by Ji, Yun
"I am afraid that I couldn't agree with you," Another friend politely, almost with feminine delicacy, interrupted. "I don’t think that anyone one will dare to get anywhere near his grave at all. Nobody in the earth will touch or even pull those coins out of his rotting body. He had been a cantankerous person and should be a ferocious ghost. When we misunderstood the usage of those odd-placed coins, he appeared in your dream and reprimanded you severely. This episode is now well-known. Whoever attempted to dig up or even to smirch his coffin for those seven thousand pennies, he will certainly pursue that thoughtless intruder from heaven to hell forever. Furthermore, those copper coins are heavy to carry. Comparing with gold and silver nuggets, they don’t have that much value at all. For such meager gain, who would like to cross with a vicious ghost?" Nodding their heads courteously, all of his friends and colleagues smiled and agreed with him.
This fable teases the religious blockheads, whom had ignored the carnal pleasures of the present world, reserving all of the wealth for the unknown one.
46 UNDER A HIGH FEVER My friend Mr. Sun once suffered a high fever and fell into a deep coma. He could sense that his spirit was out of his body, wandering and floating in the air. Traveling in the sky for hours, he noticed a grand, well-decorated building, with many souls hastily entering and leaving.
According to legend, that must have been the underworld court. It’s the starting point for a new ghost. The main functions of this court are to assort, categorize, judge and assign those ‘new-born’ ghosts’ destinations. Out of curiosity, he lowered his head and raised his long sleeve. Covering most part of his face, Mr. Sun cautiously glanced at the ground. Trying to avoid direct eye contact with the flagrant, sturdy ghost guards, he sneaked into and successfully mingled himself with a long line of the souls. Under careful supervision, those newcomers proceeded forward with dead silence, entering that grandiose building from a small, side entrance. With impatience and self-importance, several stern-face ghost officers, yelling and scolding all the time, conducted the traffic. They overlooked Mr. Sun, a half-human spirit. He timidly followed them to a huge hall and sat in the audience. With prudence, he looked at the stage. The dignified ghost master was seated behind a desk. His hairy right hand held a brush pen and left hand thumbed through a big book. After asking one or two questions on a new ghost, he mindfully listened to his responses and promptly jotted down the verdict. Without delay, two muscular ghosts stepped in and escorted the defender to his assigned location. The procedure was both speedy and effective.
He observed a full-dressed, high-ranking ex-government official whom approached the center of the stage without announcement. That behavior was a breach of the underworld protocol. In aggravation, that highly-cultivated soul annoyingly sat in front of and glanced at the judge, with a touch of paternal contempt. Vigorously gesturing, he complained about his subordinates’ deception. Before the ghost master could utter a word in response, the well-learned ghost indignantly named several intriguers and demanded him to punish them severely. The ghost master patiently listened to his uproarious protest, with a grin and a face full of skepticism. Out of professional courtesy, he frequently nodded and sighed in according to the ex-government official’s emotion.
After a moment of tolerance, he interrupted and remarked, "I believe that you tell me the truth. But is your complaint reflecting the whole truth? It is easy to fingerprint others. Could you do a soul-search and find fault on yourself? Their behavior reflects your leadership. Due to your favoritism, you will naturally attract and have sycophants as your subordinates. They will be very compliant in your heyday. And they will backstab you in your downtime. Why would you expect them to be loyal to you all the time? At best, they are fair-weather friends. They are crooks, whose specialties are flattery and treachery. You have no position to blame them whom you had handpicked them all by yourselves. They will be ultimately held responsible of their misbehavior. Our Almighty will take care of them. The decrees of their misdeed are faithfully recorded on this thick book of underworld judgment. I will meter out their punishments accordingly. Now, you may leave."
The self-righteous ex-government official considered it for awhile, understood, thanked the ghost master, and quietly walked away. Mr. Sun finally recognized him. He stood up, intending to approach and make a conversation with that ex-government official. A ghost guard discovered this uninvited trespasser and loudly reprimanded him for his premature appearance. Mr. Sun was frightened and horrified. He suddenly woke up with sweat all over his body.
One's personality will be reflected by one's friends. 47 SERVANT WONG My friend General Dong had a servant whom was named Mr. Wong. He was very mild-tempered and had never argued with anyone in over ten years. Once, on a certain summer day, the General traveled with him in a wild field. It was almost dusk because of this nobody couldn observe a residence under the horizon. Horse-riding and searching for miles, they eventually noticed and stopped by an abandoned mansion. They intended to stay in this dilapidated location for the night. Because of high-temperature and oppressive air, the servant slept on a huge flat rock in the backyard garden.
At midnight, he unconsciously fell into a bizarre mental state in his dream. He was neither awake nor asleep. He observed a dark gray shadow dashing in and was caught by a huge ghost, who followed it closely. This gigantic otherworldly creature grabbed the small cross-starred shadow, which actually was a hunger ghost, by his collars, shaking him violently for a moment. He then forced that fragile hunger ghost to sit himself under an aged pagoda tree and interrogated, in an ironic tone mixed indignation with intimidation.
"Well, well! Look, who is here! It is my puny-minded little intriguer. I though we will never meet again. The underworld is indeed not big enough for you to hide. Thank the Almighty. Fate permits me to pinpoint you here. You spineless and shameless worm!" Withholding his emotion with great difficulties, the ghost reminded him of their long gone friendship and his treachery against him: in short, how did the cunning hunger ghost frame, entrap and double-cross him repeatedly behind his back?
The muscular ghost clearly recalled over ten occasions. In quoting each deception, he became more aggravated and slapped him harder and harder. Furious on the verge of his self-control, he raised and held that hopeless hunger ghost in the air near his mouth, Intending to chew up and swallow him on the spot. At that critical moment, out of nowhere, an old man walked out of the long weeds and interrupted the raging ghost.
"Please, don’t let your anger run amok. Listen to my advice first. As a penalty, he already became a hunger ghost. He must endure the suffering of near starvation permanently. Why do you still want to take the law into your own hands? His wicked deeds were justly recorded. He owed you a lot in his ex-life and is destined to repay you for his crimes in the underworld."
"Holy smokes!", With amazement and disbelief, the huge ghost busted into roars of mocking laughter and jeered. "Are you joking or are you out of your mind? My dear old man! Just look at him, a pathetic bag of bones! How can you expect such a miserable creature to pay me?"
"Well! Allow me to explain it in detail." Without showing any trace of annoyance or impatience, the aged stranger elaborated. "Enormous and complicated, the universe has its own way to work things out. It is in active harmony, ruling by ethic and justice; regardless the ups and downs of events, everything ultimately will reach a state of equanimity. The wicked will be penalized for their misdeed and the virtuous be rewarded for their good behavior. The Almighty keeps an eye on the human beings. No matter how deep he was sunk himself into the abysmal pit of debts, he has to pay you back by all means someday. God will transform him into animals for several generations to come, if necessary, for him to repay them all, penny by penny. His future is saturated with misery and agony. Why bother to abuse him? Someone up there will handle it for you." Sighing profoundly, the robust ghost was placated and reluctantly released that hunger ghost. In a split of second, three of them were vanished into darkness.
As
tonished and flabbergasted, the servant Wong recollected his memory and suddenly recognized the hunger ghost. He was his acquaintance, who had died years ago. That person was very selfish, cunning and deceptive. He suspected that old man was the Earth Patron, a petty deity whose domain was often as small as one or a few villages. Double-crossing and backstabbing others, the crook may outsmart the law and escape punishment in this mundane world. Nevertheless, he is designated to recompense his victims in another world in various forms and means with interest. Justice is very patience and will eventually catch up with the evil-minded.