Even in Shui Hu Zhuan (Outlaws of the Marsh) --primarily an adventure story of noble bandits--a similar episode occurs: After bandit leader Song Jiang kills his adulterous wife, Yan Xijiao, she is able to return to the mundane world to capture alive her former lover, Zhang Sanlang. Obviously women in human form had not nearly as much power as they did in spectral guise.
連《水滸傳》中，黑臉宋江那紅杏出牆的嬌妻閻惜姣，在被丈夫砍殺後，都能回到陽間活捉她的情夫張三郎，可見女人確實不如女鬼有力量。