Speaking of "debt-collecting ghost", there is this short story from Pu Songling's Liaozhai Zhiyi (known in English as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). A merchant borrowed a huge sum of money for a business trip. By the time he returned, his creditor had already died. In the same day the merchant's wife gave birth to a son. The merchant knew it was the reincarnation of his creditor, so he put aside the amount he owed in a drawer. Every expense for the child, whether food or clothing, would be paid by the money from that drawer. The child was sickly, so the money was soon drained paying for his care. One day the merchant found that there were only 300 coins left in the drawer. The nanny just happened to walk by with the child, so the merchant tell him: "There is not much left. It's time for you to go." Hearing that, the child fell dead on the spot. His funeral expense was exactly 300 coins.
Moral of the story is that everything happens for a reason. If your children cost you lots of money, give you grief, or just don't turn out like you expected, it's all because of your own karma. If your kids dies young, it's simply because you and their yīnyuán (因緣, meaning fate or predestined relationship, known in Japanese as innen, in Korean as inyeon, in Vietnamese as nhân duyên) has run its course. It certainly doesn't excuse people mistreating their sickly children like Lan Ting's parents. They're just shitty people.
last edited at Mar 16, 2025 7:29PM
