by Guo Xiaoting
The monk said, “Good! This is added evidence of the yuanwai’s merit.”
As they were talking thus, the old nun came in, leading her niece. She approached the old monk and greeted him reverently saying, “I beg the lohan to be compassionate. This is my niece, Lu Shi, called Simple Chastity. I speak for her because her husband, Gao Guoqin, left her in my care here at the nunnery. Today it is already several days since he left. I beg the holy monk to show his mercy and use his powers to foretell what is about to happen.”
The monk said, “That is easy. However, we have just rescued a person, the daughter of a well-known family, who fell into the hands of a procuress. It is the young lady’s desire to leave the world. We thought we could bring her to this nunnery of yours. Please receive her as your follower.”
The old nun said, “Whatever Teacher directs will be done.”
Zhao Wenhui said, “In a little while I will send my gift of three hundred ounces of silver to the nunnery to continue the burning of incense.”
The old nun thanked Zhou Yuanwai and again begged the monk for his prediction concerning the whereabouts of Gao Guoqin.
Ji Gong sent forth the light from the innermost part of his being. Then the monk cried out, “Ai yah! It is finished! It is finished!”
When Lu Shi heard this, she was so frightened that her face changed color. She begged, “Holy monk! Have mercy! Save him! Save him!” Having uttered these words, she began to weep piteously and continued to implore the monk’s help.
“What time is it just now?” the monk asked.
“The sun is just past the midpoint,” answered Feng Xun.
Ji Gong said, “This man has now traveled 180 li. When it is time for the sun to set, his life will be in danger.”
Su Beishan offered, “I will do anything I can to help.”
“Then select someone from your household to go with me,” Ji Gong instructed him. “I will also need two hundred silver pieces for traveling expenses.”
Su Beishan said, “Su Lu, go quickly to a money shop and get the two hundred silver pieces. Then go with the saintly monk to find Gao Guoqin.”
The old nun said, “Feng Xun, you also shall go with Ji Gong.”
Lu Shi, meanwhile, was bowing in respect and gratitude to Ji Gong, who said, “Zhao Wenhui and Su Beishan, you will see that Spring Fragrance is brought safely here to become a nun. Then you may leave.”
The two yuanwai agreed to do so. Su Lu returned, bringing the silver. Then Ji Gong left the Bright Purity Nunnery with Su Lu and Feng Xun. When they reached the foot of City God Mountain, Ji Gong suddenly stopped. Then he took three steps forward and next went back three steps.
Su Lu said, “Teacher, we must travel 180 li before dark. If you continue in this way, you will not be able to cover eight li. If you will change your way of walking, it will be easier.”
The monk replied, “It is not difficult to change my way of walking.” With this remark, he began taking three steps forward and two steps backward.
Feng Xun secretly realized that this was a kind of joke and said, “Teacher, at this rate you will be back where we started before dark, but what good will that do?”
Ji Gong countered, “If I go quickly, will you be able to keep up with me?”
The two said they could. Then left, right! Left, right! Ji Gong was off and running on ahead. In the twinkling of an eye he was out of sight. The two men quickly ran after him for two or three li. They were both soaked with perspiration.
One of them said, “When we reach those woods, let us rest.”
Just as the two entered the woods, the monk said, “Oh, come now, a little further.”
“We have not had any rest at all, and you reached here earlier,” the two protested.
The monk said, “Perhaps I did doze for a few moments. Do those legs belong to you two?”
The two answered, “They are fastened to our bodies. If they are not ours, whose are they?”
The monk replied, “Well, in that case, they probably do belong to you two. I will recite one of my incantations and then they will be able to move again.”
Feng Xun said, “Good! Good! Do recite one of your incantations.”
When the monk saw that the two men were standing firmly on their feet, he said under his breath, “Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum, I command!”
Quite beyond control of the two men, their legs rapidly carried them forward as if they were flying. Su Lu could only call out, “Teacher, there are nothing but trees ahead of us. If we hit one, we will die!”
The monk said, “Never mind. It is all safely in my hands. When you get there, you will not hit anything.”
Naturally, as they came to the woods, the two simply passed between the trees. After they had passed through the woods and as they still ran on, they saw a man coming out of a village carrying a bowl in his hand. Ji Gong took one look at him.
Now this man was an unruly son. His surname was Wu, and he was called by the personal name Yun. In his home there was only his old widowed mother. On this day they had had meat dumplings for their noon meal. His mother had prepared them well, but when this Wu Yun had looked at the table, he saw that she had not bought the vinegar to go with them. Then he became angry, saying, “The older you get, the more mixed up you get. Where is there a family that eats meat dumplings without vinegar? You are useless and I resent it!” His mother said nothing. He walked out still angry, carrying a bowl to get some vinegar. It was then that he was seen by Ji Gong.
Ji Gong had known from the beginning all about what had happened. For this reason he made a slight pointing motion with his hand toward Wu Yun. As a result, Wu Yun joined Feng Xun and Su Lu and started running alongside them.
Involuntarily Wu Yun called out, “I am not going this way! What kind of business is this? My legs have gone mad!”
Then there was a great sound in the ears of the three men, like the howling of the wind as it drives the clouds across the sky. Ahead of them they saw light reflected on a river. Su Lu then called out, “Holy monk, stop making me run! A river is up ahead. If we fall in, we will die.”
The monk said, “Do not worry. Just use a little effort and we will pass over it.”
When they came to the river, it seemed as though they were flying as they crossed it. Su Lu thought to himself, “When we reach the other bank, I will manage to catch hold of one of those trees.” As soon as this thought came into his mind, he selected a tree. Su Lu quickly grasped it with ease and fell to the ground. Feng Xun also fell to the ground, and the man who had gone out to buy vinegar fell as well.
The monk came to them and said, “You may all get up now.”
The three said they were not able to stand. The monk took a piece of medicine from his pocket, divided it into three pieces, and gave one piece to each of the men to eat. The three then realized that their bodies were capable of movement and they could stand without difficulty. Wu Yun was amazed that they had traveled so far.
Just at that moment another man approached them, and Su Lu asked, “May I inquire what place this is?”
The man replied, “This is small Liu village. Where are you people going?”
Su Lu answered, “We have come from Linan City and we are going to Yuhang prefecture.”
The man said, “You have gone past it! From here it is twenty li back to Yuhang prefecture.”
When Wu Yun heard this, he said, “Ai yah! I broke the bowl I brought to carry home the vinegar! I never ate the meat dumplings, either! Because of the river, I will have to go two hundred li to get back.”
The monk said, “I will take you back.”
Wu Yun said, “Do not take me back. I can hardly stand. We are at the northern frontier. How am I going to get back?”
It took him two days and two nights to get home. From that time forward, whenever he saw a monk, he would run away from him. Wu Yun’s heart was forever filled with fear of the poor ragged monk.
Su Lu asked, “Will we get to Yuhang prefecture today, and will we find
Gao Guoqin?”
Ji Gong answered, “That is exactly right.”
Then Ji Gong, Su Lu, and Feng Xun continued on their way.
CHAPTER 19
The searchers find the impoverished scholar; the desperate Gao Guoqin returns to familiar scenes
WHEN Ji Gong, accompanied by Su Lu and Feng Xun, arrived outside the South Gate of Yuhang prefecture, he saw an inn on the east side. The monk nodded toward it, saying, “Su Lu and Feng Xun, you two and I will go in, drink a cup of wine, eat, and rest. After that, we will go on.” The two men agreed and went into the restaurant. There, they asked for several different sorts of dishes.
Su Lu said, “Saintly monk, finally we are here with you in Yuhang prefecture, but where is Gao Guoqin now? Can you bring him here? How would it be for the four of us to eat and drink together?”
The monk replied, “First, we will drink a little wine, and after that we will go to look for him.” Having traveled so far, the three men talked a little more as they finished their wine. Then they paid for the food and wine, left the inn, and went into the town through the South Gate. As they came to the first crossroads, they turned east. On the north side of the road they saw the yamen, the official residence of the magistrate, and the offices of the prefecture. The monk quickened his step and started to hurry inside.
Su Lu asked, “Teacher, where are you going?”
The monk answered, “You two men wait here. I am going in to look for someone.”
As the monk came to the great gate, he heard someone who seemed to be a person of authority in the yamen shout, “No one may fail to confess! Gao Guoqin will now have the instruments of torture applied to the right and left legs. Then he will be brought forward for interrogation.” When Ji Gong heard this, he felt a chill of terror in sympathy.
Now, on the day that Gao Guoqin came down from City God Mountain, he had thought to himself that if he were to depart for some other place, he still would not have any relatives to turn to nor any place where he could seek shelter. Then he thought, “Why not go back to Yuhang prefecture?” He took passage on a boat, paying the fare with half of the money given him by his wife. With the remaining one hundred cash he bought something to eat. Therefore, by the time he reached Yuhang prefecture he had used up his two hundred cash.
“This time,” he thought, “I have come once more to my old haunts, and once more I am without resources. First of all, I have no relatives here; secondly, I have no close friends. I can think of nothing to do.” He considered going back to the old house, but wondered what good it would do. “If I had a few relatives, they might cheer me up, or if I had some friends that I knew very well, I could talk things over with them.” His situation really seemed to illustrate the old saying—that truly, whether in busy towns or lonely hills, the best connections are those with relatives and true friends.
Gao Guoqin was a courageous person, but he did not feel that he could live by begging, even from friends and relatives. The more he thought, the closer he came to the idea that the best thing he could do was to end his problems with death.
When he came to the river outside the wall at the South Gate, intending to jump into the river and die, he stood looking out over the water at the many boats coming and going. He was thinking to himself, “Dead! Dead! Once dead and it will be finished. Everything will come to an end. There is a time to be born and a place to die, and this is the place where I will cut short my life.”
Just as he was about to jump down, he heard someone behind him say, “Friend, whatever you do, do not jump! I have come.”
Gao Guoqin turned his head and saw a rather tall, slender man with a narrow waist and broad shoulders. He had a blue kerchief tied around his head and wore matching blue close-fitting pants and jacket with no cuffs at the wrist. Over his shoulders he wore a short crane’s-feather cloak with round purple markings, in the center of which were red dots. His eyebrows arched over lively and kind eyes. His nose was strong, straight, and a little pointed, but not unpleasantly so. The still-youthful features of his rather narrow face were well in proportion to one another. He seemed to be somewhat more than twenty years old.
The man continued, saying, “Sir, you are certainly an educated and intelligent man. Why should you be thinking of ending it all?”
Gao Guoqin replied, “You need not ask me, friend. There is nothing else I can do in the world. I simply must die.”
The man asked, “Sir, what is your difficulty and why should we not talk about it?”
Gao Guoqin could see that the man was sincere, and asked him, “What is your honorable surname and your personal name?”
The man answered, “My name is Wang and my personal name is Chengbi, and I live in this vicinity. Along these riverbanks I am a kind of manager or shipping agent. I employ people to load and unload all of the merchandise that is purchased on account for others. And now, sir, why is it that you are thinking about death?”
Gao Guoqin said, “I am also a native of this place, Brother Wang. I lived within the South Gate. My name is Gao Guoqin. I took my wife to the city of Linan to seek help from her relative. We lived in a nunnery there. I thought of myself as a man who was in the world, and yet neither able to serve his prince and benefit the people, nor to protect his wife and rear children. It seemed an empty life on earth. Because of this, I thought that death was better than life.”
“Brother,” said Wang Chengbi, “your brilliant mind has deceived itself. How can you value your life so lightly? First, come into a restaurant with me and have a little wine. After that I will think of something for you. You need not have such foolish ideas. When people die, they do not come back to life.”
Gao Guoqin then went with Wang Chengbi into a wine shop. Wang asked for wine and several dishes. After they had finished drinking and eating together, Wang Chengbi said, “Just now I have no money and no immediate way to get any, but if we wait until late in the afternoon, then some money will come into my hands. Today you can go and help to pull the tow rope of a barge.”
Gao Guoqin said, “My hands do not have that kind of strength. How can I pull the tow rope of a barge?”
“Sir, you don’t want to talk like that,” said Wang Chengbi. “People can do what they try to do. You must remember two sentences of the ancients: ‘The perfect man can be great, or he can be small;’ and ‘The hero may retreat in order to advance.’ Go and pull the barge today. Wait until I have the money in my hands. Then I will give you a few ounces of silver to send to your home. Afterward, I will ask some friend to help you start a school. How does that appeal to you?”
Gao Guoqin first thought, “Since this man whom I have just met offers to help me, and since he urges me to do this work, I cannot be too obstinate and unreasonable.” Having thought thus, he said, “Friend, since you show so much concern for me, I will listen like a younger brother and go to pull the barge.”
“Good!’ said Wang Chengbi. And standing up, he led Gao Guoqin to the riverbank. There, he saw a barge that had just been loaded with cargo and was about to depart. Wang Chengbi called out, “Barge master! I have a friend here. I want him to help pull the tow rope. Take good care of him, barge master, and when you reach your destination, make sure you bring him back. Otherwise, though, do not bother about him.”
The barge master replied, “Yes, indeed. Since this concerns young Master Wang, we will certainly not treat your friend badly.”
Gao Guoqin stood waiting with the rest of the tow rope gang. As the barge was pushed off at the barge master’s order, everyone picked up the tow rope. Gao Guoqin understood nothing about such things, but the rest were all used to pulling. One of the men showed him how to grasp the rope, and they all moved off. As the other people were shouting out in unison to keep time, Gao Guoqin thought of the classic doctrine of moderation. To mark his own steps, he recited the lines concerning the adaptability of the superior man to each situation in which he finds himself. All the rest began laughing loudly to hear someone reciting the classics while pull
ing the tow rope of a barge.
When they reached the wealthy man’s wharf, which was their destination, the barge was unloaded. Afterward, Gao Guoqin was so exhausted that he could not leave the barge with the rest of the men and so slept on the deck. The next day, the barge was loaded with other goods and began the return journey. Again Gao Guoqin pulled with the rest. When they reached Yuhang prefecture and arrived at the pier, Gao Guoqin saw Wang Chengbi standing there and quickly went to him.
“Sir, this time we are indeed fortunate!” said Wang Chengbi, “I have been waiting for you here. We brothers must have been fated to meet from our previous lives. Today I signed an agreement for thirty-five loads. First, come with me and have some tea and meat pastries. Afterward, you can go into town and change some notes for me. Tomorrow you will go to take some silver home—but, today, buy some wine and meat. We will feast and enjoy ourselves together.”
Gao Guoqin said, “Good! Good! Brother Wang, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for treating me so kindly so soon after our having met.”
Wang Chengbi said, “You and I are simply brothers now. You don’t need to be polite. At first sight it was as if we had always known each other.”
Gao Guoqin thought to himself, “This friend is no doubt truly sincere.” By the time he had finished drinking tea and eating several meat pastries with Wang Chengbi, it was growing late. Wang Chengbi gave the notes that were to be exchanged to Gao Guoqin. He was to go into the walled town and exchange them for silver. Wang also gave him a bottle to be filled with wine when he bought the wine and the meat.
Gao Guoqin went into the town with the notes that he exchanged for fifty ounces of silver. He then bought the wine and the meat and immediately started to return to Wang Chengbi, since the town gates were about to close. Guoqin was just hurrying through the gates when he saw a man coming from the opposite direction. He was running so hard that he seemed to be flying on the most pressing business. In fact, he ran straight into Gao Guoqin, and quickly said, “Do not be angry, sir. I was in too great a hurry because I have important business to take care of. It was my fault entirely.” All this the man said with folded hands and many bows. Then he quickly hurried on in through the gates.