once for what is popularly known amongst foreigners as the “Chamber of
Horrors.” These belong specially to Taoism, or the ethics of Right in
the abstract, as opposed to abstract Wrong, and are not found in
temples consecrated to the religion of Buddha. Modern Taoism, however,
once a purely metaphysical system, is now so leavened with the
superstitions of Buddhism, and has borrowed so much material from its
younger rival, that an ordinary Chinaman can hardly tell one from the
other, and generally regards them as to all intents and purposes the
same. These rightly-named Chambers of Horrors--for Madame Tussaud has
nothing more ghastly to show in the whole of her wonderful
collection--represent the Ten Courts of Purgatory, through some or all
of which erring souls must pass before they are suffered to be born
again into the world under another form, or transferred to the eternal
bliss reserved for the righteous alone. As a description of these Ten
Courts may not be uninteresting to some of my readers, and as the
subject has a direct bearing upon many of the stories in the previous
collection, I hereto append my translation of a well-known Taoist
work[340] which is circulated gratuitously all over the Chinese Empire
by people who are anxious to lay up a store of good works against the
day of reckoning to come. Those who are acquainted with Dante’s
_Divine Comedy_ will recollect that the poet’s idea of a Christian
Purgatory was a series of nine lessening circles arranged one above
the other, so as to form a cone. The Taoist believes that his
Purgatory consists of Ten Courts of Justice situated in different
positions at the bottom of a great ocean which lies down in the
depths of the earth. These are sub-divided into special wards,
different forms of torture being inflicted in each. A perusal of this
work will shew what punishments the wicked Chinaman has to expect in
the unseen world, and by what means he may hope to obtain a partial or
complete remission of his sins.
_The “Divine Panorama,” published by the Mercy of Yü Ti,[341] that Men
and Women may repent them of their Faults and make Atonement for their
Crimes._
On the birthday of the Saviour P‘u-sa,[342] as the spirits of
Purgatory were thronging round to offer their congratulations, the
ruler of the Infernal Regions spake as follows:--“My wish is to
release all souls, and every moon as this day comes round I would
wholly or partially remit the punishment of erring shades, and give
them life once more in one of the Six Paths.[343] But alas! the wicked
are many and the virtuous few. Nevertheless, the punishments in the
dark region are too severe, and require some modification. Any wicked
soul that repents and induces one or two others to do likewise shall
be allowed to set this off against the punishments which should be
inflicted.” The Judges of the Ten Courts of Purgatory then agreed that
all who led virtuous lives from their youth upwards shall be escorted
at their death to the land of the Immortals; that all whose balance of
good and evil is exact shall escape the bitterness of the Three
States,[344] and be born again among men; that those who have repaid
their debts of gratitude and friendship, and fulfilled their destiny,
yet have a balance of evil against them, shall pass through the
various Courts of Purgatory and then be born again amongst men, rich,
poor, old, young, diseased or crippled, to be put a second time upon
trial. Then, if they behave well they may enter into some happy state;
but if badly, they will be dragged by horrid devils through all the
Courts, suffering bitterly as they go, and will again be born, to
endure in life the uttermost of poverty and wretchedness, in death the
everlasting tortures of hell. Those who are disloyal, unfilial, who
commit suicide, take life, or disbelieve the doctrine of Cause and
Effect,[345] saying to themselves that when a man dies there is an
end of him, that when he has lost his skin[346] he has already
suffered the worst that can befall him, that living men can be
tortured, but no one ever saw a man’s ghost in the pillory, that after
death all is unknown, etc., etc.,--truly these men do not know that
the body alone perishes but the soul lives for ever and ever; and that
whatsoever evil they do in this life, the same will be done unto them
in the life to come. All who commit such crimes are handed over to the
everlasting tortures of hell; for alas! in spite of the teachings of
the Three Systems[347] some will persist in regarding these warnings
as vain and empty talk. Lightly they speak of Divine mercy, and
knowingly commit many crimes, not more than one in a hundred ever
coming to repentance. Therefore the punishments of Purgatory were
strictly carried out and the tortures dreadfully severe. But now it
has been mercifully ordained that any man or woman, young, old, weak
or strong, who may have sinned in any way, shall be permitted to
obtain remission of the same by keeping his or her thoughts constantly
fixed on P‘u-sa and on the birthdays of the Judges of the Ten Courts,
by fasting and prayer, and by vows never to sin again. Or for every
good work done in life they shall be allowed to escape one ward in the
Courts below. From this rule to be excepted disloyal ministers,
unfilial sons, suicides, those who plot in secret against good people,
those who are struck by lightning (_lit._ thunder), those who perish
by flood or fire, by wild animals or poisonous reptiles[348]--these to
pass through all the Courts and be punished according to their
deserts. All other sinners to be allowed to claim their good works as
a set-off against evil, thus partly escaping the agonies of hell and
receiving some reward for their virtuous deeds.
This account of man’s wickedness on the earth and the punishments in
store for him was written in language intelligible to every man and
woman, and was submitted for the approval of P‘u-sa, the intention
being to wait the return[349] of some virtuous soul among the sons of
men, and by these means publish it all over the earth. When P‘u-sa saw
what had been done, he said it was good; and on the 3rd of 8th moon
proceeded with the ten Judges of Purgatory to lay this book before
God.[350]
Then God said, “Good indeed! Good indeed! henceforth let all spirits
take note of any mortal who vows to lead a virtuous life and,
repenting, promises to sin no more. Two punishments shall be remitted
him. And if, in addition to this, he succeeds in doing five virtuous
acts, then he shall escape all punishment and be born again in some
happy state--if a woman she shall be born as a man. But more than five
virtuous acts shall enable such a soul to obtain the salvation of
others, and redeem wife and family from the tortures of hell. Let
these regulations be published in the _Divine Panorama_ and circulated
on earth by the spirits of the City Guardian.[351] In fear and
trembling obey this decree and carry it reverently into effect.”
THE FIRST COURT.
His Infernal Majesty Ch‘in Kuang is specially in charge of the
register of life and death both for old and young, and presides at the
judgment-seat in the lower regions. His court is situated in the great
Ocean, away beyond the Wu-chiao rock,[352] far to the west near the
murky road which leads to the Yellow Springs.[353] Every man and woman
dying in old age whose fate it is to be born again into the world, if
their tale of good and evil works is equally balanced, are sent to the
First Court, and thence transferred back to Life, male becoming
female, female male, rich poor, and poor rich, according to their
several deserts. But those whose good deeds are outnumbered by their
bad are sent to a terrace on the right of the Court, called the
Terrace of the Mirror of Sin, ten feet in height. The mirror is about
fifty feet[354] in circumference and hangs towards the east. Above are
seven characters written horizontally:--“Sin Mirror Terrace upon no
good men.” There the wicked souls are able to see the naughtiness of
their own hearts while they were among the living, and the danger of
death and hell. Then do they realize the proverb,--
“Ten thousand taels of yellow gold cannot be brought away:
But every crime will tell its tale upon the judgment day.”
When the souls have been to the Terrace and seen their wickednesses,
they are forwarded into the Second Court, where they are tortured and
dismissed to the proper hell.
Should there be any one enjoying life without reflecting that Heaven
and Earth produce mortals, that father and mother bring the child to
maturity--truly no easy matter; and, ignoring the four obligations,[355]
before receiving the summons, lightly sever the thread of their own
existence by cutting their throats, hanging, poisoning, or drowning
themselves:--then such suicides, if the deed was not done out of
loyalty, filial piety, chastity, or friendship, for which they would
go to Heaven, but in a trivial burst of rage, or fearing the
consequences of a crime which would not amount to death, or in the
hope of falsely injuring a fellow-creature--then such suicides, when
the last breath has left their bodies, shall be escorted to this Court
by the Spirits of the Threshold and of the Hearth. They shall be
placed in the Hunger and Thirst Section, and every day from 7 till 11
o’clock they will resume their mortal coil, and suffer again the pain
and bitterness of death. After seventy days, or one or two years as
the case may be, they will be conducted back to the scene of their
suicide, but will not be permitted to taste the funeral meats, or
avail themselves of the usual offerings to the dead. Bitterly will
they repent, unable as they will be to render themselves visible and
frighten people,[356] vainly striving to procure a substitute.[357]
For when the substitute shall have been harmlessly entrapped, the
Spirits of the Threshold and Hearth will reconduct the erring soul
back to this Court, whence it will be sent on to the Second Court,
where its balance of good and evil will be struck, and dreadful
tortures applied, being finally passed on through the various Courts
to the utter misery of hell. Should any one have such intention of
suicide and thus threaten a fellow creature, even though he does not
commit the act but continues to live not without virtue, yet shall it
not be permitted in any way to remit his punishment. Any soul which
after suicide shall not remain invisible, but shall frighten people to
death, will be seized by black-faced long-tusked devils and tortured
in the various hells, to be finally thrust into the great Gehenna, for
ever to remain hung up in chains, and not permitted to be born again.
Every Buddhist or Taoist priest who receives money for prayers and
liturgies, but skips over words and misses out sentences, on arriving
at this, the First Court, will be sent to the section for the
Completion of Prayer, and there in a small dark room he shall pick out
such passages as he has omitted, and make good the deficiency as best
he can, by the uncertain light of an infinitesimal wick burning in a
gallon of oil. Even good and virtuous priests must also repair any
omissions they may have (accidentally) made, and so must every man or
woman who in private devotion may have omitted or wrongly repeated any
part of the sacred writings from over-earnestness, their attention not
being properly fixed on the actual words they repeat. The same applies
to female priests. A dispensation from Buddha to remit such punishment
is put in force on the first day of each month when the names are
entered in the register of the virtuous.
O ye dwellers upon earth, on the 1st day of the 2nd moon, fasting turn
to the north and make oath to abstain from evil and fix your thoughts
on good, that ye may escape hell! The precepts of Buddha are
circulated over the whole world to warn mankind to believe and repent,
that when the last hour comes their spirits may be escorted by
dark-robed boys to realms of bliss and happiness in the west.
THE SECOND COURT.
His Infernal Majesty, Ch‘u Ching, reigns at the bottom of the great
Ocean. Away to the south, below the Wu-chiao rocks, he has a vast
hell, many leagues in extent, and subdivided into sixteen wards, as
follows:--
In the first, nothing but black clouds and constant sand-storms. In
the second, mud and filth. In the third, _chevaux de frise_. In the
fourth, gnawing hunger. In the fifth, burning thirst. In the sixth,
blood and pus. In the seventh, the shades are plunged into a brazen
cauldron (of boiling water). In the eighth, the same punishment is
repeated many times. In the ninth, they are put into iron clothes. In
the tenth, they are stretched on a rack to regulation length. In the
eleventh, they are pecked by fowls. In the twelfth, they have only
rivers of lime to drink. In the thirteenth, they are hacked to pieces.
In the fourteenth, the leaves of the trees are as sharp as
sword-points. In the fifteenth they are pursued by foxes and wolves.
In the sixteenth, all is ice and snow.
Those who lead astray young boys and girls, and then escape punishment
by cutting off their hair and entering the priesthood;[358] those who
filch letters, pictures, books, etc. entrusted to their care, and then
pretend to have lost them; those who injure a fellow-creature’s ear,
eye, hand, foot, fingers, or toes; those who practise as doctors
without any knowledge of the medical art; those who will not ransom
grown-up slave-girls;[359] those who, contracting marriage for the
sake of gain, falsely state their ages; or those who in cases of
betrothal, before actual marriage, find out that one of the
contracting parties is a bad character, and yet do not come forward to
say so, but inflict an irreparable wrong on the innocent one;--such
offenders, when their quota of crime has been cast up, their youth or
age and the consequences of their acts taken into consideration, will
be seized by horrid red-faced devils and thrust into the great Hell,
and thence despatched to the particular ward in which they are to be
tormented. When their time of suffering there has expired, they will
be moved into the Third Hall, there to be tortured and passed on to
Gehenna.
O ye men and women of the world, take this book and warn all sinners,
or copy it out and circulate it for general information! If you see
people sick and ill, give medicine to heal them. If you see people
poor and hungry, feed them. If you see people in difficulties, give
money to save them. Repent your past errors, and you will be allowed
to cancel that evil by future good, so that when the hour arrives you
will pass at once into the Tenth Hall, and thence return again to
existence on earth.
Let such as love all creatures endowed with life, and do not
recklessly cut and slay, but teach their children not to harm small
animals and insects--let these, on the 1st of the 3rd moon, register
an oath not to take life, but to aid in preserving it. Thus they will
avoid passing through Purgatory, and will also enter at once the Tenth
Hall, to be born again in some happy state.
THE THIRD COURT.
His Infernal Majesty Sung Ti reigns at the bottom of the great Ocean,
away to the south-east, below the Wu-chiao rock, in the Gehenna of
Black Ropes. This Hall is many leagues wide, and is subdivided into
sixteen wards, as follows:--
In the first everything is Salt; above, below, and all round, the eye
rests upon Salt alone. The shades feed upon it, and suffer horrid
torments in consequence. When the fit has passed away they return to
it once again, and suffer agonies more unutterable than before. In the
second, the erring shades are bound with cords and carry
heavily-weighted _cangues_. In the third, they are perpetually pierced
through the ribs. In the fourth, their faces are scraped with iron and
copper knives. In the fifth, their fat is scraped away from their
bodies. In the sixth, their hearts and livers are squeezed with
pincers. In the seventh, their eyes are gouged. In the eighth, they
are flayed. In the ninth, their feet are cut off. In the tenth, their
finger-nails and toe-nails are pulled out. In the eleventh their blood
is sucked. In the twelfth, they are hung up head downwards. In the
thirteenth, their shoulder-bones are split. In the fourteenth, they
are tormented by insects and reptiles. In the fifteenth, they are
beaten on the thighs. In the sixteenth, their hearts are scratched.
Those who enjoy the light of day without reflecting on the Imperial
bounty;[360] officers of State who revel in large emoluments without
reciprocating their sovereign’s goodness; private individuals who do
not repay the debt of water and earth;[361] wives and concubines who
slight their marital lords; those who fail in their duties as acting
sons,[362] or such as reap what advantages there are and then go off
to their own homes; slaves who disregard their masters; official
underlings who are ungrateful to their superiors; working partners who
behave badly to the moneyed partner; culprits who escape from prison
or abscond from their place of banishment; those who break their bail
and get others into trouble; and those infatuated ones who have long
omitted to pray and repent--all these, even though they have a set-off
of good deeds, must pass through the misery of every ward. Those who
interfere with another man’s Fêng-Shui; those who obstruct funeral
obsequies or the completion of graves; those who in digging come on a
coffin and do not immediately cover it up, but injure the bones; those
who steal or avoid paying up their quota of grain;[363] those who lose
all record of the site of their family burying-place; those who incite
others to commit crimes; those who promote litigation; those who write
anonymous placards; those who repudiate a betrothal; those who forge
deeds and other documents; those who receive payment of a debt without
signing a receipt or giving up the I O U; those who counterfeit
signatures and seals; those who alter bills; those who injure
posterity in any way--all these, and similar offenders, shall be
punished according to the gravity of each offence. Devils with big
knives will seize the erring ones and thrust them into the great
Gehenna; besides which they shall expiate their sins in the proper
number of wards, and shall then be forwarded to the Fourth Court where
they shall be tortured and dismissed to the general Gehenna.
O ye sons of men, on the 8th day of the 2nd moon, register an oath
that ye will do no evil. Thus you may escape the bitterness of these
hells.
THE FOURTH COURT.
The Lord of the Five Senses reigns at the bottom of the great Ocean,
away to the east below the Wu-chiao rock. His Court is many leagues
wide, and is subdivided into sixteen wards, as follows:--
In the first, the wicked shades are hung up and water is continually
poured over them. In the second, they are made to kneel on chains and
pieces of split bamboo. In the third, their hands are scalded with
boiling water. In the fourth, their hands swell and stream with
perspiration. In the fifth, their muscles are cut and their bones
pulled out. In the sixth, their shoulders are pricked with a trident
and the skin rubbed with a hard brush. In the seventh, holes are bored
into their flesh. In the eighth, they are made to sit on spikes. In
the ninth, they wear iron clothes. In the tenth, they are placed under
heavy pieces of wood, stone, earth, or tiles. In the eleventh, their
eyes are put out. In the twelfth, their mouths are choked with dust.
In the thirteenth, they are perpetually dosed with nasty medicines. In
the fourteenth, it is so slippery they are always falling down. In the
fifteenth, their mouths are painfully pricked. In the sixteenth, their
bodies are buried under broken stones, &c., the head alone being left
out.
Those who cheat the customs and evade taxes; those who repudiate their
rent, use weighted scales, sell sham medicines, water their rice,[364]
utter base coin, get deeply in debt, sell doctored[365] silks and
satins, scrape[366] or add size to linen cloth; those who do not make
way for the cripples, old and young; those who encroach upon petty
trade rights[367] of old or young; those who delay in delivering
letters entrusted to them; steal bricks from walls as they pass by, or
oil and candles from lamps;[368] poor people who do not behave
properly and rich people who are not compassionate to the poor; those
who promise a loan and go back on their word; those who see people
suffering from illness, yet cannot bring themselves to part with
certain useful drugs they may have in their possession; those who know
good prescriptions but keep them secret; those who throw vessels which
have contained medicine or broken cups and bottles into the street;
those who allow their mules and ponies to be a nuisance to other
people; those who destroy their neighbour’s crops or his walls and
fences; those who try to bewitch their enemies,[369] and those who try
to frighten people in any way,--all these shall be punished according
to the gravity of their offences, and shall be thrust by the devils
into the great Gehenna until their time arrives for passing into the
Fifth Court.
O ye children of this world, if on the 18th day of the 2nd moon you
register an oath to sin no more, then you may escape the various wards
of this Hall; and if to this book you add examples of rewards and
punishments following upon virtues and crimes, and hand them down to
posterity for the good of the human race, so that all who read may
repent them of their wickednesses--then they will be without sin, and
you not without merit!
THE FIFTH COURT.
His Infernal Majesty, Yen Lo,[370] said,--“Our proper place is in the
First Court; but, pitying those who die by foul means, and should be
sent back to earth to have their wrongs redressed, we have moved our
judgment-seat to the great hell at the bottom of the Ocean, away to
the north-east below the Wu-chiao rock, and have subdivided this hell
into sixteen wards for the torment of souls. All those shades who come
before us have already suffered long tortures in the previous four
Courts, whence, if they are hardened sinners, they are passed on after
seven days to this Court, where if again found to be utterly hardened,
corruption will overtake them by the fifth or seventh day. All shades
cry out either that they have left some vow unfulfilled, or that they
wish to build a temple or a bridge, make a road, clean out a river or
well, publish some book teaching people to be virtuous, that they have
not released their due number of lives, that they have filial duties
or funeral obsequies to perform, some act of kindness to repay, &c.,
&c. For these reasons they pray to be allowed to return once more to
the light of day, and are always ready to make oath that henceforth
they will lead most exemplary lives. We, hearing this, reply,--In days
gone by ye openly worked evil, but now that your boat has reached the
midstream, ye bethink yourselves of caulking the leak. For although
P‘u-sa in his great mercy decreed that there should be a modification
of torture, and that good works might be set off against evil, the
same being submitted to God and ratified by Divine Decree, to be
further published in the realms below and in the Infernal City--yet we
Judges of the Ten Courts have not yet received one single virtuous man
amongst us, who, coming in the flesh, might carry this _Divine
Panorama_ back with him to the light of day. Truly those who suffer in
hell and on earth cannot complain, and virtuous men are rare! But now
ye have come to my Court, having beheld your own wickedness in the
mirror of sin. No more--bull-headed, horse-faced devils, away with
them to the Terrace[371] that they may once more gaze upon their lost
homes!”