<h2 class="label">IV</h2>
<h2 class="main">CHEUNG PUK-CHANG, THE SEER</h2></div>
<div class="divBody">
<p class="par first">[Cheung Puk-chang.—The <i>Yol-ryok
Keui-sul</i>, one of Korea’s noted histories, says of Cheung
Puk-chang that he was pure in purpose and without selfish ambition. He
was superior to all others in his marvellous gifts. For him to read a
book once was to know it by heart. There was nothing that he could not
understand—astronomy, geology, music, medicine, mathematics,
fortune-telling and Chinese characters, which he knew by intuition and
not from study.</p>
<p class="par">He followed his father in the train of the envoy to
Peking, and there talked to all the strange peoples whom he met without
any preparation. They all wondered at him and called him “The
Mystery.” He knew, too, the meaning of the calls of birds and
beasts; and while he lived in the mountains he could see and tell what
people were doing in the distant valley, indicating what was going on
in each house, which, upon investigation, was found in each case to be
true. He was a Taoist, and received strange revelations. <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name="xd21e974" href="#xd21e974" name=
"xd21e974">42</SPAN>]</span></p>
<p class="par">While in Peking there met him envoys from the Court of
Loochoo, who also were prophets. While in their own country they had
studied the horoscope, and on going into China knew that they were to
meet a Holy Man. As they went on their way they asked concerning this
mysterious being, and at last reached Peking. Inquiring, they went from
one envoy’s station to another till they met Cheung Puk-chang,
when a great fear came upon them, and they fell prostrate to the
earth.</p>
<p class="par">They took from their baggage a little book inscribed,
“In such a year, on such a day, at such an hour, in such a place,
you shall meet a Holy Man.” “If this does not mean your
Excellency,” said they, “whom can it mean?” They
asked that he would teach them the sacred Book of Changes, and he
responded by teaching it in their own language. At that time the
various envoys, hearing of this, contended with each other as to who
should first see the marvellous stranger, and he spoke to each in his
own tongue. They all, greatly amazed, said, “He is indeed a man
of God.”</p>
<p class="par">Some one asked him, saying, “There are those who
understand the sounds of birds and beasts, but foreign languages have
to be learned to be known; how can you speak them without
study?”</p>
<p class="par">Puk-chang replied, “I do not know them from
<span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name="xd21e983" href="#xd21e983" name=
"xd21e983">43</SPAN>]</span>having learned them, but know them
unconsciously.”</p>
<p class="par">Puk-chang was acquainted with the three religions, but
he considered Confucianism as the first. “Its writings as handed
down,” said he, “teach us filial piety and reverence. The
learning of the Sages deals with relationships among men and not with
spiritual mysteries; but Taoism and Buddhism deal with the examination
of the soul and the heart, and so with things above and not with things
on the earth. This is the difference.”</p>
<p class="par">At thirty-two years of age he matriculated, but had no
interest in further literary study. He became, instead, an official
teacher of medicine, astrology and mathematics.</p>
<p class="par">He was a fine whistler, we are told, and once when he
had climbed to the highest peak of the Diamond Mountains and there
whistled, the echoes resounded through the hills, and the priests were
startled and wondered whose flute was playing.]</p>
<hr class="tb">
<p class="par"></p>
<p class="par">[There is a term in Korea which reads <i>he-an
pang-kwang</i>, “spiritual-eye distant-vision,” the seeing
of things in the distance. This pertains to both Taoists and
Buddhists.</p>
<p class="par">It is said that when the student reaches a certain stage
in his progress, the soft part of the head returns to the primal
thinness that is seen in the <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name="xd21e1001"
href="#xd21e1001" name="xd21e1001">44</SPAN>]</span>child to rise and fall
when it breathes. From this part of the head go forth five rays of
light that shoot out and up more and more as the student advances in
the spiritual way. As far as they extend so is the spiritual vision
perfected, until at last a Korean sufficiently advanced could sit and
say, “In London, to-day, such and such a great affair is taking
place.”</p>
<p class="par">For example, So Wha-tam, who was a Taoist Sage, once was
seen to laugh to himself as he sat with closed eyes, and when asked why
he laughed, said, “Just now in the monastery of Ha-in [300 miles
distant] there is a great feast going on. The priest stirring the huge
kettle of bean gruel has tumbled in, but the others do not know this,
and are eating the soup.” News came from the monastery later on
that proved that what the sage had seen was actually true.</p>
<p class="par">The History of Confucius, too, deals with this when it
tells of his going with his disciple An-ja and looking off from the Tai
Mountains of Shan-tung toward the kingdom of On. Confucius asked An-ja
if he could see anything, and An-ja replied, “I see white horses
tied at the gates of On.”</p>
<p class="par">Confucius said, “No, no, your vision is imperfect,
desist from looking. They are not white horses, but are rolls of white
silk hung out for bleaching.”] <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name=
"xd21e1009" href="#xd21e1009" name="xd21e1009">45</SPAN>]</span></p>
<div class="div2 story">
<div class="divHead">
<h3 class="main"><i>The Story</i></h3></div>
<div class="divBody">
<p class="par first">The Master, Puk-chang, was a noted Korean. From
the time of his birth he was a wonderful mystery. In reading a book, if
he but glanced through it, he could recall it word for word. Without
any special study he became a master of astronomy, geology, medicine,
fortune-telling, music, mathematics and geomancy, and so truly a
specialist was he that he knew them all.</p>
<p class="par">He was thoroughly versed also in the three great
religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. He talked constantly of
what other people could not possibly comprehend. He understood the
sounds of the birds, the voices of Nature, and much else. He
accompanied his father in his boyhood days when he went as envoy to
Peking. At that time, strange barbarian peoples used also to come and
pay their tribute. Puk-chang picked up acquaintance with them on the
way. Hearing their language but once, he was readily able to
communicate with them. His own countrymen who accompanied him were not
the only ones astonished, nor the Chinamen themselves, but the
barbarians as well. There are numerous interesting stories hinted at in
the history of Puk-chang, but few suitable records were made of them,
and so many are lost. <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name="xd21e1018" href="#xd21e1018" name="xd21e1018">46</SPAN>]</span></p>
<p class="par">There is one, however, that I recall that comes to me
through trustworthy witnesses: Puk-chang, on a certain day, went to
visit his paternal aunt. She asked him to be seated, and as they talked
together, said to him, “I had some harvesting to do in Yong-nam
County, and sent a servant to see to it. His return is overdue and yet
he does not come. I am afraid he has fallen in with thieves, or chanced
on a fire or some other misfortune.”</p>
<p class="par">Puk-chang replied, “Shall I tell you how it goes
with him, and how far he has come on the way?”</p>
<p class="par">She laughed, saying, “Do you mean to joke about
it?”</p>
<p class="par">Puk-chang, from where he was sitting, looked off
apparently to the far south, and at last said to his aunt, “He is
just now crossing the hill called Bird Pass in Mun-kyong County,
Kyong-sang Province. Hallo! he is getting a beating just now from a
passing <i>yangban</i> (gentleman), but I see it is his own fault, so
you need not trouble about him.”</p>
<p class="par">The aunt laughed, and asked, “Why should he be
beaten; what’s the reason, pray?”</p>
<p class="par">Puk-chang replied, “It seems this official was
eating his dinner at the top of the hill when your servant rode by him
without dismounting. The gentleman was naturally very angry and had his
<span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name="xd21e1034" href="#xd21e1034" name=
"xd21e1034">47</SPAN>]</span>servants arrest your man, pull him from his
horse, and beat him over the face with their rough straw
shoes.”</p>
<p class="par">The aunt could not believe it true, but treated the
matter as a joke; and yet Puk-chang did not seem to be joking.</p>
<p class="par">Interested and curious, she made a note of the day on
the wall after Puk-chang had taken his departure, and when the servant
returned, she asked him what day he had come over Bird Pass, and it
proved to be the day recorded. She added also, “Did you get into
trouble with a <i>yangban</i> there when you came by?”</p>
<p class="par">The servant gave a startled look, and asked, “How
do you know?” He then told all that had happened to him, and it
was just as Puk-chang had given it even to the smallest detail.</p>
<p class="par signed"><span class="sc">Im Bang.</span> <span class="pagenum">[<SPAN name="xd21e1050" href="#xd21e1050" name=
"xd21e1050">48</SPAN>]</span></p>
</div>
</div></div>
</div>
<div id="ch5" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<SPAN href="#xd21e255">Contents</SPAN>]</span>
<div class="divHead">
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.