Between Si-chow and the village of Ki, in a house completely hidden from
travellers by the tall and black trees which surrounded it, lived an
aged and very wise person whose ways and manner of living had become so
distasteful to his neighbours that they at length agreed to regard him
as a powerful and ill-disposed magician. In this way it became a custom
that all very unseemly deeds committed by those who, in the ordinary
course, would not be guilty of such behaviour, should be attributed
to his influence, so that justice might be effected without persons of
assured respectability being put to any inconvenience. Apart from the
feeling which resulted from this just decision, the uncongenial person
in question had become exceedingly unpopular on account of certain
definite actions of his own, as that of causing the greater part of
Si-chow to be burned down by secretly breathing upon the seven sacred
water-jugs to which the town owed its prosperity and freedom from fire.
Furthermore, although possessed of many taels, and able to afford such
food as is to be found upon the tables of Mandarins, he selected from
choice dishes of an objectionable nature; he had been observed to eat
eggs of unbecoming freshness, and the Si-chow Official Printed Leaf made
it public that he had, on an excessively hot occasion, openly partaken
of cow’s milk. It is not a matter for wonder, therefore, that when
unnaturally loud thunder was heard in the neighbourhood of Si-chow
the more ignorant and credulous persons refused to continue in any
description of work until certain ceremonies connected with rice spirit,
and the adherence to a reclining position for some hours, had been
conscientiously observed as a protection against evil.
Not even the most venerable person in Si-chow could remember the time
when the magician had not lived there, and as there existed no written
record narrating the incident, it was with well-founded probability
that he was said to be incapable of death. Contrary to the most general
practice, although quite unmarried, he had adopted no son to found a
line which would worship his memory in future years, but had instead
brought up and caused to be educated in the most difficult varieties
of embroidery a young girl, to whom he referred, for want of a more
suitable description, as the daughter of his sister, although he would
admit without hesitation, when closely questioned, that he had never
possessed a sister, at the same time, however, alluding with some
pride to many illustrious brothers, who had all obtained distinction in
various employments.
Few persons of any high position penetrated into the house of the
magician, and most of these retired with inelegant haste on perceiving
that no domestic altar embellished the great hall. Indeed, not to make
concealment of the fact, the magician was a person who had entirely
neglected the higher virtues in an avaricious pursuit of wealth. In that
way all his time and a very large number of taels had been expended,
testing results by means of the four elements, and putting together
things which had been inadequately arrived at by others. It was
confidently asserted in Si-chow that he possessed every manner of
printed leaf which had been composed in whatsoever language, and all the
most precious charms, including many snake-skins of more than ordinary
rarity, and the fang of a black wolf which had been stung by seven
scorpions.
On the death of his father the magician had become possessed of great
wealth, yet he contributed little to the funeral obsequies nor did any
suggestion of a durable and expensive nature conveying his enlightened
name and virtues down to future times cause his face to become
gladdened. In order to preserve greater secrecy about the enchantments
which he certainly performed, he employed only two persons within the
house, one of whom was blind and the other deaf. In this ingenious
manner he hoped to receive attention and yet be unobserved, the
blind one being unable to see the nature of the incantations which he
undertook, and the deaf one being unable to hear the words. In this,
however, he was unsuccessful, as the two persons always contrived to
be present together, and to explain to one another the nature of the
various matters afterwards; but as they were of somewhat deficient
understanding, the circumstance was unimportant.
It was with more uneasiness that the magician perceived one day that the
maiden whom he had adopted was no longer a child. As he desired secrecy
above all things until he should have completed the one important
matter for which he had laboured all his life, he decided with extreme
unwillingness to put into operation a powerful charm towards her, which
would have the effect of diminishing all her attributes until such time
as he might release her again. Owing to his reluctance in the matter,
however, the magic did not act fully, but only in such a way that her
feet became naturally and without binding the most perfect and beautiful
in the entire province of Hu Nan, so that ever afterwards she was called
Pan Fei Mian, in delicate reference to that Empress whose feet were so
symmetrical that a golden lily sprang up wherever she trod. Afterwards
the magician made no further essay in the matter, chiefly because he
was ever convinced that the accomplishment of his desire was within his
grasp.
The rumours of armed men in the neighbourhood of Si-chow threw the
magician into an unendurable condition of despair. To lose all, as would
most assuredly happen if he had to leave his arranged rooms and secret
preparations and take to flight, was the more bitter because he felt
surer than ever that success was even standing by his side. The very
subtle liquid, which would mix itself into the component parts of the
living creature which drank it, and by an insidious and harmless process
so work that, when the spirit departed, the flesh would become resolved
into a figure of pure and solid gold of the finest quality, had engaged
the refined minds of many of the most expert individuals of remote
ages. With most of these inspired persons, however, the search had
been undertaken in pure-minded benevolence, their chief aim being an
honourable desire to discover a method by which one’s ancestors might
be permanently and effectively preserved in a fit and becoming manner to
receive the worship and veneration of posterity. Yet, in spite of these
amiable motives, and of the fact that the magician merely desired the
possession of the secret to enable him to become excessively wealthy,
the affair had been so arranged that it should come into his possession.
The matter which concerned Mian in the dark wood, when she was only
saved by the appearance of the person who is already known as Ling,
entirely removed all pleasurable emotions from the magician’s mind, and
on many occasions he stated in a definite and systematic manner that he
would shortly end an ignoble career which seemed to be destined only
to gloom and disappointment. In this way an important misunderstanding
arose, for when, two days later, during the sound of matchlock
firing, the magician suddenly approached the presence of Mian with an
uncontrollable haste and an entire absence of dignified demeanour,
and fell dead at her feet without expressing himself on any subject
whatever, she deliberately judged that in this manner he had carried his
remark into effect, nor did the closed vessel of yellow liquid which he
held in his hand seem to lead away from this decision. In reality, the
magician had fallen owing to the heavy and conflicting emotions which
success had engendered in an intellect already greatly weakened by
his continual disregard of the higher virtues; for the bottle, indeed,
contained the perfection of his entire life’s study, the very expensive
and three-times purified gold liquid.
On perceiving the magician’s condition, Mian at once called for the two
attendants, and directed them to bring from an inner chamber all the
most effective curing substances, whether in the form of powder or
liquid. When these proved useless, no matter in what way they were
applied, it became evident that there could be very little hope of
restoring the magician, yet so courageous and grateful for the benefits
which she had received from the person in question was Mian, that, in
spite of the uninviting dangers of the enterprise, she determined to
journey to Ki to invoke the assistance of a certain person who was known
to be very successful in casting out malicious demons from the bodies
of animals, and from casks and barrels, in which they frequently took
refuge, to the great detriment of the quality of the liquid placed
therein.
Not without many hidden fears, Mian set out on her journey, greatly
desiring not to be subjected to an encounter of a nature similar to the
one already recorded; for in such a case she could hardly again hope for
the inspired arrival of the one whom she now often thought of in secret
as the well-formed and symmetrical young sword-user. Nevertheless, an
event of equal significance was destined to prove the wisdom of
the well-known remark concerning thoughts which are occupying one’s
intellect and the unexpected appearance of a very formidable evil
spirit; for as she passed along, quickly yet with so dignified a motion
that the moss received no impression beneath her footsteps, she became
aware of a circumstance which caused her to stop by imparting to her
mind two definite and greatly dissimilar emotions.
In a grassy and open space, on the verge of which she stood, lay
the dead bodies of seventeen rebels, all disposed in very degraded
attitudes, which contrasted strongly with the easy and becoming position
adopted by the eighteenth--one who bore the unmistakable emblems of the
Imperial army. In this brave and noble-looking personage Mian at once
saw her preserver, and not doubting that an inopportune and treacherous
death had overtaken him, she ran forward and raised him in her arms,
being well assured that however indiscreet such an action might appear
in the case of an ordinary person, the most select maiden need not
hesitate to perform so honourable a service in regard to one whose
virtues had by that time undoubtedly placed him among the Three Thousand
Pure Ones. Being disturbed in this providential manner, Ling opened his
eyes, and faintly murmuring, “Oh, sainted and adorable Koon Yam, Goddess
of Charity, intercede for me with Buddha!” he again lost possession of
himself in the Middle Air. At this remark, which plainly proved Ling to
be still alive, in spite of the fact that both the maiden and the person
himself had thoughts to the contrary, Mian found herself surrounded by
a variety of embarrassing circumstances, among which occurred a
remembrance of the dead magician and the wise person at Ki whom she had
set out to summon; but on considering the various natural and sublime
laws which bore directly on the alternative before her, she discovered
that her plain destiny was to endeavour to restore the breath in the
person who was still alive rather than engage on the very unsatisfactory
chance of attempting to call it back to the body from which it had so
long been absent.
Having been inspired to this conclusion--which, when she later examined
her mind, she found not to be repulsive to her own inner feelings--Mian
returned to the house with dexterous speed, and calling together the two
attendants, she endeavoured by means of signs and drawings to explain to
them what she desired to accomplish. Succeeding in this after some delay
(for the persons in question, being very illiterate and narrow-minded,
were unable at first to understand the existence of any recumbent male
person other than the dead magician, whom they thereupon commenced to
bury in the garden with expressions of great satisfaction at their
own intelligence in comprehending Mian’s meaning so readily) they all
journeyed to the wood, and bearing Ling between them, they carried him
to the house without further adventure.