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05 The Dragon King Is Beheaded

King Qingguang had the Book of Life and Death brought and examined it. Then he summoned the ghost officer and said in anger, "Both of them were destined to live long enough to become immortals. Send this husband and wife back to their bodies at once!" The officer of Impermanence replied, "Li Cuilian has been dead long; her body is gone and her spirit has nowhere to return. We await your judgement, my lord." King Qingguang said, "The Emperor's sister, Li Yuying, has this day reached the end of her span. Borrow her body for the return." Black and White Impermanence received the order and, bearing the spirits of Liu Quan and his wife, left the Underworld for Chang'an, where they thrust Liu Quan's spirit back into his body in the Jinting Pavilion. Then they carried Li Cuilian's spirit into the inner palace. There the Princess Li Yuying was strolling at her ease beneath the flowers; Black Impermanence went up, pushed her to the ground and took her spirit away in chains. White Impermanence then thrust Li Cuilian's spirit into the princess's body, and the two returned to the Underworld to report. The maids saw the princess fall dead and told the empress, who lost no time in reporting to the Emperor. He was aghast. "When my spirit walked the Underworld, the Yama King did say my sister's span was nearly run. Could he have meant Princess Yuying?" He half believed it and half doubted. He went to the flower-shade and found the princess still faintly breathing. Lifting her up he called, "Sister, wake — your brother is here!" The princess suddenly turned and cried, "Husband, do not go so fast — wait for me!" "I am your brother the Emperor, and this is your sister-in-law!" said the Emperor. The princess looked up, saw who it was, and told how she had borrowed a body and returned to life. The Emperor supposed she had merely addled her wits in the fall, and had her helped into the palace. Back in the audience hall, the attendant suddenly reported, "Your Majesty — the man who took the pumpkins has come back to life, and waits outside for your command." Amazed, the Emperor had him summoned at once. Liu Quan came in and prostrated himself on the white jade steps, and told the whole story of the offering in the Underworld and of Cuilian's return to life. It tallied in every particular with what the princess had said, and at last the Emperor understood. He had the princess brought into the hall. "You say you are Li Cuilian. Then would you know your husband?" "I bore his children," she said. "How should I not know him?" The Emperor resolved to test her, and bade the eunuchs help the princess down from the hall. At the foot of the white jade steps she caught sight of Liu Quan, ran up and seized him. "Husband, where have you been? You did not wait for me, and I fell for no reason at all!" Liu Quan heard Cuilian's voice, but looking on the face of a princess, dared not acknowledge her. The Emperor was glad to see husband and wife reunited. He gave them all the princess's trousseau, clothes and jewels as a dowry, and exempted them for ever from taxes and corvée. The two gave thanks and went home joyfully to Junzhou. Meanwhile Yuchi Gong had reached Kaifeng in Henan. After making inquiries he learned that Xiang Liang was a poor man who sold black pots and earthenware at the city gate with his old wife, née Zhang, and lived very frugally. Still, the old couple saved a little. Whenever monks came begging, or the poor asked alms, they gave what they had spared. On the first and fifteenth of each month they bought paper ingots of gold and silver and burned them to be sent to the Underworld — and so it was that gold and silver had piled up there in Xiang Liang's name.

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