Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/434

 422 CHINESE LITERATURE

"Those discontented ones who rail against heaven and revile earth, who are always finding fault either with the wind, thunder, heat, cold, fine weather, or rain ; those who let their tears fall towards the north ; who steal the gold from the inside or scrape the gilding from the outside of images ; those who take holy names in vain, who show no respect for written paper, who throw down dirt and rubbish near pagodas or temples, who use dirty cook-houses and stoves for preparing the sacri- ficial meats, who do not abstain from eating beef and dog-flesh ; those who have in their possession blas- phemous or obscene books and do not destroy them, who obliterate or tear books which teach man to be good, who carve on common articles of household use the symbol of the origin of all things, the Sun and Moon and Seven Stars, the Royal Mother and the God of Longevity on the same article, or representations of any of the Immortals; those who embroider the Svastika on fancy-work, or mark characters on silk, satin, or cloth, on banners, beds, chairs, tables, or any kind of utensil ; those who secretly wear clothes adorned with the dragon and the phoenix only to be trampled under foot, who buy up grain and hold until the price is exorbitantly high all these shall be thrust into the great and noisy Gehenna, there to be examined as to their misdeeds and passed accordingly into one of the sixteen wards, whence, at the expiration of their time, they will be sent for fur- ther questioning on to the Seventh Court."

The Tenth Court deals with the final stage of trans- migration previous to rebirth in the world. It appears that in primeval ages men could remember their former lives on earth even after having passed through Purga- tory, and that wicked persons often took advantage of

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