WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Cauldron, Part 2 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:07.520 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:08.840 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.639 And I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. It's vault time. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.640 This is an older episode of the show that originally 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.880 published May twenty six, twenty twenty two, and it's part 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:22.000 two of our series on the Cauldron. Hope you enjoy. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.640 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.639 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:37.400 is Robert. 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.120 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.400 two of our series about cauldrons. 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.280 That's right. In the last episode, we talked about cauldrons 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.479 and mostly an introduction into the idea of the cauldron 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:55.120 is both a mundane tool for heating water and making soup, 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.320 but also getting in a little bit to the idea that, okay, 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.040 this is something that also ends up taking on sacred 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:06.840 and supernatural characteristics in various traditions. But for the most 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:11.160 part we talked about soup technology, which in and of 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:12.560 itself is pretty fascinating. 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:19.399 Yeah, we pondered the foggy distant prehistory of salmon soups 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:19.959 in Japan. 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.800 Yeah, so a lot of this episode is going to 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.720 look at the cauldron in Chinese traditions and in Chinese history, 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:34.480 in mythology. So in Chinese culture and history, the ancient 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.960 cauldron is known as the ding, a cooking cauldron with 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.520 two looped handles and three or four legs. The three 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.319 legged ones tend to have a more of a circular pot, 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.160 while the four legged ones tend to have a rectangular 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.720 pot and appear more like what we might think of 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.160 as a chest or something in Western traditions. It's maybe 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.960 a little less recognizable as a cauldron if you're basing 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.680 your expectations on cauldrons in Western traditions. 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.520 Yeah, it made me wonder, like, wait a minute, why 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.640 are pots always round? I mean, they don't have to be. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.680 So this is a pot that's got corners and it 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.320 looks like something that link would pop open and pull 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.440 a treasure out of. Oh it's the hook shot. 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.440 Yeah. Well, I mean these are ultimately artifacts that have 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.720 a number of supernatural associations with them. But in terms 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.800 of the actual Chinese cauldrons or ding that have survived. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:37.280 For instance, one example that came up in my research 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.160 is from the Warring States period around This is from 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.600 around four to thirty three BCE found in the Leodoun 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.480 Tombs in central China. Upon its discovery, it still had 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.800 ox bones inside it and soot on its base, meaning 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.520 that it was apparently used for cooking, perhaps as part 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.120 of a funerary feast. It was made of bronze and 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.600 also include did lifting hooks and a ladle lifting hooks? 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.960 Does that mean something you'd like put some hooks in 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:07.320 to move it out of the fire? 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.399 Correct in this In this case, now, when we get 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:16.320 into later discussions of cauldrons, you also get into the 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.720 idea of flesh hooks for your cauldron. They have to 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.240 do with, obviously, for the manipulating a flesh, you know, 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.960 some sort of meat that you're cooking inside of said cauldron. 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.360 But these I believe, Yeah, we're just to move the 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.720 cauldron around while it was heated. 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:32.760 Okay, So a cauldron, we know, can be used for 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.560 the chores that sustain everyday life, cooking food and washing 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:42.280 and so forth. But in Chinese traditions, cauldrons have a 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.920 much more culturally and religiously charged significance. Even though they 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.920 could be used for those same mundane tasks, they might 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.640 also decide the very fate of your existence. 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.360 That's right. And I do want to stress that a 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.400 lot of this will also end up lining up with 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:00.360 traditions in the West as well. That will get into 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.640 much later. But yeah, this thing that for all intents 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.520 and purposes is about heating water for soup or maybe 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.120 for laundry or something like that ends up taking on 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.200 greater significance. So in Chinese tradition, the ding became associated 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.640 with power and land ownership, and it was used not 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.440 only for food production and also for storage. It was 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.800 also used to make sacrifices to the gods. 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.720 And the idea of gods here might also well include 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.880 ancestral spirits, right, the sort of a blurring of the 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.120 distinction there that, like appeasing one's ancestors, was believed to 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:42.000 play a role in determining your fortune right now. 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.400 One of the sources I was looking to for this 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.440 episode is an article titled Visions of Hell in Asia 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.160 from twenty eighteen published in the Journal of the Oriental 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.159 Society of Australia by scholar Paul Morablai, and in it 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.919 the author rites quote in ancient China, the cauldron was 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:05.280 the alchemical recipient par excellence for the sacrifices animals and 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.479 humans required in order to transmute them into immortal creatures 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.280 when mixed with certain minerals and metals. Now, I want 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.279 to stress that he's talking very broadly here. This is 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.080 not to imply that all of these various cauldrons, including 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.560 the specific one I just mentioned, was used for anything 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.200 like human sacrifice. But of course, human sacrifice is something 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:30.360 that one encounters in the ancient traditions of every human culture. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.799 Just about so. But yeah, this idea that we touched 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.080 on very briefly in the last episode, that what is 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.040 a cauldron, what is a cooking pot? But other than 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.200 something that transforms one thing into another state. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.160 Right, so, it might transform say a tough piece of 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.960 game meat into a nutritious broth and a much more 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:57.240 tender piece of meat. And it might transform various ingredients 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.800 living and dead into a bunch of fumes, a pillar 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.479 of smoke, or a burnt offering that would be seen 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.680 as pleasing to the gods or to one's ancestors. 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:10.000 Correct. Now, when it comes to the sacred thing, there is, 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.640 like we mentioned earlier, it also has this prestige with it. 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:20.080 It signifies power, and it can also signify divine right 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.560 of rule. And in this there's no greater example than 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.880 the nine cauldrons of You the Great. Now we've discussed 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:28.919 You the Great before and stuff to blow your mind. 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.880 See as the legendary ruler of the Shia dynasty of 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:38.480 the second and third millennium BCE. Born from the belly 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.159 of his father's corpse, he's said to have quelled the 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:46.279 Great floods and established dynastic rule in China. His control 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.800 of the flood is attributed differently in different tales, but 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.520 I think we can summarize it as entailing the defeat 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:56.839 of monsters, the possible Promethean theft of the sacred self, 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:00.600 renewing soil from the gods, the help of various gods, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.600 and also the use of damn and irrigation technology. So 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.600 he's you know, he's a culture bearer. And oh, he's 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.200 also said to have measured the earth, and in some 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.000 accounts he stands eight feet tall. But the other feet 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.040 attributed to You the Great is that he also cast 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:21.720 the nine cauldrons upon rising to power, as yang An 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.880 and Turner discussed in the Handbook of Chinese Mythology quote, 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.320 those cauldrons had the divine function to teach people to 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.680 distinguish between faithfulness and treachery, and to keep evils and 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.920 demons from harming people. So they were treated as national treasures. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.480 And I believe it's that this story is related to 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.360 the idea that the cauldron itself is a sort of 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.239 symbol of power, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:49.680 like that in the literal sense that you would have 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.000 to be a rich and powerful person in ancient China 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.680 to own one or more of these cauldrons, and also 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.680 that the cauldron was kind of like a symbol of 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.840 some one's power or political dominance. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.600 Right, right, And in this case, there are nine of them, 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.240 because there were nine cauldrons for the nine provinces, but 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:15.200 then nine also had cosmologically important connections as well. There's 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.880 also this tradition of saying that the nine cauldrons sometimes 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.880 are scattered and lost, and it was said that whoever 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.239 wished to claim imperial power and rain by the mandate 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.120 of heaven would need to collect all these nine cauldrons. 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:33.800 Yeah, I think I recall reading somewhere that there's an 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:38.079 expression means something like seeking after cauldrons, or something that 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:39.959 means like ambition for power. 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.280 Yeah yeah. There are a number of different sayings in 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.280 Chinese tradition that allude to cauldrons and make use of 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.120 the motif. In the book Chinese Mythology and Introduction and 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.160 Burial ads that while you the Great forge the vessels, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.880 they are said to have been cast by feeling the Dragon, 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:03.160 god of wind. The cauldrons could and would change weight 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.720 and size, or even vanish completely or reappear at will 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.160 quote according to the virtue or decadence of the dynasty 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.120 possessing them. Whoa, so yeah, this gets pretty interesting. For instance, 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.560 if a dynasty is virtuous, then the cauldrons would become 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.960 so massive that they would be almost impossible to lift. 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:24.959 It was said that when the child people over through 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.560 the shung, the child's virtue was such that it took 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.839 ninety thousand men to lift a single cauldron. But then 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.480 when the chin overthrew the chow, one of the cauldrons 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.400 just like immediately flew into the river. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.600 Oh so the inanimate objects have a will of their own. 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.880 It's almost like the one ring, except that yes, way, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.320 the cauldrons are virtuous, whereas the ring is wicked. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.880 Yeah yeah, it's also specifically noted that it is the 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.719 weight that is important, not the size. So you might 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:58.520 have a dynasty that is corrupt, and the cauldrons might 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:03.440 look enormous, but they weigh little, and thus signifying that 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:06.880 you know that they are morally impoverished. But then the 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.079 opposite is also true. You might have a noble dynasty 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.880 and the cauldrons are very small, but it would take 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.360 like ninety thousand men to lift a single one of them, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.920 because such is the virtue of these rulers. 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.600 Oh, that resonates in a very pleasing way, because you imagine, 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.640 like an evil dynasty having these giant cauldrons that are 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.360 easily blown over by the wind. Yeah, big surface area 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:29.480 and very little mass. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.199 Yeah, yeah, I think it works on so many levels. 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.360 They are said to have been cast in iron and 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.679 also said to be illustrated with images of the gods 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.080 and forged from metals offered up by the nine regional stewards. 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.800 There is also discussion of them being important to distinguish 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:51.319 malign creatures, which are sometimes translated as goblins and trolls. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.120 So I'm not sure if that's meant to mean that 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:59.720 the cauldrons also depicted these quote unquote adverse beings, but 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:04.240 because it doesn't seem like it's explicitly stated. But at 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.160 the very least they had images of gods on them. Now, 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.160 as for the use of cauldrons and sacrifice, an burl 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.560 includes a wonderful passage from the ancient text the Book 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.400 of Songs or the Classic of Poetry. The passage in 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:22.320 question is celebrating the agricultural culture hero and god Huji 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.079 aka Lord Millet. Here is part of it, in translation, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.160 of course, describing the sacrifice, our sacrifice. What is it 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:35.880 like some pound, some baiale, some sift, some tread. We 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:40.520 wash it soaking, soaking wet. We steam it, piping, piping hot. 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:45.120 Then we plan with thoughtful care, gathering southern wood, offering 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:49.200 rich fat. We take a ram to make the wayside sacrifice, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.200 roasting and broiling to usher in the new year. The 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.080 bronze pots filled the brim, the bronze pots and cauldrons. 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.720 As soon as there aroma rises up odd on high. 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.600 Enjoys it with pleasure. The rich fragrance is right and proper. 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:09.240 For Hoji inaugurated the sacrifice with no fault or blemish. 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:12.000 His people have continued it to the present day. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.680 I like the line on here about as the aroma 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.840 rises up, God on high enjoys it with pleasure. Because 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.160 that that is not unique to this poem or to 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.720 Chinese religious traditions. That it's a it's a common feature 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:30.280 of many religions mentioning God enjoying God, or God's enjoying 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.559 the smell of a burning sacrifice. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.160 Yeah. So yeah, there's a lot of this that is 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:46.840 that is ultimately a universal. It's fascinating. Now for the 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.560 second episode in a row, I'm going to also cite 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.880 a children's book. This is another children's book. This one 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.959 is titled Two of Everything, and Chinese American author Lily 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.000 toy Hong wrote this It's fun, and she credits it 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.319 is being based on a Chinese folk tale, and I'd 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:08.760 love to read another telling of it, but I haven't 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.840 been able to find one. I'm sure it's out there. 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.199 But it does involve some sort of a magical pot 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.199 or cauldron in this story, which is which has some 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:22.440 some wonderful illustrations an elderly couple in China. And this 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:24.240 has a historical setting, by the way, so it's not 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.480 I don't think it's supposed to be like modern China. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.000 But this elderly couple, they happen to happen upon this 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.400 pot or this cauldron, and they quickly find out that 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.760 anything you drop or place inside the cauldron comes out duplicated. 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.360 So you can imagine how this story goes. You know, food, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.160 gold gets duplicated, and finally somebody's going to fall in 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.000 that cauldron. The old man falls in the cauldron, and 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.400 now there are two old men. So the story ultimately 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.520 ends on a happy note, with the couple deciding, Okay, 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.040 we're going to put the pot away. We're not going 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.640 to use it unless we absolutely have to. But by 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.560 this point they're living side by side with their own 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:05.319 doppelgangers who have a replica of everything that they have. 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.400 So I was looking around to try and find another 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.320 version of this story and I was not able to. 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.200 But in the process, I found another story that includes 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.760 cauldron's as a key plot point that I think will 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.680 transition into something else we're going to talk about in 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:23.880 a bit. It's a wonderful little story called the Wizard's Lesson. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:29.160 This story appeared in the book Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.680 edited and translated by Moss Roberts, a professor of East 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:37.200 Asian Studies at NYU. The original title is Tuzu Chun 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:43.120 and it is included in the Suswan Kwi Lu, an 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.480 early ninth century CE collection compiled by Li Fu Yin, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.200 though there seemed to be some disagreements on the exact 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.720 date of when this original text was published or written. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.960 This story is awesome, yeah, I think at times per play. 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.640 I've seen some online like some sort of blog style 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.200 discussions where people are like, what is this about? But 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.720 it has some wonderful wizardry in it. So basically the 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.640 story goes like this. We have this character too, Zuchun, 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.280 and he's a scoundrel. Basically, he's spent all his money, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.040 He's burned all his friends and family members, you know, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.240 borrowing money and so forth. So he finds himself on 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.200 the street with nothing, and then up comes an old 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.320 man and ask him, hey, look there, buddy, how much 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.640 money would it take to set you right? Like how 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:36.200 many strands of coins will it take? And tuzu Chun 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.760 names a sum and the old man just kind of scoffs, 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.920 and he's like, oh, you should probably go higher than that, 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.000 and he gives him another sum, and the old man agrees, 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.000 and he gives him enough cash on the spot for 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.960 a night's rest somewhere and says, meet me tomorrow in 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.400 the market and I'll give you the full amount. So 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.280 this goes exactly as promised, and the next day he 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.000 receives his first millions from the old man. Like it's 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.360 it's a true fortune, enough for him to have a 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:07.360 real proper start at rebuilding everything in his life, and 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.240 then some. But you can imagine what happens next. He 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.600 immediately blows it all on a lavish lifestyle, and before 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.360 long he's back on the street again. Then here comes 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.400 the old man approaches him again, and this basically the 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:23.800 same thing happens once more, only this time he squanders 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.040 an even greater fortune. The third time, however, the old 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.560 man warns him that if an even greater fortune won't 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.600 do the trick this time, then there's clearly no helping him. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.840 So finally Tuzu Chun has a change of heart. He 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.720 finally realizes, Okay, this old man has been so kind 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.920 and patient with me and just overly generous, and I've 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.360 done nothing for him. He has this change of heart 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.400 and realizes that he shouldn't be spending this all on himself. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.000 He should try and do some good in the world. 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.960 And he tells the old Man that he is going 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:57.960 to do this. He's going to go help the widows 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.360 and the orphans, he's going to make men's with family members, 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:03.960 and then at the end he's going to meet up 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.480 with the old man wants more and do right by 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:07.160 him as well. 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.520 Oh okay, so you might expect this to be the 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.760 end of the story. He's learned his lesson. 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.479 But no, it keeps going and I I, you know, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.199 this might be a situation where you have sort of 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.680 combined stories, you know, to become one at some point. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:24.639 But what happens next is the old man he he 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:25.960 you know, he goes out in the world, he does 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:27.159 all the things he's going to do, and then he 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:28.840 meets up with the old Man again. The old Man 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.680 takes him up to the mountain to a splendid residence 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.200 and inside here's an alchemist furnace, guarded by a white 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.960 tiger and a black dragon. It's written that jade white 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.000 fairy women stand by. And the old man is no 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.359 longer dressed like the old man that he met in 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.080 the market. Those those three times. No, now he's dressed 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.160 in yellow and scarlet robes. He's dressed as a dallist wizard. 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.520 Oh so immediately at this point, I'm like picturing him 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.719 as played by Chinying Lamb from the Mister Vam movies. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.639 Yeah, yeah, that would be a wonderful stern performance of 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.399 this character. So at this point, he presents tuzoo Chone 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.639 with a beaker of wine and three white pills. He 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.640 tells him to take the pills, and no matter what happens, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.200 no matter what he sees and the visions that are 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.080 about to hit him, he must not speak. Okay, I'm 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.120 gonna read a quote from the story here. Take care 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.040 not to speak. The wizard cautioned, be it a revered spirit, 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.919 vicious ghost, demon of hell, wild beast, hell itself, or 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.320 even your own closest relatives, bound and tormented in a 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.119 thousand ways, nothing you see is truly real. It is 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.159 essential that you neither speak nor make any movement. Remain 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.000 calm and fearless, and you shall come to no harm. 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.960 Never forget what I have said. With that, the wizard departed. 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.359 Okay, so none of it's going to be real as 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.240 long as you keep your mouth shut, You'll be all. 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.400 Right, right, And then the visions begin to hit him. 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.159 So it's it's just kind of like one way of 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.960 the visions after the other. So first a swarming army 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.800 rides up on him in a ten foot tall general 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.040 in armor it's just referred to as the General comes 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.879 up on an armored horse and demands that he to 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:17.320 identify himself. He remains quiet. The general leaves in a rage. 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.560 And then and then to Tusu Chun is tormented by 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.960 snakes and spiders and other beasts. There's a there's he's 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:26.280 a rasped by storms. 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.280 This is the devil rides out, this is the Christopher. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.800 Lee is like, he's got him in the circle. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.760 Yeah, yeah, instead, only this time it's the circle is silence. 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:37.640 He cannot break that silence. 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.719 Tuzu Chune. I'd rather see you dead than speak. 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:47.000 So after the storms, the general returns, and this time 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.800 he has his men place a great cauldron in front 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.439 of tuzu Chun. And in the story it's written the 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.880 general return this time leading an ox headed sergeant and 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.720 his soldiers of Hell. Together with the other weird faced ghosts, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.200 they placed a huge cauldron of boiling water before tuzu 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.160 Chun enclosed in on him with spears, swords and pitchforks, 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:11.480 and so at this point they threaten him, they say, look, 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.080 identify yourself or we're going to boil you alive. He 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:17.560 doesn't speak, So then they drag his wife before him 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.879 and they start beating her, and he still refuses to speak. 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.040 So they chop her up into little pieces, and he 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:25.719 still doesn't say anything, and finally the general denounces him 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.480 as a quote master of the Black Arts and has 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.479 his soldiers behead him. Well, the scuy gory, Yeah, it 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:34.560 gets gory, and hurry this story, Yeah, but. 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.000 We got to remember what was said at the beginning. 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.040 The Taoist wizard promised him none of this is going 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.520 to be real, it's just visions. Just don't say anything. 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:48.280 Right, So then tuzu Chun's soul passes on and he 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.240 and he comes before the King of the Dead, who 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.160 identifies him. He says, hey, you're that heretic and orders 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.560 him cast into the hells. Quote Zuchun tasted the torments 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:03.800 of hell to the fullest molten bronze, the iron rod pounding, grinding, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.920 the fire pit, the boiling cauldron, the Hill of Knives 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.080 the Forest of Swords, but he kept the Wizard's words 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:13.159 firmly in mind and bore the pain without letting a 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.399 moan pass his lips. Then the tortures reported to the 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.640 king that the punishments were completed, and at this point 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.840 the King of the dead says, okay, that's good. He 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.800 can go on and be reincarnated. Now, let's have him 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:30.680 reincarnated as a woman. And so he's born again as 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.960 a small female child. And now the female Tuzuchun, as 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:39.080 an infant, still doesn't cry out, grows up a mute. 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.680 Mary's has a child herself at this point, and then 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:49.800 her husband finally has an episode and accused and accuses 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.440 her of being improper by refusing to speak to him, 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.359 and murders their child before her. So finally, after a 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.359 life and yet it's brutal, and after a life time 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:04.240 of silence, now she finally breaks her vow and unleashes 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:06.640 a cry of anguish, and at this point the whole 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.639 vision collapses, and once more, here's tuzu Chun himself again, 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:14.080 still seated in the Wizard's pavilion with an empty wine 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.919 flask in his hand, and the Wizard's just cursing at 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.640 him for failing. He tells him, if you'd only remain 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.040 silent a little longer, you would have been able to 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.359 purify yourself of all your passions. You'd already purified yourself 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.520 of all your passions except for love, and you blew it. 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:31.480 And now you're not going to be immortal. 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.000 That is harsh. No, he already he got killed. He 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:37.640 had watched all his people get killed. He got killed, 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.240 He got sent to hell, tortured in hell, then lived 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.520 a whole other life. But the Wizard is like, you 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:45.320 just had to hold out a little bit longer. How 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:47.000 was he supposed to know how long it would be? 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.639 He had no idea. He was just supposed to keep going. 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.560 But supposedly he was close, like this was the last 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:55.840 test and he was not able to overcome it. 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:58.719 Remember how this started with this guy like blowing all 0:22:58.760 --> 0:22:59.800 his money on parties. 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.920 Yeah, yeah, it is a it's a weird story. What 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:05.879 I may I may have to look into more to 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:09.400 see if I can, uh, you know, grasp some of 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:13.600 the the deeper meanings involved here, But on the surface level, 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:17.800