[Cheung Puk-chang.--The Yol-ryok Keui-sul, one of Korea's noted
histories, says of Cheung Puk-chang that he was pure in purpose
and without selfish ambition. He was superior to all others in his
marvellous gifts. For him to read a book once was to know it by
heart. There was nothing that he could not understand--astronomy,
geology, music, medicine, mathematics, fortune-telling and Chinese
characters, which he knew by intuition and not from study.
He followed his father in the train of the envoy to Peking, and
there talked to all the strange peoples whom he met without any
preparation. They all wondered at him and called him "The Mystery." He
knew, too, the meaning of the calls of birds and beasts; and while he
lived in the mountains he could see and tell what people were doing
in the distant valley, indicating what was going on in each house,
which, upon investigation, was found in each case to be true. He was
a Taoist, and received strange revelations.
While in Peking there met him envoys from the Court of Loochoo,
who also were prophets. While in their own country they had studied
the horoscope, and on going into China knew that they were to meet
a Holy Man. As they went on their way they asked concerning this
mysterious being, and at last reached Peking. Inquiring, they went
from one envoy's station to another till they met Cheung Puk-chang,
when a great fear came upon them, and they fell prostrate to the earth.
They took from their baggage a little book inscribed, "In such a year,
on such a day, at such an hour, in such a place, you shall meet a
Holy Man." "If this does not mean your Excellency," said they, "whom
can it mean?" They asked that he would teach them the sacred Book of
Changes, and he responded by teaching it in their own language. At
that time the various envoys, hearing of this, contended with each
other as to who should first see the marvellous stranger, and he
spoke to each in his own tongue. They all, greatly amazed, said,
"He is indeed a man of God."
Some one asked him, saying, "There are those who understand the sounds
of birds and beasts, but foreign languages have to be learned to be
known; how can you speak them without study?"
Puk-chang replied, "I do not know them from having learned them,
but know them unconsciously."
Puk-chang was acquainted with the three religions, but he considered
Confucianism as the first. "Its writings as handed down," said he,
"teach us filial piety and reverence. The learning of the Sages
deals with relationships among men and not with spiritual mysteries;
but Taoism and Buddhism deal with the examination of the soul and the
heart, and so with things above and not with things on the earth. This
is the difference."
At thirty-two years of age he matriculated, but had no interest in
further literary study. He became, instead, an official teacher of
medicine, astrology and mathematics.
He was a fine whistler, we are told, and once when he had climbed to
the highest peak of the Diamond Mountains and there whistled, the
echoes resounded through the hills, and the priests were startled
and wondered whose flute was playing.]
[There is a term in Korea which reads he-an pang-kwang, "spiritual-eye
distant-vision," the seeing of things in the distance. This pertains
to both Taoists and Buddhists.
It is said that when the student reaches a certain stage in his
progress, the soft part of the head returns to the primal thinness
that is seen in the child to rise and fall when it breathes. From
this part of the head go forth five rays of light that shoot out and
up more and more as the student advances in the spiritual way. As far
as they extend so is the spiritual vision perfected, until at last a
Korean sufficiently advanced could sit and say, "In London, to-day,
such and such a great affair is taking place."
For example, So Wha-tam, who was a Taoist Sage, once was seen to laugh
to himself as he sat with closed eyes, and when asked why he laughed,
said, "Just now in the monastery of Ha-in [300 miles distant] there
is a great feast going on. The priest stirring the huge kettle of
bean gruel has tumbled in, but the others do not know this, and are
eating the soup." News came from the monastery later on that proved
that what the sage had seen was actually true.
The History of Confucius, too, deals with this when it tells of his
going with his disciple An-ja and looking off from the Tai Mountains
of Shan-tung toward the kingdom of On. Confucius asked An-ja if he
could see anything, and An-ja replied, "I see white horses tied at
the gates of On."
Confucius said, "No, no, your vision is imperfect, desist from
looking. They are not white horses, but are rolls of white silk hung
out for bleaching."]