"Bad luck for you, good luck for me!" Sun said with a smile. "I always enjoy talking with capable young officials. You should have come here earlier, Dee! This monastery is within your jurisdiction."

"I have been very remiss, sir!" the judge said hastily. "The fact is that there was some trouble in Han-yuan, and…"

"I heard all about it!" Sun interrupted him. "You did good work there, Dee. Prevented a major disturbance of the peace, in fact."

The judge acknowledged the compliment with a bow. He said:

"I shall certainly come back here soon, in order to be further instructed by Your Excellency." Since this learned and experienced high official was apparently in a friendly mood, he thought he ought to try to settle at least one aspect of the problem of the mutilated naked woman. After a momentary hesitation he resumed: "Might I take the liberty of consulting Your Excellency about a curious experience I had here just now?"

"By all means! What happened, and where?"

Judge Dee Visits an Exalted Person

"As a matter of fact," Judge Dee said, somewhat embarrassed, "I don't know what happened exactly. When I went up to the quarters assigned to me, I saw for a brief moment a scene that must have happened more than a hundred years ago, when the soldiers slaughtered the rebels here. Are such things possible?"

Sun leaned back in his armchair. He said gravely: "I wouldn't call it impossible, Dee. Doesn't it often happen that upon entering an empty room you definitely know that someone had been there a few moments before? You can't explain that, it's just a feeling. It means that the person who was there before you left something of himself behind. Yet he did nothing special there, perhaps he just looked at a book or wrote a letter. Now suppose that the same man died a violent death in that room. It is only to be expected that the terrible emotion of that moment impregnated the atmosphere of that room, and so deeply, too, that it lingers on for years. If a hyper-sensitive person, or a person who has become hypersensitive because he is very tired, happens to enter there, he may well perceive that imprint. Don't you think that some such reasoning might explain what you saw, Dee?"

The judge nodded slowly. Evidently Sun had given much thought to such abstruse matters. The explanation did not convince him, but it was a possibility he would have to keep in mind. He said politely: "You are probably right, sir. I am indeed rather tired, and on top of that I caught a cold in the rain outside. In that condition…"

"A cold? I haven't had a cold for thirty years!" Sun cut him short. "But I live according to a strict discipline, you know, nurturing my vital essence."

"Do you believe in the Taoist theory about reaching immortality in this life, sir?" Judge Dee asked, somewhat disappointed.

"Of course not!" Sun replied disdainfully. "Every man is immortal, but only in so far that he lives on in his offspring. Heaven has limited human life to a few score years, and all attempts at prolonging it beyond that limit by artificial means are futile. What we should strive after is to pass our limited life with a healthy mind and body. And that can be achieved by living in a more natural manner than we are wont to, especially by improving our diet. Be careful with your diet, Dee!"

"I am a follower of Confucius," the judge said, "but I fully admit that Taoism also contains deep wisdom."

"Taoism continues where Confucius left off," Master Sun remarked. "Confucianism explains how man should behave as a member of an ordered society. Taoism explains man's relations to the Universe — of which that social order is but one aspect."

Judge Dee was not exactly in the mood for an involved philosophical discussion. But he felt he should not take his leave before having tried to verify two points. After a suitable pause he asked: "Could it be that undesirable elements from outside are roaming about here, sir? Just now, when the novice was taking me here, I had the feeling that we were being followed. While passing the corridor that links the nave with this tower, to be precise."

Master Sun gave him a searching look. He thought for a while, then he asked suddenly:

"Are you fond of fish?"

"Yes, I am," the judge replied nonplussed.

"There you are! Fish clogs the system, my dear fellow. It makes the blood-circulation sluggish, and that affects the nerves. That's what makes you see and hear things that aren't there! Rhubarb is what you need, I think. It purifies the blood. I'll look it up. I have rather a fine collection of medical books. Remind me tomorrow morning. I'll draw up a detailed dieting schedule for you."

"Thank you, sir. I hate to trouble you, but I would be most grateful for your elucidation on another point that has often puzzled me. I have heard people say that some Taoists, under the pretext of religious motives, practise orgies in secret, and force young women to take part in those. Is there any truth in these allegations?"

"Utter nonsense, of course!" Master Sun exclaimed. "Heavens, Dee, how could we Taoists indulge in orgies, on our strict diet? Orgies, forsooth!" He rose and added: "Now we had better go downstairs. The banquet is about to start and the abbot'll be waiting for us. I must warn you that he's not a very profound scholar, but he means well, and he manages this monastery quite efficiently."

"That must be an onerous task," Judge Dee said as he rose also. "The monastery is like a small city! I would like to explore it a bit, but I was told that there doesn't exist a floor plan, and that anyway the part beyond the temple is closed to visitors."

"All that hocus-pocus! Only meant to impress the credulous crowd! I have told the abbot Heaven knows how many times that the monastery is required to have a floor plan; Article 28 of the Regulations of Officially-recognised Places of Worship. Look here, Dee, I can orientate you in a trice." Walking over to the side wall he pointed to a scroll hanging there and went on: "This is a diagram I drew myself. It is really quite simple. The people who built this place two hundred years ago wanted the ground plan to represent the universe, and at the same time Man, as a miniature replica of it. The outline of the whole complex is an oval, which represents the Original Beginning. It faces south, and is built on four levels against the mountain slope. All along the east side is a deep ravine. On the west is the forest.

"Now then! We start from the front court, a triangle, with around it the kitchens, stables, and the rooms of the lay brothers and novices. Then we have the temple court, flanked by two squares, which stand for two large, three-storied buildings. The west wing has the refectory on the ground floor, the library on the second, and the quarters of the prior, the almoner and the registrar on the third. The east wing has on the ground floor the large assembly hall where they are now staging the mystery plays, and the offices. The second and third floor are for lodging visitors from outside. You and your family have been accommodated there, I suppose?"

"Yes," the judge replied, "we are on the north-east corner of the third floor. Two large, comfortable rooms."

"Good. We go on. Behind the temple court is the temple itself — there are some fine antique statues, well worth seeing. Behind the temple is the central court, with a tower on each corner. You are here in the south-west tower, which was assigned to me. On the left of the court is the Gallery of Horrors — a concession to popular beliefs, Dee! On the right are the quarters of the ordained monks, and at the back, over the gate, the private residence of the abbot. Lastly we have a circular section, the Sanctum. To sum up, we have a triangle, two squares, one square, and a circle, in that order. Each of those shapes has a mystical meaning, but we'll skip that. The main thing is that now you know how to orientate yourself. There are, of course, hundreds of passages, corridors and staircases that connect all the buildings, but if you keep this diagram in mind, you can't go far wrong!"