to visit you.'" A little while after his ancestor T'ai Tsu,
the founder of the dynasty, came according to Yue Huang's promise,
and Ch'eng Tsung hastened to inform his ministers of it. This is the
origin of Yue Huang. He was born of a fraud, and came ready-made from
the brain of an emperor.

The Cask of Pearls

Fearing to be admonished for the fraud by another of his ministers,
the scholar Wang Tan, the Emperor resolved to put a golden gag in his
mouth. So one day, having invited him to a banquet, he overwhelmed
him with flattery and made him drunk with good wine. "I would like
the members of your family also to taste this wine," he added, "so I
am making you a present of a cask of it." When Wang Tan returned home,
he found the cask filled with precious pearls. Out of gratitude to the
Emperor he kept silent as to the fraud, and made no further opposition
to his plans, but when on his death-bed he asked that his head be
shaved like a priest's and that he be clothed in priestly robes so
that he might expiate his crime of feebleness before the Emperor.

K'ang Hsi, the great Emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty, who had already
declared that if it is wrong to impute deceit to a man it is still
more reprehensible to impute a fraud to Heaven, stigmatized him as
follows: "Wang Tan committed two faults: the first was in showing
himself a vile flatterer of his Prince during his life; the second
was in becoming a worshipper of Buddha at his death."

The Legend of Yue Huang

So much for historical record. The legend of Yue Huang relates that in
ancient times there existed a kingdom named Kuang Yen Miao Lo Kuo,
whose king was Ching Te, his queen being called Pao Yueeh. Though
getting on in years, the latter had no son. The Taoist priests were
summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites. They recited
prayers with the object of obtaining an heir to the throne. During
the ensuing night the Queen had a vision. Lao Chuen appeared to her,
riding a dragon, and carrying a male child in his arms. He floated down
through the air in her direction. The Queen begged him to give her the
child as an heir to the throne. "I am quite willing," he said. "Here
it is." She fell on her knees and thanked him. On waking she found
herself _enceinte_. At the end of a year the Prince was born. From
an early age he showed himself compassionate and generous to the
poor. On the death of his father he ascended the throne, but after
reigning only a f