法苑珠林 7.63

7.63

Liu Zhigan of Hedong under the Tang became magistrate of Changju County at the beginning of the Zhenguan era. One night he died suddenly, and revived the next morning. He recounted: At first, he was suddenly summoned by underworld officials and brought to a great government bureau. After the envoy presented Zhigan, he said to him: "There is now an official vacancy, and so we have troubled you to assume it." Zhigan declined on the grounds of his aged parents, and further stated that according to his own meritorious karma he ought not to die just yet. The king ordered an examination of the registers, and it was indeed so. He then said to him: "You are not yet due to die; you may provisionally serve as acting registrar." Zhigan agreed. Bowing in thanks, the clerk led him out to the department. In the department, five judges sat in a row; Zhigan was the sixth. The hall was where the senior officials sat; its three bays each had couches and tables, and the administrative affairs were extremely crowded and pressing. At the western end was a vacant seat without a judge; the clerk led Zhigan to take the empty seat. The clerks brought documents and account ledgers, had Zhigan sign them, placed them on the table, and then withdrew to stand below the steps. Zhigan asked about this, and they replied: "The foul qi presses too close to you; we merely answer from afar concerning the matters in the dockets." Zhigan examined and read them, finding them just like those in the human world, and thereupon endorsed and signed the texts. After a while, food was brought, and all the judges ate together; Zhigan also wanted to join them. The judges said: "Since you are acting provisionally, you should not eat this." Zhigan complied and in the end did not dare to eat. Every day, a clerk would escort Zhigan back to his house, where he would revive just at dawn. Having returned to his family, when dusk fell, the clerk came again to welcome him, arriving there at daybreak. Thus he knew that day and night are reversed between the hidden and the manifest realms. Thereupon he adjudicated underworld affairs by night and attended to county duties by day, which became his routine. After more than a year, while in the underworld department, Zhigan got up to go to the privy. To the west of the hall, he saw a woman around thirty years old, graceful in appearance and dressed in fresh, bright clothes, standing and covering her tears. Zhigan asked who she was, and she replied: "I am the wife of the administrative assistant for the granary of Xingzhou. I have been summoned here, having just parted from my husband; that is why I am sorrowful." Zhigan asked a clerk about it, and the clerk said: "The authorities summoned her for questioning, and merely to use her as a witness in her husband's case." Zhigan then said to the woman: "I am the magistrate of Changju County. If you are interrogated, please explain yourself clearly, and do not implicate the administrative assistant so that both of you die, which would be of no benefit." The woman said: "Truly I do not wish to implicate him, but I fear the officials may coerce me." Zhigan said: "If you refrain from implicating him, you need not worry about coercion." The woman agreed. Soon after, Zhigan returned to the prefecture and first asked whether the administrative assistant's wife was ill. The administrative assistant said: "My wife is young and has no illness." Zhigan told him what he had seen, describing her clothes and appearance, and urged him to cultivate merit. The administrative assistant ran home and saw his wife weaving at the loom without any trouble, and so did not quite believe it. More than ten days later, the administrative assistant's wife died of a sudden illness; only then was the administrative assistant frightened, and he cultivated merit to avert calamity. Furthermore, two officials of Xingzhou, whose terms of evaluation had expired and who were due to go to the capital for appointment selection, said to Zhigan: "You judge affairs in the underworld; please ask what posts we will receive in the selection." When Zhigan went to the underworld department, he inquired about their names with a junior registrar. The registrar said: "The name rosters are all sealed in a stone casket; only after checking for two days can an answer be had." When the appointed time arrived, he reported back, detailing the official titles the two men would obtain that year. Zhigan reported this to the two men. When they reached the capital and were evaluated by the Ministry of Personnel, the proposed posts were entirely different from the report. The prefectural officials heard of this and spoke to Zhigan. Later he asked the junior registrar, who re-examined the roster and said: "It is definitively as checked, with no mistake." Subsequently, when the candidates passed through the Chancellery, the Chancellery examined and rejected them back to the Ministry of Personnel; the new assignments turned out to be precisely those checked and reported from the underworld roster. Thereupon everyone was convinced. Whenever Zhigan saw in the underworld registers the names, appearances, and dates of death of his relatives and acquaintances, he would inform them and urge them to cultivate merit, and many were able to avoid it. After Zhigan had served provisionally for three years, his departmental clerk came and reported: "We have already obtained Revenue Officer Li of Longzhou, who has been granted the regular post to replace you; you will no longer adjudicate." When Zhigan arrived at the prefecture, he informed Prefect Li. Li Defeng sent someone to Longzhou to verify it; the revenue officer had already passed away, and upon asking the day of his death, it was the very time the clerk had come to report. From then on it ceased completely. Later, the prefectural authorities dispatched Zhigan to escort prisoners to the capital. Reaching the borders of Fengzhou, four prisoners all escaped. Zhigan was anxious and frightened, but could not capture them. Lodging for the night at a relay station, he suddenly saw his former subordinate clerk arrive, who reported: "The prisoners have all been caught. One is dead; three are in the western valley of the Southern Mountains, and all have been captured and bound. May you have no worries!" Having finished speaking, he took his leave. Zhigan immediately requested men and soldiers to enter the western valley of the Southern Mountains, and indeed found the four prisoners. Knowing they could not escape, the prisoners resisted; Zhigan fought them and killed one prisoner, while the other three were bound, exactly as reported. Zhigan now holds an office in the south as judicial administrator of Cizhou. Liu Heng, minister of the Court of Imperial Entertainments, recounted this to me. When Heng was prefect of Qiongzhou, he met Zhigan and questioned him in person; moreover, Censor Pei Tongjie also said he had seen him. Several people recount it like this. (The above one verification is from the Mingbao ji.)