household people assented and left. Not long afterward one of them, named Li Sheng, returned and said, “I have just found out exactly what happened. While you were drinking with your friends, this thing was stolen by a member of the White Coin gang and afterward sold to manager Liu of the Old Studio Antique Shop. He bought it for thirty ounces of silver. He had been befriended by people at the estate of Prime Minister Chin, to whom the scroll has been sold for five hundred ounces of silver. It has been hung in an upper story of the five-story Great Pavilion in the flower garden to protect the estate from demons and calamities.”
When Li Guoyuan heard this, he realized how bad the situation was. “If it were only still in the antique shop, I could still have spent a little more money and bought it back, but I have neither the power nor the connections with powerful friends necessary to deal with these people.”
Just as he was hesitating about what to do next, someone knocked at the gate outside. When he sent a man to see who was there, it turned out to be none other then Li Chunshan’s young son, Little Crab Apple. He said, “Just now after you left, we heard that tomorrow a ceremony will be conducted at the shrine in the home of official Du’s family. My father asked me to bring back the prince’s tally with the five thunders and the eight trigrams to have it ready to be used in the ceremony tomorrow.”
Li Guoyuan said, “You may go back now and tell your father that, when I started to hang the scroll, I found a small tear in it. I sent it to the shop of a scroll mounter to have it repaired. In a little while it will be returned. You need not come for it.”
After Little Crab Apple had gone, just when Li Guoyuan was driven to the point of absolute despair by his anxiety, one of the household people announced that a Zhao Yuanwai had come. Li Guoyuan went out and saw that it was Zhao Wenhui. The two men were intimate friends, and Li Guoyuan immediately raised his clasped hands in greeting, saying, “I have been looking forward to seeing you, Elder Brother.”
Zhao Wenhui said, “I came today to invite you, dear brother, to visit the City God Hill and afterward to have a drink and something to eat at the Riverview Restaurant on Heavenly Pearl Street. We can see the sights together and have a view of the river from the restaurant.”
But Li Guoyuan interrupted him, saying, “Elder Brother, today I cannot go with you. I have the most distressing business. Please come in and sit down.”
When they went into the library, Li Guoyuan related all the details concerning the loss of the prince’s tally scroll.
Zhao Yuanwai immediately said, “Do not worry! I can help you with this affair. There is a senior monk named Ji Gong at the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat in the West Lake area. He is a Buddha living in this world. You and I will go to him and beg the venerable monk to help. He can get back the prince’s tally, and he can cure the illness of your wife, whom I consider my sister. He truly communicates with the divine. He knows by intuition, and his power through his mastery of Buddha’s law is unlimited.”
Li Guoyuan thought to himself, “I have heard his name, but up to now I have not seen the man. If he should come back with us, I must invite him to eat, so I will have to take some silver along.” Going out with Zhao Wenhui, Li Guoyuan bought forty cash worth of tea leaves, so that including the change from the tea leaves he had exactly ten ounces of silver and three hundred and sixty cash with him.
As they walked on, they found themselves on the three-mile-long causeway with six bridges and with willow trees and peach trees one after the other. We speak of spring nights on the Su Embankment. Why is it so named? The great Su Dongbo wrote a famous poem about the adornment of the causeway with trees, and how during the third spring after they were planted, the peach and willow trees seemed to contend with each other to be the more beautiful. In the center of the lake was the spring that was the lake’s heart. Looking south one could see the Barrier Mountain and the pagoda on Thunder Peak. On the hillside to the north were forests and tranquil plum orchards. Looking far away to the west one could see the tomb of Yueh Fei, the legendary hero of the Song Dynasty. There, too, was the grave mound of Su Xiaoxiao, a beautiful and talented woman who was famous for flouting convention.
Just as the two men came to the Cold Spring Pavilion, they heard someone in the middle of the crowd of people shouting out: “Li Guoyuan, Li Guoyuan, you do not need to go to the West Lake Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat to find Ji Gong. Give me the ten ounces of silver that you are carrying and keep the three hundred and sixty cash.”
When Zhao Wenhui heard this he said, “My dear brother, the saintly monk is able to see the future through his intuition, and he is here waiting for you and me.”
As they pressed their way through the crowd and looked, they saw Ji Gong’s clothing, but the man wearing it was not Ji Gong. Zhao Wenhui went over and grasped him with his hands, saying, “You good-for-nothing Daoist, you have done something bad to Ji Gong and you are trying to profit from his affairs.”
The old Daoist said, “I certainly have not harmed Ji Gong, but he has eaten up everything we have until we are all, master and apprentices, almost without a scrap of clothing. He gave me these sentences and told me to come here and say them.”
Zhao Wenhui said, “Where is Ji Gong? Take us to see him.”
The old Daoist then took them to the Shrine of Three Virtues. When Zhao Wenhui saw the shrine, he noticed how poor the place looked, with almost nothing except the bare floor and walls. There were half-clad apprentices lounging about, and Ji Gong was sitting in a chair with his naked back toward the visitors.
Wenhui said, “Teacher who is above me, Zhao Wenhui, your follower, presents his respects.” He then suggested to Li Guoyuan that he also should pay the proper courtesies to the holy monk.
Even though at first the monk looked like nothing more than a beggar, to save Zhao Yuanwai’s face Li Guoyuan could not do otherwise than go forward to offer a ceremonial greeting. He bowed his head while he raised his clasped hands respectfully.
The monk asked, “What business brings you here?”
Zhao Wenhui quickly explained about the loss of the prince’s tally scroll with the five thunders and the eight trigrams.
Ji Gong said, “Do not worry,” and had the old Daoist take off the ragged clothes. Ji Gong then put them on. He asked Li Guoyuan to hand over his silver, and Ji Gong gave it to the Daoist to redeem the pawned articles. The monk then left the Shrine of the Three Virtues with the two men and went to the home of Li Guoyuan.
The monk said, “First I will cure the illness of your wife, and after that I will get back the prince’s tally. But there is one thing: to cure your wife, I must take hold of her and go round and round with her.”
When Li Guoyuan heard this, he was half speechless, but Zhao Wenhui said, “Dear brother, you need not be suspicious. Ji Gong is a Buddha living on earth. He would certainly do no wrong. If he were an improper person, of course, I would not have asked him to come here.”
Li Guoyuan said, “Well, then, that’s it,” and led Ji Gong to a courtyard containing a pleasant house facing south. When they arrived, the door was locked. Li Guoyuan’s wife unlocked it from the inside. The serving girls and women had fled sometime previously from that part of the estate, fearing they would be struck by the insane woman. When the door opened and the wife saw the ragged monk outside, she ran straight at him.
The monk ran from her out into the courtyard. In the center was a large wide-mouthed jar for goldfish. Ji Gong ran round and round the jar, shouting, “This is terrible! If she catches me, it will be my life,” while the insane woman ran after him.
After
