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05 The Dragon King Is Beheaded

Yuchi Gong found their house and had a storehouse of gold and silver delivered to the door. The couple saw carriages and horses gathered outside and the local officers with them, and not knowing what was afoot, were too frightened to speak and only kowtowed. Yuchi Gong helped them to their feet. "Rise, good people. The Emperor of our Great Tang was three days dead and has returned to life. In the Underworld he borrowed a storehouse of your gold and silver, and I am sent as his envoy to repay the debt." Xiang Liang and his wife refused again and again, and would not take the gold and silver though it cost them their lives. Yuchi Gong could do nothing but send word back to the Emperor. The Emperor silently admired them for refusing. He at once decreed that the gold and silver be used to build a monastery for the couple, to be called the Imperially Commissioned Xiangguo Temple. When it was finished, a shrine to the living Xiang Liang and his wife was raised on its left, and before it a stone tablet inscribed with five great characters: "Built under the supervision of Yuchi Gong." To release the wronged and wandering ghosts of the Underworld and keep the world of light at peace for ever, the Emperor did as Judge Cui had advised and posted a proclamation summoning holy monks from all the land to the Huasheng Temple in Chang'an, there to hold a Water-and-Land Assembly. The proclamation went out across the land, and monks of high attainments came at the appointed time, gathering in Chang'an. After due selection, the ministers Wei Zheng, Xiao Yu and Zhang Daoyuan jointly put forward a monk of the Dharma name Chen Xuanzang to preside over the rites. Seeing that Chen Xuanzang was of fine presence and uncommon bearing, the Emperor at once invested him as Grand Preceptor of All Monks and bestowed on him a five-coloured gold-woven cassock and a Vairocana hat, bidding him name an auspicious day and open the altar to preach. A thousand monks gathered for the Water-and-Land Assembly, which ran its full forty-nine days. On the day it opened the air was clear and the sky bright, the wind kind and the clouds fair; banners fluttered and canopies shone, and Xuanzang sat alone upon the high altar expounding the scriptures with marvellous words. To learn what follows, see the next volume: The Pilgrim Seeking the Scriptures.

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