CHINESE SUPERSTITIONS - University of Oregon

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This glass overhangs a raised platform eleven feet high. The
mirror measures from 6 to 7 feet in circumference, and is suspended
facing the East. Above it runs a horizontal inscription with the
words: "no good man comes before this mirror of guilt 1
t'ai-ts'ien, muh-hao-jen f >i ^ f j||f A'
', Yeh-king-
The soul, dragged by the lictors of hell before the mysterious
glass, sees in it all the evil it has committed while living on earth.
Having passed before the mirror, the guilty person is sent to the
Second Court of Hades, where its tortures begin.
Should any one be guilty of suicide, except
for the sake of
fidelity to his prince, filial piety or chastity, or also in a just war,
he is immediately after death taken before Ts'in-kwang-wang ||l J*
3E, who records the fact, and sends back the soul to the place where
the crime was committed (1). There, the Shade wanders miserably,
enduring the pangs of hunger and thirst, and without being able
to receive the offerings and sacrifices made to the departed manes.
It is only when the person whom he intended injuring by his
suicide, has forgotten it, that the Guardian God of the Door, Men-
shen ft) |f , and the Kitchen God, Tsao-wang || 3£ (2), lead his
soul again into the presence of Ts'in-kwang-wang ^s Jf 3E- The
President then despatches it to the Second Court, and others succes-
sively, until it reaches the Ninth, where it is imprisoned in the
"City of Suicides", Wang-sze-ch'eng |J 3*E Jj&,
metempsychosis (3).
ar>d debarred from
(1) The soul of a suicide lingers near the spot where the crime was
committed, to induce another to self-destruction. The law of suggestion has
wide application in China. The Chinese Recorder. August, 1920 (Gods and
Demons).
(2) Tscto-wang §| 3E, the Kitchen God. This Taoist divinity presides
over the kitchen, acting meanwhile as a kind of spy
in the service of the
Pearly Emperor, Yuh-hwang 3? ji. At the end of the year he is said to
ascend to heaven, and report to the above god on the conduct of the family.
Chinese Superstitions. Vol. V. p. 597. note 1 ; p. G15. 12th month, 24»h day.
(3) That is he cannot pass into a new phase of existence, and be reborn
as a man, an animal or a plant. This is the deserved requital for the evil he has
wrought. Geden. Studies in the Religions of the East. p. 296 (Transmigration).