The True Story of Kandata: Yu’s Reincarnation
This is an incarnation story of Yu Menglong that he shared with us himself, through one of his secondary souls.
Some of you may have heard of Kandata — the protagonist of the short story The Spider's Thread by Japanese author Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, which became widely known after Akutagawa adapted Buddhist scripture into fiction. But the story he wrote is not true history.
So what really happened?
Beside the lotus pond of the Pure Land, a Bodhisattva looked down with eyes of wisdom upon the suffering beings in the realms of hell below.
The Bodhisattva saw among them a sinner named Kandata. Recalling that this man had spent his life doing evil — a corrupt official, cruel and unjust in his governance — the Bodhisattva also remembered that he had once performed one small act of goodness: he had refrained from stepping on a spider.
And so the Bodhisattva decided to give him a chance.
A single slender golden thread was lowered from the lotus pond of the Pure Land all the way down to hell, with the intention of rescuing Kandata.
But the moment the sinners being punished in hell caught sight of this golden thread, they seized it at once and began to climb.
Kandata, however, remained seated — perfectly still, without so much as a stir.
More and more sinners grabbed hold of the thread and climbed. The Bodhisattva watched as the thread was on the verge of breaking, and reached out to Kandata through thought: "I am trying to save you. Why won't you take hold of the thread and let me pull you up?"
Kandata replied with a grave expression: "I am a sinner. If I were to be saved before my sentence is complete, it would be unfair to everyone else."
Then suddenly, under the weight of too many climbers — snap — the thread broke. Countless sinners fell back down, their cries of anguish filling the air.
The sinners wept and wailed, blaming Kandata: "It's because you didn't grab the thread and climb up — if you had, we could have followed you to safety. That's why the Bodhisattva gave up on us!"
Kandata let them blame him and beat him. He remained unmoved — because he knew that what had happened was not fair.
During his time serving his sentence in hell, he had come to fully understand his wrongs. In the early days of his career as an official, he had in fact been a good man — upright and just. It was only later, led astray by a circle of indulgent companions, that he had gone down the wrong path. After deep reflection, he understood that he had failed in his duties, that his sins ran deep — and so he did not accept the Bodhisattva's offer of salvation. Having once held office, he understood better than most what fairness and justice truly meant.
If he and the sinners clinging to the thread were saved — what then of all the others still suffering in hell?
Word of this reached the ears of the King of Hell, Yanluo Wang, who dispatched a civil judge to investigate. The findings confirmed that everything had happened as reported. When Kandata's sentence was finally complete, Yanluo Wang invited him — as an exceptional case — to stand as a candidate for the position of the next King of Hell, alongside other officials.
Because everyone in hell knew of this remarkable deed, no one ran against Kandata. He was elected without opposition, and went on to judge cases with his characteristic sense of fairness and justice.
After his term as King of Hell ended, he did not leave. He stayed on, helping sinners search for any merits they might have accumulated that could offset their wrongdoings.
He believed that no matter how great a person's crimes, somewhere across the long span of their life, there must have been moments when a good thought arose within them.
Yu En said to Yu's Secondary Soul: how could you be so foolish! The Bodhisattva showed such great compassion in coming to save you — what were you thinking, worrying about fairness at a time like that!
But he said: he felt that if he were to receive salvation, then all should receive it together. Otherwise, he would willingly remain and endure the suffering — because anything less would not be fair to the others.
Because of his righteousness and compassion — along with the accumulation of other deeds — he was chosen by the Creator to become the Secondary Soul of the Liuli Heavenly King, and together they reincarnated as Yu Menglong, to carry out the mission of exposing the dark industry chain and awakening the souls of the world.
(Please refer to Liuli Heavenly King in"The Origin of the Son of Light.")