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- Touring the Prison of Forced
Drinking of Medicine
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- 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 soul 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.
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- Yang Sheng: In which
direction are we going today?
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- JiGong: We will now
go to the Fourth Tribunal.
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- Yang Sheng: I am
securely seated, dear Master; you can start.
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- JiGong: We have
arrived; get down.
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- Yang Sheng: Why is
it that in the Prison in front, I can hear vomiting and moaning?
On 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.
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- JiGong: Yes, The
Officer and General have come to welcome us. Yang Sheng, quickly
go and pay your respects.
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- 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 of 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 Prison in Hades are real and do exist.
Please follow me to have a look.
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- 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
medicines in the Prison? If not, why then do you stock so many
kinds of medicine. On Earth the dispensaries do not have so many
types of medicine for sale.
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- 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 is manufactured and put on sale by human
beings, we in Hades get to know about the imitation and have the
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 says, “There is no way to make a
person lucky 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 whenever he goes.” This is the
meaning of what has already been said earlier.
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- 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 places 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 the 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.
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- Officer: I would
invite both of you to come quickly inside to see what is going
on.
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- Yang Sheng: This
Prison is surrounded by wire fencing but we can see and hear the
souls there crying. T he 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.
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- 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.
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- Officer: Very well,
I will bring you there.
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- Yang Sheng: It is
really very pitiful. The other day this soul had good color on
his face but now just after three days of our 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.
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- Officer: When this
soul was alive; 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 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 is
recompensation for making imitation medicine.
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- Yang Sheng: His
Western style is very dirty being smeared with the black liquid
medicine and his eyes are not lively at all.
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- 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 your help. I still have plenty of money and
property on Earth and I will ask my children to give money to
you.
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- 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.
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- Soul: Thank you,
Your Excellency. Talking about it I feel very ashamed and my
descendents 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
coloring 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 medicines shops as well as
selling them in my own 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 this 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 packings of the various imitation
medicines I had made. The legal Officer of Hades is very smart
because what have I got to say in defend of my past misdeeds
when all the 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.
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- 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.
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- 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 chuckled 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.
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- Yang Sheng: From
what you said, I would think that this soul is quite sincere so
I would recommend that part of his sentence be remitted.
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- JiGong: When he was
alive, he did not believe in the existence of Saints and devils.
He said he was living in the space age. That was why he did not
believe in such thing; now 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.
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- Officer: You 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.
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- JiGong: We do not
have much time to spend here. We will come again some other day.
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- 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.
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- JiGong: Quickly step
on the lotus flower platform to return to Sheng Xian Tang.
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- Yang Sheng: I am
safely seated, dear Master, we can start.
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- JiGong: We have
arrived at Sheng Xian Tang. Yang Sheng, get down. Soul, return
to your body.
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- End of Journey No 23.
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