in the distance slowly ascends
Through mists and driving rain,
A stillness by a knowing master hand.
The unwearied eye sweeps over
Hills and streams a thousand li.
Each day we thank the painter for his gift.
THE garrison commander complied as soon as he received the order to send five hundred soldiers to surround the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat and to arrest Ji Gong, and detailed two senior officials to command the men. In addition, officials of Linan prefecture detailed eight village headmen, and officials of other prefectures appointed another eight. All of them were dispatched as if they were on a military mission.
When they all arrived at the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat, the officers and soldiers surrounded the temple. The headmen then entered and asked the master of the temple where the crazy monk had gone. The old master of the temple said that he did not know. The headmen were as hard as steel. They immediately placed the master of the temple, senior monk Yuan Kong, in irons, saying: “Monk, your bravery is no little thing. You dared to have the great managers of Prime Minister Qin’s estate beaten!”
Then the attendant who served the master of the temple came and beseeched them to show mercy and not keep the old monk in irons. But the headmen simply put fetters on the attendant. The temple receptionist who kept the record of guests also pleaded with them, and he was treated in the same manner. Altogether, including the master of the temple and the superintendent of monks, seven monks were manacled and taken away to Prime Minister Qin’s estate.
When the headmen went to report, Prime Minister Qin immediately set up court in a summerhouse in the flower garden. Up to seventy people of his household stood outside in attendance. Those who had been sent on the mission came forward and gave their report, saying that they had brought back the master of the temple and other monks. They talked a bit more, and then the prime minister ordered that the monks appear before him. The headmen relayed the order to the soldiers, who brought the monks forward. The master of the temple was given a seat within the summerhouse, while the other monks were kept waiting outside on their knees.
Inside the summerhouse, the prime minister watched from behind a bamboo curtain, where he could see them clearly, but they could not see him. The prime minister asked, “Who among you several monks is the mad Buddhist priest? Speak your name!”
Each of the monks said his own name. The master of the temple said, “I am called Yuan Kong. I am the master of the temple.”
One said, “I am Guang Liang, the superintendent of monks.”
Another said, “I am the one who keeps the record of the guests.”
While another said, “I am the master’s attendant, Sung Duan.”
And still another, “I am the head caretaker of the mausoleum.”
As Prime Minister Qin heard these statements, he said, “Then the insane monk is not among you! I sent the people to bring in the mad monk because of his having beaten my managers.”
Guang Liang said, “I beg to inform the Great One. Ji Dian, the crazy monk of our temple, was originally a disciple of our temple master, Yuan Kong. When the honorable managers came, Ji Dian used his magical arts to cause the great managers to be beaten. We had no way of preventing what happened. I beg the Great One to be compassionate toward us and find us innocent.”
When Prime Minister Qin heard this statement, he ordered some of the estate people to go with the prefectural headmen to capture the mad monk. Later, when a few of the Qiantang headmen were searching inside the temple, they came to the place where the Great Memorial Pagoda was to be torn down. There, they saw the mad monk pointing and directing the workmen as he viewed the destruction that had occurred at the Great Memorial Pagoda.
Now, when these tile workers, carpenters, and laborers had heard that there had been an official order from Prime Minister Qin to demolish the Great Memorial Pagoda and to repair the prime minister’s great multi-storied pavilion, who among them would dare to disobey? Among them, however, were some good people who thought: “It is not an easy matter to build a temple. Who knows how much work is needed and how many contributions are required for the construction of such a high edifice? It would be a great misdeed to tear this down in one day, and I do not want to do such a thing. If I used my iron tools and broke one of the better tiles, that would amount to two hundred cash. I will not do it!”
Just then Ji Gong, who was off at one side, pointed with his hand, and the workmen simply dropped to the ground from wherever they were on the arch. Even though some of them were seven or eight yards above the ground, they all landed safely on their feet. As they fell, they thought to themselves, “How fortunate that we had not begun to destroy the arch! We might have fallen to our deaths. It was very dangerous!” They stood looking at one another and saying, “This will be something to talk about for some time to come!”
However, there were others who were actually starting to demolish the structure. They were those who had thought from the first, “To demolish this one and reconstruct the other will be two months’ work. Then the temple will require workmen to build another memorial pagoda, and that will be another couple of months’ work. That will be almost half a year’s work altogether.” Just as they began the demolition, Ji Gong pointed at them. They fell to the ground with their legs drawn up on some three-cornered rocks and were injured. Those rascals crawled home on all fours and lost half a year’s work while they recovered.
Ji Gong was just beginning to direct the first group of tile workers, carpenters, and laborers in the work of repair when the prime minister’s headmen appeared with thunderous shouts, brandishing their weapons of tempered steel. “All right, you monk, there,” said one, “you have caused all this turmoil and you are still here busily pointing and directing things.” They then put Ji Gong in irons.
The monk raised his head and looked about at the eight headmen: Big Zhou, Wang the second, Jang the third, Li the fourth, Sun the fifth, Liu the sixth, Keng the seventh, and Ma the eighth. They all pulled at him. So Ji Gong asked, “How great a disaster did I cause?”
Headman Zhou replied, “That is difficult to tell, and why should I? When you arrive at the prime minister’s residence, you will know and be happy.”
The monk said, “If you ask me to go like that, I will not go.”
Headman Zhou said, “Are you still trying to waste our time?”
The monk simply sat down on the ground. Under his breath he said, “Amitabha, Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum.”
Headman Zhou took his sword and tried to strike the monk, but was unable to do so. He called Wang the second to come to his aid. Wang the second pulled at Ji Gong with all his might, but could not move him. Wang the second said, “All the rest of you come here and help—don’t just stand there watching!”
They all tried. Chang the third, Li the fourth, Sun the fifth, Liu the sixth, Keng the seventh, and Ma the eighth all came and tried with all their might to make him move. But the monk was like a mountain of stone.
They all said, “This is very strange!” Then they heard behind them a man laughing at them. Headman Zhou turned his head and saw two of the headmen from another prefecture. One was named Tian Laibao, the other Wan Hengshan. These two were responsible to the same officer as the others. They were stout fellows and longtime friends of Headman Zhou. When they saw that Zhou and the
