The Stories Of Old Jades (古玉的故事)

The Chinese are crazy about jades more than any other ethnics else in this world. In old days, they even brought their beloved jade into their graves in the hope to preserve them forever. However, not many burial jades can remain rest in peace as their masters. For many times these precious stones will be dug out either by grave raiders who hoped to earn a fortune; or the graves may be dug out by the descendants of the deceased for some reasons.

If a piece of jade is buried together with a corpse, then people believe that the souls of the deceased will be attached onto the jade. It is said that jades have a special property that they can absorb the energy and blood of the corpses; hence another special trade mark of knowing if a piece of jade is buried is to look carefully at the color of the jade. A new piece of jade would be greenish in color but after a piece of jade has absorbed the essence of a corpse, there would be some sort of reddish light being reflected back from the surface.

Of course if a burial jade is kept by the descendent of a deceased, then no harm shall be come to him/her because they are of the same bloodline. However, if an heirloom jade is stolen and kept by a stranger; then bad things would happen to the possessor. Having said so, these types of heirloom jades are very difficult to come by for common folks like you and me because many of these old jades are only being circulated in high end antique markets.

My friend Matthew has a very old heirloom jade given to him when his grandfather’s grave was dug. He kept this jade in his house but one day a burglar broke into his house and stole his jade amongst other things.

Although Matthew has lodged a police report, the only item that he wanted to get back was the old jade. So while waiting for the police’s news, he consulted an old medium and the below conversations were from Matthew’s mouth:

Matthew: “Ah mah, can you help to find my stolen jade?”

Medium: “Let me check with your earth deity (地主公) first.”

(After the medium sang some cryptic song and kept shook her head…)

Medium: “Are you the earth deity of Matthew’s house?

(The medium nodded and continued to speak…)

Medium: “How can you be so negligent as to let strangers into the house? Can you help to find the heirloom jade?”

(The medium continued to shake her head and then said…)

Medium: “The house earth deity said he will ask the earth deity of the next door…)

(And so on and so forth, the medium asked the earth deity of the house, estate, town… The process continued for about half an hour and finally…)

Medium: “Boss, you can go to the pawn shop situated at the Main Street downtown to claim back your jade… But go there fast!”

After hearing the words, Matthew obliged although he wasn’t too convince what the medium told him. Well, there is no harm trying.

True enough, Matthew retrieved his old heirloom jade as instructed by the medium. And a week later, the police identified the culprit from the pawnshop’s CCTV and the thief was subsequently being arrested.

That was a bizarre story about old jade that has come back to its owner. I have another story about a friend who purchased a burial jade and being tormented until she threw the jade away. Perhaps I will just keep the story for later…

The Vanished Flats (消失了的单位)

In Penang and the rest of big cities such as KL, there are many flats or apartments ‘vanished’ from some high rise housing estate corridors. Well, as with some of the western superstitions that one cannot find the 13^th floor in a building in the West; it is possible that one cannot find a flat with number 4 in a building in Malaysia. Instead we would find a unit with 3A. That is of course, the matter of deliberate arrangements. The number ‘4’ in Hokkian is pronounced as ‘see’ meaning ‘die’; so it is very likely that one can never find a flat with number ‘4’ in places where the Hokkian ethnic is the majority such as in Penang.

There is another scenario that a flat of numbers other than that of ‘13’ or ‘4’ vanished from the corridors of a commercial or a residential building for some very interesting reasons.

If you are a frequent hotel lodger in KL, then you would notice that some rooms are permanently marked as ‘booked’. And if you are a little adventurous and walk along the corridors of these hotels; you will find that some room numbers are missing. For example you will never find room 1410 between 1409 and 1411. Instead you will find a solid wall between the rooms.

And if you are of the type ‘die-die must know’, then you can revisit the place at night alone. You may hear disembodied voice of babies crying or voices of woman screaming emitting from the wall. If you are in luck, you may also notice someone walking in front of you suddenly takes a sharp turn into the wall! So please don’t be surprised. And if you are of the generous type, then give the room attendants some tips and they will reveal the secrets behind the walls to you.

There is a high-rise residential building situated amongst other high density buildings in Penang downtown near the jetty that has no physical flat number 14 on its top floor. Well, to be exact; you cannot find the flat number 14 because it is sealed by the building management and there is a story behind this flat number 14:

Old Penang people would remember that a tragic murder cum suicide case occurred in that flat number 14 about two decades ago. That was a case of a man jilted by his girlfriend and later he visited his ex in the hope for reconciliation. Somehow the meeting ended up with a furious quarrel and then a fight.

In that fight, the man stabbed his ex repeatedly until death with a kitchen knife and in the process, he also killed the ex’s sister who was around in the house. It was said after the man killed the girls; he held the knife and walked out of flat number 14. This person finally fell to his death by jumping over the corridor fencing. It was later said that his blood tainted foot prints filled the corridor.

After the tragic incident, flat number 14 was refurbished and rented to a few families but none of the families could stay in the flat for more than 3 months safe and sound. Some ended with bankruptcy, divorce or even death. People who stayed in the flat claimed to have heard the crying sound of two young ladies lingering in the unit at midnight. Neighbors who happened to walk by the flat at night would hear the crying sounds too. Consequently no one dares to stay in that flat and it was vacated for a very long time and people were scared to approach the flat number 14.

When new building management took over, they decided to seal off the flat for good. So when you walk at the top floor of that building, you would notice the corridor would feel a little sparse. Of course, if you are lucky; you can also hear the eerie sobbing noise of the restless spirits until these days.

Aura Bonding (灵光的结合)

Mr. Ong has kindly shared his view on aura bonding between couples and family members with reference to a very touching classic poem. I highly recommend the ‘me and you poem’ to anyone who is considering a divorce and then think twice:

In beginning of Yuan (元) dynasty, Zhao Mengfu (赵孟頫) wanted to take a second wife. His wife, Madam Guan Daosheng (管道昇) wrote the below all famous ‘me and you poem’ (我侬词) to his husband who was about to adopt a second wife. His husband was deeply touched by the lyrics and fell in love with her even deeper, without a second marriage till the end of their lives.

"你侬我侬，忒煞情多；情多处，热如火；把一块泥，捻一个你，塑一个我，将咱两个一齐打碎，用水调和；再捻一个你，再塑一个我。我泥中有你，你泥中有我；我与你生同一个衾，死同一椁。"

(You and me, I and you; ended wrongly due to our overheated fiery passion. Let’s take a piece of mud and make a figure of you and then mine. Then let’s break both of the figures together into pieces; and then unite both with water. After that, let’s make another figure of mine. In this way, my mud also comprises of yours; and your mud has mine too. You and I both live inside a quilt, then we too shall die in the same coffin.)

This poem was sung as ‘You & Me, I and You’ (你侬我侬) by countless pop singers in the beginning of 1980s, including the well known Robin.

My mother advised to keep kids’ clothes together to reduce conflicts among themselves. I was just curious and did not quite believe till I came to know about the below scientific discoveries during my attendance to a mind power course. 

Kirlian[1] photography shows energy fields ( aura ) of a physically closed couple or lovers overlapped, followed by mutual adjustments of shape, intensity, color and vibration to suit each other as “oneness” Also, such aura bond could easily be found among husband and wife, lovers, son and mother ( close blood ), or people with similar frequency etc. Where one thought could be telepathically sensed by another. We normally feel empty when one of our family members left or departed, it takes long time for our aura (personal magnetic field) to readjust to get harmony with the people or circumstances around us.  

From the above poem, especially ‘my mud has yours; your mud has mine’ (我泥中有你，你泥中有我), Zhao (赵孟頫) understood that our auras had to be readjust in order to perfectly suit one another.  In other words, it is a connection as “oneness” on spiritual level. Storage of aura stained clothes together had the similar effects. This practical theory is long existed, before proofed by latest Kirlian Photography.

Note:

[1] Kirlian photography is a collection of photographic techniques used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges. 

The Scent Of Spirit (鬼魂的气味)

Some people can ‘see’ ghosts and we shall call them ‘psychics’. Many people cannot actually ‘see’ ghosts but they think that they actually see one; we call them ‘psychos’. However, we don’t need to become ‘psychics’ or ‘psychos’ to notice the presence of a ghost around us, or if a ghost has possessed a person. Generally, we can detect the presence of a ghost by their distinctive smells. No kidding.

When a person is approaching death, though not all; he/she shall emit a kind of pungent smell similar to that of dead rats. This is especially true for those terminal cancer patients. I once knew a couple involved in entertainment industry. The husband was dying from cancer and I visited him, he did carry the scent of dead rat.

Years after his death, I visited the family and the signature scent still lingered in the house. So I asked the wife if she has felt any presence around. She replied, at times she can see her late husband sitting at the edge of her bed.

Thus it is safe to assume that the ghosts would carry along the scent during their death. Likewise, if a person died of sea disasters; then his spirit would carry the scent of sea water. The smell we would notice when the ghost of a drowned spirit would be something salty and damp. If the drowned body was found decayed, then the smell of foul rotten meat can also be picked up.

In another case, if a person died in fire incident, then the smell that his/her ghost carries would be that of burnt meat as if barbecued meat. However, it this person is not burnt but suffocated by smoke, then the smell of smoke would be noticed by our human nose.

The ghost of a person who likes to smoke and drink, then his/her ghost would also carry the smell of tobacco and alcohol. If a person likes to wear perfume, then his/her ghost would also carry the smell of that particular perfume.

While we are on the topic of perfume, it is quite often for those hikers who like to venture into Malaysian tropical forests to smell the smell of ‘sundal malam’ or tuberose or any type of fragrances in that matter. Locals believe when a person notice this sort of fragrance, he/she should keep quiet otherwise the person shall be enchanted by this mountainous spirit. On the other hand, one may also notice extreme bad smell; that too may be an indication of an unfriendly spirit in the jungle. Of course, not all good and bad smells in the jungle are produced by spirits. Corpse flower will certainly emit a sort of smell like corpse.

There is a very simple exercise one can do to train one’s smelling sense, provided that the person is not a smoker, alcoholic or a perfume wearer. The person only needs to lie in the bed early in the morning when he/she wakes up but not yet opens his/her eyes. At this point, he/she shall notice some kind of scents linger around him/her. If he/she notices a very distinctive scent, then a vision shall come into his/her mind. Remember this scent and open the eyes. If the person feels happy, then good energy is around. If the person feels sad, then negative energy is present. And if there is no particular feeling, then there is nothing present.

Please Don’t Lose Your Head (勿得意忘形)

If I start by saying that there is a ‘soul’ hiding in everyone probably you will not dispute what I have just said. But if also say that “please don’t lose your head” you probably don’t understand what I meant. Well, there is a Chinese idiom that can be literarily translated as “forgetting one’s shape due to excitement” or 得意忘形. Just to clarify what I have said, let me tell you one true story about a friend of mine, Jason from Sabah.

There is nothing wrong with Jason but perhaps I think that he is a little rush in doing things; everything for him is just ‘go-go’ if you know what I meant. Jason likes to travel and enjoys outdoor activities but he has a habit of rushing into whatever he does. For example he can spend half a day to climb up the Maxwell Hill in Taiping and then in the evening, he is lying on Langkawi beach enjoying the sunset! Mind you, 90% of the time spent is travel time.

I am not a fan of rush travel and prefers to spent a few days surveying a place. But since Jason is my old schoolmate, then I would just be Jason’s driver when he visits the peninsula.

This is yet one time perhaps Jason has learnt his lesson:

During last June, Jason dropped by my place in Penang and he suggested that we visit Langkawi Island for a day or two as he wanted to snooker in Langkawi waters with a few snookering fans. Since this was Jason’s preplanned trip, I didn’t want to disappoint him so off we went to Langkawi.

As soon as we arrived at Langkawi, Jason met with his friends and we chartered a boat to Pulau Payar, which is a well known snookering spot. Everyone went into the sea for snookering except me. I stayed in the boat and dozed off since I am no fans of water for being a sailor for some time.

I thought I heard the familiar voice of Jason shouting and yelling with excitement and sounds of water splashing now and then as people someone climbing onto the boat and jumped off into the sea. And there was another familiar voice of Jason shouting “Wee…” and another splashing sound but then I heard another voice of Jason shouted in horror: “OMG! I saw my head floating in the sea!!” and there was a long silence; and someone shouting “don’t let him sink!”

I quickly rushed to the side of the boat and saw other snookers quickly propping Jason’s body. We immediately pulled Jason into the boat and luckily a good doctor was around and he quickly checked on Jason and found everything looked okay physically except Jason look dumb and unresponsive when people called his name.

After a while of resuscitate Jason, the good doc turned to me and said: “I can’t find anything wrong with him, perhaps his condition is what you would call ‘lost soul’ (失魂). Do you know what to do?”

I thought for a while and remembered that we did bring a big watermelon for desert after snookering activities. So, I suggested everyone to throw the watermelon into the sea and at the same time, calls Jason’s name.

Having not many options around, we did throw the watermelon into the water and yelling Jason’s name loudly while some one shaking Jason’s shoulders intermittently. Guess what? Half an hour later, to everyone’s relief; Jason was himself again.

As recalled by Jason later, he said that as soon he was taking a summersault into the water, he suddenly felt his head flew off from his shoulders and fall into the sea in front of him. He knew what happened to his body but he could only look on until a force pulled his head out of the sea…

And was it a waste to throw a big juicy watermelon away? Don’t worry, we managed to salvage it from the sea and everyone had a piece of it at the end of the day.

Ghostly Encounters In Lift (电梯遇鬼记)

Taking lifts can have awful experiences especially in the dead of the night: not only one can be robbed, molested in places where security is a concerned; a person may also be able to come face to face with spirits too. Of course, we have heard many ghostly encounters in hospital lifts; but the below story told by a friend of mine who stayed in Paya Terubong. Let’s just call this gentleman Tony.

Tony is a technician who works in a factory in Bayan Lepas. As his job requires him to work on shifts, there are many times that Tony would reach or leave his home which is located on the 25^th floor of a high rise building in a high density housing estate after midnight.

As recalled by Tony, he hated to take lift in odd hours because he can never know who or what is in the lift with him. There were some reported cases where tenants of the building were robbed in the dead of the nights now and then. And one may also have another kind of encounter with entities from other side too. Between the two, Tony has no hesitation to choose the later because only a human can harm another human beings; not the ghosts.

We all know that modern lift compartments are either fitted with mirrors or stainless steel plates that will show very clear reflection of whoever stands in the lift. Perhaps the idea is to let the passengers tidy up their clothing or hairs before stepping out form the lift. However, there is another catch: if you take a lift with another passenger at night; please don’t look at the reflections on the wall surface. Why?

The reason is simple: what would you do when you can’t see the reflection of the person beside you!?

Tony has a very strange encounter sometime ago in a lift of the building where he lives:

One night, Tony returned from his evening duty and he waited for the lift at the ground floor. There was another old grandma, Aunt Ann whom Tony has not met for a fairly long time since she was hospitalized. Although Tony would feel strange the old woman appearing beside him in the dead of the night, he didn’t ask as he was too tired to strike a conversation with anyone.

So the lift arrived and both of them walked into the lift. Tony pressed on the button shows 25^th floor and the good old Aunt Ann was trying to press the 30^th floor button but no matter how many times she tried, the button light didn’t lit. Tony thought that Aunt Ann was too weak to hit the button, so he voluntarily pressed the 30^th floor button for Aunt Ann. And the old lady gave Tony a queer smile but said nothing.

As the lift door closed and the lift moved upwards, Tony suddenly felt that the temperature in the lift was freezing and he inadvertently looked into the reflective lift door, and he couldn’t see Aunt Ann’s reflection even thought he thought Aunt Ann was physically standing beside him!

Perhaps Tony was just too tired that the term ‘ghost’ didn’t strike him. Soon the lift has reached Tony’s floor and he stepped out and bid Aunt Ann goodnight.

The next morning, Tony was having breakfast with his wife and they talked about Aunt Ann. To his surprised, his wife told Tony that Aunt Ann has passed away about one week ago; last night was Aunt’s soul returning night!

Encountering Dying Souls (惊遇弥留魂)

I supposed no one would deny the existence of souls in our human bodies. Others also believe that all living things possess souls hence it is a sin to kill living beings especially animals. Coincidentally, my friends have two very interesting stories to share:

Story 1:

Mr. Chan’s father was in comma and dying. The hospital advised Mr. Chan to bring his father home for final arrangements. So his dad was lying in the sick bed in Mr. Chan’s home for days still in comma.

One night, Mr. Chan received an urgent call from his factory asking him to return to the factory to attend to sudden machine malfunctions. He thought that his old pa’s condition would not change suddenly. So Mr. Chan went back to his factory around midnight leaving his wife and children to accompany the dying old man.

After struggling for some time, the root cause of the machine failure was finally identified and the tool was up and running again. By the time Mr. Chan walked out from the factory towards him home, it was already half pass 3 a.m.

As Mr. Chan was walking alone along the empty road, a silhouette was seen walking towards him. As Mr. Chan recalled, the silhouette somehow looked very familiar even from afar. That has intrigued Mr. Chan a lot as he kept wondering who the stranger was; perhaps someone he knew?

Soon the figure came face to face with Mr. Chan and to his surprised; it was his father! Mr. Chan said his father said only one sentence: “Go home! It is not safe to walk at night…”

Before Mr. Chan could say anything, the figure vanished in front of him.

When Mr. Chan finally reached home, he heard the crying sound of his wife; and apparently his father had just given up the last breadth. Mr. Chan was sure the ‘figure’ he saw was his late father’s soul that has come to him to say goodbye.

Story 2:

Garry’s father was comma in the hospital sick bed for some time now. One day, he and his family members went to the hospital to visit the old man. At that time, a nurse was checking at Gary’s unconscious pa.

Suddenly, the nurse wept in old man’s voice and she hugged Gary and his children saying how he has missed Gary and rest of the family members. That has apparently created some commotions and the nurse was dragged away by her fellow staffs.

When the commotion was over, Gary’s pa was pronounced dead.

What I can conclude from the stories is that even before a person dies, his/her souls already wander off his/her body. So, please don’t be surprised if you see your own self walks passed you in the street!