Journey to the West

12

The Tang Emperor Keeps Faith and Holds a Great Mass

Guanyin Appears to the Reincarnated Golden Cicada

When the devil officers left the underworld with Liu Quan and his wife, a dark and whirling wind blew them straight to the great capital Chang'an, where Liu Quan's soul was sent to the Golden Pavilion and Li Cuilian's to an inner courtyard of the palace, where Princess Yuying could be seen walking slowing beside some moss under the shade of some blossoming trees. Suddenly the devil officers struck her full in the chest and knocked her over; they snatched the soul from her living body and put Li Cuilian's soul into the body in its place. With that they returned to the underworld.

When the palace serving−women saw her drop dead they rushed to the throne hall to report to the three empresses that Her Royal Highness the Princess had dropped dead. The shocked empresses passed the news on to Taizong who sighed and said, "We can well believe it. When we asked the Ten Lords of Hell if young and old in our palace would all be well, they replied that they would all be well except that our younger sister was going to die suddenly. How true that was."

He and everyone else in the palace went with great sorrow to look at her lying under the trees, only to see that she was breathing very lightly.

"Don't wail," the Tang Emperor said, "don't wail; it might alarm her." Then he raised her head with his own hand and said, "Wake up, sister, wake up."

All of a sudden the princess sat up and called out, "Don't go so fast, husband. Wait for me." "Sister, we're waiting for you here," said the Emperor.

The princess lifted her head, opened her eyes, and looked at him. "Who are you?" she asked. "How dare you put your hands on us?"

"It's your august brother, royal sister," replied Taizong.

"I've got nothing to do with august brothers and royal sisters," said the princess. "My maiden name is Li, and my full name is Li Cuilian. My husband is Liu Quan, and we both come from Junzhou. When I gave a gold hairpin to a monk at the gate three months ago my husband said harsh words to me about leaving the women's quarters and not behaving as a good wife should. It made me so angry and upset that I hanged myself from a beam with a white silk sash, leaving a boy and a girl who cried all night and all day. As my husband was commissioned by the Tang Emperor to go to he underworld to deliver some pumpkins, the Kings of Hell took pity on us and let the two of us come back to life. He went ahead, but I lagged behind. When I tried to catch him up I tripped. You are all quite shameless to be mauling me like this. I don't even know your names."

"We think that Her Royal Highness is delirious after passing out when she fell," said Taizong to the palace women. He sent an order to the Medical Academy for some medicinal potions, and helped Yuying into the palace.

When the Tang Emperor was back in his throne−hall, one of his aides came rushing in to report, "Your Majesty, Liu Quan, the man who delivered the pumpkins, is awaiting your summons outside the palace gates." The startled Taizong immediately sent for Liu Quan, who prostrated himself before the vermilion steps of the throne.

"What happened when you presented the pumpkins?" asked the Tang Emperor.

"Your subject went straight to the Devil Gate with the pumpkins on my head. I was taken to the Senluo Palace where I saw the Ten Kings of Hell, to whom I presented the pumpkins, explaining how very grateful my emperor was. The Kings of Hell were very pleased. They bowed in Your Majesty's honour and said, 'How splendid of the Tang Emperor to be as good as his word.'"

"What did you see in the underworld?" asked the Emperor.

"I did not go very far there so I did not see much. But when the kings asked me where I was from and what I was called, I told them all about how I had volunteered to leave my family and my children to deliver the pumpkins because my wife had hanged herself. They immediately ordered demon officers to bring my wife, and we were reunited outside the Senluo Palace. Meanwhile they inspected the Registers of Births and Deaths and saw that my wife and I were both due to become Immortals, so they sent devil officers to bring us back. I went ahead with my wife following behind, and although I was fortunate enough to come back to life, I don't know where her soul has been put."