Zhang Yuqi was a clerk in the revenue office of Wujin county. Taking the tax money and grain up to Suzhou, he passed the district of Henglin and fell down flat in broad daylight.
After a day he came to himself, and said that a man in golden armour had seized him and taken him to a great courtyard, where the man called out: “Master, a wicked man is here.”
At the head sat a green-faced, fanged figure, who said: “Since he is a wicked man, have him detained.”
The man in golden armour knelt and begged: “Yuqi is on the emperor’s business; it is not convenient to hold him. Let him go back to the light, and when his task is done we shall examine him at leisure.”
The green-faced one allowed it, and Zhang revived.
He delivered the grain at Suzhou, took his receipt, and came back. Passing Henglin again, he lodged at an inn, and dreamed that the man in golden armour came once more and led Yuqi in to see the master — the same green-faced one.
The master gave judgement: “Bring the book of Yuqi’s life’s merits and offences, weigh them, and then sentence him.”
His attendants brought a scale, shining with golden stars, its sliding weight made of purple-gold stone. For every good deed a red slip, for every evil deed a black slip; and these were thrown into the pans. In a moment the red was light and the black was heavy, and Zhang trembled without ceasing.
Then someone took a roll of documents marked with a red slip and threw it in, and all the black in the pan was pressed down by it, and the red slip was heavy beyond measure.
The green-faced one said: “With so great a merit, he may be released to the light, and have his span increased by a twelve-year.”
Yuqi woke with a start, and told people of it. They asked him: “Could you tell what the document was?”
He said: “It was a case I handled myself — how could I not know it? It was the confiscation of the estate of Liu, the provincial treasurer of Changzhou, whose personal name was so-and-so. When Liu was being confiscated, of the fields and property entered in the registers the tenants owed a great deal in arrears, and the county magistrate wanted to press and collect it to the amount. I outwardly fell in with what he said, and at night I deliberately failed to guard against fire, and burned the whole lot. For that I was beaten, and the matter ended there. The thing that weighed down the scale must have been this business.”
Yuqi is alive to this day.
