The Phoenix Seeks A Mate

Xiangru leaves Chengdu for capital

A GROUP OF travelers made its way along the winding Ahighway heading northwest from the city of Chengdu and arrived at a bridge. In front was a young man on horseback, clad in a gray robe, and with a gray cloth turban on his head. At his waist hung a sword sheathed a magnificently-decorated scabbard. As he rode with the breeze fluttering the hems of his garment, the youth made an unusually elegant figure. Behind him came a group of servants, some carrying loaded shoulder poles and others pushing one-wheeled luggage barrows.

The name of this bridge was Ascension to Heaven Bridge. Anyone traveling north from Chengdu to Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD), had to cross it. Legend had it that its construction had been fraught with difficulties. Previously, the only way to cross the river had been by ferry, and as this part of the river was particularly turbulent and subject to frequent high winds, the crossing was hazardous. Since time immemorial, people had lost their lives struggling to cross. A number of attempts had been made to bridge this dangerous stretch of the river by prefects of Chengdu in the early years of the dynasty on several occasions, but the rapids had defeated the buildersc time. Then one night the chief engineer of the latest attempt had had a dream, in which a white-haired old man appeared to him. The old man told him that some little distance away from the construction site, at a bend in the river, there was a stone on the riverbed, if the bridge were erected there it would stand firm. Upon awaking and realizing that he had only been dreaming, the chief engineer felt chagrined. Nevertheless, he dispatched some of his men to investigate the riverbed at the spot indicated by the vision in his dream, Sure enough, his men reported chat there was indeed a huge stone in the riverbed in exactly thar place. Its surface was flat and smooth, and there was a large indentation in the middle of it. Delighted at this news, the chief engineer lost no time moving the construction site to the spot. Within a month, the bridge was completed. On the day of its opening, the whole population of Chengdu flocked to witness the ceremony. Gazing on the jostling throng, the chief engineer was astonished to see among them a white-haired old man wearing a toothless grin and chortling with delight dream! The chief engineer forced his way through the crowd to where the old man was standing. Taking the old fellow by the hand, he asked him his name and where he was from. But the old man, every - the very image of the old gaffer he had seen in his still laughing, simply said, "Now, at last, Chengdu is connected with the capital!"

Then, before the eyes of the chief engineer and the gaping onlookers, the old man began to rise slowly up in the air. Eventually, he disappeared among the clouds A gasp ran through the multitude: "An immortal!" And from then on, the bridge was • called the Ascension to Heaven Bridge.

But another wonder followed a few days later. When preparations were being made to carve the name of the bridge upon a wooden pillar, it was found that an inscription had already appeared on it, which read: "In fifty years' time a worthy man will cross here, and he will achieve immortal fame."