hearing Ji Gong said, “Good, monk. You put it well. We will go and report for you to our great one.” When they arrived at the west flower garden, they said, “Honorable Prime Minister, we return and report. We went and saw the monk there, and we slaves said that the Great One had invited him to cure illness. The monk said that the Great One’s position was conferred upon him by the three councils. He also said that he did not commonly visit back and forth with the Great One and that, if the great one associated with Buddhists and Daoists and the imperial censors heard of it, the Great One would be censured.”
When the prime minister heard these words, he broke into a rage: “That monk has a lot of gall!” he said.
Li Huaiqun interposed, “Honorable Prime Minister, do not lose your temper. If he wants to get the monk to cure the young master’s illness, the Great One must go himself.”
The prime minister looked at his son tossing on his bed. There was nothing else to do. “Dr. Li,” he asked, “will you go with me to see what the monk is like?”
“Certainly!” Li Huaiqun replied, and went with Prime Minister Qin to the empty rooms of the east section courtyards.
There, the prime minister made a coughing sound. He informed the doctor, “Clearing my throat tells my people that I am coming and that they must all be on their best behavior.”
Of course, hearing the sound, all the household people quickly stood up respectfully and said, “The Great One has come.”
Ji Gong asked, “Did I hear a dog bark?”
Everyone quickly admonished him. “Do not talk nonsense! The Great One has come.” Then they saw Prime Minister Qin and Li Huaiqun enter and come before Ji Gong.
“Because my little child has become afflicted with a strange illness,” began Prime Minister Qin, “I, the chief minister, have come especially to invite you to cure his sickness.”
The monk said, “But I was brought here in chains and locked up by the Great One. I was by no means invited here to cure sickness.”
When Prime Minister Qin heard this, he again became furious and angrily exclaimed, “Very well!”
Li Huaiqun realized that things were going badly and at once intervened. “Great One, be patient and try to quell the thunder of your anger. Allow me to go forward and invite Ji Gong to come.”
Prime Minister Qin stepped back and saw Dr. Li go forward to speak to Ji Gong.
CHAPTER 14
A subtle medicine is used to play a joke upon the prime minister’s household; a talent for matching couplets amazes the prime minister
As hastening travelers in boats with slackening speed
May, with unreasonable force,
Curse at the river’s sluggish flow,
Men in their journey through this toilsome world
May have perception
Injured and impaired.
So in most melancholy times,
If entering despair usurps the better mind,
It may not be unwise to turn aside
And briefly leave material things behind.
UPON coming face to face with Ji Gong, Li Huaiqun said, “Teacher, we have been separated for too long a time. I offer you most courteous greetings. Today the young master Qin has developed a strange tumescent illness. I recommended you, sir, as one who could cure the young master’s sickness. Whatever there may be wrong in this matter, please see that I, your younger brother, am partly to blame.”
Ji Gong said, “All right. If you want me to cure someone, take all these locks and chains off me!”
Li Huaiqun looked at them and said, “Very well. Qin, Great One, will you please, sir, have someone release the saintly monk from these steel fetters?”
Prime Minister Qin immediately had the locks and chains removed.
Li Huaiqun asked, “Teacher, do you have anything else to say? Will you not go now?”
The monk said, “The master of the monastery, my teacher who is like my father, is here, and my brother teachers are all here suffering punishment. How could I have the heart to go to cure sickness for someone?”
Prime Minister Qin, upon hearing Ji Gong’s statement, immediately ordered that all the other monks should be set free to return to the temple. After all the monks had departed, Li Huaiqun said, “Teacher, there is nothing more for which you need to ask. Why do you not go to the young master now?”
Ji Gong said, “Dr. Li, soldiers have surrounded the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat and they are tearing down the Great Memorial Pagoda within the walls of the temple grounds. How could I be willing to go to cure sickness while these terrible things are going on?”
Prime Minister Qin knew that the monk wanted the soldiers withdrawn from the temple, and there was nothing he could do but agree. He hastily sent his official order to recall the soldiers who were dismantling the memorial pagoda, as well as the soldiers surrounding the temple.
Li Huaiqun said, “Saintly monk, there is now nothing more that you can desire. Now go.”
The monk said, “I will go.” He stood up. “Do good works, promote the general prosperity, and be virtuous. Do evil, and you will meet strange misfortunes. I, the poor monk, now advance to meet a swarm of evils. I only fear that they may be difficult to understand.” He was laughing and talking as if to himself.
The listening prime minister said, “The monk is getting off too lightly—if he really makes my son well again, I will still tear down his memorial pagoda. If I do not, I will be the laughingstock of everyone. He will have beaten up my deputies but not been punished, and I will have had him locked up, but not punished. Once he has cured my son’s illness, I will then go ahead and tear down his pagoda.”
Behind, Ji Gong heard him and laughed loudly: “Ha ha! Good, good! Goodness indeed! I will sing one of my little monk’s songs for the great one to hear.”
In his hat, in his hat,
In his black official hat
And uncomfortable gown,
He’s the first among all men,
Among merely mortal men,
Most disliked among all men,
Among merely mortal men.
From his hat, from his hat,
From his high official hat
There are streamers that hang down.
Left and right, two great leaves
Dance and shake on their stems
Made of wires.
And
