Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong

by Guo Xiaoting

  The waiter quickly laid out cups and chopsticks. “And what wine and dishes would you gentlemen like?” he asked.

  “What do you have?” the two responded.

  “Dumplings,” answered the waiter, “boiled, steamed, or fried; northern and southern style dishes of all sorts; anything you would like to order, really—and rose-flavored wine. As well as most other kinds of platters, regular plates, and side dishes. Please order anything you like.”

  “Fix us four dishes that will go well together, that is, something crispy fried, something steamed and so on, with two pots of old virgin wine—whatever will taste good. Don’t worry about the price,” ordered Chen Liang.

  “Yes,” replied the waiter, and immediately passed on the order. In a little while the four dishes and the wine were served.

  “What is your name, waiter?” asked Chen Liang.

  “My name is Liu,” the waiter answered.

  “I would like to ask you something,” Chen Liang continued. “Is one of these three people who are coming to eat upstairs perhaps the younger brother of the prefect?”

  “No,” answered the waiter.

  “Then why do you call them the Honorable Three?” asked Chen Liang.

  “You two gentlemen are not from around here, and there are things you do not know. I will see if they have arrived and then answer your question,” the waiter replied. He went out to look and then returned. “They haven’t come yet. Now I will tell you what you want to know.”

  “Tell us then,” urged Chen Liang.

  In a low voice the waiter began to explain one thing after the other. As the two listened, they could feel their anger rising.

  CHAPTER 85

  Two heroes observe three sworn brothers; the Crane’s Eye kills a man and delivers a present

  “THESE men we call the Honorable Three are our local bad characters. They have connections with officials and can even go into the prefect’s yamen. No one around here dares to provoke them. They have 180 servants or followers.”

  “And what are the names of these Honorable Three?” asked Chen Liang.

  “One is surnamed Yang,” answered the waiter. “His given name is Son and his nickname is the Golden Hawk.”

  “He must be a younger brother of the prefect—and then there are still younger brothers, aren’t there?” said Chen Liang.

  “No, they are sworn brothers, each with different surnames. The next is Chen Shanbao, the Mountain Leopard. The third is called the Heron, Yen Chiucheng.”

  Lei Ming and Chen Liang understood him. As they sat drinking their wine, a household steward came in from outside. He was wearing a cap, and thrown over his shoulders was a crane’s-feather cloak. He spoke to the manager. “Are the dishes prepared?” he asked. “The Honorable Three are just about to arrive.”

  “They are prepared,” replied the manager. “Invite the Honorable Three to enter.” Lei Ming and Chen Liang looked out. They could see at once that the steward was an evil man. Another evil-looking man then came in and said, “The Honorable Three are here.”

  The waiter quickly announced to the people eating and drinking: “Everybody stand up! The Honorable Three have arrived!” As soon as the waiter spoke, all the other diners stood up. The waiter then said to Lei Ming and Chen Liang, “I must also ask you two brave gentlemen to stand as well. The Honorable Three have arrived!”

  “Why should we stand when the Honorable Three arrive? Are they going to pay for what we eat and drink?” asked Chen Liang.

  “No, they won’t,” replied the waiter.

  “Since they are not going to pay for us, we cannot stand up,” said Chen Liang.

  “I intend well by what I say,” said the waiter. “If you do not stand up, it will be terrible.”

  “I have my own life preserver,” said Chen Liang, “and I have never seen anything very terrible yet. Today I would like to see what will happen here.”

  The waiter, fearing that they were going to provoke a fight, had the other diners stand in front of Lei Ming and Chen Liang. But the pair wanted to see what kind of people these Honorable Three were. With the other diners standing in front of them they could see nothing, so Lei and Chen stood up after all.

  The first to come in were two men wearing square blue kerchiefs over their hair knots. They wore splendid blue embroidered robes, but their bent backs betrayed the fact that they had spent the early part of their lives crouched over account books.

  The third man person to come in was a tall man dressed in richly embroidered clothes that were neither military nor civil in style, but a combination of each. He had a yellow face, thin eyebrows, and little triangle-shaped eyes. He did not look like a good man.

  “Oh, that rascal!” whispered Lei Ming to Chen Liang. “How did he get to be so important? He was one of the Four Rivers gang in Linan.”

  Chen Liang watched the three as they walked up the stairs. Then he called the waiter over and asked, “Why did everyone stand up when the Honorable Three came in? Are they afraid of them?”

  “I will tell you,” replied the waiter. “They are related to Prime Minister Qin. Don’t say they look like ordinary people. Even the prefect does not dare to cross them. If they are displeased with him, they will write a letter to the Prime Minister and the prefect will be removed and another individual sent to take his place.”

  “This is unthinkable!” said Chen Liang to himself. Aloud he said to the waiter, “Where do these three honorable gentlemen live?”

  “Go north from this restaurant to the end of the street; turn east into the lane. Just inside the lane, the first large gate on the north side is theirs. Above the gate is a large plaque with eight trigrams on it. The place is very large.”

  Chen Liang had listened very carefully. After the two men had finished eating and drinking and had paid their bill, they left the restaurant, went to the north end of the street, and turned into the east lane. There was the large gate on the north side. Having made sure of their way, the two then found themselves an inn called the Best in Town. It was on the principal street within the city walls and faced east. The two men asked for a western chamber in a north courtyard. Once in their room, the porter brought a basin of water for them to wash their faces and then poured tea.

  When he was gone, Chen Liang said, “Well, Brother Lei, you have seen those evildoers. Probably there is nothing bad that they would not do. Tonight let’s go and look them over.” Lei Ming nodded in agreement.

  They waited until the second watch when everything in the inn was quiet. Then they changed into their suits of darkness. When everything was properly arranged, they left the inn and went to the gate in the east lane. There, they crept stealthily over the roofs until they came to a courtyard with a five-section building on the north and similar matching buildings to the east and west. There were four lighted lanterns hanging at the door of the north building and a light within. Lei Ming and Chen Liang came down from the eastern building and looked through the holes in the paper-covered lattice into the northern room. There they saw two servants setting a table.

  One of the servants said, “A friend of our masters is coming to see them.”

  “Who is coming?” asked the other.

  “Their sworn brother, the River Rat, Cloud Dragon Hua,” replied the first servant. “In a little while our masters will be greeting His Honor Hua and then they will be having dinner in this room.”

  Lei Ming and Chen Liang heard this conversation distinctly. A short time afterward they saw a light at a corner gate of the north building and two servants appeared, carrying lanterns. Then came four men. The first was Cloud Dragon Hua. Just behind him was the tall man they had seen at the restaurant. Then came the two men with bent backs.

  The watchers could hear the one called Dian Guoben speaking. “Brother Hua, ever since we parted so hurriedly and went our separate ways, I have thought of the day when we might meet again. After that little business of yours in Linan, if you had only come here to us right away, I could have se
nt a letter to the prime minister in Linan. Then the warrant would have been recalled and the monk would have been told to return. The whole case would have been over very quickly, but you didn’t come. How could I know what was happening with you?”

  “But how could I know where you were?” countered Cloud Dragon. “It was just now when I was with Shining Star Wu that he told me that Elder Brother lived here. I have a couple of things with me that I would like to give Elder Brother.”

  “What sort of things?” asked Dian Guoben.

  “One is the pearl cap known as the Phoenix Coronet, which I took from the prime minister’s chamber,” replied Cloud Dragon. “The other is a pair of finely carved jade pendants. These are great treasures. I could hardly sell them to anyone because they are priceless, but I would like to give them to you.”

  “Dear brother,” said Dian Guoben, “you keep them until my birthday when several other men of the Greenwood will come here. Then you can give them to me, and that will make them open their eyes. We have known each other for so many years and have been together so seldom. I have often talked about your exploits to friends, about how you did things that astonished heaven and earth. If you stay here with us, I will write a letter to Prime Minister Qin and have the warrant for your arrest withdrawn.”

  “How can you associate with the prime minister?” asked Cloud Dragon.

  “You don’t understand,” explained Dian Guoben. “I am a relative. Let me tell you that this little business of yours is nothing to speak of. The prefect before this one did not satisfy me. I sent a letter to the prime minister and he removed the prefect and sent another in his place. The present prefect is named Jiang. A little while after he came, I went to call on him. Not only would he not see me, but he said some rather impolite words. I’m going to send another letter to Prime Minister Qin about him. We are relatives. After my previous letter he sent a reply telling me to keep an eye on things and to write again. I wrote to the present prefect about some things that were happening around here, but he hasn’t done anything about them. I’ve also thought of something else.”

  Then Dian turned to another person and said, “Brother Chiu, there is a worthless old man in the rear flower garden. You just go back there and nip off his calabash. We’ll send it to this prefect of ours.” The one named Chiu nodded and went out.

  Lei Ming and Chen Liang knew that calabash gourds with their hard tough skins were used everywhere as containers, but in the black language of the outlaws, the word meant a man’s head.

  At that time a servant came in to report that Cheng Jiyuan and Ho Dongfeng had returned. Dian Guoben ordered that they be invited in. The servant went out and shortly came back in with the two men, one dressed in white, the other in blue.

  When they arrived at the guest hall Dian Guoben said, “Dear Brothers Cheng and Ho, you have returned. Now I would like you two to go to the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat on the West Lake at Linan. Find the apartment where the abbot’s guests stay and kill everyone. Then come back. Can you do that?”

  Both Cheng Jiyuan and Ho Dongfeng said, “That is really a small business. We will be on our way at once.”

  “Good,” said Dian Guoben. “Take some money for traveling expenses and then be off.” The two said goodbye.

  The Crane’s Eye, Chiu, now entered carrying a man’s head dripping with blood and saying, “See, elder brother, he is dead.”

  “Get something to wrap it in and wrap it up well,” said Dian Guoben. “Then send it to the prefect’s yamen.”

  In their hiding place Lei Ming and Chen Liang could hear what was being said but could not see what was being sent to the prefect. “Brother, let’s follow him,” said Chen Liang.

  Chiu hurried off, with Chen Liang and Lei Ming secretly following him. At the prefect’s yamen Chiu went up on the roofs and past one courtyard after the other. This great maze of courtyards, each surrounded by three or four buildings, contained the audience hall, the rooms for record-keeping, the prison, the guard room, the residence of the magistrate, and places for all the functions of the prefectural government. Finally, Chiu reached the residence of the prefect, a building somewhat grander than the residence of the magistrate.

  The prefect slept in the east end of a good-sized building on the north side of a spacious courtyard. There were smaller matching buildings on the east and west. Chiu went to the one on the west that faced east, hung the parcel he was carrying from the eaves, and quickly departed.

  Chen Liang and Lei Ming now understood what it was—a threat to the new prefect. It would be the first thing he saw when he awoke, if he looked outside. “Let’s take it back and hang it on Dian Guoben’s gate,” suggested Lei Ming.”

  “No, our teacher told us to watch and take note,” countered Chen Liang. “We are to see it with our eyes but avoid meddling. Let us go back now.”

  The two then returned to the inn.

  The next day when the prefect arose, he saw the parcel hanging from the eaves and called his people to take it down. They did so and then unwrapped it and saw that it was a man’s bloody head.

  CHAPTER 86

  The prefect sends out his men; Ji Gong goes with the magistrate to pay a social call

  THE prefect naturally was furious when he saw the head. He immediately sent a message to the magistrate telling him to come at once. The magistrate bowed deeply when he arrived and saw the prefect saying, “The Great One has called for me. What are your orders?”

  “Last night in this yamen, here in this courtyard of mine, an outlaw hung a package from the eaves of the west building,” the prefect exploded. “Inside was a man’s head, dripping with blood. So there is a robber with that kind of gall! I want you, sir, to get your men together, find the guilty man, and bring him here! Find out who was murdered and where the body has been placed!”

  When the magistrate had heard the prefect out, he said, “Yes, I will find the murderer. The Great One need not trouble himself. I will have my people catch him.”

  “You must move quickly, sir,” said the prefect. “We will also send some prefectural men.”

  The magistrate nodded in agreement. He quickly called his headmen together. “You must get this murderer,” he ordered them. “There will be a reward of fifty ounces of silver for his capture—and punishments for failure.”

  The headmen bowed their heads in acknowledgement of the order. They assembled their underlings, together with the people sent by the prefect in a restaurant west of the crossroads. In the back room of the restaurant they were talking together about how to solve the case. All of the waiters were asking what had happened and were told that a man’s head had been hung from the eaves of the west building that faced toward the room where the prefect slept, that there was a reward of fifty ounces of silver for success in solving the crime and punishments for failure. Everyone opened their eyes wide saying, “This is a hard case to solve.”

  Then they heard someone outside say, “It was you who hung that package from the eaves.”

  Someone else said, “Weren’t you the one who told me to do it?” Everyone was silent as they listened.

  Just then, in walked a poor ragged monk with two men dressed in boxy-looking, moonlight-gray gowns and jackets. The latter two looked like merchants, but they were wearing four different styles of shoes. The three individuals were, of course, Ji Gong and the headmen Chai and She, whom Ji Gong had led hither and thither in search of Cloud Dragon until their shoes were worn out and they had to put on their feet whatever they could find. However, as strange as the two headmen looked, it was what they had said before they came in that had attracted the attention of everyone.

  When the monk had been at Changshan and had sent Lei Ming and Chen Liang on their way, he returned to the house of Xiao Yuanwai, where his two headmen had waited until they had become desperate.

  “Holy monk, where have you been?” asked Xiao Yuanwai.

  “I went out for a bit,” replied the monk. “I saw a man with a bag full of money. T
he coins kept falling out of a hole in the bag and I followed after him, picking the coins up as I went until I had gone eight li.”

  “You must have had a lot of money by that time,” said Xiao Yuanwai.

  “I had been following him all this way and picking money up and putting it into a fold of my robe. When I looked to see how much I had, I found that all the coins had fallen out,” explained the monk. “There wasn’t a single one left.”

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Yuanwai laughed and ordered food and drink prepared. Then he persuaded the monk to stay overnight.

  The next day the monk went to take his leave. “Why can’t you stay several more days?” Xiao Yuanwai asked.

  “I really have business to which I must attend,” replied the monk.

  Xiao Yuanwai brought out fifty silver pieces saying, “This is for wine on the road.”

  The monk handed it back and said, “I don’t want it! I don’t want it!”

  Headman Chai said, “If Teacher doesn’t take it, later we will want to eat and stay at an inn and there will be no money. I say we should take it!”

  “If you want to, then take it,” said the monk, “but wrap it up well into a parcel.” Headman Chai then carefully wrapped up the money. Then the monk said, “You two want to capture Cloud Dragon Hua. What talents do you have that will help you?”

  “I can fly over a wall,” replied Chai.

  “Then fly up to the eaves here and hang up this parcel that you wrapped so well,” said the monk. “Then I will take you to capture Cloud Dragon Hua.”

  “That requires no effort,” said Headman Chai. He then leaped up and hung the package from the eaves. “Look! It’s up there.”

  “Then let’s go,” said the monk.

  “Shan’t we take the money down first?” asked Chai.

  “Don’t you have any shame?” asked the monk. “Would you really take someone else’s money? That’s not in the spirit of friendship! Let us go.”