Miao Shan ordered him to be brought to her.  “Who are you?” she asked.

“I am a poor orphan priest of no merit,” he replied.  “From my earliest youth I have led the life of a hermit.  I have been told that your power is equalled only by your goodness, so I have ventured to come to pray you to show me how to attain to perfection.”

“My only fear,” replied Miao Shan, “is that your desire for perfection may not be sincere.”

“I have now no parents,” the priest continued, “and I have come more than a thousand li to find you.  How can I be wanting in sincerity?”

“What special degree of ability have you attained during your course of perfection?” asked Miao Shan.

“I have no skill,” replied Shan Ts’ai, “but I rely for everything on your great pity, and under your guidance I hope to reach the required ability.”

“Very well,” said Miao Shan, “take up your station on the top of yonder peak, and wait till I find a means of transporting you.”

A Ruse

Miao Shan called the t’u-ti and bade him go and beg all the Immortals to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving torches, and threatening with swords and spears to kill her.  “Then I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice to prove Shan Ts’ai’s fidelity and affection.”

A minute later a horde of brigands of ferocious aspect rushed up to the temple of Hsiang Shan.  Miao Shan cried for help, rushed up the steep incline, missed her footing, and rolled down into the ravine.  Shan Ts’ai, seeing her fall into the abyss, without hesitation flung himself after her in order to rescue her.  When he reached her, he asked:  “What have you to fear from the robbers?  You have nothing for them to steal; why throw yourself over the precipice, exposing yourself to certain death?”

Miao Shan saw that he was weeping, and wept too.  “I must comply with the wish of Heaven,” she said.

The Transformation of Shan Ts’ai

Shan Ts’ai, inconsolable, prayed Heaven and earth to save his protectress.  Miao Shan said to him:  “You should not have risked your life by throwing yourself over the precipice, I have not yet transformed you.  But you did a brave thing, and I know that you have a good heart.  Now, look down there.”  “Oh,” said he, “if I mistake not, that is a corpse.”  “Yes,” she replied, “that is your former body.  Now you are transformed you can rise at will and fly in the air.”  Shan Ts’ai bowed low to thank his benefactress, who said to him:  “Henceforth you must say your prayers by my side, and not leave me for a single day.”

‘Brother and Sister’