He that hath a hundred desireth a thousand; he that hath
a thousand would have a hundred thousand; he that hath a
hundred thousand longeth for the kingdom; he that hath a
kingdom doth wish to possess the heavens. And being led
astray by cupidity, even the owners of riches and wisdom
do those things which should never be done, and seek after
that which ought never to be sought after.... Wherefore
there hath been written, for the benefit of those who do
nourish their own evil passions, this legend taken from the
forty-sixth book of the "Fa-youen-tchou-lin":
In those ages when the sun shone brighter than in these years, when the
perfumes of flowers were sweeter, when the colors of the world were
fairer to behold, and gods were wont to walk upon earth, there was a
certain happy kingdom wherein no misery was. Of gems and of gold there
was super-abundance; the harvests were inexhaustible as ocean; the
cities more populous than ant-hills. So many years had passed without
war that plants grew upon the walls of the great towns, disjointing
the rampart-stones by the snaky strength of their roots. And through
all that land there was a murmur of music constant as the flow of the
Yellow River; sleep alone interrupted the pursuit of pleasure, and even
the dreams of sleepers were never darkened by imaginary woe. For there
was no sickness and no want of any sort, so that each man lived his
century of years, and dying laid him down painlessly, as one seeking
repose after pleasure--the calm of slumber after the intoxication of
joy.
One day the king of that country called all his counselors and
ministers and chief mandarins together, and questioned them, saying:
"Behold! I have read in certain ancient annals which are kept within
our chief temple, these words: '_In days of old Misfortune visited the
land._' Is there among you one who can tell me what manner of creature
Misfortune is? Unto what may Misfortune be likened?"
But all the counselors and the ministers and the mandarins answered: "O
king, we have never beheld it, nor can we say what manner of creature
it may be."
Thereupon the king ordered one of his ministers to visit all the lesser
kingdoms, and to inquire what manner of creature Misfortune might be,
and to purchase it at any price--if indeed it could be bought--though
the price should be the value of a province.
Now there was a certain god, who, seeing and hearing these things,
forthwith assumed the figure of a man, and went to the greatest market
of a neighboring kingdom, taking with him Misfortune, chained with a
chain of iron. And the form of Misfortune was the form of a gigantic
sow. So the minister, visiting that foreign market, observed the
creature, which was made fast to a pillar there, and asked the god what
animal it was.
"It is called the female of Misfortune," quoth the god.
"Is it for sale?" questioned the minister.
"Assuredly," answered the god.
"And the price?"
"A million pieces of gold."
"What is its daily food?"
"One bushel measure of needles."
Having paid for the beast a million pieces of good yellow gold, the
minister was perforce compelled to procure food for it. So he sent out
runners to all the markets, and to the shops of tailors and of weavers,
and to all the mandarins of all districts within the kingdom, to
procure needles. This caused much tribulation in the land, not only by
reason of the scarcity of needles, but also because of the affliction
to which the people were subjected. For those who had not needles were
beaten with bamboos; and the mandarins, desiring to obey the behest
of the king's minister, exercised much severity. The tailors and
others who lived by their needles soon found themselves in a miserable
plight; and the needlemakers, toil as they would, could never make
enough to satisfy the hunger of the beast, although many died because
of overwork. And the price of a needle became as the price of emeralds
and diamonds, and the rich gave all their substance to procure food
for this beast, whose mouth, like the mouth of hell, could not be
satisfied. Then the people in many parts, made desperate by hunger and
the severity of the mandarins, rose in revolt, provoking a war which
caused the destruction of many tens of thousands. The rivers ran with
blood, yet the minister could not bring the beast to the palace for
lack of needles wherewith to feed it.
Therefore he wrote at last to the king, saying: "I have indeed been
able to find and to buy the female of Misfortune; but the male I have
not been able to obtain, nor, with Your Majesty's permission, will I
seek for it. Lo! the female hath already devoured the substance of this
land; and I dare not attempt to bring such a monster to the palace.
I pray Your Majesty therefore that Your Majesty graciously accord me
leave to destroy this hideous beast; and I trust that Your Majesty will
bear in mind the saying of the wise men of India: 'Even a King who will
not hearken to advice should be advised by faithful counselors.'"
Then the king, being already alarmed by noise of the famine and of the
revolution, ordered that the beast should be destroyed.
Accordingly, the female of Misfortune was led to a desolate place
without the village, and chained fast with chains of iron; and the
minister commanded the butchers to kill it. But so impenetrable was
its skin that neither axe nor knife could wound it. Wherefore the
soldiers were commanded to destroy it. But the arrows of the archers
flattened their steel points upon Misfortune, even when directed
against its eyes, which were bright and hard as diamonds; while swords
and spears innumerable were shattered and broken in foolish efforts to
kill it.
Then the minister commanded a great fire to be built; and the monster
was bound within the fire, while quantities of pitch and of oil and
of resinous woods were poured and piled upon the flame, until the
fire became too hot for men to approach it within the distance of
ten li. But the beast, instead of burning, first became red-hot and
then white-hot, shining like the moon. Its chains melted like wax, so
that it escaped at last and ran out among the people like a dragon of
fire. Many were thus consumed; and the beast entered the villages and
destroyed them; and still running so swiftly that its heat increased
with its course, it entered the capital city, and ran through it and
over it upon the roofs, burning up even the king in his palace.
Thus, by the folly of that king, was the kingdom utterly wasted and
destroyed, so that it became a desert, inhabited only by lizards and
serpents, and demons....
NOTE. This and the following fable belong to the curious collection
translated by M. Stanislas Julien from a Chinese encyclopædia, and
published at Paris in 1860, under the title, "Les Avadânas"--or "The
Similitudes"--a Sanscrit term corresponding to the Chinese Pi-yu, and
justified by the origin of the stories, translated by the Chinese
themselves, or at least reconstructed, from old Sanscrit texts. I have
ventured, however, to accentuate the slightly Chinese coloring of the
above grotesque parable. L. H.