Chapter I · The Oath in the Sickroom
Xi Fangping was a native of Dong'an. His father, Xi Lian, was blunt and sincere. He had a feud with a wealthy neighbor surnamed Yang. Yang died first. Years later, when Xi Lian fell gravely ill, he told his family, “That Yang has bribed the underworld runners to flog me.” Soon his whole body swelled red, he screamed in agony, and he died. Xi Fangping was so grief-stricken he could not eat. He said, “My father was an honest man, slow of speech, and now he is bullied by a violent ghost. I will go down to the underworld to plead his case.” From then on he spoke no more, now sitting, now standing like a simpleton; in truth his soul had already left his body.
Chapter II · The City God’s Courts
Xi Fangping did not know where to find his father, so he asked every passerby for the county seat. Before long he entered the city. His father had already been imprisoned. At the prison gate he saw him lying under the eaves, utterly spent. Xi Lian raised his eyes, tears streaming, and said, “The jailers have all been bought; they beat me day and night, and my legs are already ruined.” Xi Fangping flew into a rage and cursed the jailers: “If my father is guilty, the law will decide it. How can you dead wretches control it as you please!” He left the prison, took up his brush, and wrote a petition. Just then the county City God was holding morning court, and Xi Fangping shouted his grievance and threw in the petition. Yang grew afraid, bribed inside and out, and only then came out to confront him. The City God declared the accusation baseless and judged against Xi. His fury still unspent, he traveled over a hundred li through the night to the prefectural city, accusing the county City God’s bailiffs before the prefectural City God. The case was delayed for half a month before it was heard. The prefectural City God beat him and sent the case back to the county City God for retrial. Xi Fangping was dragged to the county yamen, shackled and tortured, his bitter injustice still without relief. Fearing another appeal, the county City God sent runners to escort him home.
Chapter III · Torments of the Underworld
The runners escorted him to his door and left. Xi Fangping refused to go in and instead slipped to Yama’s court to accuse the county and prefectural City Gods of cruelty and greed. Yama immediately summoned them for confrontation. The two local deities secretly sent their confidants to plead with Xi Fangping and offered him a thousand taels of gold, but he refused. A few days later the innkeeper warned him, “You are too headstrong. The officials sought compromise but you would not accept it. I hear they have sent chests of gifts to Yama. I fear this will go badly.” Xi took it as rumor and did not believe it. Soon a black-clad runner called him into court. He had barely ascended when he saw Yama’s angry face; Yama would not allow a word and ordered twenty lashes. Xi Fangping cried, “What crime have I committed?” Yama remained expressionless, as if he had not heard. Xi endured the blows and shouted, “The beating is deserved - who told me to have no money?” Yama grew still angrier and ordered the fire bed. Two little demons dragged Xi down; a red-hot iron bed sat on the eastern steps with flames roaring beneath. They stripped him, threw him on it, and pressed and kneaded him repeatedly. The pain seared to bone and flesh, blackening them; he only wished to die at once. After about an hour the demons said, “Enough,” lifted him up, and urged him to dress. He could still limp. Back in court, Yama asked, “Do you dare sue again?” Xi answered, “So great a wrong is not yet cleared; my heart will not die. If I say I will not sue, I would be deceiving you. I must sue!” Yama asked, “What will you sue for?” Xi replied, “Everything I have suffered, I must speak.” Yama ordered him sawed in two. The demons led him out to a tall wooden post with two boards stained in blood. Just as they were about to bind him, someone in court called his name and they hauled him back. Yama asked again, “Do you dare sue?” He answered, “I must!” Yama ordered the sawing at once. The demons clamped him between two boards and tied him to the post. The saw came down; he felt his skull split open, the pain beyond endurance, yet he forced himself not to cry out. A demon exclaimed, “What a man!” The saw roared down to his chest. Another demon said, “This man is filial and innocent; saw a little to one side so his heart is not harmed.” The blade veered, and the pain became even worse. Before long he was split in two. The ropes were loosened; the two halves fell to the ground. The demons reported to the hall. The order came down to recombine him and bring him in. They pushed the two halves together and dragged him forward. Xi felt the saw-scar from head to toe, as if it would tear open again; he collapsed after half a step. A demon drew a silk sash from his waist and handed it to him: “A reward for your filial piety.” He tied it on, and his whole body instantly felt whole, without pain. He ascended the hall and prostrated himself. Yama asked the same question; fearing more torment, Xi answered, “I will not sue.” Yama immediately ordered him sent back to the living world.
Chapter IV · Reprieve and Rebirth
The runners led Xi out the north gate and pointed out the way home, then turned back. Xi Fangping thought the underworld even darker than the human courts, yet he had no way to reach the Jade Emperor. It was said that the Second Lord of Guankou was kin to the Emperor and a just, clear-minded god. If he could appeal there, it should work. Glad the two runners had left, he turned south. As he hurried on, the two runners caught up and said, “The king suspected you would not return, and indeed he was right.” They seized him and brought him back. Xi Fangping expected the wrath to be worse, yet Yama showed no anger and said, “You are truly filial. But your father’s grievance has already been cleared. He has been reborn into a wealthy family - why keep crying out? I will send you home and grant you a thousand in gold and a hundred years of life. Is that enough?” He wrote it into the registry, stamped it with a great seal, and let Xi read it. Xi thanked him and withdrew. The little demons escorted him out, then drove him along the road, cursing, “You cunning thief! You stir up trouble again and again, making us run ourselves to death. If you do this again, we’ll grind you in the great mill!” Xi glared and shouted, “What are you little ghosts doing? I delight in knives and saws and cannot bear the cane. Let us return to Yama; if he orders me home, why trouble yourselves to escort me?” He ran back. The demons were frightened and coaxed him in gentle words. Xi pretended his legs were weak, walking slowly and resting every few steps. The demons burned with anger but dared not speak.
After about half a day they reached a village. A door stood half open. The demons led him to sit with them, and he sat on the threshold. When he was off guard, they shoved him inside. Once his shock passed, he saw that he had been reborn as an infant. Furious, he wailed and would not nurse; after three days he died. His spirit drifted, still determined to reach Guankou. He ran for dozens of li and suddenly saw a procession adorned with feathered canopies, banners, and halberds filling the road. He tried to avoid it but still offended the retinue, and the vanguard seized him and brought him before the carriage. In the carriage sat a young man with imposing bearing. “Who are you?” he asked. Xi Fangping’s grief and rage had no outlet, and he guessed this must be a great official who could decide life and fortune, so he poured out his sufferings in detail. The young man ordered him unbound and told him to follow the carriage. Before long they arrived at a place where more than a dozen officials greeted the road. The young man exchanged greetings, then pointed to one official and said, “This is a man from below who seeks redress; you should decide for him at once.” Asking the attendants, Xi learned that the man in the carriage was the Ninth Prince of the Jade Emperor, and the official was Erlang. Xi looked at Erlang - tall, bearded, unlike the tales told in the world.
Chapter V · Erlang’s Judgment
After the Ninth Prince departed, Xi followed Erlang to a government hall, where his father, the Yang family, and the underworld bailiffs were all present. Before long more prisoners emerged in their carts - Yama himself, the prefectural City God, and the county City God. In open court Xi’s testimony proved true. The three officials trembled like rats crouched on the floor. Erlang took up his brush and issued judgment. Shortly thereafter, the ruling was read aloud for all involved to see, as follows:
“After investigation, as for the King of Hell: you hold the kingly rank of the underworld and enjoy the Jade Emperor’s favor. You ought to be incorruptible and serve as a model to your officials, not take bribes and pervert the law to invite censure. Yet you flaunt your power, emptyly boasting of your high station; you are vicious and greedy, staining the integrity of a minister. You chop and strip like an axe, squeezing and plundering until the skin and bones of the weak are drained; you devour like a whale, fish eating shrimp, bullying the small so that human lives are as pitiful as ants. Let water be drawn from the Western River to cleanse your bowels; let the iron bed against the eastern wall be heated red so that you may taste the fate you devised for others.”
“For the city gods and the prefectural governor: you are the people’s parent officials, appointed by the Emperor to shepherd the multitude. Though your rank is low, those who are devoted do not shrink from bending to duty; even when pressed by higher powers, a man of resolve should not yield. Yet you collude up and down like savage raptors, heedless of the people’s poverty; you swagger and scheme like crafty monkeys, not sparing even starving ghosts. You take bribes and twist the law - human faces with the hearts of beasts. You should have your marrow scraped and your hair shorn, be put to death in the underworld for a time, then be flayed and reborn in the bodies of beasts.”
“As for the runners: once you serve in the ghost courts you are no longer human. You should only do good within the yamen, and perhaps be reborn among men; how can you stir up waves in the sea of suffering and heap up crimes that fill the sky? You bully with force, your faces as cold as frost; you crash and howl, blocking the roads like tigers. In the underworld you flaunt tyrannical power so that all know the jailers rule; you abet cruel officials so that all fear them like executioners. You should have your limbs chopped on the execution ground; you should be thrown into the boiling cauldron and fished out by your sinews and bones.”
“As for Yang: rich without benevolence, sly and deceitful. The glitter of money shrouded the underworld so that the halls of Yama were full of gloom; the stench of copper choked the City of Wronged Dead until no sun or moon could shine. Even the leftover stink of coin can drive demons, and great wealth can all but reach the gods. Let Yang’s household be confiscated to reward Xi Fangping’s filiality. All these criminals are to be escorted at once to the Eastern Peak for punishment.”
Chapter VI · Return and Chronicle
Erlang then said to Xi Lian, “Considering your son’s filial devotion and integrity, and your own gentle and timid nature, I grant you thirty-six more years of life in the human world.” He then dispatched two men to send them home.
Xi Fangping copied the judgment. On the way home father and son read it together. Upon arrival Xi awoke first and ordered the family to open his father’s coffin. The corpse was still icy; after a full day it gradually warmed and returned to life. When they looked for the copied judgment, it had vanished. From then on the Xi household grew wealthier by the day; within three years rich fields stretched everywhere. The Yang descendants declined; their mansions and farmland all passed to the Xi family. Some villagers tried to buy those fields and dreamt at night of a spirit rebuking them: “These are the Xi family’s lands - how can you possess them!” At first they did not believe it, but after planting they harvested nothing for the whole year and had to sell them back to the Xi household. Xi’s father lived past ninety before he died.
The chronicler says: everyone speaks of the Pure Land, yet few understand that life and death are separate worlds; our consciousness is muddled, we do not know where we came from, nor where we go. How much more so for those who die again and are born again? But once the resolve of loyalty and filial devotion is set, it remains clear and unshaken through endless calamities. How extraordinary Xi Fangping is - how great.