Liu Yi Delivered a Letter for the Dragon Maiden, Then Refused a Marriage in the Dragon Palace

Liu Yi carried a letter for a woman he had never met. Only after reaching the Dragon Palace did he learn how much upheaval his message could cause. The Dragon Maiden was rescued; the palace held a banquet, and jewels piled up beside him. When marriage was proposed, he refused on the spot.

The proposal came from the Dragon Maiden’s uncle, Lord Qiantang. He had just rescued his niece, swallowed her husband, and turned a marriage meant as thanks into a threat that refusal would send them all to ruin together.

1. A Failed Examinee Met a Dragon Maiden Herding Sheep

Li Chaowei’s Tang tale “The Story of Liu Yi” is set in the Yifeng era. Liu Yi had failed the examinations and was preparing to return to his home near the Xiang River. Before leaving, he went to Jingyang to bid farewell to a fellow townsman; on the way, his horse was startled and veered off the road.

Beside the road was a shepherdess, beautiful but with dull, worn sleeves and a sorrowful expression. When he asked what was wrong, she wept and said she was the youngest daughter of the Lord of Dongting. She had married the second son of the Lord of Jingchuan.

Her husband craved pleasure, listened to his servants, and gradually grew to despise her. She complained to her parents-in-law, but they favored their son and blamed her for reporting him too often. In the end, they banished her to herd sheep in the wilderness.

Dongting was too far away for news to reach her family. This scholar, who was about to travel south, was the one person to whom she could entrust a message. She took out a letter and asked Liu Yi to deliver it to her parents and tell them more of her plight.

Liu Yi was so stirred that he wished he could fly there at once. He did not refuse; he only worried about how a man who traveled in the human world could enter a Dragon Palace deep underwater.

She told him that a sacred tangerine tree grew by Lake Dongting. When he reached it, he should untie the belt he was wearing, replace it with something else to bind his clothes, and strike the tree three times; someone would come to meet him. He put the letter in his bag and asked what the flock was for.

They were no ordinary sheep, but ‘rain-workers,’ officials who oversaw matters such as thunder. Their wool and horns resembled those of sheep, yet the way they looked about, walked, and ate was uncanny.

Before they parted, Liu Yi added that since he was delivering her letter, she must not avoid him if he ever came to Dongting. The woman replied that she would do more than welcome him: she would treat him like family. Liu Yi had not gone far when he looked back; the woman and the sheep had vanished.

When Liu Yi agreed to deliver the letter, the Dragon Palace’s treasures and marriage had not yet appeared before him. The first thing he accepted was simply a plea for help from someone being mistreated by the roadside.

2. A Family Letter Alarmed Lord Qiantang

A little over a month later, Liu Yi reached home and went to Dongting as promised. He found the sacred tangerine, changed his belt, and struck the tree. A warrior appeared from the water and led him inside. He closed his eyes for a moment; when he opened them, he was already in the Dragon Palace.

In the Lingxu Hall, white jade formed the pillars, blue-green jade paved the steps, coral made the bed, and crystal served as curtains. Liu Yi waited at the side of the hall. The Lord of Dongting was discussing the Scripture of Fire with a Daoist from the Sun and did not yet know his daughter’s message had arrived.

At last the lord came out, dressed in purple and holding green jade. Liu Yi bowed, and the Dragon Lord returned the salute and asked why he had come so far. Liu Yi explained their meeting on the road and presented the letter.

After reading it, the father covered his face and wept, blaming himself for failing to learn that his daughter was suffering far away. When word reached the inner palace, cries rose everywhere. He hurriedly ordered them silenced, afraid his younger brother, Lord Qiantang, would hear.

Lord Qiantang was fierce and violent; his anger had once caused a great disaster. At the time, he was still being held under restraint in Dongting. Before his elder brother had finished speaking, the palace shook. Clouds and smoke surged; a red dragon more than a thousand chi long strained against its golden chains, tugged at the jade pillars, and shot into the sky amid thunder, lightning, and hail.

Liu Yi collapsed in fright. The Lord of Dongting helped him up and assured him he was in no danger. Liu Yi still wanted to leave quickly, lest he see this spectacle again on the way back, but the Dragon Lord kept him there.

3. Lord Qiantang Brought His Niece Back

Before long, the clouds softened, and an escort with music surrounded the returning Dragon Maiden. When Liu Yi saw her again, she no longer wore a shepherdess’s clothes. She was adorned with ornaments, looked both joyful and sorrowful, and still wept.

Lord Qiantang also took human form and thanked Liu Yi for delivering the message. He said he had left at the hour of the Dragon, reached Jingyang at the hour of the Snake, begun the battle at noon, and returned by the hour of the Goat. On the way, he had also presented his niece’s grievance to the Celestial Emperor.

The Lord of Dongting asked how many he had killed. He answered: six hundred thousand. Asked whether he had harmed the crops, he answered: eight hundred li. Asked where the cruel husband was, he replied: “I ate him.”

Even the Lord of Dongting rebuked his younger brother for acting too rashly. Though he grieved for his daughter’s mistreatment, he still warned Lord Qiantang not to act this way again.

The Dragon Palace hosted Liu Yi for several days. First they performed “The Qiantang Battle-Formation Music,” with banners, swords, halberds, horns, and war drums that made the guests’ hair stand on end. Then they performed “The Noble Lady’s Return to the Palace,” whose clear, lilting music brought tears to their eyes.

The two Dragon Lords offered wine in thanks, and people throughout the palace gave him silk, jade, and pearls. Soon treasures were piled up around Liu Yi.

4. When Thanks Turned into a Threat, He Refused

At another banquet, Lord Qiantang, emboldened by wine, proposed that the Dragon Maiden marry Liu Yi. But he framed it as an ultimatum: if Liu Yi agreed, they would all rise among the clouds; if he refused, they would all turn to dust together.

Liu Yi stood up gravely. He had admired Lord Qiantang for braving danger, but could not believe that, amid a family celebration, the man would abandon reason and use his power to force him.

If Lord Qiantang had threatened him in dragon form amid wind and waves, Liu Yi could have regarded him as a beast. But now he wore clothes and spoke of ritual and justice; he understood human principles and could not use brute force to get his way.

Liu Yi knew his body could not withstand even one of the dragon’s scales, yet he stood firm against Lord Qiantang’s unreasonable threat. His words made Lord Qiantang back down and apologize, admitting that he had spoken recklessly and offended his guest.

He was willing to seek justice for the Dragon Maiden, but would not let Lord Qiantang decide whom he should marry. Lord Qiantang admitted his fault. The two continued drinking together as before and became close friends.

When it was time to part, the Lady of Dongting held another banquet and had the Dragon Maiden thank Liu Yi in person. Though he had refused the marriage, he now saw her reluctant to part, with a look of sorrow. He left with the treasures, while the entire palace saw him off sadly.

5. The Marriage He Had Refused Took Another Course in the Human World

Liu Yi sold a small portion of the treasures in Guangling and became immensely wealthy. He first married a woman surnamed Zhang, who died; he then married a woman surnamed Han, who also died a few months later. Only after moving to Jinling did he ask a matchmaker to find him another wife.

The matchmaker introduced a young widow of the Lu family from Fanyang, of good family and appearance. They married according to proper rites. After a little over a month, Liu Yi began to think his wife resembled the Dragon Maiden. He told her the old story, but she did not acknowledge who she was at once.

Only when their child had reached its full-month celebration did she dress in her finest clothes and tell Liu Yi that she was the Dragon Maiden of Dongting. Since they had parted at the Dragon Palace, she had been unwilling to marry anyone else. Her parents finally honored her wish and arranged this marriage after Liu Yi had twice been widowed and settled in Jinling.

She asked Liu Yi, ‘Back then, when you said I should not avoid you if you ever came to Dongting, did that mean you already had feelings for me? When Uncle Qiantang proposed the match, did you truly not want it, or were you simply angry?’

Liu Yi explained what he had felt all along. He had agreed by the Jing River to deliver the letter only to seek justice for her; he had no other intention. The joke, too, had not been a proposal in disguise.

As for refusing the marriage in the Dragon Palace, he did not want his act of righteousness to look like he had killed a husband in order to marry his wife, nor would he yield under coercion. Yet when he saw how reluctant she was to part, he truly felt regret and sorrow.

Now, married to him as a woman of the Lu family and according to human rites, she heard Liu Yi say: “From now on, we can love each other freely, without misgivings.”

6. They Met Again on the Lake, and He Still Looked the Same

The Dragon Maiden said dragons lived ten thousand years and offered to share her lifespan with him; they could travel on land or water. The couple returned to Dongting to visit the Dragon Lord, then lived in the South Sea. Nearly forty years passed, and Liu Yi’s appearance had not aged.

During the Kaiyuan era, Xuanzong sought immortals. Liu Yi could not bear the disturbance, so he and his wife returned to Dongting. More than ten years passed, and outsiders no longer knew where they were.

At the end of the Kaiyuan era, Liu Yi’s younger cousin, Xue Gu, was exiled to the southeast. As his boat crossed Dongting, a green mountain suddenly appeared on the lake, and a painted boat came to welcome him. When he climbed the mountain, he saw Liu Yi standing among palace buildings, looking even younger than before.

Liu Yi took his younger cousin’s hand and said that their separation had seemed like a moment, yet his hair had yellowed with age. Xue Gu laughed and sighed: his elder cousin had become an immortal, while he himself was nearly a withered bone. Liu Yi gave him fifty pills, saying each would add a year to his life and that he could return when the allotted years were over.

After this parting, nothing more was heard of Liu Yi. A few decades later, no one knew where Xue Gu had gone either.

Liu Yi had already felt reluctant to part when they said goodbye, but that did not make him accept Lord Qiantang’s proposal. Only after they were married, when the Dragon Maiden revealed her identity, did they clarify what they had felt back then: gratitude for a rescue was no basis for an uncle to arrange their marriage on their behalf.