Chapter Six: The Origin of the Wonderland (1)

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“I dare not,” Master Ruokong replied with a gentle smile, his face earnest and devoid of mockery toward Hua Sheng.

Master Ruokong carefully placed the cup down and poured two steaming cups of Zen tea from the teapot. He offered one to Hua Sheng, saying, “Please, enjoy.”

Hua Sheng gingerly lifted the cup; the tea was neither too hot nor too cold, just perfect. This reminded him suddenly of the first time he met the Supreme Young Lord, when the latter invited him to sip a carefully brewed Da Hong Pao in the leisurely courtyard of Xuanwu Divine Mountain.

At the thought, Hua Sheng sighed deeply.

Master Ruokong took a sip of his tea and asked, “Have you not yet put down your burdens, benefactor?”

Hua Sheng replied, “I want to return. I want my friends.”

Master Ruokong said, “Benefactor, where do you seek to return? And where have you come from?”

“I wish to go back to the Academy of Esoteric Arts.”

“You must know that now you can only remain within the confines of the Zen monastery.”

“But I want to leave.”

“Desire is attachment.”

“I want to find my friends, my immortal teachers.”

“Friends and immortal teachers are attachments as well.”

“Should I not desire them?”

“Neither should you desire nor not desire. You should let go.”

“Let go of all these?”

“You should let go of yourself.”

“How can I let go?”

“Any thought you hold is attachment. If you intend to act on your own, that is self-attachment.”

“If I think of nothing, does that mean I spend every day chanting sutras with you monks—sorry, with you venerable masters?”

“No. If you believe you are constrained or commanded by others, that is attachment to the Dharma.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“If attachment to the Dharma is broken, self-attachment can be extinguished; if self-attachment is broken, attachment to the Dharma can be severed.”

“What does that mean?”

“You do nothing, yet in doing nothing, you accomplish everything.”

“Isn’t this the non-action taught at the Academy of Esoteric Arts?”

“It is different.”

“How so?”

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“Once I speak, it ceases to be a genuine answer.”

“If you do not speak, how can I know the answer?”

“Because one does not rely on words. Once my answer is spoken and formed into words, it is already mistaken.”

Hua Sheng grew restless and said, “You can’t convince me like this—I still have to leave!”

“I do not seek to persuade you. What you need is your own enlightenment.”

“I am a cultivator; why am I trapped here? What karmic cause is this?”

“If you are truly a cultivator, you should know such doubts have no place.”

“How can cultivation still be subject to karma?”

“It is not.”

“By your logic, is it possible not to fall under karma?”

“Because you asked, benefactor,” Master Ruokong turned away, “the moment you ask, you fall into karma. Not only karma, but reincarnation.”

“Why?”

“Because cultivators do not avoid karma; they do not obscure karma.”

Hua Sheng sighed, “Fine. I accept my fate. Staying in this monastery for a hundred days is not impossible. Master, is your Wi-Fi signal strong here?”

“Benefactor, there is no internet here.”

“Master, that’s utterly inhumane!”

“The Four Great Elements are all empty; the Wi-Fi signal is naturally zero. Even if there were Wi-Fi, there are no devices to use it—no Ruibao Mirrors like at your Academy. So whether there is Wi-Fi or not, fast or slow, what difference does it make to you?”

“Master, this is not emptiness of the four elements; this is the absence of four modern conveniences!”

“Can you not live without internet?”

“No, I cannot.”

“Then your first lesson is to prove that you can live. Not just survive, but live well.”

“I understand, Master. My attachment to wireless internet—should I call it ‘net-attachment’?”

“No, benefactor, that is still attachment to the Dharma. By the way, your bone structure is truly…”

“Master, are you going to say I have an extraordinary bone structure?”

“No, just a classical build.”

Ruokong’s smile left Hua Sheng speechless.

Within the Great Thousand Zen Temple, in Master Ruokong’s chamber, Ruokong poured Hua Sheng another cup of tea. Though the teapot was small, the tea inside remained warm and flowed continuously. No matter how many cups were drunk, the teapot was always full.

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Neither hot nor cold, neither too much nor too little, never lacking or overflowing.

This sensation was like the warmth of Ruokong’s smile—no, perhaps a unique gentleness in his manner that disarmed Hua Sheng’s anger.

Besides, what use is anger? Hua Sheng thought to himself.

“Master, may I ask you a question?”

“Please, benefactor.”

Hua Sheng asked, “Why is the Great Thousand Zen Temple said to be both within and beyond the Sacred Peace?”

“That’s quite a long story.”

“It’s also one of my confusions,” Hua Sheng smiled wryly. “If it can be explained in ninety days, Master might as well tell me.”

Ruokong replied leisurely, “Since you do not mind, we should first visit the place of the Five Grains’ reincarnation, for my story must begin with the wars of the Sui and Tang dynasties.”

Hua Sheng chuckled, “No need; my kidneys are still fine.”

Thus, Ruokong began to slowly recount the story of Sacred Peace.

From 184 AD during the Three Kingdoms period, through the tumultuous Two Jin Dynasties, to the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties in 589 AD, China experienced over four centuries of rapid regime changes. During the more than 360 years from Wei to Sui, with over thirty dynasties rising and falling, various new cultural elements influenced and intermingled with each other. Mysticism, immortality arts, and sorcery abounded.

Then, with Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian’s unification of China, the country entered an unprecedented era of strength. Yang Guang, Yang Jian’s son, was a rare talent skilled in both civil and military affairs. Within just five years of his reign, the Sui dynasty reached an unparalleled peak in Chinese history, with the population only surpassed centuries later during the Tianbao era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. Even the renowned periods of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan could not compare.

Yet, as the fierce Sui-Tang wars erupted, news suddenly broke that Emperor Yang Guang of Sui had died mysteriously. Many rumors claimed that Li Yuan, the founding emperor of Tang, had used sorcery to strangle Yang Guang from thousands of miles away.

When news of Yang Guang’s assassination reached Luoyang, officials there proclaimed his grandson, Prince Yue, Yang Tong, as emperor—known historically as Emperor Huangtai. Yang Tong posthumously honored Yang Guang as Emperor Ming, with the temple name Shizu. Meanwhile, peasant rebel leader Dou Jiande posthumously called him Emperor Min. In the same year, Li Yuan forced the puppet emperor Yang You to abdicate, founding the Tang dynasty and disgracefully posthumously naming Yang Guang as Emperor Yang—the infamous “Yang Emperor”—thereby condemning him to eternal infamy.

Yang Guang’s downfall was certainly due in part to his debauchery and loss of resolve; yet he had laid the foundations of the early Sui prosperity through projects like building the eastern capital, constructing the Grand Canal, and campaigning against Goguryeo. The Grand Canal, later called the Sui-Tang Grand Canal, spanned more than ten degrees of latitude, traversing China’s richest North China Plain and southeastern coastal regions. It crossed eight provinces and municipalities—Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang—serving as a vital artery of north-south transportation and playing a monumental role in Chinese history.

Later, this canal system helped sustain the Tang dynasty during the An-Shi Rebellion. Although Tang lost control of populous and fiscally critical Hebei and Henan, it managed to hold the Jianghuai region, allowing it to survive for another century. Thanks to the canal network left by Yang Guang, Jianghuai became Tang’s main source of revenue, effectively providing life-saving support.

Had Yang Guang not met a violent end, the Tang might not have so swiftly seized power from the Sui. Li Yuan was well versed in sorcery and thus, after founding Tang, vigorously supported Daoism, honored Laozi as an ancestor, established Daoism as the state religion, and elevated the status of Daoist priests. Emperor Gaozu of Tang decreed, “Dao is great, Buddha is lesser; honor the old, then the new.”

However, having relied on sorcery, Li Yuan ultimately paid a price.

In 626 AD, Tang Taizong Li Shimin launched the Xuanwu Gate Incident. On the fourth day of the sixth lunar month, the day of Gengshen (July 2, 626), Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Prince Qi Li Yuanji arrived at Linhu Palace, falling into Li Shimin’s ambush. Despite countless battles, Li Yuanji failed to fully draw his bow three times, while Li Shimin killed Crown Prince Li Jiancheng with a single arrow. The strange circumstances led Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan to suspect Li Shimin had also secretly used sorcery.

In truth, Li Shimin’s chief general, Qin Qiong, did not directly participate in the Xuanwu Gate Incident. Qin Qiong had joined the Li family along with Cheng Yaojin because of his disdain for the treachery of Wang Shichong. He remained internally opposed to Li Shimin’s fratricidal and patricidal acts, refusing to partake in such sorcery-assisted deeds. This upright conduct earned him great reverence as a “door god,” with common folk affixing his image to their doorways for protection over centuries.

After Li Shimin took control of Chang’an, Li Yuan recognized the situation and recalled that three days earlier, on June 29, 626, the planet Venus appeared at its zenith in the southern sky—a portent of celestial order. He abdicated and became Taishang Huang (Retired Emperor).

Thereafter, Tang Taizong ascended the throne, reaffirming, “My lineage begins beneath the pillar,” and collected secret Daoist texts from the Jin and Wei eras to widely disseminate the Dao. Emperor Gaozong revered Laozi as the “Supreme Mysterious Primordial Emperor,” while Emperor Xuanzong promoted internal Daoist reforms, striving to restore Daoism’s golden age under Huang-Lao teachings.

Yet, the mysteries of the divine were beyond ordinary grasp. If such uncontrollable forces were to run rampant among the populace, no one could guarantee which Tang emperor might one day fall victim to sorcery. Thus, the withdrawal of enlightened beings from the mortal realm was widely welcomed.

Accordingly, in the third year of Zhenguan (630 AD), the Tang dynasty reached an agreement with the Immortal Realm. Immortals with unfinished ties to the mortal world, along with Tang residents possessing immortal roots in esoteric arts, could settle in a remote southern border region of Tang territory, establishing a narrow domain called the Sacred Peace Source. Inhabitants of both realms were forbidden from interfering with one another. This marked the “Old Calendar Year One of the Sacred Realm” in Sacred Peace.