Far in the far West, behind the sandy deserts, hot in summer and freezing in winter, behind the impassable labyrinth of mountains and gorges along which mountain streams covered with white foam madly rush, behind the endless salt marshes in which no life is possible, rise the calm masses of the Kunlun Mountains.
These mountains, deserted and wild, without streams, without the slightest bush or grass, rise in sheer bare walls so high that they pierce several lower skies.
There, on the mountains above the nine heavens, lives Si-wan-mu, the queen of all immortal women, snakes and all female creatures. Directly opposite the Northern Bear stands a city of wondrous beauty, surrounded by a huge wall five hundred miles long. On each of the four sides of this wall, facing east, west, north and south, there are three jade towers of wondrous beauty. And only one gate leads to this wonderful city. In the middle of the eastern wall, a thousand feet high, rises a gate of indescribable beauty, sculpted in gold by celestial artists. Above the gate sparkles an unearthly wonderful pearl thirty chi (feet) in size, and its mysterious, magical, matte shine, sparkling at times with all the colors of the rainbow, is visible five hundred miles away.
The Great Si-wan-mu, or Jing-mu, the “Golden Mother,” is surrounded by a host of pure heavenly maidens standing on her left side, and many innocent youths on her right. They protect the gardens of the goddess, in which smooth peaches grow. It takes nine thousand years for them to mature; but over the course of thousands of years, a miraculous power matures and accumulates in them: whoever tastes them becomes immortal.
But no mortal can penetrate the golden walls surrounding these gardens: and only from time to time the Great Mother arranges on the third day of the third month a magnificent festival, “Pan-dao-hui,” to which she invites gods, spirits, geniuses and some immortals, and then treats them with the honey of heavenly bees and the peaches of immortality.
Even higher than the wonderful city of Si-wan-mu lives the great Dong-wan-gun, or Yu-huan-jun, the same one whom the common people call Mugun. It is he who keeps strict records of all male immortals. Once upon a time he, together with Jin-mu, was created from the ether; he was given the East as his destiny, and she was given the West.
But they both did not touch small human affairs: all the dirt of the earth was hidden from them by the lower heavens, whose masters are the spirits: rain - Yu-shi, or Bing-i, and wind - Feng-bo, or Feng-lien. They drive clouds from place to place and water the land of the righteous. And they punish people who have lost virtue: drought or terrible rains destroy all the grain.
They are helped by the goddess of lightning Dian-mu and the god of thunder Lei-gun. As the slender beauty Dian-mu sparkles with both round mirrors, which she holds in her hands, as Lei-kun hits with his hammer a stone drum five hundred miles in diameter standing at the edge of the mountains, so nothing living can resist: even cliffs and mountains collapse into abysses, and the spirits imprisoned in the depths of the mountains are released to freedom.
All this happens below the first heavens; above them, serene peace and silence reigns in the intercelestial spaces, illuminated during the festivals of the celestials by the mysterious sacred radiance of the ruler of the north - Zheng-ubei-ji (North Pole).
But above, immeasurably above all the peaks of Kun-lun, and above all spirits and gods, sat the great god Zhu-lai Fo.
Not the new one who came from foreign countries, but the great, ancient, true Fo sat on the lotus throne. His hands were folded on his loins, one on top of the other, palms up: his young face, surrounded by a wide radiance, was serene; the eyes were downcast, and a small bulge on the forehead, shaped like an eye, emitted a flickering light of wisdom.
The clothes did not cover his chest, in the middle of which the same lines as on the palm of a person, by the will of Fate, clearly inscribed the mysterious hieroglyph “wan” - a sign of holiness, wisdom, justice, infinite goodness and great mysterious knowledge.
The Great Fo, “the Lord who looks from on high,” sat on a wondrous throne of lotuses that emitted a heavenly fragrance, and words of divine wisdom flowed from his lips. Countless multitudes of spirits in holy rapture, outside of time and space, listened to wondrous words... Great silence enveloped everything and everyone, and only holy verbs, like pearls, rolled from the lips of the Most Merciful and quenched the spiritual thirst of immortal spirits.
And suddenly a rude, earthly, indecent sound was heard, the culprit of which was the spirit of Bai-bian-fu (a thousand-year-old white bat) named Nü Tu-fu... The Lord of all times and worlds interrupted his speech, all the spirits froze in horror before the unheard-of insolence. And immediately the great spirit Jin-chi-nyao (“Golden-winged bird”), the same one at whose beak the wonderful emerald is born, the closest guardian of the deity, rushed at the sacrilegious spirit. In the blink of an eye, he tore him into pieces and threw them, trembling, to the ground.
Angrily, for the first time in a thousand years, the Infinitely Just One looked at the hot guardian.
“You, Jin-chi-nyao, how could you dare not hold back your anger and tear out the life from the body of a spirit just like yourself?” And only for the weakness of the flesh, inherent in all living things... There is no more place for you in heaven - go to earth and instead of the spirit of Jin-chi-nyao, be just a White Eagle bird. With earthly life, atone for your sin of ardor, and, purified, return here with a tempered will!
Jin-chi-nyao became unbearably sad not so much from the loss of his spiritual height, which he had once achieved at the cost of hard efforts, but from the angry words of the All-Good Deity he heard for the first time. And in the recesses of his heart, which quickly began to lose its spiritual beginning, unbeknownst to him, a feeling of resentment was already born. “If only,” thought Jin-chi-nyao, “I had suffered because of someone else, otherwise because of the Bat, the most despicable of all spirits!”
But he did not have time to think for long - he fell like a stone, and the ground was quickly approaching. Having spread his mighty wings, he slowed down his flight, and, having described a wide circle, sat down on a large stone hanging over the river. Jin-chi-nyao looked down and saw his reflection in the water: he was no longer a golden-winged spirit, but a simple bird, the White Eagle.
Upon his return to the land he had long abandoned, he immediately fell under the influence of its forces, and earthly feelings became familiar to him again. He was overcome by severe hunger... Eagle looked around and saw that not far from him, warmed in the rays of the sun, a large river turtle was sleeping sweetly. The predatory instinct immediately woke up in the Eagle, he flew over the turtle and killed it with a blow to the head with his beak.
A minute later, all that was left of the turtle was its shell, and the Eagle was full. But nothing can be hidden from the all-seeing eyes of the great Fo.
“White Eagle,” the overthrown spirit heard the angry voice of the Almighty in the peals of thunder, “you have done a terrible thing again!” There will be no forgiveness for you until you atone a hundredfold for your guilt before your victims. You will be reborn, and your heart will remain as pure and true as it has always been; but for your crimes in this life you will suffer trials and punishments in the future... And immediately the White Eagle fell into a dead sleep.
At the same moment, in the city of Io-chhou-fu, at seven Io (also read Yue or Yao), a boy was born, later known as Io-fei.
The soul of the bat Nü tu-fu also did not wander in space, but was reborn into the body of a girl, who later began to be called Wang-shi.
And the soul of the eaten turtle, at the moment of death, also found a new refuge - the body of the boy Qin-gui.
All three children have grown up. Qin-gui became the husband of Wang-shi, and they had a beautiful daughter. Thanks to his parents' wealth, connections, and his cunning, Qin-gui gained access to the court.
The emperor's young brother, once seeing the daughter of Qin-kui, became interested in her and made her his wife.
Soon the beauty's husband himself became emperor and made his father-in-law, Qin-gui, first minister.
But then enemies attacked the Celestial Empire, from which the only protection was the great commander Io-fei, famous throughout the world. Seeing him one day when he was introducing himself to the emperor, Qin-gui and Wang-shi felt the greatest hatred for him, which they could not explain to themselves... Their limited minds did not know that these were echoes of their relationship in previous existences.
The minister and his wife decided to destroy Io-fei. The emperor's wife, at the instigation of her father, slandered the hero. He was imprisoned and subjected to terrible torture. Not content with this, Wang-shi ordered in her presence to strip Io-fei naked in winter, pour water on him and expose him to the freezing wind, and then apply hot irons to his naked body; the meat stuck to the metal was torn off in pieces... In a word, he was subjected to the torments of the second and ninth circles of hell, where murderers are thrown.
Finally, Io-fey was killed. His soul, purified by suffering, no longer needed earthly reincarnations; she inhabited the body of the boy, who relentlessly followed Fo himself and held in front of him a vase with mu-dan flowers, emitting a heavenly aroma.
And the souls of Qing-gui and Wang-shi are destined, during one earthly period (80,000 years), to be reborn into the bodies of people with the most miserable lives, without the right to rest in the body of an animal, for the life of an unhappy person is much harder than that of an unfortunate animal... This is how legend tells.
And the story about the same persons says the following.
In the province of Henan, in the Tang-yin district of the Hsien-chow district, there lived one wealthy farmer - an amazing man, completely unmercenary. He gave everything he had to those who asked him for anything. There were cases when neighbors seized pieces of land from him; and even then he did not protest, but on the contrary: in such cases he went to the local chief, took from him a deed of gift in the name of the invader, and returning home, sent this document to the land of the offender.
Of course, in the end he and his family often had to go hungry.
He had no children, that is, boys, because girls don’t count. But finally, after Io’s wife prayed to the goddess Sun Shen Nian-nian, the giver of children, the couple had hope. And indeed, they had a boy.
At the very moment of his birth, a huge bird hovered over their house for a long time - an eagle that screamed loudly; Therefore, the child was given the name Fei - which means “fly”, and subsequently the nickname - Peng-ju.
This was in 1103 AD.
Io-fei grew up as a modest, obedient boy; we don’t know how he studied. It is only known that he was very fond of all the sports known at that time. He developed such physical strength that he could pull a bow with a force of 300 jin (almost 180 kg), and a crossbow with a force of 8 dan (460 kg). But at the same time, he carefully studied history and all manuals on the art of war.
At this time, in the north, China was involved in a difficult struggle with the newly emerging people of the Zhur-chens, or Nyu-rens, the ancestors of the Da-hurs. The Noyen, having defeated the Khitan, who had previously occupied Southern Manchuria and Northern China, took their place and began to brutally push back the Chinese. The latter suffered defeat after defeat, and finally their emperor Qin-tsun, together with his father, the abdicated Emperor Hui-tsung, and many dignitaries (among whom was the minister Qin-gui and his wife Wang-shi) were captured by the Nü-ren in 1127. They sent the emperors to the present city of Ninguta, where they subsequently died. The emperor's younger brother, named Gou, managed to escape and ascended the throne, choosing the city of Han-zhou as his capital. In history he is known as Gaozong.
It was then that Io-fei, not being able to calmly endure the misfortunes of the fatherland, threw out a cry and, having gathered a detachment of mounted volunteers of 500 people, moved with them against the enemy.
The Nu-ren, apparently, were accustomed to easy victories, and treated such an insignificant opponent with contempt. But the consequences of this negligence were very serious for them. Io-fei defeated the hundred-thousand-strong army of the Zhurzhen.
This unusual victory created his extreme popularity, and volunteers began to flock to him from all sides. His army, in which he introduced the strictest discipline, did not know defeat; the enemies lost their conquered provinces one after another, and he was made commander of one of the three Chinese armies operating against the Jin (as the Nu-ren called their dynasty and state).
Then E-chou, the Jin commander, decided to use a special means against the Chinese. He offered a significant sum of money and freedom to Qing-kui and his wife, provided that they would try by all means in their power to stop the success of the Chinese troops and destroy Io-fei. Qin-gui agreed, received his freedom and became the first minister of Gao-tsung.
Meanwhile, Io-fei's army was already approaching the Jin capital Huang-long fu.
Then Ye-chou demanded that Qing-gui fulfill his obligation. Qing-kui, fearing the disclosure of his shameful agreement in the event of non-compliance with Ye-chou's demands, sent orders to both military leaders commanding the troops on the right and left flanks of the theater of war to immediately retreat. Only Io-fei’s troops remained in the center. But, despite this, the latter did not stop hostilities. Then Qin-kui one day sent 12 couriers to Io-fei, one after another, with orders to immediately retreat, and reported to the emperor that Io-fei, his son Io-yuan and son-in-law Zhang-xiang did not want to fight anymore, but were planning, with the help of the army loyal to them, to overthrow the emperor from the throne and place Io-fei on it.
As soon as Io-fei arrived in the capital, he, along with his son and son-in-law, were immediately arrested and thrown into prison.
The investigation, which was conducted with great passion by Qin-guai's minions, did not provide any evidence against Io-fei. During interrogation, when the hero was accused of disobedience and treachery, he, by order of the judges, had to take off his outer clothing. And then everyone saw a tattoo on his back - four hieroglyphs: jing zhong bao guo, that is, “always a faithful defender of the state.” When asked about the origin of these signs, Io-fei said that his mother made them when he was still a child, and that he would never deviate from these signs. Having achieved nothing, the prisoners were again sent to prison.
A whole year passed, and the emperor finally demanded a decision on the Io-fei case.
Since it was no longer possible to delay matters, then, on the advice of his wife, Qin Gui decided to kill his enemy. Wang-shi sucked the juice from the orange and into the empty peel she placed an order written by Qing-gui in his own hand for the jailer to immediately end the lives of all three prisoners.
The jailer, having received an orange from the first minister, was amazed at such mercy. But, having broken it, he realized that the minister wanted to keep a secret in such an unusual way of sending the order.
The next day, the emperor was informed that the prisoners had unexpectedly died.
But rumors of this atrocity reached the people; the image of the beloved hero was surrounded by an aura of martyrdom, and when Xiaozong, the adopted son of Gaozong, ascended the throne in 1162, the new emperor tried to atone for the sin of his predecessor. He gave Io-fei's relatives lands, and he himself a magnificent title; His remains were transferred to the city of Han-zhou and buried on an island in Lake Xi-hu, and a magnificent mausoleum was erected over it.
And Qin-gui and Wang-shi, worthy of her husband?
On the same island where Io-fei’s ashes rest, an alley of two rows of stone figures of people and horses stretches from the latter’s grave. At the beginning of this alley, on both sides of the entrance gate, in the fence surrounding the grave area, in two stone cages there are kneeling figures cast in full length from cast iron with their hands tied behind them. On the right side is General Zhan-chun, who left Io-fei at a critical moment, and one of Qin-gui’s minions.
On the left are the figures of Qin-gui himself and his wife. They suffered a punishment unforeseen by history, the law, or the creators of the monument: firstly, the spittoon is named after Qin-gui, and secondly, every Chinese who comes to Io-fei’s grave considers it his duty to desecrate these statues, and in addition, from the touch of hands on the breasts of the topless statue of Wang-shi, they shine as if polished.
“Always be faithful to me, As Io-fei is to the sovereign,”
says a girl to her friend in a Chinese song.
“My pink lotus,” her friend answers, “Don’t be like the evil Wang-shi.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru