Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. 2 (of 2)-8

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!”

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.[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.