Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
83
colour, and as No-cha stirred it up in the stream heaven and earth were shaken and the river trembled. This river was called Chiu-wan Ho (Nine-bend River) and was situated at the mouth of the Eastern Sea. Ao Kuang (#), the dragon-king of the Eastern Sea, surprised at this unexpected earthquake, ordered his inspector-yaksha, Li Kên (R), to go at once and find out the cause. When the yaksha reached the river he saw that the river was red and a child was bathing there, dipping his red silk gauze in the water. He cleft the water asunder and shouted angrily: "What prompts you, little child, to make the river red and the crystal palace shake?" No-cha turned back and saw a monster coming out of the water, a monster whose face was as blue as indigo, whose hair was as red as cinnabar, whose mouth was big with long projecting teeth and who had in his hand a halberd. No-cha scolded, "You monster, how can you speak like a human being?" The yaksha was exasperated and said, “I am an appointed officer. How dare you insult me?" He jumped up to the bank and brandished his halberd towards No-cha. No-cha was naked and could only jump aside. Then he took off the bracelet from his right arm and hurled it in the air. This bracelet was a precious weapon bestowed on the Immortal T'ai-I by the Patriarch Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun of the Jade Palace of Abstraction to protect the Chin-kuang Cave where T'ai-I dwelt. It fell upon the head of the yaksha and his brains spilled on the ground. No-cha ignored his corpse but smiled and said, "He has stained my precious weapon!" He sat himself again on the rock, smiling and washing the bracelet. The crystal palace was shaken again and even more violently. When Ao Kuang was vexed the soldiers came back to report, “Yaksha Li Kên was killed by a child on the bank." The dragon-king was frightened, "Li Kên was appointed by the Jade Emperor; who dared to murder him?” Saying this he summoned his men, intending to go himself. No sooner had the dragon-king finished his words than Ao Ping (F), his third son, requested permission to go for the father. So, Ao Ping, at the head of a troop of sea-warriors, mounted his water-cleaving monster, and with his trident in his hand, left the palace. The form of the breaking waves was so furious that the river seemed to rise several feet. No-cha stood up and marvelled, "This is a flood!"... (Ch.12)
In Ch.48 of the prompt-book Tung-yu-chi ("The Eight Saints or The Voyage to the East") when the Eight Immortals were crossing the Eastern Sea, Lü Tung-pin (SM) initiated an idea, "During our crossing would it not be fine for each of us to throw one precious thing into the sea so that our divine power may be revealed?" Therefore, "When the dragon-king of the Eastern Sea was holding a meeting in his crystal palace, he