The Empress of Bright Moon (The Empress of Bright Moon, #2)

by Weina Dai Randel

Sometimes Pheasant mentioned troubles near the border with the Tibetans. Their old king, Srongtsan Gampo, had died, and the new king had discarded our peace pact and ransacked many towns on our border.

He threw his sleeves behind him with a dramatic flare. And then to my astonishment, he recited the entire “The Preface to the Orchid Pavilion.”

“Fear,” she said from the pavilion, “is a roof. If you do not break it, you shall not see the sky. My mentor’s words.”

The reception hall was spacious. A sign displaying the characters Zhi Hui Tang, the Hall of Wisdom, was set in the center of the room. The walls were painted with murals of eight immortals and the famous Penglai Islands.

do beg to ask, is immortality really achievable through ingestion of elixir, as so claimed by Taoists?”

“I shall be glad to obey, Luminous Lady.” He sighed. “But I will tell you this before I leave. The fire of grief shall set ablaze a thousand trees, but only virtue will bear the fruit of your trees.”

The light of kindness, of compassion, is dim, like the light coming from a candle’s small wick, but when it is kindled, it will illuminate the whole hall. And virtue, like the prick of light, needs only a spark of flame. Once it is lit, the flame shall light up the path that benefits many—the weak, the sick, and the poor—and that, my child, is the path for peace, the path for all.”

Could I fight against rumor? I did not think so, for rumor had no grave and only bore seeds. It germinated in the air, thrived in the sun, and ripened in the shadows. It would not die in the rain and fly only higher in the wind.

“Fear is a roof, Luminous Lady. Once you break it, you shall see the sky.”

“When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and righteousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind, and all will be happy to serve their leaders.”

On a summer day, when I once rode on the streets of Chang’an, I glimpsed the arched buildings of Manichaean shrines, the flying eaves of Taoist abbeys, and many saffron walls of Buddhist temples.

Empress Wu ushered in a new era for Buddhism, helping the religion take root in China, and eventually Buddhism grew to be a rival of Taoism and Confucianism. She instructed the building of the Long Men Caves in Luoyang, which hosted a wealth of Buddhist art and featured a prominent statue of the great Buddha modeled after her own image. The caves remain a major part of Buddhist heritage today.