and asked his pardon
for having shed so much blood during the wars which preceded his
accession to the throne he might obtain an heir.

Welcoming this suggestion, the King sent for Chao Chen and ordered
him to dispatch to the temple of Hua Shan the two Chief Ministers of
Ceremonies, Hsi Heng-nan and Chih Tu, with instructions to request
fifty Buddhist and Taoist priests to pray for seven days and seven
nights in order that the King might obtain a son. When that period
was over, the King and Queen would go in person to offer sacrifices
in the temple.

Prayers to the Gods

The envoys took with them many rare and valuable presents, and for
seven days and seven nights the temple resounded with the sound of
drums, bells, and all kinds of instruments, intermingled with the
voices of the praying priests. On their arrival the King and Queen
offered sacrifices to the god of the sacred mountain.

But the God of Hua Shan knew that the King had been deprived of a
male heir as a punishment for the bloody hecatombs during his three
years' war. The priests, however, interceded for him, urging that the
King had come in person to offer the sacrifices, wherefore the God
could not altogether reject his prayer. So he ordered Ch'ien-li Yen,
'Thousand-_li_ Eye,' and Shun-feng Erh, 'Favourable-wind Ear,' [29]
to go quickly and ascertain if there were not some worthy person who
was on the point of being reincarnated into this world.

The two messengers shortly returned, and stated that in India, in the
Chiu Ling Mountains, in the village of Chih-shu Yuean, there lived a
good man named Shih Ch'in-ch'ang, whose ancestors for three generations
had observed all the ascetic rules of the Buddhists. This man was the
father of three children, the eldest Shih Wen, the second Shih Chin,
and the third Shih Shan, all worthy followers of the great Buddha.

The Murder of the Tais

Wang Che, a brigand chief, and thirty of his followers, finding
themselves pursued and harassed by the Indian soldiers, without
provisions or shelter, dying of hunger, went to Shih Wen and begged for
something to eat. Knowing that they were evildoers, Shih Wen and his
two brothers refused to give them anything; if they starved, they said,
the peasants would no longer suffer from their depredations. Thereupon
the brigands decided that it was a case of life for life, and broke
into the house of a rich family of the name of Tai, burning their
home, killing a hundred men