A Confession and its Results

Next morning, the two sons-in-law of the King heard of the turn things had taken during the night.  The whole palace was in a state of the greatest confusion.

When he was informed that the priest had been killed, the King called Ch’u Ting-lieh and ordered him to have the murderer arrested.  Su Ta was put to the torture and confessed all that he knew.  Together with Ho Li he was condemned to be cut into a thousand pieces.

The two sons-in-law were seized and ordered to instant execution, and it was only on the Queen’s intercession that their wives were spared.  The infuriated King, however, ordered that his two daughters should be imprisoned in the palace.

The Gruesome Remedy

Meantime Chao Chen and Liu Ch’in had reached Hsiang Shan.  When they were brought to Miao Shan the ministers took out the King’s letter and read it to her.  “I, Miao Chuang, King of Hsing Lin, have learned that there dwells at Hsiang Shan an Immortal whose power and compassion have no equal in the whole world.  I have passed my fiftieth year, and am afflicted with ulcers that all remedies have failed to cure.  To-day a priest has assured me that at Hsiang Shan I can obtain the hand and eye of a living person, with which he will prepare an ointment able to restore me to my usual state of health.  Relying upon his word and upon the goodness of the Immortal to whom he has directed me, I venture to beg that those two parts of a living body necessary to heal my ulcers be sent to me.  I assure you of my everlasting gratitude, fully confident that my request will not be refused.”

The next morning Miao Shan bade the ministers take a knife and cut off her left hand and gouge out her left eye.  Liu Ch’in took the knife offered him, but did not dare to obey the order.  “Be quick,” urged the Immortal; “you have been commanded to return as soon as possible; why do you hesitate as if you were a young girl?” Liu Ch’in was forced to proceed.  He plunged in the knife, and the red blood flooded the ground, spreading an odour like sweet incense.  The hand and eye were placed on a golden plate, and, having paid their grateful respects to the Immortal, the envoys hastened to return.

When they had left, Miao Shan, who had transformed herself in order to allow the envoys to remove her hand and eye, told Shan Ts’ai that she was now going to prepare the ointment necessary for the cure of the King.  “Should the Queen,” she added, “send for another eye and hand, I will transform myself again, and you can give them to her.”  No sooner had she finished speaking than she mounted a cloud and disappeared in space.  The two ministers reached the palace and presented to the Queen the gruesome remedy which they had brought from the temple.  She, overcome with gratitude and emotion, wept copiously.  “What Immortal,” she asked, “can have been so charitable as to sacrifice a hand and eye for the King’s benefit?” Then suddenly her tears gushed forth with redoubled vigour, and she uttered a great cry, for she recognized the hand of her daughter by a black scar which was on it.