Translation
Should you dream of pursuing depravity, the Wuchang ghost will appear and attack.
In D.T. Suzuki's translation of one of the commentaries to the Taishang ganying pian (Tract of the Most Exalted on action and response), there was a Ming Dynasty scholar named Yu Gong who practised a moral life but was forever plagued by misfortune. The Spirit of the Hearth (a.k.a. Kitchen god) explained to him that what Yu Gong thought was just as important as what Yu Gong did: "When you are alone and given over to yourself, I see nothing in your heart but thoughts of avarice, of envy, of selfishness; thoughts of pride, of scorn and of ambition; and thoughts of hate and ingratitude towards your benefactors and your friends. These thoughts grow on you; so plentifully they swarm in the depths of your heart that I could not enumerate them all. The gods have already recorded a vast number of them and the punishment of heaven is increasing daily. Since you have not even time to escape the calamities which threaten you, what use to pray for happiness!"
