and Earth produce mortals, that father and mother bring the child to
maturity--truly no easy matter; and, ignoring the four obligations,[710]
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,[711] vainly striving to procure a substitute.[712]
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;[713] 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;[714] 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;[715] 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;[716] wives and concubines who
slight their marital lords; those who fail in their duties as acting
sons,[717] 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;[718] 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,[719]
utter base coin, get deeply in debt, sell doctored[720] silks and
satins, scrape[721] 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[722] 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;[723] 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,[724] 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,[725] 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[726] that they may once more gaze upon their lost
homes!”
This Terrace is curved in front like a bow; it looks east, west, and
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.[727] 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[728] 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.[729] 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,[730] 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,[731] 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;[732] who steal the gold from the inside[733] 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;[734] 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,[735] the Sun and Moon and
Seven Stars, the Royal Mother and the God of Longevity on the same
article,[736] or representations of any of the Immortals; those who
embroider the Svastika[737] 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[738] 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.