mandarin ducks are paired; in the blue sky the clouds melt away and the kingfishers play. It is good to tie the knot of one heart, two by two, and not to blame the clear autumn with a silk fan.
生亦能文者。見其詩法淸高，音韻鏗鏘，唶唶不已。卽於席前，走書古風長短篇一章，以答曰：
Scholar Yang too was a man of letters. He saw that the craft of her poem was clear and high and that its sounds and rhymes rang out, and he praised it without end. There before the seat he ran his brush over one piece in the old style, with long and short lines, and answered:
今夕何夕，見此仙姝。花顔何婥妁，絳脣似櫻珠。風騷尤巧妙，易安當含糊。織女投機下天津，嫦娥抛杵離淸都。靚粧照此玳瑁筵，羽觴交飛淸讌娛。殢雨尤雲雖未慣，淺斟低唱相怡愉。自喜誤入蓬萊島，對此仙府風流徒。瑤漿瓊液溢芳樽，瑞腦霧噴金猊爐。白玉牀前香屑飛，微風撼波靑紗廚。眞人會我合巹巵，綵雲冉冉相縈紆。君不見文簫遇彩鸞，張碩逢杜蘭。人生相合定有緣，會須擧白相闌珊。娘子何爲出輕言，道我掩棄秋風紈。世世生生爲配耦，花前月下相盤桓。
What evening is this evening, that I have met this immortal maiden? How fine is her face like a flower, her red lips like cherry beads. Her craft in poetry is finer still; Yi'an (易安) herself would hold back her words. The Weaving Maid threw down her loom and came from the Ford of Heaven; Chang'e set down her pestle and left the clear capital. Beautifully adorned, she lights this tortoiseshell (玳瑁) mat, and the feathered cups fly to and fro in the gladness of a clear feast. I am not used to lingering in rain and cloud, yet we pour a little and sing low and take our joy in each other. I am glad in myself that I strayed onto the isle of Penglai and face this company of pleasure from the immortals' town. Fine wine and jade-like liquor brim in the fragrant jar, and ruinao incense (瑞腦香) breathes like mist from the golden lion censer. Before the white jade couch the powdered incense flies, and a light wind shakes the blue gauze (紗) curtain like water. A true one has met me and shares the cup of union, and the colored clouds drift and wind about us. Have you not seen how Wen Xiao (文簫) met Cailuan (彩鸞), and how Zhang Shuo (張碩) met Du Lanxiang (杜蘭香)? When people meet in this life there is a bond already fixed; so let us raise our cups until the pleasure is spent. Why does my lady let fall a light word and say that I will cast her off like a fan in the autumn wind? Life after life we shall be a pair, and walk together before the flowers and under the moon.
酒盡相別，女出銀椀一具，以贈生曰：「明日，父母飯我于寶蓮寺。若不遺我，請遲于路上，同歸梵宇，同覲我父母，如何？」生曰：「諾。」
When the wine was gone and they were about to part, the woman brought out a silver bowl and gave it to Scholar Yang, saying, "Tomorrow my father and mother will offer a meal for me at Boryeonsa. If you do not forsake me, wait on the road, and let us go to the temple together and see my father and mother together. What do you say?"
Scholar Yang said, "I will."
生如其言，執椀待于路上，果見巨室右族，薦女子之大祥車馬騈闐上于寶蓮，見路傍，有一書生，執椀而立，從者曰：「娘子殉葬之物，已爲他人所偸矣。」主曰：「如何？」從者曰：「此生所執之椀。」遂聚馬以問，生如其前約以對，父母感訝良久曰：「吾止有一女子，當寇賊傷亂之時，死於干戈，不能窀窆，殯于開寧寺之間，因循不葬，以至于今。今日大祥已至，暫設齌筵，以追冥路。君如其約，請竢女子以來，願勿愕也。」言訖先歸。
Scholar Yang did as she said and waited on the road holding the bowl, and sure enough he saw a great house of a noted clan going up to Boryeonsa with carriages and horses in a long train, to hold the great memorial rite (大祥) for their daughter.
Seeing a young scholar standing by the road with a bowl in his hand, one of the attendants said, "The things buried with our lady have already been stolen by someone."
The master said, "What do you mean?"
The attendant said, "That bowl the scholar is holding."
So they halted the horses and asked him, and Scholar Yang answered as had been promised. The parents were moved and startled, and after a long while they said,
"I had one daughter. When the raiders came and all was in disorder she died by shield and spear, and we could not bury her properly. We laid her for a time among the buildings of Gaeryeongsa, and put it off and put it off, and to this day she is not buried. Today the great memorial rite has come, and we are setting out a brief offering to follow her on the road of the dead. If you would keep that promise, wait for our daughter to come, and do not be startled."
When he had said this he went on ahead.
生佇立以待。及期，果一女子，從侍婢，腰裊而來，卽其女也。相喜携手而歸，女入門禮佛，投于素帳之內，親戚寺僧，皆不之信，唯生獨見，女謂生曰：「可同茶飯。」生以其言，告于父母。父母試驗之，遂命同飯，唯聞匙筋聲，一如人間。父母於是驚歎，遂勸生，同宿帳側，中夜言語琅琅，人欲細聽，驟止其言曰：「妾之犯律，自知甚明。少讀詩書，粗知禮義，非不諳褰裳之可愧，相鼠之可赧，然而久處蓬蒿，抛棄原野，風情一發，終不能戒。曩者，梵宮祈福，佛殿燒香，自嘆一生之薄命，忽遇三世之因緣。擬欲荊▩椎▩,奉高節於百年，羃酒縫裳，修婦道於一生。自恨業不可避，冥道當然，歡娛未極，哀別遽至。今則步蓮入屛，阿香輾車，雲雨霽於陽臺，烏鵲散於天津，從此一別，後會難期。臨別凄惶，不知所云。」送魂之時，哭聲不絶，至于門外，但隱隱有聲曰：
Scholar Yang stood still and waited. When the time came, a woman did indeed come, following a maidservant, her waist swaying as she walked, and it was she. They were glad to see each other and went back hand in hand.
The woman came in at the gate and made her bow to the Buddha, then went in behind the white curtain. The kinfolk and the monks of the temple did not believe it, and Scholar Yang alone saw her.
The woman said to Scholar Yang, "Let us take tea and food together."
Scholar Yang told her parents what she had said. Her parents wished to test it and had him eat with her, and only the sound of spoon and chopsticks was heard, just as it is among the people of this world. At this her parents were amazed and sighed, and at last they urged Scholar Yang to sleep beside the curtain with her.
In the middle of the night the sound of their talking rang clear, but when anyone tried to listen closely she broke off at once. The woman said,
"That I have broken the rule I know very well myself. In my youth I read the Odes and the Documents and came to know something of rite and right, and I am not ignorant that the poem 'Lift Your Skirt' is a shame to me, and the poem 'Look at the Rat' a cause to blush. Yet I lay long among the mugwort, cast away in the open fields, and when such feeling rose in me once I could not hold to my guard in the end.
In days past I prayed for blessing in the temple and burned incense before the hall of the Buddha, and while I sighed at the poor fortune of my life I met all at once the bond of three lives (三世). I meant to wear a thorn hairpin and a mallet knot, and to keep a high honor for a hundred years; to strain the wine and sew the clothes and follow a wife's way all my life.〔One character is missing in the base text after each of hyeong (荊) and chu (椎).〕
I grieve in myself that karma cannot be escaped and the road of the dead is what it is, that before our joy was full a sad parting came so soon. Now I tread the lotus and enter the screen, and Axiang (阿香) turns her cart; the cloud and the rain clear away from Yangtai (陽臺), and the crows and magpies scatter from the Ford of Heaven. Once we part here, another meeting will be hard to appoint. At the moment of parting I am wretched and bewildered and do not know what to say."
When they sent the spirit away the sound of weeping did not stop. Beyond the gate there was only a faint voice, saying,
冥數有限，慘然將別。願我良人，無或踈闊。哀哀父母，不我匹兮。漠漠九原，心糾結兮。
The reckoning of the dark world has its limit, and I must part from you in sorrow. I ask of you, my good lord, do not put me far away from you. Sad, sad are my father and mother, who could not give me a match. In the wide, dim Nine Springs my heart is twisted and knotted.
餘聲漸滅，嗚哽不分，父母已知其實，不復疑問。生亦知其爲鬼，尤增傷感，與父母聚頭而泣，父母謂生曰：「銀椀任君所用。但女子，有田數頃，蒼赤數人，君當以此爲信，勿忘吾女子。」
The last of the voice faded away, choked, until it could not be made out. Her parents already knew the truth and did not question him again in doubt. Scholar Yang too knew that she was a ghost, and his sorrow grew, and he wept with her parents, their heads together.
Her parents said to Scholar Yang, "Use the silver bowl as you please. Our daughter also had a few plots of field and several servants. Take these as a pledge, and do not forget our daughter."
翌日，設牲牢朋酒，以尋前迹，果一殯葬處也。生設奠哀慟，焚楮鏹于前，遂葬焉。作文以弔之曰：
The next day he made ready a beast for sacrifice and wine and sought out the place of the day before, and it was indeed a place where someone had been laid for a time. Scholar Yang set out the offerings and wept aloud, burned paper money before her, and buried her at last. He made a piece to mourn her:
「惟靈，生而溫麗，長而淸渟。儀容侔於西施，詩賦高於淑眞，不出香閨之內，常聽鯉庭之箴。逢亂離而璧完，遇寇賊而珠沈。托蓬蒿而獨處，對花月而傷心。腸斷春風，哀杜鵑之啼血，膽裂秋霜，歎紈扇之無緣。嚮者，一夜邂逅，心緖纏綿。雖識幽明之相隔，實盡魚水之同歡。將謂百年以偕老，豈期一夕而悲酸。月窟驂鸞之姝，巫山行雨之娘，地黯黯而莫歸，天漠漠而難望。入不言兮恍惚，出不逝兮蒼茫。對靈幃而掩泣，酌瓊漿而增傷。感音容之窈窈，想言語之琅琅。嗚虖哀哉。爾性聰慧，爾氣精詳。三魂縱散，一靈何亡。應降臨而陟庭，或薰蒿而在傍。雖死生之有異，庶有感於些章。」
"O spirit. At your birth you were gentle and fair, and as you grew you were clear and still. Your bearing was a match for Xi Shi (西施), and your poems and rhapsodies stood higher than those of Zhu Shuzhen (朱淑眞), yet you did not step outside the fragrant inner room, and you always listened to your father's teaching.
You met the disorder of war and the jade disc stayed whole; you met the raiders and the pearl sank. You clung to the mugwort and lived alone, and faced the flowers and the moon with a wounded heart. Your heart broke in the spring wind and you grieved for the cuckoo that cries out blood; your gall was split by the autumn frost and you sighed that the silk fan had no bond left to it.
In days past we met by chance for one night, and the threads of our hearts were wound together. I knew that the dark world and the bright are set apart, yet we truly took our fill of the joy of fish and water. I thought we would grow old together a hundred years; how could I know that in a single evening this bitterness would come?
You who rode the luan bird in the moon's cavern, you who brought the rain on Wushan: the earth is dark and dark and you cannot go back, the sky is wide and wide and you are hard to look for. You come in and there is no word, and all is dim; you go out and do not depart, and all is empty.
Facing the curtain of your spirit I cover my face and weep; I pour the sweet wine and my grief grows. I am moved that your voice and your face have gone so far away, and I think of how your speech rang clear.
Alas, how sad. Your nature was bright and wise, your spirit fine and exact. Though your three souls are scattered, how should your one spirit perish? Surely you will come down and climb into the courtyard, or be beside me in the fragrant smoke. Though the dead and the living are different, I pray that you feel something of these words."
後極其情哀，盡賣田舍，連薦再三夕，女於空中，唱曰：「蒙君薦拔，已於他國，爲男子矣。雖隔幽明，寔深感佩。君當復修淨業，同脫輪回。」
Afterward, in the fullness of his feeling and grief, he sold all his fields and his house and held rites for her two and three evenings running. The woman sang from out of the air, saying,
"By the offering you raised for me I have been born a man already in another country. Though the dark world and the bright are set apart, I am deeply grateful and I keep it in my heart. You must cultivate the pure work again, so that we may escape the wheel of rebirth together."
生後不復婚嫁，入智異山採藥，不知所終。
Scholar Yang never married again. He went into Jirisan to gather herbs, and no one knows where he ended.