A young tutor near Chengdu falls in love with an accomplished widow who seems to know the music of a distant age. After months of secret visits, he returns with his father and employer to find that her elegant house has vanished. A ruined tomb occupies the place, while two beautiful gifts remain in his possession. “The Story of Ming-Y” uses those objects, poems and cryptic names to reveal a ghost. It is a literary romance preserved by Lafcadio Hearn, rather than an independently investigated Chengdu haunting.
The complete story in Some Chinese Ghosts, published in 1887, has been reviewed alongside Hearn’s preface and source note. The preface openly describes his pursuit of the beauty of legends. His note identifies the tale underlying his version as the thirty-fourth story in Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan, encountered through Gustave Schlegel’s French treatment. That earlier text has not been independently collated here.
From Guangzhou to a house near Chengdu
Hearn begins with the learned Tien-Pelou and his son Ming-Y in Kwang-tchau-fu. The father receives an educational appointment at Tching-tou, and the family moves there. A wealthy official, Lord Tchang, engages the eighteen-year-old son to teach his children. Because the employer’s residence is several miles outside the city, the boy stays in the household rather than commuting each day.
This establishes the geography of the romance. The encounters occur on the wooded route between the employer’s estate and the city, not at the family’s original home. The narrative frames events in the reign of Houng-Wou, but its elaborate historical setting is not a dated witness record. No exact encounter year, estate boundary or surviving household is established in the reviewed source.
The returned silver and an invitation
When the spring flower festival approaches, Ming-Y obtains leave to visit his parents. Tchang gives him silver for a present. On the way he notices a beautiful woman among peach blossoms and, embarrassed, drops the money without realising it. Her maid catches up and returns it. The small act gives him a reason to think about the stranger and an opportunity to approach her on his return.
He then sees a richly decorated residence that he had not previously noticed. The maid invites him inside. Its mistress presents herself as Sië, a widow of the Ping family, and claims kinship with Tchang. She offers the protection of a respectable family connection before the romance develops. The claim later proves central to the revelation: it is part of the story’s puzzle, not a verified genealogical link.
They dine and drink together, and she invites him to examine her music. The manuscripts carry the names of poets from the Tang dynasty, including Kao-pien. Ming-Y marvels at the apparent antiquity and condition of the writing. Sië’s intimate enthusiasm for those older compositions becomes another clue. Her exceptional skill is expressed through poetry, singing and chess, rather than through an overtly frightening appearance.
A secret life through the summer
After spending the night, Ming-Y receives a yellow-jade paperweight shaped like a reclining lion. Sië asks him to keep their meetings secret. He tells his employer that his mother wants him to sleep at the family home, thereby creating the opportunity to return to the widow each evening. The narrative explicitly identifies this as his first lie. His deception makes the later discovery possible without requiring an independently observed supernatural disappearance every night.
The lovers continue to sing, compose verses and play chess as spring gives way to summer and autumn. Sië repeatedly surpasses him in accomplishments. These episodes develop the contrast between his youth and her apparently effortless mastery of an older cultural world. They also give the romance its distinctive character: the ghost is an admired artistic companion whose identity is concealed by beauty, familiarity and learning.
The father and employer compare accounts
The arrangement breaks down when Tchang meets Tien-Pelou and asks why the boy still travels home each night as winter approaches. His father says Ming-Y has not been visiting. Tchang sends a servant to follow the young man. The servant loses him in the darkest part of the route, searches unsuccessfully and reports back. This is an additional event inside the fiction, not a separately authenticated observer statement outside it.
That same evening Sië tells Ming-Y they must part permanently. She declines to explain why but predicts honour, wealth and a future marriage for him. After a final night together she gives him an agate brush case. When he returns, his father and employer are waiting. Under pressure he reveals the relationship. Tchang denies knowing any such relative or house.
Ming-Y produces the jade lion, brush case and compositions. The two older men judge them astonishingly ancient and skilfully made. Their response gives the story an apparent material test, yet Hearn supplies no museum accession, modern examination or surviving chain of custody for these objects. The gifts are evidence within the narrative’s construction; they are not artefacts recovered and examined for this article.
A tomb, a poem and a name puzzle
The three walk to the place where Ming-Y expects to find the mansion. Its roof and terrace are gone. An ancient, moss-covered tomb stands among the trees, its inscription no longer readable. Tchang recalls a poem associating peach flowers with the tomb of Sië-Thao and interprets the widow’s statements as clues to her identity.
In his explanation, Ping-Khang is an alley rather than a husband’s family name; other characters combine to form another place-name. Marks on the two gifts connect them with Kao-pien, and the manuscripts fit the older poetic world. These linguistic and artistic correspondences produce the supernatural solution: Ming-Y’s companion was Sië-Thao’s lingering shadow. Hearn’s spelling belongs to his English adaptation. The scene should not be treated as a modern survey identifying an archaeological tomb from a legible inscription.
The ending is gentler than many ghost stories. His father sends him back to Kwang-tchau-fu. He later gains honours, marries and has accomplished children. He never forgets Sië-Thao, but keeps silent even when his children ask about the two objects on his writing table. There is no final attack, compulsory death or stated destruction of the gifts in this version.
Place, image and present-day context
The map uses an approximate Chengdu city reference from UNGEGN and the China Institute of Toponymy. It locates the city setting without identifying the unnamed estate, wooded path, vanished mansion or ruined tomb. The lead photograph shows Wangjiang Tower in a related Chengdu memorial landscape, not a building described or authenticated in the ghost romance.
Wangjianglou Park is associated with the cultural memory of the Tang poet Xue Tao. Official tourism material describes that memorial role. A current Chengdu government-channel announcement includes the park among public autumn garden venues. That supports public use of the park, while current entry arrangements and separate tower or exhibition access still require checking. The park’s own website was suspended at this review. No connection is asserted between a modern visitor route and Ming-Y’s secret journeys.
Assessment and reading
The outcome is Insufficient evidence. Hearn’s full story and source note preserve a rich literary ghost tradition with a supportable city setting. They do not establish an independently documented apparition, identifiable household or verified supernatural objects. The publication date is retained as source history, while the undated haunting has not been assigned a guessed incident year.
Visit Wangjianglou Park, Chengdu
Related public memorial landscape, not a verified ghost site. Chengdu’s25October2026 government-channel announcement includes Wangjianglou among public autumn garden venues through30November. Verify current park notices, entry arrangements and separate tower/exhibition availability; the park website was suspended at this check.
Official visitor information → · Access information checked 2026-11-13. Check current opening and booking details before travelling.
Share an experience here →Experiences at Wangjianglou Park, Chengdu
First-person accounts shared by visitors and reviewed before publication. They are separate from the researched case above.
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