|
DR. Tseng's Dream (2)
After about ten li, Tseng's wife could barely walk, her feet
being swollen and sore. Tseng helped her along as best he could,
but another ten li reduced him to a state of abject fatigue. By-
and-by they saw before them a great mountain, the summit of
which was lost in the clouds; and, fearing they should be made to
ascend it, Tseng and his wife stood still and began to weep. The
lictors, however, clamored round them, and would permit of no
rest. The sun was rapidly sinking, and there was no place at hand
where they could obtain shelter for the night. So they continued
on their weary way until about half-way up the hill, when his
wife's strength was quite exhausted, and she sat down by the
roadside. Tseng, too, halted to rest in spite of the soldiers and
their abuse; but they had hardly stopped a moment before down
came a band of robbers upon them, each with a sharp knife in his
hand. The soldiers immediately took to their heels, and Tseng fell
on his knees before the robbers, saying, "I am a poor criminal
going into banishment, and have nothing to give you. I pray you
spare my life." But the robbers sternly replied, "We are all the
victims of your crimes, and now we want your wicked head."
Then Tseng began to revile them, saying, "Dogs! though I am
under sentence of banishment, I am still an officer of the State."
But the robbers cursed him again, flourishing a sword over his
neck, and the next thing he heard was the noise of his own head
as it fell with a thud to the ground. At the same instant two devils
stepped forward and seized him each by one hand, compelling
him to go with them.
After a little while they arrived at a great city where there was a
hideously ugly king sitting upon a throne judging between good
and evil. Tseng crawled before him on his hands and knees to
receive sentence, and the king, after turning over a few pages of
his register, thundered out, "The punishment of a traitor who
has brought misfortune on his country: the cauldron of boiling
oil!" To this ten thousand devils responded with a cry like a clap
of thunder, and one huge monster led Tseng down alongside the
cauldron, which was seven feet in height, and surrounded on all
sides by blazing fuel, so that it was of a glowing red heat. Tseng
shrieked for mercy, but it was all up with him, for the devil seized
him by the hair and the small of his back and pitches him head-
long in. Down he fell with a splash, and rose and sank with the
bubbling of the oil, which ate through his flesh into his very
vitals. He longed to die, but death would not come to him.
After about half-an-hour's boiling, a devil took him out on a
pitchfork and threw him down before the Infernal King, who
again consulted his notebook, and said, "You relied on your
position to treat others with contumely and injustice, for which
you must suffer on the Sword-Hill." Again he was led away by
devils to a large hill thickly studded with sharp swords, their
points upwards like the shoots of bamboo, with here and there
the remains of many miserable wretches who had suffered before
him. Tseng again cried for mercy and crouched upon the ground;
but a devil bored into him with a poisoned awl until he screamed
with pain. He was then seized and flung up high into the air, fall- ing down right on the sword-points, to his most frightful agony.
This was repeated several times until he was almost hacked to
pieces.
He was then brought once more before the king, who asked
what was the amount of his peculations while on earth. Immediately an accountant came forward with an abacus, and said that
the whole sum was 3,210,000 taels, whereupon the king replied,
"Let him drink that amount." Forthwith the devils piled up a
great heap of gold and silver, and, when they had melted it in a
huge crucible, began pouring it into Tseng's mouth. The pain was
excruciating as the molten metal ran down his throat into his
vitals; but since in life he had never been able to get enough of the
dross, it was determined he should feel no lack of it then. He was
half-a-day drinking it, and then the king ordered him away to be
born again as a woman in Kan-chou. A few steps brought them
to a huge frame, where on an iron axle revolved a mighty wheel
many hundred yojanas in circumference, and shining with a
brilliant light. The devils flogged Tseng on to the wheel, and he
shut his eyes as he stepped up. Then whiz - and away he went,
feet foremost, round with the wheel, until he felt himself tumble
off and a cold thrill ran through him, when he opened his eyes
and found he was changed into a girl. He saw his father and
mother in rags and tatters, and in one corner a beggar's bowl and
a staff, and understood the calamity that had befallen him.
Day after day he begged about the streets, and his inside
rumbled for want of food; he had no clothes to his back. At four-
teen years of age he was sold to a gentleman as concubine; and
then, though food and clothes were not wanting, he had to put
up with the scoldings and floggings of the wife, who one day
burnt him with a hot iron. Luckily the gentleman took a fancy to
him and treated him well, which kindness Tseng repaid by an irreproachable fidelity.
It happened, however, that on one occasion when they were
chatting together, burglars broke into the house and killed the
gentleman, Tseng having escaped by hiding himself under the
bed. Thereupon he was immediately charged by the wife with
murder, and on being taken before the authorities was sentenced
to die the "lingering death." This sentence was at once carried
out with tortures more horrible than any in all the Courts of
Purgatory, in the middle of which Tseng heard one of his com- panions call out, "Wake up! You've had a nightmare." Tseng
got up and rubbed his eyes, and his friends said, "It's quite late
in the day, and we're all very hungry." But the old priest smiled,
and asked him if the prophecy as to his future rank was true or
not. Tseng bowed and begged him to explain; whereupon the old
priest said, "For those who cultivate virtue, a lily will grow up
even in the fiery pit." Tseng had gone thither full of pride and
vainglory; he went home an altered man. From that day he
thought no more of becoming a Secretary of State, but retired
into the hills, and I know not what became of him after that.
End |
