臨洮馮生，蓋貴介裔而陵夷矣。有漁鱉者，負其債不能償，得鱉輒獻之。一日，獻巨鱉，額有白點。生以其狀異，放之。後自婿家歸，至恆河之側，日已就昏，見一醉者，從二三僮，顛跛而至。遙見生，便問：「何人？」生漫應：「行道者。」醉人怒曰：「寧無姓名，胡言行道者？」生馳驅心急，置不答，逕過之。醉人益怒，捉袂使不得行，酒臭熏人。生更不耐，然力解不能脫。問：「汝何名？」囈然而對曰：「我南都舊令尹也。將何為？」生曰：「世間有此等令尹，辱寞世界矣！幸是舊令尹；假新令尹，將無殺盡途人耶？」醉人怒甚，勢將用武。生大言曰：「我馮某非受人撾打者！」醉人聞之，變怒為懽，踉蹡下拜曰：「是我恩主，唐突勿罪！」起喚從人，先歸治具。生辭之不得。握手行數里，見一小村。既入，則廊舍華好，似貴人家。醉人酲稍解，生始詢其姓字。曰：「言之勿驚，我洮水八大王也。適西山青童招飲，不覺過醉，有犯尊顏，實切愧悚。」生知其妖，以其情辭殷渥，遂不畏怖。俄而設筵豐盛，促坐懽飲。八大王最豪，連舉數觥。生恐其復醉，再作縈擾，偽醉求寢。八大王已喻其意，笑曰：「君得無畏我狂耶？但請勿懼。凡醉人無行，謂隔夜不復記者，欺人耳。酒徒之不德，故犯者十之九。僕雖不齒於儕偶，顧未敢以無賴之行，施之長者，何遂見拒如此？」生乃復坐，正容而諫曰：「既自知之，何勿改行？」八大王曰：「老夫為令尹時，沈湎尤過於今日。自觸帝怒，謫歸島嶼，力返前轍者，十餘年矣。今老將就木，潦倒不能橫飛，故態復作，我自不解耳。茲敬聞命矣。」傾談間，遠鐘已動。八大王起捉臂曰：「相聚不久。蓄有一物，聊報厚德。此不可以久佩，如願後，當見還也。」口中吐一小人，僅寸餘。因以爪掐生臂，痛若膚裂；急以小人按捺其上，釋手已入革裏，甲痕尚在，而漫漫墳起，類痰核狀。驚問之，笑而不答。但曰：「君宜行矣。」送生出，八大王自返。回顧村舍全渺，惟一巨鱉，蠢蠢入水而沒。錯愕久之。自念所獲，必鱉寶也。由此目最明，凡有珠寶之處，黃泉下皆可見；即素所不知之物，亦隨口而知其名。於寢室中掘得藏鏹數百，用度頗充。後有貨故宅者，生視其中有藏鏹無算，遂以重金購居之。由此與王公埒富矣。火齊木難之類皆蓄焉。得一鏡，背有鳳紐，環水雲湘妃之圖，光射里餘，鬚眉皆可數。佳人一照，則影留其中，磨之不能滅也；若改妝重照，或更一美人，則前影消矣。時肅府第三公主絕美，雅慕其名。會主游崆峒，乃往伏山中，伺其下輿，照之而歸，設寘案頭。審視之，見美人在中，拈巾微笑，口欲言而波欲動。喜而藏之。年餘，為妻所洩，聞之肅府。大怒，收之。追鏡去，擬斬。生大賄中貴人，使言於王曰：「王如見赦，天下之至寶，不難致也。不然，有死而已，於王誠無所益。」王欲籍其家而徙之。三公主曰：「彼已窺我，十死亦不足解此玷，不如嫁之。」王不許。公主閉戶不食。妃子大憂，力言於王。王乃釋生囚，命中貴以意示生。生辭曰：「糟糠之妻不下堂，寧死不敢承命。王如聽臣自贖，傾家可也。」王怒，復逮之。妃召生妻入宮，將鴆之。既見，妻以珊瑚鏡臺納妃，辭意溫惻。妃悅之，使參公主。公主亦悅之，訂為姊妹，轉使諭生。生告妻曰：「王侯之女，不可以先後論嫡庶也。」妻不聽，歸修聘幣納王邸，齎送者迨千人。珍石寶玉之屬，王家不能知其名。王大喜，釋生歸，以公主嬪焉。公主仍懷鏡歸。生一夕獨寢，夢八大王軒然入曰：「所贈之物，當見還也。佩之若久，耗人精血，損人壽命。」生諾之，即留宴飲。八大王辭曰：「自聆藥石，戒杯中物已三年矣。」乃以口囓生臂，痛極而醒。視之，則核塊消矣。後此遂如常人。
临洮冯生，盖贵介裔而陵夷矣。有渔鳖者，负其债不能偿，得鳖辄献之。一日，献巨鳖，额有白点。生以其状异，放之。后自婿家归，至恒河之侧，日已就昏，见一醉者，从二三僮，颠跛而至。遥见生，便问：「何人？」生漫应：「行道者。」醉人怒曰：「宁无姓名，胡言行道者？」生驰驱心急，置不答，径过之。醉人益怒，捉袂使不得行，酒臭熏人。生更不耐，然力解不能脱。问：「汝何名？」呓然而对曰：「我南都旧令尹也。将何为？」生曰：「世间有此等令尹，辱寞世界矣！幸是旧令尹；假新令尹，将无杀尽途人耶？」醉人怒甚，势将用武。生大言曰：「我冯某非受人挝打者！」醉人闻之，变怒为懽，踉蹡下拜曰：「是我恩主，唐突勿罪！」起唤从人，先归治具。生辞之不得。握手行数里，见一小村。既入，则廊舍华好，似贵人家。醉人酲稍解，生始询其姓字。曰：「言之勿惊，我洮水八大王也。适西山青童招饮，不觉过醉，有犯尊颜，实切愧悚。」生知其妖，以其情辞殷渥，遂不畏怖。俄而设筵丰盛，促坐懽饮。八大王最豪，连举数觥。生恐其复醉，再作萦扰，伪醉求寝。八大王已喻其意，笑曰：「君得无畏我狂耶？但请勿惧。凡醉人无行，谓隔夜不复记者，欺人耳。酒徒之不德，故犯者十之九。仆虽不齿于侪偶，顾未敢以无赖之行，施之长者，何遂见拒如此？」生乃复坐，正容而谏曰：「既自知之，何勿改行？」八大王曰：「老夫为令尹时，沉湎尤过于今日。自触帝怒，谪归岛屿，力返前辙者，十余年矣。今老将就木，潦倒不能横飞，故态复作，我自不解耳。兹敬闻命矣。」倾谈间，远钟已动。八大王起捉臂曰：「相聚不久。蓄有一物，聊报厚德。此不可以久佩，如愿后，当见还也。」口中吐一小人，仅寸余。因以爪掐生臂，痛若肤裂；急以小人按捺其上，释手已入革里，甲痕尚在，而漫漫坟起，类痰核状。惊问之，笑而不答。但曰：「君宜行矣。」送生出，八大王自返。回顾村舍全渺，惟一巨鳖，蠢蠢入水而没。错愕久之。自念所获，必鳖宝也。由此目最明，凡有珠宝之处，黄泉下皆可见；即素所不知之物，亦随口而知其名。于寝室中掘得藏镪数百，用度颇充。后有货故宅者，生视其中有藏镪无算，遂以重金购居之。由此与王公埒富矣。火齐木难之类皆蓄焉。得一镜，背有凤纽，环水云湘妃之图，光射里余，须眉皆可数。佳人一照，则影留其中，磨之不能灭也；若改妆重照，或更一美人，则前影消矣。时肃府第三公主绝美，雅慕其名。会主游崆峒，乃往伏山中，伺其下舆，照之而归，设寘案头。审视之，见美人在中，拈巾微笑，口欲言而波欲动。喜而藏之。年余，为妻所泄，闻之肃府。大怒，收之。追镜去，拟斩。生大贿中贵人，使言于王曰：「王如见赦，天下之至宝，不难致也。不然，有死而已，于王诚无所益。」王欲籍其家而徙之。三公主曰：「彼已窥我，十死亦不足解此玷，不如嫁之。」王不许。公主闭户不食。妃子大忧，力言于王。王乃释生囚，命中贵以意示生。生辞曰：「糟糠之妻不下堂，宁死不敢承命。王如听臣自赎，倾家可也。」王怒，复逮之。妃召生妻入宫，将鸩之。既见，妻以珊瑚镜台纳妃，辞意温恻。妃悦之，使参公主。公主亦悦之，订为姊妹，转使谕生。生告妻曰：「王侯之女，不可以先后论嫡庶也。」妻不听，归修聘币纳王邸，赍送者迨千人。珍石宝玉之属，王家不能知其名。王大喜，释生归，以公主嫔焉。公主仍怀镜归。生一夕独寝，梦八大王轩然入曰：「所赠之物，当见还也。佩之若久，耗人精血，损人寿命。」生诺之，即留宴饮。八大王辞曰：「自聆药石，戒杯中物已三年矣。」乃以口囓生臂，痛极而醒。视之，则核块消矣。后此遂如常人。
A scholar named Feng of Lintao came of a noble line, but the family had come down in the world. A man who caught turtles owed him money he could not repay, and whenever he caught a turtle he brought it to Feng. One day he brought a huge one with a white spot on its forehead. Feng thought it looked strange and let it go. Later, Feng was on his way home from his son-in-law’s house. By the time he reached the bank of the Heng River it was already dusk. He saw a drunk man, two or three boy servants at his heels, come lurching and stumbling along. Seeing Feng from a distance, the man called out, “Who’s that?” “Someone on the road,” Feng answered offhandedly. The drunk was angry. “Haven’t you got a name? What do you mean, someone on the road?” Feng was in a hurry to get on. He ignored him and went straight past. The drunk grew angrier still and caught him by the sleeve so that he could not go on. The reek of wine was overpowering. Feng was even less patient now, but struggle as he might he could not shake him off. “And what is your name?” he asked. The man answered thickly, as if talking in his sleep: “I am the former county magistrate of the Southern Capital. What of it?” “A magistrate like you is a disgrace to the world!” said Feng. “Lucky you’re a former magistrate. If you were in office now, you’d kill everyone on the road!” The drunk was furious and looked ready to come to blows. Feng said loudly, “I, Feng, am not a man to take a beating from anybody!” Hearing this, the drunk’s anger turned to joy. He staggered down to bow to him. “It’s my benefactor! Forgive my rudeness!” He got up and called to his servants to go home ahead and get a meal ready. Feng tried to decline, but could not. Hand in hand they walked several li and came to a small village. Inside, the halls and rooms were fine and handsome, like a great family’s house. When the drunk had sobered a little, Feng at last asked his name. “Don’t be alarmed when I tell you,” he said. “I am the Eighth Great King of the Tao River. The Azure Lad of the Western Hills invited me to drink just now, and before I knew it I had drunk too much and offended you. I am truly ashamed and afraid.” Feng knew he was a demon, but his words were so warm and earnest that Feng was not afraid. Soon a rich feast was laid, and they sat close and drank happily. The Eighth Great King was the boldest drinker, draining goblet after goblet. Afraid he would get drunk again and make more trouble, Feng pretended to be drunk himself and asked to go to bed. The Eighth Great King saw what he meant. He laughed. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll run wild? Please, have no fear. When a drunk behaves badly and says next day he can’t remember, he’s lying. Nine times out of ten a drunkard’s misconduct is done on purpose. My fellows may look down on me, but I would never dare treat a worthy man like you with a scoundrel’s manners. Why turn me down like this?” So Feng sat down again and said gravely, “Since you know it yourself, why not mend your ways?” “When I was magistrate,” said the Eighth Great King, “I was sunk in wine even worse than now. Ever since I angered the Emperor on High and was banished back to the islands, I have been trying hard for more than ten years to turn off my old road. Now I am old, with one foot in the coffin, down on my luck and unable to soar, and the old habits come back — I don’t understand it myself. But I respectfully accept your advice.” While they talked their hearts out, a distant bell began to ring. The Eighth Great King rose and took him by the arm. “We shall not be together much longer. I have something put by, a small return for your great kindness. It must not be worn for long. When you have had your wish, you must give it back.” From his mouth he spat out a tiny man, barely an inch tall. Then he dug his nails into Feng’s arm. It hurt as if the skin were splitting. Quickly he pressed the tiny man onto the spot, and when he let go it had already gone in under the skin. The nail marks were still there, and slowly the place swelled up into a lump like a cyst. Feng asked in alarm what it was. The King smiled and did not answer, but only said, “You should go now.” He saw Feng out and went back in. Feng looked back: the village and houses had vanished. There was only a huge turtle, crawling sluggishly into the water and sinking out of sight. Feng stood there astonished for a long time. He thought to himself that what he had been given must be a turtle treasure. From then on his eyes were sharper than anyone’s. Wherever there were pearls or treasure, he could see them, even as deep down as the Yellow Springs; and things he had never known before, he could name as soon as he saw them. He dug in his bedroom and found several hundred strings of buried cash, and had plenty to spend. Later, when someone was selling an old house, Feng saw that there was no end of buried money in it, so he paid a high price for it and moved in. From then on he was as rich as princes and dukes. Fire-pearls, munan gems and the like — he had them all. He came by a mirror with a phoenix knob on its back, and round it a picture of the Consorts of the Xiang among waters and clouds. Its light shone more than a li, so clear that one could count the hairs of a man’s beard and brows. If a beautiful woman looked into it once, her image stayed in it and could not be polished away; only if she changed her make-up and looked again, or another beauty looked in, did the earlier image fade. Now the third princess of the house of the Prince of Su was a great beauty, and Feng had long admired her by repute. When the princess went on an outing to Mount Kongtong, he went and hid in the hills. He waited till she stepped down from her sedan chair, caught her in the mirror and went home, and set it on his desk. Looking closely, he saw the beauty in it, twisting a handkerchief and smiling faintly, her lips about to speak and her eyes about to move. Delighted, he hid it away. A year or so later his wife let the secret out, and word of it reached the Prince of Su’s house. The Prince was furious and had Feng arrested. The mirror was taken from him, and he was to be beheaded. Feng heavily bribed a palace eunuch to say to the Prince, “If Your Highness pardons me, the greatest treasures under heaven will not be hard to come by. Otherwise I can only die, which truly does Your Highness no good.” The Prince meant to confiscate his property and send him into exile. The third princess said, “He has already looked on me. Ten deaths would not wipe out the stain. Better to marry me to him.” The Prince would not allow it. The princess shut her door and would not eat. The Prince’s Consort was very worried and pleaded hard with him. So the Prince let Feng out of prison and had the eunuch let him know what was intended. Feng refused. “A wife who shared the chaff and husks is not sent down from the hall. I would sooner die than obey. If Your Highness will let me buy my freedom, I will give everything I own.” The Prince was angry and had him arrested again. The Consort summoned Feng’s wife to the palace, meaning to poison her. When she came, the wife presented the Consort with a coral mirror stand, and spoke so gently and so movingly that the Consort took a liking to her and sent her to pay her respects to the princess. The princess liked her too. They swore to be sisters, and the princess had her persuade Feng. Feng said to his wife, “With a prince’s daughter, who is principal wife and who is secondary cannot be settled by who came first.” His wife would not listen. She went home, prepared betrothal gifts and sent them to the Prince’s palace; nearly a thousand people carried them. There were rare stones and precious jades whose names even the Prince’s household did not know. The Prince was overjoyed. He released Feng to go home, and gave him the princess in marriage. The princess brought the mirror back with her. One evening, when Feng was sleeping alone, he dreamed that the Eighth Great King strode grandly in and said, “The thing I gave you — it is time to give it back. Worn too long, it drains a man’s vital blood and shortens his life.” Feng agreed, and pressed him to stay and drink. The Eighth Great King declined. “Since I took your words to heart like medicine, I have given up the cup for three years now.” Then he bit Feng’s arm. The pain was so sharp that Feng woke. He looked: the lump was gone. From then on he was like anyone else.