Dou Jing, Prefect of Henan Prefecture, had received an invitation from the Great Chan'guang Temple. At sunset, he stepped into the ancient monastery to attend the Ullambana Festival Dharma Assembly on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
As the highest administrative official in the Luoyang region, he attended such an occasion chiefly because of his friendship with the abbot, Venerable Tanlin. The Great Chan'guang Temple was a Buddhist sanctuary with a long history, a place that ought to put people at ease. Yet Dou Jing had never liked it. Too many of its murals struck him as sinister.
Though Tanlin had long since entered the Buddhist order, his Taiyuan Wang Clan pedigree and the deep roots of Buddhism in Luoyang still made him a figure of considerable influence among the Eastern Capital's upper circles. Whenever dukes, ministers, and nobles had questions about Buddhist teachings, or wished to repent through religious practice after doing something that weighed on their consciences, they usually sought his guidance.
As a local governor, attending public festivals was part of his duty. Dou Jing also wished to give alms to the monastery's monks and have rites performed for the deliverance of his ancestors. Before him, a dazzling array of entertainments unfolded. Tightrope performers dressed as flying celestial beings walked back and forth along ropes suspended in the air. Yet despite the dozens of attendants and guards surrounding him, an inexplicable fear rose in Dou Jing's heart, leaving him unable to sit still.
Amid the surging crowds, where shoulders brushed and heels trod on heels, he saw a familiar face. That beautiful face should never have appeared here-indeed, it should no longer have existed in the mortal world.
Ordinarily, he would have assumed it was merely someone who looked similar. But today was the Ullambana Festival,