The Injustice of Heaven by Pu Songling
Magistrate Hsü has his servants feed a giant spider that raids his storeroom. Years later, two snakes appear beside it and swell before a thunderclap kills his wife and servants; Hsü recovers consciousness but dies after a month of illness. The people mourn their upright magistrate, and the commentator questions the belief that thunder strikes only the guilty.
By Pu Songling · Genre: Short Story, Supernatural Fiction · 612 words
First lines
Mr. Hsü was a magistrate at Shantung. A certain upper chamber of his house was used as a store-room; but some creature managed so frequently to get in and make havoc among the stores, for which the servants were always being scolded, that at length some of the latter determined to keep watch. By-and-by they saw a huge spider as big as a peck measure, and hurried off to tell their master, who thought it so strange that he gave orders to the servants to feed the insect with cakes. It thus became very tame, and would always come forth when hungry, returning as soon as it had taken enough to eat.[1] Years passed away, and one day Mr. Hsü was consulting his archives, when suddenly the spider appeared and ran under the table. Thinking it was hungry, he bade his servants give it a cake; but the next moment he noticed two snakes, of about the thickness of a chop-stick, lying one on each side. The spider drew in its legs as if in mortal fear, and the snakes began to swell out until they were as big round as an egg; at which Mr. Hsü was greatly alarmed, and would have hurried away, when crash! went a peal of thunder, killing every person in the house. Mr. Hsü himself recovered consciousness after a little while, but only to see his wife and servants, seven persons in all, lying dead; and after a month's illness he, too, departed this life. Now Mr. Hsü was an upright, honourable man, who really had the interests of the people at heart. A subscription was accordingly raised to pay his funeral expenses, and on the day of his burial the air was rent for miles round with cries of weeping and lamentation.
Genres
- Short Story — A brief prose narrative follows Hsü's feeding of a giant spider, the fatal thunderclap and the public mourning at his burial.
- Supernatural Fiction — A spider as large as a peck measure and two rapidly swelling snakes precede a thunderclap whose victims prompt questions about supernatural punishment.
Tags
giant spider · snakes · thunder · divine punishment · magistrates · injustice
What this Textopian page supports
The Injustice of Heaven is listed on Textopian as a short story by Pu Songling, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Pu Songling
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Short Story, Supernatural Fiction
- Length: 612 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Injustice of Heaven by Pu Songling
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph