[7] The story then recalls the life of an official named Wu (吳), whose beautiful daughter remained single because both of her fiances had died before they could get married.

During a particular Lantern Festival, Wu's daughter visited the Chamber of Horrors and was followed back home by a man who first tried to rape her and then beheaded her.

[9] Thirty years later, after a string of failures in the imperial examinations, Zhu is informed by Lu that he has five days of life left.

However, some time after Wei's fifteenth birthday, Zhu tells his wife that he has been assigned to Mount Hua as its "mountain god" and must bid his family farewell for good.

Before disappearing, Zhu hands his son a sword, on whose blade is inscribed: "Be bold, but cautious; round in disposition, square in action.

"[d][12] Wei eventually fathers five children: Chen (沉), Qian (潛), Mi (沕), Hun (渾), and Shen (深).

Pu Songling writes in his postscript: "To chop short the crane's legs and stretch the duck's is the folly of artificiality, but grafting a flower to a tree is a marvel of creativity.

[14][15][16] The collection was translated by Herbert Giles as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (1880), with the story titled "Judge Lu".

In "Judge Lu", Giles compares a statement by the titular character on life and death with John Stuart Mill's notion of "the illusion of imagination".

Among the 28 Liaozhai zhiyi entries selected for translation was "Lu Pan" or "Tjerita Tjoe Djie Tan Bersobat Sama Malekat Liok Kwan Koea Dari Geredja Sip Ong Tian".

According to Lin Bian and Ruiping Fan, the story endorses the notion that one's personal identity will not be affected by a literal change of head, which clearly contradicts orthodox Confucianist thought.