- A Boy’s Deep Grief
- 1 In Geum-gu County, in 1908 (DG 38), Yung-hahk, the son of Chey Oon-ik, became ill and was nearing death.
- 2 Oon-ik went to the medicine room in Gu-rit-gohl Village early in the morning and pleaded with Sahng-jeh-nim to save his son’s life.
- 3 Sahng-jeh-nim answered, “Wait here a moment.” He then attended to the people who came after Oon-ik, and did not seem to prepare any medicine for Oon-ik’s son.
- 4 Finally, around sunset, Sahng-jeh-nim said to Oon-ik, “Your son’s life has been full of grief because his face is extremely disfigured. His spirit has gone to Shenyang in China and refuses to return. There is not much I can do.”
- 5 Oon-ik, distressed by his son’s fate and amazed that Sahng-jeh-nim spoke as if having seen the boy’s severely pitted face, begged earnestly for a cure.
- 6 Using a stroke with which one would paint an orchid, Sahng-jeh-nim drew a talisman in the shape of a roundworm and folded the paper as if wrapping medicine. He then said, “If the roundworms inside your son live, he will live. If they die, he will die as well.” On the paper, Sahng-jeh-nim wrote, “September drink.”
- 7 Oon-ik went home with the medicine, but as he opened the gate, he heard his family wailing. He went inside and found that his son was already dead.
- 8 After Oon-ik left the medicine room, the disciples asked Sahng-jeh-nim about the meaning of “September drink.”
- 9 Sahng-jeh-nim explained, “It is said that the founding emperor of China’s Qin dynasty, Shi Huangdi, was buried at the foot of Li Mountain in September. I wrote this to indicate that the boy would not live.
- 10 If Oon-ik had not received some medicine after pleading for it, it would have caused him grief. I gave him the medicine to soothe his mind.
- 11 His son, born without blessings, needed to be reincarnated.”
- (JSD Dojeon 2,86)
