by Guo Xiaoting
Fearless Fourth Meng waited outside the door of the room for a long time. He could see that Tiger Li had not brought the knife down. Fearless Fourth became more and more anxious. Suddenly, he dashed into the room, holding his knife in his outstretched hand.
CHAPTER 22
The capture of the robbers solves the strange case; a plan for systematic charity is put into action
AS Meng, the Fearless Fourth, was just about to kill Ji Gong, the lohan rolled over, rose into a crouching position, and pointed. As he did so, he uttered the six true words, “Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum. I command!” Thus, by arresting the movement of their spirits, he fixed the robbers in their places. Then, with one kick the monk awakened Su Lu, and with another he awoke Feng Xun, who immediately cried out, “Ai yah! There are robbers who are going to kill us!”
The monk stood up as if he were about to run outside. When Su Lu and Feng Xun looked more closely, they saw that Meng and Tiger Li, who were each holding a sharp blade, were standing motionless. Su Lu and Feng Xun at once jumped down from the brick platform bed and ran outside, where they stood in the courtyard and raised the cry: “Robbers! Murderers! Help! Save us!”
Just then, the guard soldiers on their rounds heard some people in the inn shouting that there were robbers. Now, the reason why Lieutenant Liu Guobin was patrolling with these twenty soldiers was that in the street just ahead, there had recently been an armed robbery at the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop. The owner had been wounded by a knife, fifty bolts of silk had been stolen, and a thousand ounces of silver had been taken. However, the case had not yet been closed.
That morning, hearing someone call out that there were robbers, Lieutenant Liu Guobin quickly ordered the soldiers to go up a ladder onto the buildings and jump down into the courtyard. Having done so, they opened the gate, and Lieutenant Liu came in and put Su Lu in irons.
Su Lu said, “Do not lock me up, honorable gentlemen. I am not the robber. The robbers are in the room. There are three of us. There is an old man named Feng Xun and a monk, Ji Gong. We came from Linan looking for someone. Last night we stayed at the inn and robbers wanted to kill us. It was because of this that we were shouting.”
The officer in charge of the soldiers said, “Good. If we have not fallen into a snare, as we did before, we will not begin by locking you up. On our last watch we went into the courtyard of the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop to chase the robbers because people were shouting. We suspected that someone at the shop was a thief when we went in to look. We locked up everyone in the shop, the robbers escaped, and our efforts led nowhere. This time we will not make the same blunder.”
Su Lu said, “First, go into the room and look at the robbers. Find my friends and the two porters.” When the soldiers went and looked in the north building, they found Meng, the Fearless Fourth, and Tiger Li. They also found the trapdoors and the porters, Big Liu and Li the Second, inside the tunnels. The soldiers took possession of the four robbers’ knives and then locked the four in irons.
Coming out, the soldiers looked everywhere but did not see the other two men. Just as the soldiers began to worry, they heard a moaning sound under the horse trough. Looking closer, they saw that it was a man. In fact, it was Feng Xun, lying on his belly underneath. When he crawled out and was questioned, his story was the same as that of Su Lu. The soldiers first released Su Lu and then began to search for the monk.
All the soldiers helped Su Lu and Feng Xun to search for the monk, but after looking in each room, they still had not found him. Finally they came to the privy, where they heard the sound of snoring. When they looked inside, there was the monk, leaning against the wall, sleeping.
Feng Xun went over and pushed him, saying, “Ji Gong, are you still sleeping? The soldiers have come with an officer and captured the robbers.”
The monk opened his eyes and said, “This is terrible! Robbers! Save us!”
Su Lu said, “If there are robbers, why are you sleeping?”
Ji Gong answered, “It is because of the robbers bothering us that I am still sleepy.”
The soldiers said, “Go into the north building and collect your things.” When the three returned to their room and looked, all the silver that they had found had turned into a pile of stones. Su Lu asked the monk how the silver could change into stones, but Ji Gong only laughed without answering.
The soldiers took the three to the yamen’s guardhouse. There they questioned Feng Xun, who told them the entire story of what had happened. Lieutenant Liu Guobin asked the robbers for their names and completed his records. Then the soldiers took the robbers, together with the travelers, including Ji Gong, to the Yuhang prefecture yamen.
Meanwhile, the Yuhang magistrate had been sorely troubled about the case involving Gao Guoqin, because no further clues to the cause of the crime had been found. Then he saw the guard from the Yin Family Ford village arrive in connection with this very case.
First, Ji Gong was told to go forward. When the magistrate saw the poor, disreputable-looking monk standing there, his worship asked him to explain where he had come from, what he was doing, and why he did not kneel before a magistrate.
Ji Gong laughed loudly and said, “Your Worship, I am the monk, Ji Dian, from the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat at the West Lake.”
To a temple high up on the City God Mountain
I traveled to offer my simple respects
But abruptly was sent on an errand most urgent,
To find a poor stray that we feared had been lost.
Gao Guoqin is the one that I seek here in Yuhang,
The same one who protests he is falsely accused.
Upon hearing this, the magistrate said, “Ah! It is Ji Gong. Your disciple did not know. Someone bring a seat for him!”
The monk sat and told the story of his stay at the inn. Su Lu and Feng Xun kowtowed to the magistrate and then stood to one side. When the magistrate had heard Ji Gong’s entire story, he ordered that the robbers be brought in. The attendants complied.
First, Meng, the Fearless Fourth, was brought forward. He knelt and touched the floor with his forehead. The magistrate said, “You are called Meng, the Fearless Fourth. Did you open the inn?”
The robber answered, “I did.”
Then the magistrate asked, “Why have you murdered people? Why did you make your inn a den of robbers? How many years altogether has this gone on? How many men altogether have you killed? Explain in detail.”
Meng answered, “In reply to your worship, this insignificant person’s work is business and certainly not killing people. Yesterday evening, however, robbers entered my little inn, and just as I was chasing them with a knife, I encountered the soldiers of the night watch with their officer. They mistook me for robber.”
The magistrate said, “You may step down now.”
He then called the officer of the guard soldiers and asked about the circumstances in which the prisoners were taken. The officer gave a short description of the events. The magistrate then ordered that Tiger Li be brought before him and that the prisoners should be kept apart from one another. When Tiger Li was brought forward, he knelt. Looking at the man, his worship saw an evil countenance without the slightest hint of anything good, a man somewhat above thirty years old, with a dark yellow face and dark yellow flesh, short eyebrows, and round eyes.
Looking intently at the prisoner, the magistrate said, “Tiger Li, just now Meng, the Fearless Fourth, made a full confession. Will you also tell the truth?”
Tiger Li thought, “If Meng has told the truth, there is no reason why I should hide it myself.” Then he said, “Your worship, since Meng has told all, this insignificant person will tell all as well. We two were from the same street in Yin Family Ford village. We had been good friends since we were very young. At the time we opened this inn we were partners. As of this year we have been open for more than ten years.
“Each time a guest traveling on business came with many bags and bedding rolls, he wou
ld be given several drinks of drugged wine. After he become unconscious, we would kill him and take his valuables. Altogether we killed thirty or forty men.
“This year, on the twenty-sixth of last month, three men came to our inn from Penglai Island in Shandong. They were all friends of the Green-wood. At their head was a sinister man named Zhou Tienming. His two followers were named Lang Guei and Wang Lien. Our downfall came from the recklessness of Lang Guei. The three wanted to buy some silk. Their wrangling over the price at the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop turned into a fight. That night, they invited the four of us from the inn to go with them to rob the shop. We stole fifty bolts of silk and one thousand ounces of silver. One of our gang used a knife to slit the throat of the watchman. When we returned from the robbery, the leader of the other gang left in anger with his two followers, because he was unwilling to divide the plunder evenly.
“Then last night the monk came to the inn with two men and we saw a great deal of silver. I therefore sent the porter to kill them. I did not imagine that the officer and his men would arrest us. This is how it happened. This insignificant person certainly would not dare to give false witness.”
When the magistrate had heard and understood this account, he had the two porters brought forward. As soon as he questioned Big Liu and Li the Second, they each made a complete confession. When Meng, the Fearless Fourth, was confronted with the other three confessions, he, too, confessed all.
Gao Guoqin, Li Seming, and their accuser, Leng Er, were then brought before the court and the secretary read the testimony concerning the robbery of the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop that clearly had nothing to do with Gao Guoqin or Li Seming. The magistrate then ordered that the first two should be released.
Gao Guoqin had stepped to the back of the courtroom and was standing about, when he saw Feng Xun approach. “I have not seen you for a long time.” Feng Xun said, “I have been looking everywhere for you!”
Gao Guoqin greeted him and then described to him the different things that had happened. Meanwhile, they could see that Leng Er was before the court being given forty strokes with the bamboo and later being fastened into the cangue, a flat wooden collar as big as a cart wheel that he would have to wear with a notice attached to warn the public against committing offenses similar to his. Meng, the Fearless Fourth, was also given forty strokes with the bamboo. Then, along with Tiger Li and the two porters, Meng was fastened into fetters and sent to prison.
Ji Gong, seeing that the case was finished, at once stood up and thanked the magistrate. When Li Seming saw Gao Guoqin and learned all that had happened, he said, “First, let me invite you, my honorable friend, and Ji Gong to my home. You may then go on your way tomorrow.”
Ji Gong said, “That will be good,” and walked on with them. Then he asked, “Who was it that stole the silver you had received for the notes given to you by Wang Chengbi?”
Gao Guoqin replied, “Your disciple does not know. Perhaps the saintly monk knows.”
The monk laughed loudly and said, “Come with me and I will look around!” Then he pointed with his finger. They saw a man coming out of Li Seming’s courtyard. He was about twenty years old, with a light-skinned face, short eyebrows, fleshless jowls, and hair done up into a knot shaped like a bullock’s heart. He was wearing a dark, short jacket with a dark-blue shirt beneath, dark pants, white stockings, and black shoes. His eyes were like those of a chicken looking this way and that through a bamboo fence.
Li Seming immediately recognized him as Sha Itiao, the younger brother of Leng Er’s wife. He had long roamed the streets of the city, robbing and stealing. He was a daylight robber, and there was nothing evil that he would not do. On the day that Gao Guoqin had changed the notes at the money shop, this man had seen him. Sha Itiao, with his thief’s cunning, had pretended to be coming in through the town wall in order to run into Gao Guoqin and take the silver. After that, Sha Itiao had spent the next two nights in a gambling den, where he had lost the stolen silver.
Today he had come to borrow money from Leng Er. Only then did Sha Itiao learn that Leng Er had gone to court as a witness. Sha Itiao was just leaving when he met Ji Gong, who was leading the others and pointing a finger at him.
Sha Itiao said, “Gentlemen, if you will wait and see, the time has come for me to repay my debts.” With that he raised his hand and struck his own cheek several times. He then ran to the riverside and leapt into the water. For a moment he rose to the surface, singing a song, and then died. When the local official learned of the drowning, he conducted an inquest. Later he wrote that the matter was ended and that a nameless person had been buried.
Li Seming invited the company into his home for a feast as an excuse to detain Ji Gong. Gao Guoqin said, “Dear brother Li, go outside the South Gate and find Wang Chengbi. Tell him the entire story of my affairs and thank him for me.”
Li Seming said, “Tomorrow I will go.”
He was host to Ji Gong that night. The next day when it was light, Ji Gong left Yuhang prefecture, taking Gao Guoqin, Su Lu, and Feng Xun with him. They hurried off along the highway to Linan.
On this day, as they went onward, they reached a market. There they saw through the crowds of merchants and their customers a great gate to the east, on the north side of the road. Just beyond the gate was a high wooden platform of the kind used in performing Buddhist or Daoist rites. It was about thirty-six feet high. On it was a ceremonial chair and a table adorned with ribbons of five colors and with various things spread out upon it.
Ji Gong looked, and as the light of his intuition swept over the scene, he said indignantly, “Well! Well! Since I, a monk, now encounter this affair, how can I just put my hands in my sleeves and look on when such things exist? But wait! I must do what I will do in a particular way!”
Now, this market town was called the Yunlan Market, and the home to the north of the road was that of a man surnamed Liang with the personal name Wanzang. His family possessions were beyond number. He had one child, a boy named Liang Shiyuan. The old yuanwai liked to treat people well, and especially enjoyed having roads and bridges repaired at his own expense. He helped both Buddhists and Daoists. He would shore up and restore temples and shrines, and he paid for the printing of the texts of sutras.
But then an unfortunate thing happened. A Daoist priest who lived in the vicinity came to him and asked for one hundred ounces of silver, saying that it was needed to repair a shrine. The yuanwai gave him the money, and the Daoist left. Afterward, the old yuanwai was visiting a friend in West Street and just happened to see the Daoist priest coming out of a gambling den. When the old yuanwai returned home, he said to his household people, “I gave the Daoist priest money and all he wanted it for was to go and play cards! I will hand out no more money!”
One of the household, named Liang Xiude, said to the yuanwai, “The yuanwai is a person who likes to do good deeds. We may indeed have made mistakes. Over these past years, rice has continued to be as dear as pearls. Why not set up a rice-porridge kitchen to help the poor in the neighborhood? Doubtless that would be a good thing. I do not know what you may think about this idea.”
When the yuanwai Liang Wanzang heard this suggestion, he was most happy. He immediately notified the proper local official, asking him to choose a day for the Liang household to begin the distribution of the rice porridge. Early each morning, the old yuanwai would go outside his gate with the people who prepared the rice porridge. As each person ate a portion, the yuanwai would give him one hundred cash and with kind words encourage him to work in the fields.
For more than half a year, Liang Yuanwai had been outside his gate each morning overseeing the distribution of rice porridge. Three days before the arrival of Ji Gong, the yuanwai’s young son, Liang Shiyuan, had been idly standing outside the gate while the porridge was being distributed. Now it was nearly noon and he was by himself, intently observing the people who passed, when he saw a Daoist priest approaching from the west. He was about
fifty years old, wearing a dark Daoist hat and robe, white socks, and dark shoes. He carried a precious ceremonial sword on his back and a fly whisk in his hand. The skin of his face was like transparent gold paper with darkness showing through. His eyebrows were heavy and his eyes large. Trailing locks of hair and a beard covered the lower part of his face. As soon as he saw Liang Shiyuan, the Daoist priest’s evil plans began to take shape. Today he was truly a demon of a man!
CHAPTER 23
In the market town of Yunlan, an evil Daoist brings forth a supernatural manifestation; the benevolent Liang Wanzang suffers a calamity
THE Daoist stopped and faced the boy, saying, “May the blessings of the Unlimited Being be upon you. I, a poor Daoist, have strolled over the three hidden hills of Fuzhou and wearily climbed the five sacred mountains. I study and investigate the Dao and the spirits. I can read a person’s fortune in his face and I can cure misfortune. When I look at the young master’s face with its regular features, I can tell that it is certainly that of a future graduate honored by admission to the Hanlin College of Literature.”
As soon as he heard these words, Liang Shiyuan quickly bowed and greeted the Daoist ceremoniously saying, “May I ask the Master Daoist’s honorable name and inquire as to which famous mountain or in what sacred grotto I may search for you to improve myself? I would like to receive your instruction.”
The Daoist replied, “This poor Daoist is only about five li away, straight to the north. I became a Daoist priest at the Xiang Yun Temple on Wu xian mountain. My surname is Chang and I am called Miaoyu. I am especially skilled at reading faces.”
Liang Shiyuan said, “Daoist Master, since you are good at reading faces, may I respectfully beg you to demonstrate?”
When the Daoist heard this request, the evil that was in the center of his heart grew stronger. Now, the reason that he had come to the Liang household gate thus was as follows. When he had returned from his ramble over the three hidden hills and once more saw the surrounding wall and the hall of his Daoist shrine, he said to his acolyte Liu Miaotong, “Do you not know how to go out and beg for the shrine? You have simply been staying here at home and eating!”