法苑珠林 71.29

71.29

During the Wude era of the Tang dynasty, Kong Ke, an adjutant secretary in the Area Command of Suizhou, suddenly fell ill and died. After one day he revived. He recounted of himself that he had been taken to an official's office, where he was asked, 'Why did you kill two oxen?' Ke said, 'I did not kill them.' The official said, 'Your younger brother testifies that you killed them; why do you not confess?' Thereupon he summoned Ke's brother. The brother had already been dead for several years. When he arrived, he was bound under very severe fetters and cangues. The official asked, 'Is what you said about your elder brother killing the oxen true or false?' The brother said, 'My elder brother was previously sent as an envoy to pacify the Liao rebels and ordered me to kill the oxen to feast them. It was truly obeying my brother's orders, not killing them on my own.' Ke said, 'Ordering my brother to kill the oxen to feast them is true, yet it was state business. What sin does Ke have in this?' The official said, 'You slaughtered to feast the Liao to claim pacification as merit, using it to seek official reward for your personal benefit; how can you call it state business?' He then said to Ke's brother, 'Because you testified against your brother, we detained you for a long time. Now that your brother admits to having ordered the killing, you are without sin and are released to receive rebirth at will.' Having spoken, the brother suddenly vanished, and they never even had a chance to converse. The official further asked Ke, 'Why did you also kill two ducks?' Ke said, 'When previously serving as a county magistrate, I only killed ducks to provide for official guests; how could that be Ke's sin?' The official said, 'Official guests had their own rations and no ducks were allotted. You provided ducks to them in order to gain a good reputation; how is this not a sin?' He further asked, 'Why did you also kill six chicken eggs?' Ke said, 'In my entire life I have not eaten chicken eggs. I only recall when I was young, at nine years old, on the Cold Food Festival, my mother would always give me six eggs, so I boiled and ate them.' The official said, 'Then do you wish to push the blame onto your mother?' Ke said, 'I would not dare; I am only stating the cause. This was killed by Ke himself.' The official said, 'You killed the lives of others; you must receive [the retribution] yourself.' Having spoken, suddenly several tens of men all came and seized Ke to take him away. Ke shouted loudly, 'The court is also greatly unjust and arbitrary!' Hearing this, the official called him back and asked, 'How is it unjust and arbitrary?' Ke said, 'Every sin since my birth is not left out, while not a single merit cultivated since my birth is recorded. How is this not arbitrary?' The official asked the clerk in charge, 'What merit does Ke have? Why was it not recorded?' The clerk replied, 'Merits are also completely recorded. We weigh the amount of sin and merit: if merit is much and sin is little, we first have him receive merit; if sin is much and merit is little, we first have him receive punishment. However, Ke has little merit and much sin, so we had not yet discussed his merit.' The official was enraged and said, 'Even if he must receive punishment first, why did you not chant out the merits to show him?' He ordered that the clerk be given one hundred lashes. In an instant the whipping was finished, blood flowing and splattering the ground. Thereupon he chanted out the merits Ke had cultivated throughout his life, with none omitted. The official said to Ke, 'You should receive punishment first. I will grant you leave to return for seven days; you may diligently pursue merit.' Thereupon he sent people to escort him out, and he was on the verge of reviving. Ke gathered a great assembly of monks and nuns to practice the Path and make confession, applying himself with diligent austerities, and recounted the matter himself. When seven days arrived, he bid farewell to his family, and in a moment his life ended. Lin's elder brother was a subordinate in the Sui Area Command, and therefore knew the details. (The one verification above is from the *Mingbao ji*.)