23 ARDUOUS CULTIVATION LEADS TUIZHI TO AN AWAKENING

Summer heat and winter cold take turns, spring and autumn alternate;

We all know that Heaven and Earth drift like empty boats.

Although we have fallen into the dust,

Yonder are still the Islands of the Immortals to aspire to.

Like dew on flowers, or bubbles in the water,

How long can you remain in this life?

We come and go in the passing of a shadow as time speeds along;

There is no freedom in the land of birth and death.

After Qin Ji had posted the announcement, the people of Chaozhou, gentry and commoners alike, all admired Tuizhi’s virtue. They all sang for joy, honored him like a deity, and felt as close to him as to a parent. Several gentry members took the lead in collecting funds to build a shrine, fashion and set up a tablet, and set out incense, flowers, meat, and beans as sacrifices. On the first and fifteenth of every month, people would come in crowds to celebrate and sing his praises. Even travelers and itinerant merchants from outside the prefecture, on seeing this spectacle, sighed in appreciation and praised him, performing their kowtows with dedication.

In his modesty Tuizhi felt unworthy of such admiration and converted the shrine into the Chaozhou Academy. Inside, a tablet to Confucius was set up, while Tuizhi’s own tablet was moved to the rear hall where it stood in the company of tablets for such Confucian luminaries as Yan Hui, Zengzi, Zisi, and Mencius. On the first and fifteenth of each month, scholars gathered here to expound the classics and elucidate what the ancient Confucians had not yet made clear. But let’s speak of this no more.

One day, Xiangzi was sitting in meditation on a rush mat when the deity on duty came to report to him, “The emperor has realized that Tuizhi suffered banishment unjustly for his straightforward words; a decree has been issued that he be transferred to the interior prefecture of Yuanzhou.”

Xiangzi was startled and said to himself, “Uncle’s devotion to the Way is not yet steadfast, and his human desires are still present. If he learns that the emperor has realized his previous error, he will again want to serve as an official. How would he then be willing to cultivate himself with me? I have to do something if he is to complete perfection and realize the Dao.”

Quickly he went to Tuizhi and said, “Formerly I told you that you would come to Chaozhou to meet the emperor’s deadline and leave behind a good reputation. Then I would use Former Heaven’s Marvelous Method of Release from the Corpse to put a substitute body in your place, and would pretend that you died of an illness. I would then report this to the emperor and have you reinstated in your previous position and awarded an honorary tablet. Then you would finally go to cultivate yourself. Now that you have been given a shrine while still alive, and have earned such an excellent reputation, it is time to depart.”

“I leave it all up to you,” Tuizhi said. “I won’t waver in my determination.”

Xiangzi took a bamboo staff, changed it into a likeness of Tuizhi, laid it on the bed, and covered it with a blanket. He ordered the two generals Ma and Zhao to escort Tuizhi to the Qin Mountains, where he should wait for Xiangzi so that they could go together to cultivate themselves.

When all his preparations were complete, he began to wail in the yamen and sent out a messenger to notify all the prefectural officials. He also made a report to Tuizhi’s superior and submitted a memorial to Emperor Xianzong. As all the high and low officials in the prefecture came to give their condolences, Xiangzi received and thanked them one by one, without giving any hint of the truth. Then he packed up his luggage and set out.

The common people said, “Too bad! Why did such a saintly magistrate die? Why couldn’t he have remained with us a bit longer to promote benefits and remove harm, thus bringing relief to us? Truly, August Heaven has no eyes to see.”

One man said, “A saying puts it well: ‘There are no good people in this world, where bad people bring grief even to the Buddha.’ Now that this magistrate has died suddenly, what hope is there for us common people?”

Among the crowd there was a certain Zhang Gua, who blurted out, “This is the crocodile’s revenge. How else could he have died so quickly?”

“The good receive good retribution, the bad receive bad retribution,” another man said. “Yes, the magistrate has died, but it has been a peaceful death, and so this can still be regarded as good retribution.”

“You are all wrong,” yet another man said. “In my opinion, having eaten so many people, this crocodile’s measure of evil was full. The Jade Emperor wanted to drive it out and sent a divine immortal into the human world specifically for the purpose of subduing it. Once that immortal had subdued the crocodile, he appeared to die and reported back to the Jade Emperor.”

Still another said, “It was because we people of Chaozhou were due to be afflicted by disaster that Heaven produced this evil thing to devour countless people and livestock. Now the allotted calamities are fulfilled, and Heaven sent this good official to drive out the crocodile and bring peace to the city. In my view, it was all due to an inauspicious turn in the cosmic order and had nothing to do with karmic retribution and the distinction of good and evil.”

“Brother, you may have a point there, but in submitting his memorial on the Buddha bone, Master Han dared to challenge the emperor directly,” a scholar put in. “Why should such a man be afraid that the crocodile would not submit to his will and vanish? Evil cannot overcome good, and so the monster went into hiding far away. As for karmic retribution, just look at Master Han’s remonstrance concerning the Buddha bone: in spite of its bluntness, his life had been spared until today.”

All the people, gentry and commoners, wailed grievously for him as if for a deceased parent. Truly, “only grace received and hatred accumulated do not turn to dust in a thousand or ten thousand years.”

When Xiangzi announced that he would be returning to the capital to report Tuizhi’s death and packed up for the journey, he would not agree to keep the many condolence gifts arriving from everywhere, but had them transferred into the official treasury in lieu of the people’s tax payments. He submitted a report to his superior that this year there was no need to levy taxes. The people of Chaozhou, old and young, men and women, all came to hold the ropes of the hearse and give comfort to Tuizhi’s spirit, pulling the hearse for a long distance to see their magistrate off. Xiangzi consoled each of them individually and then sent them home.

After traveling for three days, Xiangzi left the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture and came to a sparsely populated area. There he ascended a cloud and sped on to Blue Pass in the Qin Mountains to rendezvous with Tuizhi.

Tuizhi thanked Xiangzi profusely. Xiangzi told him, “Now that I’ve brought you here, you and I need to part and go our separate ways.”

“Having saved me, why do you now speak of parting?” Tuizhi asked.

“I received a commission from the Jade Emperor to deliver you, but because you refused to change your mind for so long, I had no choice but to return the commission,” Xiangzi said. “Later when I saved your life in that perilous place, I offended the Jade Emperor by acting without his express authority. How could I now dare deliver you once again?”

“If you don’t deliver me, I will starve to death in this place, and there will be no one to gather my bones,” Tuizhi said.

“You could assume a new name and return to Chang’an to live happily with your wife and daughter-in-law. Why speak of death?”

“Having come so far, if I didn’t now change my mind and devote myself to cultivation, I would be worse than an animal. Confucius said, ‘Can one be a human being, yet be less than a bird’?”¹

“If that’s how you feel, then I’ll tell you that to the southeast of here there is a mountain called Mount Zhuowei,” Xiangzi told him. “Below it is a grotto called Zhuowei Grotto, in which dwells the Perfected Man Mumu.² He is my sworn friend and is very close to me. I will write a letter that you will deliver to him, asking him to take you into his hermitage and transmit the marvelous formulae of the Great Elixir to you. This way you will not have suffered all this hardship in vain.”

“Where will I find refuge if he is not willing to take me?” Tuizhi asked.

“Although he and I are separate in body, we have the same root,” Xiangzi said. “Of course he will take you when he sees my letter.”

“Where would I find shelter in such a secluded mountain region if tigers or wolves were to appear?”

“If you encounter tigers or wolves blocking your way, just hold my letter over your head and the beasts will back off.”

“The peaks are high and the mountains lofty; the woods are dense and deep,” Tuizhi said. “There is not a single road—how shall I walk?”

“Cross these mountain ranges, and you will find a wide road that is easy to travel.”

Tuizhi took the letter and placed it in his shirt. With one hand he held on to Xiangzi and was going to address more questions to him, when Xiangzi said, “Uncle, there’s another immortal coming from the east.” When Tuizhi turned his head to look, Xiangzi vanished into thin air and went ahead to Mount Zhuowei to play his role as the Perfected Man Mumu.

When Tuizhi saw that Xiangzi was gone, he had no choice but to obey his nephew’s words and scramble step by step over several peaks and round the bases of several mountains. Finally he saw a wide road, but half a mile away a fierce tiger jumped onto it. The tiger roared and came towards Tuizhi.

Tuizhi was so startled that he could not even back away, but then he remembered Xiangzi’s letter and quickly threw it in the beast’s direction. When the tiger saw Xiangzi’s letter, it waved its tail, lowered its head, and in an instant had run off into the woods.

Picking up the letter, Tuizhi said, “That my nephew should possess such powers—he truly is a divine immortal!” Then he struggled on and after several quick paces saw in the distance a high mountain with pure and unusual forests and valleys, its peaks rising in vivid layers of blue. Green pines and cypresses towered toward the sky, and many gulls and ducks bathed in the sunlight.

The farther Tuizhi climbed on this mountain, the more his muscles trembled with fatigue, and the more dangerous the path became. When he finally reached the summit, there was indeed a thatched hut, above whose door was written: “Pure Chamber of Zhuowei.” It was surrounded by blue mountains on all sides, and flowers and trees grew around in elegant profusion—a truly beautiful location. However, the leaves of the door were shut tightly, and from inside one could hear a man chanting a poem:

“I transcend the world and quietly nourish myself on the Penglai Isles,

Where the fragrant wind does not stir and the pine blossoms are old.

The immortal youths are not yet back from gathering medicinal herbs;

White clouds cover the ground with no one to sweep them away.”

When he finished this poem, Tuizhi heard him sing the following Daoist song to the tune “Wild Geese Descending”:

“Playing a game of deathless chess;

Discussing a long-life scheme;

Eating a pill of ageless elixir;

Nourishing perfected primordial pneuma for a day;

Hearing a wild monkey cry at one moment,

Becoming enlightened to The Token for the Agreement of the Three in the next;

Traveling on a cloud all over the Five Lakes and Streams in just an hour—

Who understands the pursuits of divine immortals?

When I obtain my leisure,

I am content.

Alas, those who live to seventy are so few,

I laugh at the fleeting reputation sought after by many—where is it now?

“Just think: how long does a man’s life last?

Yet people do not think of escaping from the fiery pit.

Every day they labor and toil,

And for no good reason strive for fame and profit.

They never let go of their abacus and stop calculating and scheming.

When one day their original yang is all used up,

And impermanence is about to arrive,

They have no more tricks left.

All of this does not equal grasping an early opportunity for cultivation.

Cultivation takes precedence over everything.”

Tuizhi twice knocked lightly on the door, but it seemed that the man inside did not hear it. Tuizhi again knocked twice, and finally a voice inside asked, “Who is knocking? What’s your business here?”

“I am Han Yu and I am an acquaintance of yours, Master,” Tuizhi said.

“This is a place where I cultivate myself and deal with the Dao, a place with no concern for honor or shame, right or wrong. When did I ever make your acquaintance?” the voice replied.

“I have come to be your disciple, Master,” said Tuizhi.

“You are a heroic scholar who offended the emperor and was banished. Here is not the place for you to hide,” the voice said.

Tuizhi thought to himself, “If he quietly nourishes his nature in the seclusion of the deep mountains, how does he know that I am a banished official? He truly is an immortal.”

Then he sighed and knocked again. “I have come a long way. If you aren’t willing to open the door and let me stay, I’ll bash my head against the door until I die right in front of you. Won’t that harm your merit, Master?”

“Tell me, who directed you here?” the voice inside asked.

“It was your friend and my nephew Han Xiangzi who told me to come see you,” Tuizhi answered.

“If it was Han Xiangzi, surely he gave you a letter for me.”

“I have Xiangzi’s letter here,” Tuizhi answered.

“In that case, open the door and let him in,” the voice said.

When a young Daoist opened the door, instead of creaking its hinges the door emitted a sound like singing simurghs and phoenixes. The inside of the hermitage was clean and expensively appointed, a rival to the jade chambers of celestial palaces. In the middle sat a perfected man, dressed in clothes made of feathers and wearing a bamboo hat and straw sandals. His hair was violet and his face youthful, his skin like ice and snow. He seemed to have the gentle modesty of a recluse scholar. The Daoist youth standing at his side also had a refined air, without the least hint of roughness.

Tuizhi prostrated himself before the perfected man and said, “Master, save me!”

“Why did Han Xiangzi send you here?” the perfected man asked.

“My nephew said that father and son do not transmit the methods from mind to mind, and uncle and nephew find it difficult to transmit the Dao to each other. Therefore he sent me to request that you, Master, may transmit to me the marvelous formulae of the utmost Dao. I am willing to cut firewood and draw water at your hermitage, to serve you and work hard. In return, I only hope for your compassion.”

“When you were an official at court, you ate mutton and lamb and drank fine wine,” the perfected man said. “Wherever you went, a large crowd followed. Here on this mountain I have nothing but thin rice and yellow leeks. It is so lonely, you have only your shadow for company. I fear that you are unable to endure such solitude.”

“Do not worry, master, I can bear it,” Tuizhi said.

“In that case, boy, take him to his temporary quarters in the rear of the hermitage. Every day send him to the temple on the mountain out front to sweep the floor and burn incense.”

“Thank you, Master, for letting me stay,” Tuizhi said. Then the youth led Tuizhi to the kitchen to eat a snack.

When Tuizhi followed him into the kitchen, the boy gave him a bowl of food. Tuizhi ate a mouthful only to find that its taste was almost unbearably bitter, and he had to force himself to finish it. Truly,

When the mind is at peace, even a thatched hut is stable and secure;

When the nature is settled, even vegetable roots are fragrant.

As one penetrates the subtle mysteries,

One finds intense flavor in the middle of blandness.

For now let us talk no more of Tuizhi burning incense and sweeping the floor at the Zhuowei Hermitage, but instead speak of Mme. Dou and Luying, who at that time were at home thinking of Tuizhi.

After his departure there had been no news of him. They knew that the weather had been cold all along the way and his sufferings and labors must have been many, but they did not know at what time he had arrived in Chaozhou to assume his post. They were just about to send someone to the news office to ask for information when Han Qing strode in, his face covered in tears. “Mother, Sister-in-law, have you heard? Today a messenger from Chaozhou submitted a memorial reporting that Father died of illness in his office.”

On hearing this news Mme. Dou and Luying burst into tears and hugged each other.

Scholar Lin stepped in from outside and said, “Indeed, Tuizhi has passed away. However, those who are dead cannot come back to life again, and so tears are of no benefit. Please do not vex yourself, Mme. Dou, but take care of your health. You should look after the preparations for the burial.”

“Did it say in the memorial what disease he died of?” Mme. Dou asked.

“It said that his prefecture had long suffered from a crocodile that churned up wind and waves and devoured people. The previous magistrates had no way of controlling it. A few days after assuming office, Lord Han sacrificed to Heaven, asking that the crocodile be driven away. Thereupon the monster vanished far away into the ocean, the prefecture was at peace, and its people were content with their lot. The people of Chaozhou erected a shrine in the magistrate’s honor, where they performed sacrifices for his praise. One night he died unexpectedly and without a sign of illness; I believe he probably returned to Heaven,” Lin reported.

“I was hoping that he would receive a pardon and return home, so that we could grow old together,” Mme. Dou said. “Who could have known that we would have to abandon each other so soon? Our family has no male descendants and the sacrifices to the ancestors will be cut off. What can be done about this sorrow? I probably won’t be in this world much longer. Your daughter is so young, and it would be useless to stand in her way. It would be better for all concerned if you used the time while I am still here to find a good family to which to give your daughter in marriage.”

“Why are you saying this?” Lin replied. “This decision is not mine, but is completely up to my daughter.”

In tears, Luying said, “Mother-in-law, don’t worry any longer. Although my father-in-law has passed away, my father is still an official, and we won’t lack food or clothes. I wish to serve you until you pass away, to requite your great kindness in having raised Xiangzi. Do not bring the issue of remarriage up again. If my father did not let me make this decision, I would throw myself down the stairs and kill myself to give expression to the purity of my heart.”

“Daughter-in-law, your knowledge in these matters is not complete,” Mme. Dou said. “You are still young and without children. For whom do you maintain your chastity? When your father-in-law was alive, we still had hopes of bringing your husband back so that you could give birth to sons and daughters, who would continue the family line and look after you until your death. Now your father-in-law has died far from home, we have no word from Xiangzi, and I will soon be gone as well; there is no point in you continuing to maintain your widowhood. It’s better to use the time while I am still here to have your father find a good family and settle you securely. I don’t think Han Qing is the kind of person who would look after you for the rest of your life. If discord should later develop between you and him, you will be ridiculed by others. Have you given careful thought to this?”

“Mother-in-law, you are in your dotage and your words are all confused,” Luying said. “As long as I follow you, why should I be unable to pass my days? Furthermore, in a few years I will already be too old for any remarriage.”

“You are so young,” Mme. Dou said. “Why do you say you’ll be too old?”

“Don’t worry so much, Mother-in-law. As long as you are alive, I will stay with you. After your demise I’ll return to my father’s house and keep the mourning period. I will definitely not have your or my father-in-law’s reputation be affected in any way.”

“My daughter’s words are right,” Scholar Lin said. “Please compose yourself and take care of the burial. Let me submit a memorial at court that your husband’s title be restored and you be given his salary to take care of your material needs for the remainder of your life. Then we can deliberate further.”

“Many thanks for your efforts. I shall be grateful even in death,” Mme. Dou said. Then Scholar Lin rose and took his leave.

Mme. Dou ordered Han Qing to erect the pole for recalling the soul and to set up a soul tablet in which to install Tuizhi’s spirit. All the death and mourning rituals were performed at their proper time. However, whenever Mme. Dou thought of Tuizhi, Xiangzi would come to her mind as well, and she was deeply unhappy day and night. One day she called Han Qing and said, “Since your father died, you’ve been sitting around at home all day and have given no attention to outside affairs. Why is that?”

“You gave me an order, and I don’t dare disobey it. Didn’t you command me not to do mischief and incur trouble?” Han Qing said.

“Of course your father is dead, but there is still hope for your elder brother Xiangzi,” Mme. Dou said. “Why don’t you go out into the street and inquire after some reliable news of him?”

“I went often to ask around, and Scholar Lin also sent people to make enquiries everywhere, but nobody knew of my brother’s whereabouts. Therefore I did not dare upset you,” Han Qing said.

“You needn’t bother to go far to make enquiries. Just stand by the door and watch the people passing by,” Mme. Dou said. “If you see a person of extraordinary appearance, it is bound to be an itinerant ascetic who knows a lot of people. It shouldn’t be much trouble for you to stop such a person and question him.”

Resentfully, Han Qing obeyed Mme. Dou’s order and took up position outside the door to look out for a man of extraordinary appearance and question him. However, he saw traders, merchants, carriers, physicians, fortune-tellers, physiognomists, and nuns walking past, but not a single man of unusual appearance.

After standing about for a long time, he was just going to turn around and head back inside when he finally saw two Daoists. Dressed in torn robes and holding fisher drum and clapper in their hands, they came along slowly with a swaying gait. They were Lan Caihe and Han Xiangzi in disguise and were singing this song to the tune “Bushilu”:

“We laugh merrily in joy

As we descend for a while from Heaven on our cloud

To travel all over the ocean islands.

See, in the goblet there is wine,

And in the box are piled rich meats.

Now that we have come to Chang’an for a stroll,

The person we deliver must have much merit.”

Han Qing thought to himself, “The appearance of these two Daoists is extraordinary, they certainly are wandering ascetics. I’ll ask them about my brother. They’ll know his whereabouts for sure.” So he called to them, “Daoists, come here!”

“What do you want from us?” they said.

“My mistress wants to ask you something,” Han Qing said.

The two followed Han Qing into the main hall to be received by Mme. Dou.

“Where do you two hail from?” she asked. “Where do you live?”

“We live at the Gate of Southern Heaven, and have come from the Zhongnan Mountains,” Lan Caihe said.

“Years ago there were two Daoists who said they came from the Zhongnan Mountains,” Mme. Dou said. “They lured my nephew away to cultivate himself, and to this day he hasn’t returned. Later, on my husband’s birthday, there was yet another Daoist who said he had come from the Zhongnan Mountains. Day after day he practiced many deceitful tricks, but could not cajole my husband into doing his bidding. Later my husband offended the emperor with a memorial against the Buddha bone and was banished to Chaozhou, from where he never returned. Now you two also say that you come from the Zhongnan Mountains. With so many people hidden away in these mountains, perhaps you are frauds just like the earlier ones.”

“Those who came previously may perhaps have been false, but the two of us really do come from there,” Xiangzi said. “We would never utter a lie.”

“As I see it, these Zhongnan Mountains are not a dwelling place of scholars who cherish the Dao and affiliate with the School of Mystery, or of men who refine their essence and ingest the drugs of immortality,” Mme. Dou said. “Instead they are a den of frauds and kidnappers.”

“Madame, don’t mistake us for what we are not,” Lan Caihe said. “The Zhongnan Mountains are a place where all noise is stilled and the dust of the world is washed off. If one has not inherited the bones of the Dao and the demeanor of an immortal from a previous existence, the tigers, leopards, and wolves won’t let one walk on the mountain paths. Why do you say things fit to cast you into hell?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe in divine immortals,” Mme. Dou said. “It’s just that I’ve been cheated so badly by these false immortals. Since you are traveling from place to place, you must know the saying, ‘Once bitten by a snake, for three years one fears withered grass.’”

“Whether you believe or not is up to you,” Xiangzi said. “May I ask why your face is so haggard with worry and your hair all white as snow? Is it that you are worried because of your husband’s death?”

“On Scholar Lin’s recommendation, I fortunately received the court’s kindness and will be given my husband’s salary every year, so there’s nothing to be worried about,” Mme. Dou said. “It’s just that my nephew Xiangzi has been away for so long, and I think of him night and day. That’s why my spirit is weakened and my hair is white.”

Xiangzi said to himself, “If my aunt yearns for me so much, I should requite her kindness.” And aloud, “You have suffered so much because of Xiangzi’s failure to return that you have become lonely, haggard, and fearful. But Xiangzi didn’t know of this and did not think of you at all. I have the good fortune of belonging to the same school of Daoism as Xiangzi. What would you say if I healed you on his behalf and thus spared him a sin?”

“What drug is there that could heal me?” Mme. Dou asked.

“The recipe has been brought across the ocean,” Xiangzi said. “The drug has been refined in the Dragon Palace. I guarantee that once you swallow it, your withered face will regain its healthy appearance and your white hair will turn black again.”

“If you really have an extraordinary recipe from across the ocean, a marvelous drug made of numinous elixir, I will reward you richly,” Mme. Dou said.

Then Xiangzi let a pill of rejuvenation elixir roll from his gourd, and handed it to Mme. Dou. She swallowed it, and forthwith her spirits strengthened and she was rejuvenated so that no illness or pain remained anywhere in her body.

Mme. Dou was overjoyed and ordered Plum Fragrance to give silver to the two Daoists to express her gratitude. Xiangzi said, “I don’t want a reward. I only wish that you may follow me and cultivate yourself.”

“When my husband was still alive, a Daoist once came to deliver him and make him leave the family, but my husband wouldn’t believe him,” Mme. Dou said. “Now you want to deliver me, and I don’t believe you, either.”

“Do you still remember what this Daoist looked like?” Xiangzi asked.

“No, I don’t.”

“I am not deceiving you when I say that it was I who came at that time,” he told her.

“These vagrants are experts in deceitful talk,” Mme. Dou said. “It is truly detestable. Tell me what present you brought my husband on his birthday. If you get it right, I’ll believe that you are a divine immortal.”

“In that year the lord Han, together with Scholar Lin, was praying for snow at the Southern Altar. It was only after I sold him snow that he was promoted to Minister of Rites, with a concurrent appointment to the Ministry of Justice. He received permission to absent himself from court for five days. At his birthday celebration I presented him with an immortal goat, an immortal crane, immortal maidens, and forty immortals’ dishes. I also created immediate wine and instantaneous flowers, on whose petals was written, ‘Clouds straddle the mountains of Qin—where is my home? Snows crowd the pass at Blue Pass—my horse will not move.’ Do you remember this?”

“I remember all of it, but my husband didn’t believe any of it,” Mme. Dou said.

“Although the lord Han did not believe it, later when he was banished to Chaozhou, he wanted to see me and could not, and was filled with remorse,” Xiangzi said.

“Who saw him be remorseful? What you are saying is unsupported by any evidence. I do not believe you,” said Mme. Dou.

“If you don’t believe me, I am afraid your regrets will come too late.”

“Why are you saying these inauspicious words again?” Mme. Dou said. “Let me ask you: Where does your family hail from? What sort of people are your parents? Why did you ascend the Zhongnan Mountains to study the Dao? What is the area of these Zhongnan Mountains? How many people are engaged in cultivation there? Is Han Xiangzi among them or not? You tell me everything from the beginning, and do so honestly. If you conceal anything, I shall have you dealt with by the authorities according to the law.”

“My home is in Changli County, west of Drum Tower Alley,” Xiangzi said. “My ancestral home is situated in the north and faces south. My father’s name is Han Hui, my mother’s Mme. Zheng. My uncle is called Han Yu, my aunt Mme. Dou. When I was young, I lost my parents and was raised by my uncle and aunt. I married Miss Luying, a daughter of the Lin family. My uncle was banished to Chaozhou. On the road he suffered many hardships. I have already delivered him to complete perfection, fulfill the Dao, and become an immortal of Great Veil Heaven. Today I have come especially to deliver you.”

“If you are my nephew, why do you look so different?”

“Immortals and mortals are different and their principles are not the same.”

“If you are Xiangzi, manifest your original body so I can see it,” Mme. Dou said.

“There is no problem in manifesting my original body, but I fear that you will cling to illusions and not awaken!” Xiangzi said. Indeed,

You keep looking out, hoping for your child’s return,

But parents and children go their separate ways.

Only after the snow has melted on the peaks can the road be seen,

But the clouds drifting over the green pines hide the mountain.

Then Xiangzi shook himself once and, really, he returned to his old appearance.

Mme. Dou took hold of him and said, “My son, where have you been, that you return home only today? Your uncle has passed away, and things have been so difficult at home that I thought of you day and night. Your return today is a great joy. From now on, comply with the family rules as you did at first, and become a good man. Speak no more of leaving the family!”

“I have now returned with my master Lü to deliver a person with the right karmic affinity,” Xiangzi said. “How could I hanker after the vain world of family life, following a calling that would get me nowhere?”

“Immortal Brother, you should stay at home for a while,” Lan Caihe said. “In the meantime I’ll go back to the Gate of Southern Heaven, and later return to the Zhongnan Mountains with you.”

“My son, your elder companion, too, is telling you to stay at home,” Mme. Dou said. “Why don’t you listen to him?”

Xiangzi took his leave from Lan Caihe and then said, “I haven’t been back for many years. Is that garden house on Sleeping Tiger Mountain still in good order? I’d like to go and have a look at it.”

“Han Qing, take your brother there so he can have a look,” Mme. Dou said.

Han Qing led Xiangzi to the House of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams on Sleeping Tiger Mountain. After Tuizhi’s death, Han Qing had changed all the paths, so that they had to walk around many bends and corners before they arrived.

When Xiangzi looked up he saw that, though the paths were different, the house was unchanged. However, the benches and beds were all covered in dust, and the many books on the tables were piled in chaotic heaps. Everything was in a very disorderly condition. Of the good fruit trees around the mountain, half had withered, and only the grass grew luxuriantly, so high that a person lying in it would be quite hidden. Xiangzi said to himself, “When Uncle was an official, there was not a day when he didn’t send people here to sweep the dust and cut back the brushwood and grass. In the short time since his death, such a beautiful world has been brought to this state. My aunt’s desire for splendor truly is futile.”

Then he said to Han Qing, “You go back inside. I will stay here.”

“Brother, you haven’t been back for so long; today you should spend the night in your wife’s room,” Han Qing said. “Why do you want to stay here all by yourself?”

“This is my decision,” Xiangzi said. “Don’t concern yourself with me.”

As he was told, Han Qing went to Mme. Dou’s room and explained to her that Xiangzi wanted to stay in the garden house. Mme. Dou quickly told the kitchen staff to prepare wine and fine foods and bring them to the garden house for Xiangzi to eat. She also ordered Han Qing, “Wait until your brother has drunk the wine and then take him to his wife’s room to spend the night there.”

“Mother-in-law, that won’t do,” Luying said. “The Daoist who once came to see my father-in-law also said he was Xiangzi, and spent two dissolute days here before disappearing again. Can you tell for sure whether this Daoist today is true or false, that he is to be taken to my room?”

“You’re right. There are many in this world who can do magic tricks. It’s hard to tell what to believe,” Mme. Dou said. “Han Qing, go and spend the night in his company. Tomorrow we shall make further plans.” And of course Han Qing did as he was told and went to keep Xiangzi company in the garden house.

I know that he is not my companion,

Yet today I followed him.

If you don’t know what happened later, please listen to the next chapter.