Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong Read online

  ADVENTURES OF THE

  MAD MONK

  JI GONG

  About the Translator

  John Shaw during his twenty year U.S. Marine Corps career served part of that time as a Chinese/Japanese/Korean interpreter. He was stationed in China for two tours totaling six years and visited China twice after those tours. During his first visit he came across the tales of Ji Gong in a bookstore. After scanning the book, he bought a copy having decided it would be interesting to read. He read the entire book and then thought it would be enjoyable to translate the first half. He immersed himself in this project at a leisurely pace over several years.

  Publisher’s Note

  During the process of translating this classical Chinese work, John Shaw was fortunate to have the invaluable expertise and input of his wife, Mrs. Sara Janet Shaw, a former professional editor, in all editorial matters. Together they worked as a team to make this manuscript highly accessible and interesting for English readers.

  GUO XIAOTING

  ADVENTURES OF THE

  MAD MONK

  JI GONG

  Translated by John Robert Shaw

  Introduction by Victoria Cass

  TUTTLE Publishing

  Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

  Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

  www.tuttlepublishing.com

  Copyright © 2014 Sara Janet Shaw

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is in process

  ISBN: 978-1-4629-1594-1 (ebook)

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  Table of Contents

  Introduction by Victoria Cass

  1. Military Finance Officer Li visits Buddha and begs for a son; an immortal lohan descends to earth and begins anew the cycle of reincarnation

  2. Dong Shihong sells a daughter to bury a relative; the living lohan rescues a virtuous man

  3. The arts of Chan cure illness in the Zhao home; Buddha’s laws operate in secret to end sorrows

  4. Liu Taizhen is deluded by the arts of Chan; Li Guoyuan goes to breakfast and loses a prince’s tally

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

  6. Zhao Bin attempts to visit the Great Pavilion; a fearless hero is sent upon a horrible errand

  7. Reunited heroes rescue a studious young man; Han Dianyuan reforms his ways with Ji Gong’s help

  8. A false order from the prime minister commands that the Great Pagoda be pulled down; the vagabond saint manifests his powers to punish the evil lower officials

  9. Soldiers surround the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat and bring back the mad monk in fetters; Ji Gong’s games with the village headmen end with a drunken entrance into the prime minister’s estate

  10. Prime Minister Qin sees a ghostly spirit in a dream; Ji Gong comes by night to exercise the arts of Buddha

  11. Zhao Bin stealthily visits the estate of Prime Minister Qin; the guiltless Wang Xing is mercilessly punished

  12. Qin Da practices a cruel deception; Qin Da seeks to separate a faithful couple

  13. Wang Xing and his family leave Linan forever; Qin Da is stricken by a strange illness that Ji Gong is asked to cure

  14. A subtle medicine is used to play a joke upon the prime minister’s household; a talent for matching couplets amazes the prime minister

  15. Changed beyond recognition, an honored monk returns to the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat; Ji Gong’s money is stolen by a bold ruffian

  16. Spring Fragrance meets a saintly monk in a house of prostitution; Zhao Wenhui sees a poem and feels pity for the writer

  17. A young woman in distress is escorted to the Bright Purity Nunnery; driven by poverty, Gao Guoqin returns to his native place

  18. Gao Guoqin goes to visit a friend, leaving some verses as a message to his wife; Ji Gong is begged to foretell the absent husband’s fate

  19. The searchers find the impoverished scholar; the desperate Gao Guoqin returns to familiar scenes

  20. When sympathetic friends meet, kindness is repaid with kindness; resentment cherished in the heart of an inferior man brings grievous injury

  21. The virtuous magistrate investigates a strange case; Ji Gong follows the robbers to the Yin Family Ford

  22. The capture of the robbers solves the strange case; a plan for systematic charity is put into action

  23. In the market town of Yunlan, an evil Daoist brings forth a supernatural manifestation; the benevolent Liang Wanzang suffers a calamity

  24. Ji Gong hampers the defrauding of the Liang family; the merciful one amuses himself at Chang Miaoyu’s expense

  25. By his uncanny arts, the vicious Daoist strives to harm Ji Gong; the Spirit Master and the Chan master duel with magic spells

  26. The duel between the Spirit Master and the Chan master continues; the powers of the Chan master are observed by Chen Liang

  27. Ji Gong takes pity upon the Daoist acolyte; Chen Liang makes a stealthy entrance into the mansion of Su Beishan

  28. Malicious talk about the Su family gives rise to a deadly plan; Su Beishan meets old Han in a wine shop

  29. Ji Gong makes it possible to distinguish true from false; the Chan master meets a hero under the bed

  30. Master and monkey enter the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat for the first time

  31. Ji Gong is recalled to Linan; Cloud Dragon Hua looks into a sedan chair and sees a victim

  32. The Robber Rat creeps into the nunnery; Prime Minister Qin reads the robber’s message

  33. The Great Protector is called to investigate; Ji Gong catches one of three

  34. The Chicken Thief tells his story; Tian Laibao sells his clothes

  35. Yang Zaitian has his fortune told; jealousy brings failure to four headmen

  36. The prime minister questions a false dragon; Chai and She find a hanging man

  37. Juan Yoting sleeps at the roadside; Ji Gong waits in the inn

  38. Ji Gong finds a private room; Cloud Dragon Hua meets an opponent

  39. Ji Gong introduces two followers; Lei Ming brings wine to the forest

  40. Lei Ming hears his victim’s voice; an innkeeper waits at the inn gate

  41. A Phoenix Hill yuanwai reaches Country Hill Inn; a rough robber meets his match


  42. Two heroes are almost killed in the Dong Family Hotel; the Chan monk brings retribution to robbers

  43. Wang Gui prepares his revenge; three friends meet in New Moon Village

  44. Cloud Dragon Hua goes to New Moon Village; Black Tiger teaches at the ruined temple

  45. Ma Yuanzhang warns his nephew; Ma Jing asks a favor

  46. Ma Jing waits in the darkness; a dragon hides behind a scroll

  47. Ji Gong cracks an egg; Ma Jing has an unwelcome visitor

  48. Ji Gong asks for a scroll; Ma Jing kills a temple guardian

  49. The fox spirit hears a story; Ma Jing receives the monk’s instructions

  50. Ma Jing parts from his guests; Ji Gong lends his robe

  51. Ji Gong writes a strange order; Chen Liang observes Cloud Dragon Hua’s companions

  52. A thief sees the Spirit of Night; Chen Liang surveys the Zhao Tower

  53. Seeing lovely ladies arouses wicked thoughts; three outlaws plan an abduction

  54. Ji Gong foretells misfortune; Cloud Dragon Hua wounds two friends

  55. Cloud Dragon makes a false accusation; Yang Ming is wounded by a poisoned dart

  56. Ji Gong surprises an outlaw in the forest; headmen meet the holy monk in a wineshop

  57. The warrant for Cloud Dragon Hua is stolen; the holy monk lies for a banquet

  58. The Longyou headmen have three cases; Ji Gong goes to the Inn of the Two Dragons

  59. A waiter’s story moves the monk to pity; Ji Gong sees two unwholesome men

  60. Two scoundrels accuse each other; Ji Gong teaches strange table manners

  61. A reformed robber meets a false monk; Xu Za meets the Painted Lame Man

  62. Xu Za describes the Iron Buddha Temple; the Daoist gives Ji Gong medicine

  63. The Daoist and the monk exchange medicines; the ragged monk smells the odor of robbers

  64. Ji Gong sends a gift of pickled eggs; the Painted Lame Man walks into a trap

  65. The Iron Buddha falls from the altar; Sorcerer Hua has a strange visitor

  66. Golden Eye visits the gentry; Cloud Dragon Hua reads a familiar verse

  67. Three heroes discover a dragon; a familiar verse once more appears

  68. Cloud Dragon Hua meets a ghost; the iron-shop manager talks of escorts

  69. The Tangled Hair Ghost is rescued; Headman Zhou seeks his father’s advice

  70. Liu Tong chases a badger; Cloud Dragon Hua escapes again

  71. The murderous Black Wind Ghost is murdered; the killer, Golden Eye, is slain

  72. Sorcerer Hua weaves his spell; the Chan master comes from the Iron Buddha Temple to save those in need

  73. Monk and Daoist match their spells; the brethren depart for Changshan

  74. Three heroes take shelter under the Jin family roof; Chen Liang questions a fellow villager

  75. Yang Ming defends a country mansion; Zhou Rui is given leave from duty

  76. Chai and She hear a voice from the clouds; Ji Gong buys a dog

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

  78. Yang, Lei, and Chen attack the evil Daoist; Sorcerer Hua invades Ten Li village

  79. Lei Ming hears a third cry for help; Chen Liang closely questions a woman’s evidence

  80. Second Tiger Son accuses Lei and Chen; a chivalrous stalwart disturbs the court

  81. Zhao Yuanwai inquires about cause and effect; Second Tiger recognizes Dr. Xu

  82. Second Tiger explains the young doctor’s illness; Lei Ming and Chen Liang lose their pants

  83. Lei Ming and Chen Liang rob the robber; a journey through clouds leaves no footprints

  84. Three sworn brothers surprise the Wu stronghold; an evil star is extinguished

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

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

  87. The magistrate calls upon the outlaw; Ji Gong cleverly seizes Cloud Dragon Hua

  88. Cloud Dragon Hua joins his five comrades; two friends come to a party bringing a head

  89. Two outlaws show a head to Ma Jing; Ma Jing recalls the monk’s visit

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  “Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can; all of them make me laugh.”

  W. H. Auden

  THE great Buddhist divinities of China have marked an austere passage through history. Arhats of immense dignity—severe gods of wisdom—left sacred texts; patriarchs founded grand temple complexes so that their doctrines might live; and martyred men and women sacrificed their own limbs as signs of devotion. These lions of the faith are the saints of Buddhism, famed for their miracle tales. But Ji Gong—the saint in this book—is not that saint; and that is not his story. Ji Gong is a god of the streets—a drinker, a trickster, a city magician who lives among shopkeepers and traveling merchants, among the impoverished scholars, street hustlers and courtesan-prostitutes, all with survival tales and hard-luck stories. He is their exorcist, their avenger; he is a streetwise hero, the common man’s patron saint.

  Ji Gong was born in Hangzhou, perhaps in the year 1130, during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). However, only one Song Dynasty biographer, Chan Master Jujian, found him worthy of mention, and the Master’s account is mercifully short.1 Lord Ji studied at the great Lingyin Monastery, an immense temple compound that still ranges solemnly up the steep hills above Hangzhou. The Chan masters of the temple instructed him in the infamously harsh practices of their sect, but failed; the young monk, following in the steps of other great ne’er-do-wells and holy fools of Chinese religions, managed the one distinct accomplishment revealed in this account: he got himself fired. He left the monastery, became a wanderer with hardly a proper jacket to wear, and achieved renown—not in the temples, but in the wine shops.

  If this were the only version of this monk’s life, he would have vanished, as did the thousands, perhaps millions, of other lowly disciples; but Ji Gong’s story was hijacked. It was claimed by generations of city dwellers—900 years of entertainers and the entertained—who seized on this tale of defiance and trickster humor among the Hangzhou taverns, giving the simple account both life and bulk. Indeed, the full might and weight of the storyteller profession—its multiple clans and guilds, its steely membership practices, and its decades of training starting in childhood—was thrown behind the lore of Ji Gong. This ignominious monk assumed center stage in the cycle of accounts; accounts that multiplied and expanded as city life in China expanded. Later chroniclers gave him many names: Ji of the Dao, the Living Buddha, the Hidden Recluse of the Qiantang Lake, the Chan Master, The Drunken Arhat, Elder Brother Square Circle, Abbot Ji, and his most familiar and suitable rubric: Crazy Ji.

  The author of our version, Guo Xiaoting, lived in the late 1800s and into the twentieth century, coming happily to the tales almost a millennium after Ji Gong lived. Guo Xiaoting wrote The Complete Tales of Lord Ji in the 1890s, editing the raft of material from popular performances, mimicking in some measure the storyteller’s gimmicks and voice. Nor was Guo Xiaoting embarrassed about his lowly sources. For another of his works, he bragged that the long performances of storytellers—two-month stagings were not unusual—were his source.2 And although many of these sorts of claims are specious—an attempt by intellectuals to evade the charge of producing frothy literatures—this one seems to have been true. Ji Gong does, in fact, reveal the world of the Beijing storyteller as the century changed in 1900: where restaurants and theaters offered the tales, and where Guo Xiaoting—in retirement—earned a living.

  Thus, though the original tale and early versions of Ji Gong tell of Hangzhou life, where the famous Lingyin Monastery presides, the 900-years-later version—our version—though set in Hangzhou, has the look, smells, and—above all—sounds of Beijing. Within Guo Xiaoting’s tale and John Shaw’s translation, n
ot only does the monk Ji Gong emerge, but so also do the lives and places of Guo Xiaoting’s own world. We see the alleyways and temple grounds, the lowlife and high ambitions of the men and women of China of the late 1800s and early 1900s, a curbside capsule of the late Qing Dynasty as it teetered on the brink of collapse.

  Six years after Guo Xiaoting published a second installment of the Ji Gong tales, the Outer City District Police for the city of Beijing compiled a survey.3 In 1906 the “First Statistical Survey of the Security Administration” (Jingshi waicheng xunjing zongting diyici tongjishu 京師 外城 巡警 總廳 第一次統計書) reported that there were 347 restaurants, 308 courtesan-entertainer halls, 301 inns, 246 teahouses (where operas were performed), and 699 opium dens: all in a single district of Beijing. These were not the only place where people gathered. Temple complexes housed thousands of religious clerics and disciples and offered holiday fairs and popular performances. Grand compounds served the thousands of visiting merchants; they used the extensive banking institutions4 to monitor their investments. Businesses of all levels dominated the streets of Beijing; at the turn of the century, when Ji Gong was published, there were over 25,000 commercial establishments.5 Of course, the poor numbered in the thousands: soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and programs for temporary employment helped some.6 The police did not simply observe this activity; Beijing was the most policed city in the world. A network of officers supervised the city through the night in a series of watchmen’s contacts. “The beating of drums, bells, and bamboo boards enabled policemen to be part of a sweep through the streets and lanes … part of an elaborate choreographed system … that kept officers always within earshot of each other.”7 Members of the British Macartney mission in 1793 complained of being kept awake by the continual clapping and clopping.8

  This was a city of size and scale. Foreigners were astounded; Father Pierre-Martial Cibot thought Beijing “the most peopled in the universe.”9 The estimates varied from one to three million inhabitants, depending on the inclusion of the extensive suburbs. The inns and restaurants, so carefully recorded by security officials, reflected this scale. One restaurant, a “publick house” visited by the Scotsman John Bell, was “the largest of that sort I ever saw; and could easily contain six or eight hundred people. The roof was supported by two rows of wooden pillars … the great part was filled with long tables, having benches, on each side, for the accommodation of the company.”10 Traders, artisans, factory workers, bosses and laborers, and the institutions—from temple compounds to marketplaces, big and small—shaped the nature of Beijing. This was a city with a city ecology: a city that had its own order and rhythm, with thriving subcultures of interlocking occupations. To be sure, the Manchu dominated the capital—laws were becoming increasingly strict on separation of races—but city patterns held the contours of life in Beijing.