At the time of the Xie Qian rebellion, the mansions of officials all became dens of thieves. The house of the educational commissioner Wang Qixiang was where brigands gathered most thickly. When the city was taken and the soldiers entered, sweeping out the rabble, corpses filled the courtyard and blood flowed even to the gates. Wang, entering the city, carried out the dead and washed away the blood, and lived there. Often ghosts were seen by day; by night, will-o'-the-wisps flew beneath the bed and ghosts wept in the corners. One day a licentiate, Wang Haodi, lodged with him and heard a small voice beneath the bed calling his name again and again: "Haodi! Haodi!" Presently it grew louder and said, "I died in agony!" And it wept, until the whole courtyard was weeping. Wang, hearing this, entered sword in hand and cried in a loud voice, "Do you not know me, Commissioner of Education Wang?" But he heard only a hundred contemptuous snickers, mocking him through their noses. So Wang set up a Water-and-Land service and bade Buddhist monks and Taoist priests chant repentance and release for the dead. At night he scattered food for ghosts, and will-o'-the-wisps flickered everywhere, coming up from all the ground. Before this, the gatekeeper, a man surnamed Wang, had lain mortally ill, unconscious and unknowing for several days. That night he suddenly stretched and yawned as if waking, and his wife brought him food. He said, "Just now the master, for some reason, scattered food in the courtyard, and I ate with the crowd. I have eaten and only now come back, so I am not hungry." From that time the ghosts and goblins ceased. Were the cymbals, gongs, drums, and bells, the burning mouths and the yoga of the ritual, of real avail?
The Historian of the Strange says: "Evil and monstrous things can only be stopped by virtue. When the city fell, Commissioner Wang's power was at its zenith, and all who heard his voice trembled in the legs; yet even the ghosts mocked him. Perhaps the ghosts foresaw that he would not come to a good end. I warn all the great men and gentlemen of the world: even with a human face one cannot frighten a ghost; do not go about with a ghost's face to frighten men!"