A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Pearl, the daughter of the impoverished Lin family, marries Shung after his father Yin bargains for a burial site believed to confer prosperity. Yin promises to support her parents but makes their lives intolerable; they return to their emptied home and die. Pearl suffers continued abuse from her husband and his new concubine and eventually takes her own life. The narrative then describes supernatural retribution: Yin’s ancestral coffin is cast away from its prized site during a storm, and the ghosts of Pearl’s parents confront him. Yin collapses and dies without recovering.

Pearl’s own spectral figure appears in the room where she died, at dusk, dawn and in the moonlight, retaining something of her former expression beneath her anguish. Shung carries a sharpened sword to protect himself. On entering a dark room where his concubine sits, he is seized by Pearl’s invisible grip and forced to strike the woman fatally. The narrator presents this intervention as an event, but the magistrate rejects Shung’s supernatural defence. Bribes consume the family fortune; he receives life imprisonment, his mother dies and he subsequently takes his own life. The chapter never supplies a separate final destination for Pearl’s ghost.

This Pearl is the specific wronged wife of chapter IX, not Willow reborn as Precious Pearl in chapter III of the same collection. Macgowan’s revenge plot is reported without adopting his claim that all wronged spirits become murderous or that family catastrophe proves divine justice. His descriptions of burial-site influence and legal corruption are not independent historical verification. No individual teller or Chinese original is identified in the chapter.

Haunts the room where she diedAppears at different times of dayForces her husband’s sword armFinal fate of the ghost left unstated
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Origins & earliest records

China, as presented in J. Macgowan’s English literary retelling; individual teller unspecified

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Records & interpretation

Complete chapter and ending read in the 1910 edition’s Gutenberg transcription; title and contents checked.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Chinese Folk-Lore Tales

    J. Macgowan · 1910

    Chapter IX, THE TRAGEDY OF THE YIN FAMILY; complete narrative and final family outcome. Printed pagination unverified.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete chapter and final outcome read; master title and contents checked

J. Macgowan, Chinese Folk-Lore Tales (Macmillan, 1910)

1910 English edition. Chapter IX, THE TRAGEDY OF THE YIN FAMILY; HTML heading #id00528; printed pagination unverified

Cache macgowan-9.txt. Distinct Pearl from chapterIII PreciousPearl. Parents’ ghosts confront Yin; daughter separately haunts and forces Shung’s arm. Magistrate rejects defence, final life sentence and deaths retained. No source-supplied final ghost departure.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English literary retellingMacgowan, IX: The Tragedy of the Yin FamilyResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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