Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
87
ended in a fierce hand-to-hand conflict. At last T'ai-I hurled his powerful weapon, a lamp-shade of nine fire-dragons, into the air, which fell on the goddess and rendered her senseless. T'ai-I clapped his hands and immediately a flame rose up in the shade, and she died in the roaring blaze. The dragon-kings of the Four Seas now got a warrant from the Jade Emperor to arrest No-cha's parents. No-cha, with secret instructions from his master T'ai-I, rushed back to Ch'ên-t’ang Pass. When he saw the dragon-kings, he shouted in a terrific voice:
"It was I who killed Li Kên and Ao Ping and I should forfeit my life. How can you molest my parents?" After this, he spoke to Ao Kuang, "I am not to be slighted. I am an avatar of Ling-chu Tzu, the Intelligent Pearl. By the command of Yüan-shih I have descended to this world to fight for the establishment of the coming dynasty. I am determined to rip open my stomach, pluck out my intestines and pick out the bones, to return to my parents what I got from them. Are you satisfied with that?" To this Ao Kuang agreed, and No-cha did as he had just said: he fell down to the ground and his souls dispersed. His corpse was put into a coffin and was ordered by his mother to be buried. (Ch.13)
We learn from the commentaries and the expository notes of the Ch'an school (or in Japanese Zen) of Chinese Buddhism that there are many historical and hereditary "cases" (Kung-an or in Japanese koan) handed down from generation to generation by the learned priests of this school of contemplation as material for their followers to study and to reflect upon. Most of these "cases" are metaphysical and to some extent mystical, and as cultivation in meditation involves some experiences which are not subject to communion between the learner and the Patriarch or the predecessors, it has relation with Tantrism.29 The story related in the Fêng-shên about No-cha (Nata) quoted above is one of the cases which appear in chüan 2 of the Wu-têng Hui-yüan (EK), a work written by Monk P'u-chi (#) of the Sung dynasty, and is retold in chüan 2 of the Chih-yüeh Lu (f), edited by Ch'ü Ju-chi (W) of the Ming dynasty. It runs as follows:
Prince Nata, rending himself asunder, gave his flesh back to his mother and his bones to his father, and then manifesting
20 Nan Huai-chin (RM), Ch'an-hai Li-ts'ê (THU), Ch. 15, "Ch'an School and Tantrism" (RANER), pp. 205-211, Ching Ming Hsüeh Shê (W204), Taipei, 1955. cf. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki ( Kil), Essays in Zen Buddhism, Second Series, p. 94, London, Luzac, 1933.