On the day appointed, Commander Hu Pi-li led the condemned Princess to the place of execution.  A body of troops had been stationed there to maintain order.  The t’u-ti was in attendance at the palace gates.  Miao Shan was radiant with joy.  “To-day,” she said, “I leave the world for a better life.  Hasten to take my life, but beware of mutilating my body.”

The King’s warrant arrived, and suddenly the sky became overcast and darkness fell upon the earth.  A bright light surrounded Miao Shan, and when the sword of the executioner fell upon the neck of the victim it was broken in two.  Then they thrust at her with a spear, but the weapon fell to pieces.  After that the King ordered that she be strangled with a silken cord.  A few moments later a tiger leapt into the execution ground, dispersed the executioners, put the inanimate body of Miao Shan on his back, and disappeared into the pine-forest.  Hu Pi-li rushed to the palace, recounted to the King full details of all that had occurred, and received a reward of two ingots of gold.

Miao Shan visits the Infernal Regions

Meantime, Miao Shan’s soul, which remained unhurt, was borne on a cloud; when, waking as from a dream, she lifted her head and looked round, she could not see her body.  “My father has just had me strangled,” she sighed.  “How is it that I find myself in this place?  Here are neither mountains, nor trees, nor vegetation; no sun, moon, nor stars; no habitation, no sound, no cackling of a fowl nor barking of a dog.  How can I live in this desolate region?”

Suddenly a young man dressed in blue, shining with a brilliant light, and carrying a large banner, appeared and said to her:  “By order of Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, I come to take you to the eighteen infernal regions.”

“What is this cursed place where I am now?” asked Miao Shan.

“This is the lower world, Hell,” he replied.  “Your refusal to marry, and the magnanimity with which you chose an ignominious death rather than break your resolutions, deserve the recognition of Yue Huang, and the ten gods of the lower regions, impressed and pleased at your eminent virtue, have sent me to you.  Fear nothing and follow me.”

Thus Miao Shan began her visit to all the infernal regions.  The Gods of the Ten Hells came to congratulate her.

“Who am I,” asked Miao Shan, “that you should deign to take the trouble to show me such respect?”

“We have heard,” they replied, “that when you recite your prayers all evil disappears as if by magic.  We should like to hear you pray.”

“I consent,” replied Miao Shan, “on condition that all the condemned ones in the ten infernal regions be released from their chains in order to listen to me.”

At the appointed time the condemned were led in by Niu T’ou (’Ox-head’) and Ma Mien (’Horse-face’), the two chief constables of Hell, and Miao Shan began her prayers.  No sooner had she finished than Hell was suddenly transformed into a paradise of joy, and the instruments of torture into lotus-flowers.