某公

陕西的某公，是辛丑进士，能记得前身。曾说前生是读书人，中年而死，死后见冥王判事，鼎铛油镬，一如同世所传。殿东角设着几架，上搭着猪羊犬马各种皮。簿吏点名，有的罚作马，有的罚作猪，都裸着身，从架上取皮披上。不久轮到某公，听到冥王说："这人该作羊。"鬼取一张白羊皮来，按覆在某公身上。簿吏说："这人曾救过一个人不死。"冥王翻检册籍复核，示意说："免了他。恶虽多，这一善可以赎罪。"鬼又剥他的毛皮，皮已粘在体上，不能动，两个鬼捉着他的臂按着胸，用力脱，痛苦不可名状，皮片片断裂，不能脱尽，脱完后，近肩处还粘着一块像手掌大的羊皮。某公生后，背上有羊毛丛生，剪去又长出。

A certain gentleman of Shaanxi, a jinshi of the year Xinchou, could remember his former life. He used to say that in his former existence he was a scholar who died in middle age, and after death saw the King of the Nether World deciding cases, with tripods, cauldrons, and pots of boiling oil, exactly as tradition tells. In the eastern corner of the hall stood several racks hung with the skins of pigs, sheep, dogs, and horses. A clerk of the register called the names, and some were condemned to be horses, some pigs; each was stripped naked and a skin taken from the rack and thrown over him. When it came to the gentleman's turn he heard the King say, "This one is to be a sheep." A demon brought a white sheep-skin and pressed it over him. But the clerk said, "This man once saved a person from death." The King looked again at the register and, pointing to it, said, "Pardon him. His sins are many, but this one good deed may atone for them." The demon then tried to strip off the wool and skin, but it had already stuck fast to the body and could not be moved; two demons, seizing him by the arms and pressing on his breast, dragged it off with a pain beyond all telling, and the skin tore in pieces, unable to come away clean. When it was off, a piece of sheep-skin as large as a palm still clung near his shoulder. After the gentleman was reborn, wool grew in a thick tuft on his back, and when it was cut it grew again.