Once upon a time, there was a mountain. On the mountain was a temple, and in the temple was a young monk.
Huiran was abandoned at the foot of the mountain as a child. An old monk from the temple found him and raised him on the mountain. The temple's morning bells and evening drums shaped him into a precocious young monk, free of worldly desires.
One day, Huiran went down the mountain to gather firewood. On his way back, he stopped at a Taoist temple halfway up the mountain to ask for water. To his surprise, he ran straight into a young woman, or rather, a Taoist nun. She held a bouquet of brightly colored flowers in her arms, and petals scattered across Huiran's spotless monk's robe.
Huiran quickly lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry."
But the young woman raised her lovely, radiant face and blocked his way, staring at him as she said, "Little Master, has anyone ever told you how handsome you are?"
Huiran's face turned red. His master had said that if one's heart was steadfast in meditation, no matter how offensive someone else's words were, one would remain unmoved. Clearly, his own heart wasn't steadfast enough.
How could he have known that this day would be the beginning of his faith crumbling?
She said her name was Huan Ying. How strange. Why did her name sound so colorful?
The Taoist nun had no Taoist heart, yet she tempted the young monk into losing his Buddhist faith. The young monk, who had believed that all four elements were empty, learned love, hate, anger, and obsession. They agreed to escape down the mountain together that night and become an ordinary married couple.
Huiran waited below the mountain, full of hope, all night. Huan Ying never came. Instead, the old monk arrived.
The old monk took him back to the temple and gave him two choices: repent for his wrongdoing before the Buddha and never leave the mountain again, or take fifty strokes, roll down the mountain, and never enter the monastic life again.
Huiran said he wanted to return to secular life.
When he finally dragged his wounded body down to the foot of the mountain, he happened upon the Pei family of Hedong marrying off their daughter. He watched helplessly as Huan Ying, dressed in bridal robes and holding a round fan, passed before him to marry someone else. She urged him to let go of what had passed like flowing water, though she herself had long since awakened to the beauty of their fated love.
Huiran entered the secular world and found his family. The young monk who had given up his religious name became the eldest son of the Xie family of Chen Commandery, Xie Yunfeng.
He put down his prayer beads and sutras, and took up swords and the art of war.
In these troubled times, the Buddha could not save the countless millions, but someone standing on high with a sword could. He wanted to be the one who saved people.
On the day the city fell, Xie Yunfeng saw Huan Ying once again, inside a Buddhist shrine in the enemy capital. By then, he was a general and she was a prisoner of war. He had taken up the sword, while she had taken up the scriptures.
He raised her chin with his bloodstained sword and said coldly, "Your heart is impure. You don't deserve to practice Buddhism. Staying here would only profane the gods."
Huan Ying lowered her eyes. "Then where does General Xie think I should go?"
"To my residence."
"General Xie, don't forget that I'm already another man's wife."
"I've already killed him, so as of now, you're a new widow."
Theme: Positive energy
