[FN#307] According to Tsin Shu, a man, Pao Tsing by name, told his parents, when he was five years, that he had been in the previous life a son to Li, an inhabitant of Kuh Yang, and that he had fallen into the well and died.  Thereupon the parents called on Li, and found, to their astonishment, that the boy’s statement was actually coincident with the fact.

[FN#308] Yan Hu, a native of Tsin Chen, recollected, at the age of five, that he had been a son to the next-door neighbour, and that he had left his ring under a mulberry-tree close by the fence of the house.  Thereupon he went with his nurse and successfully restored it, to the astonishment of the whole family.

[FN#309] All the ancient sages of China believed in spirits, and propitiated them by sacrifices.

[FN#310] The sacred books of Confucianism, Shu King and Li Ki.

[FN#311] Pang Shang, the Prince of Tsi, is said to have appeared after his death.

[FN#312] Poh Yiu, of Ching, is said to have become an epidemic spirit to take vengeance on his enemies.

[FN#313] According to Tso Chwen (Sa-den), when Wei Wu, a General of Tsin, fought with Tu Hwui, the dead father of his concubine appeared, and prevented the march of the enemy in order to return favours done to him.

The outside scholars might ask, by way of objection, if one live as a spirit after death, the spirits of the past would fill up streets and roads, and be seen by men; and why are there no eye-witnesses?  I say in reply that (as) there are the Six Worlds[FN#314] for the dead, they do not necessarily live in the world of spirits. (Even as spirits) they must die and be born again among men or other beings.  How can the spirits of the past always live in a crowd?  Moreover, if (as you say) man was born of (primordial) Gas which gave rise to Heaven and Earth, and which was unconscious from the very beginning, how could he be conscious all on a sudden after his birth?  Why are trees and grass which were also formed of the same Gas unconscious?  Again, if, (as you say), the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the wise and the unwise, the good and the bad, the happy and the unhappy, the lucky and the unlucky, are predestinated alike by heavenly decree, why are so many destined by heaven to be poor and so few to be rich?  Why so many to be low and so few to be high?  In short, why are so many destined to be unlucky and so few to be lucky?

[FN#314] (1) The heaven, or the world for Devas; (2) the earth, or the world for men; (3) the world for Asuras; (4) the world for Petras; (5) the world for beasts; (6) hell.