Some Chinese Ghosts Read online

  Even as she ceased to speak, the great glow faded; and Tong, re-opening his eyes, knew that she had passed away forever,—mysteriously as pass the winds of heaven, irrevocably as the light of a flame blown out. Yet all the doors were barred, all the ­windows unopened. Still the child slept, smiling in his sleep. Outside, the darkness was breaking; the sky was brightening swiftly; the night was past. With splendid majesty the East threw open high gates of gold for the coming of the sun; and, illuminated by the glory of his coming, the vapors of ­morning wrought themselves into marvellous shapes of shifting ­color,—into forms weirdly beautiful as the silken dreams woven in the loom of Tchi-Niu.

  ­Before me ran, as a herald runneth, the Leader of the Moon;

  And the Spirit of the Wind followed ­after me,—quickening his flight.

  LI-SAO.

  The Return of Yen-Tchin-King

  * * *

  IN the thirty-eighth chapter of the holy book, Kan-ing-p’ien, wherein the Recompense of Immortality is considered, may be found the legend of Yen-Tchin-King. A thousand years have passed since the passing of the good Tchin-King; for it was in the period of the greatness of Thang that he lived and died.

  Now, in those days when Yen-Tchin-King was Supreme Judge of one of the Six August Tribunals, one Li-hi-lié, a soldier mighty for evil, lifted the black banner of revolt, and drew ­after him, as a tide of destruction, the millions of the northern prov­inces. And learning of these things, and knowing also that Hi-lié was the most ferocious of men, who respected ­nothing on earth save fearlessness, the Son of Heaven commanded Tchin-King that he should visit Hi-lié and strive to recall the rebel to duty, and read unto the ­people who followed ­after him in revolt the Emperor’s ­letter of reproof and warning. For Tchin-King was famed throughout the prov­inces for his wisdom, his rectitude, and his fearlessness; and the Son of Heaven ­believed that if Hi-lié would listen to the words of any living man steadfast in loyalty and virtue, he would listen to the words of Tchin-King. So Tchin-King arrayed himself in his robes of ­office, and set his house in ­order; and, ­having embraced his wife and his children, mounted his horse and rode away alone to the roaring camp of the rebels, bearing the Emperor’s ­letter in his bosom. “I shall return; fear not!” were his last words to the gray servant who watched him from the terrace as he rode.

  And Tchin-King at last descended from his horse, and entered into the rebel camp, and, passing through that huge gathering of war, stood in the presence of Hi-lié. High sat the rebel among his chiefs, encircled by the wave-lightning of swords and the ­th­unders of ten thousand gongs: above him undulated the silken folds of the Black Dragon, while a vast fire rose bickering ­before him. Also Tchin-King saw that the tongues of that fire were licking ­human bones, and that skulls of men lay blackening among the ashes. Yet he was not afraid to look upon the fire, nor into the eyes of Hi-lié; but drawing from his bosom the roll of perfumed yellow silk upon which the words of the Emperor were written, and kissing it, he made ready to read, while the multitude became silent. Then, in a strong, clear voice he ­began:—

  “The words of the Celestial and August, the Son of Heaven, the Divine Ko-Tsu-Tchin-Yao-ti, unto the rebel Li-Hi-lié and those that follow him.”

  And a roar went up like the roar of the sea,—a roar of rage, and the hideous battle-moan, like the moan of a forest in storm,—“Hoo! hoo-oo-oo-oo!”—and the sword-lightnings brake loose, and the ­th­under of the gongs moved the ground beneath the messenger’s feet. But Hi-lié waved his gilded wand, and again there was silence. “Nay!” spake the rebel chief; “let the dog bark!” So Tchin-King spake on:—

  “Knowest thou not, O most rash and foolish of men, that thou leadest the ­people only into the mouth of the Dragon of Destruction? Knowest thou not, also, that the ­people of my kingdom are the first-born of the ­Master of Heaven? So it hath been written that he who doth needlessly subject the ­people to wounds and death shall not be suffered by Heaven to live! Thou who wouldst subvert those laws founded by the wise,—those laws in obedience to which may happiness and prosperity alone be found,—thou art committing the greatest of all crimes,—the crime that is never forgiven!

  “O my ­people, think not that I your Emperor, I your ­Father, seek your destruction. I desire only your happiness, your prosperity, your greatness; let not your folly provoke the severity of your Celestial Parent. Follow not ­after madness and blind rage; hearken rather to the wise words of my messenger.”

  “Hoo! hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!” roared the ­people, gathering fury. “Hoo! hoo-oo-oo-oo!”—till the mountains rolled back the cry like the rolling of a typhoon; and once more the pealing of the gongs paralyzed voice and hearing. Then Tchin-King, ­looking at Hi-lié, saw that he laughed, and that the words of the ­letter would not again be listened to. Therefore he read on to the end without ­looking about him, resolved to perform his mission in so far as lay in his power. And ­having read all, he would have given the ­letter to Hi-lié; but Hi-lié would not extend his hand to take it. Therefore Tchin-King replaced it in his bosom, and folding his arms, looked Hi-lié calmly in the face, and waited. Again Hi-lié waved his gilded wand; and the roaring ceased, and the booming of the gongs, ­until ­nothing save the fluttering of the Dragon-banner could be heard. Then spake Hi-lié, with an evil smile,—

  “Tchin-King, O son of a dog! if thou dost not now take the oath of fealty, and bow thyself ­before me, and salute me with the salutation of Emperors,—even with the luh-kao, the triple prostration,—into that fire thou shalt be thrown.”

  But Tchin-King, turning his back upon the usurper, bowed himself a moment in worship to Heaven and Earth; and then rising suddenly, ere any man could lay hand upon him, he leaped into the towering flame, and stood there, with folded arms, like a God.

  Then Hi-lié leaped to his feet in amazement, and shouted to his men; and they snatched Tchin-King from the fire, and wrung the flames from his robes with their naked hands, and extolled him, and praised him to his face. And even Hi-lié himself descended from his seat, and spoke fair words to him, saying: “O Tchin-King, I see thou art indeed a brave man and true, and worthy of all honor; be seated among us, I pray thee, and partake of whatever it is in our power to bestow!”

  But Tchin-King, ­looking upon him unswervingly, replied in a voice clear as the voice of a great bell,—

  “Never, O Hi-lié, shall I accept aught from thy hand, save death, so long as thou shalt continue in the path of wrath and folly. And never shall it be said that Tchin-King sat him down among rebels and traitors, among murderers and robbers.”

  Then Hi-lié, in sudden fury, smote him with his sword; and Tchin-King fell to the earth and died, striving even in his death to bow his head ­toward the south,—­toward the place of the Emperor’s palace,—­toward the presence of his beloved ­Master.

  Even at the same hour the Son of Heaven, alone in the inner chamber of his palace became aware of a Shape prostrate ­before his feet; and when he spake, the Shape arose and stood ­before him, and he saw that it was Tchin-King. And the Emperor would have questioned him; yet ere he could question, the familiar voice spake, saying:

  “Son of Heaven, the mission confided to me I have performed; and thy command hath been accomplished to the extent of thy humble servant’s feeble power. But even now must I depart, that I may enter the ser­vice of ­an­other ­Master.”

  And ­looking, the Emperor perceived that the Golden Tigers upon the wall were visible through the form of Tchin-King; and a strange coldness, like a winter wind, passed through the chamber; and the figure faded out. Then the Emperor knew that the ­Master of whom his faithful servant had spoken was none ­other than the ­Master of Heaven.

  Also at the same hour the gray servant of Tchin-King’s house beheld him passing through the apartments, smiling as he was wont to smile when he saw that all things were as he desired. “Is it well with thee, my lord?” questioned the aged man. And a voice answer
ed him: “It is well;” but the presence of Tchin-King had passed away ­before the answer came.

  So the armies of the Son of Heaven strove with the rebels. But the land was soaked with blood and blackened with fire; and the corpses of whole populations were carried by the rivers to feed the fishes of the sea; and still the war prevailed through many a long red year. Then came to aid the Son of Heaven the hordes that dwell in the desolations of the west and north,—horsemen born, a nation of wild archers, each mighty to bend a two-hundred-pound bow, ­until the ears should meet. And as a whirlwind they came against rebellion, raining raven-feathered arrows in a storm of death; and they prevailed against Hi-lié and his ­people. Then those that survived destruction and defeat submitted, and prom­ised allegiance; and once more was the law of righ­teousness restored. But Tchin-King had been dead for many summers.

  And the Son of Heaven sent word to his victorious generals that they should bring back with them the bones of his faithful servant, to be laid with honor in a mausoleum erected by imperial decree. So the generals of the Celestial and August sought ­after the nameless grave and found it, and had the earth taken up, and made ready to remove the coffin.

  But the coffin crumbled into dust ­before their eyes; for the worms had gnawed it, and the hungry earth had devoured its substance, leaving only a phantom shell that vanished at touch of the light. And lo! as it vanished, all beheld lying there the perfect form and features of the good Tchin-King. Corruption had not touched him, nor had the worms disturbed his rest, nor had the bloom of life departed from his face. And he seemed to dream only,—comely to see as upon the ­morning of his bridal, and smiling as the holy images smile, with eyelids closed, in the twilight of the great pagodas.

  Then spoke a priest, standing by the grave: “O my children, this is indeed a Sign from the ­Master of Heaven; in such wise do the Powers Celestial preserve them that are chosen to be numbered with the Immortals. Death may not prevail over them, n­either may corruption come nigh them. Verily the blessed Tchin-King hath taken his place among the divinities of Heaven!”

  Then they bore Tchin-King back to his native place, and laid him with highest honors in the mausoleum which the Emperor had commanded; and there he sleeps, incorruptible forever, arrayed in his robes of state. Upon his tomb are sculptured the emblems of his greatness and his wisdom and his virtue, and the signs of his ­office, and the Four Precious Things: and the monsters which are holy symbols mount giant guard in stone about it; and the weird Dogs of Fo keep watch ­before it, as ­before the temples of the gods.

  SANG A CHINESE HEART, FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO:—

  There is Somebody of whom I am thinking.

  Far away there is Somebody of whom I am thinking.

  A hundred leagues of mountains lie ­between us;—

  Yet the same Moon shines upon us, and the passing

  Wind breathes upon us both.

  The Tradition of the Tea-Plant

  “Good is the continence of the eye;

  Good is the continence of the ear;

  Good is the continence of the nostrils;

  Good is the continence of the tongue;

  Good is the continence of the body;

  Good is the continence of speech;

  Good is all. . . .”

  * * *

  AGAIN the Vulture of Temptation soared to the highest heaven of his contemplation, bringing his soul down, down, reeling and fluttering back to the World of Illusion. Again the memory made dizzy his thought, like the perfume of some venomous ­flower. Yet he had seen the bayadere for an instant only, when passing through Kasí upon his way to China,—to the vast empire of souls that thirsted ­after the refreshment of Buddha’s law, as sun-parched fields thirst for the life-giving rain. When she called him, and dropped her ­little gift into his mendicant’s bowl, he had indeed lifted his fan ­before his face, yet not quickly enough; and the penalty of that fault had followed him a thousand leagues,—pursued ­after him even into the strange land to which he had come to bear the words of the Universal Teacher. Accursed beauty! surely framed by the Tempter of tempters, by Mara himself, for the perdition of the just! Wisely had Bhagavat warned his disciples: “O ye Çramanas, women are not to be looked upon! And if ye chance to meet women, ye must not suffer your eyes to dwell upon them; but, maintaining holy reserve, speak not to them at all. Then fail not to whisper unto your own hearts, ‘Lo, we are Çramanas, whose duty it is to remain uncontaminated by the corruptions of this world, even as the Lotos, which suffereth no vileness to cling unto its leaves, though it blossom amid the refuse of the wayside ditch.’” Then also came to his memory, but with a new and terrible meaning, the words of the Twentieth-and-Third of the Admonitions:—

  “Of all attachments unto objects of desire, the strongest indeed is the attachment to Form. Happily, this passion is unique; for were there any ­other like unto it, then to enter the Perfect Way were impossible.”

  How, indeed, thus haunted by the illusion of form, was he to fulfil the vow that he had made to pass a night and a day in perfect and unbroken meditation? Already the night was ­beginning! Assuredly, for sickness of the soul, for fever of the spirit, there was no physic save prayer. The sunset was swiftly fading out. He strove to pray:—

  “O the Jewel in the Lotos!

  “Even as the tortoise withdraweth its extremities into its shell, let me, O Blessed One, withdraw my senses wholly into meditation!

  “O the Jewel in the Lotos!

  “For even as rain penetrateth the broken roof of a dwelling long uninhabited, so may passion enter the soul uninhabited by meditation.

  “O the Jewel in the Lotos!

  “Even as still ­water that hath deposited all its slime, so let my soul, O Tathâgata, be made pure! Give me strong power to rise above the world, O ­Master, even as the wild bird rises from its marsh to follow the pathway of the Sun!

  “O the Jewel in the Lotos!

  “By day shineth the sun, by night shineth the moon; shineth also the warrior in harness of war; shineth likewise in meditations the Çramana. But the Buddha at all times, by night or by day, shineth ever the same, illuminating the world.

  “O the Jewel in the Lotos!

  “Let me cease, O thou Perfectly Awakened, to remain as an Ape in the World-forest, forever ascending and descending in search of the fruits of folly. Swift as the twining of serpents, vast as the growth of lianas in a forest, are the all-encircling growths of the Plant of Desire.

  “O the Jewel in the Lotos!”

  Vain his prayer, alas! vain also his invocation! The mystic meaning of the holy text—the sense of the Lotos, the sense of the Jewel—had evaporated from the words, and their monotonous utterance now served only to lend more dangerous definition to the memory that tempted and tortured him. O the jewel in her ear! What lotos-bud more dainty than the folded ­flower of flesh, with its dripping of diamond-fire! Again he saw it, and the curve of the cheek ­beyond, luscious to look upon as beautiful brown fruit. How true the Two Hundred and Eighty-Fourth verse of the Admonitions!—“So long as a man shall not have torn from his heart even the smallest rootlet of that liana of desire which draweth his thought ­toward women, even so long shall his soul remain fettered.” And there came to his mind also the Three Hundred and Forty-Fifth verse of the same blessed book, regarding fetters:

  “In bonds of rope, wise teachers have said, there is no strength; nor in fetters of wood, nor yet in fetters of iron. Much stronger than any of these is the fetter of concern for the jewelled earrings of women.”

  “Omniscient Gotama!” he cried,—“all-seeing Tathâgata! How multiform the consolation of Thy Word! how marvellous Thy ­under­standing of the ­human heart! Was this also one of Thy temptations?—one of the myriad illusions marshalled ­before Thee by Mara in that night when the earth rocked as a chariot, and the sacred trembling passed from sun to sun, from system to system, from univ
erse to universe, from eternity to eternity?”

  O the jewel in her ear! The vision would not go! Nay, each time it hovered ­before his thought it seemed to take a warmer life, a fonder look, a fairer form; to develop with his weakness; to gain force from his enervation. He saw the eyes, large, limpid, soft, and black as a deer’s; the pearls in the dark hair, and the pearls in the pink mouth; the lips curling to a kiss, a ­flower-kiss; and a fragrance seemed to float to his senses, sweet, strange, soporific,—a perfume of youth, an odor of woman. Rising to his feet, with strong resolve he pronounced again the sacred invocation; and he recited the holy words of the Chapter of Impermanency:

  “Gazing upon the heavens and upon the earth ye must say, These are not permanent. Gazing upon the mountains and the rivers, ye must say, These are not permanent. Gazing upon the forms and upon the faces of exterior ­beings, and beholding their growth and their development, ye must say, These are not permanent.”

  And nevertheless! how sweet illusion! The illusion of the great sun; the illusion of the shadow-casting hills; the illusion of ­waters, formless and multiform; the illusion of—Nay, nay! what impious fancy! Accursed girl! yet, yet! why should he curse her? Had she ever done ought to merit the malediction of an as­cet­ic? Never, never! Only her form, the memory of her, the beautiful phantom of her, the accursed phantom of her! What was she? An illusion creating illusions, a mockery, a dream, a shadow, a vanity, a vexation of spirit! The fault, the sin, was in himself, in his rebellious thought, in his untamed memory. Though mobile as ­water, intangible as vapor, Thought, nevertheless, may be tamed by the Will, may be harnessed to the chariot of Wisdom—must be!—that happiness be found. And he recited the blessed verses of the “Book of the Way of the Law:”—