Part 4, Parable Summary

A woman teases her baby granddaughter, who is laughing. The woman tells the baby that she was once free and innocent and laughed for no reason. Later she threw away her foolish innocence to protect herself and taught her daughter, the baby's mother, to do the same so she will not be hurt. The baby gurgles again. The woman thinks that the baby is the reincarnation of Syi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the Western Skies, who has come to give her the answer. She thanks the little queen for her advice and asks her to teach her mother, the woman's daughter, how to lose her innocence but not her hope.

Part 4, Parable Analysis

This story illustrates that the generation gap is beginning to close. A grandmother is with her happy, gurgling granddaughter, talking to her as if she is a...