On Mortality Summary

Tu Tzu-Chan lived from 558 to 618 C.E. and had a life memorialized in many apocryphal legends. He obtained and squandered several fortunes until he became indebted to a supernatural being. He attempted to pay for his debt by voluntarily entering a life of illusion without uttering any sound. Tu Tzu-Chan knew his life was an illusion. Therefore, it did not trouble him, even as he was physically tortured and surrounded by horrible images. Throughout it all, he remained entirely silent. Tu Tzu-Chan was even reborn as a deaf-mute woman, who delivered a child and never made a sound. The husband of Tu Tzu-Chan, however, one day flew into a rage and killed the child by dashing its head on the ground which, finally, elicited a scream from Tu Tzu-Chan. As Tu Tzu-Chan was unable to repay his debt by living in...