- Castigating a Greedy Landowner
- 1 In April, Sahng-jeh-nim spent several days at Geum-sahn Temple performing the work of renewing heaven and earth.
- 2 An artisan who worked for the government came from Nahk-su Village to visit Him. The artisan, a notoriously greedy landowner in danger of losing some of his land, had come to ask for advice.
- 3 Busy with His work, Sahng-jeh-nim rebuked him in a thunderous voice, “Was I born to give you advice?”
- 4 Hyung-yul, who was sitting next to Sahng-jeh-nim, added, “If you ask any more questions, your jaw will fall off.”
- 5 Looking at Hyung-yul angrily, the man complained, “Why should I yield when I have done nothing wrong?”
- 6 “You rogue, how dare you speak to your elder in that way!” Sahng-jeh-nim thundered. “Do not use that tone of voice!”
- 7 As soon as Sahng-jeh-nim finished talking, the artisan’s head flew off his body and landed on the head of the temple’s gatekeeper. The rest of his body sat in the temple yard.
- 8 When the gatekeeper screamed in pain, Sahng-jeh-nim told him, “I mistook you for a stick, but of course you are a person.” Sahng-jeh-nim then impaled the artisan’s head with a stick sideways through the neck and stood it up at the entrance of the temple.
- 9 The artisan was still alive, but unable to speak. Tears ran down the cheeks of his severed head.
- 10 Gim Ghee-bo approached Sahng-jeh-nim and pleaded, “He is too pitiful to look at. Please spare his life.”
- 11 “If he were not guilty,” Sahng-jeh-nim said, “would I have done this? Leave him as he is.” At lunchtime, Sahng-jeh-nim ate in front of the man’s severed head.
- 12 After lunch, as He was about to leave, Sahng-jeh-nim censured the head. “You plunderer. What land is yours forever? What land is mine forever? You have become rich at the expense of the poor. Did you fall from heaven or spring out of the earth?
- 13 The poor have made you wealthy. You thief, how could you try to snatch their small plots of land?”
- 14 Sahng-jeh-nim pulled the head from the stick and put it back on the artisan’s body, saying, “Do not make a living out of taking from the needy.”
- 15 From then on, the man had two scars on his neck where the stick had been pushed through.
- (JSD Dojeon 3,50)
