The Twelve Beauties of Jinling: Tales of Their Past Lives

The Record of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling: Their Past Lives begins in the Land of Illusion, tracing the immortal ties and fates of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling. When chaos first gave way to creation, a wisp of “sentiment” took form as Fairy Disenchantment, who presides over the Department of Ill-Fated Beauties and the Department of Love and Romance, witnessing the cycles of passion and tribulation across the Three Realms. On the banks of the Western Spirit River, the Crimson Pearl Flower was nourished by the sweet dew of the Divine Attendant Shen Ying and vowed to repay his kindness with tears. The Azure Phoenix of the Jade Lake, a handmaiden of the Nine Heavens’ Mysterious Maiden, a Rakshasa from the Underworld, and eight other immortal maidens all formed fateful bonds with Shen Ying, whether through rivalry for his affections or by breaking the laws of heaven. A stubborn stone left behind by the goddess Nuwa after repairing the heavens lamented its lack of worth and begged an immortal monk and a Taoist priest to take it into the mortal world. Fairy Disenchantment transformed it into the “Soul-Passing Jade,” the catalyst for the Twelve Beauties’ tribulations of love. The Mirror of Romance reflected the changing fortunes of the Grand View Garden: the elegance of burying flowers at the Xiaoxiang Pavilion and chasing butterflies at the Hengwu Courtyard would ultimately become the desolation of tears hanging from bamboo and moss growing over fragrant graves. Fairy Disenchantment kept the Record of Karma, chronicling fated events such as “the struggle between gold and jade,” “the tiger and rhinoceros meeting,” and “the journey to the sea frontier.” The Boundless Great Master and the Vastly Subtle True Person watched the unfolding tribulations, lamenting that “all prosperity must decline” even as they praised how “devotion reaches its utmost in love.” This is a final song of immortal maidens enduring mortal tribulations: repaying kindness with tears and proving love with their lives. In the end, against “a boundless, barren land,” it lays bare the laws of heaven that govern the meeting and parting of fated hearts, and the tangled bonds of love.