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
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
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