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Page 80
"'If a person can be guilty of this really unfilial behaviour during
the lifetime of his father,' exclaimed Ah-Ping, in a tone of
unrestrained vexation, 'can it be prudently relied upon that he will
carry out his wishes after death, when they involve the remitting to
him of several thousand taels each year? O estimable Quen-Ki-Tong, how
immeasurably superior is the celestial outlook upon which you may
safely rely as your portion! When you are enjoying every variety of
sumptuous profusion, as the reward of your untiring charitable
exertions here on earth, the spirit of this short-sighted person will
be engaged in doing menial servitude for the inferior deities, and
perhaps scarcely able, even by those means, to clothe himself
according to the changing nature of the seasons.'
"'Yet,' replied Quen, 'the necessity for so laborious and
unremunerative an existence may even now be averted by taking
efficient precautions before you pass to the Upper Air.'
"'In what way?' demanded Ah-Ping, with an awakening hope that the
matter might not be entirely destitute of cheerfulness, yet at the
same time preparing to examine with even unbecoming intrusiveness any
expedient which Quen might lay before him. 'Is it not explicitly
stated that sacrifices and acts of a like nature, when performed at
the end of one's existence by a person who to that time has professed
no sort of interest in such matters, shall in no degree be entered as
to his good, but rather regarded as examples of deliberate
presumptuousness, and made the excuse for subjecting him to more
severe tortures and acts of penance than would be his portion if he
neglected the custom altogether?'
"'Undoubtedly such is the case,' replied Quen; 'and on that account it
would indicate a most regrettable want of foresight for you to conduct
your affairs in the manner indicated. The only undeniably safe course
is for you to entrust the amount you will require to a person of
exceptional piety, receiving in return his written word to repay the
full sum whenever you shall claim it from him in the Upper Air. By
this crafty method the amount will be placed at the disposal of the
person in question as soon as he has passed beyond, and he will be
held by his written word to return it to you whenever you shall demand
it.'
"So amiably impressed with this ingenious scheme was Ah-Ping that he
would at once have entered more fully into the detail had the thought
not arisen in his mind that the person before him was the father of
Liao, who urgently required a certain large sum, and that for this
reason he might with prudence inquire more fully into the matter
elsewhere, in case Quen himself should have been imperceptibly led
aside, even though he possessed intentions of a most unswerving
honourableness. To this end, therefore, he desired to converse again
with Quen on the matter, pleading that at that moment a gathering of
those who direct enterprises of a commercial nature required his
presence. Nevertheless, he would not permit the person referred to
depart until he had complimented him, in both general and specific
terms, on the high character of his life and actions, and the
intelligent nature of his understanding, which had enabled him with so
little mental exertion to discover an efficient plan.
"Without delay Ah-Ping sought out those most skilled in all varieties
of law-forms, in extorting money by devices capable of very different
meanings, and in expedients for evading just debts; but all agreed
that such an arrangement as the one he put before them would be
unavoidably binding, provided the person who received the money
alluded to spent it in the exercise of his charitable desires, and
provided also that the written agreement bore the duty seal of the
high ones at Peking, and was deposited in the coffin of the lender.
Fully satisfied, and rejoicing greatly that he could in this way
adequately provide for his future and entrap the avaricious ones of
his house, Ah-Ping collected together the greater part of his
possessions, and converting it into pieces of gold, entrusted them to
Quen on the exact understanding that has already been described, he
receiving in turn Quen's written and thumb-signed paper of repayment,
and his assurance that the whole amount should be expended upon the
silver-paper and gold-leaf Temple with which he was still engaged.
"It is owing to this circumstance that Quen-Ki-Tong's irreproachable
name has come to be lightly regarded by many who may be fitly likened
to the latter person in the subtle and experienced proverb, 'The wise
man's eyes fell before the gaze of the fool, fearing that if he looked
he must cry aloud, "Thou hopeless one!" "There," said the fool to
himself, "behold this person's power!"' These badly educated and
undiscriminating persons, being entirely unable to explain the ensuing
train of events, unhesitatingly declare that Quen-Ki-Tong applied a
portion of the money which he had received from Ah-Ping in the manner
described to the object of acquiring Ts'ain for his son Liao. In this
feeble and incapable fashion they endeavour to stigmatize the
pure-minded Quen as one who acted directly contrary to his
deliberately spoken word, whereas the desired result was brought about
in a much more artful manner; they describe the commercially
successful Ah-Ping as a person of very inferior prudence, and one
easily imposed upon; while they entirely pass over, as a detail
outside the true facts, the written paper preserved among the sacred
relics in the Temple, which announces, among other gifts of a small
and uninviting character, 'Thirty thousand taels from an elderly
ginseng merchant of Lu-kwo, who desires to remain nameless, through
the hand of Quen-Ki-Tong.' The full happening in its real and harmless
face is now set forth for the first time.
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