Original Text
Li Boyan was a man from Yishui, upright in character and chivalrous in spirit. One day, he suddenly fell gravely ill. His family brought him medicine, but he declined, saying, "My illness cannot be cured by medicine. The underworld is short a Judge of the Dead, and they wish me to serve temporarily. Do not bury me after I die; wait for my return." That very day, he indeed died. Attendants led Li Boyan into a grand hall, where they changed his clothes into official robes and placed a kingly crown upon his head. Yamen runners stood in solemn attendance on both sides, showing great respect. The desk was piled high with documents and case files, scattered in disarray. Li Boyan picked up a file to examine; it recorded that a certain scholar from Jiangnan had, upon investigation, been found guilty of defiling eighty-two virtuous women throughout his life. The scholar was brought in for interrogation, and the evidence was conclusive. According to the laws of the underworld, he was to suffer the punishment of being roasted on a bronze pillar. Beneath the hall stood a bronze pillar, eight or nine feet tall and as thick as a man's embrace, hollow inside and filled with red-hot coals, glowing from within and without. A group of minor demons drove the scholar up the pillar with iron caltrops and whips. He moved his hands and feet, coiling his way upward. Just as he reached the top, smoke and flames burst forth, and with a sound like a firecracker, he crashed to the ground. He lay curled up for a while before reviving, only to be driven up the pillar again, where the same explosion sent him falling once more. After three such falls, the scholar dissolved into a wisp of smoke and slowly dissipated, never to regain human form. Another case involved a man named Wang, a fellow townsman of Li Boyan, whose servant girl's father accused him of forcibly taking his daughter. Wang was originally a relative by marriage of Li Boyan. Previously, someone had come to sell a servant girl; Wang knew she was not obtained legitimately but, greedy for a low price, bought her. Soon after, Wang died suddenly of a violent illness. Two days later, his friend Zhou Sheng encountered Wang on the road. Knowing he had met a ghost, Zhou hastily fled home to hide, but Wang followed him into his house. Terrified, Zhou prayed to him, asking what he wanted. Wang said, "I ask you to be a witness in the underworld." Startled, Zhou asked, "For what matter?" Wang replied, "That servant girl of mine was purchased at a fair price, but now I am wrongly accused of taking her by force. You witnessed this with your own eyes. I only need your honest testimony; there is nothing else." Zhou firmly refused. As Wang left, he said, "This matter may not be up to you." Soon after, Zhou indeed died and went with Wang to the underworld to confront the accuser in court. When Li Boyan saw Wang, he secretly harbored a desire to shield him. Suddenly, he saw the hall of the Judge of the Dead catch fire, flames licking the beams. Greatly alarmed, Li Boyan stood aside. A minor official quickly said, "The underworld differs from the mortal world; not a trace of selfish thought is tolerated. Quickly clear your mind of partiality, and the fire will extinguish itself." Li Boyan suppressed his bias, calmed his heart, and the fire immediately died out. After a while, the trial began. Wang and the servant girl's father argued back and forth, accusing each other. Li Boyan questioned Zhou Sheng, who testified truthfully, and thus Wang was sentenced to flogging for knowingly committing a crime. After the punishment, Li Boyan sent Zhou and the others back to the mortal world. Both Zhou Sheng and Wang revived three days after their deaths.
Li Boyan finished handling official business and returned by carriage. On the way, he encountered several hundred ghosts missing heads or limbs, prostrate on the ground wailing in misery. Li Boyan stopped the carriage to inquire, and learned that these were souls who had died in foreign lands, longing to return to their hometowns but fearing obstacles at the checkpoints, so they begged Li Boyan to issue them passes. Li Boyan said, "I served in the underworld for three days, but I have now resigned my post. What power do I still possess?" The ghosts replied, "In the southern village, there is a certain Mr. Hu who is about to hold a ritual ceremony and chant sutras to deliver the dead. Please inform him of our plight, and he will help us." Li Boyan agreed. When he returned home, his attendants and horses all departed, and he regained consciousness. Hu, whose courtesy name was Shuixin, was a friend of Li Boyan. Hearing that Li had returned from the dead, he came to visit. Li Boyan urgently asked, "When will the ritual ceremony be held?" Hu exclaimed in surprise, "After the chaos of war, my wife and children were fortunately spared. Some time ago, I mentioned this wish to my wife, but I never spoke of it to anyone else. How did you come to know of it?" Li Boyan told him the truth. Hu sighed deeply and said, "A word spoken within the inner chambers can spread to the underworld—how terrifying!" He then agreed to Li's request and departed. The next day, Li Boyan went to Wang's house, where Wang was still lying wearily in bed. Seeing Li Boyan arrive, Wang immediately rose and bowed respectfully, thanking Li for his protection. Li Boyan said, "The laws of the underworld allow no leniency whatsoever. Are you now recovered?" Wang replied, "I am no longer in danger, but the wounds from the flogging have festered and ulcerated." After another twenty days, Wang's injuries finally healed. The rotten flesh on his buttocks had all fallen away, leaving scars that looked exactly as if he had been beaten with a plank.
The Chronicler of Strange Tales remarks: The punishments in the underworld are more cruel than those in the mortal realm, and the penalties are more severe. Yet neither pleading for leniency nor showing favoritism can prevail, and those who suffer harsh torments harbor no grievances. Who dares say that the netherworld is devoid of justice? It is only regrettable that there is no torch to set ablaze the courtrooms of the living world.
Commentary
The work recounts the experiences and reflections of Li Boyan, a man of "upright character and courageous spirit," during his temporary tenure as the King of Hell in the underworld.
The so-called temporary appointment as the King of Hell in the underworld is naturally a fictional platform designed by the author to express his own sentiments and intentions, through which he showcases his purpose of rewarding good and punishing evil. This purpose manifests in two aspects: one is that good and evil in human life are met with retribution, and the other is that the execution of such retribution must be just. The notion of a person on the verge of death temporarily assuming the role of the King of Hell in the underworld, or of "walking as a spirit messenger" in the netherworld, is not unique to Pu Songling, as such tales are widespread among the folk. For instance, the story "The King of Hell" in the same third volume deals with the same theme, reflecting the ancient Chinese desire to participate in and verify the illusory world they themselves created, as well as their yearning for judicial fairness in both the illusory and real worlds.
Li Boyan handled two cases in the underworld. One was a case of rape, and the other was a case of "stealing and occupying a virgin daughter." The first case served merely as a foil, with its depiction of the torture of burning pillars in the underworld being horrifying and terrifyingly brutal. However, the focus of the cases lay in the "other case." And the focus of that "other case" was not the case itself, but rather the process by which Li Boyan's handling of the case shifted from having some personal bias to strictly adhering to legal justice, which tortuously reflected Pu Songling's dissatisfaction and protest against the lack of fairness in judicial governance in the real society.