Prime Minister Qin replied, “Just now I was reading a book and I had a sudden shock. I fell asleep and entered the land of dreams. There, I saw my old adoptive father and patron returning home as a frightful ghost, chained hand and foot, under the escort of several demon guards. He explained to me my sins in the world of light. I am planning now to stop the work of destruction at the Great Memorial Pagoda and to release all the monks. What do you think, wife?”
When his wife heard this, she laughed and replied, “Great One, you are a true man of books. How can you still believe in such heresies as supernatural powers and disorderly spirits?”
When Prime Minister Qin heard these words from his wife, he again suppressed his heart’s natural goodness. He asked the serving woman what time it was.
She replied, “Just now the third drum sounded.”
Prime Minister Qin said, “Pass on my order that in the third watch I will be at the outer library to conduct a close interrogation of the mad monk. I must punish him severely.”
Just as he spoke these words, they noticed that the candle lantern in the room was making a sound like heavy breathing, and that the flame of the candle had become a foot high. Prime Minister Qin gasped. When he rashly commanded the candle flame to come back to its usual height, the flame did diminish, but it flared up again and continued moving to and fro like a weaver’s shuttle. The stub of the candle was no larger than a date stone. The room was filled with a green light. After this had happened three times, Prime Minister Qin took down the precious family heirloom sword and pointed it at the candle. Suddenly, the candle began to produce two flames. Prime Minister Qin took another sword and the two flames became four. As the prime minister made slash after slash with his swords, the whole room was filled with the light of candle flames circling and whirling round and round.
Next he heard his wife cry out, “Great One! A demon with a huge head is standing outside the gate. Its head can be seen right up above the screen!”
The serving woman said, “But this is terrible. There is a demon squatting under the table and gnashing its long, ugly teeth! Look quickly by the bamboo blind there! That is one of our local demons. It is actually nodding its head.”
Prime Minister Qin asked his wife to sound the gong calling the household people so that they might come and do battle with the demons. His wife and the serving woman went outside to call for help. The household people outside rushed in upon hearing that demons were bedeviling the inner courtyard and came to a stop in front of the prime minister. As they arrived, they heard a terrible scream. One demon seemed to be wounded and its head was bleeding. The men cried out at the awful sight. One of them shouted, “Honorable Prime Minister, there is a spirit wearing a cangue. It is incredible.” People everywhere had always said that no one had ever seen a ghost wearing a cangue, one of those cumbersome wooden collars worn as a punishment, yet now one had appeared.
“Look, Honorable Prime Minister,” another cried. “There is the spirit of someone who has hanged himself. How dreadful!”
“Honorable Prime Minister, there is a demon with no head!” called still another. “There are also other mischievous spirits.”
Now all these things that seemed to be happening were creations of Ji Gong’s Buddhist arts. At the time that Prime Minister Qin had instructed those twenty household people to confine and guard Ji Gong and the other monks, Qin Sheng had talked with the others gathered on the veranda watching the proceedings. “This business in which we are involved is not a matter for our amusement. Since yesterday I have not slept. Today, again we have this unfortunate business. Let me make a suggestion. Each of us should contribute two hundred cash to buy wine and several kinds of dishes to sustain all of us through the night. At the third watch the honorable prime minister will be sitting officially in the library to question the mad monk closely and severely. We then must not delay or mismanage this business. What do you all think about this?”
Everyone said, “Good, good, good. Let us do just that.” Each of them handed in four small strings of cash. One of them took charge of the purchase of food and wine, and all helped as much as necessary.
As the first watch neared, one of them said, “Let us drink.” And everyone joined in, eating and drinking.
Then Ji Gong said, “Honorable sirs, be compassionate, be compassionate. Won’t you give this poor monk a small cup of wine?”
Qin Sheng replied, “Monks are not supposed to drink wine. Why do you ask us to give it to you?”
Ji Gong answered, “Wine drowns my wicked thoughts, the fifth among forbidden things.”
“But wouldn’t drinking also be a forbidden thing?” Qin Sheng countered.
The monk laughed. “Ah, ha! The honorable manager knows a part, but not the rest. The rest includes many advantages. Heaven has the wine-y stars, earth its wine-y springs. Man has his wine-y divinity, and wine encompasses ten thousand things. Confucius said, ‘Wine is the way, but follow it reverently.’”
Qin Sheng said, “Since you know all these things, I will, after all, give you a cup of wine to drink.” Then he filled a cup to the brim and gave it to the monk.
As he took it, Ji Gong said, “Good! Good! Good! Though the day may have been long, with wine the evening is like the morning of a day of rest and great affairs are but recreation after wine.” After he had finished drinking that cup he said, “Honorable sirs, give me another cup of wine to drink.”
Qin Sheng said, “I just gave you a cup of wine and you ask for more! Truly, you have no sense of self-respect.”
Ji Gong said, “If you do not give me another cup of wine, it is because you do not have as much as a cup of kindness toward others.”
Qin Sheng filled another cup to the brim for him. The monk drank it and said, “Come! Give me one cup more. Make it three cups.”
Qin Sheng replied, “I have no more. It is not that I would not give it to you. Ask someone else.”
Ji Gong gave a great laugh, “Ha, ha! I can drink myself.” He took the wine cup in his hand and said, “Om! I command. Come, come, come!”
Then the others saw the cup fill with wine. The monk drank several cups of wine in succession and put the cup down. When the household people guarding the monk decided that they, too, would like another cup, they went one after another to the wine jug and tipped it, but nothing came out. They all began to say that the one who went to buy the food and wine had kept some of the money. Again they all looked at the jug, but it was indeed empty.
Qin Sheng did not say a word, all talk ceased, and a spirit of sadness settled over them all. Soon they slept, lying this way and that wherever they were. Then they were all transformed temporarily into ghosts and demons and instructed in their roles by Ji Gong.
As soon as the monk had seen that everyone was sleeping throughout the house, he removed his locks and chains and went toward the inner apartments to bestow just retribution. First, however, he looked for those evil servants who had been swaggering about, doing cruel deeds, while depending on their influence with the prime minister for their power. Ji Gong sought them out and gave each one a pinch.
Then he saw a man on the roof of a building to the north side, over the place where the prime minister was sleeping. He was holding in his hand a large knife with which he intended to kill Prime Minister Qin, who hated Ji Gong so much. Looking closely, Ji Gong saw that it was none other than Zhao Bin, the young fruit merchant. He had a string bag fastened at his waist to use in case he decided to carry something away. This was the same Zhao Bin who had helped Ji Gong to restore to its rightful owner the magnificent five-thunder, eight-trigram prince’s tally scroll.
On