Summary
In the Tang Dynasty of China, there was a man named Keishoku. Keishoku had a very lovely daughter, but she passed away from an epidemic when she was ten years old. The grief of the father and mother was immeasurable. Two years later, Keishoku was ordered to proceed to a new post. Before his departure, he thought of inviting friends and relatives to a dinner party and bought a young sheep at the market.
That night, Keishoku's wife had a strange dream. In the dream, their deceased daughter appeared and said, "Mother, in my previous life, I was spoiled by you and father. Now, I have been turned into a white sheep. Father unknowingly bought that white sheep yesterday. I will be killed tomorrow. Mother, please save my life."
The next morning, the wife firmly instructed the servants, "You must not kill this sheep. I will explain the reason to my husband when he returns." When Keishoku came home and saw that the preparations for the dinner party were not progressing, he became angry and said to the servants, "Guests are coming soon, so why has the food not been prepared yet?"
"The lady said, 'You must not kill this sheep,' so we could not kill the sheep. That is why we paused the preparations for the feast," the servants replied. Keishoku, furious, said, "Don't be foolish. Kill it immediately." He ordered the servants to tie the sheep's horns with a rope and hang it from the beam.
Just then, the guests arrived and saw a lovely girl hanging from the beam by her hair. "I was the daughter of this house, but now I have been reincarnated as a white sheep. I will be killed soon. Please help me." The guests heard the girl whispering in a voice like a mosquito, but to the servants, she was just a sheep.
"If the food is not ready, the master will surely scold us," the servants said. Eventually, the servants killed the sheep and prepared it for barbecued meat. The guests looked at the meat and left without taking a single bite.
Later, upon hearing from the guests about their departure without eating, the father of the daughter was shocked and wracked with anguish. From that day on, Keishoku refused to eat anything and eventually starved to death.
Original source: "Uji Shūi Monogatari" (167) "A Tang man kills a sheep without realizing it is his daughter."
