Now Lady Yin loathed that villainous Liu so much that she could eat his flesh and and use his skin for a bed, but she was pregnant, so she cooperated with him reluctantly. Before she knew it, they had arrived in Jiangzhou, where the officials and judges threw the new governor a banquet in welcome.
Time passed quickly. One day, Liu Hong was sent away on business. Lady Yin was sitting in the garden pavilion pining for her mother-in-law and her husband, when suddenly she was overwhelmed by exhaustion and pain in her belly. She fainted to the floor and gave birth to a boy. In her ear she heard a voice call her by her childhood pet name: “Mantangjiao,1 listen to my warning. I am the South Polestar General, sent by the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Your son will be extraordinary. His name will be known far and wide. If the villain Liu comes back, he will surely harm the child. You must protect him well. Your husband was saved by the Dragon King, and one day you, your husband, and your son will be together again. You will get your revenge. Remember my warning. Now, wake up.”
When Lady Yin woke up, the Polestar had gone, but she remembered every word. She clutched her son tight, not knowing what else to do. Suddenly, Liu Hong returned. As soon as he saw the boy, he wanted to drown him in the river, but Lady Yin said, “It’s already evening. Let us wait until tomorrow, and then you can throw him into the river.”
Luckily, Liu Hong was called away the next morning on an urgent matter. “If the babe is still here when that villain returns,” Lady Yin thought, “he will certainly lose his life! But if I put him into the river now, if Heaven has mercy on him, someone may rescue and adopt him. Then perhaps we will meet again.”
She was afraid that she would not recognize him when he was grown, so she bit her finger and wrote a letter in blood2 with his parents’ names so that he might find them again. She also bit off the little toe of the babe’s left foot to mark him.3 She swaddled him in her undershirt and carried him out of the governor’s residence. Fortunately, the river wasn’t far. As Lady Yin stood by the river about to abandon her son, a wooden plank floated by. She prayed to Heaven, placed her son on the plank, and tied him in place with her sash. The letter written in blood she placed on his chest. She pushed him into the river and left him to fate. Crying, she returned to the governor’s house.
The babe and plank floated downriver with the current all the way to Gold Mountain Monastery. The abbot of Gold Mountain Monastery was called Father Faming.4 He practiced Truth and understood the Way, and had already achieved immortality. His meditations were interrupted by the sound of a babe’s cry. He found himself moved and went to the river, where he found an infant sleeping on a floating plank. He quickly picked up the babe. After reading the letter written in blood and understanding how the babe came to be there, he gave the child a name: River.5 He found good people to foster the child and kept the letter safely hidden.
The years flew by like an arrow. When River was eighteen years old, the abbot called River to the monastery to shave his head and take his vows. River received a religious name, Xuanzang, and committed himself to Buddhist and Daoist study.
One spring evening, the monks were gathered under the pine trees, discussing scripture and meditating, when Brother Jiurou6 was stumped by a question from Xuanzang. Angry, he scolded, “You good-for-nothing! You don’t even know your real name or your parents. What are you doing here making trouble?”
After being scolded7 like this, Xuanzang went into the temple and knelt before the abbot. With tears flowing, he said, “All human lives in this world receive yin and yang and originate from the five elements, but they are born and raised by a father and mother. How can any person on this earth have neither a father nor mother?”
He begged again and again for the name of his father and mother, until finally the abbot said, “If you really want to find your parents, come with me to my chambers.”8
Xuanzang followed the abbot to his room. The abbot retrieved a small box from atop a high beam. From inside the box, he took out a single piece of paper with the note written blood and an undershirt and gave them to Xuanzang.
As Xuanzang read the letter and learned the names of his parents, he began to feel a deep resentment at all that had happened. When he finished, he fell to the floor, weeping.9 “What is the point of living if I can’t even avenge my parents?” he cried. “For eighteen years I didn’t know my parents, and only now do I know I have a mother. If not for Father rescuing me from the river, I would not even be here. Please allow me to go find my mother! After that, I will return and rebuild this temple and repay my Father.”
“If you want to find your mother, bring this letter and shirt with you, and go as a mendicant monk10 to the Jiangzhou governor’s office. Only then will you find your mother,” the abbot said.
Following the abbot’s advice, Xuanzang traveled as a mendicant monk to Jiangzhou. Liu Hong had left on business, since it was fated that mother and son should meet. Xuanzang went to the door of the governor’s house, begging for alms.
The night before, Lady Yin had dreamt that the crescent moon had become full once more. She said to herself, “My mother-in-law doesn’t know what has become of us. My husband has been killed. My son was thrown into the river, but if someone had rescued and fostered him, he would be eighteen by now. Perhaps Heaven deemed we should meet again today, but who’s to say?”
As she was talking to herself, she heard the sound of scriptures being recited outside the door, along with repeated calls for alms. Lady Yin went outside and said, “Where are you from?”
Xuanzang replied, “This poor monk is the disciple of Father Faming at the Gold Mountain Monastery.”
“So you are a disciple of the abbot of Gold Mountain Monastery,” Lady Yin said. She called into the house for food to be brought out to him. She watched him closely and saw that his manner and speech was like that of her husband, so she sent the servant girl away and said, “Young master, did you leave home11 as a child or after you were grown? What is your name? Do you have parents?”
“I neither left home as a child nor after I was grown,” Xuanzang replied. “To tell you the truth, the wrongs against me are as great as the heavens and the injustice I’ve experienced is as deep as the seas. My father was murdered and my mother taken by the murderer. Father Faming told me to come to the governor’s house in Jiangzhou to seek my mother.”
“What is your mother’s name?” the Lady asked.
“My mother’s name is Yin Wenjiao,” Xuanzang replied. “My father’s name is Chen Guangrui. As a child I was name River, and my religious name is Xuanzang.”
“I am Wenjiao,” Lady Yin said, “but do you have any proof?”
When Xuanzang heard that the lady was his mother, he knelt down and cried piteously. “Mother, if you don’t believe me, here are the letter and undershirt as proof!”
When Wenjiao saw that the letter and shirt were genuine, mother and son embraced and wept as one. “My son,” she cried, “you must leave!”
“For eighteen years I have not known my birth parents,” Xuanzang said. “We have only just met this morning. Why are you telling me to go?”
Lady Yin replied, “My son, you must leave as quickly as fire! If that villain Liu returns, he will surely kill you. Tomorrow I will pretend to be ill. I will say that years ago I made a vow to donate a hundred pairs of monk’s shoes, and I will come to your monastery to fulfill that promise. I will tell you more then.”
At these words, Xuanzang bid her farewell.
After seeing her son, Lady Yin’s heart was filled with both joy and sorrow. She fell suddenly ill lay on the bed, refusing food and drink. When Liu Hong returned, he asked what had happened.
“When I was young, I made a vow to donate a hundred pairs of monk’s shoes,” Lady Yin said. “The five nights ago, I dreamt that a monk came with a sharp knife demanding the shoes, and since then I haven’t been well.”
“It’s such a trivial matter. Why didn’t you bring it up earlier?” Liu Hong said. He ordered his left hand man Wang and his right hand man Li to proclaim to the people of Jiangzhou that each family was to sew a pair of monk’s shoes and finish them within five days.
After five days, Lady Yan said to Liu Hong, “The shoes are finished. Is there a monastery nearby that I can go fulfill my vow?”
“In Jiangzhou there’s the Gold Mountain Monastery, as well as the Scorched Mountain Monastery,” Liu Hong said. “You can go to whichever one you wish.”
“I have heard good things about Gold Mountain Monastery,” Lady Yin said. “I will go there.”
Liu Hong ordered Wang and Li to prepare a barge. Lady Yin took her confidant and boarded the barge. The current carried them toward Gold Mountain Monastery. Now when Xuanzang had returned to the monastery, he recounted all that had happened to Father Faming, who was very pleased. The next day, a servant girl announced that a madam had arrived at the temple to fulfill a vow. The monks all came out to welcome her.
The lady entered the temple, paid her respects to the Bodhisattva, and made a large donation of clothes. The servant girl was called to receive the shoes and summer socks. Lady Yin came to the great hall and took the incense in her fingers, bowing repeatedly in worship. She asked Father Faming to send the other monks away.12 Xuanzang waited until there was no one else in the hall, then approached and knelt before Lady Yin. Lady Yin asked him to take off his shoes and socks and saw that his left foot was indeed missing a little toe. The two again embraced and wept, and thanked the abbot for raising her son.
“Now that mother and son have reunited, I fear that the scoundrel will find out.” Father Faming said. “You should go back quickly so that we may avoid catastrophe.”
“My son,” Lady Yin said. “Let me give you a ring of incense. Go to northwest Hongzhou, a distance of fifteen hundred li. There you will find a Ten Thousand Flowers Inn. Years ago, we left my mother-in-law, Madam Zhang, there. She is your father’s mother. I will also write you a letter. Take it to the royal city of the Tang Emperor. To the left of the palace is the house of the chief minister, Yin Kaishan, the family of your mother. Give the letter to your grandfather and ask him to report it to the Tang Emperor, to bring men and horses so we can arrest the criminal and avenge your father. That is the only way to rescue me. I cannot stay long today, I fear that Han may suspect me if I am late in returning.” Lady Yin returned by boat to the governor’s house.
1 This name means “a room full of loveliness” and is a play off the character Jiao in her real name, Wenjiao, which means loveliness. ↩
2 There is a Chinese noun for “letter written in blood”. Is this something that happened often?? ↩
3 Ugh! ↩
4 I’m trying to elicit the imagery of a Christian abbot, even though the text refers to the Buddhist equivalent as more of an elder. ↩
5 Jiangliu ↩
6 His name means wine and meat. ↩
7 The Chinese word for scold and insult are the same. Maybe that says something about us. ↩
8 A tiny room which Dr. Yu translates as a cell, but I don’t think a monk would refer to a room that way. ↩
9 Foreshadowing what a drama queen he’s going to be. ↩
10 one who survives off charity ↩
11 to become a monk ↩
12 so she could worship in private? ↩
Etymology Adventures 
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