In the ancient age of the Middle Kingdom, before the rivers were tamed and the mountains were mapped, there lived a man named Fu Luobu, known to the world of seekers as Mulian. He was a man of profound character and unwavering devotion to his parents, a trait that would eventually define the spiritual landscape of an entire civilization. Mulian’s life was one of quiet contemplation until the passing of his father, which left him to care for his mother, Lady Qingti. While Mulian was a man of deep faith, his mother was often led astray by worldly desires and a skeptical heart. When Mulian traveled abroad for business, he entrusted her with the family's wealth, asking her to provide for the traveling monks and the destitute. However, Lady Qingti, driven by a hidden stinginess and a disregard for the sacred, broke her vows. She turned away the hungry and mocked the pious, squandering the family’s resources on selfish whims while pretending to maintain her son's requests.
Upon Mulian’s return, she lied about her deeds, and when she eventually passed away, the weight of her karma was a leaden shroud around her soul. Mulian, overwhelmed by grief and the desire to understand the fate of his parents, entered the monastic life under the tutelage of the Buddha Shakyamuni. Through years of rigorous meditation and the cultivation of wisdom, Mulian achieved the state of an Arhat, gaining the 'Six Divine Penetrations.' With his newfound celestial vision, he first looked toward the heavens and saw his father enjoying the fruits of a righteous life. But when he turned his gaze toward the lower realms, his heart shattered. He saw his mother, Lady Qingti, trapped in the realm of Pretas—the Hungry Ghosts. Her body was a harrowing sight: her neck was as thin as a needle, preventing her from swallowing, while her belly was swollen like a great drum, a symbol of her insatiable and unfulfilled desires. She was surrounded by a landscape of ash and shadow, where the very air tasted of bitterness.
Driven by an agony of spirit that no monk should ideally possess, Mulian used his supernatural powers to descend into the underworld. His journey took him through the misty gates of Fengdu, the city of the dead that stands on the banks of the Yangtze. He crossed the Bridge of Helplessness, where the spirits of the departed are judged, and navigated the Ghost Torturing Pass, where the echoes of past sins manifest as terrifying guardians. As he reached the depths of the Hungry Ghost realm, he found his mother shivering in the darkness. Her eyes, once bright with earthly pride, were now hollow pits of despair. Without a word, Mulian used his miraculous powers to manifest a bowl of the finest white rice. He held it out to her, tears streaming down his face as he watched her reach for the nourishment with trembling hands.
However, the laws of karma are absolute and cannot be bypassed by power alone. As Lady Qingti tried to lift the rice to her lips, the food, tainted by her previous greed, burst into glowing coals and stinking filth. She shrieked in pain as the very thing meant to save her became a source of further torment. Mulian tried to use his own energy to cool the flames, but the more he tried, the hotter the coals burned. Realizing that his individual power was insufficient to overcome the mountain of his mother's past transgressions, Mulian retreated from the underworld, his robes soaked in the soot of hell, and flew back to the presence of the Buddha. He prostrated himself at the Master’s feet, weeping so loudly that the very trees of the Jetavana Grove seemed to tremble with his sorrow.
'World-Honored One,' Mulian cried, 'my mother suffers in the depths of the Pretas. My bowls of rice turn to fire, and my heart is consumed by the flame of her agony. How can a son, even one who has attained the Way, stand by while the one who gave him life is tortured by her own shadows?' The Buddha looked upon Mulian with infinite compassion. He explained that Lady Qingti’s sins were as deep as the ocean and as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. No single person, no matter how powerful, could erase such a burden. The Buddha then revealed a secret path of salvation: the power of the Sangha, the collective merit of the community of monks and practitioners. He told Mulian that on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month—the day when the monks emerge from their summer rains retreat—a great offering must be made.