Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong

by Guo Xiaoting

“As far away as a thousand li and as close as right before your eyes,” the outlaw replied mysteriously. As he said this, he drew out his sword.

  Chai and She struck out with their iron-tipped staves but the flying sword of the outlaw was too much for them. They were unable to overpower him.

  “His skill is very great indeed!” thought Chai to himself. “No wonder he was able to commit such crimes in Linan, even stealing the pearl coronet from the prime minister. If She and I had not been together, one of us would be dead.” His resentment against the monk was particularly strong just then for his having left them and for not being there when they were trying to subdue Cloud Dragon. “Headman She, how do you feel about the monk?”

  “I would not like to see him just now,” he replied.

  As She spoke, he heard a voice say, “I am here.” The voice seemed to come from the clouds. “I am here, but I am not coming down. I might fall to my death.”

  Looking up, Chai saw Ji Gong standing on the top of a carved sign above the door of a drugstore. The crowd of people all looked up, and some cried out: “Oh! the monk may kill himself if he falls.”

  Ji Gong, after having given Liu Tong some medicine to cure his burns, set out to find Cloud Dragon Hua, stopping on the way to visit the sick Daoist, Liu Miaotong, and give him some medicine. When Ji Gong reached Changshan and the crossroads, he saw the two headmen fighting with the outlaw and used his arts to get up on the druggist’s sign.

  Headman Chai, seeing Ji Gong standing on the druggist’s sign in midair, could not imagine how he could have gotten up there. Everyone was looking up and saying, “Dreadful! The monk will fall to his death!”

  “Teacher, come down quickly,” pleaded Chai.

  “Well, I don’t want to fall,” said Ji Gong and simply jumped down.

  The crowd of people who had been saying that the monk would fall to his death were surprised to see him land on his feet, and were now saying, “This is a strange monk!”

  “Teacher! Quickly recite one of your spells and catch the outlaw!” exclaimed Chai.

  “They’ve gone right out of my head,” said the monk. Meanwhile, the outlaw was climbing across rooftops and fleeing for his life, but just then the monk said, “Oh, I remember one,” and he recited, “O Mi To Fu.” The outlaw slipped down and was hanging by his clothing from the eaves, right in front of Zhou Rui. The latter was about to put chains on the outlaw.

  At this point Chai and She were again filled with hatred for Ji Gong, because he was allowing this invalid to take Cloud Dragon into custody. They hesitated, thinking that the crowd would not let them take the outlaw away from Zhou Rui. Then they stepped forward. “Congratulations, my friend! I am Chai Yuanlo and this is She Jengying. We two were especially sent by the yamen of the Grand Protector of Linan to bring back Cloud Dragon Hua. You must permit us to put the chains upon him.”

  Zhou Rui, who had a truly noble and generous spirit, was not inclined to argue with them, and simply said, “You two gentlemen may put the locks on him.” Chai and She did so.

  “You two must be very happy,” commented the monk. “You have captured Cloud Dragon Hua and, when you get back, you will have the reward of 1,200 ounces of silver.”

  “Aren’t you happy, Teacher?” asked Chai.

  “You are happy!” said the monk again—and repeated his comment five times in all.

  “Let’s go, Teacher,” said Chai, “and don’t say that any more.”

  “You go ahead to the yamen,” said the monk. “I will be there later.”

  The two headmen led the outlaw into the Changshan district yamen and reported their arrival. The magistrate immediately went to his bench and summoned the two headmen and the outlaw.

  Chai and She brought the outlaw into the courtroom. Chai greeted the magistrate. “Your servant, Chai Yuanlo, repectfully hopes that your honor is well.”

  Headman She also greeted the magistrate and explained their going from Linan to arrest Cloud Dragon Hua for his crimes. “Now we have captured him and bring him here before you.”

  “And do you have a warrant?” the magistrate asked.

  “We have,” responded Headman Chai and immediately produced it.

  The magistrate found the warrant to be correct, and then asked, “Is this the outlaw Cloud Dragon Hua?”

  “My name is Hua,” said the outlaw, “and I am called Cloud Dragon.”

  “What nicknames are you called?” queried the magistrate.

  “I am known as the Water Rat of the Universe,” answered the outlaw.

  “What did you do in Linan?” asked the magistrate.

  “I killed a young nun who refused to go away with me, as well as an old man. I also killed a man on the second floor of a restaurant. And I stole the pearl coronet from the prime minister. I did all these things.”

  “And what was the verse you wrote?” asked the magistrate.

  The outlaw described it.

  “Now,” queried the magistrate further, “what did you do at the pawnshop outside the south gate? Who was it that you killed outside the east gate, and what other crimes did you commit here in my district?”

  “I committed no crimes here in this district, and I know nothing about any of those things,” answered the outlaw.

  The magistrate became furious. “Probably you need to be questioned physically in order to make you talk! Take him down and beat him for me!”

  “Your Honor,” protested the outlaw, “I have committed several crimes for which I will be executed. I am already a condemned man, but I have done nothing here. You cannot punish me for what I have not done. Isn’t it true, Your Honor, that you simply want to clear up your cases? If you want me to make up a story for you, you must tell me what to say.”

  This made the magistrate’s temper explode further. “You beast! You are a real outlaw—if I do not beat you, you will never tell the truth.”

  The magistrate’s men were about to beat the outlaw when the sound of footsteps was heard. As the sound grew louder, Ji Gong appeared. “Your Honor,” announced Headman Chai, “Ji Gong has arrived.”

  The magistrate stood up as Ji Gong entered. Now they saw that, as he walked into the courtroom, he was leading another man. The man’s eyes were staring straight ahead.

  When Ji Gong had parted from the two headmen at the crossroads, he had followed them toward the magistrate’s yamen. Directly opposite the yamen’s gate, the monk let out an angry exclamation as he saw a wine shop and went inside. A man of about forty years old was sitting in the cashier’s office. The skin of his face was a dark reddish brown and his eyes had an ugly squint. “Manager,” said the monk, “lend me a writing brush.”

  “What for?” asked the manager.

  “I’m going to drink some wine,” replied the monk, “but I want to write a word or two first.”

  The manager handed the monk a brush, and the monk wrote something in the palm of his hand. When he had finished, he sat down and called for a pot of wine and several dishes.

  Nearby a man was saying, “Today Senior Monk Ji Gong captured an outlaw near the crossroads. Didn’t you see it happen?”

  “No, I didn’t,” said a second man.

  “I saw it,” the first one said. “The monk was very tall. His head was like a grain measure. He was wearing a saffron-colored robe and carrying a rosary of 108 beads in his hand. Really like a lohan.”

  “Don’t talk nonsense!” exclaimed the other. “That monk, Ji Gong, is a drunken madman, dirty and ragged, with parts of his sleeves torn off and his head unshaven most of the time.” And pointing with his finger, he continued, “very much like that monk there.”

  “How do you know that?” asked the first man.

  “I was a friend of Ji Dian,” the other said.

  “You know him?” interjected the monk. “When did you know him?”

  “Last year in the spring,” replied the second man. “I saw him in Linan. We ate together.”

  “Last year in the spring?” queried Ji Gong. “Weren�
��t you a merchant in Jenjiang prefecture?”

  The man thought that Ji Gong’s question was strange. “How did he know that I was in business in Jenjiang?” he asked himself, and then he asked the monk, “How did you know I was in Jenjiang?”

  “I saw you there,” replied the monk.

  Just as he spoke, a man called into the room, “A good dog! Who will buy it?”

  “Dog seller,” asked the monk, “how much do you want for this dog?”

  The man heaved a deep sigh as he replied, “If the great teacher were to take it, that would be very good. There are three of us in my family. My mother is very sick. We have sold and pawned everything to buy her medicine, until there is nothing left to sell but this dog. Just give me a string of one thousand cash and you can have it.”

  The monk said, “I don’t want it.”

  “Nine hundred,” countered the man.

  “I still don’t want it,” said the monk.

  A hundred cash at a time, the man reduced the price to six hundred.

  Another man asked, “How much are you willing to give, monk?”

  “I will give you five cash,” said the monk. “Are you satisfied with the price?”

  “I am satisfied,” said the man.

  A bystander remarked, “Monk, you really are insane!”

  The dog seller said, “Sold.”

  “Sold indeed!” said the monk. “Manager, give us five cash.”

  “And for what reason should I give five cash?” asked the manager.

  The monk raised his open hand and showed the palm to the manager. “Look,” he said, “for just this reason.”

  As soon as he saw what was written there, the frightened manager said, “I will give you five cash.”

  CHAPTER 77

  Chai and She capture an outlaw at Changshan; Ji Gong reveals nine plum blossoms

  WHEN the frightened manager said, “I will give you five cash,” and then did so, no one could imagine what was going on.

  “Dog seller,” said the monk, “let the dog loose. I hear him whining. I will give you the five cash.”

  “The moment I let him loose he will run off,” said the dog seller. “He will simply run back to my house.”

  “Never mind,” said the monk. “If he runs off, that’s my affair.” The man let the dog go and the dog ran back home of its own accord. The monk handed the coins to the dog seller, who took the money and left.

  “Teacher,” the manager said, “don’t tell anybody about this business of mine. We will keep it to ourselves and not mention it. I will pay for some dishes for you.”

  “Go ahead,” said the monk. The manager then ordered quite a number of dishes and set them before the monk, who ate and drank.

  Then the monk said, “If I do not take you into court, we will not have answered to the wronged soul of the dead man.” The manager’s eyes became fixed straightforward in a stare. He walked out through the restaurant after the monk, down the street and into the prefect’s yamen.

  The prefect stood up and greeted the monk with extreme politeness, saying, “The light of Buddha approaches me. I hope you will forgive my sins. Please be seated. What should be done with this person that you have brought here?”

  “Would your honor first have someone take charge of this man,” requested the monk. “We can question him a little later.” The prefect immediately ordered one of his men to take the restaurant manager into custody.

  “Old Chai and old She,” said the monk to the two headmen, “you were very happy about bringing Cloud Dragon Hua here, and very happy that you will be getting 1,200 ounces of silver at Linan. Very happy.”

  “Isn’t the teacher happy?” headmen Chai and She asked.

  “Outlaw! What is your name?” the monk asked.

  “My name is Cloud Dragon Hua,” replied the outlaw.

  The monk laughed loudly. “What right have you to the name Cloud Dragon Hua?” As he spoke, he pulled off the outlaw’s shirt. “Come and look! This is his nickname.”

  When the headmen Chai and She looked, they saw on the outlaw’s back nine scars the size of large coins. When the monk pointed them out, the outlaw spoke. “That’s it. Monk, you know who I am. I am not named Cloud Dragon Hua.”

  “Then what are you called?” demanded the prefect.

  “My name is Son,” answered the outlaw, “and I am called Evil Tiger. My nickname is Nine Plum Blossoms. I am a Four Rivers man and I live in the Jade Emperor temple on Evil Tiger Mountain. A number of Four Rivers men of the Greenwood operate there. Outside the south gate we robbed the pawnshop and set fire to it. Altogether there were thirty people. Outside the east gate there were two, myself and Gold River Ma. Because you locked up the Tangled Hair Ghost and beat him, his Green-wood brothers came together to rescue him. There were seventy-three men in all. We did several things, including the killing of the guard soldier when we went out of the gate. The Tangled Hair Ghost’s legs had been broken by the order of the magistrate. He told us the Changshan prefect and Ma Jahu were his enemies. Tonight a large number of Green-wood men will come together to kill the entire Ma family. I was to assassinate the prefect. Unexpectedly I was captured. Cloud Dragon Hua was never at the Jade Emperor’s temple and is not among our number, but I know him and thought I would do him a favor by pretending to be him. I didn’t expect the monk to recognize me. This is my true story.”

  The prefect ordered that the outlaw be kept in chains and returned to his jail cell. The prefect’s underlings carried out his orders.

  Chai and She were furious, but the monk said, “You two men must not get excited. Sooner or later I will surely give you two the outlaw you are looking for.”

  The prefect then asked again, “Holy monk, that man you brought in just now, what kind of affair is that?”

  The monk put out his hand and showed the palm. “Look, Your Honor,” he said. The prefect immediately understood and ordered the man brought forward.

  The manager of the wine shop was named Dong Shiyuan. The original proprietor of the shop was named Kong the Fourth. He was a sworn brother of Dong. Since he was an orphan, Kong turned in times of difficulty to Dong as a friend. Kong had a wife named Zhou Shi and two young children, a boy and a girl. Dong helped out Kong in the wine shop.

  Eventually Kong the Fourth became ill. When his sickness grew worse, he called Dong to his home and said, “As sworn brothers we are like hand and foot. Now I will not be in this world much longer. When I am dead, my wife and children must depend upon you for their living. They have no one to rely upon, no one to trust. I will give you my wine shop to manage. After I am dead I know that you won’t let my family starve and will help my children to grow up and burn incense at my grave. Thus I can willingly close my eyes in death and go beneath the Yellow Springs.”

  “Elder brother,” said Dong, “just try to get better and not to worry. Of course I will take care of your wife and children.”

  Kong the Fourth did die, and Dong took care of the funeral. Afterward he became manager of the wine shop. He often gave money to Zhou Shi.

  Zhou Shi’s daughter was named Xiaolan, after a fabulous bird with a beautiful song. She was seventeen years old, lovely in face and figure, and still not promised in marriage. Dong was a lustful person who had a desire for the girl from the time that Kong the Fourth had died, and in the shop he constantly thought about her. One day Zhou Shi took her son on a visit to his grandmother. She left her daughter, Xiaolan, to watch the house. Dong went to the house to bring several things that might be useful to the widow and her family. When Xiaolan started to take the things from him, he suddenly took hold of her arm. She broke away and ran out into the rear courtyard, where there was a well that had its opening level with the pavement. Preferring to die rather than have him touch her again, Xiaolan jumped into the well and drowned. Dong quickly left the house and went back to the wine shop.

  When Zhou Shi came home, she did not see her daughter, and looked everywhere for her without finding her. On the third da
y after her disappearance, Xiaolan’s body rose to the surface of the water in the well and was discovered. Zhou Shi thought that the girl had accidentally fallen into the well. She sent a note asking Dong to buy a coffin and help with the funeral. Dong said nothing about what really had happened, thinking that no one living knew and that ghosts could not talk.

  How could Dong have expected that the monk would ask him for five cash, then show him his hand, on the palm of which he had written: Kong Xiaolan died to preserve her honor. Dong had quickly given five cash and food to the monk, thinking that the monk would overlook his crime. Instead, the monk had used his arts to bring him to the prefect’s yamen.

  As soon as the prefect saw the writing on the palm of the monk’s hand, he understood and immediately struck the desk with his hand as he called out, “You impudent low creature! How could you dare to drive Xiaolan to suicide with your advances? Now, quickly tell the truth. If not, you will be severely punished.”

  Now Dong Shiyuan realized that he was in the courtroom and thought to himself, “This is strange. No one knew what I did.” He said, “Your Honor above me, this small person’s name is Dong Shiyuan. I am a merchant, but I do not know anyone who is called Xiaolan.”

  “The fellow is disrespectful,” said the monk. “So you are still unwilling to admit the truth. The ghost of that dead person appeared before me and accused you.”

  The prefect then had Dong beaten, and he admitted his guilt. The prefect then questioned him further. Dong Shiyuan was in pain and said, “I will tell all.”

  “Do so,” commanded the prefect.

  Dong Shiyuan then told how he had promised the dying man that he would care for his family, how he had visited the family’s home, and how the girl had resisted him and then thrown herself in the well to her death.

  “Have him kept in irons and locked up,” ordered the prefect. “Later we will have him confront the corpse, and we will then decide upon his punishment. At present we have other things to do. Let us have something to drink and discuss our plans.”

  As the servants prepared refreshments, the prefect said, “Holy monk, what are we going to do about all these outlaws who are about to exterminate the entire household of Ma Ran? What do you foresee?”