Part 22 (1/2)
”I am a poor orphan priest of no merit,” he replied. ”From my earliest youth I have led the life of a hermit. I have been told that your power is equalled only by your goodness, so I have ventured to come to pray you to show me how to attain to perfection.”
”My only fear,” replied Miao Shan, ”is that your desire for perfection may not be sincere.”
”I have now no parents,” the priest continued, ”and I have come more than a thousand _li_ to find you. How can I be wanting in sincerity?”
”What special degree of ability have you attained during your course of perfection?” asked Miao Shan.
”I have no skill,” replied Shan Ts'ai, ”but I rely for everything on your great pity, and under your guidance I hope to reach the required ability.”
”Very well,” said Miao Shan, ”take up your station on the top of yonder peak, and wait till I find a means of transporting you.”
A Ruse
Miao Shan called the _t'u-ti_ and bade him go and beg all the Immortals to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving torches, and threatening with swords and spears to kill her. ”Then I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice to prove Shan Ts'ai's fidelity and affection.”
A minute later a horde of brigands of ferocious aspect rushed up to the temple of Hsiang Shan. Miao Shan cried for help, rushed up the steep incline, missed her footing, and rolled down into the ravine. Shan Ts'ai, seeing her fall into the abyss, without hesitation flung himself after her in order to rescue her. When he reached her, he asked: ”What have you to fear from the robbers? You have nothing for them to steal; why throw yourself over the precipice, exposing yourself to certain death?”
Miao Shan saw that he was weeping, and wept too. ”I must comply with the wish of Heaven,” she said.
The Transformation of Shan Ts'ai
Shan Ts'ai, inconsolable, prayed Heaven and earth to save his protectress. Miao Shan said to him: ”You should not have risked your life by throwing yourself over the precipice, I have not yet transformed you. But you did a brave thing, and I know that you have a good heart. Now, look down there.” ”Oh,” said he, ”if I mistake not, that is a corpse.” ”Yes,” she replied, ”that is your former body. Now you are transformed you can rise at will and fly in the air.” Shan Ts'ai bowed low to thank his benefactress, who said to him: ”Henceforth you must say your prayers by my side, and not leave me for a single day.”
'Brother and Sister'
With her spiritual sight Miao Shan perceived at the bottom of the Southern Sea the third son of Lung w.a.n.g, who, in carrying out his father's orders, was cleaving the waves in the form of a carp. While doing so, he was caught in a fisherman's net, taken to the market at Yueh Chou, and offered for sale. Miao Shan at once sent her faithful Shan Ts'ai, in the guise of a servant, to buy him, giving him a thousand cash to purchase the fish, which he was to take to the foot of the rocks at P'u T'o and set free in the sea. The son of Lung w.a.n.g heartily thanked his deliverer, and on his return to the palace related to his father what had occurred. The King said: ”As a reward, make her a present of a luminous pearl, so that she may recite her prayers by its light at night-time.”
Lung Nu, the daughter of Lung w.a.n.g's third son, obtained her grandfather's permission to take the gift to Miao Shan and beg that she might be allowed to study the doctrine of the sages under her guidance. After having proved her sincerity, she was accepted as a pupil. Shan Ts'ai called her his sister, and Lung Nu reciprocated by calling him her dear brother. Both lived as brother and sister by Miao Shan's side.
The King's Punishment
After King Miao Chuang had burned the Nunnery of the White Bird and killed his daughter, Ch'ieh Lan Buddha presented a pet.i.tion to Yu Huang praying that the crime be not allowed to go unpunished. Yu Huang, justly irritated, ordered P'an Kuan to consult the Register of the Living and the Dead to see how long this homicidal King had yet to live. P'an Kuan turned over the pages of his register, and saw that according to the divine ordinances the King's reign on the throne of Hsing Lin should last for twenty years, but that this period had not yet expired. [31] ”That which has been decreed is immutable,” said Yu Huang, ”but I will punish him by sending him illness.” He called the G.o.d of Epidemics, and ordered him to afflict the King's body with ulcers, of a kind which could not be healed except by remedies to be given him by his daughter Miao Shan.
The order was promptly executed, and the King could get no rest by day or by night. His two daughters and their husbands spent their time in feasting while he tossed about in agony on his sick-bed. In vain the most famous physicians were called in; the malady only grew worse, and despair took hold of the patient. He then caused a proclamation to be made that he would grant the succession to the throne to any person who would provide him with an effectual remedy to restore him to health.
The Disguised Priest-doctor
Miao Shan had learnt by revelation at Hsiang Shan all that was taking place at the palace. She a.s.sumed the form of a priest-doctor, clothed herself in a priest's gown, with the regulation headdress and straw shoes, and attached to her girdle a gourd containing pills and other medicines. In this apparel she went straight to the palace gate, read the royal edict posted there, and tore it down. Some members of the palace guard seized her, and inquired angrily: ”Who are you that you should dare to tear down the royal proclamation?”
”I, a poor priest, am also a doctor,” she replied. ”I read the edict posted on the palace gates. The King is inquiring for a doctor who can heal him. I am a doctor of an old cultured family, and propose to restore him to health.”
”If you are of a cultured family, why did you become a priest?” they asked. ”Would it not have been better to gain your living honestly in practising your art than to shave your head and go loafing about the world? Besides, all the highest physicians have tried in vain to cure the King; do you imagine that you will be more skilful than all the aged pract.i.tioners?”
”Set your minds at ease,” she replied. ”I have received from my ancestors the most efficacious remedies, and I guarantee that I shall restore the King to health,” The palace guard then consented to transmit her pet.i.tion to the Queen, who informed the King, and in the end the pretended priest was admitted. Having reached the royal bed-chamber, he sat still awhile in order to calm himself before feeling the pulse, and to have complete control of all his faculties while examining the King. When he felt quite sure of himself, he approached the King's bed, took the King's hand, felt his pulse, carefully diagnosed the nature of the illness, and a.s.sured himself that it was easily curable.
Strange Medicine