place among the Perfect Ones. In a few days only he had reached this
much-sought-after condition.

In another version we find fuller details concerning this
Immortal. A graduate named Yuean Wen-cheng of Ch'ao-yang Hsien, in
the sub-prefecture of Ch'ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung, was travelling with
his wife to take his examinations at the capital. Ts'ao Ching-chih,
the younger brother of the Empress, saw the lady, and was struck with
her beauty. In order to gratify his passion he invited the graduate
and his young wife to the palace, where he strangled the husband and
tried to force the wife to cohabit with him. She refused obstinately,
and as a last resort he had her imprisoned in a noisome dungeon. The
soul of the graduate appeared to the imperial Censor Pao Lao-yeh,
and begged him to exact vengeance for the execrable crime. The
elder brother, Ching-hsiu, seeing the case put in the hands of the
upright Pao Lao-yeh, and knowing his brother to be guilty of homicide,
advised him to put the woman to death, in order to cut off all sources
of information and so to prevent further proceedings. The young
voluptuary thereupon caused the woman to be thrown down a deep well,
but the star T'ai-po Chin-hsing, in the form of an old man, drew her
out again. While making her escape, she met on the road an official
procession which she mistook for that of Pao Lao-yeh, and, going up to
the sedan chair, made her accusation. This official was no other than
the elder brother of the murderer. Ching-hsiu, terrified, dared not
refuse to accept the charge, but on the pretext that the woman had
not placed herself respectfully by the side of the official chair,
and thus had not left a way clear for the passage of his retinue, he
had her beaten with iron-spiked whips, and she was cast away for dead
in a neighbouring lane. This time also she revived, and ran to inform
Pao Lao-yeh. The latter immediately had Ts'ao Ching-hsiu arrested,
cangued, and fettered. Without loss of time he wrote an invitation to
the second brother, Ts'ao Ching-chih, and on his arrival confronted him
with the graduate's wife, who accused him to his face. Pao Lao-yeh had
him put in a pit, and remained deaf to all entreaties of the Emperor
and Empress on his behalf. A few days later the murderer was taken to
the place of execution, and his head rolled in the dust. The problem
now was how to get Ts'ao Ching-hsiu out of the hands of the terrible
Censor. The Emperor Jen Tsung, to ple