The Dragon King, The Emperor and a New Wife….
The most spectacular cluster of tombs at Bukit Brown belonging to Ong Sam Leong and family is resplendent with carved panels which depict stories from epic Chinese classics.
Ang Yik Han shares 2 panels of a story in the Chinese classic “Journey to the West”
Panel 1 from:
“After touring the underworld, the spirit of Emperor Taizong returns”
游地府太宗还魂
Underworld official adds 2 strokes to character as Emperor flanked by 2 companions look on (photo Yik Han)
Background: One of the dragon kings ran afoul of celestial law and was sentenced to be executed by an official at the Tang court. The desperate dragon turned to the then Emperor, Li Shiming (李世民), and beseeches him not to allow the official to go to sleep as that was the time the deed was supposed to be done. The Emperor agreed to help and promptly summoned the official to play chess overnight with him. During the game however, the official dozed off and in that short interval his spirit went off and slew the dragon king.
The spirit of the dragon then hounded Li Shiming to no end, accusing him of not keeping his promise. Unable to take the strain, he fell desperately ill and died. When his spirit travelled to the underworld, he was received respectfully by Yen Lo, the King of the Underworld, and the Kings of the 10 Courts, who ordered that his record be reviewed. One of the underworld officials found that after a reign of eleven years the Emperor’s time was indeed up. With a quick flourish of the brush, he helpfully added two strokes to the character for one, turning it into a three. When the record was presented to the gathered kings, they decided to send Li Shiming back to the mortal world, and he promised to send them some pumpkins as a gift.
Panel 2 continues the story of Li Shiming….
“Presenting fruits, Liu Quan finds a new wife”
进瓜果刘全续配
When he returned to the mortal realm, the Emperor ordered that notices be put up throughout the empire to seek an emissary who would be willing to travel to the underworld to deliver the pumpkins. It so happened that there was a man named Liu Quan (刘全) who had just lost his wife. He caught her giving her a hairpin to a monk who was seeking alms and accused her of being unchaste. In anger, she comm
itted suicide. When he saw the Emperor’s notice, the remorseful Liu Quan volunteered as he wanted to see his wife again. Armed with the pumpkins and a letter from the Emperor, he took poison and sure enough he showed up at the gates of the underworld where the guards let him in. Yen Lo kindly let him meet his wife, both their records were reviewed, and there was the happy discovery that their time was not up yet. There was a small problem though – the wife’s corpse had decayed so her spirit could not return to it. Coincidentally, the Emperor’s sister happened to pass away then, so her body was used as the vessel for the spirit of Liu Quan’s wife.
Liu Quan heading to hell to deliver pumpkins (photo Yik Han)
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