The Legend and Origin of the Night-Blooming Cereus That Blooms but Once for Weituo
The night-blooming cereus was originally a flower goddess; she bloomed every day and was radiant through all four seasons. She also fell in love with the young man who watered and weeded for her every day. Later, when the Jade Emperor learned of this, he flew into a rage and resolved to separate the lovers. The Jade Emperor seized the flower goddess and banished her to become the night-blooming cereus, which can bloom only for an instant each year, forbidding her ever to see her beloved again, and he also sent the young man to Mount Lingjiu to become a monk, granting him the name Weituo, so that he would forget his past and forget the flower goddess.
Many years passed, and Weituo indeed forgot the flower goddess, devoted himself to studying Buddhism, and gradually achieved much. But the flower goddess could never forget the young man who had once cared for her. She knew that every year in late spring, Weituo would come down the mountain to gather morning dew for the Buddha to brew tea. So the night-blooming cereus chose to bloom at that time. She poured the vital essence she had gathered for a whole year into that single instant. She hoped Weituo would turn back and look at her once, and remember her.
But thousands of years passed, and year after year Weituo came down the mountain to gather morning dew. Year after year the night-blooming cereus silently bloomed. Weituo never remembered her. Until one day a gaunt, thin man walked past the night-blooming cereus and saw the flower goddess's melancholy and lonely sorrow. He stopped and asked the flower goddess, “Why are you grieving?” The flower goddess was astonished, because mortals cannot see the true form of a flower goddess. If it were a great golden immortal, there would be golden light above his head, but the one who had just walked past was clearly a mortal, so how could he see her true form? The flower goddess hesitated for a moment and only replied, “You cannot help me.” Then she silently waited for Weituo again and did not answer the man further.
40 years later, that gaunt, thin man walked past the night-blooming cereus again and repeated the same words he had asked 40 years before: “Why are you grieving?” The flower goddess hesitated again for a moment and only replied, “Perhaps you cannot help me.” The gaunt, thin man smiled and left.
Another 40 years later, a gaunt, thin old man appeared again before the flower goddess, and the once gaunt, thin old man looked even more like he was at death's door. The man of those years had already become an old man, but he still asked the same question as 80 years before: “Why are you grieving?” The night-blooming cereus replied, “Thank you, mortal, for asking me 3 times in your life, but after all you are a mortal and already at death's door, so how can you help me? I am a flower goddess punished by Heaven because of love.”
The old man smiled and said: “I am of the Yu Ming clan, and I have only come to settle that unresolved fate from 80 years ago. Flower goddess, I have come to give you these words:
When fate begins and fate ends, fate finally comes to its end,
When flowers bloom and flowers fall, flowers return to dust.
Having said this, the old man closed his eyes and sat down. Time gradually passed, and the last ray of the setting sun began to sweep from the old man's hair toward his eyes. The old man smiled and said:
The night-blooming cereus blooms but once for Weituo,
How could such love be wrong?
If Heaven punishes and Earth condemns, I will bear it,
If Heaven is blind, I will open its eyes.
With that, the old man seized the flower goddess. At that moment the setting sun slipped into the old man's eyes, and the old man immediately passed away, holding the flower goddess as they went together to the Buddha's realm.
In the Buddha's realm, the flower goddess saw Weituo. Weituo finally remembered the karmic bond of his previous life, and after the Buddha learned of it, he permitted Weituo to descend to the mortal world to settle the unresolved karmic bond. Because the old man of the Yu Ming clan had violated the laws of Heaven, his soul wandered all his life. He could neither ride the crane to the Western Paradise nor enter the pure land of the Eastern Buddha's realm, and in the end he suffered Heaven's punishment and was forever denied reincarnation.