Immortals...By Ou Wenwei
The Path of Life: the Future Human World by Ou Wenwei is an enigmatic book with its tantalizing views of an eternal future world. What would it be like to live in eternity? Read this excerpt...
Having seen such wondrous images of the future world, I felt as if I had imbibed some extremely mellow wine. I was drunk! But I was drunk in a clear and joyful way, with a sense of wonderful hope....
It made me feel extremely joyful to be the first person to know anything about the actual conditions regarding the future world. I deemed it a must for me to suffer any torments for its realization. I became even more sympathetic with and had more pity for those people who bustled about all day long around me, always seeming busy... [looking] as if they were deeply in debt, wearing dull countenances; they seemed also to be avoiding something, so that they always appeared cautious, sometimes even terrified.
All this in a country that was said to have had bumper harvests for nine years in succession, with neither internal nor external debts, with stable prices and lively markets, where the phenomenon of begging was alleged to have long been eliminated. Nevertheless, it was in this same small city that several beggars, intolerable to the residents' eyes, could still be seen. Old, young, men, women, some blind, some crippled.... They were human beings too! How many agonizing people like them were struggling for existence on the brink of starvation and exposure to cold? My God—no, My Universe: you are far from being just!
While thinking these thoughts tears welled up in my eyes. But I could not tell whether they were from pity on others or sorrow for my own unfortunate lot.
"Oh, Emperor Pan Gu...! Have you forgotten the wonderful world shown last night?"
At that moment my unseen companion actually consoled me: "In the near future you, together with those others, will be admitted into that beautiful world and from then on there will be no more distressful people ever."
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Then I will on every occasion treat all beggars throughout the world as honored guests!"
"You should be more concerned with striving for the happiness of those innocent victims who have lost their freedom." He was speaking frankly.
I replied with no hesitation: "Of course."
"All right, then," he asked with a tone, a consultation, "what would you do on behalf of others?"
Now I did become hesitant, as the meaning of "others" had a wide range. It might even be said to cover the whole of mankind. Should I let those sinister and ruthless people who had been persecuting me also be admitted into that sacred and wonderful world? Should I let the political swindlers and warmongers who had pushed humanity into untold sufferings tarnish that holy and pure place? Should I let those bastards, scoundrels, and evildoers who had committed murder and arson, jeopardizing people's lives and properties, also enjoy it?
Gradually I began to see with an anger and a hatred that made me feel that nothing less than their destruction would suffice. "I will kill them all!" I almost let slip.
At the same time, however, I had another idea: "Since it is an agonizing trial that Emperor Pan Gu the Great has already arranged for mankind, then he should be the one responsible for overseeing it. As to 'others', the judgment should be made on the basis of whether they have exceeded their limits or not." I continued more slowly: "Everybody's admission should be decided according to the condition of their self-tempering."
"You are right! It is a complex problem with a complex solution. I have said before that there will be a period of final judging, a stage of squaring general accounts with everybody as to their goodness and evil, so that there will be not the least bit of unjustness allowed. Those who survive will be the first generation of immortals in the future world."
"The people of this generation will be the happiest!" I blurted out. "They will breed the second and third generations of immortals."
"Yes, because they will have experienced painful tortures, so they will be able to set the example for the real eternal world and will deserve love and respect from people forever...."