冥報記 3.22

3.22

Song Xingzhi, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was a native of Caoling. By nature he did not believe in the Buddha and spoke slightingly and irreverently of him. In the fifth month of the second year of the Yonghui era, he died of illness. On the ninth day of the sixth month, Wang Shu, a clerk of the Department of Punishments, died suddenly of illness and revived after two days. He himself recounted: When he first died, he saw four men come to his place, saying, 'We have come to summon you.' Shu followed them, entering a large gate, where he saw that in the western bay of a hall sat an official, stout and dark in appearance. In the eastern bay of the hall sat a monk, facing north directly opposite the official. Each had a couch, mattress, and table, and about two hundred attendant boys, some wearing caps and some not, all of handsome appearance. Below the steps were government clerks and dossiers. There was an old man in a cangue, bound and standing below the steps facing west. When Shu arrived in the courtyard, he too was bound. A clerk holding paper and brush interrogated Shu, reading the charge: 'In the eighteenth year of the Zhenguan era, when you served as an auxiliary clerk in Chang'an, why did you alter the registers?' Shu said, 'It was not Shu's fault.' The high official in the hall read his testimony, then looked down and said to the old prisoner below the eastern steps, 'Why did you falsely accuse him?' The old prisoner said, 'Xuda's age indeed had not yet arrived; it was because Shu altered the register to advance Xuda's age. I would not dare speak falsely.' Shu said, 'I was transferred to another office in the seventeenth year; my letters of appointment are at home. I request that they be retrieved and verified.' The high official thereupon summoned three of the men who had brought Shu to untie his bonds and retrieve the letters of appointment. When the letters of appointment arrived, the high official read them himself and said to the old prisoner, 'His transfer is very clear; you have no case.' He then ordered the prisoner out through the north gate. Shu saw from afar that outside the north gate it was murky and dark, with many walled enclosures, all topped with crenellated parapets; it seemed to be an evil place. The high official then wrote upon his desk and said to Shu, 'You are innocent. You are released.' Shu bowed and took his leave. A clerk led Shu to the foot of the eastern steps to bow before the monk. The monk stamped Shu's arm with a seal and said, 'Go well.' The clerk led Shu out through the east gate. Walking south, they passed through three gates; at every gate, the seal on his arm was examined before he was permitted to pass through. When they came to the fourth gate, it was extremely large, with a two-storied pavilion painted vermilion and white, and three doors opening together, shaped like an imperial city gate, heavily guarded. After his seal was verified, he was permitted out of the gate. Walking several dozen paces southeast, he heard someone call Shu again. Shu looked back and saw Vice Minister Song Xingzhi, his face a dismal dark color, his head bare, his sash undone, wearing an old scarlet robe, with short hanging hair like a foreigner's, standing below the steps of an office hall, guarded by clerks and soldiers. To the west of the steps, near the wall, was a large wooden placard more than ten feet high and about two feet wide, with large writing on the placard: 'This is a royal official awaiting investigation and trial.' The characters were large, more than a foot square, and very distinct. In the office hall were couches, seats, and tables like those in a government office, but with no people. When Xingzhi saw Shu, he said with sorrow and joy, 'Why have you come here?' Shu said, 'The authorities summoned me for investigation and questioned me about altering the registers; finding no fault, they graciously released me to return.' Xingzhi spread both hands and said to Shu, 'I am being questioned about my register of merit, but I have no register of merit in my hands. Sitting here, I am utterly exhausted, and added to this are hunger and thirst; the suffering is unspeakable. Sir, please exert yourself to go to my house and tell them to perform meritorious deeds.' Thus with earnest devotion he repeatedly urged him. Shu then took his leave and departed. Having walked several dozen paces, he was called back again. Before they could speak, an official came and sat in the hall, and angrily said to Shu, 'I am just now investigating various matters. Who are you to come recklessly to the prisoner's quarters?' He then had a soldier strike his ear. The soldier struck his ear and pushed him away. Shu ran and came to another gate. The gatekeeper clerk said, 'Your ear was struck; it must be deaf. I will remove the thing inside it for you.' He then picked at his ear with his hand, and his ear rang with sound. His release was then verified and he was let out. Outside the gate it was black as pitch; Shu did not know where to go. Groping with his hand to the west and south, there were walls everywhere; only to the east was there no obstruction, but it was dark and impassable. Shu stood still for a short while, and saw the clerk who had previously interrogated him come out from the gate and say to Shu, 'That you could still wait for me, sir, is very good. Could you beg a thousand coins for me?' Shu did not answer, thinking to himself, 'I am innocent and the officials released me to return; why should I bribe a clerk?' The clerk at once said to him, 'You must not be unprincipled, sir. If I had not brought you before the officials early just now and made you suffer two days in bonds, would you not have been exhausted?' Shu agreed in his heart, and feeling ashamed, he apologized and said, 'I shall respectfully obey your command.' The clerk said, 'I have no use for your copper coins; I only want white paper coins. I expect them to come on the fifteenth day.' Shu gave his promise, and then asked the way back. The clerk said, 'Just go two hundred paces east, and you will see an old ruined wall with a hole in it. When you see light, you may push it down, and you will arrive at your home.' Shu did as he said. He walked to the wall and pushed it; after a long time it collapsed. Shu went out through the collapsed section, and at once arrived at his residence, at the south gate of the Longzheng Ward. Thereupon he returned home. His family members were weeping; he entered the house and revived. On the fifteenth day, Shu forgot to give the money. The next day, he fell critically ill again, and saw the clerk come and say angrily, 'You are truly untrustworthy, sir! You promised to give me money, yet you did not give it. Now I must take you away again.' He then drove him along out of Hanguang Gate and ordered him to enter a great pit. Shu bowed and apologized more than a hundred times, begging to make the money; only then was he released to return, and he revived again. Shu told his family to buy a hundred sheets of paper to make money and send it. The next day Shu was critically ill again, and saw the clerk return and say, 'Fortunately you were able to give me money, sir, but it was bad and of poor quality.' Shu apologized again and begged to make more, which was granted. When the twenty-first day arrived, Shu ordered that sixty coins be spent to buy a hundred sheets of white paper to make paper money, and together with wine and food, he burned them himself by the water of the western canal of Longzheng Ward. Thereafter his body felt light and healthy, and he was completely cured. When I, [Tang] Lin, heard of this matter, I was with Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice Liu Yanke and Court of Judicial Review Vice Minister Xin Mao, about to interrogate prisoners in the Court of Judicial Review. Liu summoned Shu to come, and questioned him face-to-face together with [Xin] Mao, and this is what he said.