There are three obituaries circulating online for someone named Yang Yixiao (杨一笑), who lived a few hundred years ago in China.
One version is getting a bit more complicated than the other, starting with the simplest one below. They show how a story is getting developed and evolved as people's imaginations take wings.
Version 1:
He was first trying to pursue a scholarly career, but he failed the entrance examination for three consecutive years.
So he decided to enter a career related with martial art. In the examination on martial art, he shot an arrow but the arrow somehow few to an armoured man beating drums on the border of the ring, hurting him slightly, so he was expelled immediately.
The incident prompted him to learn to be a medical practitioner. Soon he started to build up a name for himself and all looked so promising when one day he was sick, so he prescribed a medication for himself. After taking the medicine thereof, he died.
(初从文，三年不中；后习武，校场发一矢，中鼓吏，逐之出；遂学医，有所成。自撰一良方，服之，卒。)
Version 2:
He was first trying to pursue a scholarly career, but he failed the entrance examination for three consecutive years.
So he decided to enter a career related with martial art. In the examination on martial art, he shot an arrow but the arrow somehow few to an armoured man beating drums on the border of the ring, hurting him slightly, so he was expelled immediately.
Not feeling abashed by these two failures, he started doing business, playing with the idea of becoming a successful businessman, but he suffered three major setbacks: he trusted someone easily and was cheated. Then he had his goods stolen. Smarting with the pains and headaches of these two incidents, he encountered some bandits and was robbed of his goods.
Thinking that being a farmer was easy, he went back to his village and started working in the fields, but then he experienced a drought in the first year, a rainy and flooding year in the second and in the third year his crops were destroyed as locusts swept past his village.
On the verge of despair, he decided to learn to be a medical practitioner. He started was building up a name for himself and all looked so promising when one day he was sick, so he prescribed a medication for himself. After taking the medicine thereof, he died.
(初从文，三年不中；改习武，校场发一矢，中鼓吏，逐之出；又从商，一遇骗，二遇盗，三遇匪；遂躬耕，一岁大旱，一岁大涝，一岁飞蝗；乃学医，有所成。自撰一良方，服之，卒。)
Version 3:
He was first trying to pursue a scholarly career, but he failed the entrance examination for three consecutive years.
So he decided to enter a career related with martial art. In the examination on martial art, he shot an arrow but the arrow somehow few to an armoured man beating drums on the border of the ring, hurting him slightly, so he was expelled immediately.
Not feeling abashed by these two failures, he started doing business, playing with the idea of becoming a successful businessman, but he suffered three major setbacks: he trusted someone easily and was cheated. Then he had his goods stolen. Smarting with the pains and headaches of these two incidents, he encountered some bandits and was robbed of his goods.
Thinking that being a farmer was easy, he went back to his village and started working in the fields, but then he experienced a drought in the first year, a rainy and flooding year in the second and in the third year his crops were destroyed as locusts swept past his village.
On the verge of despair, he decided to learn to be a medical practitioner. He started was building up a name for himself and all looked so promising when one day he was sick, so he prescribed a medication for himself. After taking the medicine thereof, he died.
Thus he descended into the nether world, and he waited at the entrance for a proper registration. However, he waited a long time without seeing the Lord Yan to appear, so he grew impatient and asked a clerk he ran into for the reason. The clerk replied that the Lord glanced through your files and burst into such a fit of laughter that he lapsed into a coma, and he was still laying there unconscious.
(初从文，三年不中；改习武，校场发一矢，中鼓吏，逐之出；又从商，一遇骗，二遇盗，三遇匪；遂躬耕，一岁大旱，一岁大涝，一岁飞蝗；乃学医，有所成。自撰一良方，服之，卒。遂至地府，久候阎王升堂，不耐，问之，鬼卒曰：王阅足下卷宗，狂笑，休克于后堂，未醒……)
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