by Ben Stevens
‘About this, I knew nothing. I was at the temple, developing both my youthful body and mind for some sixteen hours a day. Soon, I was adept at the fighting system of kung fu as I was chanting the various sutra belonging to my temple.
‘And so a few more years passed…
‘I managed to return home a few days every other year, always around New Year when I could help my parents repaint their home, and partake of the other, usual traditions such as eating the vegetable dish which we Chinese call ‘Buddha’s Delight’.
‘Always my parents were a little richer, their home certainly the largest in their village. And they introduced me – the martial-monk son, of whom they were so proud – to this partner of theirs: Haichuan Guo.
‘He seemed a serious-minded man, fondest of talking business. He was trying to persuade my parents to expand their business into other villages, other towns, using my father’s financial expertise to set-up what basically amounted to a franchise operation – people could operate money-changing stalls using my parents’ well-known name and excellent reputation, and in return pay what was effectively a rental charge for the privilege.
‘Well, such is how I vaguely understood the matter, anyway. I was after all just a humble martial monk, by now just sixteen or so and intentionally extremely naïve about such things as financial matters. My life was to be one of seclusion, continually training my physical and mental self so that I might better serve Buddha.
‘I was eighteen when I again returned to my parents’ village, this time to find that disaster had struck. The merchant named Guo had somehow managed to cheat my parents out of almost all their wealth, through some trick concerning this alleged ‘franchise business’. He’d bided his time, waiting until he could steal the very most money – and then he’d struck.
‘Never again in this life would I see my father. He had died just the day before I arrived in the village. My mother – who was herself fast sickening with an incurable wasting disease – told me that the shock of Guo’s deceit had caused my father’s heart to stop beating, just like that. He fell down dead, in his living-room, and was cremated that same day – although it was winter, and not summer, when such quick cremation is a necessity.
“Where did Guo go?’ I asked my mother, holding her hand as she lay trembling in her bed. It was clear she also had but little time left in this life.
“I don’t know, my son,’ she murmured. ‘He just vanished with… everything your father and I had worked so hard to achieve, for so many years.’
‘I closed my eyes, trying to stop the tears from flowing. Tears of rage, as well as sadness. I was a young monk, trained to exercise compassion and restraint at all times – yet I wished to destroy this Gou with the kung fu I had been taught! This martial art that was only supposed to be used if ever the Temple of the Red Dragon came under direct attack by armed forces.
‘But now, I merely found myself fervently hoping that my mother would not make me swear some kind of oath, there by what would obviously soon be her deathbed, promising that I would not harm Guo, if ever I caught him. For my mother was one of the gentlest, most compassionate women there has ever been, who would never wish to see another human being harmed, no matter what the circumstances.
‘But she in fact said nothing else. Her eyes closed, her breathing became more labored – and as it became night outside, her breathing finally ceased. She was cremated the following morning, the jar containing her ashes placed beside my father’s in the family tomb.
‘I returned to the temple quite crushed with grief, and also obsessed with the idea of revenge. Through prayer and meditation, I tried to disperse such poisonous thoughts – but to no avail. I grew steadily more morose, sullen towards the other monks and my superiors. The Abbot himself asked me what was the matter, but I could give him no answer.
‘Instead, I retreated further and further into myself. I continued my training – both mental and physical – yet always my mind was distracted by the idea of one day coming face-to-face with Haichuan Guo, and then…
‘And then – what? As though seeking an answer to this question which so consumed me, I stole into the temple main hall late one evening, when everyone else at the temple was fast asleep. The hall was still softly lighted with candles. There was a great golden statue of Buddha; but now I barely even looked at this image of perfection and serenity…
‘Instead, I faced another statue – that of Jingangshen, the chief god of combat. A giant statue: his body and face all red, teeth bared, muscles tensed…
“Tell me, lord – how might I avenge my mother and father?’ I beseeched the statue, falling to my knees and clasping my hands together as I stared up at that fierce face…
‘And at once those bulging eyes rolled down to observe me! And down stepped the statue’s great feet, from the wide wooden stand! A colossal red wooden hand – now somehow living like the rest of the statue – came down, to grasp me around the neck.
‘In an instant it could have torn my head from my shoulders, such was that statue’s power. But instead, the hand just held me tightly as – in a terrible voice like the growling of a lion – Jingangshen demanded –
“Who are you? What do you want, to have awoken me so?’
‘My own voice trembling so much I could barely emit any words, I falteringly replied –
“I am Fan Dong, lord… I seek your advice…’
“What is it you wish to know?’
‘And – I told that living statue my story. And as I spoke, tears of rage and fury finally spilled from my eyes, signifying my desire – my need – for revenge, far better than mere words ever could.
‘As I finished speaking, the statue nodded its great head, its teeth still bared but those bulging, painted eyes now somehow thoughtful.
“Learn Buddha’s Hammer, so that you might destroy this evil, greedy merchant with it. Only then will your parents be truly avenged,’ said Jingangshen.
“But – lord…’ I stammered.
“I have answered your question; I have told you the only way true revenge can be exacted. Go, now, and trouble my rest no more.’
‘With that, the statue stepped back up onto its wooden stand; and was at once again frozen in the same pose it had been in before.
‘I staggered back to the dormitory I shared with a number of other, junior monks. My mind was reeling. Buddha’s Hammer? I knew what this was – I had heard the old stories… I knew just what it signified; how the person destroyed by it could never attain peace even in the afterlife…
‘But to be able to practice Buddha’s Hammer? Certainly, I was highly skilled at kung fu. I could break stones and bricks with my hands, head and feet; that was hardly a challenge.
‘But Buddha’s Hammer…?
‘I knew that this would take years of practice – and would also forever main and disfigure me. And yet I had asked the god of combat for his advice; and this he had given me…
‘The other monks were still sleeping, when I again stole from my bunk and left the dormitory. For I had quite made up my mind; I would leave the temple. I would spend however long it took to develop Buddha’s Hammer, and then I would somehow find the snake named Haichuan Guo – and destroy him…’
Here, the young man paused for breath. He looked down at his cup of green tea, and instinctively I picked it up and held it to his lips. He took a long sip, and nodded his thanks as I returned the cup to the table.
Then he continued –
‘What I was doing was unforgivable, of course. To just leave the temple after so many years spent there, without telling anyone and certainly without first obtaining permission from the Abbot. But who – who – would possibly believe my story that a statue of the god Jingangshen had come to life, and instructed me to avenge the grievous insult committed against my parents by destroying the merchant named Guo with Buddha’s Hammer?
‘It seemed ridiculous even to myself, as I considered it at the same time as I stole out of the rear gate of the tem
ple grounds. Yet I was absolutely certain that I really had seen and heard – not just imagined – that great wooden statue with the bulging eyes coming to life, and speaking to me.
‘So I walked many miles, again heading in the direction of my parents’ village but only now considering that I had not the slightest idea how to find Guo. In fact, the more I considered it, the more it seemed a hopeless task. Still, I had to try – try with everything within me, no matter how long it took or how many miles I had to roam…
‘I had only my brown monk’s uniform, which I was wearing, and a few coins I had long had secreted under one wooden board of my bunk. This, I considered, would be sufficient to get me something to eat at an inn I came across in a small village, for I was soon famished with hunger.
‘Immediately I entered, I realized that this inn was a bad place. Several of the customers were rough-looking males, with two of them – I was certain – about to rape a young woman. They had her held on the floor; they had torn away her clothing and exposed her naked body for all to see. The innkeeper came from behind the bar, begging them to stop. One of the men watching just laughed, and swatted the old man away as though he were a fly.
“Leave her alone.’
‘My voice cut through such laughter, and the young men all turned to face me with evil smiles. I knew what they were seeing – a young man, a monk, unworldly and with a shaved head. They would delight in giving me a sound thrashing – perhaps worse…
‘And yet they were wholly unaware that I was no ordinary monk. This I tried to inform them, as they advanced upon me. I had been taught perfectly how to defend myself, in the event of some dire emergency. But the young men intent on beating me merely laughed at my ‘warnings’, certain that I was just trying to bluff my way out of trouble…
‘The only problem for me was the fact that I had never actually had a real-life fight with another man. I did not know how to ‘gauge’ such a confrontation, for want of a better word. Bone does not need anything like as hard a punch as stone to break it, I now realized – as with one blow I shattered the skull of the man at the front of the group like an eggshell.
‘He dropped to the floor as though dead. He was dead, I then realized. My thoughts went vague and murky, then. I was dimly aware that the other men had now quite lost any desire for a fight, and that the young woman who had been about to be raped was flinging her arms around my neck and kissing my face, calling me her ‘hero’…
‘Anyway – I did not attempt to flee, or resist arrest when some soldiers belonging to that area came to arrest me. The elderly innkeeper and the woman provided testimony for my defense at the trial, and even a couple of the young men (now sober and contrite) admitted that I had acted only under provocation.
‘Still, the judge declared that as a martial monk of the Red Dragon Temple (this they had discovered, although I was vague as to exactly why I was away from this temple), and as such an expert at kung fu, I should have avoided having to deal a killing blow.
‘As it was – the plea of self-defense and such considered – I was given a light sentence of two years’ solitary confinement. It could have been a lot worse: a man tried before me, on a mere charge of robbery, was found guilty and led off to be executed – by beheading – almost immediately.
‘Still, if things had not been difficult enough before (I mean with the task of somehow finding Guo, and then avenging my parents’ death with Buddha’s Hammer), I now had twenty-four months imprisonment to serve in an old, brick-built cell with one tiny barred window. This looked out on the outskirts of a forest, where I could often see monkeys playing in the trees.
‘So I had some way of passing the time, at least. Like I say, this was a sentence of solitary confinement. There were prisoners in the cells either side of mine, but we were absolutely forbidden to try and communicate with one another. Absolute silence at all times. Meals came through a small hatch in the cell door, three times a day. I was shackled to one brick wall, although it was a long chain which allowed me to move around the small cell, exercising and such, and at night lie upon my narrow bunk without discomfort.
‘I had been shackled by my left wrist – by my left wrist… My right hand was still perfectly free… I realized now that this spell of solitary imprisonment had in fact been a gift sent by Jingangshen himself. For here, what else had I to do but endlessly practice my Buddha’s Hammer, the only possible distraction the cavorting of the monkeys in the trees just visible through my cell window?
‘But this technique… I knew how terrible it was. How it maimed and changed those who learnt it – forever. But as Lord Jingangshen had said, it was the only way to make someone truly pay for the terrible crime they had committed, destroying their face so greatly that even in the afterlife no one would be able to recognize them.
‘Always they would wander, alone – for eternity.
‘I steeled myself, gazing at the solid brick wall… and then I began. My teeth soon clenched and even cracked with the pain, hot water pouring from my eyes, yet still I continued… In darkness, in light; in spring, summer, autumn and winter; and again… My manacled left hand I used only to feed myself, and perform other basic duties.
‘My right… my right hand was slowly becoming Buddha’s Hammer. And my mind was changing, also. I saw how what affected the body also changed the character. I no longer felt the pain; that strange, indefinable life-force described variously as ki or chi was becoming ever-stronger within me…
‘Finally, on the very last day I had to spend as a prisoner, I succeeded in making a hole clean through to the cell next to mine. In two years, I had worked my way through almost a foot of solid brickwork. And the prison guards fell back as I left my cell, easily observing the change I had wrought in myself during my twenty-four months of solitude.
‘I was now one of the most dangerous men there has ever been – yet only one man had true cause to fear me…’
…Again, the monk named Fan Dong paused, and again I raised the cup of tea to his lips. I felt mesmerized by all he was saying, the ultimate source of wonder concealed within the sewn-up sleeves of his kimono still kept below the low table.
‘…I am aware that the ship I wish to board is due to leave shortly, Ennin-sensei,’ resumed the monk then, ‘and that I have spent a lot of time merely giving you background information.’
Here my master did something curious; he said nothing but instead inclined his head slightly, an obvious mark of respect. It was something I’d only previously seen him do to the Empress of Japan herself. Clearly, he was much moved by Fan Dong’s story so far.
‘But what to say further?’ mused the monk. ‘I returned to my parents’ village. Finally, I found someone who confided in me that they knew that Gou had gone to a certain area of the coast with my parents’ money. I headed in the direction I had been given; there, after several more weeks of discreet inquiry, I learnt that he had travelled to Japan.
‘Finally (and I pass over exactly how much time, and effort, this all took me – so many nights did I lie awake, agonizing that all was hopeless, that never would I again see this snake Guo with my own eyes!), I obtained passage on a ship sailing to Aoyama, which was where I had discovered Guo had at least gone to in the first place.
‘At this time, I hid only my right hand in a sewn-up sleeve, explaining to anyone who presumed to ask that I had had to have it amputated, following a snake bite that had gone septic. But still there were those who noticed what marked even my left hand; plenty realized that this signified advanced martial arts’ training, so that ultimately I hid both hands in sewn-up sleeves. Better that anyone I meet should merely sorry for a poor, handless cripple, rather than have any inkling that I was in possession of one of the most powerful – physical and psychological – weapons that any human can ever lay claim to possess.
‘So I arrived in Aoyama appearing to be nothing more than a maimed Chinese beggar. My kimono I deliberately allowed to get ragged and filthy. Very, very carefully – through just li
stening to the talk of other Chinamen in inns and such – I learnt that the snake Guo was living in the countryside, a few days walk from here.
‘And then I saw him! In fact I saw him several times, for he came to Aoyama often. It was obvious he did business there, involved in some way with the goods many of the junks and such were both importing and exporting. Arrogantly he strode around the harbor-side, the ships’ captains bowing and scraping as he paid them out, or alternately demanding payment.
‘No… I could do nothing to him here. He continually came into contact with too many people. I needed some time before I destroyed him with that weapon I had devoted myself to learning; I wanted him to fully realize what was about to happen to him; and to fully understand the reason why.
‘Does that appear a little too vengeful to you, Ennin-sensei? What I am saying hardly represents the calm, dispassionate actions of a Buddhist monk, after all…’
‘The ship sails shortly,’ returned my master, ‘and you have almost finished your story. Please, continue…’
The monk nodded, the same, almost benign expression fixed upon his face, and said –
‘Yes, I am almost done. Doubtless you can guess the rest, anyway. Had I have known you were staying at another inn at that town, I would have bided my time just a little while longer…!
‘So, I traipsed to that town. There in the forest surrounding it I camped, hiding myself. Only once did I emerge, some foolish, puckish urge making me reveal myself to Guo. Why I did this, I cannot say… Had he recognized me, all might have been lost…
‘But he didn’t. Why should he recall the teenage son of that couple he stole from, and sent to their graves? Doubtless he barely even recalled my father anymore; or if he did, perhaps it was just with a smirk at how clever he’d been, taking all that money…
‘My blood beat hot as I thought such things; but outwardly I merely affected a whiny voice as I pleaded with the merchant for a few coins – the both of us were Chinese, after all, I said…