PureInsight | April 28, 2024
[PureInsight.org] Mo Cai has reached the age to get married, but she evaluates nobles based on her brother's qualities and manners, and she hasn't found anyone she likes. However, she is still very happy to be with her brother, sister-in-law, and her cute nephew. Life is beautiful.
A year later, the King of Jule, Dai Le, from a faraway land sent a marriage proposal to the Princess of Motian Kingdom. The emissary of the proposal brought generous gifts, as well as the King's portrait and letter. This event caused a great sensation in Motian Kingdom. When Mo Cai heard about it from her sister-in-law, she was calm, but when her brother talked about it, she felt a bit shy.
Mo Le brought the portrait of Dai Le to show his sister Mo Cai. Mo Cai examined the portrait of Dai Le and felt his broad-mindedness and genuine sincerity from the bottom of his heart. Dai Le had a slight smile on his face, as if a flat boat slowly paddled into Mo Cai's heart. Mo Cai's gaze rested between Dai Le's eyebrows, feeling as if his eyes could speak and invite her to a warm country, promising to protect her for a lifetime. Suddenly, Mo Cai felt a mysterious emotion gripping her heart, an experience she had never had before.
Mo Le looked at Mo Cai's expression and felt a sinking feeling in his heart, as if he had a premonition of something. He carefully examined the portrait as well. After a while, Mo Cai said to her brother, "I feel like I've seen this portrait somewhere before. There is a strange sense of familiarity with this King. It's so strange!" Mo Le felt an indescribable emotion surging up in his heart when he heard this. He thought, "I regret bringing the portrait. I wish my sister did not feel anything. I really want her to find a suitable husband in our country."
Mo Le thought for a moment and said, "Sister, marriage is predetermined by fate. Let us go ask for God's will! The God will give us a sign." The siblings went to the tower to worship God and received a sign that Dai Le and Mo Cai were destined to be together, and Mo Cai was to marry to Jule Kingdom. Mo Le did not think much about it and came back to prepare a dowry for Mo Cai.
Mo Cai was reluctant to leave her country. Before leaving, she went to worship the goddess Momo. Mo Cai still felt that Momo was both sacred and kind. Momo had shown herself several times to save Mo Cai. Once, Mo Cai fell from a large tree, and Momo gently held her up. Another time, while swimming in the sea, her legs suddenly went numb, and Momo brought her back to shore. There was also a time when Mo Le shot down a large bear while hunting, and Mo Cai thought the bear was dead, so she went closer to look. However, the bear suddenly stood up again, and everyone was panicked. Mo Le was scared to death at that moment, but then Mo Cai saw the goddess Momo in a white outfit appear and wave her hand, causing the bear to fall down. Mo Cai regarded Momo as a saint in her heart.
After worshiping the spirits, the priest Mengg Gang took out a bracelet with many round wooden pieces on it, each decorated with beautiful floral and cloud patterns. He said, "This is a protective bracelet that has been blessed with divine power. I give it to the princess, hoping that you will wear it and never take it off."
Mo Cai was both happy and excited in her heart. She knelt in front of the priest and said, "The bracelet has been blessed with divine power and your own spiritual energy. Your blessing is the best protection for me throughout my life. I humbly request that you personally put it on me. I want to keep it as a permanent memento and will never take it off."
After speaking, Mo Cai extended her right hand, and the priest put the bracelet on her wrist. Mo Cai caressed the bracelet with her hand, feeling as if she had obtained a rare treasure.
Meng Gang looked at Mo Cai and said, "Stand up, clever princess, I have more to say." Mo Cai stood up and looked at the priest. The priest spoke earnestly, "The princess is about to marry a distant land. I hope that as the queen of the new country, you will be gentle and virtuous, devoutly worship the Buddha, and govern the country with maternal grace. You should not show off your talents or surpass your husband's wisdom. Managing the country is a man's job. I hope you will always follow the queen's example and remember my words. May my blessings always be with you." Mo Cai understood the priest's words and the meaning behind them, and she took them to heart. When she left the temple, Mo Cai felt like she had grown up all at once. She was no longer the happy princess who followed her brother around, and she knew that her life was going to change dramatically.
Mo Le brought with her a generous dowry and personally escorted her sister to the border. At the moment of parting, Mo Cai shed tears. Mo Le was very reluctant to see his sister leave, and when he saw Mo Cai crying, he felt a deep pain in his heart.
Mo Cai married the King of Jule Kingdom and was greeted by a procession led by the King himself from a distance. When he saw Mo Cai, the King, Dai Le, was overjoyed. He thought Mo Cai would be the most beautiful bride in the world. The feeling he got from Mo Cai was the same as the feeling he got from her portrait. The two of them felt no sense of strangeness when they were together, and their conversation was very pleasant. Along the way, Dai Le introduced Mo Cai to the system of laws and regulations, customs, and habits of Jule Kingdom. Dai Le told Mo Cai that his mother had died of illness when he was ten, and when he was fifteen, his father handed over the national affairs to him and entered the mountains to practice cultivation. Mo Cai listened and felt sympathetic. After arriving in the capital, Mo Cai rested in a palace near the royal palace.
One day, accompanied by Dai Le, Mo Cai was surprised to hear him say with a smile, "You are the most beautiful warrior in my heart." Without thinking, Mo Cai blurted out, "I think you should say that I am the most beautiful bride in your heart." Dai Le laughed and explained, "Three years ago, your name had already spread throughout the Kingdom of Jule, and people talked about how heroic the siblings from Motian Kingdom were. At that time, I longed to see the princess's beauty. Later, based on other people's descriptions, I painted a portrait of you, with a wish in my heart to marry you. For this, I bathed and fasted, prayed fervently to the gods, hoping that my wish would come true. The portrait that was sent to Motian Kingdom was painted by me personally, and I poured my sincerity and wish into it, hoping to move you. After setting out for the proposal, I prayed to the gods every day, hoping for a successful proposal, and I was overjoyed when my wish came true. You will soon become the most beautiful bride in the Kingdom of Jule, and I hope you will be happy." Dai Le's sincere words moved Mo Cai, and tears slowly welled up in her eyes. She lowered her head and let the tears drop silently.
The high priest of Jule Kingdom, Yue Chen, presided over the King's wedding. He felt that the queen was like a fairy and believed that her wisdom far exceeded her beauty. At the grand wedding ceremony, Dai Le's heart was filled with joy. He had married his beloved and hoped they would never be separated. After expressing his wish, Mo Cai saw three flowers appearing in the sky and thought it was an auspicious sign.
In this unfamiliar country, Mo Cai quickly adapted to everything around her thanks to Dai Le's attentive care. After their marriage, Dai Le was busy with state affairs but often took the queen to become familiar with the surroundings. Mo Cai remembered Meng Gang's instructions and appeared in front of everyone with a virtuous demeanor. The people of Jule Kingdom believed that their queen was not only beautiful, dignified, and noble but also virtuous and truly worthy of being a motherly example for all.
Although Mo Cai is highly respected in this country and is well taken care of by Dai Le, she sometimes misses her own country very much. She often dreams of her family in her dreams, her brother's wisdom and tolerance, her sister-in-law's virtue and beauty, and her nephew's cleverness and playfulness. Mo Cai also dreams of Momo and wakes up in tears. Mo Le also misses her sister and often dreams of being together with her sister hunting and playing. After waking up, he feels lost.
One year later, at the annual Buddhist ceremony in Jule Kingdom, Yue Chen saw the queen and still believed that she was very wise, but she had not shown her talent. Therefore, Yue Chen specially requested from the King to play a game of Tongtian chess with the queen. Dai Le was very surprised because Tongtian chess had always been in the hands of the priests and was a key to understanding the will of heaven, guiding the country's progress. Even the previous Kings had never seen the true face of Tongtian chess, they had only heard of it. Dai Le nodded, and Mo Cai saw Tongtian chess in the priest's meditation room.
The Tongtian chessboard is square-shaped, with concentric circles and many intersecting squares inside. The Tongtian chess pieces are made of jade and there are 32 pieces in total. Each piece has a different character on it, including heaven, earth, human, water, fire, wind, disaster, anomaly, movement, virtue, goodness, spirit, grass, becoming, dwelling, and extinction. These pieces can be combined in any way, and "spirit" and "anomaly" can be combined with "earth", "water", "fire", "wind", "human", and others.
As she became familiar with the board and the pieces, the flexibility of the Tongtian chess surprised Mo Cai. She placed a piece down and felt it combine with the others, transforming into a spirit. Every move she made changed the game, making it unpredictable. Mo Cai felt like she was not just playing a game, but rather invoking supernatural forces. Each piece was turning into a living entity, and the combination of the pieces was simply breathtaking. When she connected the "fire" and "disaster" pieces, she saw a fire dragon, and when she invoked the "water" spirit, she saw a water dragon. Mo Cai was amazed by the magic of Tongtian chess.
Yue Chen observed the queen's understanding of the chessboard and the use of the chess pieces. The queen quickly became familiar with the Tiantian chess and showed great proficiency in using the mysterious powers behind the chess pieces, which surprised Yue Chen greatly. Through the game of chess, Yue Chen confirmed his own inference that the queen was highly talented but had been hiding her abilities. Therefore, Yue Chen suggested to the King that the queen, with her outstanding talent and strategy, should participate in the state affairs. When Dai Le and Mo Cai talked about the priest's suggestion, Mo Cai modestly declined.
Dai Le wanted to build a palace as a gift for his beautiful wife. When digging the foundation, Mo Cai came to see and was surprised to see five different beings with fierce faces and different colors of skin at the five directions of the foundation. Mo Cai felt uneasy and wondered: when building the Golden Tower in Motian Kingdom, there were five Heavenly Children, but what she saw now, were they five demonic beings? Did they correspond to the construction not lasting long? Or did they have some other meaning? After thinking about it, she decided to seek help from the priest Yue Chen.
On this day, while playing Tongtian chess, the priest sensed that it was not appropriate to build a palace. As he was pondering over it, someone came to report that the queen had come to see him. So, the priest put away the game pieces and went out to see the queen. When she saw the priest, Mo Cai spoke openly about the vision she had seen, hoping that the priest could interpret the strange phenomenon. The priest knew then that the queen had special abilities.
The priest said, Tongtian chess can give guidance on the country's destiny. Now, I hope to play a game of chess with the queen to see the country's destiny." While playing chess with the priest, Mo Cai rolled up the sleeve of her left arm and placed the pieces, her bracelet sliding down from the middle of her forearm to her wrist. The priest noticed the queen's bracelet and glanced at it, his face suddenly showing a strange expression. He put the game pieces back in the box, clasped his hands together, slightly bowed his body, and said to the queen, "The queen's bracelet is quite unusual. I saw it shimmering with a rainbow-colored light. I have a request that may be inappropriate, but could the queen take off the bracelet for me to observe it?" Mo Cai replied, "Please forgive me. The bracelet was given to me by the priest of my motherland, and he told me not to take it off. I promised him." The priest's face showed a surprised expression.
As a priest and also a prophet, Yue Chen knew some of the secrets of Tongtian chess. Although Tongtian chess had been passed down to him, he was merely a preserver. For generations, priests had passed down one thing through oral teachings and personal guidance – Tongtian chess had its own master. When Tongtian chess found its master, a great Buddha would appear in the world, leading all Buddhas and people to be free from suffering, imparting teachings to all living beings. At the end of the eon, they would attain the Dharma and practice it, not falling into delusion, and attain great freedom. One omen of the appearance of the Tongtian chess's master was that the priest would see a wooden bracelet that could transform into a rainbow on a noble wrist.
Yue Chen fell into contemplation. Could the Tongtian chess master be the priest of Motian Kingdom? He felt that the celestial mechanism had already been revealed. Yue Chen still kept a harsh secret in his heart: the departure of Tongtian chess was precisely when Jule Kingdom changed hands, and the national fortune would decline. Yue Chen decided to obey the will of heaven.
Yue Chen continued to play chess. He knew that if a palace was built, it would be destroyed in the flames of war. Yue Chen stopped placing his chess pieces, and Mo Cai took her leave.
Yue Chen advised Dai Le that the construction of the palace would harm the nation's fate, and requested the King to stop the project and restore the site. Mo Cai also requested Dai Le to do the same, saying that she felt uneasy after seeing the site. Dai Le listened to their advice and stopped the project.
(To be continued)
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/241964
