《地衹上將溫太保傳補遺》

“Supplement to the Biography of Grand Protector Wen, General of the Earth Deities (Dizhi)” is a supplement to the “Biography of Grand Protector Wen (Wen Qiong).” It was compiled by Huang Gongjin, a humble adept of the Xubai Studio who nourishes simplicity.

General Wen was fair, loyal, and upright. After he became a deity of the Sacred Mountain, he long maintained the incense offerings of the Xuan Emperor (Zhenwu Dadi), and the Yue Emperor (Dongyue Dadi) praised him. One day, the Northern Emperor (Beiji Ziwei Dadi) sent down a thousand pellets of plague medicine to the Eastern Peak and issued an order for envoys to spread plague and investigate people in the world who were disloyal and unfilial, who killed living beings and harmed life, and who injured the myriad things. The Yue Emperor accepted the decree and summoned Wen Qiong to spread the plague.

Wen Qiong received the order and took charge of the medicine, but he pondered again and again: one pellet would kill a thousand people, and the death of a thousand people would bring calamity to a thousand households. Moreover, the spread of pestilential qi and the outbreaks of illness caused by poison were beyond this, and the lingering disasters that would harm people could not be counted. This greatly violated the virtue of Taishang (Taishang Laojun), who cherishes life. Better, then, that I substitute my one body for a thousand people and save countless lives—what regret could there be? So he faced the north, looked up to heaven, and swallowed it all in one gulp. After a moment his abdomen hurt and his body grew hot, and he could no longer endure it.

He then burned incense and went straight before the Yue Emperor. Having transformed into a huge fierce ghost, he reported the matter and prostrated himself awaiting punishment. It happened that a decree from the Northern Emperor came down urging supervision and inspection, so the Yue Emperor could only state directly Wen Qiong’s offense of being unfit for duty and report it to the Northern Emperor. Wen Qiong was therefore handed over to the Yousheng Yuan, a celestial administrative office, to investigate his fault. The Xuan Emperor praised his intention, recommended him and clarified the matter in a memorial, and requested pardon for Wen Qiong’s offense. The Northern Emperor approved the request and ordered him to devote himself exclusively to carrying out the Xuan Emperor’s commands, propagating transformation and suppressing demons. From then on his awe-inspiring name shook the world even more.

It is also recorded that Cao Kefu, superintendent of Yulong Abbey, had practiced the secret methods of the Earth Deities since youth and once traveled to Chiyang to propagate transformation. In that prefecture there was a Wuxian Temple, whose spiritual efficacy was very prominent and whose halls were magnificent. It happened that a deputy official took over office there. At first he brought his family to worship at the temple, and he also brought his concubine into the hall to look. After they returned, the concubine collapsed; physicians were helpless, and although she had already been placed in the coffin, the encoffining had not yet been completed. Clerks reported that in the marketplace there was a Daoist Cao whose talismanic methods were very efficacious, and the deputy official sent someone to summon him.

When Cao Kefu arrived and read the petition, he said: “What a pity—one day has already passed, so she cannot be revived. I fear that if you wish to get to the bottom of it and confirm that a malevolent spirit caused the trouble, that can still be done.” The deputy official agreed. Cao drew talismans and performed ritual, burning them beside the coffin. In a moment the coffin lid lifted of itself, and the corpse leapt out from the coffin and stood, making a sound in response before Cao. Cao said: “This is a troublemaking spirit that has been summoned here and has attached itself to the corpse. There is no need to be alarmed; wait while I interrogate it.”

Only after repeated interrogation did he say: “I am the fourth deity in this prefecture’s Temple of the Five Kings (where five deities were worshiped), Huaguangzang Bodhisattva (a deity’s name here).” He was then questioned about why he had used curse sorcery to take the soul and life of a living person. He replied: “When the dead man entered the temple to look, he thought to himself: Where in the world could there be a good man as handsome as this? When I saw that a deluded thought had arisen in him, I took his soul.” Judge Cao ordered him to release the soul and return it. The god said: “I should not disobey the judge’s command, but his breath has already passed; the man has stopped breathing, and there is nothing to be done.” Judge Cao grew angry and declared that he would memorialize the Lord on High to destroy the god’s physical form. The god said: “I am congealed from the refined qi of the mountains and rivers of the Five Peaks and Four Rivers (the five sacred mountains and four great waterways); no other god can compare with me. You can only cut off my incense offerings in Chizhou.” After he said this, the corpse was placed in the coffin as before. Judge Cao ordered the coffin sealed and the body encoffined, chose a day to memorialize the Lord on High, and dispatched Qiong (the name of a divine general) to slay this god. He then reported the matter to the deputy official and had all the clay statues transported to the drill ground, where they were destroyed and hacked to pieces. Only when they hacked the fourth one did they indeed see blood flow. From then on, the incense offerings in Chizhou were cut off. Judge Cao’s reputation rose greatly because of this. Later he presided over Lin Palace (a Daoist temple). He would not perform rituals indiscriminately; whenever he did perform them, they were invariably efficacious. When people questioned him, he would say only that it was General Wen (that is, Wen Taibao).

In addition, in a county at Shukou there was a shrine that was very efficacious and renowned. It had repeatedly received imperial canonizations and could bring misfortune and bestow blessings on people. But its inner hall was deep and hidden, and people were never allowed to enter at will; anyone who wished to enter would invariably be haunted and harmed by the god. When the county magistrate first took office, he already found it strange and suspected something. Later his family members fell ill, and all blamed this god. One day, pretending it was for another matter, he issued an official dispatch summoning the patrol officer to bring archers to the temple. He then put on formal robes, concealed the sacrificial implements, and wrote a proclamation to notify the god. He had the door of the inner hall removed and, leading the crowd, forced their way in. They saw a huge monkey, which in its haste could not transform; the magistrate shouted an order, and the archers shot it dead. Then they burned down the temple. The magistrate served his full three-year term, was duly relieved of his post, and left, taking his family back to his hometown. Halfway there, while resting briefly at an inn, he went to the latrine and suddenly saw on the road a large and splendid retinue of riders and attendants welcoming a divine statue. When he saw the deity being welcomed, it had exactly the appearance of the monkey god from the temple that he had shot dead. The god stepped down from his sedan chair and spoke in human speech; he sat with his hand on his sword and ordered his attendants to seize the magistrate, commanding a ghost messenger to eat him. As the magistrate was seized, someone nearby intervened on his behalf, saying: “There is no need to eat him; just ask the Great King to go to his house and take charge.” The ghost messenger then threw the magistrate into the air, and the magistrate suddenly lost all trace of his bodily form.

Zai was in the wilderness and could not tell where he had arrived. He searched for a road for several days before he met someone; only upon asking did he learn that he was more than five thousand li from home. Day and night he begged while trying to find his way back but could not; he asked only about Mount Longhu in Xinzhou, intending to seek refuge with the Celestial Master (Tianshi). Because of this single sincere thought, he truly had the protection of spirits, and so he survived. More than four years passed before he found Xinzhou. Before he had entered the mountain, he saw a Daoist and went forward to bow and ask. The Daoist said, “I am Master Xujing (Zhang Jixian, a Song-dynasty Celestial Master).” Zai kowtowed and bowed; just as he was about to explain his circumstances, Xujing said, “I already know. There is no need for you to trouble yourself to go up the mountain.” He then asked, “Sir, how have you made your living on the road?” Zai answered, “I only know fortune-telling.” Xujing then gave him a mirror and a token, told him to hang the mirror in the exact center of his chest and tie the token to his left arm, and sent him away. Zai hurriedly sought the road, and as if protected invisibly, he walked more than a hundred li a day without becoming tired. After about a year he suddenly reached his hometown, as if someone were guiding him to his own door. He followed Xujing’s instructions completely and still gave only fortune-telling as his story. The spirits led all the household, old and young, to come out and have him tell their fortunes. When the spirit was speaking with Zai, the mirror suddenly moved, and Zai struck once with the token he had received. General Wen (Wen Qiong, the Earth Deity General Wen Taibao) leapt out from the mirror; thunder and lightning erupted, with black fog and black wind, so that people could not raise their heads to look. After a long while the clouds opened and the sky cleared, and Zai saw that the large monkey and two small monkeys from before had been struck dead in front of a hall. Zai explained the matter in detail, and only then could his family remember. Those two small monkeys had both been born to Zai’s wife and concubine; unfortunately, their names could no longer be recalled.

In recent years Lu Yanghao came to Jiangxi and traveled around Linjiang Jun to spread the teaching. He happened to meet someone in the Xiao family suffering from consumption, and the Xiao family offered a reward to recruit someone to cure it. Yanghao performed kaofu (a ritual of summoning and possession) in front of Huili Temple. Each time he possessed a boy, the boy jumped into the water at Jiangyue Pavilion and did not come ashore, and everyone was half-believing and half-doubting. Yanghao then possessed another person; this person took the sword held by the ritual master and likewise jumped straight into the pool. After a long while, the three of them pursued and struck the head of a catfish and came ashore. Only then did they know that this was precisely what had been causing the trouble, and the Xiao family’s illness was thereby cured. Lu Yanghao told people, “Only at the very end did I summon Wen Qiong, and only then did it take effect quickly.”

Hong Yi’an was renowned for practicing the Inner Terrace Fengdu method (a Daoist exorcism rite). He brought his disciple Zhong Yeyun to the home of Huang Tongyue in Niutian, Pucheng County, Jianning Prefecture, where he encountered the family’s youngest daughter suffering from a madness caused by possession. He used kaofu to investigate, and the origin of the matter was connected with office-holding and appointment.

In Fujian, two malevolent entities named Jiang Lang and Dai Dapo wreaked havoc, establishing a ghostly prison within a temple to harm people. Later, someone disrupted their sinister mechanisms by kicking them apart, causing the two entities to flee. They summoned other evil spirits for assistance, transforming into flying crows and ferocious tigers that circled the temple, howling and causing chaos. At the time, none of the various magical methods could subdue them.

Ultimately, it was the "Ten Earth Deities" (Shi Diqi, ten territorial spirits) technique that succeeded in capturing them all. The evil entities were bound and taken to the right side of a lake, where they were completely annihilated using the "Sinking Method" (Chenmofa, a ritual to obliterate both form and spirit). This incident proved that Marshal Wen (Wen Taibao, a divine general specializing in subduing demons among the territorial deities) indeed responds swiftly and unfailingly when called upon.

This account records what was personally witnessed and heard, supplementing previously missing details in the Biography of Marshal Wen.