Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong

by Guo Xiaoting

  The monk replied, “Just keep your mind on getting there and calling out the words loudly three times. Then there will be someone who will question you. We monks have an expression, ‘Take a small donation.’ It will be enough to take care of you for your lifetime.”

  The Daoist had no choice but to go. He left the Shrine of the Three Virtues with his head bowed, fearing to meet someone he knew.

  Along the street there were many neighbors who knew the Daoist. Some of them seeing him commented: “Isn’t that the venerable Daoist Liu from the Shrine of the Three Virtues? How could he have come to this condition? The tables seem to have turned. It could not have been anything else—he must love gambling.”

  The old Daoist heard them but could not very well answer. He walked on until he came to the Su embankment at the West Lake and the Cold Spring Pavilion. There was a major highway at that place and a great many people passing to and fro. The old Daoist stood at the pavilion and called out, “Li Guoyuan need not go to the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat to look for Ji Gong. Give me the ten ounces of pure silver you have, and you will still have three hundred and sixty cash left.”

  The Daoist called this out three times and attracted the attention of a great many people. All of them started talking. Some said that the old Daoist had gone mad. Others said that he was looking for Li Guoyuan.

  Just as this discussion was taking place, two men walked up through the crowd. One of them was saying to the other, “Dear brother, is that Ji Gong, or someone that looks like him?”

  The two moved closer. The one in front seemed from his clothing to be a wealthy man. The other, a younger man, appeared cultured and elegant. As the two looked at the old Daoist, the first said, “You! Old Daoist, have you harmed or killed Ji Gong and taken from him those clothes that you are wearing?”

  “I certainly have not harmed or killed Ji Gong. He has harmed me! He has eaten me down to my last pair of pants!” the old Daoist protested. “What are the names of you two honorable gentlemen?”

  The cultured and elegant younger man was Li Guoyuan. His home was in the fourth hutung, a narrow alley, of the Green Bamboo Forest that was in the southern part of Linan. The family was at one time wealthy, and he himself was a literary graduate. He had taken a wife from the Lin family, a virtuous young woman, very dear to him. For no apparent reason she was stricken with a mental illness. A great many gentlemen had been invited to examine her, but with no helpful results. Li Guoyuan was very depressed by this.

  He had a friend named Li Chunshan who acted as a private tutor in the home of a high official named Du. One day early in the morning Li Guoyuan went to see Chunshan. While the two were discussing their personal affairs, Li Guoyuan mentioned that his wife had become mentally ill and that, although they had invited several doctors to examine her, she was no better.

  Li Chunshan said, “In the household shrine of High Official Du, there is a prince’s tally. It is a scroll that was once sent by an emperor to one of his sons as a symbol that his father had chosen him to be the next emperor. This tally has been a treasured possession of the Du family for several generations. On this tally are the eight trigrams, symbols used to repel evil, and the characters ‘five thunders’ are shown. Perhaps it is an invocation to the Thunder God, a protector of mankind against the demons that cause illness. I will ask if I can lend it to you. If he won’t lend it, I will simply take it and give it to you to use. If you hang it in your home for two hours, it will drive out all evil spirits.”

  Li Guoyuan said, “Just as soon as this tally cures my wife’s illness, I will return it.”

  Li Chunshan went to the Du family shrine, and, opening a chest, secretly removed the prince’s tally and brought it outside. It was in a small case of precious cedar.

  Li Chunshan said, “This is a treasured heirloom of the Du family. I secretly borrowed it to let you take it, but a thousand times ten thousand be careful! Hang it for two mornings and it will drive out the evil spirit. Then get it back to me.”

  Li Guoyuan said, “I will bring it back tomorrow.” Taking the tally, he said goodbye.

  But as he walked away by himself, he thought, “Oh! We didn’t have breakfast!” Originally they had intended to eat together, but as soon as they started talking about the scroll, they forgot all about it. “It’s not convenient for me to go home and eat now. Just ahead there is a restaurant on the north side of the road. I will go in and look.”

  Inside the place was full of wealthy friends of his. Everyone stood up and called, “Graduate Li, come and drink with us.”

  Li Guoyuan said, “Do not shout, gentlemen. I have to talk to someone.” He went to the back room and found a table. After he had called for wine and drunk two cups, he thought to himself, “Everyone called to me in greeting, and I didn’t greet anyone. That was wrong of me.” He quickly got up and went to say a word to his friends.

  When he had finished speaking to them, he turned and went back to his table. Suddenly his eyes widened in fright, and his mouth dropped open in an idiotic expression. The demon-chasing, five-thunders, eight-trigram prince’s tally was gone!

  CHAPTER 5

  Zhao Wenhui goes to the West Lake to visit Ji Gong; the drunken Chan master explains celestial bargaining

  AFTER Li Guoyuan had greeted his various friends and returned to find that the borrowed scroll was not to be seen, he could no longer drink any of his wine, nor eat the food. He thought to himself, “If I had lost anything but the scroll, I could make some sort of repayment, but there is nowhere that this kind of thing can be purchased. This is a treasured family heirloom of the Du family. If news of this gets out, how could my friend, my elder brother, not lose his position?”

  He then quickly called the manager to reckon the amount of the bill, telling him to put it on his account. The manager asked why he had not eaten. Li Guoyuan said, “I have some important business to do.”

  Without any further talk, he hastened home and calling several trusted people of his household together, he told them: “While I was eating in such and such a wine shop just now, I lost a prince’s tally consisting of a scroll with the eight trigrams and the characters ‘five thunders’ as a prayer to ask the help of the Thunder God. Go around and see whether you can find out which gang the thief belonged to, and whether you can get someone to buy the scroll back for a reasonable price. This is something belonging to a person other than myself.”

  The household people assented and left. Not long afterward one of them, named Li Sheng, returned and said, “I have just found out exactly what happened. While you were drinking with your friends, this thing was stolen by a member of the White Coin gang and afterward sold to manager Liu of the Old Studio Antique Shop. He bought it for thirty ounces of silver. He had been befriended by people at the estate of Prime Minister Chin, to whom the scroll has been sold for five hundred ounces of silver. It has been hung in an upper story of the five-story Great Pavilion in the flower garden to protect the estate from demons and calamities.”

  When Li Guoyuan heard this, he realized how bad the situation was. “If it were only still in the antique shop, I could still have spent a little more money and bought it back, but I have neither the power nor the connections with powerful friends necessary to deal with these people.”

  Just as he was hesitating about what to do next, someone knocked at the gate outside. When he sent a man to see who was there, it turned out to be none other then Li Chunshan’s young son, Little Crab Apple. He said, “Just now after you left, we heard that tomorrow a ceremony will be conducted at the shrine in the home of official Du’s family. My father asked me to bring back the prince’s tally with the five thunders and the eight trigrams to have it ready to be used in the ceremony tomorrow.”

  Li Guoyuan said, “You may go back now and tell your father that, when I started to hang the scroll, I found a small tear in it. I sent it to the shop of a scroll mounter to have it repaired. In a little while it will be returned. You need not come for it.”

/>   After Little Crab Apple had gone, just when Li Guoyuan was driven to the point of absolute despair by his anxiety, one of the household people announced that a Zhao Yuanwai had come. Li Guoyuan went out and saw that it was Zhao Wenhui. The two men were intimate friends, and Li Guoyuan immediately raised his clasped hands in greeting, saying, “I have been looking forward to seeing you, Elder Brother.”

  Zhao Wenhui said, “I came today to invite you, dear brother, to visit the City God Hill and afterward to have a drink and something to eat at the Riverview Restaurant on Heavenly Pearl Street. We can see the sights together and have a view of the river from the restaurant.”

  But Li Guoyuan interrupted him, saying, “Elder Brother, today I cannot go with you. I have the most distressing business. Please come in and sit down.”

  When they went into the library, Li Guoyuan related all the details concerning the loss of the prince’s tally scroll.

  Zhao Yuanwai immediately said, “Do not worry! I can help you with this affair. There is a senior monk named Ji Gong at the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat in the West Lake area. He is a Buddha living in this world. You and I will go to him and beg the venerable monk to help. He can get back the prince’s tally, and he can cure the illness of your wife, whom I consider my sister. He truly communicates with the divine. He knows by intuition, and his power through his mastery of Buddha’s law is unlimited.”

  Li Guoyuan thought to himself, “I have heard his name, but up to now I have not seen the man. If he should come back with us, I must invite him to eat, so I will have to take some silver along.” Going out with Zhao Wenhui, Li Guoyuan bought forty cash worth of tea leaves, so that including the change from the tea leaves he had exactly ten ounces of silver and three hundred and sixty cash with him.

  As they walked on, they found themselves on the three-mile-long causeway with six bridges and with willow trees and peach trees one after the other. We speak of spring nights on the Su Embankment. Why is it so named? The great Su Dongbo wrote a famous poem about the adornment of the causeway with trees, and how during the third spring after they were planted, the peach and willow trees seemed to contend with each other to be the more beautiful. In the center of the lake was the spring that was the lake’s heart. Looking south one could see the Barrier Mountain and the pagoda on Thunder Peak. On the hillside to the north were forests and tranquil plum orchards. Looking far away to the west one could see the tomb of Yueh Fei, the legendary hero of the Song Dynasty. There, too, was the grave mound of Su Xiaoxiao, a beautiful and talented woman who was famous for flouting convention.

  Just as the two men came to the Cold Spring Pavilion, they heard someone in the middle of the crowd of people shouting out: “Li Guoyuan, Li Guoyuan, you do not need to go to the West Lake Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat to find Ji Gong. Give me the ten ounces of silver that you are carrying and keep the three hundred and sixty cash.”

  When Zhao Wenhui heard this he said, “My dear brother, the saintly monk is able to see the future through his intuition, and he is here waiting for you and me.”

  As they pressed their way through the crowd and looked, they saw Ji Gong’s clothing, but the man wearing it was not Ji Gong. Zhao Wenhui went over and grasped him with his hands, saying, “You good-for-nothing Daoist, you have done something bad to Ji Gong and you are trying to profit from his affairs.”

  The old Daoist said, “I certainly have not harmed Ji Gong, but he has eaten up everything we have until we are all, master and apprentices, almost without a scrap of clothing. He gave me these sentences and told me to come here and say them.”

  Zhao Wenhui said, “Where is Ji Gong? Take us to see him.”

  The old Daoist then took them to the Shrine of Three Virtues. When Zhao Wenhui saw the shrine, he noticed how poor the place looked, with almost nothing except the bare floor and walls. There were half-clad apprentices lounging about, and Ji Gong was sitting in a chair with his naked back toward the visitors.

  Wenhui said, “Teacher who is above me, Zhao Wenhui, your follower, presents his respects.” He then suggested to Li Guoyuan that he also should pay the proper courtesies to the holy monk.

  Even though at first the monk looked like nothing more than a beggar, to save Zhao Yuanwai’s face Li Guoyuan could not do otherwise than go forward to offer a ceremonial greeting. He bowed his head while he raised his clasped hands respectfully.

  The monk asked, “What business brings you here?”

  Zhao Wenhui quickly explained about the loss of the prince’s tally scroll with the five thunders and the eight trigrams.

  Ji Gong said, “Do not worry,” and had the old Daoist take off the ragged clothes. Ji Gong then put them on. He asked Li Guoyuan to hand over his silver, and Ji Gong gave it to the Daoist to redeem the pawned articles. The monk then left the Shrine of the Three Virtues with the two men and went to the home of Li Guoyuan.

  The monk said, “First I will cure the illness of your wife, and after that I will get back the prince’s tally. But there is one thing: to cure your wife, I must take hold of her and go round and round with her.”

  When Li Guoyuan heard this, he was half speechless, but Zhao Wenhui said, “Dear brother, you need not be suspicious. Ji Gong is a Buddha living on earth. He would certainly do no wrong. If he were an improper person, of course, I would not have asked him to come here.”

  Li Guoyuan said, “Well, then, that’s it,” and led Ji Gong to a courtyard containing a pleasant house facing south. When they arrived, the door was locked. Li Guoyuan’s wife unlocked it from the inside. The serving girls and women had fled sometime previously from that part of the estate, fearing they would be struck by the insane woman. When the door opened and the wife saw the ragged monk outside, she ran straight at him.

  The monk ran from her out into the courtyard. In the center was a large wide-mouthed jar for goldfish. Ji Gong ran round and round the jar, shouting, “This is terrible! If she catches me, it will be my life,” while the insane woman ran after him.

  After a while, the wife tripped over a basket and fell. Immediately she coughed up some mucus. At the same time her understanding returned to her and she asked, “How did I get here?”

  As soon as she fell, one of the braver women ran forward and helped her up. The monk, meanwhile, took a piece of medicine, and after he had had someone bring some water, he dissolved the medicine and gave it to Li Guoyuan’s wife to drink.

  Now, this illness of hers had originated with a confusion in the chambers of her heart. It was through the effect of certain affairs upon her that she had been brought to an extreme pitch of anxiety. She had a younger brother named Lin Tingyo. He had already squandered part of the property of his parents in the company of some bad characters with whom he had made friends.

  One day he came to his older sister, asking that she lend him several hundred ounces of silver to go into business. Since he was her own flesh and blood, it was natural she would be sympathetic to him. She deceived her husband about her brother’s reliability and persuaded him to lend her brother the silver. In a short time he had wasted it all running with his friends who, in truth, were no better than a pack of foxes or dogs. Then he came back another day and asked her to lend him an ounce of silver for ready money, and she gave it to him. Some days after that, while Li Guoyuan’s wife was sitting in a flower garden at her home, her brother suddenly appeared dressed in clothing so shabby, it was not fit for him to wear. He seemed like a different person, unkempt and ragged. The sight was such a shock to her that she nearly choked to death. This was what had brought on her sickness. When the congestion in her throat was relieved, she immediately recovered.

  Li Guoyuan was extremely grateful to the monk and invited him into the library, where wine had been prepared. Just as they were about to drink, one of the household people came in and said that Little Crab Apple was again at the gate demanding the prince’s tally scroll. Li Guoyuan went out with the rest and told him that it would be sent to him later.

  Li Guoyu
an then turned and said to Ji Gong, “Teacher, what are we going to do?”

  The monk said, “I will hire the Wei Tuo from our temple to get the scroll back.”

  Li Guoyuan said, “Teacher, the Wei Tuo from your temple is a clay image—how can it steal things?

  Ji Gong replied, “It can. That Wei Tuo of ours is always taking on such trivial business for people, but you cannot ask him to go and do something for nothing. You two wait here and drink your wine. I will go now and have a drink when I get back.” The monk stood up, and left.

  After the two men had seen him out and returned, Li Guoyuan said, “Brother Zhao, do you think what we heard the monk say is true or false?”

  “I don’t know whether it is genuine or not. Previously, when we were at the home of ‘Half a City’ Zhou, Ji Gong was carrying the Wei Tuo at the time he chased the goblin away. Now we are at a second crisis. Perhaps the talk about the Wei Tuo is true.”

  After the two men had had some wine, they waited for Ji Gong until past lamp-lighting time. Then they began to get anxious, fearing that the city gates would be closed, shutting him outside the city walls.

  Just as they were speaking of this, they saw Ji Gong come in, and they said, “Our teacher has returned to us.”

  Ji Gong said, “I’m so angry I could die!”

  Zhao Wenhui asked, “With whom is our teacher angry?”

  Ji Gong replied, “With the Wei Tuo of our temple. He is really hateful. Ordinarily when I go out, he says, ‘If you have any business, let me take care of it for you.’ Today when I came back, he just glanced at me and turned away. He turned his face completely away and would not speak to me. I just laughed and said, ‘I have some business for you, old Wei.’ He asked what the business was, and I mentioned that I wanted him to go to Prime Minister Chin’s estate and steal back the five thunders, eight trigram scroll from an upstairs room in the flower garden pavilion. I asked him how much he wanted to be paid to do it. Right away he put his price way up.”