Story 1:

Zhang San was less than thirty years old and a technician working in the production line of a textile factory. On this day, he was on night shift and didn’t return to his dormitory until midnight. Zhang San was still single, living alone on the second floor of the dormitory. When he took out his keys to open the door, a person suddenly came out from the room.

The corridor light was not lit, and there was no light on in the room. Exhausted and with wandering mind, he didn’t see clearly the person’s appearance, but only felt that it was a man with a figure similar to that of himself. What he saw was just a vague silhouette and when recalling afterwards, Zhang San could only picture in his mind an obscure face of that person.  

At the time, Zhang San asked by instinct, “Who are you?” The person didn’t answer. The figure went hurriedly downstairs and disappeared into the darkness even without any sound of footsteps. Zhang San, his mind wandering, came back to his consciousness after a long time. He couldn’t figure out what had happened and reckoned that person might be a thief, but nothing in the dormitory was lost.

A few days later, Zhang San died of a sudden heart attack during a night shift.

Story 2:

Aunt Wang lived in the village while all her children were in downtown. During these days, her husband went downtown to visit their son. On this day, she went to a fair in the town and came back home when the sky darkened. Carrying a basket of stuff that she bought from the fair, she felt exhausted. She opened the yard gate and went in when she happened to see an old woman coming out from the hall and going straight out.

Aunt Wang, confused from exhaustion, asked, “Who are you?” The woman made no answer, so Aunt Wang followed her to outside the yard but didn’t see her figure. Then, it was dim and what Aunt Wang saw was only an ambiguous silhouette similar to that of her own—an old woman.

When chatting in the next day with her neighbors, Aunt Wang mentioned this. The neighbors reminded her, “Sis, have you lost your soul?” Aunt Wang murmured abruptly at the time, “What I saw is supposed to be myself.” Since then, she never mentioned this to anyone else.

One year later, Aunt Wang accidentally fell in the fair and was sent to the hospital. She passed away after a few days.

Story 3:

Mr. Fan quarreled with his wife who then, out of anger, went to her parents’ house. During the days living alone in the house, he was upset. In addition, he had a fight with one of his colleagues and didn’t sleep well for several nights. On this day, late at night from work, he held handrails and walked upstairs step by step. He felt light-headed and was too sleepy to open his eyes.

As he took out the key to open the door on the fourth floor, a man suddenly came out from the room and then walked downstairs. Mr. Fan was shocked and instinctively thought it was his wife coming back home, but by the figure’s silhouette, it was a male of his shape. Only after quite a while could Fan return to his consciousness.

Mr. Fan planned to call the police, but found no property was touched or lost in the house. Later, he talked with his friends and colleagues about this, telling everyone that, “I saw myself.”

This had happened more than twenty years ago, yet Mr. Fan was still alive today.

The three stories above were told by Ding Qi in class which were also folk legends happened in different places at different time. All the 152 students in the class were listening attentively, looking really interested. It was in a large lecture theater seated by sophomores from all majors of Jinghu University. The reason why Ding Qi could know the number of students as accurate as this was that he used the method of exclusion of seats which, in this classroom, totaled 180 and it was nearly a full house.

The number of students applying this optional course, according to the roster, was supposed to be 169, and the actual attendance was 152, which was quite a high attendance. For such a big class, a complete roll call was almost impossible.

Ding Qi was teaching Introduction to Psychology. For psychology majors, this was a required course for freshmen while for non-psychology majors, it was an optional course for sophomores. The textbooks and pedagogical focus for the two groups were different. The textbook for non-psychology majors was mainly focused on social psychology.

For cross-major elective courses like this, many students signed up just to get enough credits while at the same time also out of curiosity. It was not difficult to imagine why this kind of course had a high truancy rate. Even if students did show up, many of them would sleep on the desk, a situation not rarely seen on campus.

At this moment, watching the students in the class, Ding Qi secretly forced a wry smile to himself but was also slightly satisfied about the almost full attendance without anyone sleeping. Actually, the university didn’t value too much on the selective course Introduction to Psychology open to non-psychology majors. Otherwise, they would not appoint a lecturer so young as Ding Qi.

However, Ding Qi taught great, at least, attractively, which could be proved by the full house. If someone entered the wrong classroom without knowing what the course was, they might be confused whether this young buddy was teaching or telling a ghost story.

Finishing the three stories and noticing the attention of all students was attracted by him, Ding Qi looked around, seemingly gaining eye contact with everyone, and said, “Guys, these are three folk stories happened across the country in different places at different time. I suppose all of you come from different parts of the country. I would like to raise a question. Has anybody ever heard of such a story in your hometown? If so, please put up your hand.”

A total of 57 students raised their hands. Ding Qi could get the accurate figure so quickly in his mind not because he got certain talent but benefited from professional skills and habits.

He studied psychology and was a phycological consultant who had received various psychological tests including IQ test, and also participated in the design of many psychometric scales. Therefore, he was proficient in many memorizing techniques regarding space and numbers.

He was familiar with this classroom. By matrix memorizing, he got the exact number in just a few seconds. He then nodded and said, “Great! Well, you may now put your hands down. Since all three stories are folklores, we cannot make an accurate psychological assessment of the people involved in the stories, but we may focus on the content and sum up some of the core elements in consistency. Anyone would like to give it a try? If not, I’ll just randomly pick someone…”

Many students looked itching for a try but no one raised their hands. This was common in class in a university, especially in a big lecture. The more people present, the lesser their intention to take the initiative to answer questions—a psychological phenomenon. In addition, Ding Qi didn’t leave too much time enough for most of the students to think it through.

Ding Qi had planned to pick someone, a female student, on the name roster. Subconsciously, he made the gesture of opening the roster, taking no glance at it in fact, and named a female student that he could remember, “Meng Huiyu, would you like to share your opinion?”

Finishing the words, Ding Qi looked up and his sight just met with that of Meng Huiyu’s. She, sitting right in the middle of the first row, is a beautiful girl with fair complexion and hair just reaching shoulders. She wore a white floral dress with red-and-blue wax prints on cuffs and neckline, which was an ethnic style in the southwestern region. However, she was not from an ethnic minority group.

Meng Huiyu had been staring at Ding Qi and at this moment, standing up at his request, she lowered her head, looking a little shy. She reached out to preen her bangs near forehead. Adjusting the breathing to hide her nervousness, she looked up again and answered, “In the stories you just told, the first commonality is that the three people were all having wandering minds.”

Ding Qi nodded and asked further, “Right. What’s more?”

Meng Huiyu continued, “The scenes were all dim, and there were no other people present to interfere. Under such conditions, it’s easy to be suggested to generate visual illusion.”

Ding Qi knew this was not the point, but he still continued to encourage her, “These are folklores in which the psychological condition of the people involved and what they claimed cannot be used as a reference, so focusing on the stories, what consistent regularity can be concluded?”

Meng Huiyu replied as she was thinking, “Based on your hint, there are two core regularities. The first is consistent, that is they all ‘see themselves’ under certain situation. The second is inconsistent. Zhang San didn’t realize what he saw was himself and never mentioned this with others; Aunt Wang was reminded to realize this and mentioned with others once; Mr. Fan realized this himself and talked with others many times…”

Ding Qi said, “There is in fact consistency in the second point. Do you notice the regularity?”

With such a hint, the answer was obvious. Looking right into Ding Qi’s eyes, Meng Huiyu slightly squared her shoulders and her tone turned firm and more confident, “In all the three stories, the three people all ‘saw themselves’ under certain situation, which probably indicates the end of their lives. Realization of this and mentioning would prolong their lives—one time of mentioning for one year…”

Ding Qi nodded repeatedly in approval, “Well done. A well-reasoned conclusion. Thank you, Meng Huiyu. You may sit down.”

Meng Huiyu sat down, and Mr. Ding’s appreciation made her happy and nervously flushed. Her cheeks turned rosy and sweat oozed out from her nose tip. Lowering her head subconsciously, she touched her nose with one finger. This micro-expression was sure noticed by Ding Qi who was adept at this. He felt somewhat wry, looked around the classroom, and also subconsciously pushed up his glasses with one finger.

Ding Qi was not myopic and in fact he had a very good vision. Wearing a pair of clear glasses was to add a touch of scholarly quality for him. The glasses were selected by his girlfriend, costing more than 8,000 yuan, the most expensive piece of his entire outfit.

Today, he wore a navy-blue casual suit; underneath was a well-suited high-end shirt in fine fabrics. The glasses, shirt and the belt, of the same well-known brand, was said to be made in Italy, altogether costing nearly 20,000, a price excluding tariffs and overseas purchase fee.

Ding Qi could understand why many girls knew every details of famous brands, which he knew little about and was not interested in studying at all. Jiajia, his girlfriend, said what she had picked for him was not top global brands but just affordable luxuries, which, however, could indeed highlight his temperament.

His girlfriend selected, and Ding Qi paid, sparing much of his effort in styling. Though Ding Qi was still in a doctorate program, he had a well-paid job. Besides being a newly promoted lecturer from assistant at Jinghu University, he worked as a consultant at Mental Health Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Jinghu University.

Consultants must pay attention to their temperament and looks in order to impress visitors as reliable and amiable, so Ding Qi agreed with his girlfriend’s fashion taste.

Recently, there was gossip going that The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security was drafting the latest National Catalogue of Vocational Qualifications which indicated possible cancelation of the official certification of “psychological consultant” along with the examination. Ding Qi took the news with a grain of salt, but he did believe that the certification and management of phycological consultants indeed needed reorganization and standardization.

Without looking into the mirror, Ding Qi knew he looked attractive, especially for someone standing at the university podium. A handsome young lecturer like him, both meticulously dressed and amiable, was as rare as a campus beau. Many of the female students attended this class not just for the course itself. Some even came earlier to occupy front rows every class and whispered with one another while staring at him.

It was common for girls at their age to unconsciously project their emotional need to the one they appreciated. Ding Qi understood this but never had any other ideas.

Looking around the audience, Ding Qi was about to make some comments when he realized that there was no need to say anything else. He had planned to choose a female student who might not be able to give a well-rounded answer in such a short time so that he, as the lecturer, could supplement the answer, making the lecture fun and interactive and, at the same time, building an authoritative image for himself.

However, since Meng Huiyu started speaking, Ding Qi had been encouraging her and dropping affirmative hints. This was the vocational habit of a consultant entering “intake interview”, which had been inadvertently applied just now in class. He seemed to have to pay attention to identities shifting and making corresponding adjustment.

[T/N: the initial interview with a client by a therapist or counselor to obtain both information regarding the issues or problems that have brought the client into therapy or counseling and preliminary information regarding personal and family history.]

Ding Qi cleared his throat and said, “The three stories are not fabricated by me but summarized by my mentor, Professor Liu Feng, a famous Chinese psychologist, from seemingly not interrelated social news collected from various places during his social investigation many years ago.

Professor Liu Feng has made outstanding achievements in fields such as psychology and sociology with an emphasis on investigation and research that combined theories with practice. He set his foot everywhere across the country, probing into different groups of people, and has collected and sorted out a great amount of detailed first-hand documents…”

Ding Qi actually publicly praised his mentor in class, sparing no flattering words. To an ear with evil intention, this was nothing short of blatant touting and flattering. However, Ding Qi’s expression and tone were earnest, and he had commented his mentor out of sincerity. On the other hand, Ding Qi was clear that words like this in a public class would, supposing passed to his mentor, made him delighted and proud.

As the saying went, “Don’t talk about others behind their backs”, which was a bad habit. Praising others at the back, however, was an exception, because this would make the one being praised even happier than hearing the words in person, a human nature absolving no one, not even a psychologist. Besides, his appraisal wasn’t fabricated out of thin air. The three stories were quoted from one of the cases and materials collected and organized by the professor, which was a way to show Ding Qi’s respect and admiration towards his mentor.

Apple-polishing also required psychological skills.

Having sincerely praised his tutor in a well-reasoned yet inconspicuous way, Ding Qi resumed, “Miss. Meng has summarized the consistent regularity of the three stories just now. Well, who would like to make a more in-depth analysis with respect to the reasons why folklores with same core elements occurred in different places at different time. You may express whatever in your mind, but this time, I’d like to pick a boy. Please raise your hand.”

After the interaction, the students were mobilized, and lots of them quickly put up their hands since there had been enough time for them to think thoroughly. Ding Qi didn’t look at the name roster and pointed straight to the right, “The boy in grey sportswear in the fifth row, please. You mind telling me your name and major? Please share with us your idea.”

The boy stood up and, looking down at the notebook on the table, said in a hurry, “I’m Bi Xuecheng, majoring in microelectronics from Class 1602. Just now I noticed that in the second story, one of the neighbors reminded Aunt Wang if she had lost her soul? This analysis requires the local socio-cultural context.

In folklores among many places, there is a story prototype of soul-losing. In different cultures, there are even stories that once the soul leaves the body, the person in question will die.

The folklores you told are actually specific ones processed based on the prototype which suggests that if a person loses his/her soul and never finds it, he/she will be likely to die. It sounds ridiculous but understandable considering the social and culture backgrounds in reality.”

Bi Xuecheng spoke a bit fast but in an eloquent and well-organized way based on clear logic. He spoke while intermittently taking a glance at the notebook on the table, apparently having organized everything in written form. Ding Qi nodded in satisfaction, and added, “So the second core element of the three stories—each claim of ‘I saw myself’ will prolong the life for one year. How would you explain this?”

Bi Xuecheng bowed his head and sketched something on the notebook. After thinking for a few seconds, he answered uncertainly, “This is a technique using to settle one’s inner conflict when haunted by the fear of the unknown.”

Ding Qi continued asking with interest, “Oh? Please elaborate on it.”

Bi Xuecheng tried to conclude, “Since ancient times, there are more or less folklores about people dying of losing souls. In some places, the stories get even more specific that people dying can feel their souls parting the body. Therefore, such folk stores came into existence.”

He continued, “Folklores are certainly not reliable enough, but it is exactly because they are mysterious and unfathomable that people tend to half-believe and sometimes even feel inexplicably stressed and daunted by them. If a folk story does happen in reality, it would be a problem hard to resist and tackle, but people do need to find a way to resolve their inner pressure.

Whether to resort to mysterious rituals or religions, it is an attempt to solve the socio-psychological problems. Therefore, the stories varied in their spreading in a direction towards the invention of a seemingly bizarre but in fact practical solution. For the above three stories, the solution is the claim that each mentioning would prolong the life for one year. Only in this way could people’s inner conflict and unsettledness be eliminated.”

Ding Qi, “Have you heard similar folklores in your hometown? I noticed that you also raised your hand.”

Bi Xuecheng nodded, “Yes, I heard a similar story when I was a child. It was told by the janitor of where my father worked.”

As a sophomore majored in engineering, Bi Xuecheng’s answer was nearly perfect with good logic thinking, inducive summarization, and expressing ability. However, Ding Qi couldn’t help but smile with some subtle yet mixed emotion because he was reminded of something happened in another class. 

One year, Professor Liu Feng had asked the same question with the same cases, and Ding Qi’s answer was almost the same with that of Bi Xuecheng’s. Today, in a different identity, Ding Qi stood at the podium and further asked a question that hadn’t be mentioned by Prof. Liu, “Then we are back at the root of the discussion. Since the authenticity of folklores is hard to prove, let’s assume that the three stories did happen in certain forms, at least the first element ‘I saw myself’ is real. Then how would you analyze this?”

Bi Xuecheng replied, “I insist on my opinion. These folklores came into existence since ancient times, partly due to superstition and partly due to the thinking about life and the relationship between body and soul, so people invented such stories.”

Ding Qi shook his head, “I’m afraid you didn’t fully get my point. You analyzed one of the causes of formation of folklores by using a relatively complex reasoning process. This is reasonable, but, when we’re not sure about the reality, we cannot exclude the possibility, the most direct one, that someone truly saw himself.”

Bi Xuecheng was a bit shocked, “Someone really saw himself?”

Ding Qi, “I’m not saying it’s the truth. We just cannot roll out this most immediate possibility. It’s not the scientific approach in social investigation and situation analysis.”

Bi Xuecheng couldn’t help but refute, “It’s too far away from common sense!”

Ding Qi remained his smile, one almost the same with that of Liu Feng’s in that year, “It’s either optical illusion or hallucination. OR, the last possibility is someone truly saw themselves. However, as to the reason why this might happen, psychoanalysis is needed for an individual or a group of them.”

Bi Xuecheng seemed to be heading for a dead end and continued his questioning, “But how can illusion or hallucination be counted as real?”

Ding Qi perceived that the discussion was a bit off-topic, but he still explained patiently, “By truth, I didn’t mean from the psychological perspective. Illusion is not real because the person can realize this later.

But hallucination is a subjective experience where the person really perceives the things in question. Distinguishing the two phenomena needs the judgement on whether or not the subjective experience is the real reaction to the objective world.

If people with different identities all have had such subjective experiences at different times in different places, we must study the causes of this phenomenon, for example, he/she was suggested by their social or cultural background.

Bi Xuecheng, you’ve a great answer. Please be seated…Now I’d like to do a similar survey. Anyone ever heard of or can now recall the same folklore as the above three, please raise your hand.”

The number of students raising up their hands doubled that of last time. Ding Qi, looking at the various reactions among the audience, knew clearly that many didn’t really hear of such stories, yet they didn’t intend to lie deliberately.

Some might want to show that they weren’t “ignorant”; some might raise their hand after some hesitation just because the people next to them did so; the most believed they had heard of such folklores, which, in fact, wasn’t their true memory.

Ding Qi made a gesture, “Very good. The first time 57 raised your hands, and now we have 102. You may put your hands down and now open your textbooks to Chapter 2 Social Psychology. Today we are going to touch on Section 7 Conformity, Imitation, Suggestion and Social Infection of ‘Social Influence’.”