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06 The Search for the Scripture Pilgrim

Seeing Lady Yin's beauty, Liu Hong conceived an evil design. He and Li Biao poled the boat to a deserted spot, and in the deep silence of night killed the servant first, then struck Chen Guangrui dead with a club and pushed his body into the river. Lady Yin, seeing her husband dead, would have thrown herself into the water, but Liu Hong caught her. "Yield to me and all may yet be arranged. Refuse, and I will cut you in two with one stroke." Lady Yin was with child, and having no choice she submitted. Liu Hong was overjoyed. He handed the boat and the goods to Li Biao, put on Chen Guangrui's cap and robe, took the letter of appointment, and went with Lady Yin to take up the post at Jiangzhou. The servant's body drifted away on the current, but Chen Guangrui's sank to the river bed and did not move. The water-patrolling yaksha at the mouth of the Hong saw it and hurried to report to the Dragon King: "A scholar has been beaten to death and his body lies on the bottom." The Dragon King had the body brought up, and looking at it said in astonishment, "Is this not my benefactor? How came he to be murdered?" He at once sent the yaksha to the city god and earth god of Hongzhou to bring back Chen Guangrui's spirit, and questioned him closely. Chen gave his name and told how he had been granted office at court, set out with his wife, and been murdered on the way, and begged the Dragon King to save him. "I am the golden carp you released some days ago," said the Dragon King. "Now that my benefactor is in trouble, how could I not save him?" He laid the body out with care, put a countenance-preserving pearl in its mouth so that it would not decay, and so kept it for the day when the spirit should return to avenge the wrong. "Your true spirit may stay here in my water palace for the present, as a commander among us," the Dragon King added. Chen kowtowed his thanks, and from that day lived in the Dragon Palace. Liu Hong and Lady Yin reached Jiangzhou, where the officials came out to greet them and laid on a welcoming feast. From then on Liu Hong passed himself off under another's name and ruled Jiangzhou as its prefect. One day when Liu Hong was away on business, Lady Yin sat sighing in the flower pavilion, thinking of her husband and her mother-in-law. Suddenly she was taken with pain, fainted to the ground, and gave birth to a boy. In her daze she heard a voice at her ear: "I am the Star Lord of the South Pole. By the decree of Guanyin Bodhisattva I bring this child to you. His name shall be great in days to come; he is no ordinary child." And with that the voice departed. When Lady Yin came to herself she held the child tight. Then Liu Hong returned, and seeing the boy would have thrown him into the river to drown. Lady Yin pleaded, "It is late — wait until tomorrow." Fortunately at dawn the next day Liu Hong was called away again on urgent business. Lady Yin thought to herself: if she waited for the villain to return, her son could not live. Better to cast him into the river; if someone rescued him, they might yet meet again. So she bit her finger and wrote a letter in blood setting out the child's origin, then bit off the little toe of his left foot as a mark by which to know him. She took an undergarment and wrapped the child in it, carried him out of the yamen and down to the river. She was about to commit him to the water when she saw a plank drift to the bank.

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