Original Text
A man named Zhang suddenly died, and his soul followed a demon escort to the underworld to see the King of Hell. The King examined the register of life and death, discovered that the demon had mistakenly seized him, and angrily ordered the demon to return him to the mortal world. After Zhang withdrew from the King's hall, he secretly begged the demon to take him on a tour of hell. The demon then led him through the nine layers of hell, pointing out the mountain of knives and the tree of swords one by one. Finally, they arrived at a place where a monk was suspended upside down with a rope piercing through both his thighs, screaming in agony as if dying. Zhang approached and saw that this monk was none other than his own elder brother. Shocked and grieved, Zhang asked the demon, "What crime has this man committed to deserve such severe punishment?" The demon replied, "This man, being a monk, amassed large sums of money through alms-giving and squandered it all on wine, women, and gambling, hence this punishment. To be freed from it, he must sincerely repent." After Zhang regained consciousness, he suspected his brother had already died. At that time, his brother was living at Xingfu Temple, so Zhang went to visit him. As soon as he entered the temple gate, he heard cries of pain. Inside the room, he saw his brother's thighs covered with festering sores, pus and blood gushing out, with his legs hanging upside down on the wall, exactly as in the underworld. Zhang asked in alarm why he hung his legs like that, and his brother replied, "Only by hanging my legs upside down can the pain be slightly eased; otherwise, it feels like drilling into my heart and gouging out my flesh." Zhang then told him what he had seen and heard in hell. Terrified, his brother immediately gave up meat and wine, began devoutly chanting sutras and praying, and within half a month, the sores on his legs gradually healed. From then on, he became a monk who strictly observed Buddhist precepts.
The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: The realm of the underworld is vast and obscure, beyond human conjecture, and the wicked often use this uncertainty to console and absolve themselves, little knowing that the calamities of the mortal world are themselves the very punishments meted out from the nether regions—how can this not inspire fear?
Commentary
According to Buddhist and Chinese shamanistic beliefs, the realities of birth, aging, sickness, and death all have corresponding causal relationships, and the torment of illness arises from one's own misdeeds. The tale describes a monk surnamed Zhang, who "developed a sore between his thighs, with pus and blood gushing forth, and his leg hung against the wall," which is attributed to his "extensive collection of money, all spent on lewdness and gambling," as a punishment from the underworld. Yet, upon reforming his ways, the ailment healed of its own accord. The story is absurd, and Pu Songling undoubtedly wrote this piece for the purpose of admonition. However, according to the Zichuan County Gazetteer from the Qianlong era, the Xingfu Temple indeed existed at Yetou Village, thirty li west of the county seat. Thus, what is recorded here may have been based on actual events. On one hand, it reflects the corruption of temples in those days that amassed money extensively, and on the other, it reveals Pu Songling's deep-seated hatred for such behavior.