Liu Ping was a native of Pei County, Jiangsu Province, and was made Marquis of Shouguang Jinxiang because of his military achievements. He studied Taoism under Jiku Zi and often took Shi Guiying and stone sulfur yellow from Zhongyue Song Mountain. He had lived for more than 300 years and still looked like a young man, especially good at the kung fu of closing the qi.
He once went to Chang’an, and many merchants in Chang’an heard that he had Taoist skills, so they went to visit him, some asked to learn Taoism, and some asked him for protection. Liu Ping agreed to all of them, and as a result, more than a hundred people followed him, and brought all kinds of things with them, worth ten thousand gold. As soon as they reached the mountain, they met hundreds of robbers, who surrounded them from all sides with swords and bows drawn.
Liu Ping said to the bandits, “You should be kind and good people, if you don’t have the talent and virtue to be an official, you should be clean people even if you work hard to plant the fields and do the work. Now you wear human skin, with a wolf’s heart, daylight robbery, harming people and self-interest. I tell you, this will only turn you into a corpse to feed the crows and eagles, and your bows and arrows will not be of any use!”
The bandits were furious and shot Liu Ping and his party with their bows and arrows, but the arrows turned around and hit themselves. In a few moments, a gale started to blow down the trees and raise the dust and sand in the sky.
Liu Ping shouted: “You animals are so reckless. Heavenly soldiers, kill the bandit leaders first!” As soon as Liu Ping’s words fell, he saw the bandits fall to the ground, hands tied behind their backs, unable to move at all, all open their mouths and pant sharply, like suffocating to death. Three of the leaders died on the spot with their noses bleeding and heads cracked open. The remaining bandits who could still talk kept begging for forgiveness, saying they would change their ways for the better.
At that time, the merchant who was with Liu Ping wanted to kill all the bandits, but Liu Ping stopped them. Liu reprimanded the bandits and said, “I should have killed all of you, but I couldn’t bear to do so. Now that I have released you, will you dare to be robbers again?” The bandits begged for mercy and said they would change their ways and would never be bandits again, so Liu Ping ordered the heavenly soldiers to pardon them and the bandits fled quickly.
In the story, Liu Ping used his magical powers to distinguish good from evil and got rid of the irredeemable bandit leaders. Those who were still redeemable were saved from destruction by persuading them to do good and warning them of evil.
(Source: Taiping Guangji, Vol. 11)
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