Zheng's minister was killed in the sheep market, his rivals died on the days his ghost named, and Zichan gave his son office to stop the haunting
Kind 2: what the Zuo zhuan says. Liang Xiao, called Bo You, was senior minister of Zheng; his family had held power for three generations. He drank through the night in an underground room. In 543 BC he tried to force Gongsun Hei to go as envoy to Chu. Gongsun Hei used the troops of the Si clan to burn Bo You's house. Bo You fled, came back into the city through a tomb-gate drain and attacked. Si Dai led the townspeople against him, and he was killed in the sheep market. The minister Zichan dressed the body, wept over it and had it buried. Years later the people of Zheng ran in panic, shouting "Bo You is coming." In 536 BC someone dreamed that Bo You walked in armor and said he would kill Si Dai on a renzi day and Gongsun Duan on a renyin day the next year. Si Dai died on the renzi day. Gongsun Duan died on the renyin day in 535 BC. The next month Zichan gave office to Bo You's son, Liang Zhi, and to Gongsun Xie. The panic stopped. Zichan said a ghost that has a place to return to does not become malevolent, and that he had given Bo You one. Asked in Jin whether Bo You could be a ghost, Zichan said a man of a great house who dies by violence can. Historian Paul R. Goldin cites the passage as evidence that the dead were thought to be aware.
Restoring a dead man's line to office and sacrifice was the remedy the state chose when his killing had cut it off.
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Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Zheng's minister was killed in the sheep market, his rivals died on the days his ghost named, and Zichan gave his son office to stop the haunting,” story s1250, https://www.celebrity.estate/boyou-ghost-543-bc, updated 30 October 2026.

















































































































































