Journey Supplemental 003: Body Snatchers

All’s well that ends well, except for the princess whose soul gets dragged out of her mortal coil and hustled off to hell.

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Welcome to the Chinese Lore Podcast, where I retell classic Chinese stories in English. This is a supplemental episode for Journey to the West.

On the previous supplemental episode, we followed the Tang emperor to the underworld. But then he found out that he was just visiting to appear on an episode of The Dead People’s Court and that he could leave and go back to the land of the living. To get there, though, he would have to take a journey through hell. At one of the stops on that journey, he found himself accosted by a swarm of angry ghosts. 

The emperor looked for cover while shouting to his guide, a former official named Cui (1) Jue (2), “Mr. Cui, save me! Save me!”

Cui Jue told him, “My lord, these are the ghosts of all the princes and outlaws and their underlings whom you vanquished in establishing your dynasty. They all died in vain and are cut off from reincarnation as there’s no one to receive them or watch over them. They have no money or belongings, so they’re abandoned to hunger and cold. Give them a little money, and then I can save you.”

“But I came here empty-handed; where do I find the money to give them?”

“In the land of the living, there’s a wealthy man who has deposited a large sum of money here in the underworld. You may use your name to take out a loan, and I will be your guarantor. You can borrow a storehouse of gold and silver from him to distribute to these hungry ghosts. Only then can you pass.”

“Who is this man?” the emperor asked.

“He is a resident of the city of Kaifeng (1,1), named Xiang (4) Liang (2). He has deposited 13 storehouses of gold and silver here. You can borrow some from him and then repay him when you return to the world of the living.”

The emperor agreed and wrote up a document for the loan. Cui Jue told the other official to distribute the gold and silver to the hungry ghosts, telling them, “You may divide these gold and silver amongst yourselves and let the Tang emperor pass. He still has a long life remaining. We’ve been commanded by the 10 Kings of the Underworld to escort his soul back to the world of the living. When he returns there, he will hold a Grand Mass of Water and Land to send you all to your next reincarnation. Don’t cause any more trouble.”

When the ghosts heard this and received their cut of the gold and silver, they were appeased and left. Now, Cui Jue ordered the other official to wave the flag for guiding souls and lead the emperor out of the city. They resumed their journey on a broad and level path, traveling with light, airy steps.

After a long time on the road, they arrived at the junction of the Sixfold Path of Transmigration. Here, they saw creatures of all kinds, be they monks, nuns, Daoist priests, commoners, beasts, or fowls, all sprinting under the Wheel of Transmigration to enter into their next predestined reincarnation. 

“What’s the meaning of this?” the emperor asked.

“Your highness is enlightened,” Cui Jue said. “So you must remember and tell those in the world of the living. This is called the Sixfold Path of Transmigration. Those who do good will be reincarnated into the way of immortals. Those who are loyal to the end will be reincarnated into the way of nobility. Those who are filial will be reincarnated into the way of the blessed. Those who are just and honest will be reincarnated once more into the way of humans. Those who accumulate virtue will be reincarnated into the way of riches. Those who are vicious and violent will sink into the way of demons.”

The emperor nodded and sighed, saying:

Ah, how truly good is goodness!

To do good will never bring illness!

In a good heart always abide.

On a good way your door fling wide.

Let no evil thoughts arise,

And all mischief you must despise.

Don’t say there’s no retribution,

For gods have their disposition.

Cui Jue now accompanied the emperor to the door leading to the way of the nobility and said, “My lord, this is the exit. I will take my leave of you, but will have my companion escort you farther.”

As the emperor thanked him, Cui Jue reminded him, “When you return to the land of the living, you must hold a Grand Mass of Water and Land to help those lost souls find their way to reincarnation. Don’t forget. If there are no complaints from the underworld, then there will be peace in the world of the living, and any imperfections can be corrected. Instruct the people to act kindly, and you will ensure that your descendants’ empire will endure.”

The emperor agreed to everything and then took his leave and followed the other official through the door. On the other side of the door was a black-maned bay horse with rein and saddle. The emperor mounted the horse, the official accompanied him, and the horse darted like an arrow. Before you knew it, the emperor was on the bank of the Wei (4) River. In the water, he saw a pair of golden carps leaping amid the waves, which delighted him and made him stop and look. 

The official, however, grabbed his foot and shouted, “What are you waiting for?! Go already!” and gave him a shove, pushing him off his horse and down into the river. And in that instant, the emperor departed the world of the dead.

Back in the world of the living, the officials of the Tang court, along with the emperor’s family and harem, had been holding his funeral service. While others mourned in the hall where the emperor lay in state, a select group gathered in an adjacent room to discuss next steps. Some of them advocated for elevating the crown prince to the throne. But Wei Zheng said, “Wait, we must not! If we startle the provinces, it will cause unimaginable chaos. Let’s wait another day, and our lord’s soul will return for sure.”

Another official pushed back on this, and they were bickering when suddenly, from inside the coffin, they heard banging and shouting, which scared everyone and they all ran away. All except three of his top generals, who were courageous enough to approach the coffin and shout, “My lord, what is still troubling you? Tell us. Don’t haunt your kin as a ghost.”

Wei Zheng rushed over and said, “No, it’s not a ghost. This is our lord’s soul returning to his body. Open up the coffin at once!”

So they pried open the coffin lid, and the emperor was lying inside, still shouting for help. They helped him up and said, “My lord, you just woke up. Don’t be afraid. We’re all here to protect you.”

The emperor opened his eyes and said, “I’ve been through so much! I had to evade all the evil spirits, and then I almost drowned in a river.”

His officials comforted him and summoned the physician to administer medicine. After ingesting some remedies and broth, the emperor slowly regained his senses. It was now getting late. His officials asked him to go to bed, and then they went home. The next morning, they shed their mourning clothes and put on colorful, celebratory outfits and awaited the emperor at court. 

The emperor got a good night’s rest and woke up in top form. When he ascended his throne, his officials all paid their respects and asked him what happened. So he recounted his whole journey through the underworld. Then, the court disseminated the news across the realm, and congratulations from all the officials of the land poured in.

The emperor now issued an edict to pardon all the common criminals. As for the 400-some criminals who had been sentenced to death, they were allowed to go home, take proper leave of their family, get their house settled, and then return on the same day the following year to receive their punishment. He then released some 3,000 palace maids and concubines from their service and married them off to worthy officers and soldiers. So he was doing a lot of things to build up some good karma.

Next, the emperor posted notices to recruit someone to deliver the promised pumpkins to the underworld. Now, this task was gonna require dying, so you can imagine not too many were eager to sign up. But surprisingly, one man did. His name was Liu (3) Quan (2). He was a wealthy man. But one day, a monk came by his house to beg for alms, and his wife went out to see him and gave him a golden hairpin from her head. Liu Quan scolded her, telling her she had acted most improperly for a woman because she had … umm … gone outside the house. His wife got so upset that she hanged herself, leaving behind a young son and daughter, who wailed all night for their mother. 

Regretting his actions and unable to watch his children cry, Liu Quan decided to forfeit his life, wealth, and children and volunteered to go deliver the pumpkins to the underworld. When he went to see the emperor, the latter sent him to the Golden Pagoda, where he lied down, with a pair of pumpkins at his head, some money in his sleeve, and poison in his mouth.

Moments later, the poison did its work, and Liu Quan died. His spirit, carrying the pumpkins, arrived at the Spirit Gate. The ghost lackeys guarding the gate shouted, “Who are you? How dare you come here?!”

“I am an envoy from the Tang emperor,” Liu Quan replied. “I have come to present pumpkins to the 10 Kings of the Underworld.”

The lackeys promptly escorted him to the Hall of Darkness to see the kings of the underworld. He presented the pumpkins and relayed the emperor’s gratitude. The kings were delighted. They accepted the pumpkins and then asked Liu Quan for his name. 

“My name is Liu Quan,” he said. “My wife hanged herself and left behind a pair of children with no one to watch over them. So I was willing to leave behind my home and family and sacrifice my body for the state by delivering the pumpkins on behalf of my lord to thank you.”

So umm, he left out a few little details, like how his misogyny was the reason his wife hanged herself. But these were the same 10 kings who couldn’t tell that someone had doctored the registries of life and death to add 20 years to the emperor’s life. They now told the lackeys to bring the spirit of Liu Quan’s wife, Li (3) Cuilian (4,2) so that they could be reunited.

This was promptly done. Then, the kings looked up the registries and saw that they were both destined to live to a ripe old age despite the minor obstacle of them both being dead at the moment. So the kings told their lackeys to send the couple back to the land of the living. But the lackeys said, “Li Cuilian has been dead for a long time, and there isn’t a body left to return her soul to.”

At this point, the Kings of Hell got creative. They said, “The Tang emperor’s sister, Li (3) Yuying (4,1), is destined to die today. You can use her body to return Li Cuilian’s soul.”

Uhh, either these kings of hell have a twisted sense of humor, or they’re just twisted. But the ghost lackeys said ok you’re the bosses and brought the souls of Liu Quan and his wife out of the underworld and back to the capital. 

First, they went to the Golden Pagoda and pushed Liu Quan’s soul back into his body there. Next, they brought his wife’s soul to the garden in the palace. There, the emperor’s sister was walking around. The ghost lackeys tackled her to the ground, literally wrestled her soul out of her body, and crammed Liu Quan’s wife’s soul into the corpse, and then went on their merry way with the soul of the emperor’s sister. 

The palace maids now rushed to report to the empress, “The emperor’s sister tripped and fell and died!” The empress was shocked and reported this to the emperor. 

But he didn’t seem surprised at all. He just nodded and sighed, “I can believe it. I once asked the kings of hell how my family was doing, and they told me that they were fine, except my sister might not have long to live. Turns out they were right.”

They now went to the garden to check on his sister’s body. But they noticed that she seemed to still draw faint breath.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry!” the emperor cried. “You’ll startle her.”

He now held her head up and said, “Sister, wake up!”

The princess suddenly popped up and shouted, “Husband, not so fast! Wait for me!”

“Sister, it’s us!” the emperor said.

“Who are you? How dare you touch me?!” she said as she opened her eyes.

“We’re your royal brother and sister-in-law.”

“I don’t have any royal brother or sister-in-law! My name is Li Cuilian, and my husband’s name is Liu Quan. Three months ago I went to the door to give a monk a golden hairpin as alms, and my husband scolded me. I got mad and hanged myself, leaving behind my children. Then my husband was tasked with delivering pumpkins to the underworld. The kings of hell took pity on us and sent both of us back. My husband went first. I was a bit late and couldn’t catch up to him. I tripped and fell. How rude you are! I don’t even know you, and you dared to touch me?!”

Hearing this rant, the emperor said to the servants, “My sister must have hit her head when she fell. She’s spouting nonsense.” So he had them escort her into the palace and summoned the royal physician to tend to her.

The emperor then went to hold court. But there, he was told that the guy who poisoned himself to deliver melons to the underworld was … umm … back? And waiting outside? The emperor was stunned and quickly summoned him in. Liu Quan came in and kowtowed, and recounted what happened, including the part where the kings of hell sent him and his wife back to the world of the living.

“I was walking in front and my wife was behind me,” he said. “I was fortunate to return to my body, but I don’t know where my wife went.”

“What did the kings of the underworld say about your wife?” a stunned emperor asked.

“They didn’t say much, but I heard the ghost envoys say that her body was no longer around, and then the kings said something about borrowing the corpse of a Li Yuying. I don’t know who that is or where she lives. So I haven’t found her yet.”

The emperor was delighted when he heard this. He said to all the officials, “When I took leave of the kings of the underworld, I had asked them about the health of my family. They said everyone was fine but that my sister might not have long to live. Just now, my sister Yuying tripped and fell dead in the garden. When I went to check on her, she woke up and was crying for her husband to wait for her. And then she said more stuff, and it matched Liu Quan’s story exactly.”

The prime minister Wei Zheng now suggested bringing out his sister to corroborate the stories. So they sent some attendants to bring her. At that moment, the newly resuscitated princess was causing a ruckus in the private quarters, insisting that she was in the wrong house and demanding to be released.

The eunuchs escorted the hysterical princess to the main hall, and the emperor asked her, “Would you recognize your husband if you saw him?”

“What BS is this? He and I pledged ourselves to each other since we were kids, and we’ve raised a family together. How can I not recognize him?”

The emperor instructed the eunuchs to escort her outside, where she saw Liu Quan. She grabbed hold of him and exclaimed, “Husband, where did you go?! Why didn’t you wait for me?! I tripped, and then I found myself accosted by these idiots who were making a fuss over me. What’s going on?!”

Now, to Liu Quan, this woman sure sounded like his wife, but of course she didn’t look like her, so he didn’t dare to confirm her identity yet. The emperor, however, was much more certain. He said, “As the old saying goes, ‘Men have seen mountains collapse and the earth open up, but none have seen the living exchanged for the dead!’ ”

He now bestowed not only the mortal form of his sister to Liu Quan as wife, but also gave him all of her possessions as a dowry of sorts. He was also given a lifetime exemption from any compulsory service to the crown. I guess taking poison and visiting the underworld to deliver some melons for the emperor was service enough for a lifetime. Liu Quan and his … umm … wife thanked the emperor for his kindness and honestly for just being a really cool customer about this whole business of his sister dying from just tripping and then having another dead woman’s soul crammed into her mortal coil. Liu Quan and his wife then went home and lived happily ever after.

There were still a couple more promises that the emperor had to keep from his time in the land of the dead. He now dispatched one of his top generals to the city of Kaifeng with a whole storehouse’s worth of gold and silver to pay back the wealthy man whose stash in the underworld he had borrowed from. 

The general arrived in the city and looked up this man, whose name was Xiang (4) Liang (2). Well, turns out this guy wasn’t a wealthy man. Quite the opposite in fact. He made his living selling water, and his wife added to their income by selling pottery in front of their house. They didn’t make much money, but most of what they made they either gave to monks as alms or used to buy paper money to burn as offerings for the dead. So even though Xiang Liang was living in poverty, he was building up quite a savings account in the underworld thanks to all this good karma. 

When the general, accompanied by a whole gaggle of local officials, knocked on Xiang Liang’s door and said, hey, here’s a whole storehouse of gold and silver from the emperor, Xiang Liang and his wife were scared out of their minds. They could say nothing and just fell to their knees and kowtowed nonstop.

“Elder, please get up!” the general said. “I may be an envoy, but I’m delivering gold and silver to pay you back on my lord’s command.”

Trembling, Xiang Liang replied, “I have no gold or silver to lend. How would I dare to receive this wealth of unclear origins?”

“I know you are a poor man,” the general said. “But you have been giving whatever money you have to alms and offerings for the dead. So you have accumulated a large fortune in the underworld. The emperor was dead for three days before returning to the land of the living. While in the underworld, he borrowed a storehouse of gold and silver from you, so he is repaying you in full today. Please accept it, so I can report back.”

Xiang Liang and his wife kowtowed to heaven to offer their thanks, but they did not dare to accept the money. He said, “If we accept this wealth, we would die quickly. We may have been giving alms and making offerings to the dead, but whether that has earned us credit in the underworld is unknown to us. Besides, what proof is there that the emperor borrowed money from us in the underworld? We would never dare to accept.”

After much back and forth, the couple still refused to accept. The general now sent a report back to the emperor, who was greatly moved by Xiang Liang’s character. So he instructed the general to use the gold and silver to construct a monastery in honor of Xiang Liang, and to recruit monks there to do good in his name, so as to repay Xiang Liang by helping accumulate further good karma. This was done, and soon an impressive monastery had been erected, and to the left of its main entrance was a stone tablet bearing the names and birthdates of Xiang Liang and his wife. This monastery would be named the Great Xiangguo (4,2) Monastery, and it would become one of the great Buddhist monasteries in China. And it’s still standing today and is a popular tourist attraction. And for those of you who listened to my Water Margin podcast series, this is the monastery where the Lu Zhishen the Flowery Monk ended up when the abbott at his first monastery needed to find a place to unload him after he had caused too much trouble. 

And now, there was just one last promise the emperor had to keep. He needed to host a Grand Mass of Water and Land to help all those angry ghosts that he encountered find their way to heaven. And this is where we finally rejoin the main narrative in episode 9. So let’s head on back there and see what happens at this Grand Mass. I’ll see you next time on the Chinese Lore Podcast. Thanks for listening!

Music in This Episode

• “Luỹ Tre Xanh Ngát Đầu Làng (Guzheng) – Vietnam BGM” by VPRODMUSIC_Asia_BGM
• “Ravines” by Elphnt (from YouTube audio library)
• “Comfortable Mystery 3 – Film Noire” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100536; Artist: http://incompetech.com/)
• “Day of Recon” by Max Surla/Media Right Productions (from YouTube audio library)