south. It is eighty-one _li_ from one extreme to the other. The back
part is like the string of the bow; it is enclosed by a wall of sharp
swords. It is 490 feet high; its sides are knife-blades; and the whole
is in sixty-three storeys. No good shade comes to this Terrace;
neither do those whose balance of good and evil is exact. Wicked souls
alone behold their homes close by and can see and hear what is going
on. They hear old and young talking together; they see their last
wishes disregarded and their instructions disobeyed. Everything seems
to have undergone a change. The property they scraped together with so
much trouble is dissipated and gone. The husband thinks of taking
another wife; the widow meditates second nuptials.[372] Strangers are
in possession of the old estate; there is nothing to divide amongst
the children. Debts long since paid are brought again for settlement,
and the survivors are called upon to acknowledge claims upon the
departed. Debts owed are lost for want of evidence, with endless
recriminations, abuse, and general confusion, all of which falls upon
the three families[373] of the deceased. They in their anger speak ill
of him that is gone. He sees his children become corrupt, and his
friends fall away. Some, perhaps, for the sake of bygone times, may
stroke the coffin and let fall a tear, departing quickly with a cold
smile. Worse than that, the wife sees her husband tortured in the
yamên; the husband sees his wife victim to some horrible disease,
lands gone, houses destroyed by flood or fire, and everything in
unutterable confusion--the reward of former sins.[374] All souls,
after the misery of the Terrace, will be thrust into the great
Gehenna, and, when the amount of wickedness of each has been
ascertained, they will be passed through the sixteen wards for the
punishment of evil hearts. In the Gehenna they will be buried under
wooden pillars, bound with copper snakes, crushed by iron dogs, tied
tightly hand and foot, be ripped open and have their hearts torn out,
minced up and given to snakes, their entrails being thrown to dogs.
Then, when their time is up, the pain will cease and their bodies
become whole once more, preparatory to being passed through the
sixteen wards.
In the first are non-worshippers and sceptics. In the second, those
who have destroyed or hurt living creatures. In the third, those who
do not fulfil their vows. In the fourth, believers in false doctrines,
magicians, and sorcerers. In the fifth, those who tyrannize over the
weak but cringe to the strong; also those who openly wish for
another’s death. In the sixth, those who try to put their misfortunes
on to other people’s shoulders. In the seventh, those who lead immoral
lives. In the eighth, those who injure others to benefit themselves.
In the ninth, those who are parsimonious and will not help people in
trouble. In the tenth, those who steal and involve the innocent. In
the eleventh, those who forget kindness or seek revenge. In the
twelfth, those who by pernicious drugs stir up others to quarrel,
keeping themselves out of harm’s way. In the thirteenth, those who
deceive or spread false reports. In the fourteenth, those who love
brawling and implicate others. In the fifteenth, those who envy the
virtuous and wise. In the sixteenth, those who are lost in vice,
evil-speakers, slanderers, and such like.
All who disbelieve the doctrine of Cause and Effect, who obstruct good
works, make a pretence of piety, talk of other people’s sins, burn or
injure religious books, omit to fast when praying for the sick,
interfere with the adoration of Buddha, slander the priesthood, or, if
scholars, abstain from instructing women and children; those who dig
up graves and obliterate all traces thereof, set light to woods and
forests, allow their servants to be careless in handling fire and thus
endanger their neighbours’ property; those who wantonly discharge
arrows and bolts, who try their strength against the sick or weak,
throw potsherds over a wall, poison fish, let off guns, catch birds
either with net, sticky pole,[375] or trap; those who throw down salt
to kill plants, who do not bury dead cats and venomous snakes deep in
the ground, who dig out corpses, who break the soil or alter their
walls and stoves at wrong seasons,[376] who encroach on the public
road or take possession of other people’s land, who fill up wells and
drains, &c., &c.,--all these, when they return from the Terrace, shall
first be tortured in the great Gehenna, and then such as are to have
their hearts minced shall be passed into the sixteen wards, thence to
be sent on to the Sixth Court for the punishment of other crimes.
Those who in life have not been guilty of the above sins, or, having
sinned, did on the 8th day of the 1st moon, fasting, register a vow
to sin no more, shall not only escape the punishments of this Court,
but shall also gain some further remission of torture in the Sixth
Court. Those, however, who are guilty of taking life, of gross
immorality, of stealing and implicating the innocent, of ingratitude
and revenge, of infatuated vice which no warnings can turn from its
course,--these shall not escape one jot of their punishments.
THE SIXTH COURT.
This Court is situated at the bottom of the great Ocean, due north of
the Wu-chiao rock. It is a vast, noisy Gehenna, many leagues in
extent, and around it are sixteen wards.
In the first, the souls are made to kneel for long periods on iron
shot. In the second, they are placed up to their necks in filth. In
the third, they are pounded till the blood runs out. In the fourth,
their mouths are opened with iron pincers and filled full of needles.
In the fifth, they are bitten by rats. In the sixth, they are enclosed
in a net of thorns and nipped by locusts. In the seventh, they are
crushed to a jelly. In the eighth, their skin is lacerated and they
are beaten on the raw. In the ninth, their mouths are filled with
fire. In the tenth, they are licked by flames. In the eleventh, they
are subjected to noisome smells. In the twelfth, they are butted by
oxen and trampled on by horses. In the thirteenth, their hearts are
scratched. In the fourteenth, their heads are rubbed till their skulls
come off. In the fifteenth, they are chopped in two at the waist. In
the sixteenth, their skin is taken off and rolled up into spills.
Those discontented ones who rail against Heaven and revile Earth, who
are always finding fault either with the wind, thunder, heat, cold,
fine weather or rain; those who let their tears fall towards the
north;[377] who steal the gold from the inside[378] or scrape the
gilding from the outside of images; those who take holy names in vain,
who shew no respect for written paper, who throw down dirt and rubbish
near pagodas or temples, who use dirty cook-houses and stoves for
preparing the sacrificial meats, who do not abstain from eating beef
and dog-flesh;[379] those who have in their possession blasphemous or
obscene books and do not destroy them, who obliterate or tear books
which teach man to be good, who carve on common articles of household
use the symbol of the origin of all things,[380] the Sun and Moon and
Seven Stars, the Royal Mother and the God of Longevity on the same
article,[381] or representations of any of the Immortals; those who
embroider the Svastika[382] on fancy work, or mark characters on silk,
satin, or cloth, on banners, beds, chairs, tables, or any kind of
utensil; those who secretly wear clothes adorned with the dragon and
the phœnix[383] only to be trampled under foot, who buy up grain and
hold until the price is exorbitantly high--all these shall be thrust
into the great and noisy Gehenna, there to be examined as to their
misdeeds and passed accordingly into one of the sixteen wards, whence,
at the expiration of their time, they will be sent for further
questioning on to the Seventh Court.
All dwellers upon earth who on the 8th day of the 3rd moon, fasting,
register a vow from that date to sin no more, and, on the 14th and
15th of the 5th moon, the 3rd of the 8th moon, and the 10th of the
10th moon, to practise abstinence, vowing moreover to exert themselves
to convert others,--these shall escape the bitterness of all the
above-mentioned wards.
THE SEVENTH COURT.
His Infernal Majesty, T‘ai Shan, reigns at the bottom of the great
Ocean, away to the north-west, below the Wu-chiao rock. His is a
vast, noisy Court, measuring many leagues in circumference and
subdivided into sixteen wards, as follows:--
In the first, the wicked souls are made to swallow their own blood. In
the second, their legs are pierced and thrust into a fiery pit. In the
third, their chests are cut open. In the fourth, their hair is torn
out with iron combs. In the fifth, they are gnawed by dogs. In the
sixth, great stones are placed on their heads. In the seventh, their
skulls are pierced. In the eighth, they wear fiery clothes. In the
ninth, their skin is torn and pulled by pigs. In the tenth, they are
pecked by huge birds. In the eleventh, they are hung up and beaten on
the feet. In the twelfth, their tongues are pulled out and their jaws
bored. In the thirteenth, they are disembowelled. In the fourteenth,
they are trampled on by mules and bitten by badgers. In the fifteenth,
their fingers are ironed with hot irons. In the sixteenth, they are
boiled in oil.
All mortals who practise eating red lead[384] and certain other
nauseous articles,[385] who spend more than they should upon wine, who
kidnap human beings for sale, who steal clothes and ornaments from
coffins, who break up dead men’s bones for medicine, who separate
people from their relatives, who sell the girl brought up in the house
to be their son’s wife, who allow their wives[386] to drown female
children, who stifle their illegitimate offspring, who unite to cheat
another in gambling, who act as tutors without being properly strict,
and thus wrong their pupils, who beat and injure their slaves without
estimating the punishment by the fault, who regard districts entrusted
to their charge in the light of so much spoil, who disobey their
elders, who talk at random and go back on their word, who stir up
others to quarrel and fight--all these shall, upon verification of
their sins, be taken from the great Gehenna and passed through the
proper wards, to be forwarded when their time has expired to the
Eighth Court, again to be tortured according to their deserts.
All things may not be used as drugs. It is bad enough to slay birds,
beasts, reptiles, and fishes, in order to prepare medicine for the
sick; but to use red lead and many of the filthy messes in vogue is
beyond all bounds of decency, and those who foul their mouths with
these nasty mixtures, no matter how virtuous they may otherwise be,
will not only derive no benefit from saying their prayers, but will be
punished for so doing without mercy.
Ye who hear these words make haste to repent! From to-day forbear to
take life, buy many birds and animals in order to set them free,[387]
and every morning when you wash your teeth mutter a prayer to Buddha.
Thus, when your last hour comes, a good angel will stand by your side
and purify you of your former sins.
Some steal the bones of people who have been burnt to death or the
bodies of illegitimate children, for the purpose of compounding
medicines; others steal skulls and bones (from graves) with the same
object. Worst of all are those who carry off bones by the basketful,
using the hard ones for making various articles and grinding down the
soft ones for the manufacture of pottery.[388] These, no matter what
may have been their good works on earth, will not obtain thereby any
remission of punishment; but when they are brought down below, the
Ruler of the Infernal Regions will first pass them from the great
Gehenna into the proper wards, and will send instructions to the Tenth
Court that when they are born again on earth it shall be either
without ears, or eyes, hand, foot, mouth, lips, or nose, or maimed in
some way or other. Yet such as have thus sinned may still avoid this
punishment, if only they are willing to pray and repent, vowing never
to sin again. Or if they buy coffins for the poor and persuade others
to do likewise, by these means giving a decent burial to many
corpses--then, when the death-summons comes, the Spirits of the Home
and Hearth will make a black mark upon the warrant, and punishment
will be remitted.
Sometimes, when there is a famine, people have nothing to eat and die
of hunger, and wicked men, almost before the breath is out of their
bodies, cut them up and sell their flesh to others for food--a horrid
crime indeed. Those who are guilty of such practices will, on arrival
in the lower regions, be tortured in the various Courts for the space
of forty-nine[389] days, and then the judge of the Tenth Court will be
instructed to notify the judge of the First Court to put them down in
his register for a new birth,--if among men, as hungry famished
outcasts, and if among animals as loathing the food that falls to
their lot, and by-and-by perishing of hunger. Such is their reward.
Besides the above, those who have eaten what is unfit for food and
willingly continue to do so, will be punished either among men or
animals according to their deserts. Their throats will swell, and
though devoured by hunger they will be unable to swallow, and thus
die. Those who do not err a second time may be forgiven as they
deserve; but those who in times of distress subscribe money for the
sufferers, prepare gruel, give away rice to the needy, or distribute
ginger tea[390] and soup in the open street, and thus sustain life a
little longer and do real good to their fellow creatures--all these
shall not only obtain remission of their sins, but carry on a balance
of good to their account which shall ensure them a happy old age in
the life to come.[391]
Of the above three clauses, two were proposed by the officials
attached to this Seventh Court, the third by the Chief Justice of the
great Gehenna, and the whole submitted together for the approval of
God, the following Rescript being obtained:--“Let it be as proposed;
let the three clauses be copied into the _Divine Panorama_, and let
the officials concerned be promoted or rewarded. Also, in case of
crimes other than those already provided for, let such be punished
according to the statutes of the Rulers of the Four Continents on
earth, and let any evasion of punishment and implication of innocent
people be at once reported by the proper officials for our
consideration. This from the Throne! Obey!”
O ye sons and daughters of men, if on the 27th of the 3rd moon,
fasting and turned towards the north, ye register a vow to pray and
repent, and to publish the whole of the _Divine Panorama_ for the
enlightenment of mankind, then ye may escape the bitterness of this
Seventh Court.
THE EIGHTH COURT.
His Infernal Majesty, Tu Shih, reigns at the bottom of the great
Ocean, due east below the Wu-chiao rock, in a vast noisy Court many
leagues in extent, subdivided into sixteen wards as follows:--
In the first, the wicked souls are rolled down mountains in carts. In
the second, they are shut up in huge saucepans. In the third, they are
minced. In the fourth, their noses, eyes, mouths, &c. are stopped up.
In the fifth, their uvulas are cut off. In the sixth, they are exposed
to all kinds of filth. In the seventh, their extremities are cut off.
In the eighth, their viscera[392] are fried. In the ninth, their
marrow is cauterized. In the tenth, their bowels are scratched. In the
eleventh, they are inwardly burned with fire. In the twelfth, they are
disembowelled. In the thirteenth, their chests are torn open. In the
fourteenth, their skulls are split and their teeth dragged out. In the
fifteenth, they are hacked and gashed. In the sixteenth, they are
pricked with steel prongs.
Those who are unfilial, who do not nourish their relatives while alive
or bury them when dead, who subject their parents to fright, sorrow,
or anxiety--if they do not quickly repent them of their former sins,
the spirit of the Hearth will report their misdoings and gradually
deprive them of what prosperity they may be enjoying. Those who
indulge in magic and sorcery will, after death, when they have been
tortured in the other Courts, be brought here to this Court, and
dragged backwards by bull-headed horse-faced devils to be thrust into
the great Gehenna. Then when they have been tortured in the various
wards they will be passed on to the Tenth Court, whence at the
expiration of a _kalpa_[393] they will be sent back to earth with
changed heads and faces for ever to find their place amongst the brute
creation. But those who believe in the _Divine Panorama_, and on the
1st of the 4th moon make a vow of repentance, repeating the same every
night and morning to the Spirit of the Hearth, shall, by virtue of one
of three characters, _obedient_, _acquiescent_, or _repentant_, to be
traced on their foreheads at death by the Spirit of the Hearth,
escape half the punishments from the first to the Seventh Court
inclusive, and escape this Eighth Court altogether, being passed on to
the Ninth Court, where cases of arson and poisoning are investigated,
and finally born again from the Tenth Court among mankind as before.
To this God added, “Whosoever may circulate the _Divine Panorama_ for
the information of the world at large shall escape all punishment from
the First to the Eighth Court inclusive. Passing through the Ninth and
Tenth Courts, they shall be born again amongst men in some happy
state.”
THE NINTH COURT.
His Infernal Majesty, P‘ing Têng, reigns at the bottom of the great
Ocean, away to the south-west, below the Wu-chiao rock. His is the
vast, circular hell of A-pi, many leagues in breadth, jealously
enclosed by an iron net, and subdivided into sixteen wards, as
follows:--
In the first, the wicked souls have their bones beaten and their
bodies scorched. In the second, their muscles are drawn out and their
bones rapped. In the third, ducks eat their heart and liver. In the
fourth, dogs eat their intestines and lungs. In the fifth, they are
splashed with hot oil. In the sixth, their heads are crushed in a
frame, and their tongues and teeth are drawn out. In the seventh,
their brains are taken out and their skulls filled with hedge-hogs. In
the eighth, their heads are steamed and their brains scraped. In the
ninth, they are dragged about by sheep till they drop to pieces. In
the tenth, they are squeezed in a wooden press and pricked on the
head. In the eleventh, their hearts are ground in a mill. In the
twelfth, boiling water drips on to their bodies. In the thirteenth,
they are stung by wasps. In the fourteenth, they are tortured by ants
and maggots; they are then stewed, and finally wrung out (like
clothes). In the fifteenth, they are stung by scorpions. In the
sixteenth, they are tortured by venomous snakes, crimson and scarlet.
All who on earth have committed one of the ten great crimes, and have
deserved either the lingering death, decapitation, strangulation, or
other punishment, shall, after passing through the tortures of the
previous Courts, be brought to this Court, together with those guilty
of arson, of making _ku_ poison,[394] bad books, stupefying drugs, and
many other disgraceful acts. Then, if it be found that, hearkening to
the words of the _Divine Panorama_, they subsequently destroyed the
blocks of these books, burnt their prescriptions, and ceased
practising the magical art, they shall escape the punishments of this
Court and be passed on to the Tenth Court, thence to be born again
amongst the sons of men. But if, having heard the warnings of the
_Divine Panorama_, they still continue to sin, from the Second to the
Eighth Court their tortures shall be increased. They shall be bound on
to a hollow copper pillar, clasping it round with their hands and
feet. Then the pillar shall be filled with fierce fire, so as to burn
into their heart and liver; and afterwards their feet shall be plunged
into the great Gehenna of A-pi, knives shall be thrust into their
lungs, they shall bite their own hearts, and gradually sink to the
uttermost depths of hell, there to endure excruciating torments until
the victims of their wickedness have either recovered the property out
of which they were cheated, or the life that was taken away from them,
and until every trace of book, prescription, picture, &c. formerly
used by these wicked souls has disappeared from the face of the earth.
Then, and only then, may they pass into the Tenth Court to be born
again in one of the Six States of existence.
O ye who have committed such crimes as these, on the 8th of the 4th
moon, or the 1st or 15th (of any moon), fasting swear that you will
buy up all bad books and magical pamphlets and utterly destroy them
with fire; or that you will circulate copies of the _Divine Panorama_
to be a warning to others! Then, when your last moment is at hand, the
Spirit of the Hearth will write on your forehead the two words _He
obeyed_, and from the Second up to the Ninth Court your good deeds
will be rewarded by a diminution of such punishments as you have
incurred. People in the higher ranks of life who secure incendiaries
or murderers, who destroy the blocks of bad books, or publish notices
warning others, and offer rewards for the production of such books,
will be rewarded by the success of their sons and grandsons at the
public examinations. Poor people who, by a great effort, manage to
have the _Divine Panorama_ circulated for the benefit of mankind, will
be forwarded at once to the Tenth Court, and thence be born again in
some happy state on earth.
THE TENTH COURT.
His Infernal Majesty, Chuan Lun,[395] reigns in the Dark Land, due
east, away below the Wu-chiao rock, just opposite the Wu-cho of this
world. There he has six bridges, of gold, silver, jade, stone, wood,
and planks, over which all souls must pass. He examines the shades
that are sent from the other courts, and, according to their deserts,
sends them back to earth as men, women, old, young, high, low, rich,
or poor, forwarding monthly a list of their names to the judge of the
First Court for transmission to Fêng-tu.[396]
The regulations provide that all beasts, birds, fishes, and insects,
whether biped, quadruped, or otherwise, shall after death become
_chien_,[397] to be born again for long and short lives alternately.
But such as may possibly have taken life, and such as must necessarily
have taken life, will pass through a revolution of the Wheel, and
then, when their sins have been examined, they will be sent up on
earth to receive the proper retribution. At the end of every year a
report will be forwarded to Fêng-tu.
Those scholars who study the Book of Changes, or priests who chant
their liturgies, cannot be tortured in the Ten Courts for the sins
they have committed. When they come to this Court their names and
features are taken down in a book kept for the purpose, and they are
forwarded to Mother Mêng, who drives them on to the Terrace of
Oblivion and doses them with the draught of forgetfulness. Then they
are born again in the world for a day, a week, or it may be a year,
when they die once more; and now, having forgotten the holy words of
the Three Religions,[398] they are carried off by devils to the
various Courts, and are properly punished for their former crimes.
All souls whose balance of good and evil is exact, whose period, or
whose crimes are many and good deeds few, as soon as their future
state has been decided,--man, woman, beautiful, ugly, comfort, toil,
wealth, or poverty, as the case may be,--must pass through the Terrace
of Oblivion.
Amongst those shades, on their way to be born again in the world of
human beings, there are often to be found women who cry out that they
have some old and bitter wrong to avenge,[399] and that rather than be
born again amongst men they would prefer to enter the ranks of hungry
devils.[400] On examining them more closely it generally comes out
that they are the virtuous victims of some wicked student, who may
perhaps have an eye to their money, and accordingly dresses himself
out to entrap them, or promises marriage when sometimes he has a wife
already, or offers to take care of an aged mother or a late husband’s
children. Thus the foolish women are beguiled, and put their property
in the wicked man’s hands. By-and-by he turns round upon and reviles
them, and, losing face in the eyes of their relatives and friends,
with no one to redress their wrong, they are driven to commit suicide.
Then, hearing[401] that their seducer is likely to succeed at the
examination, they beg and implore to be allowed to go back and compass
his death. Now, although what they urge is true enough, yet that man’s
destiny may not be worked out, or the transmitted effects of his
ancestors’ virtue may not have passed away;[402] therefore, as a
compromise, these injured shades are allowed to send a spirit to the
Examination Hall to hinder and confuse him in the preparation of his
paper, or to change the names on the published list of successful
candidates; and finally, when his hour arrives, to proceed with the
spirit who carries the death-summons, seize him, and bring him to the
First Court of judgment.
Ye who on the 17th of the 4th moon swear to carry out the precepts of
the _Divine Panorama_, and frequently make these words the subject of
your conversation, may in the life to come be born again amongst men
and escape official punishments, fire, flood, and all accidents to the
body.