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Hello and welcome to the history of China.

Episode 310, Strange Tales 10.2, The Unseen Balance.

Hello, and welcome once again to our seasonal foray into the weird world of Chinese supernatural stories.

In this second part of our journey, we turn to tales where fate tips the scales,

sometimes gently, sometimes with vengeance, and sometimes in ways that no mortal can quite

understand. Here, the moral order of the universe isn't enforced by kings or courts, but by ghosts,

gods, and karma itself.

Cosmic forces that reward, punish, and, at times, just remind us how little we truly control.

These are stories of debts unpaid and repaid, virtues tested and fulfilled, and illusions stripped away. Glimpses of the unpaid and repaid, virtues tested and fulfilled, and illusions stripped away.

Glimpses of the unseen balance that keeps the world and the world to come in motion.

We all strive for success, in friendship, family, love, and, of course, our careers.

But Fortune's wheel turns without pity, and even the brightest can find their hopes dashed.

Yet meaning does not end with one life.

Merit flows like water, finding its level even beyond the grave.

What's lost in one turn of the wheel may nourish the next.

So join us now for friendship beyond the grave.

There was a gentleman of Huayang by the name of Ye.

His other names, I cannot recall. He was acknowledged by his

contemporaries to be a master of prose and verse composition, but had been unlucky and had never

yet succeeded in his first degree examination. Now, a certain Ding Cheng He, Korean writer,

who hailed from the northeast, was appointed magistrate

...