Early next day at the beat of the fifth watch Zhu Neng knocked on Zhang Dapeng's door for some last minute advice, awakening him. "Everything has been taken care of," assured Zhang from his bed. Zhu then understood Zhang's plan and had no more doubts. With all his resolve he ran over to the observatory drumtower and beat out a furious thundering alarm. The official in charge of the daily time drums reported the news to his superiors and his account was forwarded to the Court. First to hear the news of Heaven's writings come to earth was Wang Qinruo, and he was delighted beyond words.

In a short wile the three raps of the cane calling the Court to attention could be heard in the Emperor's hall, and Wang Qinruo memorialized the throne about the Imperial Observatory's report: "The writings of Heaven have descended to the Heavenly Gate of the palace, witnessed and reported by Imperial District Police Inspector Zhu Neng."

Zhenzong listened and called out for Zhu Neng to present himself. "Where is the Book of Heaven, and how did you come to learn of it?" asked the Emperor, as soon as Zhu had finished the kowtow.

"I, your servant, saw the proclamation that was posted yesterday at the nine entrances and have not been able to rest by day or night since. I thought that such a written proclamation of Heaven's Mandate would surely be set down in a lofty place, and being secret and all, certainly not by daylight. Early this morning while passing on patrol below the Gate of Heaven I saw yellow silk protruding off of one of the ornamental owl's tails. Why, I thought to myself, it must be those writings of Heaven! I didn't dare but report it immediately!"

Now, Zhenzong's Imperial countenance beamed with delight. Down he leapt from the throne, bounding like a dragon or tiger right out to the Gate of Heaven. All of the officials, civil and miltary, mobbed out of the hall behind him, suddenly unconcerned with rank and ceremony. Zhu Neng pointed out a carved owl's tail to the Emperor, who commanded two servants to bring a ladder and climb up to get it. And sure enough there had indeed been a fine little packet wrapped in yellow cloth, tied with twin chords to the top of an ornamental owl's tail. It was brought down and placed in the hands of Wang Qinruo, who in turn submitted it to Zhenzong. And here is a poem:

Zhenzong bowed repeatedly toward Heaven, and then holding the book up with both hands proceeded back to the hall where he handed it to Hanlin Academician Chen Yaosou to open and recite; the "Blessed Omens of the Great Mean" divided into three sections, each full of Daoist terms. And when the reading was complete the gathered officials rose for a thundering "Wansui!"--Banzai! Ten thousand years!

Zhenzong then ordered some servants to load up a golden sacrificial table and take it over to the Imperial Mausoleum as an offering to his ancestors. A pure jade and chrystal hall would soon be built just to hold the holy book.

Chen Yaosou was commanded right then and there to draft an edict changing the title of the year 1008 from "Bright Virtue" to "Blessed Omens of the Great Mean" and to proclaim this throughout the land. And then a day was selected for a journey to Mt Taishan.

In addition to the above, Zhenzong invested Wang Qinruo as the Duke of Yan and made Zhu Neng a Deputy Magistrate in Jingnan. Within three years he would rise to the be joint civil and military commander of the region.

Now, it was all because of Zhang Dapeng that Zhu Neng could know such wealth and power. But when Zhang came calling he received only a contemptful scowl from Zhu, suddenly afraid that his sworn brother of old would talk of days past and reveal what all had happened. Zhang was put off by his friend's sudden animosity but gave him the benefit of the doubt and said nothing bad about Zhu. From this we can clearly see that Zhu Neng was not a very good person.

Within a short time after this, however, a grand total of fifteen army units and civil districts memorialized the Emperor, each claiming to possess the writings of Heaven. The Son of Heaven didn't know which to believe and suspicion arose in him. Now, there was an active politician at court named Ding Wei, who had also earned approval through flattery and eventually came to challenge the power of Wang Qinruo. Ding accused Zhu Neng of having lied and deceived the Emperor, and secretly notified Zhenzong to that effect. The Emperor then placed Ding Wei in Wang Qinruo's post as Prime Minister and sent an official to arrest and interrogate Zhu Neng for his crime. But Zhu was expert at martial arts and killed this man, calling upon his subordinates and troops to rise in revolt. When the rising was subdued and Zhu captured he eventually confessed and gave the name of Zhang Dapeng. By Imperial decree Zhu was crushed and sliced to death, and a warrant was put out everywhere for the capture, dead or alive, of Zhang Dapeng.

And so Zhang Dapeng swirled off into the void and reemerged south of the Yangzi, changed his name to Zhang Ying, or "Oriole Zhang", and styling himself Prince Chongxiao, "The Sky Soarer". His entire body filled with the magical charm of flight there was nowhere he couldn't go, and so it had to be for as the old saying goes "the authorities are never more than three days' ride away." But after a few years he became lazy and complacent.

It was while living such a freebooting life that Zhang Ying heard that the son of Zhenzong had already grown up, a human manifestation of the fairy called Barefoot. How could this be? Well, when Zhenzong had ascended the throne at the age of twenty-one there was no immediate successor to him, and so a proclamation was sent to all the monasteries and nunneries throughout the land, calling upon them to pray and sacrifice to the Jade Emperor of Nine Heavens for a Prince to be sent. Now, the Jade Emperor had been meeting with a group of fairies when he heard the prayers from below and wondered out loud just which of them might wish to go. The assembled dieties were silent, except for Barefoot who began to laugh. "Where there's laughter there's worldly desire!" snapped the Jade Emperor, and with the force of destiny he ordered the fairy Barefoot down to the palace to become a child in Imperial concubine Li Chen's womb.

After birth the infant only cried day and night and many physicians and healers were called to the Imperial cradle, when one day an old Daoist told a servant he could stop the infant's tears. The Emperor Zhenzong summoned him into the palace, had the Prince brought out in arms and told the old man to try and heal the babe.

"Don't you cry, my little child," he whispered twice in the Prince's tiny ear; "At first you shouldn't have laughed and smiled!" And the Prince stopped crying at once. Zhenzong was delighted and asked the old man how he had done it, and he answered only that the baby's vexation was now over. He then went out of the palace gate, vanished into a sudden gust of wind and was gone.

Now, just who was this baby Prince? Why, none other than the future Emperor Renzong, destined to reign over forty-two years of universal peace. At home in the palace he loved to go barefoot and didn't at all like wearing shoes or slippers, a manifestation of himself. As for Zhenzong, he was moved to worship and offer frequent sacrifices and charity to appease the spirits and he became even more pious as time passed, going on prayer retreats to all of the Daoist temples.

When Zhang Ying heard about all of this he assumed that it had all simply been destined to be part of the flow of Dao. Now, when he had previously lived in the capital he had been acquainted with the palace eunuch Lei Chonggong, and the two men respected each other highly. This eunuch Lei Chonggong had a special love for wielding power, controlling the appointment and dismissal of officials and the announcement of new policies through his open and secret associations with Prime Minister Ding Wei. Because of this Zhang Ying returned to Kaifeng and called upon the eunuch Lei, telling him how he had been wrongly accused in that earlier affair, and he implored Lei to ask Prime Minister Ding to intervene on his behalf. And he boldly brought up the matter of an official title for himself, empowering him to build a flourishing Daoist faith. Such a party of wizards, he explained, could secure the obeisance of ghosts and spirits and protect the Dynasty from punishment.

"Bygones are bygones, so don't worry about the accusation," said Lei; "These are new times. Why don't you take up residence in my quiet garden? I'm really busy just now because a woman of the harem is being selected for the Crown Prince, and the Empress Dowager has got all sorts of things to say about the character of the future Princess. Wait till I've got a bit of free time and we'll go together to see Prime Minister Ding to discuss it further."

Zhang Ying left left ever so gratefully, following a subordinate of Lei's to his temporary domicile in the lovely Chinese garden to wait for the time being.

Now, as is recorded in the official History of the Song Dynasty, the Emperor Zhenzong changed reign titles five times: in Xianping Six, Jingde Four, Xiangfu Nine, Tianxi Five and Qianxing One. At present it was the middle of the second lunar month of Xiangfu Nine. One night Zhang Ying felt the moonlight to appear almost like that in a painting, and went for a stroll in the garden. Suddenly black clouds obscured the moon and there arose a strange gale, comin out of the west. "How weird!" exclaimed Zhang. "Is yet another immortal coming around?" Casting his hand in a command to halt the wind, he stared intently ahead, focusing his eyes on the scene as the gusts passed and the moonlight again shone. He then heard a sharp sound, and there halfway up in the sky was a woman, slowly descending! And here is a poem:

Why, that girl was none other than our little fox-spirit Hu Mei'r! When we left her in Chapter Six she had just departed Swordgate Mountain with Holy Auntie, the two traveling together until they reached the Yongxing region where they held up on account of darkness, intending to pass the night in a forest. But just as they were pressing on toward those woods a black squall suddenly arose, so strong that they couldn't stand. That old mother of hers was then called to an audience with Granny Wu Zetian at her palace in Hades. Now, this young fox-girl was picked up by a blast of wind, swirled and lofted too and fro and carried directly to Eunuch Lei's garden in Kaifeng. The Empress Wu had prophesized she would meet Prince Chongxiao and so it has come to pass, as "Chongxiao" is Chinese for "Skysoarer" as Zhang Ying had styled himself.

Zhang Ying thought at once that there was something strange about this girl's recent past, and sure enough when he approached for a better look at her he saw that she was half frozen from riding that cold wind. After carrying her to the study and forcing her to drink some hot soup she came around, and he asked her name.

"I'm a poor girl from An De Zhou by the name of Hu Mei'r," she answered. "I was on my way with my mother to worship at Mt Hua when we suddenly met with a strange black squall that carried me up into the sky. Since then I've been asleep, only hearing spirits whispering something like "The fox girl surnamed Hu will be the Queen in house of Wang...Now off you go to Prince Chongxiao and hurry right along". And a while later the clouds around me were gobbled up and I drifted down just like a leaf for who knows how many li until I arrived here. You, kind officer, are my only hope!"

Dear reader, Is this little nun fated to enter a harem? Well if Sir Lei has any difficulty selecting a girl of special charm for the Prince, here is surely an exotic number for him to consider!

And so Zhang Ying called on Lei Chonggong. "I've got a niece we call Hu Mei'r," he announced, "and quite a woman at that. Her parents are both dead and she's got no way to earn a living, and now she's come here to stay with me. If it pleases your excellency can you place her name in the running as well? Perhaps if I'm lucky I'll become an outside relation of the throne!"

Delighted, Lei Chonggong accompanied Zhang Ying back into the tranquil garden. It's like this:

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