Eight Sufferings of the Mortal World

After the great catastrophe of the Wu and Yao, the primordial world was left in ruins, gods fell, all races withered, the six paths were not yet established, the dead had no归宿, and the order of the three realms collapsed. In a desolate forest during the chaos, a moth was in danger of annihilation and was saved by the monk Bukong, who was not yet a Buddha. The moth, grateful for the kindness, burned its own soul to help him attain Buddhahood, scattering its soul to the winds. After becoming a Buddha, Bukong, in order to find the moth, divided into eight incarnations corresponding to the eight sufferings of life: birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, unfulfilled desires, meeting with enemies, and the blazing of the five aggregates. These eight bodies traversed the mortal world, guiding sentient beings through their suffering, and led the remnant thoughts of the moth through the eight sufferings, helping it see through its attachments and finally achieve liberation from worldly ties. Meanwhile, the heavens and earth, moved by the plight of wandering souls, saw Empress Houtu evolve the prototype of the six paths of reincarnation. The Emperor of Fengdu, born in response to this calamity, governed the underworld and established the Fengdu Netherworld. He pacified the fierce ghosts of the underworld, established the laws of the netherworld, gathered the countless war-dead souls of the primordial era, and steadily solidified the foundation of the ghost realm, allowing reincarnation to operate in order. The little moth eliminated suffering and karma in the mortal world, while the Emperor of Fengdu settled souls and established reincarnation in the underworld. A Buddha and a netherworld ruler echoed each other across realms, finally ending the chaos of the primordial era and establishing the eternal order of the human and ghost realms. — Description from novelcodex.org