Commentary on Retribution from a Scholar in the Qing Dynasty
By Lu Wen
(Clearwisdom.net) Ji Xiaolan, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, recorded and narrated a story in Volume Eight of his works entitled, Yuewei Hut Diaries. The story goes as follows.
During the time of Emperor Yongzheng's reign, Su Dounan saw a friend of his at an inn beside the Baigou River. The friend was grumbling while he was drinking, saying something like, "There exists no justice, there is no retribution for kindness and evil."
Suddenly, a mysterious horseman passing by got off his horse and came in to the inn. The horseman then said to Su Dounan's friend, "Are you complaining that you see no consequences for one's actions? Please think about it. Those lechers will inevitably get sick. Those gamblers will inevitably lose money and become poor. Those robbers will inevitably be caught, and killers will inevitably repay the life with their own lives. These are all retributions based on cause and effect. Of course, attachment to lust has different degrees of severity. The attachment to gambling has different levels based on the degree of artifice or trickery. Robbers have differences, based on whether they are the principal thief or an accessory; and killing has different degrees, between premeditated murder and mistaken murder. They will all face their different corresponding retributions. As for retribution itself, some people's crimes will be counteracted with their positive contributions, some will be punished with apparent retribution, and some will get their returns in an indirect way. For some, it takes time to see the effects of his contributions and his sins because things are still in process. The situations cannot be dealt with by invariable means, and the principles should be talked about differentially. Everything is very exquisite and hidden! You are complaining that the heavenly principles are not transparent, based on your current insight, and so you have made careless remarks. Now let's talk about yourself; you had been predestined to be appointed as an official with the seventh pin. (Pin refers to a traditional Chinese Official's rank; the ninth pin was the lowest rank.) However, owing to your scheming and self-serving personality, you have been degraded to the eighth pin by Heaven. When you were promoted to the eighth pin from the ninth, you chuckled to yourself for your perceived success, as a result of your tricks, being unaware that you were degraded from the predestined seventh pin by the gods for your low moral standard." Subsequently, the mysterious man approached Su's friend and whispered to him for quite a while. Then the man spoke loudly, "Have you forgotten all these things you've done?" Upon hearing this, Su's friend was so scared that he perspired heavily. Then he asked, "How could you know all these secrets of mine?" The mysterious man laughed and said, "All gods know what you've done, not only me!" After these words, the mysterious man went out the door, got into the saddle and disappeared.
It is a person's freedom to believe or disbelieve that there is retribution for kindness and evil. Theists and atheists have coexisted since ancient times. People should respect the beliefs of each other. Our ancestors and people around the world treated each other equally and respectfully, and coexisted peacefully. Only the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forcibly coerces people to believe only their ideology. Years ago, it was only because others said, "Kindness will be returned with kindness and evil with evil. Retribution is not seen, only because the time is not right. At the right time, everything will have its retribution," that Jiang Qing (the former CCP’s leader Mao’s wife) fiercely criticized them. Jiang Qing manifested her "trilogy of retribution." That is, she lived out her "fearing retribution," "criticizing retribution" and "suffering retribution." The entire evil CCP will also complete the manifestation of their "trilogy of retribution." And now, the time is right for their retribution to manifest.
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/2/28/149828.html
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