Dengting Judge with the Lantern

In the Punishing-Evil Bureau, a group of villains are angrily denouncing a judge.

The first villain looks wronged. “I’m an honest man. I just wanted some money to go to the gambling house and win back my losses. My wife wouldn’t give it to me and insisted on keeping it for the child’s schooling, so in a fit of rage I chopped off her arm. I didn’t mean it!”

The judge is also very aggrieved. “I’m also an honest man. I just wanted your life to exchange for some merit in the netherworld. You wouldn’t give it to me and insisted that you didn’t want to die, so in a fit of rage I chopped off your head. I didn’t do it on purpose either!”

The second villain says righteously, “This is my child. I can beat them however I want, and even beating them to death is only natural!”

The judge says solemnly, “You are my condemned prisoner. I can kill you however I want; slicing you to pieces is no problem at all!”

The third villain bursts into tears. “I’m a local magistrate. I have to answer to His Majesty and to my superiors. The common people don’t understand my suffering, so I can only make the common people suffer a little.”

The judge cries along with him. “I’m a judge. I have to answer to heaven’s principles and to my conscience. The magistrate doesn’t understand my difficulties, so I have no choice but to make things difficult for the magistrate. Come on, sir, stick out your head!”

A lantern-bearing messenger in the mortal world, a judge of the two realms.

What in the world are good and evil, if they make life and death impossible to escape?

Lantern-bearer, light the lamp!