Fuban Yaoguai Kings
Description
The Kingdom of Flowing Sands, abundant with gold, marked the sun’s daily demise.
The sun, truest of fires, plunged into the Western Seas, and the waters boiled and hissed at its touch. Each dusk as the evening bell tolled, the king sent men to the ramparts, where they beat upon a great drum and sound clarion calls, thus neutralizing the noise of the seas, which would otherwise be sharp enough to ravage babies in their cradles.
This drum, known as the Drum of the Setting Sun, was a gift from the Buddha and granted peace to the common folk. In gratitude, they filled their land with golden statues of all those enlightened, and the place came to be known as the Buddhist Land of Gold.
Yet as the years passed, the people’s reverence for the Buddha grew to overshadow their regard for their secular ruler. This did not sit well with the King of the Flowing Sands. The chancellor, sensing his displeasure, petitioned for an end to Buddhism. And so the King decreed the razing of temples, the banishment of monks, and even the change of the kingdom’s name.
Not long after, at dusk when the great drum was struck, a monstrous insect erupted from the earth beyond the border. With terrible might, it ravaged the humble villages, leaving untold dead in its wake. From then on, the sound of the drum unfailingly drew that yaoguai from its den to wreak new ruin.
The people declared this to be karmic retribution, the result of the king’s impiety. The chastened king halted his suppression of the Buddhist faith and sent armies to slay the creature. Yet what hope had mortal men to prevail against a foe so mighty and dreadful? After a bitter struggle, they could only manage to frighten it back to its lair.
Fortunately, there was an enlightened monk, yellow of hair and garb, passing through the land. This righteous soul could not bear to witness woe and injustice and aided the armies in slaying the wicked insect. In gratitude, the king honored him with the title of Royal Sage, and the monk resided in the kingdom for several years.
In time, the Royal Sage took his leave and resumed his wanderings. Word came that a bodhisattva, well pleased by his worthy deed, had taken him as a disciple. He then founded his temple in Yellow Wind Ridge. “See how the world favors virtue!” the king often remarked.
Poetry
Armored strong, with horns that rise,
Burrowing brings endless human cries.
A Buddha’s head, yet ominous it seems,
One side a saint, the other a fiend.
Sign up
No Comments