“What is your purpose?” questioned the now anxious wife. “If you will not return to the home of your ancestors, what do you mean by giving the land to me? Are you going to enter the Eternal?”
Chi Hsiao Tang looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, “I will go to some quiet place in the mountains. There will I live and purify myself from this evil world. I care or hope no longer for earthly joy or position. It is all vanity—vanity.”
“But what of me?” urged his wife. “Am I nothing more to you? Are you casting me off also? This you shall not do. We will go together to the country and there you will forget your disappointment, or I too will go with you to the purple hills by Buddha’s help. Possibly by long years of tears, prayers, and self-denial the great Buddha will have compassion on me, and I too may find Peace. I cannot hope to enter into your spirit life, I [[76]]who am only a woman, but surely the effort I make will at least be seen by the god. Do you think, because I am a woman, my heart does not long for that which can give rest? Why do I sit every night, hour after hour, with my tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth, my hands and feet crossed, trying not to be conscious of any bodily sensation. Is it not that I too may come in touch with the great pure Holy Ones? Why do I repeat the name of the great Buddha hundreds of times each day, before anything to eat or drink crosses my lips? Why am I almost a cripple? Is it not because of the long hours of kneeling on the cold brick floor praying to the Goddess of Mercy? Have I not kept the fast days most faithfully since coming into your home? Have I eaten meat? When you were ill did I not promise the gods that if you recovered I would go to the highest temple on the mountains, crawling all the way on hands and knees, and when you were restored to health did I not fulfil my vow? Did I not wear single garments all one winter? Did I not take flesh from my own arm to make a broth which cured our mother when she was ill? Do none of these things appeal to the Holy Ones? Can I not hope that I too, a poor woman, may attain to the Eternal Rest?” The tears streamed down her cheeks as she added, [[77]]“Have compassion upon me, your wife, and let me go with you.”
Chi Hsiao Tang looked tenderly at her for a moment and then, with a great sigh, which showed that he too suffered at the parting, replied, “What I have said I have said! You would prevent me from seeing the Eternal Light. You would hold me still to the earthly.” He ordered dinner, and as he sat eating he saw a new bench drop down into his court.
“This,” said he to himself, “must have come from the gods, whether to help me to leave the earth or to keep me on it I will test and see.” So he said to the bench, “If you are to help me leave the earth move up and down three times.” This the bench immediately did. His wife coming in at the moment, he called to her “to look at the magic bench.” She replied in astonishment, but with a sense of relief, “What is this, are you bereft of your senses? You a Teacher to talk of a magic bench.” He answered gravely, “You shall see me sit on the bench and rise in the air,” and before she realized what had befallen her, he was rising into space and was soon beyond her sight.
“Ah!” said she as she wept; “he has gone to the purple mountains to attain the god-life. He has left me here; I will seek it in my home.” She called to him and a faint sound came from [[78]]the distance, “The gods have had pity upon me and taken me from the evil of the world,” and here he was seen no more. The bench carried him to a mountain far from all with which he was familiar, and there came to rest. He rose to his feet and as he did so the bench disappeared. He looked north, south, east, and west, nothing but stones and hills, not a human being in sight.
He said to himself, “What can I do here? I will walk until I find some living thing.” Far in the distance on a high mountain-top he saw what appeared to be a man. After hours of weary climbing, faint with hunger and thirst, he reached the spot. He found two men sitting on a stone; one had on a yellow robe, white stockings, and striped shoes. His face was very white and he wore a long beard. At his side was a cow’s tail, used to brush away flies. The other man was dressed in black, had a dark face, protruding eyes, and a long black beard. One was facing to the east, the other to the west, and they were playing chess. Above them was a beautiful spruce tree, by their side a dish of peaches and one of pears, two wine-cups and a bottle of wine. When Chi Hsiao Tang came up to them they did not lift their heads or look up, seemed only interested in their game. But he thought, [[79]]“These are surely two gods in disguise,” and kneeling before them he said, “I prostrate myself to you, my Teachers. I wish to prepare myself to join the Immortals.”
The man in yellow lifted his head and asked, “Where do you come from and why are you not going in for the examinations, for I see that you are a man of no mean ability?” Chi Hsiao Tang replied, “It is all vanity.”
“You are rich; why are you not satisfied with the things which money will buy?” was the next question. “They also are vanity,” was his answer. “Name, honour, riches, luxury; at the end of all is death,” continued Chi Hsiao Tang. “I have looked at it all, tasted much of it, and it does not satisfy beyond the passing moment. I do not desire it, and I have come to you, my Teachers, for instruction as to the way of attaining purification and the true life.” “To attain that you must suffer much. Can you endure?” said the sage. “I can,” was the reply. “Difficulties are many. Can you meet them?” Still he answered, “I can. I am not afraid of difficulties.” “But,” urged the wise man, “if you desire to attain the true life you must be ready to save, not to destroy men. No one can wear fine clothes like yours and put away the world. You will have to put on coarse cloth garments. When [[80]]your shoes are worn out can you go barefooted on these rocky hillsides?” “I can in time,” was the reply. “We have no dainty food to eat, only grain and wild roots without salt. Can you eat these?” “Yes, this also in time.” “At home you have wine, tea, and hot water to drink. Can you give up all these and drink from the holes by the roadside?” “Yes! In time I can do even this.” The sage added further, “You will have also to serve us, dig roots, and prepare our food, you who at home have always been served. Can you eat[1] all this bitterness, even to becoming a servant?” Chi Hsiao said earnestly, “All this I can and will do.” “One thing more,” said the man in yellow. “I have a dreadful sore on my foot. You will have to wash and dress that every day. I will show it to you!” It was indeed a shocking sight. For a moment Chi Hsiao Tang’s heart failed him, but he resolutely put down the disgust and nausea which the sickening sore produced, and answered as before, “I can dress it, Worthy Teacher.” “But you must press the poison out with your lips. Will you do that?” “Yes!” “Then try it now.” As he stooped and put his lips to what seemed a most loathsome sore, behold! it was a beautiful [[81]]ripe and luscious peach, bound with invisible bands about the foot.
When the two Worthies saw the settled purpose of the man they said, “You may remain with us. We will teach you how to become one of the Perfect Ones.” At the close of his novitiate they sent him among the mountain people to help those in distress, to cheer the sad and discouraged, and found him always ready to serve as a messenger of the gods. Thus in a life of unselfish service of man was he made pure, until he reached that perfection which is absorption into the Divine. [[82]]