On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died.

At last, through his death, he did the only good deed of his life for the nation and its people. Although his body remains in the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, according to the weight of his crimes, the Jade Emperor sentenced his spirit to descend to the eighteenth level of hell to suffer torment.

In hell, Mao Zedong encountered Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Hitler regarded Mao with disdain, believing that Mao had shown no humanity toward his own people and had slaughtered them mercilessly, making him less than human. Mao and Stalin, two demons of the same illness, felt a grim sympathy for one another.

Stalin said to Mao: “When it comes to killing, you and I are about the same; both of us are tyrants and executioners. But I did not launch a Great Leap Forward, nor did I start a Cultural Revolution. I caused the starvation of millions in Ukraine, but they were Ukrainians. You carried out the Great Leap Forward and starved tens of millions of Han Chinese. You not only killed people; you destroyed your ancestors and annihilated civilization. I cannot compare to you. Now that you have arrived, the title of supreme demon who brings calamity upon humanity belongs to none but you!”

Hearing this, Mao Zedong was deeply dejected, never having imagined that his crimes were so monstrous.

Mao’s spirit endured torment in the eighteenth level of hell for more than forty years, suffering beyond words and desperately longing to change his fate. He knelt to plead before King Yama. Yama told him that he must cleanse his heart and change his ways, bow his head in confession before the hundreds of millions who had been persecuted, and beg their forgiveness. Only then would he have a chance to ascend gradually from the eighteenth level, improving his condition level by level. Though unwilling in his heart, Mao verbally agreed for the sake of release. He then took the initiative to request Yama’s audience with the Jade Emperor, asking permission to visit the many wronged souls and spirits. Yama led Mao to the Heavenly Court to pay respects to the Jade Emperor.

The moment the Jade Emperor saw Mao, he rebuked him in fury: “You Marxist-Leninist spawn—are you worthy to call yourself a descendant of Yan and Huang? You disgraced your ancestors and destroyed thousands of years of Chinese civilization. In which dynasty, during times of peace, were tens of millions of peasants allowed to starve? In which peaceful era were millions slaughtered? Worse still, you extinguished the most basic moral faith and humanity of the Chinese people. Your crimes are unforgivable— you are the greatest tyrant of all ages!”

In view of the countless unresolved injustices left in the mortal world, the lingering poison of his legacy not yet reckoned with, and especially the fact that his successors still conceal his crimes and attempt to repeat his path, continuing to drag the Chinese people into the abyss of darkness, the Jade Emperor decided to convene a grand trial in the Heavenly Court.

To ensure that the trial would further reveal Mao’s true nature—so that the Chinese people might see clearly, through facts, his essence—and to compel Mao himself to fully recognize the calamity he had inflicted upon all living beings and the gravity of his own sins, the Jade Emperor issued an imperial decree before the proceedings. Mao’s spirit was to leave temporarily the eighteenth level of hell and visit various ghosts and souls: tyrants and demons of history, comrades who had fought alongside him to seize power, and other figures of differing identities. This was to grant him a fair trial. Only if Mao Zedong thoroughly recognized the profound disasters he had brought upon the Chinese nation and sincerely repented his crimes could he bring solace to those who had suffered during his era and to their descendants; only then could the wronged souls of that time find peace in heaven; only then could it serve as a warning to today’s inheritors of Mao’s doctrine of class struggle—urging them to cast off Maoism and turn back before it is too late.

In order to escape as soon as possible from the torment of the eighteenth level of hell, Mao Zedong sought, first, to find spiritual support from his forebears Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, and Qin Shi Huang; second, to persuade his comrades within the Party to plead his case before the Jade Emperor so that he might be released sooner; and third, to pacify them and dissuade them from petitioning the Heavenly Court and complicating his case. Thus, in accordance with the Jade Emperor’s decree, Mao Zedong visited and sought audiences with various departed souls by every possible means, hoping to obtain leniency. The just Jade Emperor also descended from the celestial realm to visit the wronged spirits, so as to render a fair judgment.

NEXT: Part I: Dead Souls — Gathering at the Yellow Springs Karl Marx (1818–1883)