Journey 23

Jigong:	There are many human beings who are very unscrupulous, their main aim in life is to get money and wealth no matter by what means. Such people have no morality, like the quack doctor and those who make imitation medicine to sell. They regard human life like grass. In spite of the existing strict laws, they are not a bit afraid and they persist in their evil undertakings. When these people die, then only will their souls realize, very much too late, what great sins they had committed against their fellow beings. If you don't believe, I will bring Yang Sheng to that portion of Hades and he can see for himself and thus speak out or write to prove the correctness of what I had just said. Yang Sheng, get ready to tour Hades; Step on the lotus flower platform quickly.
Yang Sheng:	In which direction are we going today?
Jigong:	We will now go to the Fourth Tribunal.
Yang Sheng:	I am securely seated, dear Master. You can start. .....
Jigong:	We have arrived. Get down.
Yang Sheng:	Why is it that in the Prison in front, I can hear vomiting and moaning? On the top of the Prison are the words "Prison of Forced Drinking Medicine". The Ox-head-Horse-faced Generals are forcing one male and one female soul into the Prison. Oh, the Officer and General have come out. I think they know we are coming to visit them.
Jigong:	Yes, the Officer and General have come to welcome us. Yang Sheng, quickly go and pay your respects.
Officer:	Welcome to you Jigong and Sheng Xian Tang's Yang Sheng to our place. I have received an Order from Wu Guan Wang that both you are coming here to visit us to enable you to write the Book "Journeys to the Underworld" for human beings to read and to assure them that the Prisons in Hades are real and do exist. Please follow me to have a look.
Yang Sheng:	Thank you, Officer, for entertaining us so well. Both sides of this Prison gate are so full of all kinds of medicine, the labels are in many languages, viz; Chinese, English, Japanese, etc. The packing is very good too. Can I ask Officer if you sell these kinds of medicine. On Earth, the dispensaries do not have so many types of medicine for sale.
Officer:	Far from it, we do not sell medicines in this Prison. The medicines you see are imitations and were made by unscrupulous human beings. As soon as an imitation medicine is manufactured and put on sale by human beings, we in Hades get to know about this imitation and have same in stock. The stock we have here is the exact reproduction of the imitation medicine made by the imitators. I would advise human beings not to undertake such discreditable imitations stealthily and in the dark rooms and places. Remember that in the dark places there are saints as well as devils to oversee you and your discreditable actions. The Book, Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian ( 太上感應篇 ) says, 'There is no way to make a person luckily or unlucky; it all depends upon oneself; good is recompensed by good and evil by evil. This recompensation is like one's shadow following him wherever he goes.' This it he meaning of what has already been said earlier.
Jigong:	Human beings do not believe in the doctrine of cause and effect. You must understand that the recompensation of good and evil which is like your shadow will follow you always; you can see this shadow under a light but in a dark room or dark place no shadow can be seen. In such a place or situation, whatever thing you do no one sees or knows about except yourself but you do not realize that in a dark room or place there are many saints and devils and whatever sinful things or actions you do, these saints and devils will definitely know.
Officer:	I would invite both of you to come quickly inside to see what is going on.
Yang Sheng:	This Prison is surrounded by wire fencing but we can see and hear the souls there crying. The soldiers of Hades are carrying pails of dark liquid and forcing the liquid down the throats of the souls who are struggling against drinking the dark liquid.
Jigong:	I think it is better that, instead of remaining here, I bring you to the place we visited the last time to see what punishment is being given to that soul.
Officer:	Very well, I will bring you there.
Yang Sheng:	It is really very pitiful. The other day, this soul had good colour on his face but now just after three days of our last visit, his face has turned very pale. All over his face, eyes, ears, nose and mouth are smeared with black liquid and I don't know what it is.
Officer:	When this soul was live; he made imitation medicines and now that he is dead, he is brought here and the black liquid medicine is forced into his mouth for him to drink. The black liquid is forced into his mouth for him to drink. The back liquid is very bitter and contains poison - very difficult to swallow. When the liquid enters the stomach, the intestines will be twisted and because of the pain, the soul will have a feeling of nausea. This recompensation for making imitation medicine.
Yang Sheng:	His western style dress is very dirty being smeared with the black liquid medicine and his eyes are not lively at all.
Soul:	Please save me! Will this Buddhist monk and human being please rescue me because I am suffering terribly. If you can rescue me I promise that on my next rebirth, I will not mind being an ox or a dog to repay you for our help. I still have plenty money and property on Earth and I will ask my children to give money to you.
Officer:	You are talking rubbish. This is Jigong you are talking to, not an earthly monk; what is the good of giving money to him? Quickly, disclose to this human being here what sins you had committed when you were alive. This human being is Guan Di Gong's disciple Yang Sheng who is touring Hades in order to write a Book exhorting human beings to do good deeds. Will you, therefore, relate frankly so that your sins can be extenuated.
Soul:	Thank you, Your excellency. Talking about it I feel very ashamed and my descendants too will be shameful. When I was alive, I opened a western type of drug store selling Western and Chinese medicines and pills. After being in this business for a number of years, I acquired sufficient knowledge of making various kinds of patented medicines and pills. Consequently, I bought a set of medicine-making machinery and using flour as a base plus colouring matter, I began to imitate the more popular types of medicines and pills and copied their trademarks. I manufactured a lot for distribution to other medicine shops as well as selling them in my own drug store. In this way, I made huge profits..... Early this year, I was unlucky to fall sick and subsequently died at the age of 52 years. After my death, my soul was brought by the Ox-head-Horse-faced General to the Magic Mirror which reproduced that when I was alive. I made imitation medicines and sold them for people to eat. The true reproduction gave me no chance to defend myself. Three days earlier, I was brought to the Fourth Tribunal for Wu Guan Wang to sentence me to undergo punishment in Prison of Forced Drinking of Medicine for a period of 30 years. At the time sentence was pronounced, I was stunned out of my wits because right in front of me were all the original packing of the various imitation medicines I had made. The Legal Officer of Hades is very smart because what I have got to say in defend of my past misdeeds when all evidence against me is here? For the last three days, it was real torture because if I did not drink the black fluid the soldiers would beat me up. If I forced myself to drink, this fluid made my intestines twist and turn causing me to feel nausea. It is already too late for me to repent for my sins. I hope that human beings will take heed and not follow my bad example.
Officer:	You beast; you still have a string of other sins to disclose; do not deceive or try to hide. If you refuse to disclose, your punishment will be more severe.
Soul:	Very well, I will tell everything. When I operated the drug store, my main aim was to make and amass as much money as I could. Earlier, I manufactured drugs and sold them to young men and women to take and they became drug addicts - I really deserved to die. In another instance a friend of mine gave me a religious book which exhorted people to do good deeds. I flicked through a few pages which dwelt on ascetic practices and also on religious poems. I did not believe a word of what I had read because, this being the "space world" or "space age". one should not believe in saints and holy things, so I chucked the book away at the same time scolding the saints, thinking that only superstitious people would blindly believe in saints and devils. How was I to know that after death I was to be sentenced by Wu Guan Wang to an additional 5 years for two more sins, viz: scolding the saints and secondly, for throwing the religious book away? I admit I had blundered and so I beg Jigong and Yang Sheng to help me out.
Yang Sheng:	From what he had said, I would think that this soul is quite sincere so I would recommend that part of his sentence be remitted.
Jigong:	When he was alive, he did not believe in the existence of saints and devils. He said he was living n the space age. That was why he did not believe in such things; not that he has died he has repented but unfortunately, he is in Hades and therefore too late. Although he appears quite sincere in his disclosures, I think that he will be rewarded when this Book, Journeys to the Underworld is published and distributed to human beings to read, but the reward will be small, something in the region of one upon ten thousand.
Officer:	You well deserve this punishment therefore there is no need to ask others to appeal for you. Although by making imitation medicines and pills you did not directly cause the death of people, you did , indirectly, cause their death, so Wu Guan Wang had no choice but to sentence you to that heavy punishment.
Jigong:	We do not have much time to spend here. We will come again some other day.
Yang Sheng:	Thank you, Officer and General, for the kind assistance given; we will have to return to Sheng Xian Tang and so I say goodbye.
Jgong:	Quickly step on the lotus flower platform to return to Sheng Xian Tang.
Yang Sheng:	I am safely seated, dear Master, we can start.....
Jigong:	We have arrived at Sheng Xian Tang. Yang Sheng, get down. Soul, return to your body.