The origin of The Story of the Stone has now been made clear. The same cannot, however, be said of the characters and events which it recorded. Gentle reader, have patience! This is how the inion began:

Long, long ago the World was tilted downwards towards the south-east; and in that lower-lying south-easterly part of the earth there is a city called Soochow; and in Soochow the district around the Chang-men Gate is reckoned one of the two or three wealthiest and most fashionable quarters in the world of men. Outside the Chang-men Gate is a wide thorough-fare called Worldly Way; and somewhere off Worldly Way is an area called Carnal Lane. There is an old temple in the Carnal Lane area which, because of the way it is bottled up inside a narrow Cul-de-Sac, is referred to locally as Bottle-gourd Temple Next door to Bottle-gourd Temple lived a gentleman of private means called Zhen Shi-yin and his wife Feng-shi, a kind, good woman with a profound sense of decency and decorum. The household was not a particularly wealthy one, but they were nevertheless looked up to by all and sundry as the leading family in the neighbourhood.

Zhen Shi-yin himself was by nature a quiet and totality unambitious person. He devoted his time to his garden and to the pleasures of wine and poetry. Except for a single flaw, his existence could, indeed, have been described as an idyllic one. The flaw was that, although already past fifty, he had no son, only a little girl, just two years old, whose name was Ying-lian.

士隐因说道：“适闻仙师所谈因果，实人世罕闻者，但弟子愚拙，不能洞悉明白。若蒙大开痴顽，备细一闻，弟子洗耳谛听，稍能警省，亦可免沉沦之苦了。”二仙笑道：“此乃玄机，不可预泄。到那时只不要忘了我二人，便可跳出火坑矣。”士隐听了，不便再问，因笑道：“玄机固不可泄露，但适云‘蠢物’，不知为何，或可得见否？”那僧说：“若问此物，倒有一面之缘。”说着取出递与士隐。士隐接了看时，原来是块鲜明美玉，上面字迹分明，镌着“通灵宝玉”四字，后面还有几行小字。正欲细看时，那僧便说“已到幻境”，就强从手中夺了去，和那道人竟过了一座大石牌坊，上面大书四字，乃是“太虚幻境”。两边又有一副对联道：

假作真时真亦假，

无为有处有还无。

'It is not often that one has the opportunity of listening to a discussion of the operations of karma such as the one I have just been privileged to overhear,' said Shi-yin. 'Unfortunately I am a man of very limited understanding and have not been able to derive the full benefit from your conversation. If you would have the very great kindness to enlighten my benighted understanding with a somewhat fuller account of what you were discussing, I can promise you the most devout attention. I feel sure that your teaching would have a salutary effect on me and—who knows—might save me from the pains of hell.'

The reverend gentlemen laughed. 'These are heavenly mysteries and may not be divulged. But if you wish to escape from the fiery pit, you have only to remember us when the time comes) and all will be well.'

Shi-yin saw that it would be useless to press them. 'Heavenly mysteries must not, of course, be revealed.

But might one perhaps inquire what the "absurd creature" is that you were talking about? Is it possible that I might be allowed to see it?'

'Oh, as for that,' said the monk: 'I think it is on the cards for you to have a look at him,' and he took the object from his sleeve and handed it to Shi-yin.

Shi-yin took the object from him and saw that it was a clear, beautiful jade on one side of which were carved the words 'Magic Jade'. There were several columns of smaller characters on the back, which Shi-yin was lust going to examine more closely when the monk, with a cry of 'Here we are, at the frontier of Illusion', snatched the stone from him and disappeared, with the Taoist, through a big stone archway above which

THE LAND OF ILLUSION

was written in large characters. A couplet in smaller characters was inscribed vertically on either side of the arch:

Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;

Real becomes not-teal where the unreal's real.返回搜狐，查看更多