Billion names of the devil (a translation)
This is a story written by someone else in Chinese. It was published on the 2003 June edition on 'Scientific American Chinese version' as part of the Chinese viewpoint series. Seeing as this is a chinese viewpoint article I know it would not be published in the English version of Sciam and so I have translated the story into English because I have enjoyed it immensely and felt that it is well worth sharing. Even though I realize that a great deal of this story may be more associated with science fiction than anything fact-based, I feel that it still touches a chord with what we feel sometimes - a feeling that eats away at us when we least expect it, the desire to know that there is something or someone faraway that holds a key to what our existence means.
Billion names of the devil
Author: Shi-Gwo Chang
Translator: Mignon Chang
My Dearest Alice:
Please forgive me for not writing to you until today. In truth I think of you every single night and day, but the thought pains me every time and I cannot continue writing, almost as though part of my heart soil has shriveled up; it hurts to even touch, so I try to avoid it. But I know where you are, Alice, I truly know! I can say, but I know. I have a feeling that I will see you again, just like that day I saw the white cranes soaring in the azure sky and had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. But this time it no longer an ill presentiment. I have a sense of anticipation, a sense of joy, almost a happy premonition.
Countless cranes were soaring in the azure sky, spiraling downward from way up high. A flock of paper cranes floated down in front of Alice. Without thinking, she reached out a hand a caught one. The paper crane rapidly changed shape in her hand, unfolding to become a leaflet, it began to speak. his is a moral battle,?the voice of the empire supreme leader intoned he justice of the empire has come to release the people of Farg, the people of Farg will receive freedom. No enemy can withstand the army of the Empire. Farg people, to resist is futile, surrender now! The sooner you accept the dominion of the Empire, the sooner we shall return your freedom.?
Alice laughed softly and started to throw away the leaflet. To her surprise, the leaflet clung to her hand, loudly proclaiming ou are not a Farg, you are a citizen of the Empire, is that not so? You are a heretic, a traitor to the empire. Traitor! Know this, opposing the empire means death.?After repeating this three times, the leaflet started burning up by itself. Luckily Paul flipped out his pocketknife, first distinguishing the fire with his mini-extinguisher, then slicing the leaflet into tiny pieces with his knife. Pieces of the leaflet fluttered to the ground, still guttering raitor!?/SPAN>
he empire propaganda attacks have become more high tech lately.?Paul said, laughingly aper can unfold itself, speak, and self-ignite ?that not being all, to be able to identify a person is truly challenging. On the other hand, it may not be so difficult. Youe still carrying the Empire identity card, right? If you weren carry that smart card and it could still identify you, I would be truly impressed. Sadly this sort of propaganda can only bring adverse effects. A freedom that has to be bestowed ?such freedom isn worth accepting.?/SPAN>
o threat Empire citizens ?it too much!?Alice said with an angry pout hat wrong with being a dissenter? All Empire citizens have the right to criticize the government wrongful policies.?/SPAN>
Paul looked at the slim, frail woman beside him gently hat true, all citizens have the right to oppose the government policies, but Farg isn the best place to exhibit dissent. It much too dangerous here. It might be better to return to the motherland and attend protests there.?/SPAN>
not going back!?Alice said not here for tourism, I here with my classmates to be a human shield to protect the water factory. If the Empire sends planes to bomb the factory a lot of people in Farg are going to die, especially children, of water deprivation.?/SPAN>
Paul was shocked. Even though he was the most outstanding physicist in the Empire University, he rarely concerned himself with political affairs. Only for Alice had he become a heretic in people eyes. Alice had to come to Farg, so he followed. Originally he thought she had come here to do research and would go home in a few days, he never thought that she had come here to act as a human shield! ?/SPAN>Alice, that is way too dangerous. Don be so na鴳e to think that with you guys standing in the way the empire would think twice about bombing the water factory. I know you are discontent with the empire policies, but you don have to express yourself this way. Also, you aren well, it too hard to live in such a backward place.?/SPAN>
not your student and I don need your nagging! My friends and I have thought it over, it the only way. If you aren willing to stay, go home.?With that, Alice started to walk towards the water factory. Paul stood there, speechless for the moment. She was right, she was his childhood friend and girlfriend, not his student, he couldn coach her, but how could he persuade her? Paul was considering this when a scene that he would never forget came before his eyes. Countless cranes were soaring in the azure sky, spiraling downward from way up high. A flock suddenly started to fly towards the water factory, something was not right. Paul was about to call to Alice when it was too late. A white flash, Paul was shaken to the ground by the shock of the explosion. By the time he had recovered his senses, the water factory and its surround edifices were no more.
The Empire commanding central said that the Fargs had intentionally destroyed the water factory to cause mass civilian death, and then blame it on the Empire air-fleet. The Fargs said that it was the Empire bomb. Paul calculated how many tons of explosives it would take to destroy the water factory and understood that the Fargs could not have possibly initiated such a move, only the Empire bombs had such power. Paul was no longer silent and came out to accuse the military. The accusation of the Empire University noted physicist was not to be trifled with and the military was finally willing to announce an investigation. Of course, no results would be forthcoming. Paul was put on the black list. But after the death of Alice he had become a completely different person, he asked for a break from the school and the University was willing to allow him a permanent vacation. Paul went back to his old countryside home and from then on came out only rarely. Society soon forgot about him.
My dearest Alice:
Yesterday I dreamt of you again. You stood in the burning streets of Farg. The Empire tanks were pinpointed towards the neighboring apartments. People ran out of the burning buildings and were shot by the Empire soldiers?machine guns. The speakers on the tanks kept blaring he Empire militia has come to liberate you, you shall receive your freedom.?A mother was killed, and an empire soldier gave her child a piece of chocolate. The child in psychotic confusion started to laugh and cry at the same time, battle reports caught the image of the child laughing hysterically and the image immediately appeared on television ?to prove that the military was benevolent and kind to the people. You smiled at me sadly and said he Fargs have finally won their freedom through death.?/FONT>
Since Paul moved back to the country he would go in town every Wednesday at noon to have dinner with Alice mother at the YWCA. Alice mother had rheumatism and had difficulty walking. In the morning she could walk slowly the the trainstation by her self and take the bus to the Y, when they had finished their meal Paul would drive her home.
Besides Alice home was a maple forest. When the couple first met, he would come to look for Alice. Alice mother wouldn allow them to go far, so they would take walks in these woods. Paul noticed that Alice mother had hung up a string of paper cranes by the front door, this was Alice favorite Origami animal. He couldn help bringing up Alice. When Paul mentioned how Alice still stood in the streets of Farg, Alice mother suddenly caught his had and stopped him from speaking on.
lease don say anymore! Alice is in heaven, let her dwell there in peace.?/SPAN>
My dearest Alice, I don feel that you have gone to heaven. If you have, then I would never see you again, then what would I do? But I know for sure you are not in heaven, you are in another parallel world. Of course I can explain this to your mother, she doesn understand physics. For her, she would rather believe you were in heaven.
When a world is facing decisions, it would split into many parallel worlds ?some would become better, some would become worse. Even though you can observe parallel worlds, you can deduce their existence. It just like you went to a hotel to reserve and room, and the room number happened to be your birthday, so you can deduce that there are many rooms in the hotel and one of them happens to have your birthday. By the same principle, if you knew the world were especially awful, you could be sure that there exist worlds that are much better.
Perhaps, the so called heaven is our vision of what a better parallel world would be like? My dearest Alice, we don go to heaven when we die, but we go to a better parallel world. All our good deed, we may say, is to increase the probability of that better world appearing.
My dearest love, why do I have to say these things to you? Because if all the parallel universes existed eternally, death would not be an issue. We would simply hop from one universe to another. When all the paralle universes exist for eternity, time would only seem like a mirage to us. Without time, death would not be an issue, you and me will always exist. You have not died, but are merely in another parallel world, and my love for you will never change either.
Paul drove around the maple forest and parked his car next to the stream there. After shutting off the engine, one can hear the water gurgling. Only Alice and he knew this place. Alice often said that if they had children in the future, they could bring their children on picnics to this secret place. He didn have these imaginations because he knew that Alice had congenital heart disease and it would be unwise to give birth. As Alice mother said, to be able to live life peacefully is happiness in itself.
Alice, you know how I am. Knowing that you are in another parallel world, I wouldn just sit here doing nothing and not go find you. Ie recently thought of something. Even there are plentiful parallel universes, but the difference between them shouldn be too great. For example if I went to a restaurant and made a choice with either smocked ham or beef, that in itself would make two worlds, though they are not so different. Most of the time, parallel world can combine on the basis that they are so similar, so under the appropriate circumstances usually there are only the results of two parallel world ?one is the culmination of good, and the other is the culmination of evil. This is what one may call a Universal node.
Alice, I strongly believe we happen to be in a very important universal node, facing a major battle between good and evil. Our world seems to be the culmination of evil whilst the other world is the culmination of good. According to probability, the combination of the two worlds should be balanced in the number of similar parallel worlds. But why do we always feel that evil is stronger, even to the extent of lording over all?
Absolute good or absolute evil means that one disciple can absolutely lord over all good or evil. Because the probability is zero, in theory absolute good or absolute evil cannot exist. But when good can be turned into evil, or evil turned into good, relative good or relative evil may exist. I know what I am searching for ?the key to turning evil into good.
Alice, I have thought about this for a long time and finally I understand, good and evil exist in one heart, and the way one heart goes comes from what we think, and thoughts require language. Only language is the universal node, the key to the battle between good and evil.
Paul walked into the woods and sat on the ground that had been velvet-ed by leaves. Maple leaves blew around him and dropped silently to the ground. He took a deep breath, and switched on a machine on his knee.
The way to turn good into evil, is to change all the good names into evil. Do you remember the ancient tale? hen the monk has recited all the billion names of God, the worlds would be destroyed.?Because people have passed this down orally, the tale has become a bit muddy, but it really doesn mean all the worlds would be destroyed, it means that the good world would be destroyed. The monk is a disguised devil, on the surface he speaks of righteousness, but in fact he does evil things. He says all that is good and does everything that is evil. The true power that destroys a good world are those who pretend to do good.(Actually parallel worlds always exist, e destroyed?should actually be said as hange the situation?
By the same meaning, the way to change evil into good is to change all the evil names into good. If I can recite all the billion names of the devil, the evil world shall be destroyed! Of course this is not simple, because the devil name is very complex, not made up from a few simple letters. The devil name can be more complex than a billion books, normal people may not understand upon first sight.
Alice, I have thought of a way to enumerate all the billion names of the devil. I don need to visit all the worlds of evil, I only need to find out all the names of the evil worlds in one world, and this would bring the same effect, because time and space can be alternated. I can use a molecular device and spell the billion names of the devil and quickly read them aloud. Once my machine has succeeded, a lot of parallel worlds will become good worlds. When only good is left in this world, my dearest Alice, we shall meet again.
But the resulting good world will not be in a stable condition, it may quickly change into a different situation. So Alice, you may not remember me, but I will always love you. Even if you should forget all, please do not suspect my love.
A billion worlds, suddenly destroyed. A billion worlds, suddenly reborn.
Countless cranes were soaring in the azure sky, spiraling downward from way up high. A flock of paper cranes floated down in front of Alice. Without thinking, she reached out a hand a caught one. The paper crane docilely lay in her palm, occasionally twitching its wings. Alice lifted her hand and the paper crane slowly rose into the sky. She raised her head to gaze at that azure sky, and then to survey the far horizons. A smiling woman in black took her child hand and walked slowly away. A tear rolled down Alice cheek, but she did not know why; she seemed to remember a person in a faraway world, and yet seemed to remember nothing.
On the forgotten shore, another billion worlds are suddenly reborn, another billion worlds suddenly destroyed.
Please forgive me for not writing to you until today. In truth I think of you every single night and day, but the thought pains me every time and I cannot continue writing, almost as though part of my heart soil has shriveled up; it hurts to even touch, so I try to avoid it. But I know where you are, Alice, I truly know! I can say, but I know. I have a feeling that I will see you again, just like that day I saw the white cranes soaring in the azure sky and had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. But this time it no longer an ill presentiment. I have a sense of anticipation, a sense of joy, almost a happy premonition.
Countless cranes were soaring in the azure sky, spiraling downward from way up high. A flock of paper cranes floated down in front of Alice. Without thinking, she reached out a hand a caught one. The paper crane rapidly changed shape in her hand, unfolding to become a leaflet, it began to speak. his is a moral battle,?the voice of the empire supreme leader intoned he justice of the empire has come to release the people of Farg, the people of Farg will receive freedom. No enemy can withstand the army of the Empire. Farg people, to resist is futile, surrender now! The sooner you accept the dominion of the Empire, the sooner we shall return your freedom.?
Alice laughed softly and started to throw away the leaflet. To her surprise, the leaflet clung to her hand, loudly proclaiming ou are not a Farg, you are a citizen of the Empire, is that not so? You are a heretic, a traitor to the empire. Traitor! Know this, opposing the empire means death.?After repeating this three times, the leaflet started burning up by itself. Luckily Paul flipped out his pocketknife, first distinguishing the fire with his mini-extinguisher, then slicing the leaflet into tiny pieces with his knife. Pieces of the leaflet fluttered to the ground, still guttering raitor!?/SPAN>
he empire propaganda attacks have become more high tech lately.?Paul said, laughingly aper can unfold itself, speak, and self-ignite ?that not being all, to be able to identify a person is truly challenging. On the other hand, it may not be so difficult. Youe still carrying the Empire identity card, right? If you weren carry that smart card and it could still identify you, I would be truly impressed. Sadly this sort of propaganda can only bring adverse effects. A freedom that has to be bestowed ?such freedom isn worth accepting.?/SPAN>
o threat Empire citizens ?it too much!?Alice said with an angry pout hat wrong with being a dissenter? All Empire citizens have the right to criticize the government wrongful policies.?/SPAN>
Paul looked at the slim, frail woman beside him gently hat true, all citizens have the right to oppose the government policies, but Farg isn the best place to exhibit dissent. It much too dangerous here. It might be better to return to the motherland and attend protests there.?/SPAN>
not going back!?Alice said not here for tourism, I here with my classmates to be a human shield to protect the water factory. If the Empire sends planes to bomb the factory a lot of people in Farg are going to die, especially children, of water deprivation.?/SPAN>
Paul was shocked. Even though he was the most outstanding physicist in the Empire University, he rarely concerned himself with political affairs. Only for Alice had he become a heretic in people eyes. Alice had to come to Farg, so he followed. Originally he thought she had come here to do research and would go home in a few days, he never thought that she had come here to act as a human shield! ?/SPAN>Alice, that is way too dangerous. Don be so na鴳e to think that with you guys standing in the way the empire would think twice about bombing the water factory. I know you are discontent with the empire policies, but you don have to express yourself this way. Also, you aren well, it too hard to live in such a backward place.?/SPAN>
not your student and I don need your nagging! My friends and I have thought it over, it the only way. If you aren willing to stay, go home.?With that, Alice started to walk towards the water factory. Paul stood there, speechless for the moment. She was right, she was his childhood friend and girlfriend, not his student, he couldn coach her, but how could he persuade her? Paul was considering this when a scene that he would never forget came before his eyes. Countless cranes were soaring in the azure sky, spiraling downward from way up high. A flock suddenly started to fly towards the water factory, something was not right. Paul was about to call to Alice when it was too late. A white flash, Paul was shaken to the ground by the shock of the explosion. By the time he had recovered his senses, the water factory and its surround edifices were no more.
The Empire commanding central said that the Fargs had intentionally destroyed the water factory to cause mass civilian death, and then blame it on the Empire air-fleet. The Fargs said that it was the Empire bomb. Paul calculated how many tons of explosives it would take to destroy the water factory and understood that the Fargs could not have possibly initiated such a move, only the Empire bombs had such power. Paul was no longer silent and came out to accuse the military. The accusation of the Empire University noted physicist was not to be trifled with and the military was finally willing to announce an investigation. Of course, no results would be forthcoming. Paul was put on the black list. But after the death of Alice he had become a completely different person, he asked for a break from the school and the University was willing to allow him a permanent vacation. Paul went back to his old countryside home and from then on came out only rarely. Society soon forgot about him.
My dearest Alice:
Yesterday I dreamt of you again. You stood in the burning streets of Farg. The Empire tanks were pinpointed towards the neighboring apartments. People ran out of the burning buildings and were shot by the Empire soldiers?machine guns. The speakers on the tanks kept blaring he Empire militia has come to liberate you, you shall receive your freedom.?A mother was killed, and an empire soldier gave her child a piece of chocolate. The child in psychotic confusion started to laugh and cry at the same time, battle reports caught the image of the child laughing hysterically and the image immediately appeared on television ?to prove that the military was benevolent and kind to the people. You smiled at me sadly and said he Fargs have finally won their freedom through death.?/FONT>
Since Paul moved back to the country he would go in town every Wednesday at noon to have dinner with Alice mother at the YWCA. Alice mother had rheumatism and had difficulty walking. In the morning she could walk slowly the the trainstation by her self and take the bus to the Y, when they had finished their meal Paul would drive her home.
Besides Alice home was a maple forest. When the couple first met, he would come to look for Alice. Alice mother wouldn allow them to go far, so they would take walks in these woods. Paul noticed that Alice mother had hung up a string of paper cranes by the front door, this was Alice favorite Origami animal. He couldn help bringing up Alice. When Paul mentioned how Alice still stood in the streets of Farg, Alice mother suddenly caught his had and stopped him from speaking on.
lease don say anymore! Alice is in heaven, let her dwell there in peace.?/SPAN>
My dearest Alice, I don feel that you have gone to heaven. If you have, then I would never see you again, then what would I do? But I know for sure you are not in heaven, you are in another parallel world. Of course I can explain this to your mother, she doesn understand physics. For her, she would rather believe you were in heaven.
When a world is facing decisions, it would split into many parallel worlds ?some would become better, some would become worse. Even though you can observe parallel worlds, you can deduce their existence. It just like you went to a hotel to reserve and room, and the room number happened to be your birthday, so you can deduce that there are many rooms in the hotel and one of them happens to have your birthday. By the same principle, if you knew the world were especially awful, you could be sure that there exist worlds that are much better.
Perhaps, the so called heaven is our vision of what a better parallel world would be like? My dearest Alice, we don go to heaven when we die, but we go to a better parallel world. All our good deed, we may say, is to increase the probability of that better world appearing.
My dearest love, why do I have to say these things to you? Because if all the parallel universes existed eternally, death would not be an issue. We would simply hop from one universe to another. When all the paralle universes exist for eternity, time would only seem like a mirage to us. Without time, death would not be an issue, you and me will always exist. You have not died, but are merely in another parallel world, and my love for you will never change either.
Paul drove around the maple forest and parked his car next to the stream there. After shutting off the engine, one can hear the water gurgling. Only Alice and he knew this place. Alice often said that if they had children in the future, they could bring their children on picnics to this secret place. He didn have these imaginations because he knew that Alice had congenital heart disease and it would be unwise to give birth. As Alice mother said, to be able to live life peacefully is happiness in itself.
Alice, you know how I am. Knowing that you are in another parallel world, I wouldn just sit here doing nothing and not go find you. Ie recently thought of something. Even there are plentiful parallel universes, but the difference between them shouldn be too great. For example if I went to a restaurant and made a choice with either smocked ham or beef, that in itself would make two worlds, though they are not so different. Most of the time, parallel world can combine on the basis that they are so similar, so under the appropriate circumstances usually there are only the results of two parallel world ?one is the culmination of good, and the other is the culmination of evil. This is what one may call a Universal node.
Alice, I strongly believe we happen to be in a very important universal node, facing a major battle between good and evil. Our world seems to be the culmination of evil whilst the other world is the culmination of good. According to probability, the combination of the two worlds should be balanced in the number of similar parallel worlds. But why do we always feel that evil is stronger, even to the extent of lording over all?
Absolute good or absolute evil means that one disciple can absolutely lord over all good or evil. Because the probability is zero, in theory absolute good or absolute evil cannot exist. But when good can be turned into evil, or evil turned into good, relative good or relative evil may exist. I know what I am searching for ?the key to turning evil into good.
Alice, I have thought about this for a long time and finally I understand, good and evil exist in one heart, and the way one heart goes comes from what we think, and thoughts require language. Only language is the universal node, the key to the battle between good and evil.
Paul walked into the woods and sat on the ground that had been velvet-ed by leaves. Maple leaves blew around him and dropped silently to the ground. He took a deep breath, and switched on a machine on his knee.
The way to turn good into evil, is to change all the good names into evil. Do you remember the ancient tale? hen the monk has recited all the billion names of God, the worlds would be destroyed.?Because people have passed this down orally, the tale has become a bit muddy, but it really doesn mean all the worlds would be destroyed, it means that the good world would be destroyed. The monk is a disguised devil, on the surface he speaks of righteousness, but in fact he does evil things. He says all that is good and does everything that is evil. The true power that destroys a good world are those who pretend to do good.(Actually parallel worlds always exist, e destroyed?should actually be said as hange the situation?
By the same meaning, the way to change evil into good is to change all the evil names into good. If I can recite all the billion names of the devil, the evil world shall be destroyed! Of course this is not simple, because the devil name is very complex, not made up from a few simple letters. The devil name can be more complex than a billion books, normal people may not understand upon first sight.
Alice, I have thought of a way to enumerate all the billion names of the devil. I don need to visit all the worlds of evil, I only need to find out all the names of the evil worlds in one world, and this would bring the same effect, because time and space can be alternated. I can use a molecular device and spell the billion names of the devil and quickly read them aloud. Once my machine has succeeded, a lot of parallel worlds will become good worlds. When only good is left in this world, my dearest Alice, we shall meet again.
But the resulting good world will not be in a stable condition, it may quickly change into a different situation. So Alice, you may not remember me, but I will always love you. Even if you should forget all, please do not suspect my love.
A billion worlds, suddenly destroyed. A billion worlds, suddenly reborn.
Countless cranes were soaring in the azure sky, spiraling downward from way up high. A flock of paper cranes floated down in front of Alice. Without thinking, she reached out a hand a caught one. The paper crane docilely lay in her palm, occasionally twitching its wings. Alice lifted her hand and the paper crane slowly rose into the sky. She raised her head to gaze at that azure sky, and then to survey the far horizons. A smiling woman in black took her child hand and walked slowly away. A tear rolled down Alice cheek, but she did not know why; she seemed to remember a person in a faraway world, and yet seemed to remember nothing.
On the forgotten shore, another billion worlds are suddenly reborn, another billion worlds suddenly destroyed.
posted by Mignon Chang at 2:48 AM
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