Revised edition, with illustrations.
EVERYONE calls Beijing the Eight-armed Nezha City.* They say only
eight-armed Nezha could have subdued the vicious dragons in Bitter Sea
Waste. Well, how did Beijing come to be built as an Eight-armed Nezha
City? There's a folk-tale about this.
The Emperor decided to build a northern capital, Beijing,** and
entrusted this task to the Minister of Works. That threw the minister
into a panic. He promptly petitioned the throne: “Beijing was
originally known as the Bitter Sea Waste, and the dragons there are too
vicious for your humble subject to overcome. I beg Your Majesty to send
some military advisers instead!”
The Emperor saw reason in this. Beijing could only be built by a
genius with knowledge of heaven and earth, who knew the ways of both
the spirits above and the devils below. So he asked his advisers,
“Which of you can go and build a northern capital for me?”
His advisers eyed each other, not daring to utter a word, until
finally someone really had to answer and Chief Adviser Liu Bowen
volunteered, “I'll go!”
At once Deputy Adviser Yao Guangxiao volunteered, “And so will I.”
The Emperor was pleased, sure that these two outstanding advisers had
the ability to overcome dragons and tigers. He forthwith sent them off
to build Beijing.
Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao took the imperial edict and travelled to
the Waste where Beijing now stands. After putting up in a hostel, they
went out every day to survey the terrain and figure out how to build
the city in such a way that the dragons could not make trouble.
However, Chief Adviser Liu and Deputy Adviser Yao had nothing but
contempt for each other.
“Deputy Adviser Yao,” proposed Liu, “let's live apart, you in the
west city, I in the east. Each of us must think up a plan, then in ten
days' time we'll meet and, sitting back to back, draw our plans for the
city. Then we'll compare the two to see if they tally.”
Yao Guangxiao knew perfectly well that Liu Bowen hoped to shine and
hog all the credit.
“Very well,” he said with a grim smile. “You're right, chief adviser,
that's what we should do.”
So the two advisers split up. For the first couple of days, although
the two of them were staying apart and neither went out to survey the
terrain, both heard a voice saying, “Just copy me and you'll do fine.”
The voice sounded like a child's, and the words were clearly repeated
time and again. Who could the speaker be?
There was no one to be seen. “Just copy me” — what did that mean?
Neither adviser could make head or tail of this.
Adventure
