Other credentials permit quite different actions. The token issued to Ayu, the living author, allows her to enter the underworld while writing the book. The infant spirits' yellow papers carry the ruler's permission to leave their city and seek their parents in connection with a grievance. A death notice, by comparison, is carried by the officer sent to collect someone. What matters is who holds the credential and what that person or spirit has been authorised to do. [4]
Before setting out, Bull-Head and Horse-Face preview the approaching death, which appears on the notice. They also distinguish the light surrounding the living person. Bull-Head associates bright light with goodness, and the loss of that light beneath darkness with those he has been sent to collect. The officers generally arrive before death, inspect the surroundings and check the person's identity. He explains these preparations as the reason they ordinarily do not seize the wrong spirit.
When asked what would happen if they did make a mistake, Bull-Head answers in practical terms. The spirit would be returned to human life immediately, and the ruler would investigate the circumstances. If an officer had erred unintentionally, he would be given an opportunity to make amends. This is a discussion of a possible mistake and its correction, rather than a report that a mistaken collection has occurred.
There would still be a personal consequence for the officer. Carelessness could bring tragedy to a family. Even if the ruler imposed no penalty, Bull-Head says, the harm would leave him with a heavy karmic debt. The absence of an official punishment would not remove what his action had done to other lives. Administrative responsibility and the consequences of one's own conduct remain connected. [3]
The records can also register a turn towards goodness. A man punished for a fishing business wishes that others would abandon fishing and avoid his suffering. The judge records one good deed and allows him to hear Dizang teach once, with punishment temporarily suspended. Asked why this man receives the opportunity, the judge points to the good intention he has just expressed. The permission records a change in the man himself. It grants a chance to hear the teaching and receive relief; the account does not say that he has been released from hell. [1][5]
Notes
[1] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 2, ch. 18, on hell arising through harmful karma and the fishing businessman's permission to attend one teaching. The permission gives temporary relief.
[2] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 2, chs. 13 and 19, on the City God's jurisdiction, the Hall of Hidden Virtue, appointed Earth Gods and resident household spirits. The judge names Yinde Gong before the visit; Ayu later describes a building inscribed Fude Gong, the Hall of Good Fortune and Virtue.
[3] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 2, ch. 5, on death notices, their two colours, the recorded time of death, identity checks and Bull-Head's answer about a hypothetical mistaken collection.
[4] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, chs. 2 and 20–23, and vol. 2, ch. 19, for Ayu's token and the infant spirits' yellow papers. In the first description, Ayu sees a yellow sheet of paper; the judge calls it an authorised token.