法苑珠林 27.49

27.49

"Heavy rain pours down continuously; / The river is wide and the waters deep; / The sun comes forth right upon the heart." / Soon afterward, the king obtained her letter and showed it to his attendants, but none of his attendants understood its meaning. The minister He replied, "'Heavy rain pours down continuously' speaks of longing morning and evening in autumn. 'The river is wide and the waters deep' means that they cannot visit each other. 'The sun comes forth right upon the heart' means that she certainly resolves to die." Soon afterward, Feng committed suicide. His wife then secretly rotted her clothes. When the king climbed a terrace with her, the wife threw herself down from the terrace. Attendants grabbed at her, but the clothes gave way in their hands, and she died. A letter left in her sash read: "The king benefits from my life, but I benefit from my death. I pray that my bones be granted to Feng for a shared burial." Enraged, the king would not permit it, and had their graves set opposite each other, saying, "You husband and wife loved each other without cease; if you can make the graves unite, then I will not forbid it." In the space of an evening, catalpa trees interlaced above the two mounds; within ten days they were so thick one could embrace them, bending their trunks toward each other, with roots intertwining below and branches crossing above. Moreover, there was a pair of mandarin ducks, one male and one female, that constantly roosted in the trees and did not leave day or night, craning their necks and crying mournfully, their calls deeply moving. The people of Song pitied them, and subsequently named the trees "Trees of Mutual Longing" (*xiangsi shu*); the name *xiangsi* originated from this. Today in Luoyang there is the Han Feng City, and the ballads about it survive to this day. (The three miracles above are from *In Search of the Supernatural* [*Soushen ji*].)