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precious seal, his avidity awoke and he sought for a sclieme by which he could get them. He 

 continuall y prayed the abbot to give hira the threelinked ring and the imperial seal; hut the 

 monks knew him too well and said: //These are precious gifts, bestowed upon us by the 

 late Emperor: besides, the imperial seal has full powers; it has the power to bastinade 

 the wicked and to decapitate the traitors. How should we dare then to give it inconsidera- 

 tely away?" 



Tang-sliing cherished hate and revenge in his heart on account of this refusal, and had a grud- 

 ge against the Shao-lin convent. He began now to think how he could make himself master 

 of the jade seal and precious gifts by treachery, and therefore he sent a raemorial to the Empe- 

 ror wherein he said that the monks of the Shao-lin convent daily seduced the hearts of the 

 people by witchcraft and bad proceedings. 



That they were, bssides, in possession of a jade seal given to them by the late emperor, 

 with which they could exercise f all power over all things. That he truly feared that their 

 actions were reprehensible, and that they plotted treacherous schemes. He remarked that if 

 they should revolt the disaster would be very great. 



Such was the purport of his memorial to the Emperor, 



Although Yung-ching did not know his treacherous plot, still he doubted if every thing was 

 true. Therefore he again asked Tang-shing if this affair was really so. Tang-shing reported: 

 ,/that the affair was true and proved, and not falsely represented by His faithful subject." The 

 emperor Yung-ching, highly incensed, asked whathe should do. Shing answered Him: v Accor- 

 ding to my ideas, we ought, under pretense of burning incense, conceal secretly some thou- 

 sand men with salpetre, sulfur and gunpowder, dry wood, rushes, grass, and suchlike com- 

 bustible articles, near the convent and, pretending that the fire originated by the lighting of the 

 incense, burn it. Soldiers ought to bs posted in a circle around it, so that not even a mouse 

 may escape. In this way all these treacherous monks shall be burned, and further calamities 

 be averted: I don 't know, however, if this is permitted." 



The emperor Yung-ching gave his consent to this plan, and ordered Tang-shing to take 

 some troops and execute it. 



The fire, in fact, broke out when the incense was lighted. The monks were, at the time, all 

 in deep slumber. Suddenly they were frightened ont of their dreams and, starting from their 

 beds, they saw flames arise through the whole convent, and a cloud of smoke ascend the Hea- 

 ven. They could neither quench the fire nor escape. 



They did not know then that it was an attempt of a treacherous functionary. 



More than a hundred monks perished in the flames, and only a few of them escaped with 

 life: several of them ha ving, however, their hair singed and their heads scorched, and being 

 severely burnt. It was a great shame that so many of the monks of the Shao-lin convent 

 who had protected the state with the utmost fidelity, and who were sincere and desinterested, 

 now lost their lives by the covetous thoughts of Tang-shing: for these burned monks 

 being all men of a virtuous life, their injured ghosts were unappeased, and the wrongs done 

 to them reached the Heaven and moved the Holy Dharma-Budha, who exclaimed: //That the 



