The King’s Daughter

All who witnessed this miracle exclaimed with one voice:  “This priest is the Living Buddha, who is going back to Heaven!” The note was taken to King Miao Chuang, who exclaimed:  “Who am I that I should deserve that one of the rulers of Heaven should deign to descend and cure me by the sacrifice of hands and eyes?”

“What was the face of the saintly person like who gave you the remedy?” he then asked Chao Chen.

“It was like unto that of your deceased daughter, Miao Shan,” he replied.

“When you removed her hands and eyes did she seem to suffer?”

“I saw a great flow of blood, and my heart failed, but the face of the victim seemed radiant with happiness.”

“This certainly must be my daughter Miao Shan, who has attained to perfection,” said the King.  “Who but she would have given hands and eyes?  Purify yourselves and observe the rules of abstinence, and go quickly to Hsiang Shan to return thanks to the saint for this inestimable favour.  I myself will ere long make a pilgrimage thither to return thanks in person.”

The King and Queen taken Prisoners

Three years later the King and Queen, with the grandees of their Court, set out to visit Hsiang Shan, but on the way the monarchs were captured by the Green Lion, or God of Fire, and the White Elephant, or Spirit of the Water, the two guardians of the Temple of Buddha, who transported them to a dark cavern in the mountains.  A terrific battle then took place between the evil spirits on the one side and some hosts of heavenly genii, who had been summoned to the rescue, on the other.  While its issue was still uncertain, reinforcements under the Red Child Devil, who could resist fire, and the Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea, who could subdue water, finally routed the enemy, and the prisoners were released.

The King’s Repentance

The King and Queen now resumed their pilgrimage, and Miao Shan instructed Shan Ts’ai to receive the monarchs when they arrived to offer incense.  She herself took up her place on the altar, her eyes torn out, her hands cut off, and her wrists all dripping with blood.  The King recognized his daughter, and bitterly reproached himself; the Queen fell swooning at her feet.  Miao Shan then spoke and tried to comfort them.  She told them of all that she had experienced since the day when she had been executed, and how she had attained to immortal perfection.  She then went on:  “In order to punish you for having caused the deaths of all those who perished in the wars preceding your accession to the throne, and also to avenge the burning of the Nunnery of the White Bird, Yue Huang afflicted you with those grievous ulcers.  It was then that I changed myself into a priest in order to heal you, and gave my eyes and hands, with which I prepared the ointment that cured you.  It was I, moreover, who procured your liberty from Buddha when you were imprisoned in the cave by the Green Lion and the White Elephant.”