The monastery manager spoke, “I have a proposal to make. Just outside of the Suanzao Gate there is our branch temple with a vegetable garden attached. Near the temple is a barracks for soldiers, and every day the soldiers come with hooligans to steal our vegetables. They also bring horses and sheep to feed there. The monk who resides there cannot stop these depredations, so how would it be if we sent this man to live there? He would perhaps control the position.”
The Abbot accepted the suggestion, and sent an attendant to bring Lu Da to see him. Upon the latter’s arrival the Abbot addressed him, “As you have been recommended by Abbot Zhen, I will enter your name on our register. Just outside the Suanzao Gate we have a branch temple with a vegetable garden, and I want you to take charge of that. Every day you must see that the gardeners send ten loads of vegetables to this monastery, and you can have whatever is left over.”
“Abbot Zhen told me that I could do some business here, but instead of being a manager or superintendent you tell me to manage a vegetable garden,” said Lu Da.
“Brother, you do not understand,” said the monk who leads in worship, “you will be entered on our roll, but as you have had no experience, how can you manage a monastery? The management of this vegetable garden, however, is quite an important job.”
“I will not do such work, and must have a position as manager.”
“You just listen to what I have to say,” said the guest’s host. “There must be a chief of the staff who manages our affairs. For instance, I attend to the guests who come here, but more important work is done by the Wei Na (who attends to the monks’ discipline); the Shi Zhe (abbot’s assistant); the Shu Ji (scribe); the Shou Zuo (who conducts the prayers), and all their work is difficult. Then there are the business manager, and his assistant who look after the monastery property. As you have just arrived here, how could you occupy a leading position? Then there is the monk who looks after the storeroom where the holy scriptures are kept, he is called the storekeeper; the monk who keeps the monastery clean is called the hallkeeper; the monk who looks after the upper chamber is called the chamberlain; there are also the subscriptions collector; and the bathhouse keeper. These all manage affairs of the second class. Then there are the pagoda keeper; chief cook; chief tea maker; chief of the lavatories; and chief of the vegetable garden, all managing affairs of the lower class. If you attend to a vegetable garden well for say one year you will be promoted to look after the pagoda, and if you do that work well you will become the bathhouse keeper, and eventually become the superintendent of the temple.”
“As there is a prospect of promotion I will go there tomorrow,” said Lu Da.
This being decided Abbot Qing invited him to rest in his private room for the night. The next day the Abbot signed a notice to this effect, and sent a man to post it at the branch temple. Lu Da then took leave of the Abbot, and proceeded to his new duties with two monks who acted as guides.
We have already mentioned that close to the garden there lived some worthless vagabonds who passed their time gambling, and stole vegetables. When they entered the garden that day they read the notice about the new arrangement, and they agreed among themselves that they must take an early opportunity to pick a quarrel with Lu Da as he would submit to them when he had been beaten. One man had a plan, “We must entice him to the cesspit to receive our congratulations, and while we are knelt down we must seize his legs, and throw him into the manure pit. That will be a nice bit of fun.” The others thought it was a splendid idea, and they awaited Lu Da’s arrival to put it into execution.
When Lu Da arrived, the gardeners all came and saluted him, and the keys were handed over to him. The two monks who had accompanied him, and also the monk whom he had relieved, bid him good-bye and returned to the principal monastery. Lu Da then went into the garden to look round, and there he saw about thirty of the vagabonds who had a basket filled with fruit and wine. When they saw him they smiled and said, “We heard that you have come to live here, and therefore we have come to offer you our congratulations as we are your neighbors.”
Lu Da had no suspicion of a trick, and therefore walked up to them near the manure pit.
A priestly foot was raised on high;
Fierce tigers slunk away;
He raised his fist up to the sky;
Scaly dragons were dismayed.
You will now learn how these rascals tried to molest Lu Da.
Footnote
56 More like a bandana or a kerchief in the modern parlance.
CHAPTER 6
Lu Da Uproots a Willow Tree; Leopard’s Head Makes a Mistake in Entering the White Tiger Hall
NOW these vagabonds had two leaders; Zhang the Third, nicknamed “The Crossing Road Rat” and the other Li the Fourth, nicknamed “Green Grass Snake,” and they tried to induce Lu Da towards the cesspit, but he noticed that the crowd of men did not move at all. Lu Da invited them all to come into the temple, but as the two leaders had already knelt down they did not want to get up, and waited for him to come forward to assist them to get up when they would seize his legs. As they neither moved nor got up, Lu Da at once suspected some trickery, and thought they were surely waiting to “pull the tiger’s whiskers.” So he decided to go forward, and make them feel the weight of his fist and foot. As he strode up to them the leaders said, “We offer you our congratulations,” so saying, they advanced on their knees, and tried to grab hold of Lu Da’s legs. But the latter was too quick for them, and he kicked Green Grass Snake into the cesspit, and then did the same to Old Rat. This made the crowd of rascals speechless, and they all wanted to sneak off. Lu Da shouted that if any man attempted to go away he would be treated in the same way. No one dared move. In the cesspit the leaders were peeping to see what was happening. The cesspit was so deep that they could not touch the bottom. There was a terrible stench, and their heads were covered with maggots. They called out, “Reverend, please forgive us.”
“You rascals there,” shouted Lu Da, “come and help these men to get out. I forgive the whole lot of you.”
The two leaders were assisted out of the pit, and then they went and stood near a gourd stand some distance away as the stench was so strong.
Lu Da laughed, “You foolish fellows! You had better go to the pool and after a wash there I will talk with you.”
The leaders did this, and their followers handed them a change of clothing to put on.
Lu Da ordered them all to come into the temple, and there sitting in the center of the hall he pointed at the assembled men and said, “You gang of vagabonds need not try to deceive me. Now why did you come here to trifle with me?”
They all knelt down, and the leaders replied, “We live by gambling, and therefore have to depend on your garden for our food. The temple bribed us several times to leave the vegetables alone, but there is no result. Reverend, where do you come from? You are so strong that we must submit to you. We are willing to do whatever you wish.”
“I was a Major in the army,” replied Lu Da, “and because I killed many men I became a monk. My name is Lu Da. You thirty men are of no account to me for even if a thousand soldiers came here I would defeat them.”
The rascals expressed their appreciation of his clemency in letting them off so lightly; they then departed. The next day the rascals got together some money, ten jars of wine, and a roasted pig, and brought them to present to Lu Da. In the temple they took their seats in two rows with Lu Da in the center, and they all drank wine.
Lu Da asked why they had wasted so much money, and they