Wang Anshi said, “Husband of my older sister, let your heart be at rest and take care of your illness. You need not instruct me further. I will take care of the matter myself.”
Li Yuanwai also said to Wang Shi, “Dear wife, I am fifty-five years old now and so cannot be said to be dying young. After I die, above all things take care of our boy and teach him to become famous. Even though my soul is beneath the dreadful Yellow Springs, I will be joyous.”
Finally he gave Xiuyuan several sentences of instruction, but alas, his heart was in turmoil and his mouth and eyes closed in death. As soon as Li Yuanwai died, the family wept together.
Officer Wang helped with all the details of the bereavement. Since Xiuyuan remained in mourning, he could not take part in the examinations. That year Wang Zhuan and Han Wenmei both obtained their Xiucai, or bachelor’s degrees, and both families were congratulated.
In the home of Wang Shi there was an upper room that the family called the meditation tower. There, a record was kept of the family’s financial and other affairs up to each year’s end. This would be written in the form of a table and offered up to heaven together with the bills of account, without hiding the truth and keeping nothing back. There Li Xiuyuan began to develop an interest in the study of Daoism. The practice of this religion often included elements of herbal medicine, alchemy, numerology, exorcism, and black magic. Whenever he saw one of the Daoist scriptures, he would read it through without stopping.
Two years passed, and his mother fell sick and died. Li Xiuyuan wept for her alone. Officer Wang helped and managed the funeral arrangements.
Until the age of eighteen Li Xiuyuan continued to like Daoist books. When in that year his mourning was completed, he changed from his mourning clothes and immediately left home. He had been contemplating the red dust of mortality, his broken world, and his various problems. All the affairs at home were being taken care of by his uncle and did not need his attention. Li Xiuyuan went to the family grave, burned some sheets of paper spirit money, left a note for Officer Wang, and then immediately went away.
When Officer Wang had not seen him for two days, he sent a man to look for him. The man did not find the nephew, but he did find the note. Officer Wang opened the note and read, “Xiuyuan has left. You need not look for him. In some other year we will meet and you will know the result.”
Because Officer Wang knew that his nephew had recently been going to the Anguan temple in the neighborhood to study Buddhism and Daoism, he sent someone there to look for the boy. However, the people at the temple had not seen him. Wang also sent men to put up white placards in various places. On them he had written that any person who came with Li Xiuyuan to his home would be given one hundred ounces of white silver in reward; and any person who knew where the boy actually was and sent a letter about him would be given fifty ounces of silver. After three months, Uncle Wang and his people still had no idea where Xiuyuan had gone.
After Li Xiuyuan had broken contact with his home, he wandered aimlessly to nearby Linan. When he had spent all his money, he went into a temple and asked to leave the world. The monks there, however, did not dare to keep him because he was obviously a runaway from a good family.
Li Xiuyuan next went to the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat that occupied a large tract of ground facing the city from across the West Lake, considered to be one of the most beautiful spots in China. There he asked to see the master of the temple.
The abbot, Yuan Kong, a Buddhist of the ninth degree, was aged and feeble, but his mind was still strong and his understanding profound. When Xiuyuan was brought before him, the old monk knew at once that the youth was the reincarnation of the golden-bodied lohan who subju-gates tigers and dragons. Lohan were commonly believed to be powerful spirits of former teachers of Buddhism, filled with infinite compassion. However, in order to enter Nirvana, the state of having attained enlightenment and the freeing of the self, these lohan had to pass through countless reincarnations because of the burden of their human faults.
The abbot could not change the direction of the boy’s destiny, but he could help him with his teaching. The abbot was master of nine different schools of Buddhism. He, therefore, was able to train a disciple in whichever of these denominations seemed most suitable. After observing Xiuyuan’s natural gifts and disposition, the old man decided that the boy should become a Chan monk, “Chan” being the Chinese pronunciation of “Zen” in Japanese. The abbot named him Dao Ji, meaning “salvation through Buddhist wisdom.” He would no longer use the name Xiuyuan.
Chan Buddhism stressed meditation, but it also laid great emphasis on using insight and rational thinking to solve problems and find practical solutions. Chan monks during the Song dynasty had already earned a reputation for challenging Buddhist rules and ignoring conventional social behavior.
Even in tranquil courtyards bright with flowers,
You dare not say all’s well. Though walls and gates
Be higher than the tallest tall man’s head,
Malicious spirits that may hear such words
Will fly like locusts to invade each quiet spot.
Confucian duties, Daoist spells
And Buddha’s promise of release from karma’s chains
Together share the minds of thoughtful folk.
Both heaven and hell with countless gods and demons
Mirror the earth in all its vast complexity.
Souls of the dead roam ceaselessly
Until they may be born on earth once more.
On earth among the living, wandering monks of Chan
Respect what seems the best in every discipline,
Yet mock pretense and all external trappings
And work mysteriously to gain their ends.
The prevailing practice in the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat was more conservative, however, and many of the monks felt that this Chan novice was pursuing ideas contrary to their own. It was inevitable that he should be criticized, and even taunted. Once, while meditating, he remained so long in concentration that he became confused and disoriented. As a result, some of the others began to call him Ji Dian, meaning “Mad Ji.” Thereafter the rumor persisted, and even spread beyond the monastery, that he was indeed insane.
In spite of efforts to destroy his reputation, he afterward became known as Ji Gong by many people outside the monastery. During some earlier dynasties, “Gong” had been the title of a duke. Thus, when people called him Ji Gong, it was very much like calling him High and Noble Lord Ji. It was a title reserved for those most revered and appreciated.
As for the young Dao Ji, he passed through his three years of training, ignoring the taunts. He received his certificate and became a full-fledged monk. Even then, however, he was not accepted by the other monks, and his isolation from them grew.
Here and there about the monastery Dao Ji observed that individuals had little hoards of money that they had kept from the offerings of the visiting faithful. This all too common practice of subtracting a percentage of everything that fell into one’s hands was called a “squeeze.” The monks used their squeeze for new robes or sandals, or for some extra food beyond the day’s single meal.
Every few days Dao Ji would take the money from one or two of the little hoards and disappear from the monastery. He would spend the money in restaurants dining on dishes made with meat and fish and drinking wine, all of which he particularly loved. When people used to say to him that monks should eat only vegetarian meals, he responded with half-concealed mockery, saying, “The founder of Buddhism left us a verse which goes, ‘Some improve their hearts but neglect their mouths; others help their mouths but neglect their hearts.’ If I only improve my heart but neglect my mouth, then I would be failing to maintain my body and so be ungrateful to Guang Liang,