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06 The Search for the Scripture Pilgrim

Asking his way, Xuanzang came to the south gate and found his grandmother at the ruined kiln. Hearing his voice, she thought for a moment it was her son come back. Xuanzang gave her the incense ring and told her everything, and she wept aloud. Xuanzang was deeply grieved. He knelt and prayed to heaven, "If heaven sees the sincerity of your disciple, let my grandmother's eyes be opened to the light again!" Then he licked her eyes with the tip of his tongue, and within moments she opened them, her sight restored as it had been before. He led his grandmother out of the kiln and back to the Liu family inn, where he rented a room for her, left some silver, and said, "I shall be gone little more than a month." Then Xuanzang went to the capital, found the Prime Minister's residence, and presented the letter. The Prime Minister and his wife read it and could not stop weeping. At court the next morning the Prime Minister laid the matter before Emperor Taizong. The Emperor was furious and ordered him to take sixty thousand imperial guards to Jiangzhou to seize and kill Liu Hong. The Prime Minister encamped outside Jiangzhou and summoned in the night the vice-prefect and the assistant prefect, bidding them bring troops and cross the river with him. Before dawn the soldiers surrounded the Jiangzhou yamen, with Liu Hong still asleep. At the boom of a cannon they stormed the inner quarters, and Liu Hong, taken utterly by surprise, was seized on the spot. Hearing of it in her room, Lady Yin felt her great vengeance accomplished and herself free of all ties, and took out a length of white silk, meaning to hang herself. Then Xuanzang rushed in and fell to his knees. "The villain is taken, Mother. Why would you die now?" The Prime Minister came in too and said, "To bear shame and submit to a villain was forced upon you. Do not dwell on it, daughter." Father and daughter embraced and wept long. Then the Jiangzhou officials sent the river-bandit Li Biao under guard. The Prime Minister ordered that Liu Hong, Li Biao and all their crew be taken to the execution ground, cut to pieces a thousand times, and then beheaded with their heads displayed in warning. The Prime Minister, Lady Yin and Xuanzang went to the Hong River crossing, found the place where Chen Guangrui had been murdered, and made offering toward the empty air, burning an elegy. Their weeping by the river disturbed the water palace. Learning of it, the Dragon King summoned Chen Guangrui. "Congratulations, benefactor — your family is to be reunited!" He ordered a yaksha to carry the body out of the river mouth and restore the spirit to it, and gave him many treasures besides; Chen bowed his thanks again and again. Lady Yin was still mourning by the water when a body rose to the surface. Looking closely she knew her husband's body, and broke into loud weeping. They hauled the body ashore between them; then Guangrui opened his eyes, stretched his limbs and slowly got to his feet, to the astonishment of all who stood by.

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