Fenghuang, 2008), chapter 5.
15. Guo Xiaoting, Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong, trans. John Shaw (Tuttle Publishing, 2014), chapter 10.
16. Guo Xiaoting, Ji Gong Quan Zhuan, chapter 5.
17. Guo Xiaoting, Ji Gong Quan Zhuan, chapter 5.
18. Jean Chesneaux, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergere, China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution (New York, Random House, 1976), 334.
19. Shahar, Crazy Ji, 43.
20. Robert Torrance, The Comic Hero (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978), 11.
21. Torrance, 11, citing Susan K. Langer.
22. Robert Hegel, Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University press, 1998), 51–63.
23. Anne E. McLaren, Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables (Leiden, Brill, 1998), 170–183.
24. Lillian M. Li, Allison J. Dray-Novey, and Haili Kong, Beijing, From Imperial Capital to Olympic City (New York, Macmillan, 2007), 92.
25. Hegel, 30–31.
26. McLaren, 285.
27. Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski, Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 15.
28. Shahar, Crazy Ji, p. 172. Also see Shahar for discussion of reading fiction as religious practice, 6–7. Also see Joseph Esherick (1988), The Origins of the Boxer Rebellion (University of California Press), 1988.
29. Chesneaux, Bastid, and Bergere, 342.
30. Larry Clinton Thompson, William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion: Heroism, Hubris, and the Ideal Missionary (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), 30.
31. Vibeke Bordahl and Jette Ross, Chinese Storytellers’ Life and Art in the Yangzhou Tradition (Boston, Cheng and Tsui, 2002), 68.
32. Torrance, 10.
33. Maya Jaggi, “Slaughterhouse Lives,” review of Pow by Mo Yan, trans. Howard Goldblatt, Literary Review 406 (February, 2013): 47.
CHAPTER 1
Military Finance Officer Li visits Buddha and begs for a son; an immortal lohan descends to earth and begins anew the cycle of reincarnation
THE patchwork robe made for Guang Liang, the newly elected superintendent of the monks at the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat at Linan, was placed on display before daybreak. It was arranged on a high-backed armchair placed on a low platform to the west of the altar before the huge statue of the boddhisatva Guan Yin. In the morning when the sun shone through the door, it illuminated each scrap of precious brocade and every bit of exquisite embroidery with the unusually fine stitching that made the robe a dazzling ceremonial vestment.
The monks had begged for these scraps at the gate of every great family in Linan, the twelfth-century capital of the Southern Song Dynasty of China.The monastery was the most important temple in the empire and, as the monks explained, Guang Liang would some day almost certainly become its abbot when the old abbot was no more. People had gladly contributed not only material, but also money for the sewing, which was done at the finest shop in Linan.
In the first two hours of its showing, most of the monks, with the exception of the abbot, had seen the robe. Soon wealthy matrons would be pointing out their bits of brocade to their friends, but before that could happen, the robe suddenly disappeared. No one knew where it had gone, but all the monks guessed that Dao Ji, the Chan (Zen) monk, had taken it, and he was missing.
Who was this Dao Ji? He was the son of a military officer, Li Maoqun. Li was usually addressed as Li Yuanwai. Most respected gentlemen were called yuanwai in the time of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the fourth year of that dynasty (1131 C.E.), Li was living not far from the capital Hangzhou, more commonly called Linan in those times.
Li was registered as a native of the Tiantai district in Taizhoufu, a prefecture in the east-central portion of the province of Zhejiang. His wife was called Wang Shi, meaning a wife from the Wang family, since women usually continued to be called by their maiden names after marriage.
This couple loved the virtuous life. Li Yuanwai was extremely kind to others and not unduly severe toward the soldiers he commanded. Because of this, his reputation as a good officer was widespread. At home he was pleasant and generous, and outside his home he helped those in danger and relieved those in distress with padded clothing in winter and draughts of medicine in summer. When Li Yuanwai walked along the street, people generally called him Virtuous Li, but a few among them disagreed, saying, “If he is truly virtuous, why is there not a son?”
Li Maoqun overheard this talk, so later, when his wife saw him come home sad and dejected, she asked why he was unhappy. Her husband said, “When I was strolling in the street, almost everyone was calling me Virtuous Li, but among them there were some who said privately, but so that I could hear, that, if I were truly good it would not be possible for me to be without a son. I think that heaven has its spirits and the Buddha has his spirits, and if we ask, it is in their power to permit us to have a child.”
“Why not take a second wife or buy two concubines and have a son and a daughter?” urged his wife.
Her husband said, “Oh, my wife, it is wrong to say such words. How could I do such a stupid thing! My wife, you are only approaching forty. You can still give birth to sons or daughters. You and I will purify ourselves by fasting and bathing for three days and then go to the Guojing temple on Tiantai mountain, beyond Yongning village. There we will worship Buddha and beg for a son. If heaven above has eyes, you and I, husband and wife, may still have a child.”
“Very good,” said Wang Shi.
Li Yuanwai selected a date, and with his wife riding in a cart while he rode a horse, they and their party of servants reached the foot of Tiantai mountain. They looked up at the mountain rising up to meet the clouds, its peaks standing erect, the dense forests and the Guojing temple halfway to the top. When they reached the outside of the temple, they saw how large and high the monastery gate appeared. Inside there were two towers, one for the drum and one for the bell. Just beyond was the purification hall for the guests, the hall for reading the sutras or scriptures of Buddhism, and a large building with twenty-five rooms for storing the complete religious library of Buddhism, the Tripitaka.
Li Yuanwai got down from his horse. From within, the monks came out to greet the couple. At the great hall they were offered tea. The master of the temple, old Abbot Gong, came himself to welcome them and took them to each place where they were to burn incense. Husband and wife first went to the imposing Hall of Treasures and prayed. They knelt to ask the immortal Buddha to bless them, saying, “As we renew the incense, teach us a thousand times ten thousand times that we may have a son. If Buddha, the founder, will manifest his spirit, we will make extensive repairs to an old temple and fashion a golden image. This is our prayer.” On they went, burning incense at each place.
When they reached the Lohan Hall, containing images of lohan (disciples of Buddha), they also burned incense. When they were standing in front of the fourth lohan, they saw the image slip from its pedestal. Since the words “fall to earth” when used by Buddhists also means “be born into the world,” the senior priest Gong said, “Your prayer is an swered! Your prayer is answered! You will certainly have an honorable son. When the day comes,
