The Partition

The Mistress' Note

Four

After loading his manna into his bag, the man got the feeling that he is missing something and he cannot figure it out.  As he gazed around him, he saw pictures upon pictures made of stones standing tall and strong.  These stones represented the many lives lost to the hopping ghosts.  It was believed that when these vampires had still been humans, they have an anemic blood disease and one of their other characteristics was that they are limps and pale in their energy.

The air was dark and misty with the fireworks motions.  I am hungry, he said to himself.  He took the manna and ate some.  He received attention from the peasant people who saw him eating the manna.

            Chief, he called to him so that he can have a place to stay, an inn perhaps.  “Everyone’s celebrating,” the man told to himself.  There are luscious fruit trees in a particular corner of the busy marketplace, and he knew that the chief wanted him to go there.  ‘Gong xi fat chay,’ rushes around the wind of cheers, whispering shoots of whisky blows winding back into the breezes of the trees.  Those are signs from the Chinese spring season.  The storm winds from the west blowing are playing the agents of His purposes.  Adam heard.

            There was a peculiar monk sitting next to the man as he ate his manna.  He offered his to the monk, but refused.  Both his iris showed flames of sorrow.

He asked the man, “Interpret my dreams, Sir!” he demanded.

The monk tells on.

“I had yellow fever and malaria while in the monastery in what used to be that town over there.”

He weeps on.  The man looked and noticed that he has plenty tears on his eyes.  The monk then told the man that he always dreamt of becoming a monk and at age 16 was accepted at a monastery in Myanmar.  However, as he tried very hard to find the true meaning behind existence, he got ill.  He died and was being prepared for cremation when he slept into a dream.  He saw lakes and thousands of lakes of fire and flames and a morning starlight angel sitting in the middle of the lake.  She is very beautiful according to monk’s story and her face looked like a good hearted cherubim amongst a crowd of lions and lambs in union.  The beast is dressed in white, beautiful pearls that crave persons of interest men and women alike.  She has a seductive yet calm personality with curly lips and wavy hair.  As a beast, he has many facets of personality that can adjust to many person of interests’ agenda and situations.

The monk told the man that he was not a Christian but he can tell that when a Christian pray, flames of musk air are lifted above from their pray full hands, as if they do not do animal sacrifices again to have flames of musk air that reached into the Heavens to get to God listening to their needs and desires.  It is like these Christians are protected and sealed and could be broken free from protection if only they doubt and curse God.

            The monk also told Allen that the beast’s mistress in hell gave him a notebook that he could not interpret as it is written in simplified Chinese but translated.  The man was bedazzled.  He asked the monk if he could take a look at the book.

During the Qing Dynasty in China, there lived a cruel king.  He would force people to build the Great Wall of China under harsh conditions that thousands died while in the process of building it.  Lack of food supply and weather conditions were the common commodity that the King forced upon the poor people to build the wall.  He had many concubines and of fear that these wives would cheat on him, he ordered all of his officials to be emasculated.  And so when these officials died, they were under a curse since they had not lost their virginity and tasted a young maiden’s i*********e flow of blood.  They dressed in traditional garments become living corpses, or hopping vampires.  These bad luck vampires are qiang shi.  They were depicted as a stiff corpse and they moved around by hopping, with their arms outstretched. They killed living creatures to absorb their qi, or "life force", usually at night, while in the day, it rests in a coffin or hides in dark places such as caves. 

The recently deceased person returning to life, or a corpse that has been buried for a long time but does not decompose. Some causes were described as with the use of supernatural arts to resurrect the dead with spirit possession of a dead body.  The corpse absorbed sufficient yang qi to return to life.

The dead person is not buried even after a funeral has been held. The corpse came to life after it is struck by a bolt of lightning, or when a pregnant cat (or a black cat in some tales) leaps across the coffin.  When a person's soul fails to leave the deceased's body, due to improper death, suicide, or just wanting to cause trouble.  A person injured by a Jiangshi is infected with the "Jiangshi Virus" and gradually changes into a Jiangshi over time.

Jiangshi are depicted in to have a paper talisman (with a sealing spell) attached onto and hanging off the forehead in portrait orientation, and wear a uniform coat-like robe and round-top tall rimmed hat characteristic of a mandarin. A peculiar feature is its greenish-white skin; one theory is that this is derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses. It is said to have long white hair all over its head and may behave like animals.  

A mirror is the essence of liquid metal. It is dark on the external but bright inside.   Jiangshis are also said to be terrified of their own reflections.  A Taoist priest conduct a ritual to reanimate the dead person and teach him/her to "hop" their way home. The priests would transport the corpses only at night and would ring bells to notify others in the vicinity of their presence because it was considered bad luck for a living person to set eyes upon a jiangshi. After they died, their bodies were transported back to their hometown because it was believed that their souls would feel homesick if they were buried somewhere unfamiliar to them. The corpses would be arranged upright in single file and be tied to long bamboo rods on the sides, while two men (one at the front and one at the back) would carry the ends of the rods on their shoulders and walk. When the bamboo flexed up and down, the corpses appeared to be "hopping" in unison when viewed from a distance away.

There were two oral accounts of transporting corpses.  One account describes how corpses would be transported by a two-man team. One would carry the corpse on his back with a large robe covering both of them and a mourning mask on top. The other man would walk ahead with a lantern and warn his companion about obstacles ahead of him. The lantern was used as a visual guide for the corpse carrier to follow since they could not see with the robe covering them. The corpses would be carried at night to avoid contact with people and the cooler air would be more suitable to transporting bodies.

Meanwhile, there was a war between the east and the west.  An army is coming from the land and a great nation is being stirred up from the ends of the earth.  They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy.  These armies sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses and they come like men in battle formation to attack each other.  The queen of the sea rode on her chariots accompanied by mermaid men.  Reports about them had been heard around and anguish gripped every soul there is and pain like that of a woman in labor.  Every enemy has a sword and there is terror on every side.  Observe their ways, says one, that they are all hardened rebels, going about to slander.  They are bronze and iron and they all act corruptly.