Chapter 9

Chen Guangrui Meets Disaster on His Way to Office; the Monk River Float Avenges His Father and Repays His Origins

Chang'an in Shaanxi had been the capital of emperors through many dynasties. Since Zhou, Qin, and Han, its three districts had bloomed like brocade and eight rivers had flowed around it: a truly splendid city. Emperor Taizong of Tang had taken the throne thirteen years earlier, inaugurating the Zhenguan era. It was the year of the snake, jisi. Peace reigned throughout the realm; tribute arrived from eight directions and the four seas acknowledged his rule.

One day at court Chancellor Wei Zheng said: “The realm is at peace. Let us follow ancient practice, hold examinations, seek worthy scholars, and appoint talented officials to help govern.” Emperor Taizong agreed and issued an edict throughout the counties and prefectures. Any scholar, whether civilian or soldier, who understood literature and had mastered the three examination sessions could come to Chang'an to compete.

In Haizhou, Chen E, styled Guangrui, saw the notice and told his mother, Lady Zhang: “The court is holding examinations. I wish to compete. If I win an office, I can honor you, bring credit to our name, and secure a future for wife and children.” “You studied when young; now that you are grown, put your learning into practice,” she said. “Travel carefully, and come home soon after obtaining your post.”

Guangrui had a servant pack his belongings and took leave of his mother. In Chang'an he sat the examinations and succeeded. After three tests before the Emperor, Taizong personally named him top graduate. He paraded through the streets on horseback for three days.

As he passed Chancellor Yin Kaishan's house, the Chancellor's unmarried daughter Wenjiao, also called Mantangjiao, stood on a decorated tower, choosing a husband by casting an embroidered ball. Seeing the handsome new graduate below, she gladly threw the ball onto his black official hat. Music sounded; a dozen maidservants came down, took hold of his horse, and ushered him inside. The Chancellor and his wife appeared, called for a master of ceremonies, and married their daughter to Guangrui. Bride and groom bowed to heaven, earth, one another, and her parents. A wedding feast lasted into the night, after which the couple entered their chamber hand in hand.

Before dawn the next day, Emperor Taizong convened his ministers. “What office shall we give Chen Guangrui?” “Jiangzhou needs a prefect,” said Wei Zheng. The Emperor appointed him and ordered him to leave promptly. Guangrui thanked him, returned to the Chancellor's house, and consulted his wife. They took leave of her parents and departed for Jiangzhou.

It was late spring; warm winds turned the willows green and light rain speckled red blossoms. Guangrui brought his wife to his mother's home, and they bowed to Lady Zhang. “Congratulations on your marriage, son!” “Thanks to your blessing, I won first place and met the Chancellor's daughter on my victory procession. Her embroidered ball struck me, and he gave her to me in marriage. I have been appointed prefect of Jiangzhou and have come to bring you with us.” Delighted, Lady Zhang prepared to leave.

After several days on the road they lodged with Liu Xiaoer at the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers. Lady Zhang fell ill. “Let us stay two days while I recover.” The next morning Guangrui saw a seller outside with a golden carp. He bought it for a string of coins, intending to cook it for his mother, but its eyes blinked strangely. “A blinking fish or snake may be no ordinary creature,” he thought. “Where did you catch it?” he asked. “In the Hong River, fifteen li away.” Guangrui carried it there and released it, then told his mother. “You did well to save its life,” she said. “We've stayed three days, but my deadline is near,” he said. “Can you travel tomorrow?” “I am still unwell and the heat may worsen my illness. Rent me a room, leave me money, and go ahead with your wife. Collect me when autumn cools the roads.” He and his wife arranged this and continued on.

Traveling from dawn and lodging at night, they reached the Hong River ferry. Two boatmen, Liu Hong and Li Biao, came ashore to meet them. Fate had brought Guangrui face to face with his enemies. As the servant loaded their luggage and the couple boarded, Liu Hong saw Lady Yin's moon-round face, autumn-water eyes, cherry lips, and slender waist. Her beauty could sink fish and bring down birds, shame the moon and flowers. He conceived a wicked desire and plotted with Li Biao. They steered into a deserted stretch. At the third watch they murdered the servant and struck Guangrui dead, throwing both bodies into the water. Lady Yin tried to leap in after her husband, but Liu Hong seized her. “Submit to me, or I'll kill you.” With no escape, she pretended to consent. On the south bank Liu Hong left the boat to Li Biao, put on Guangrui's clothes and official hat, took his credentials, and went with her to assume the office in Jiangzhou.

The servant's body drifted away, but Guangrui's remained at the riverbed. A sea-patrolling yaksha saw it and reported to the Dragon King: “Someone has murdered a scholar at the Hong River mouth and cast him underwater.” The king had the body brought to him. “This is the man who saved my life! I must repay his kindness.” He wrote to the Hongzhou city god and earth god, asking for the scholar's soul. Their ghosts delivered it to the yaksha, who brought it to the crystal palace.

“Scholar, who are you, and how were you killed?” asked the Dragon King. “I am Chen E, styled Guangrui, of Hongnong County in Haizhou. I placed first in the examinations and was appointed prefect of Jiangzhou. The boatman Liu Hong coveted my wife and killed me on the way there. Please save me.” “The golden carp you freed was me. You saved me; now I shall save you.” He placed a pearl in Guangrui's mouth to preserve his body until his soul could return and he could seek justice. “Serve as an administrator in my palace for now.” Guangrui thanked him, and the Dragon King gave him a feast.

Lady Yin loathed Liu Hong and longed to avenge her husband, but she was pregnant and dared not resist him openly. At Jiangzhou the clerks and officials welcomed the supposed prefect and gave a banquet. Liu Hong said: “I rely on all your help in office.” They replied: “Our learned new prefect will surely care for the people and dispense fair justice. There is no need for modesty.” After the feast they dispersed.

One day Liu Hong went away on official business. Lady Yin sat in a garden pavilion grieving for her husband and mother-in-law. She suddenly felt faint with pain, fell to the ground, and gave birth to a boy. A voice spoke beside her: “Mantangjiao, I am the Star Lord of the Southern Pole. At Guanyin's command I bring you this child. He will gain extraordinary renown. Protect him from Liu Hong, who will kill him if he sees him. The Dragon King has saved your husband; in time you will reunite, mother and son together, and avenge this crime. Remember!” Then the voice departed.

Lady Yin awoke and held the child, remembering every word. Liu Hong returned and tried to drown him. “Wait until tomorrow,” she pleaded. He left early the next morning on urgent business. “If he returns, my child will die,” she thought. “I must put him in the river and entrust him to heaven. Someone may rescue him.” She bit her finger and wrote a letter in blood naming the parents and explaining their history. She bit off the little toe on his left foot as an identifying mark, wrapped him in one of her own shirts, and carried him secretly to the river nearby. Weeping, she saw a wooden plank floating at the shore. She prayed to heaven, bound the child to the plank with her sash, secured the blood letter to his chest, and sent him downstream. In tears she returned to the offices.

The plank drifted to Gold Mountain Monastery. Its elder, Monk Faming, had mastered the Way and the mysteries beyond birth. While meditating, he heard a baby crying and hurried to the shore. He rescued the infant from the plank, read the blood letter, named the boy River Float, and found someone to nurse him. He carefully hid the letter.

Eighteen years passed. Faming had River Float shave his head and take the vows, giving him the religious name Xuanzang. The young man dedicated himself to the Way.

One late spring day the monks discussed the scriptures beneath the pines. Xuanzang bested a monk who drank wine and ate meat in debate. Furious, the monk shouted: “You wretch! You don't even know your parents or your birth name! What are you doing arguing with me?” In tears, Xuanzang asked Faming: “Everyone is born of parents through yin and yang and the five elements. How can I have none? Please tell me their names.” Faming led him into his room, took a small box from a high beam, and handed Xuanzang the blood letter and shirt. Reading the letter, he learned his parents' names and the crime committed against them.

He fell weeping to the ground. “How can I call myself human if I do not avenge my father? For eighteen years I never knew my parents, and only today do I learn that my mother lives. Without your care I would not be alive. Let me find her, then I will rebuild this temple in gratitude for your boundless kindness.” “Take the letter and shirt to Jiangzhou,” Faming replied. “Pretend to seek alms at the prefect's residence, and you can meet her privately.”

Xuanzang did so while Liu Hong was away. The previous night Lady Yin had dreamed of a waning moon becoming full again. “My mother-in-law is lost, my husband murdered, and my child set afloat. If rescued, he would be eighteen by now. Could today bring us together?” Hearing a monk recite scripture and ask for alms outside, she went to the gate. “Where are you from?” “I am Elder Faming's disciple from Gold Mountain Monastery.” She invited him in to eat and studied his speech and manner: he resembled her husband.

She sent away her maids. “Did you enter the monastery as a child or later? What is your surname? Do you have parents?” “Neither as a child nor as an adult, in the usual way. My grievance is as high as heaven, my hatred as deep as the sea. My father was murdered and my mother seized by a thief. My master said I would find her in these offices.” “What is her name?” “Yin Wenjiao. My father is Chen Guangrui. My childhood name is River Float, my religious name Xuanzang.” “I am Wenjiao. What proof have you?” He knelt and wept. “My mother wrote this letter in blood and wrapped me in this shirt.” Seeing them, she recognized him. They embraced and cried. “Leave quickly!” she said. “I've found you after eighteen years. How can I go?” “If Liu Hong returns, he will kill you. Tomorrow I'll feign illness and say I vowed to give monks a hundred pairs of shoes. I'll come to your monastery, and then we can talk.” He bowed and left.

Lady Yin feigned illness and refused food. When Liu Hong returned she said: “As a child I vowed to donate one hundred pairs of shoes to monks. Five days ago I dreamed a monk with a sharp blade demanded them, and since then I've felt ill.” “Why not tell me sooner?” Liu Hong ordered every household in Jiangzhou to provide a pair within five days. When the shoes were ready, she asked where to fulfill her vow. “Gold Mountain Monastery or Mount Jiao Monastery; choose.” “I've heard Gold Mountain is fine.” He ordered two officers to prepare her boat, and she sailed with trusted attendants.

Xuanzang had informed Faming. The monks welcomed Lady Yin to the monastery. She bowed before the Bodhisattva, donated a feast, and brought the shoes and summer socks into the teaching hall, where Faming distributed them. Once the monks had left, Xuanzang knelt before her. She removed his shoes and saw the missing little toe on his left foot. They embraced and wept, thanking Faming for raising him. “Leave before the criminal discovers you,” the elder warned. Lady Yin gave her son an incense ring. “Travel about 1,500 li northwest of Hongzhou to the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers. Your grandmother, Lady Zhang, was left there; she is your father's mother. Take this letter to my father, Chancellor Yin Kaishan, in the imperial city of Chang'an. Ask him to tell the Emperor, bring soldiers, seize the thief, and avenge your father. Only then can I be saved. I cannot stay longer or Liu Hong will be suspicious.” She sailed away.

Xuanzang took leave of Faming and traveled to the inn. “Does Chen Guangrui's mother still stay here?” he asked Liu Xiaoer. “She did, but went blind and couldn't pay rent for three or four years. Now she lives in a ruined tile kiln by the south gate and begs for food. Her son never returned.” Xuanzang found her. “Your voice sounds like my son Guangrui's.” “I am his son; Lady Wenjiao is my mother.” “Why aren't your parents here?” “A bandit murdered my father and forced my mother to live with him. She sent me to you with this letter and incense ring.” Lady Zhang read it and wept: “I thought my son forgot me in his pursuit of office, but he was murdered. Heaven has preserved his line by sending my grandson!” “How did you go blind?” “I waited and wept for your father every day, until I lost my sight.”

Xuanzang knelt and prayed: “At eighteen I have yet to avenge my father. Heaven, if you see my sincerity in seeking my grandmother, restore her sight.” He touched her eyes with the tip of his tongue, and she could see again. “You look just like Guangrui!” She wept with mingled joy and sorrow. He took her back to Liu Xiaoer's inn, rented a room, left her money, and said: “I'll be back in about a month.”

In Chang'an he found Chancellor Yin's house. “I am a relative come to visit,” he told the gatekeeper. “I have no monk relatives,” said the Chancellor. His wife said: “I dreamed last night that our daughter Mantangjiao came home. Perhaps her husband sent a letter.” They summoned the young monk. He knelt weeping and gave them the letter. Yin read it and cried aloud. “What has happened?” his wife asked. “This is our grandson. A thief murdered our son-in-law Chen Guangrui and seized our daughter.” She wept too. “Tomorrow I shall tell the Emperor and lead an army to avenge him,” Yin promised.

At court Chancellor Yin told Taizong everything and requested soldiers. The furious Emperor gave him 60,000 imperial guards. Yin mustered them and marched to Jiangzhou, encamping on the north bank. By night he summoned the prefecture's deputy and judge, explained the crime, and secured their help. Before dawn their troops crossed the river and surrounded Liu Hong's offices. Cannon and drums startled Liu awake; soldiers burst in and captured him. Yin ordered Liu Hong and his accomplices bound for trial while the army camped outside the city.

Yin sat in the main hall and summoned his daughter. Ashamed to face him, she tried to hang herself, but Xuanzang stopped her. “We have come to avenge Father and have captured the thief. Why should you die? How could I survive it?” She replied: “I was taught a woman must remain faithful to one husband. I endured the thief only because I carried my dead husband's child. Now you are grown and my father has avenged us, how can I face him? Death alone can repay my husband.” Yin comforted her. “You did not betray him willingly. You need feel no shame.” They embraced and wept. “Let us settle with the criminals,” Yin said. The deputy brought in Li Biao, captured at the ferry. Yin had both men beaten with a hundred strokes each and obtained confessions. Li Biao was nailed to a wooden frame, cut to pieces in the marketplace, and beheaded. They brought Liu Hong to the ferry where Guangrui had been murdered. Yin, Wenjiao, and Xuanzang offered sacrifice by the river, cut out Liu Hong's heart and liver while he lived as an offering to Guangrui, and burned a written prayer.

Their weeping reached the underwater palace. A yaksha carried the prayer to the Dragon King, who summoned Guangrui. “Your wife, son, and father-in-law are honoring you on the bank. I shall return you to life, with a wish-granting pearl, two rolling pearls, ten bolts of silk, and a jade belt strung with bright pearls. Your family will be reunited.” Guangrui thanked him repeatedly. The Dragon King ordered the yaksha to carry his preserved body to the river mouth and restore his soul.

Lady Yin again tried to throw herself into the river, but Xuanzang held her. Then a corpse floated near the bank. Recognizing Guangrui, she wept, but as everyone watched he stretched his limbs and sat up alive. “Why are you here?” he asked. Wenjiao explained the birth and rescue of their son, her father's arrival, the capture of the murderers, and their sacrifice. “How have you returned?” “The golden carp we freed was the Dragon King. He saved me after Liu Hong threw me into the river and now has restored me to life with gifts. You have given birth to our son, and your father has avenged me. Our sorrow has turned to the greatest joy.”

Officials came to congratulate them. Yin gave them a feast, then led his army home. At the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers, Guangrui and Xuanzang went to Lady Zhang. She had dreamed that dead wood flowered and magpies sang behind her house. “Will my grandson return?” she wondered. Seeing father and son at the gate, she embraced Guangrui and wept. They told her everything, paid Liu Xiaoer what was owed, and went to Chang'an. There Guangrui, Wenjiao, Lady Zhang, and Xuanzang greeted Chancellor Yin's wife. She ordered a banquet. “Call it the Reunion Feast,” Yin said. The family rejoiced together.

At court the next day Yin reported all that had happened and recommended Guangrui for higher office. Emperor Taizong appointed Chen E a court scholar and adviser. Xuanzang, resolved on meditation, went to practice at Hongfu Monastery. Later Lady Yin quietly took her own life. Xuanzang returned to Gold Mountain Monastery to repay Elder Faming's kindness.

What happened afterward? Listen to the next chapter to find out.

Chen Guangrui Goes to His Post and Meets Disaster; the Monk River Float Avenges His Father and Repays His Root

The story turns to the great capital of Shaanxi, the city of Chang'an, where emperors of age after age have built their capitals. From the Zhou, the Qin, and the Han onward, the three districts bloomed like brocade and eight rivers wound about the walls: truly a land of famous sights. At that time the emperor Taizong of the great Tang sat on the throne, and the era name was changed to Zhenguan. He had reigned thirteen years; the year was jisi. The world was at peace, the eight quarters sent tribute, and the four seas called him sovereign.

One day Taizong took his seat and gathered the civil and military officials. When the court bows were done, the chancellor Wei Zheng came out of the ranks and said: "The world is now at peace and the eight quarters are quiet. Following the way of the ancients, Your Majesty should open an examination ground, call in men of worth, and raise up talent to aid in governing." Taizong said: "What my worthy minister proposes is right." He had the notice calling for worthy men drawn up and published through the land: in every prefecture, department, and county, of soldiers and commoners alike, whoever was a scholar, clear and fluent in letters, and skilled through all three sessions was to come to Chang'an and sit for the examination.

When this notice reached the Haizhou district there was a man there surnamed Chen, named E, courtesy name Guangrui. He saw the notice, went home at once, and said to his mother, who was born of the Zhang family: "The court has posted the yellow notice, opening the southern examination hall to pick out worthy men. Your son means to go and sit for it. If I can win some post, however small, I shall honor my parents, make my name known, provide for wife and children, and bring glory on our door — that is your son's wish. So I have told you, Mother, and now I go." Mother Zhang said: "You are a scholar, my son: 'learn young, put it to use in your prime' — this is just as it should be. Only, going up for the examination, take care on the road. And if you win an office, come back soon."

Guangrui told the household servants to pack his baggage, bowed farewell to his mother, and hurried on his way. He reached Chang'an just as the examination ground opened wide, and went in and sat. When the tests were over, he passed. At the palace examination, on the three policy essays, the Tang emperor with his own brush named him the top graduate, and he rode through the streets on horseback for three days.

It happened that as he rode past the gate of the prime minister Yin Kaishan, the minister's daughter, named Wenjiao and also called Mantangjiao, was still unmarried. A colored tower had been built up high, and she was to throw down an embroidered ball to choose her husband. Just then Chen Guangrui rode by below. The young lady saw how fine a man he was, knew him for the new top graduate, and was delighted; she threw the embroidered ball down, and it landed squarely on Guangrui's black gauze cap. At the sound of pipes and soft music a dozen maids and servants came down from the tower, caught the horse's bridle, and led the top graduate into the minister's residence to be married. The minister and his wife came out to the hall at once, called the master of ceremonies, and gave the young lady to Guangrui. They bowed to heaven and earth, bowed to each other as husband and wife, and bowed to the father- and mother-in-law. The minister ordered a feast, and they drank joyfully through the night. Hand in hand the two went in together to the bridal room.

Next day, at the fifth watch and three quarters, Taizong sat in the golden-bell hall, and the civil and military officials hurried to court. Taizong asked: "What office should the new top graduate Chen Guangrui be given?" Chancellor Wei Zheng said: "Your servant has looked through the provinces under us. Jiangzhou lacks an official; I beg you to give him that post." Taizong made him governor of Jiangzhou and ordered him to pack and set out, so as not to miss the time limit. Guangrui thanked him for the grace, left the court, went back to the minister's residence, and settled it with his wife. Bidding farewell to his father- and mother-in-law, he set out with her for his post in Jiangzhou, leaving Chang'an and taking the road.

It was late spring: soft winds blew the willows green, and fine rain flecked the flowers red. Guangrui turned aside by the way home, and he and his wife bowed before his mother, Mrs. Zhang. She said: "Congratulations, my son — and married, too, on top of it." Guangrui said: "It is by your blessing, Mother, that your son has had the luck to be named top graduate, honored by the emperor with the ride through the streets. Passing the gate of Prime Minister Yin, he met the throw of the embroidered ball and hit it, and the minister took your son for his son-in-law on the spot. The court has made your son governor of Jiangzhou. I have come now to fetch you, Mother, to go with us to the post." Mrs. Zhang was overjoyed and packed for the journey.

After some days on the road they came to the town of Wanhuadian and lodged at the house of Liu Xiao'er. Mrs. Zhang suddenly fell ill and said to Guangrui: "I am unwell. Let me stay in the inn a couple of days and rest before we go on." Guangrui obeyed. The next morning he saw a man in front of the inn carrying a golden carp for sale, and bought it for a string of cash. He meant to cook it for his mother, but the carp kept winking and blinking its eyes. Guangrui was startled: "I have heard that when a fish or a snake blinks its eyes, it is no common thing." He asked the fisherman: "Where was this fish caught?" The fisherman said: "In the Hong River, fifteen li from town." Guangrui carried the fish back to the Hong River and set it free, then returned to the inn and told his mother. Mrs. Zhang said: "Setting living things free is a good deed. It warms my heart." Guangrui said: "We have been at this inn three days, and the imperial deadline is pressing. Your son means to start tomorrow morning. Is your health up to it?" Mrs. Zhang said: "I am not well, and the roads are hot this time of year; I fear I would only fall worse ill. You can rent a room here for me to stay in for the present, and leave some money for my keep. You two go on to the post first, and come back for me when autumn cools." Guangrui settled it with his wife, rented a room, left the money with his mother, bowed farewell, and went on.

The road was hard: traveling at dawn, sleeping at night, and before they knew it they were at the Hong River ferry. Two boatmen, Liu Hong and Li Biao, punted their boat in to the bank to meet them. It was Guangrui's fate from a former life to meet this calamity and run into these enemies. Guangrui had the servants carry the baggage aboard, and husband and wife were just stepping onto the boat when Liu Hong looked up and saw Mistress Yin: a face like the full moon, eyes like autumn water, a cherry mouth small and red, a waist slim as a green willow — truly a beauty to make fish sink and wild geese fall from the sky, to outshine the moon and put the flowers to shame. A wolf's heart rose in him on the spot. With Li Biao he laid his plan, punted the boat to a lonely stretch, and waited until the still of the third watch. First he killed the servants, then beat Guangrui to death, and pushed both bodies into the water. Seeing her husband beaten to death, the lady made to throw herself in after him, but Liu Hong caught her in his arms: "If you will have me, all is well; if not, one stroke of the knife, and it is over." The lady could see no way out and had to promise for the moment and give in to Liu Hong. The robber punted across to the south bank, left Li Biao to mind the boat, put on Guangrui's clothes and cap, took his letter of appointment, and went off with the lady to take up the post in Jiangzhou.

Now the bodies of the servants killed by Liu Hong floated away downstream, but Chen Guangrui's body lay still on the river bottom. A yaksha patrolling the sea at the mouth of the Hong River saw it and flew to report at the Dragon Palace. The Dragon King was just then holding court. The yaksha reported: "Today at the mouth of the Hong River somebody beat a scholar to death and threw his body into the depths." The Dragon King had the body brought up and laid before him. He looked closely and said: "This is the very man who saved my life. How has he come to be murdered? The saying goes: 'Kindness must be repaid with kindness.' Today I must save his life, to repay what I owe." He wrote a warrant at once and sent the yaksha straight to the city god and earth god of Hongzhou to fetch the scholar's soul, so that his life might be saved. The city god and the earth god had the little demons hand Chen Guangrui's soul over to the yaksha, who carried it to the Crystal Palace and, presenting himself, saw the Dragon King.

The Dragon King asked: "Scholar, what is your name, and where are you from? How did you come to be beaten to death here?" Guangrui bowed and said: "Your humble student is Chen E, courtesy name Guangrui, a native of Hongnong County in Haizhou. I had the luck to be named the new top graduate and was given the post of governor of Jiangzhou, and I was traveling there with my wife. At the river we boarded the boat, and the boatman Liu Hong, coveting my wife, beat me to death and threw my body in the water. I beg Your Majesty to save me." The Dragon King said: "So that is how it was. Sir, that golden carp you set free was me. You are the man who saved my life; now that you are in trouble, how could I not save you?" He had Guangrui's body laid against the wall and put a Face-Preserving Pearl in its mouth, so that it should not spoil, but be ready for his soul to return and take his revenge later. Then he said: "For now, your true soul may serve in my water palace as chief warden." Guangrui knocked his head and thanked him, and the Dragon King set out a feast for him — but no more of that.

Mistress Yin hated the robber Liu Hong — she could have eaten his flesh and slept on his skin — but she was with child and did not know whether boy or girl, and with no other choice she bore it and went along with him for the time. In the turn of a few days they reached Jiangzhou. The clerks and runners all came out to meet them, and the officials under him set a banquet in the public hall. Liu Hong said: "That your student has got this far is all thanks to your strong support, gentlemen." The officials answered: "Your honor took first place in the land, a man of the highest talent. Of course you will look on the people as your children and keep the lawsuits few and the punishments clean. We all of us lean on you — why be so modest?" When the banquet was over, everyone went his way.

Time ran fast. One day Liu Hong went far away on official business. The lady, in the yamen, ached for her mother-in-law and her husband and stood sighing in the flower pavilion. Suddenly she felt faint; her belly pained her; she dropped to the ground and came to herself to find she had borne a son. A voice at her ear charged her: "Mantangjiao, hear my charge. I am the Star Lord of the Southern Pole, sent by the command of the Bodhisattva Guanyin to bring you this son. One day his name will be known far and wide, nothing common at all. If the robber Liu comes back he will surely try to kill the child: guard him with your life. Your husband has been saved by the Dragon King. In days to come husband and wife will meet again, mother and son be joined, and the day of clearing your wrongs and taking your revenge will come. Keep my words. Wake, wake quickly!" With that he was gone.

The lady woke with every word in memory. She clasped the child, but could think of nothing to do. Suddenly Liu Hong came back, saw the child, and made to drown him at once. The lady said: "It is late in the day. Wait till tomorrow and throw him in the river." Luckily, early next morning Liu Hong was called away on urgent business. The lady thought to herself: "If this child waits for the robber to come back, his life is finished. Better to cast him into the river now and leave him to live or die. If pitying Heaven sends someone to save him and take him in, we may meet again some day." Fearing he might never be known again, she bit her finger open and wrote out a letter in blood, setting down in full her parents' names and the whole story of what had happened; then she bit off the little toe of his left foot with her teeth, for a mark to know him by. She took one of the shirts next to her skin, wrapped the child in it, and slipped out of the yamen with him in her arms. Luckily the yamen was not far from the river. At the bank she wept aloud, and just as she made to cast him away she saw a board of wood floating close against the bank. She bowed toward the sky in prayer, laid the child on the board, tied him fast with her sash, hung the blood letter at his breast, pushed the board out into the current, and let it go where it would. The lady went back to the yamen in tears — but no more of that.

The child floated downstream on his board until it stopped at the foot of Jinshan Monastery. The abbot there was the monk Faming, a man who had cultivated to the truth and grasped the wondrous secret of the unborn. He was sitting in chan when he heard the cry of an infant. His heart stirred, and he hurried to the bank: there on a board at the water's edge lay a baby asleep. The abbot hurried to save it, saw the blood letter in its wrapping, and so learned its story. He gave it the milk name River Float, put it out to be nursed and raised, and kept the blood letter locked away.

Time sped like an arrow; the days flew like the shuttle. Before anyone noticed, River Float was eighteen years old. The abbot had him shave his head and enter the religious life, gave him the religious name Xuanzang, laid his hand on his crown, gave him the precepts, and set him firmly on the Way.

One day in late spring, the company sat under the pines discussing the scriptures and chan, talking of deep matters, and the wine-and-meat monk got himself tied in knots by Xuanzang. The monk flew into a rage and cursed: "You cursed beast! You do not know your own name, you do not know your own parents — and you still come here playing your tricks on us?" At being cursed so, Xuanzang went into the monastery, knelt before his master, tears running down both cheeks, and said: "A man is born between heaven and earth, takes his being from yin and yang and his substance from the five forms, and all comes of being born of a father and reared by a mother. How can anyone live in the world with no parents at all?" He begged over and over to be told his parents' names. The abbot said: "If you truly want to find your parents, come with me into the abbot's room." Xuanzang followed him there. The abbot reached up into the crossbeams, took down a little box, opened it, and handed Xuanzang a paper written in blood and a shirt. Xuanzang opened the blood letter and read it, and so learned in full his parents' names and the story of the wrong done to them.

When he had read it, Xuanzang fell to the ground weeping: "If a man cannot avenge his father and mother, why is he a man at all? Eighteen years I have not known the father and mother who gave me birth, and only today do I learn I have a mother. If my master had not fished me out and raised me, where would I be today? Let your disciple go and find my mother; then I will carry the incense basin on my head and rebuild the temple halls, and repay your deep kindness." His master said: "If you go to find your mother, take this blood letter and this shirt. Go as a monk begging alms, straight to the private yamen in Jiangzhou, and you will meet your mother."

Xuanzang took his master's words, went as a begging monk straight to Jiangzhou. It happened that Liu Hong was away on business, and heaven meant mother and son to meet: Xuanzang went straight to the gate of the private yamen to beg. The lady had had a dream in the night — she dreamed the moon, once broken, rounded full again — and she thought: "I have no news of my mother-in-law. My husband was murdered by that robber. My son I threw into the river; if anyone took him in, he must be eighteen now. Perhaps today heaven will let us meet — who can say?" As she stood pondering, she heard a man chanting scriptures before the private yamen, crying "Alms! Alms!" and she came out on the chance and asked: "Where are you from?" Xuanzang said: "Your poor monk is a disciple of the abbot Faming of Jinshan Monastery." The lady said: "If you are a disciple of the abbot of Jinshan…" — she called him into the yamen and set vegetarian food before him. She watched his manner and his speech closely, and it was like her husband's.

She sent the maids away and asked: "Young master, did you leave the world as a child, or in middle age? What is your name? Do you have parents?" Xuanzang said: "I did not leave the world as a child, nor in middle age. But when I tell my story, my wrong is as big as the sky and my hate as deep as the sea: my father was beaten to death, and my mother taken by the robber. My master, the abbot Faming, told me to come into the yamen at Jiangzhou to look for my mother." The lady asked: "What is your mother's surname?" Xuanzang said: "My mother's surname is Yin, her name Wenjiao. My father's surname is Chen, his name Guangrui. My milk name was River Float, and my religious name is Xuanzang." The lady said: "Wenjiao is me. But what proof do you have?" Xuanzang, hearing this was his mother, fell on both knees and wept aloud: "If my mother will not believe me, here is the blood letter and the shirt for proof." Wenjiao took them and looked, and they were true indeed, and mother and son threw their arms around each other and wept. Then she said: "My son, go quickly." Xuanzang said: "Eighteen years without knowing the father and mother who gave me birth — and today I have just found my mother. How can I tear myself away?" The lady said: "My son, you must get away quickly. If the robber Liu comes back, he will take your life. Tomorrow I will pretend to be ill, and say I once vowed to give a hundred pairs of monk shoes, and that I am going to your monastery to pay the vow. Then I will have things to tell you." Xuanzang bowed and took his leave as she said.

After the lady had seen her son, her heart swung between sorrow and joy. One day she made as if ill, took no tea or food, and lay in bed. Liu Hong came back to the yamen and asked the reason. The lady said: "In my childhood I made a vow to give a hundred pairs of monk shoes. Five nights ago I dreamed of a monk with a naked blade demanding the shoes, and since then I have felt unwell." Liu Hong said: "Such a little thing — why did you not say so before?" He went up to the hall and ordered the left and right deputy magistrates: every household in the city of Jiangzhou was to make one pair of monk shoes, all to be handed in within five days. The people all met the levy. The lady said to Liu Hong: "The shoes are done. What monastery is here, so I can go and pay the vow?" Liu Hong said: "In Jiangzhou there are Jinshan Monastery and Jiaoshan Monastery. Whichever you like." The lady said: "I have long heard Jinshan is a fine monastery. I will go to Jinshan." Liu Hong ordered the two magistrates Wang and Li to prepare a boat. The lady took her trusted people aboard, the boatman pushed off, and away they went for Jinshan.

Xuanzang went back to the monastery, told the abbot Faming the whole story, and the abbot was overjoyed. The next day a maid came ahead with word that the lady was coming to the monastery to pay her vow, and all the monks went out to meet her. The lady came straight in the gate, bowed before the Bodhisattva, and spread a great vegetarian offering. She had the maid lay the monk shoes and summer socks on a tray, came to the hall of the Law, bowed once more with her heart's incense, and had the abbot Faming hand them out among the monks. When the monks had dispersed and no one was left in the hall of the Law, Xuanzang came near and knelt. The lady had him take off his shoes and socks, and there on the left foot, truly, the little toe was missing. Then the two of them clung to each other and wept again, and thanked the abbot for the grace of raising him. Faming said: "Now that you have met, mother and son, I fear the wicked robber may learn of it. Go back quickly, and so escape the harm." The lady said: "My son, I give you this incense ring. Go straight to the northwest of Hongzhou, some 1,500 li by the road. There is a town called Wanhuadian, and there I left your grandmother, born of the Zhang family — your father's own mother. I will write you another letter too. Go straight to the imperial city of the Tang king, to the house of the prime minister Yin Kaishan, on the left of the golden hall: those are my own father and mother. Put my letter in your grandfather's hands, and have him report to the Tang king, raise troops, and take and kill the robber, to avenge your father. Only then can your old mother be brought out. I dare not stay long now; I fear the robber will wonder why I am slow coming home." With that she left the monastery and went aboard.

Xuanzang went back to the monastery weeping, told his master, and took his leave at once, going straight to Hongzhou. At Wanhuadian he asked the innkeeper, Liu Xiao'er: "Some years ago a traveler from Jiangzhou, a Mr. Chen, had a mother lodging at your inn. How is she now?" Liu Xiao'er said: "She did lodge here. Then her eyes went dim, and for three or four years she paid no rent. Now she is in a broken-down brick kiln at the south gate, begging on the streets each day to live. That traveler has been gone so long without a word — no one knows why." Xuanzang heard and went straight to the broken kiln by the south gate and found his grandmother. She said: "Your voice is like my son Chen Guangrui's." Xuanzang said: "I am not Chen Guangrui. I am Chen Guangrui's son. The lady Wenjiao is my mother." The grandmother said: "Why do your father and mother not come?" Xuanzang said: "My father was beaten to death by robbers, and my mother was seized by the robber for his wife." The grandmother said: "How do you come to know of me and seek me out?" Xuanzang said: "My mother sent me to find you, Grandmother. Here is a letter from her, and an incense ring besides." The grandmother took the letter and the ring and wept aloud: "My son came here chasing rank and fame, and I thought him false and ungrateful — who knew he had been murdered? Thanks be to pitying heaven for not cutting off my son's line: today a grandson comes looking for me." Xuanzang asked: "Grandmother, how did your eyes go dim?" She said: "I thought of your father day after day, watching and hoping and never seeing him come — and so I cried my two eyes dim."

Xuanzang knelt and prayed toward heaven: "Xuanzang is eighteen today, and cannot yet avenge his father and mother. Today I have come at my mother's bidding to find my grandmother. If heaven will look with pity on your disciple's sincerity, keep my grandmother's two eyes and give her back her sight." With the prayer he put out his tongue and licked her eyes. In a moment the eyes opened clear, as good as ever. The grandmother looked hard at the little monk: "You are my grandson indeed. You are the very image of my son Guangrui." She was glad and sad at once. Xuanzang led her out of the kiln and back to Liu Xiao'er's inn, rented a room for her lodging, paid for it, and gave her money for her keep: "I shall be back in a month or so."

Then he took leave of her and went straight to the capital, to the mansion of the prime minister Yin on East Street of the imperial city. To the doorman he said: "Your poor monk is a relative, come to call on the minister." The doorman reported, and the minister said: "I have no kin among monks." His wife said: "Last night I dreamed my daughter Mantangjiao came home. Could a letter have come from our son-in-law?" The minister had the little monk brought to the hall. Seeing the minister and his wife, the little monk fell down weeping, drew a letter from his breast, and handed it over. The minister opened it, read it through from the first line, and burst out weeping. His wife asked: "Husband, what has happened?" The minister said: "This monk is our grandson. Our son-in-law Chen Guangrui was murdered by a robber, and Mantangjiao has been held by the robber for his wife." The wife heard it and could not stop weeping either. The minister said: "Grieve no more, wife. Tomorrow I will report to the sovereign, and I will lead the troops myself; I will have vengeance for our son-in-law."

Next day the minister went to court and reported to the Tang king: "Your servant's son-in-law, the top graduate Chen Guangrui, was traveling with his family to his post in Jiangzhou when the boatman Liu Hong beat him to death and took his daughter for his wife. The robber has played the part of your servant's son-in-law and held office for years. It is a monstrous business. I beg Your Majesty to send troops at once and destroy the bandit." The Tang king read the report and was furious. He dispatched 60,000 of the palace guards, with the minister Yin to command, and gave him the edict. The minister took it, left the court, mustered the troops at the drill ground, and marched straight for Jiangzhou, traveling at dawn and sleeping at night, till the stars set and the birds rose, and before anyone noticed they were at Jiangzhou. The minister pitched his camp with all his troops on the north bank. That same night he sent a gold-tablet runner to summon the two deputies of Jiangzhou, told them the whole business, and had them bring troops to help and cross the river together. Before day broke they had the yamen of Liu Hong ringed round. Liu Hong was in the middle of a dream when he heard a cannon shot and the drums and gongs all sound at once, and the soldiers came pouring into the private yamen. He had no time to reach for anything; he was taken on the spot. The minister passed the military order: the whole gang of Liu Hong was to be bound and carried to the place of execution, and the troops were to pitch camp outside the city.

The minister went straight into the main hall of the yamen, sat down, and asked the lady to come out to see him. She made as if to come, then, ashamed to face her father, made to hang herself. Xuanzang heard and rushed to loosen the noose, threw himself on both knees, and said: "Your son has come here with Grandfather and the troops to avenge Father. Today the robber is taken — why would you turn to death? If you die, Mother, how would your son go on living?" The minister came into the yamen too and pleaded with her. The lady said: "I was taught that a woman follows one husband to the end. My grief is that he was killed by a robber — could I shamelessly follow the robber? Only because I carried a child unborn did I swallow the shame and live on. Now, happily, my son is grown, and I have seen my old father lead troops to take our revenge. As his daughter, with what face could I meet anyone? There is only one death, to repay my husband." The minister said: "This is not my daughter's changing her constancy with her fortunes. It came of sheer necessity — where is the shame in it?" Father and daughter clung together and wept, and Xuanzang sobbed without end. The minister dried his eyes: "Do not grieve, you two. I have the enemy taken now; let me go and see the sentence done." He rose and went to the place of execution. Just then the deputy of Jiangzhou sent soldiers in with the river robber Li Biao, taken and bound. The minister was delighted. He had the jailers haul up Liu Hong and Li Biao, gave each a hundred heavy strokes of the rod, and took their confessions: the two admitted how they had beaten Chen Guangrui to death in the old days. First Li Biao was nailed to the wooden donkey, pushed out to the marketplace, cut by a thousand knives, and his head set on a pole for all to see. Then Liu Hong was taken to the Hong River ferry, to the very spot where he had beaten Chen Guangrui to death. The minister, the lady, and Xuanzang went together to the bank, bowed toward the sky in sacrifice, cut out Liu Hong's heart and liver while he still lived, offered them to Guangrui, and burned a paper of mourning.

As the three wept toward the river, the cry reached the water palace, and a yaksha on sea patrol carried the mourning paper in to the Dragon King. He read it, sent Marshal Turtle to fetch Guangrui, and said: "Sir, congratulations, congratulations! Your lady, your son, and your father-in-law are all at the bank sacrificing to you this moment. I now send your soul back to your body. And I give you an As-You-Will Pearl, two rolling pearls, ten bolts of gauze silk, and a belt of pearls and jade. Today you may meet again, husband and wife, mother and son." Guangrui bowed again and again in thanks. The Dragon King ordered the yaksha to carry Guangrui's body out the river mouth for his soul to return, and the yaksha took the order and went.

The lady had finished weeping over her husband's sacrifice and was about to throw herself into the river, and Xuanzang clung to her for his life. In the middle of the panic a corpse came floating up the water toward the bank. The lady hurried to look, knew it for her husband's body, and wailed louder than ever. Everyone crowded to look, and there was Guangrui stretching out his fists and kicking out his feet, his body slowly stirring — and suddenly he sat up. The crowd was struck dumb with astonishment. Guangrui opened his eyes and found the lady Yin, his father-in-law the minister Yin, and the little monk all weeping around him. Guangrui said: "Why are you all here?" The lady said: "You were beaten to death by the robber, and afterward I bore this son. By good luck the abbot of Jinshan Monastery raised him, and he came and found me. I sent him to find my father, and my father, learning of it, reported to the throne, brought troops here, took the robber, and just now cut out his heart and liver alive and offered them toward the sky to you, my husband. But how did you come back to life?" Guangrui said: "Because of that golden carp you and I bought and set free at Wanhuadian long ago. Who could have known that carp was the Dragon King here? When that wicked robber pushed me into the water, he saved me wholly. Just now he gave me back my life and sent me these treasures, all on my body. And to think you bore me this son, and my father-in-law has avenged me. Truly bitterness past, sweetness come — joy past all measure."

The officials heard and came to offer congratulations. The minister ordered a feast laid to thank the officers of the district, and that day the troops started home. Coming to Wanhuadian, the minister gave the order to pitch camp. Guangrui went with Xuanzang to the Liu inn to find his mother. The grandmother had had a dream that night: withered wood bursting into flower, and magpies chattering over and over behind the house. She thought: "Can it be my grandson is coming?" Before the words were out, father and son were at the inn door together. The little monk pointed: "Is that not our grandmother?" Seeing his old mother, Guangrui hurried and threw himself down. Mother and son held each other and cried their fill, and the whole story was told once more. They paid Liu Xiao'er what they owed and set out for the capital. Back in the minister's mansion, Guangrui and the lady and the grandmother and Xuanzang all came before the minister's wife. She could not have been happier, and had the servants lay on a great banquet to celebrate. The minister said: "Let this feast be named the Feast of Reunion." Truly the whole house was happy.

Next day at morning court the Tang king took his seat in the hall. The minister Yin came out of the ranks, laid the whole story before him from beginning to end, and recommended Guangrui as a man fit for high employ. The Tang king approved, and at once raised Chen E to the post of academician, to help govern at court. Xuanzang set his mind on quiet and chan, and was placed in Hongfu Monastery to cultivate. Later, the lady Yin, in the end, took her own life calmly and with dignity. Xuanzang went back to Jinshan Monastery to repay the abbot Faming.

What would come of it all afterward? Listen to the next chapter to find out.