The Grand Princess suddenly arrived at Baotai Temple with her vast retinue, without issuing any decree for the monks to receive her.
Cavalry cleared the way, banners snapped in the wind, and drums and music sounded together as her six-horse golden carriage proceeded straight to the temple gates. Eunuchs from the Palace Attendants Department carried fly whisks and incense burners, while female officials bore Buddhist scriptures, incense, candles, and offering vessels. Hundreds filed inside, followed closely by officials from the Bureau of Sacrifices, which oversaw Buddhist monks and nuns, and officials of the princess's household.
Elder Huaiqian, the abbot of Baotai Temple, was so startled that he hardly knew what to do. Never mind cleaning and preparing the temple beforehand-he did not even have time to change into a presentable kasaya before hurriedly leading the temple's prominent monks at a trot to receive her.
At the sight of this magnificent procession, the old monk broke into a drenching sweat, his heart bobbing up and down with apprehension. He had no idea why this supremely exalted, celestial princess had deigned to visit. She was both the princess regent and the leader of the Daoist faith, and possessed such inconceivable powers as returning from the dead and ascending to immortality. She was practically a living immortal walking the earth.
Yet Baotai Temple was merely an ordinary temple in Chang'an City, with neither supreme Buddhist treasures nor celebrated sights. Ordinarily, let alone receiving the Imperial House, even the eunuch holding her parasol was a personage he would never meet in his lifetime.
The Imperial Guards cavalry leading the procession made no particular effort to clear the streets, allowing the common people to stop and watch. Ordinary worshippers crowded together with the temple's monks, staring openmouthed at this grand procession of an immortal.
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