I’ve recently started reading a Chinese novel that a friend of mine recommended to me. It’s called “Heaven Official’s Blessing” (天官賜福) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (莫想童秀). So far, I think it’s pretty good because it contains various elements of Chinese culture that turned out to be interesting. In this quotation, the ones talking are a simple cultivator and the crown prince after he defeated a powerful ghost that devoured whoever answered his questions incorrectly.
After the ghost vanished, the crown prince planted a flowering tree at the head of the bridge. As he did so, a cultivator passed by and happened to see him sprinkle a handful of dirt to consecrate the grave and send the ghost off.
“What is this?” he asked.
And thus, the crown prince replied with his now famous line:
“Body in the abyss, heart in paradise”. (pp. 15-16)
That final phrase was the line where the whole plot started. A few pages later, the crown prince ascends to heaven, becoming something similar to a god. But, due to his unconscious actions, he falls from the heavens and ends up in poverty, being a clear example that “the heart could not be in paradise if the body was in the abyss”.