An abandoned temple north of Jinhua becomes a place of danger and unexpected compassion in “The Magic Sword,” Herbert A. Giles’s English title for Pu Songling’s story of Nieh Hsiao-ch‘ien, now commonly written Nie Xiaoqian. A traveller discovers that the young woman visiting him is a dead person compelled to help a predatory spirit. His refusal to be tempted, her warning and a neighbouring Taoist’s protective weapon allow the narrative to move from threatened murder towards rescue and marriage.
The account reviewed here is the complete tale in Giles’s 1880 Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, volume I, beginning on page 124. It records an undated literary ghost tradition. It does not establish an independently investigated Jinhua haunting, an authenticated grave or the physical existence of the magical objects it describes. Its outcome is Insufficient evidence for the supernatural claims; no incident year has been invented from the publication date.
Lodging beyond the crowded town
Ning Lai-ch‘ên, described as an honourable man from Chekiang, comes to Chinhua, the older spelling used here for Jinhua in Zhejiang. With the Grand Examiner in town, lodging prices have risen. Ning chooses a temple north of the city, attracted by its quiet surroundings, bamboo and flowering water-lilies. The buildings still have decorative appeal, but tall grass and apparently absent priests make the setting seem neglected.
Another lodger, Yen Ch‘ih-hsia, occupies a locked room on the south side. He says that he too is only staying there, rather than acting as the temple’s owner. Ning supposes him to be a fellow examination candidate, although his speech comes from Shensi. Their conversation establishes a friendly relationship before anything overtly supernatural occurs. The practical search for an affordable room has placed Ning beside someone whose real occupation he does not yet know.
During the night Ning hears women talking nearby, then receives a visit from the young Hsiao-ch‘ien. He rejects her advances and throws away the gold she offers. A newly arrived examination candidate and the candidate’s servant subsequently die on successive nights. The story describes small wounds in the soles of their feet. These deaths are elements of the narrative, not identified coroner’s cases for which the translation supplies independent records.
A warning from the captive ghost
Hsiao-ch‘ien returns with a different purpose. She identifies her family name as Nieh, says that she died at eighteen and explains that her remains lie beside the temple. A devil has taken control of her and forces her to lure travellers. She describes both the use of false gold and attacks that drain victims’ blood. Having failed to corrupt Ning, she now warns that other beings may be sent against him.
Her advice is to sleep in the same room as Yen. She also asks Ning to collect her bones from beneath an aspen marked by a bird’s nest and rebury them elsewhere. That request makes the ghost a person seeking release rather than simply another attacker. Ning promises to help. The distinction is central to this particular story: the young woman’s involvement in danger does not, within the plot, mean that she acts freely or wishes her victims harm.
Ning persuades Yen to stay with him. Yen asks that his companion avoid prying into his boxes. A threatening figure later approaches the window, and a bright object shoots out of a box, strikes at the opening and returns. Yen examines a small, shining blade, roughly two inches long, and says that the intruder has been badly wounded. Only then does he tell Ning that he is a Taoist priest.
Moving the remains and entering a household
Next morning Ning finds blood outside and locates the described graves and aspen. Before they part, Yen gives him an old leather sword-case as protection. Ning collects Hsiao-ch‘ien’s remains, travels home by boat and buries them near his library. His address to the ghost offers both companionship and protection. She appears again, thanks him and asks to serve his parents in return for his kindness.
Ning’s mother initially fears the proposed arrangement, particularly the possibility of a spirit becoming a wife. Hsiao-ch‘ien offers to live as a daughter and sister instead. She prepares meals, assists with household work and eases the burden created by Ning’s wife’s long illness. She also asks to resume reciting the Lêng-yen sutra. The narrative devotes considerable attention to this gradual acceptance; it does not end as soon as the remains leave Jinhua.
The protective sword-case first prevents her entering the library. Ning moves it, allowing her inside. Over time she becomes less separate from the living household and begins taking a little gruel. Ning’s wife later dies. The source does not say that Hsiao-ch‘ien causes that death, and assigning her responsibility would add an accusation absent from the account.
Eventually Ning’s mother consents to a marriage after Hsiao-ch‘ien reassures her about the family line. Friends and relatives attend, admire the bride and exchange presents with her. Her return gifts include flower paintings. These ordinary domestic and social details sit alongside the story’s extraordinary premise, giving the ghost a continuing life within the family rather than leaving her as a passing apparition.
The final threat and the source’s ending
Hsiao-ch‘ien later fears that the temple’s devil will retaliate and asks for the sword-case to be hung up again. She says that living among people has changed her sufficiently that she no longer fears it. An imp arrives and grabs at the case. It expands, a being inside draws the intruder in, and the case returns to its former size. When examined, it contains clear water. This is a supernatural resolution supplied by the story, not an independently tested account of an object changing dimensions.
Giles’s version continues beyond that confrontation. Ning takes his doctor’s degree and Hsiao-ch‘ien bears a son. Ning subsequently takes a concubine, and another son is born to each woman, making three sons in all. Preserving that ending avoids replacing the reviewed source with an assumed film plot or a simplified modern retelling. No claim is made here that a family genealogy independently verifies these characters.
Evidence, artwork and place
The 1880 translation is primary evidence for this English literary version. Dialogue, detailed descriptions and reported deaths remain parts of that text; repetition within one narrative is not independent corroboration. The source does not provide a date with which to search a particular night’s records or an authenticated object for examination. The Insufficient evidence outcome therefore concerns the asserted phenomena, while recognising the published story itself as a historical source.
The anonymous 1886 illustration above accompanies the Nie Xiaoqian tradition in a later Chinese edition. Its date is separate from both Giles’s translation and the undated events. The map reference for Jinhua is rounded to 29.11, 119.64. It marks the named city, not a verified temple, grave, aspen tree or private home. The account supplies no address that would justify a more precise pin or a present-day access claim.