30
Commissioner Wang Rides Roughshod Over His Subordinates
Adjutant Li Gets His Comeuppance from a Reincarnated Victim
In the words of a poem,
Retribution has never been wanting;
Reap what you sow; heaven and earth are fair.
Doubt not that he who kills will be killed;
If you don’t believe this, give ear to my story!
Mark this: Of all things between heaven and earth, life is of the first importance. Buddhism forbids killing but also advocates a life for a life, especially when a human being deliberately kills another human being out of malice. That is why the law of the land is harshest when it comes to murder. When abolishing the Qin dynasty’s draconian laws, Emperor Gaozu [Liu Bang, r. 206–194 BCE] of the Han dynasty retained three of them, the first of which being “Death unto those guilty of murder.” Clearly, murder is the worst of crimes. However, if the crime is not brought to light while the murderer is still alive, how is the law to be applied? With murderers escaping the law, wouldn’t the victims have died in vain? No, because there is retribution in the unseen world.
Instances of retribution in the netherworld abound, but because they occur in the Region of Darkness, there are no eyewitnesses, even though retribution never misses the mark, not by a hair’s breadth. Even if some return to life from the netherworld and spread the word, some headstrong people dismiss such accounts as dream talk out of contrariness. Without seeing the acts of retribution with their own eyes, they turn a deaf ear to such stories. Now, there are also cases in which the guilty ones receive retribution in their own lifetimes from their reincarnated victims, cases that are distinctly recorded in the annals of history. Are they also to be dismissed as incredible, just out of contrariness?
I will refrain from citing the stories of the soul of Peng Sheng scaring Duke Xiang of Qi to death, that of Prince Ruyi of Zhao chasing Empress Lü-shi, and the spirits of Dou Ying and Guan Fu whipping Tian Fen.1 These cases may be dismissed as figments of the imagination conjured up by those whose wits are dulled by their ill fortune or whose suspicious minds can produce the wildest fictions. They may have been deceived by their failing eyesight at the end of their lives when what had preyed on their minds seemed to burst into view. I will confine myself only to crystal-clear cases of timely retribution visited upon the guilty while they are alive, although the manner of retribution in each case may vary. Dear audience, if you don’t mind my long-windedness, I propose to cite an example or two before I move on to our story proper.
The first case was recorded in Unofficial Histories of the Tang dynasty.2 To the south of the city of Chang’an [present-day Xi’an], a monk was begging for alms one day when he saw a woman in a mulberry tree, picking its leaves. Joining his palms in a Buddhist salute, the monk asked, “Madam, do you know of any kind donors in the neighborhood who would give me some food?”
Pointing a finger into the distance, the woman said, “Three or four li from here, a Wang family is holding a prayer service. They’ll be happy to offer food to another monk. Please go quickly.”
The monk followed her directions, and, sure enough, he saw a group of monks about to sit down for a meal. He was greatly pleased that he had come at the right time. After the meal was over, Mr. and Mrs. Wang asked him, marveling at his good timing, “Your Reverence, you look like someone from a long way off. Who guided you here?”
“A young woman picking mulberry leaves three or four li from here gave me directions.”
Mr. and Mrs. Wang looked at each other in alarm. “We didn’t tell anyone that we’re having a prayer service. How would she know from that distance? She must be some kind of prophet, definitely no common sort.” Turning to the monk, they said, “Could Your Reverence take us to her?”
Thereupon, they went with the monk and saw the woman still in the mulberry tree. At the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Wang, she jumped down, dropped her basket, and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her. The monk went his own way, but Mr. and Mrs. Wang gave chase. The woman entered a house that Mr. Wang recognized to be that of Lu Shulun of the same village. As they also went in, the woman dived into an inner chamber and pushed a bed firmly against the door. Wondering why the elderly couple were running after her daughter, Mrs. Lu asked, “What brought you here?”
“We held a prayer service at home today, and a monk from a long way off popped in at the last moment to ask for alms, saying it was your daughter who directed him to our home. But we never told anyone about the prayer service, so we wonder how your daughter learned about it. That’s why we’re here. Nothing more.”
“Oh, that’s easy! I’ll bring her out.” So saying, she went to knock on her daughter’s door, but her daughter adamantly refused to come out. Losing her patience, Mrs. Lu said, “What’s the meaning of this, you little swine? What are you up to?”
The young woman replied from inside, “I just don’t want to see those two old things. What kind of crime is that?”
“They’re just neighbors paying you a visit. There’s no need to be shy. Why shut yourself up in your room?”
The young woman’s refusal to come out of hiding increased the Wangs’ suspicions. “There must be something quite unusual about this,” they thought. Standing outside the door, they pleaded insistently to see her. (MC: The monk’s visit and the Wangs’ pleas are both driven by karma.)
From inside the room, the young woman shouted at the top of her voice, “On a certain date in a certain year, a sheep seller and his two sons went to your house. Where are they now?”
Turning pale with fright at this question, Mr. and Mrs. Wang made a fast exit. Not daring to cast a look back, they ran at top speed, wishing they had an extra pair of legs each. Only then did the young woman emerge through her door. Her mother asked, “What were you talking about?”
“Mother, let me tell you: In my previous incarnation, I was a sheep seller from Xiazhou [present-day Jingbian County in Shaanxi, near the Inner Mongolian border]. The three of us, father and sons, stayed the night with the Wangs, and they murdered us and took all our money for their own enjoyment. My unavenged spirit survived, so I was reincarnated into their family as their son. Because of my more-than-average intelligence, they cherished me as they would some precious treasure. But I fell ill at fifteen and died at twenty. The money they spent on medicine totaled several times what they had robbed from us. On every anniversary of my death, they would hold a prayer service with sacrificial food, and, to their credit, they’ve shed more than three piculfuls of tears so far. (MC: How frightening! What do evildoers gain?) I’m now your daughter, but I still remember what happened in my past lives. Quite by chance, I saw that monk begging for food, so I gave him directions. Those two are my enemies from another lifetime. Why would I want to see them? Now that I’ve brought up their past, the shock will soon kill them, and I’ll be getting even with them.”
To her amazement, Mrs. Lu learned later, upon inquiry, that Mr. and Mrs. Wang did indeed fall ill after returning home. Although ignorant of the details, they did realize that their debt remained unpaid. In trepidation and fear, they died shortly thereafter.
Dear audience, isn’t it hair-raising to think that the young woman, murdered in one life, spent her next lifetime collecting repayment for the loot and, in her current incarnation, demands the old couple’s lives! Now listen to a shabby poem that I made up:
How remarkable the mulberry-picking girl!
She remembered collecting the debt as the sick son.
By directing the monk to beg for food,
She was demanding nothing less than the Wangs’ lives!
So you have just heard a story that covers three lifetimes. Let me now tell one that covers only two lifetimes, one in which an aggrieved ghost seeks revenge. It is recorded in Records of the Listener of the Song dynasty.3
In Yindu Village, twenty li from Wujiang County [near the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu], there lived a rich man named Wu Ze. A Court Gentleman for Ceremonial Service, he was addressed as “Court Gentleman Wu.” He had a son, nicknamed Yunlang, who, from his earliest years, had a quick mind and an aptitude for learning. Later, he passed the civil service examinations and was put on the wait list for appointment to office. His parents had high hopes for his rise to prominence, but in the eighth month of the fifth year of the Shaoxing reign period [1135], he fell ill and died. In aching grief, his parents went to a great deal of expense holding prayer services for him and drained their savings. In their agony, they never stopped yearning for him.
The next winter, a brother of Court Gentleman Zhao’s, Instructor Wu Zi, was on his way to his parents-in-law’s home at East Hill, Dongting, when his boat was caught in a storm only several li after it set sail. As the boat could not proceed any farther, it had to be moored by the temple of the King of Fortune and Kindness until the storm subsided. When Wu Zi went ashore for a leisurely walk, he saw a man in a short-sleeve black silk garment slowly emerging through the temple gate, which was standing ajar. Believing that the man bore a resemblance to Yunlang, Instructor Wu approached for a closer look and was aghast on realizing that he was indeed none other than Yunlang. Well aware that it was a ghost he was seeing, he still said to his nephew, “Your parents miss you day and night. Goodness only knows how many tears they’ve shed over not being able to see you again. But why are you here?”
“I’m being held here to serve as a witness. I feel miserable. Uncle, please tell my parents that if they want to see me, they’ll have to come here. I can’t go to them.” Heaving one sigh after another, he took himself off.
This encounter changed Instructor Wu’s plans. Instead of continuing on to his parents-in-law’s home, he hurried to see his brother and sister-in-law to tell them about this. The three of them cried their hearts out and went to the temple by the same boat that Instructor Wu had used. There Yunlang was, already standing at the water’s edge. As soon as he saw his parents, he ran up to them in tears, bowed deeply, and told them about his sufferings in the Region of Darkness. His parents were about to ask him for more details and tell him how they missed him when his face suddenly hardened. (MC: A real ghost.) His eyebrows flying up, he grabbed his father’s clothes and screamed, “You murdered me for my money and made me suffer for more than forty years. Even though you’ve gone to a great deal of expense for my sake, you must pay me back with your lives. I’m not going to spare you today!” Having said that, he came to blows with the old man and both tumbled into the water.
In a panic, Instructor Wu cried out to the servants and boatmen for help, and they all jumped into the water for a rescue attempt. People who live by Lake Tai all know how to swim, so they brought the father back to dry land, but Court Gentleman Wu did not stop gesticulating wildly and brandishing his fists until evening fell. Instructor Wu had no clue as to what had led to all this, but having heard Yunlang’s accusation, he knew there must be some dark secret.
When he asked his brother, Court Gentleman Wu said with a frown, “Back in the year of Renwu [1102?], when Jurchen cavalrymen broke into the city, a young man came to me for shelter. He had a lot of money with him. I coveted his possessions and, a few months later, killed him while he was drunk and took everything he had. Bearing this karmic debt, this old man has never known peace of mind all these years since then. (MC: If he had known he was to have no peace of mind, would he have done it?) My son was born in the same year, and he must have been the young man’s wronged soul reborn. What happened today is clearly an act of retribution.” He fell into a depression and refused to take any food. He died more than ten days later.
This “son” lived two lifetimes, one in which he was murdered and one collecting what was owed him. Then he returned as a ghost to seek his murderer’s life. With one lifetime fewer than in the last story, this one takes less time to tell.
Now please listen to one more shabby poem that I made up:
The aggrieved soul exhausted all his parents’ money,
Leaving them with nothing but grief.
When your children die, shed no tears,
For you must have hurt them in their previous lives.
Now that I have told these two bizarre stories, I’m going to dispense with more commonplace ones about ghosts of murder victims losing no time in demanding the lives of their murderers, because there are just not enough days in the year to tell them all. I simply have no time for them in my eagerness to move on to our story proper.
Storyteller! Are you saying there is one more story to tell, and the story proper at that?
Dear audience, the two stories I have just told you are about multiple lifetimes in which the victims remember their previous lives well and therefore succeed in exacting revenge. This is not something entirely unimaginable. My story proper, however, is about a victim who has no memory of his previous existence but is bent on killing a total stranger whom he encounters entirely by accident. In fact, they were enemies in their previous lives. As is only to be expected, divine justice caught up with the murderer, although no one could figure out the truth. The retribution is more straightforward but the events even stranger. Lend me your ears!
Our story takes place in the Zhenyuan reign period [785–804] of the Tang dynasty. North of the Yellow River, there lived a Mr. Li who had more than average physical strength from the time he was a child. Of an impulsive nature, he was a lover of martial arts. He defied conventional decorum and was in the habit of riding horses and practicing swordsmanship with groups of young ne’er-do-wells. In the evenings, they frequented the paths of the Taihang Mountains, engaging in activities of a questionable nature. (MC: It’s not hard to imagine what activities they might be.) Later, his family circumstances suddenly improved. (MC: This is karma at work.) He thoroughly mended his ways and forced himself to labor at his studies. He came to be something of a poet and built a name for himself as a man of good character. He obtained an official post in the region and advanced through the ranks until he became the administrative supervisor of Shenzhou [in present-day Hebei]. He greatly impressed the prefect of Shenzhou with his prepossessing looks and graceful deportment, his conversational abilities, his sense of humor, his professional knowledge, and his integrity, prudence, and efficiency at work. He also knew the ins and outs of ju football, chess, and other board games. With his enormous capacity for wine and his good table manners, his absence from any feast was a damper on the spirits of the company. The prefect was so fond of him that he could not do without Mr. Li for even one moment.
At that time, the regional military commander of Chengde, Wang Wujun, was emboldened by his meritorious service to the imperial court in joining forces with Li Baozhen and suppressing the rebellion [782–84] of Zhu Tao, and, with his well-equipped and powerful army, defied law and order. All the prefects in his jurisdiction stood in fear of his harsh commands. He appointed his son Wang Shizhen to be vice commissioner-in-chief. An arrogant young man made even more presumptuous by his father’s power and influence, Wang Shizhen was as much a monster as his father, capable of killing a man without even batting an eye.
One day, his father sent him on an inspection tour of the subordinate prefectures. Verily, his procession
Shook the sky and the earth like lightning and thunder.
Water changed to ice, and hills moved out of his way.
Rivers and mountains trembled; grass and trees cowered;
Tigers and leopards vanished; dogs and chickens grieved.
After inspecting other prefectures, Wang Shizhen headed for Shenzhou. Out of fear of Wang Wujun, the father, the prefect was determined to cultivate the favor of the son and play up to him. So the prefect sought detailed information in advance from prefectures that Wang Shizhen had just visited, to learn about how the inspections went, what the young man liked and disliked, and what he did on the tours. On hearing that the young man was made unhappy at the feast table by things said and done against his taboos and by the hosts’ lack of obsequiousness (MC: Maybe his hosts were even more unhappy.), the prefect pulled out all the stops to prepare a grand banquet complete with the finest meats, wine, dishes, and music. His wife and daughters served as chefs, and he himself saw to the setting of the banquet table. After everything was ready for the vice commissioner-in-chief’s arrival, a messenger came to announce that the vanguard of the procession was already approaching. Behold:
The banners block the sun;
The drums shake the sky.
The blood-stained battleaxes gleam;
The lances with their iron balls reek of brain matter.
The chains rattle, ready for luckless victims;
The copper bells ring, scaring even the reckless.
Grass dies out under their merciless tread;
Fear strikes the souls of those asleep.
Upon Shizhen’s arrival, the prefect went all the way to the outskirts of the city to greet him and installed him in a grand mansion. Without a moment’s delay, the feast was laid out and the gifts were carried into the hall. Afraid that other people might offend the young man, the prefect himself danced attendance on the guests. No subordinate or friend of his was invited. Shizhen was impressed by the sumptuousness of the banquet, the lavishness of the gifts, the humility and courtesy of the prefect, and the absence of ill-chosen fellow diners. Jubilantly, he commented that none of the prefectures he had just inspected measured up to this one. Darkness fell, but the feast showed no sign of coming to an end.
For all his high-and-mighty airs, Shiyan was still a young man brimming over with high spirits. Having spent so much time at the dinner table with no other companion than the fawning prefect voicing agreement with everything he said, he was pleased but also a little bored. (MC: It could not have been other than boring!) So he said to the prefect, “I’m grateful to you for your lavish hospitality, and I do intend to enjoy myself to the full this evening. However, it seems that we’re not having enough fun, with only the two of us toasting each other. I wish I could have a few more drinking companions, to add to the fun.” (MC: A tyrannical man like him also finds delight in wine.)
The prefect replied, “This prefecture is an obscure backwater of the empire with very few people who are anybody at all. Besides, your name inspires such awe that I’m afraid people might say the wrong things. So I didn’t dare bring in other guests to serve as your companions.”
Shizhen objected, “What harm could there be? We’ll only be drinking and having fun! And yours is a famous prefecture. How can there be no worthy guests to invite? Bring some in, so as to add to the fun, and let’s enjoy ourselves to the full! Otherwise, with too few drinking companions, we won’t get full satisfaction from even the finest feast.”
The prefect acknowledged the good sense in what he said and thought, “I can’t invite just anyone. Those with no manners will only do me a disservice. (MC: If only he had invited anyone but Mr. Li!) It was all I could do to make him so happy. I shouldn’t bring in someone who won’t humor him and causes trouble. Only Administrative Supervisor Li, with his dashing looks, graceful manner, prudence, knowledge of drama and art, and large capacity for wine, fits the bill and won’t cause me any worry. I’ll invite no second guest.” After reflecting for a while, he said to Shizhen, “There’s indeed a shortage of men worthy of sharing a table with you. There’s only Administrative Supervisor Li, who can hold his drink and is full of good cheer. He also has a good sense of humor and knows all there is to know about the various arts. I can summon him and give him a seat at the table to add to your enjoyment. May I go ahead? I wouldn’t presume to make the decision on my own. Please advise.”
“Anyone you recommend must be worthy. Bring him in!”
The prefect immediately ordered an attendant to bring Mr. Li to the banquet.
Dear audience, if this storyteller had been a neighbor of Mr. Li’s in Shenzhou and had the skills of a fortune-teller, I would have grasped him around the middle or seized him by the front of his clothes and stopped him from partaking of such a meal, so fraught with dangers, just like the feasts offered by the treacherous Empress Lü-shi.4
On receiving the invitation, Mr. Li felt slightly confused, as if he had fallen into a trance. But it was an order that came from the vice commissioner and the prefect. It was a favor. How could he dare disobey? Little did he know that
Like a pig or sheep on its way to the butcher’s,
With each step he went nearer to his death.
Storyteller, you are quite mistaken! He was invited just to serve as a drinking companion, something very much in his line. Was it possible for him to give verbal offense and land himself in trouble?
Dear audience, please get this: If he should give Mr. Wang verbal offense and land himself in trouble, there would have been no element of surprise. The outrageous thing was that he died without having said one word. You will know soon enough if you let me go on.
And so, Administrative Supervisor Li arrived in the hall, as ordered, and bowed in greeting to Shizhen. The next moment, as Mr. Li raised his head, Shizhen flew into a rage. (MC: It’s so sudden!) Since Li was already there, he was offered a seat, as could hardly be expected otherwise. Mr. Li forced himself to sit down. In great trepidation, he grew even more deferential and timid in his manner. The more Shizhen looked at him, the more he found the man repugnant. He balled up his fists and rolled up his sleeves, and his eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. His smiles gone, he kept silent and looked as if he had pent-up anger that was ready to burst out on the slightest pretext. In short, Shizhen was now a completely changed man, to the prefect’s consternation.
Not knowing what to do or what had caused this change, the prefect stole glances at Mr. Li, only to see the latter turning deathly pale and breaking into a sweat. Trembling all over, Mr. Li had trouble holding on to his seat. Even the cup and saucer in his hands shook and looked like they were about to drop to the floor. How the prefect wished he could get into Mr. Li’s body and say something funny (MC: The situation between Mr. Wang and Mr. Li is quite interesting but also quite hard on the prefect.), and yet, one looked as if driven by unseen demons and spirits, and the other as if he had lost his soul. Mr. Li’s usual poise and humor had fled to the faraway kingdom of Java. He seemed to have no more life in him than a clay or wooden statue, except that he kept trembling. (MC: Good description.)
All the attendants in the hall were panic-stricken. Not daring to utter one word, they observed the two men out of the corners of their eyes. Before long, Shizhen’s patience ran out. “Guards!” he cried out. As the guards around him roared in acknowledgment, Shizhen ordered them to seize Administrative Supervisor Li. Like eagles swooping on a sparrow, the guards seized Mr. Li and awaited further orders.
“Take him to the county jail!” said Shizhen.
The guards grabbed Mr. Li by his clothes, took him to the jailhouse, and then returned to give their report. Shizhen snorted twice (MC: Why doesn’t he kill Mr. Li at this point? Because the operations of karma have not yet been brought to light.) and, growing cheerful again, resumed drinking. Since he gave no explanations for his actions, the prefect did not venture to ask for any and continued to offer his toasts until the drinking stopped. By this time, night had given way to daybreak.
The prefect was frightened out of his senses by what had happened. He was also afraid that his own position could be in jeopardy because he had given displeasure to Wang Shizhen. But he had no clue as to how Mr. Li could have offended the vice commissioner in any way. (MC: Truly surprising.) Very much baffled, he summoned his attendants and questioned them one by one. “You were watching closely, weren’t you? What telltale signs did you see?”
They invariably answered, “Administrative Supervisor Li never even said a word. How could he have given offense? We were all wondering about this, but we had no idea why he was so frightened and lost control of his shaking body.”
“This being the way things are,” said the prefect, “I’ll have to ask Mr. Li himself. Maybe he knows how he gave offense and therefore was so quick to panic.” Having said that, he quietly ordered a trusted attendant to go to the jailhouse and deliver a message from him.
Once in the jailhouse, the attendant asked Mr. Li, “Yesterday, you, sir, were all respect to the vice commissioner, and you never even said a word. So you couldn’t have offended him in any way. Why was he so angry as to send you to jail? Do you know?”
Mr. Li just kept weeping and shaking his head but refrained from saying anything. As mystified as ever, the attendant went back and reported to the prefect, “Mr. Li said nothing but only kept weeping.”
The prefect was all the more intrigued. He wondered to himself, “He’s such a detail-oriented and capable man. What could have made him lose his good sense to such a degree? I’m baffled.” Left with no choice, he went to the jailhouse himself to question Li.
The sight of the prefect reminded Mr. Li of the many kindnesses the prefect had done him, and he broke down in louder sobs. The prefect hastened to ask him why. After a prolonged silence, Mr. Li wiped his eyes dry and replied with a sigh, “I thank you, sir, for your concern. I do have something preying on my mind, and I’m not going to hide it from you any longer. I’ve heard Buddhist believers talk about retribution in the sinner’s own lifetime. I always dismissed that as a lie, but now I know better.”
“What do you know?”
“Please don’t be alarmed as I tell you everything. I was poor in my youth, so poor that I couldn’t afford to pay for my own food and clothing. But I was strong, so I spent a lot of time with swordsmen and committed robbery to supplement my income. I often carried a bow and rode my horse in the Taihang Mountains and covered about a hundred li a day. When I ran into lone travelers, I’d rob them of their possessions before returning home. One day, I ran into a youth. With a leather whip in hand, he was driving a donkey laden with two large bags that looked heavy. I followed him to a mountain pass flanked by tall cliffs. It was getting dark, and there was no one around. So I gave him a mighty push over the cliff. I don’t know if he died or survived because I drove the donkey home in all haste. Then I opened the bags and found more than a hundred bolts of silk, which went a long way toward improving my family circumstances. I did some soul-searching and repented of my wrongdoings, so I threw away my weapons, closed my door, and devoted myself to my studies. I never reverted to my old evil ways again. Then I obtained an official post and rose to my present position. Twenty-seven years have gone by since then. (MC: To his credit, he repents quickly. Even so, his sins come back to haunt him. Imagine what happens to those who do not even repent!)
“Yesterday, when I received your invitation to the banquet in honor of Mr. Wang, I felt nervous and jumpy without knowing why. Then I persuaded myself that nothing would happen, and I wouldn’t have declined the invitation anyway. Upon my arrival, I saw by the light in the banquet room that Mr. Wang was the very image of the youth I’d pushed over the cliff. After I bowed in greeting, I was shocked out of my senses. I knew that the operations of karma had caught up with me. My time is up. I need only stretch out my neck and wait for the sword. What else is there to say? You’re so good to me that I can’t bring myself to hide anything from you. Now that I have nowhere to escape to, may I ask that you not leave my dead body unburied? That’s all I wish for.” Having said that, he burst into sobs.
The prefect was also involuntarily saddened. He wanted to be of help, but there was nothing he could do. Then he thought, “Since this is a matter of karma, I’m afraid he won’t get away with it.” Not sure what to believe, he decided to wait and see.
The prefect then sent servants to check on the vice commissioner and report back to him on whether Mr. Wang had risen from bed and, in fact, to report everything about Mr. Wang that they could find out while waiting on him. As if he was in possession of some dark secret, the prefect wondered what Mr. Wang could have up his sleeve. (MC: The prefect is unnecessarily anxious about the retribution that will be rightly and inevitably visited upon Mr. Li.) Indulging in wishful thinking on Mr. Li’s behalf, he said, “How nice it will be if Mr. Wang wakes up from his wine-induced sleep and forgets about the whole thing!” (IC: He is indeed Mr. Li’s devoted friend.)
A moment later, a servant came to report that the vice commissioner had awakened and summoned his guards to his room, but nothing was known about his orders to them. The prefect told the servant to go back and find out more. On rising from bed, Shizhen said, “That man, Li something, from last night—where is he now?”
His guards replied, “You sent him to the county jailhouse, sir.”
His temper rising, Shizhen said, “Is that scoundrel still around? Off with his head! Now!”
Losing no time, the guards went to report this to the prefect, but in fact, the prefect had already been informed by his own servants. With all the color draining from his face, the prefect said, appalled, “Even though this is in his karma, I shouldn’t have recommended him yesterday. I ruined him!” His heart ached, but he could do nothing more than let the guards go to the jailhouse and behead Administrative Supervisor Li. Truly,
When King Yama wants you dead at midnight,5
You will not live to see the light of day.
Mr. Li lived the life of a celebrity but died a violent death. When the guards presented Mr. Li’s head to Shizhen for verification, the latter examined it closely and burst out in laughter. (MC: Even though this is a case of retribution, this vice commissioner of the Tang dynasty is too vicious.) He thundered, “Take it away!”
After Shizhen had done his hair and washed, the prefect entered for a visit. For all the turmoil in his mind, he put on an air of unconcern and invited Shizhen to his home for dinner. All the more ingratiating as the host this time around, he greatly pleased Shizhen, and the atmosphere grew even more cordial than last time. Several times the prefect wanted to ask him questions, but he hesitated each time and dared not speak up. It was when he thought Shizhen was in his sunniest mood that he rose to his feet and said apologetically, “I venture to ask for enlightenment on one thing, but you must first forgive me before I dare to broach the matter.”
“You’ve been such a good host, and we get along so well. Please say anything that’s on your mind. Don’t worry!”
“My unworthiness notwithstanding, I was lucky enough to be appointed an official with governance of a prefecture. You, sir, in your inspection of my work, have been so gracious that I received no censure from you, and this is kindness as boundless as the sky and the earth. During yesterday’s banquet, you wanted me to bring in other guests to serve as our drinking companions. This being a small, backwater prefecture, there’s indeed no one worthy of sharing a table with you. In my foolishness, I summoned Mr. Li because he had a good capacity for wine. To my disappointment, Li the idiot knew nothing of proper decorum and offended you. This is in fact a major trespass on my part. Since you’ve already executed him, as befits his crime, this need not be gone into further. But I never knew that he was such a despicable man. May I venture to ask what he was guilty of ? Please enlighten me as to the wrongs he did, so that I’ll be able to offer better advice about the proper decorum to observe when serving one’s superiors in the future, so as to avoid mistakes. I’ll be ever so grateful to you.” (MC: The prefect has a way with words.)
Shizhen said cheerfully, “Li wasn’t guilty of any offense. It was just that the very sight of him made me want to kill him. Now that he’s dead and gone, I feel very much relieved, but I have no idea why. Now, you put your mind at rest and go on drinking. Let’s not mention him ever again!”
After the feast was over, Shizhen gratefully took his leave and went to another prefecture. The only thing he accomplished on this mission was doing away with Administrative Supervisor Li.
With Wang Shizhen gone, the prefect felt as if a heavy burden had been taken off his back, but, sadly, he had unnecessarily caused the death of Mr. Li and there was no one to whom he could pour out his woes. Recalling what he had heard from Mr. Li in jail, he secretly asked about Wang Shizhen’s age and learned that he was exactly twenty-seven years old. (MC: How frightening!) By now, he was sure that Wang Shizhen had been born to the Wang family in the very same year that the youth was pushed to his death in the Taihang Mountains. Indeed, as they say, fated enemies are bound to run into each other on a narrow road. Now that one life had been taken in repayment for another, Mr. Li was the only one in the know. The one demanding repayment was in the dark, not to mention those watching from the sidelines. Heaving sigh upon sigh at these strange events, the prefect knew no peace of mind, sitting or lying down. After several days elapsed in like manner, he gave Mr. Li’s body an elaborate funeral, using his own money in honor of his friendship with Li and also in atonement for his role in Li’s death. Henceforth, he often used this story to illustrate the laws of karma and exhort people never to engage in evil deeds. There is a poem in testimony:
The injustice was done in a previous life,
But he killed his nemesis on first sight.
Though in a new body, the dead still sought revenge;
Imagine what can happen to those who are alive!