Punishing A Python Through The Law 法誅蟒精

The Qiongzhou Daoist Zhang Biyun (lit. ‘Jade Cloud Zhang’) performed the Thunder Rites. He was famous across Sichuan, supernatural beings resenting and fearing him. At that time the ‘Disciple of Heshan’ Wei Wenweng (Wei Liaoweng 魏了翁?[1]) was governing Xuzhou, and his wife fell ill, the sickness persisting for a long time without recovery, so he dispatched a runner with a letter describing it, sending it to Biyun. Biyun thus wrote out two talismans and gave them to the runner, praying and saying: “Burn these within the hall, and through this a thing within your kitchen will be cremated.” The runner returned and reported to Wenweng, burning it as instructed. Several days later, they found the chambers filled with a foul smell, and suddenly noticed beneath a shelf [164] a giant python, five or six zhang in length (c.17-20m), and already quite dead. His household then understood that this was a python demon, and his wife’s illness was then cured.

Anon., Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi, 後1.163-64 (Tale 284):


邛州道士張碧雲，行雷法，四川有名，鬼神望而畏之。時魏鶴山弟文翁知敘州，內人得病，纏緜不愈，差二承局持書與狀，去投碧雲。碧雲即書二符與承局，祝云：「堂內焚化，以一就竈中焚化。」承局歸告文翁，如其言焚之。數日後，但聞滿屋臭穢，忽於閣（「閣」原作「闔」，據明刻本改。）板 [164] 下見一巨蟒，長五六丈，已死。其家方知為祟者蟒也，夫人之病遂安。

[1] On Wei Liaoweng 魏了翁, see http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Song/personsweiliaoweng.html
