And all were level ground.
Here among China’s rivers and lakes,
Between the earth and the sky,
He wandered as he must.
He did not meditate chant.
By some admired, by some despised,
Drinking and eating fish and meat,
Carousing through the night or day,
He charmed his friends, dismayed his foes,
And many wrongs he put to right.
When Dong Shihong heard the monk say, “I want to hang myself. I just want to put the noose around my neck and hang,” Dong quickly went over to him. “Monk, why do you seek to shorten your life?” he asked.
Ji Gong replied, “My teacher spent three long years instructing me while living on the contributions of the worshippers. Putting aside a little day by day and month by month, it was very difficult to get together five ounces of silver. Finally I received my teacher’s orders. He sent me to buy two monks’ garments and two monks’ hats. I like to drink wine very, very much. In the wine shop, because I greedily drank two extra measures of wine, I got tipsy, then drunk, and then very drunk, and lost the five ounces of silver. I intended to go back to the temple to see my teacher, but then I was afraid that the old monk would be angry. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. I kept thinking ‘What a life! A story without a title!’ Therefore I want to hang myself.”
When Dong Shihong heard this, he said, “Monk, you may be distressed about a few ounces of silver, but not to the point of dying. I still have five or six ounces in odd bits of silver in my bag. I am already a dead man, and there is no reason for me to keep them. Come, I will give you these five or six ounces and help you.” Thrusting out his hand, he gave a small purse to the monk.
The monk took it in his hand, laughed, “Ha! Ha!” and said, “This silver of yours, however, is not such a good kind as mine was. Besides, it’s all broken up into different-sized pieces.”
When Dong Shihong heard this, he was not very happy, and thought to himself, “I did a bit of pointless charity in giving you that silver, since you complain that it is no good.” Then he said to him, “Monk, go and use that to pay back the money.”
The monk assented and said, “I’m going.”
Dong Shihong thought to himself, “This monk absolutely does not understand the customs of the world concerning favors asked and done. I gave him this silver that he did not appreciate and that he said was not good. Then, when he was going, he didn’t even ask my name and didn’t know enough to thank me. Truly he is of an uncouth generation. Anyway, as for myself, I am about to die.”
Just as he was feeling resentful, he saw the monk coming back, and heard him say, “As soon as I saw the silver, I forgot everything else and didn’t even ask the kind gentleman’s honorable name and why he is here.”
Dong Shihong told him the entire story about losing the silver ingots. The monk said, “Ah, you also lost some silver. Since father and daughter cannot see each other, you hang yourself. Well I’m going.”
When Dong Shihong heard this, he said, “This monk really doesn’t understand proper courtesies. He doesn’t know how to talk to people.”
He saw the monk walk five or six steps and then come back saying, “Dong Shihong, are you really going to die, or are you pretending?”
Dong Shihong said, “What if I am really going to die?”
The monk said, “If you are really going to die, you can do me a genuine favor. The complete outfit of clothing you are wearing is worth five or six ounces of silver, and you are leaving it for the wolves to eat and the dogs to gnaw. What a useless waste! Take your clothes off and give them to me. You dropped into the world naked; go out the same way. Wouldn’t that be better?”
When Dong Shihong heard this speech, his entire body began to shake, and he said, “A good monk you are! You really understand friendship! As a casual friend, I gave you several ounces of silver. I have been burning paper to call up a devil!”
The monk clapped his hands, and laughing loudly said, “Very good! Very good! You must not get excited. I only asked you. You lost your money, so you were going to die. Fifty or sixty ounces of silver do not amount to anything. I will take you to find your daughter and cause you and your daughter to come back together. Flesh and bone reunited. How about it? Congratulations!”
Dong Shihong said, “Monk, I lost the money to redeem my daughter—if I don’t have the money, how is it possible that we can be reunited?”
The monk answered, “It’s all right. I have a way. You come with me.”
Dong Shihong asked, “Monk, where is your temple? Where can one find it, and what are your honorable names?”
Ji Gong replied, “I came to the West Lake hurriedly from the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat. My name is Dao Ji. People call me Ji Dian, the mad monk.”
Dong Shihong realized that the monk did not speak in an unrefined manner. Rewinding the sash around his waist, Dong Shihong asked, “Where did you say you were going, Teacher?”
Ji Gong said, “Walk!” Turning, he led Dong Shihong straight ahead. The monk was singing a mountain song:
Walk, walk, walk and roam, roam, roam.
There is no better way than this to pass the spring and fall.
Now today I feel how good it is to be a monk.
Now I do regret those years I had to spend in toil.
Now I see that love is an illusion.
Now I feel that wives are all a snare.
What can equal crossing fields and rivers?
What can equal the gourd in my bare hands?
What can equal the sound of wind and rain?
What can equal the slowly fading day?
Happy now from morn to night and no one cares about me.
Never a vexation, never something sad.
Hemp sandals striding over field and stream,
Ragged monk’s robe and head as smooth as satin.
I can be gentle or I can be hard.
Outside my body there’s a world of new delights.
It doesn’t matter if the earth wants skulls and bones.
Caring not for heaven, stopping not for earth,
Happy as a powerful prince,
I can sing songs and make them up as well.
I can doze whenever I am tired,
Then
