Читать книгу Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong - Guo Xiaoting - Страница 19

CHAPTER 11

Zhao Bin stealthily visits the estate of Prime Minister Qin; the guiltless Wang Xing is mercilessly punished

In winter, to remember spring’s not far away,

We pile the willow twigs in the roof’s frost,

But wine is given to us that we may drink,

And grieve for sons and grandsons we have lost.

ONCE Prime Minister Qin had his eyes open, he realized that the dream about the demons leading his adoptive father had all come from things that existed only in his imagination. He threw the candle down upon the floor. At that moment a serving woman who was on night duty came into the room and picked up the candle before it could go out. His wife, who was inside the curtained bed, also awoke and asked, “Why is the Great One so disturbed at such trifles?”

Prime Minister Qin replied, “Just now I was reading a book and I had a sudden shock. I fell asleep and entered the land of dreams. There, I saw my old adoptive father and patron returning home as a frightful ghost, chained hand and foot, under the escort of several demon guards. He explained to me my sins in the world of light. I am planning now to stop the work of destruction at the Great Memorial Pagoda and to release all the monks. What do you think, wife?”

When his wife heard this, she laughed and replied, “Great One, you are a true man of books. How can you still believe in such heresies as supernatural powers and disorderly spirits?”

When Prime Minister Qin heard these words from his wife, he again suppressed his heart’s natural goodness. He asked the serving woman what time it was.

She replied, “Just now the third drum sounded.”

Prime Minister Qin said, “Pass on my order that in the third watch I will be at the outer library to conduct a close interrogation of the mad monk. I must punish him severely.”

Just as he spoke these words, they noticed that the candle lantern in the room was making a sound like heavy breathing, and that the flame of the candle had become a foot high. Prime Minister Qin gasped. When he rashly commanded the candle flame to come back to its usual height, the flame did diminish, but it flared up again and continued moving to and fro like a weaver’s shuttle. The stub of the candle was no larger than a date stone. The room was filled with a green light. After this had happened three times, Prime Minister Qin took down the precious family heirloom sword and pointed it at the candle. Suddenly, the candle began to produce two flames. Prime Minister Qin took another sword and the two flames became four. As the prime minister made slash after slash with his swords, the whole room was filled with the light of candle flames circling and whirling round and round.

Next he heard his wife cry out, “Great One! A demon with a huge head is standing outside the gate. Its head can be seen right up above the screen!”

The serving woman said, “But this is terrible. There is a demon squatting under the table and gnashing its long, ugly teeth! Look quickly by the bamboo blind there! That is one of our local demons. It is actually nodding its head.”

Prime Minister Qin asked his wife to sound the gong calling the household people so that they might come and do battle with the demons. His wife and the serving woman went outside to call for help. The household people outside rushed in upon hearing that demons were bedeviling the inner courtyard and came to a stop in front of the prime minister. As they arrived, they heard a terrible scream. One demon seemed to be wounded and its head was bleeding. The men cried out at the awful sight. One of them shouted, “Honorable Prime Minister, there is a spirit wearing a cangue. It is incredible.” People everywhere had always said that no one had ever seen a ghost wearing a cangue, one of those cumbersome wooden collars worn as a punishment, yet now one had appeared.

“Look, Honorable Prime Minister,” another cried. “There is the spirit of someone who has hanged himself. How dreadful!”

“Honorable Prime Minister, there is a demon with no head!” called still another. “There are also other mischievous spirits.”

Now all these things that seemed to be happening were creations of Ji Gong’s Buddhist arts. At the time that Prime Minister Qin had instructed those twenty household people to confine and guard Ji Gong and the other monks, Qin Sheng had talked with the others gathered on the veranda watching the proceedings. “This business in which we are involved is not a matter for our amusement. Since yesterday I have not slept. Today, again we have this unfortunate business. Let me make a suggestion. Each of us should contribute two hundred cash to buy wine and several kinds of dishes to sustain all of us through the night. At the third watch the honorable prime minister will be sitting officially in the library to question the mad monk closely and severely. We then must not delay or mismanage this business. What do you all think about this?”

Everyone said, “Good, good, good. Let us do just that.” Each of them handed in four small strings of cash. One of them took charge of the purchase of food and wine, and all helped as much as necessary.

As the first watch neared, one of them said, “Let us drink.” And everyone joined in, eating and drinking.

Then Ji Gong said, “Honorable sirs, be compassionate, be compassionate. Won’t you give this poor monk a small cup of wine?”

Qin Sheng replied, “Monks are not supposed to drink wine. Why do you ask us to give it to you?”

Ji Gong answered, “Wine drowns my wicked thoughts, the fifth among forbidden things.”

“But wouldn’t drinking also be a forbidden thing?” Qin Sheng countered.

The monk laughed. “Ah, ha! The honorable manager knows a part, but not the rest. The rest includes many advantages. Heaven has the wine-y stars, earth its wine-y springs. Man has his wine-y divinity, and wine encompasses ten thousand things. Confucius said, ‘Wine is the way, but follow it reverently.’”

Qin Sheng said, “Since you know all these things, I will, after all, give you a cup of wine to drink.” Then he filled a cup to the brim and gave it to the monk.

As he took it, Ji Gong said, “Good! Good! Good! Though the day may have been long, with wine the evening is like the morning of a day of rest and great affairs are but recreation after wine.” After he had finished drinking that cup he said, “Honorable sirs, give me another cup of wine to drink.”

Qin Sheng said, “I just gave you a cup of wine and you ask for more! Truly, you have no sense of self-respect.”

Ji Gong said, “If you do not give me another cup of wine, it is because you do not have as much as a cup of kindness toward others.”

Qin Sheng filled another cup to the brim for him. The monk drank it and said, “Come! Give me one cup more. Make it three cups.”

Qin Sheng replied, “I have no more. It is not that I would not give it to you. Ask someone else.”

Ji Gong gave a great laugh, “Ha, ha! I can drink myself.” He took the wine cup in his hand and said, “Om! I command. Come, come, come!”

Then the others saw the cup fill with wine. The monk drank several cups of wine in succession and put the cup down. When the household people guarding the monk decided that they, too, would like another cup, they went one after another to the wine jug and tipped it, but nothing came out. They all began to say that the one who went to buy the food and wine had kept some of the money. Again they all looked at the jug, but it was indeed empty.

Qin Sheng did not say a word, all talk ceased, and a spirit of sadness settled over them all. Soon they slept, lying this way and that wherever they were. Then they were all transformed temporarily into ghosts and demons and instructed in their roles by Ji Gong.

As soon as the monk had seen that everyone was sleeping throughout the house, he removed his locks and chains and went toward the inner apartments to bestow just retribution. First, however, he looked for those evil servants who had been swaggering about, doing cruel deeds, while depending on their influence with the prime minister for their power. Ji Gong sought them out and gave each one a pinch.

Then he saw a man on the roof of a building to the north side, over the place where the prime minister was sleeping. He was holding in his hand a large knife with which he intended to kill Prime Minister Qin, who hated Ji Gong so much. Looking closely, Ji Gong saw that it was none other than Zhao Bin, the young fruit merchant. He had a string bag fastened at his waist to use in case he decided to carry something away. This was the same Zhao Bin who had helped Ji Gong to restore to its rightful owner the magnificent five-thunder, eight-trigram prince’s tally scroll.

On that occasion, while Zhao Bin had been inside the prime minister’s estate pretending that he was the Wei Tuo, Zhao Bin had met Yin Shixiong, who had once worked with Zhao Bin’s father as an armed escort. The two had returned together to Zhao Bin’s mother. Yin Shixiong had stayed a couple of days and then taken his leave.

Zhao Bin was only a small merchant and was not saving any money for the future. His poor old mother talked to him seriously about taking care of himself and his future. From then on, he became less careless and indolent.

On the morning of the day that Ji Gong was arrested, Zhao Bin had been at the West Lake selling fresh fruit when he saw a large number of soldiers surrounding the Monastery of the Soul’s Retreat. He saw someone he recognized and went over to ask what was happening. Then he learned about how Ji Gong had beaten the managers and how Prime Minister Qin had sent the soldiers to surround the monastery, seize Ji Gong, and bring him back. He also heard that Ji Gong no doubt would be beaten to death.

When he heard all this, Zhao Bin was terribly shocked. He thought to himself, “Ji Gong was kind enough to save my own life, and now the reverend gentleman is in deep trouble. How can I not save him? My mother does not want me to go out at night! I have it. I will deceive her. I will wait until she is asleep. Then I will take that big vegetable chopping knife and go to find Prime Minister Qin at his estate, where I will kill him. Thus I will avenge my teacher, the senior monk Ji Gong.”

He slowly returned home. There his mother asked, “Why did you not sell the rest of your fruit today?”

Zhao Bin answered, “Today I did not feel well.”

The old lady said, “If, indeed, your body does not seem well, you had best rest at home.”

After the evening meal, as Zhao Bin and his mother were about to go to their beds, they suddenly heard someone knocking at the gate. When Zhao Bin heard it, he felt quite unhappy. He thought to himself, “My mother was just about to go to sleep and then someone knocks at the gate.”

When he went out to look, it was Old Lady Wang from across the way. As soon as she saw him, she said, “Zhao Bin, I have to trouble you about something. Early this morning when my son, Wang Xing, went out, he spread his carpet and arranged the fruit he was selling on the ground near the prime minister’s gate. At exactly noon a man came here, riding in a small sedan chair. He said that my son had just been stricken with cholera, and he took my daughter-in-law away with him. I have not seen either my son or his wife since, and I am very worried. May I trouble you to go and ask about them?”

Zhao Bin immediately agreed to go. He had always done such things with a willing heart. He told his mother, changed his clothes, and took the large vegetable chopping knife with him. When he left, he went straight to the neighborhood of the Qin estate. By this time it was already late. He saw that Wang Xing’s carpet with the fruit spread on it had not yet been taken away. He also saw that a guard named Guo Four was there keeping watch over it. As soon as Zhao Bin saw that the guard was someone he knew, he asked, “Headman Guo, where did my dear brother Wang go?”

Guo Four replied, “Ah, it is you, Zhao Bin. You ask about Wang Xing. Do not mention it. Today at mid-morning the second master, the prime minister’s son, called to him to come in. Wang Xing sold him some fruit amounting to a good deal of money. I was told to keep watch here. I had other things to do, and when he did not come out, I went in and asked about him. Everyone I saw told me not to ask, and no one knew anything.”

Zhao Bin himself did not understand what could have happened to Wang Xing, or what it was all about. After leaving Guo Four, he asked in many places without learning anything. It was very dark and now at the second watch. He quickly went again to the estate of Prime Minister Qin and climbed stealthily over the roofs. Looking down from a rooftop, he was surprised to see in the courtyard below, lit by flickering candlelight, those household people who truly resembled a troop of demons. Trembling with fear and very cautious, Zhao Bin leaped from roof to roof and hurried off to the west.

Arriving at a distant flower garden, Zhao Bin stopped, looked east and west, and then said to himself, “This flower garden is not part of the prime minister’s mansion. Whose home is it?”

When he had looked about for some time, he saw that at the northeast corner there was a courtyard where he could see a twinkling light. He jumped down and moved in for a closer look. He saw that the flower garden was surrounded by the saplings of cassia trees. When he went through the gate, he saw before his eyes a short section of an ornamental wall that closed off the view to anyone standing in the gateway. In the center of the wall there was a design like a chessboard done in gray plaster. Beyond, to the north, was a building of three sections on a high platform with appropriate lower buildings on the east and west, each with three sections. A bamboo curtain was hanging in the door of the north building, and because of the light it was possible to see quite clearly into the room from the outside. He could see a square table inside. On the table was some fruit, hot and cold dishes with meat and fish, and the best quality strong wine. It was a most finely set table.

Zhao Bin thought to himself, “It would suit me just right to have such a meal prepared for me to eat and drink my fill, before going to kill that beastly person.”

He took a couple of steps forward. Just then he began to feel quite differently and said to himself, “Zhao Bin, you are too simple-minded. What if there is someone in the room and you simply walk in? How could you avoid being seen? That would be most inconvenient. I will have to find a small stone with which to try to find out whether anyone is there.” He searched about in the courtyard until he found some small stones, and threw one against the lattice. It was an oft-repeated saying among the brotherhood of the Greenwood that, if one threw stones in this way and the sound was heard, there would be a reply. More importantly, if there was a guard dog it would bark, and the one who had thrown the stone would swiftly depart.

Zhao Bin threw the stone, but there was no apparent movement within. Feeling satisfied that there was no one there, he walked forward. Not until he was on the first step did he hear someone say, “Ai yah! Big Brother has come. Quick, come and save us!”

Zhao Bin was greatly surprised. As he looked about carefully, he saw Wang Xing and his wife hanging upside down from a beam. Both were covered with blood.