Miao Shan was in tel li gent and ea ger to learn even when she was a small child. As she grew into a young lady, her par ents tried to marry her off because, accord ing to the so cial norms of the time, keep ing an un mar ried grown-up daugh ter would be a dis grace to the fam ily. Miao Shan, how ever, re -fused re peat edly. At their wits’ end, her par ents locked her up in a chamber in the back yard garden. There, tak ing ad van tage of her quiet, se ques tered en vi ron ment, Miao Shan med i tated and be came a de vout Bud dhist be liever, as she had been in her pre vi ous ex is tence as Shi Shan. No mat ter how King Miao Zhuang and Queen Boya rea soned with her, Miao Shan would not change her mind. She told her parents that she had de voted her self to Bud dha and would never think of worldly af fairs such as mar riage. Her sis ters, both mar ried by now, came to see her and, us ing them selves as ex am ples, tried to per suade her, but in vain.

One day, Miao Shan decided to leave for a nearby nun nery called the Tem ple of White Pea -cock. She wanted to be part of the 500-nun com mu nity there. Her par ents let her go with great re luc -tance. Before her de par ture, Miao Shan apolo gized to them, “Fa ther and Mother, I’m sorry that I have to leave and can’t take care of you any more. But when I be come a pusa, I will come for your sal va tion.”

In the tem ple, Miao Shan worked and stud ied hard. When Yuhuang Dadi learned that she had be come a nun, he or dered all the celestial dei ties to assist her and made her tran sition to a nun’s life eas ier. The hus tle and bus tle of the ce les tial de i ties work ing at night scared the other nuns so much that they com plained of Miao Shan to her parents. Her fa ther came with his soldiers and tried to get Miao Shan back. When she rejected his de mand, the fa ther be came so fu rious that he de cided to burn the temple down. Three times did Miao Shan save it from the flames by bit ing her fin ger and sprin -kling the blood from the wound over the structure.

King Miao Zhuang be came even more wrath ful. He ar rested Miao Shan and con demned her to death. Her queen mother wanted to give her a chance and or dered that Miao Shan be im pris oned in the lenggong, where the king ban ished his disfavored con cu bines. The queen hoped that with time and per sua sion, her daugh ter would even tu ally come around. Nev er the less, the queen was wrong, be cause Miao Shan would not give in at all.

When the ex e cu tion day came, the lo cal tudiye re ported her im mi nent death to Yuhuang Dadi. The heav enly em peror had her en shrouded with a magic red light to fend off the ex e cu tioner’s hatchet. Frus trated, the bru tal fa ther or dered Miao Shan to be smoth ered with a red satin scarf. Be fore she gave her last breath, a large, white ti ger dashed into the ex e cution ground, snatched the dy ing Miao Shan, and ran to ward a black for est. There, the King of the Underworld gave her a tour of his king dom. Un able to bear see ing the dead suf fer ing, the merciful Miao Shan closed her palms in front of her bosom and started to pray and chant. Sud denly all the shack les on the tor mented dead came loose and broke into pieces. The King of the Neth erworld had to can cel her led ger of death and re turn her to this world.

Soon, Bud dha took Miao Shan as his dis ci ple. Nine years later, she be came a bo dhi satt va or pusa. The Chi nese now pre fer to call her Guanyin, Guanshiyin, or Guanyin Pusa. She is be lieved to have a thou sand eyes able to per ceive peo ple’s mis eries and a thou sand hands able to de liver them from their suf fer ings. She had two close dis ci ples: a boy named Shan Cai (Good Fortune) and a girl called Long Nü (Dragon Prin cess). The fol low ing tale ex plains how Dragon Prin cess be came Guanyin’s dis ci ple.

The Dragon King’s beau ti ful daugh ter, Dragon Prin cess, was the ap ple of his eye. Fear ful of pos si ble dan gers the out side world might pose to her, he never al lowed her to venture out of the longgong (Dragon Palace), which was in the sea

On land, hu mans were cel e brat ing the Lan tern Fes ti val, bring ing the half-month Chinese New Year sea son to a new height. Dragon Prin cess could not re sist her cu rios ity. She pes tered her fa ther to let her go and take a look, as she often did. The Dragon King, how ever, cat e gor i cally re jected her re -quest, as usual.

When night fell, the prin cess slipped out of the pal ace and went on shore. She dis guised her self as a coun try girl and went into town, where the Lan tern Fes ti val party was in full swing. Hundreds upon hun dreds of lan terns with diverse designs lit up the streets as if it were day time. The ex qui site col ors and dec o ra tions of the lan terns sim ply cap ti vated Dragon Prin cess. She had never imag ined that the hu man world could be so beau ti ful! She was en joy ing her self when a splash of wa ter fell on her head and her body. Some one liv ing on the sec ond floor of a house along the street had tossed his cold tea out of his win dow. The sud den occur rence ter ri fied the prin cess, because she re alized that when her body touched wa ter, her dragoness na ture would re veal it self. Her trans for ma tion would scare the peo ple and thus cre ate a stam pede, which would def i nitely ruin the Lan tern Fes ti val cel e -bra tion. Try ing to get back to the sea be fore her meta mor pho sis took place, she dashed to ward the sea side, el bow ing and nudg ing through the crowd. She ran and ran, and only a few feet be fore she could reach the wa ter, she fell and turned into a big fish, flop ping and flapping on the sand. She had tried all she could not to turn into her dragoness body in or der to min i mize the im pact of her transfor -ma tion on the hu mans who would see her. As it hap pened, two young fish er men had just returned from the sea and dis em barked from their fish ing boat. They were amazed at such a big, strange fish. One of them wanted to set it free; the other, how ever, sug gested that they sell it to gether with the fish they had caught, for some ex tra money. Without know ing that it was Dragon Prin cess, they car ried the big fish downtown.

Dragon Prin cess’s plight did not es cape the discerning eyes of Guanyin while she was med i tat -ing in the Pur ple Bam boo For est. The Goddess of Mercy could not let any thing bad hap pen to the princess. She asked her dis ci ple, Shan Cai, to go and buy the fish.

“But how?” asked Shan Cai, per plexed. “We have no money.”

“You silly boy!” Guanyin admon ished him good-humoredly and smiled. “Go and take with you some of the in cense ashes.”

“Af ter all, you are my mas ter!” com mented Shan Cai as he re ceived the ashes from Guanyin and left for the fish ing town on his lo tus glider. When he ar rived, he found the two fish er men ped -dling their fish down town, with a crowd around mar vel ing at the big, strange fish. Peo ple made var i -ous com ments about the fish, but none would make an of fer to buy it be cause it was too big and too ex pen sive. A grey-bearded man sug gested that the fish be cut into pieces. Shan Cai hated the idea but par doned the old man for not know ing the identity of the fish. The sense less sug ges tion, how ever, scared the wits out of Dragon Prin cess. Just as one of the fish ermen raised his hatchet to cut the fish, a boy monk stopped him, say ing, “I’ll buy the whole fish.”

“Aren’t you monks vege tar ians?” the fisher man asked taunt ingly.

“Yes, we are, because we don’t kill,” responded the young monk. “I am buying it be cause I want to re lease it into the sea.” He handed the two fisher men his money and asked them to help carry the fish to the sea shore. As soon as they let go the fish in the wa ter, it splashed its tail a few times, as if to ex press its grat i tude. Then it sub merged into the depth of the sea. The two fish er men re joiced at their good for tune, but when they took a close look at what they had in their hands, it was noth ing but in cense ashes.

The dis appearance of the princess had thrown the longgong into chaos, and the dragon fa ther into dis tress. He had or dered his ma rine servants and guards men to search for his daugh ter in and above the sea. Be fore he re al ized where his daugh ter could have gone, his daughter had re turned

from her ad ven ture. The fum ing fa ther de manded that she tell ev ery thing about her ab sence. When the prin cess men tioned the young monk who had saved her life, the fa ther be came wor ried. He knew that the monk must have been Shan Cai, Guanyin’s dis ci ple. He feared that Guanyin might re port the neg li gence of his guard ian ship to Yuhuang Dadi. The more he wor ried, the an grier he be came at his daugh ter, blam ing her for the mess. His wrath drove him so crazy that he turned his daugh ter out of his pal ace.

Now that she had nowhere to turn, Dragon Prin cess be gan to weep help lessly. Guanyin heard her cry and sent Shan Cai to help her again.

“Do you rec og nize me?” Shan Cai asked.

“You are the monk who saved my life!” said the prin cess, smil ing, tears still lin ger ing on her cheeks. “I have n’t had time to say thanks yet.”

“Don’t thank me. I’ll take you to some one for whom you re ally should feel thank ful,” said Shan Cai.

When they ar rived in the Pur ple Bamboo For est, Shan Cai in troduced Dragon Prin cess to Guanyin. Guanyin liked the grate ful prin cess very much and asked her if she wanted to be with her, like Shan Cai. Dragon Prin cess readily ac cepted the of fer. Guanyin made Dragon Prin cess her sec -ond dis ci ple and called her Long Nü, or Dragon’s Daugh ter.

When the Dragon King learned that his daugh ter had be come Guanyin’s dis ci ple, he re gret ted driving her away. He wanted her to come back, but each time he asked, Long Nü re jected him. She told him that she still loved him, but her love for Guanyin was greater. Be sides, she enjoyed be ing away from the seclusion of his longgong