Chapter 4: Burning The Zen Temple
Meanwhile, on the other side, Guangzhi came down the mountain, arrived in the town below the mountain, had someone write a complaint document, and beat the drum of injustice.
The county magistrate took his seat in the court hall and asked:
“Young monk, what injustice do you have?”
Guangzhi cried out his injustice:
“Blue sky great lord, this young monk is a monk from Guanyin Monastery on the mountain outside the city. My dharma name is Guangzhi. A couple of days ago, our abbot kindly took in two traveling monks. Unexpectedly, they saw that our monastery was wealthy, so they harbored evil intentions, set fire at night, burned down the monastery, and robbed the money accumulated by our monastery over a hundred years!”
The county magistrate raised an eyebrow and hurriedly asked:
“Is it that Guanyin Monastery of Elder Jinchi?”
Guanyin Monastery had great fame within a hundred miles around, and even the county magistrate had heard of it.
Guangzhi nodded like pounding garlic: “Exactly, exactly!”
The county magistrate said: “Do you have a complaint document?”
Guangzhi handed over the complaint document.
After reading it, the county magistrate saw the words ‘money accumulated over a hundred years’ on the complaint document and couldn’t help asking:
“How much money is in your monastery?”
Guangzhi reported truthfully: “Accumulated over a hundred years, countless gold and silver. This young monk doesn’t know exactly. I only know there are over a hundred chests of snowflake silver, more than ten chests of gold ingots, three large chests of emerald jewels, and one bundle each of white ivory and rhinoceros horns.”
After hearing this, the county magistrate’s eyes went straight, and greed arose in his heart immediately. He said: “What bold thieving monks; come, quickly go arrest them!”
He immediately threw down the order and ordered two groups of yamen runners to go arrest them.
However, Guanyin Monastery was some distance from the town, and the yamen runners were mere mortals, so they did not arrive at Guanyin Monastery that night.
The next day, after Tang Sanzang ate a vegetarian meal served by the crowd of monks, he called Sun Wukong, wanting to set off.
To delay time, Guangmou brought out gold and silver from the monastery, saying he wanted to give it to Tang Sanzang.
Tang Sanzang refused to accept it.
While they were pulling and tugging, Guangzhi arrived right on time with the yamen runners.
Guangzhi pointed at Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong: “It’s those two thieving monks!”
Hearing this, the yamen runners shouted, surrounded from all sides, and yelled: “You thieving monks, caught red-handed with the stolen goods!”
They first dragged down Tang Sanzang and tied him up; then they tried to tie up Sun Wukong, but Sun Wukong wouldn’t submit. He pulled out the golden cudgel and said: “Which one do you say is the thief!” He was about to give these yamen runners a lesson.
Seeing this, Tang Sanzang feared Sun Wukong would hurt people and hurriedly said: “Wukong, do not act. These yamen runners have mistakenly arrested us. Once we reach the court hall, your master will explain clearly. You must not hurt anyone! Otherwise, your master will definitely recite the golden fillet spell!”
Fearing Tang Sanzang would really recite the golden fillet spell, Sun Wukong had no choice but to submit and be captured.
The yamen runners tied up Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang, then asked Guangzhi and Guangmou about the treasure brought out from the monastery. It was indeed as Guangzhi said: over a hundred chests of gold and silver, not only not less, but even more.
The yamen runners were overjoyed and said: “These are all stolen goods!” They prepared to carry all the silver back to the county yamen.
But there were too many people and too little silver; they couldn’t carry it all at once. If they left first, they feared the silver would be lost, so they had to leave guards and send others to the county yamen to notify the county magistrate to send more men to transport the silver.
In this back-and-forth fussing, four or five days passed.
By the time Tang Sanzang and his disciples were brought to the court hall, the progress in Ao Tu’s system had already reached the ninth day.
Entering the court hall, Tang Sanzang naturally cried out his injustice and explained the whole story from beginning to end, which was reasonable and evidence-based.
However, the county magistrate was unwilling to let Tang Sanzang and the others go, because the stolen silver was quite a lot, and he wanted to take a cut. Only by turning this case into an ironclad one could he conveniently reach in.
The county magistrate thus ordered the use of criminal law to force Tang Sanzang to confess under duress.
Sun Wukong cast a spell and took the punishment in place of Tang Sanzang.
He had an iron skull and copper brain, an indestructible vajra body; whether wooden boards, sticks, or iron needle bed, all were useless.
Helpless, the county magistrate had to temporarily imprison Tang Sanzang and his disciples.
At night, Sun Wukong turned into a small insect, flew out of the prison, landed in the county magistrate’s home, disguised as the Night Roaming God, scared the county magistrate, saying that Tang Sanzang was a Buddha’s child from the Western Heaven, a holy monk from the Eastern Land, and to release him quickly, or divine punishment would come, and the whole city would not have peace.
After speaking, he conjured a large foot out of thin air from the sky, which fell to the ground and stomped a pit three feet three inches deep. Seeing this, the county magistrate was terrified out of his wits and dared not disobey.
Sun Wukong left laughing.
At this time, the progress in Ao Tu’s system was nine days; even tomorrow would only be ten days, still five days short of the reward for intercepting half a month.
But Ao Tu was not worried; he had his own methods.
After Sun Wukong left, a while later, Ao Tu entered the county magistrate’s home and transformed into the appearance of Ananda.
The county magistrate had just been scared by Sun Wukong earlier, and now seeing Ao Tu in this appearance descending, he hurriedly kowtowed and bowed nonstop, blurting out: “Buddha Ancestor, Bodhisattva, this official knows his mistake, knows his mistake. I will release the holy monk right away and never dare again.”
Ao Tu said: “I am Ananda, venerable from under the seat of Buddha Ancestor Tathagata of the Western Heaven. The Buddha Ancestor said you wrongly tortured the Buddha’s child on the journey for sutras in your prison, alarming the gods of the three realms. He sent me to take you down to Avici Hell to suffer the punishment of rolling in a vat of boiling oil with knives.”
The county magistrate trembled and asked: “Venerable sir, what, what is the punishment of rolling in a vat of boiling oil with knives?”
Ao Tu said: “It is to roll the person on knives, slicing the skin and flesh into pieces to hang on the body, then fry them in the oil vat.”
Hearing this, the county magistrate was terrified out of his wits, even urinated, and kowtowed nonstop:
“This official knows his mistake, knows his mistake. I will never dare again. Please, venerable, show mercy, show mercy! If the venerable can save this official’s life, this official will mobilize the whole city’s power to build a temple for the venerable, offer incense and fire day and night, and not dare to be the slightest bit negligent!”
Ao Tu laughed inwardly; he hadn’t expected the county magistrate to be so cowardly. Originally, he only planned to delay five days, but now seeing the situation, he decided to say more days. Anyway, the extra days wouldn’t be wasted; if not enough for thirty days, they could count toward the next calamity.
Ao Tu said: “Alright, seeing your sincerity, this venerable will give you a chance to reform.”
Hearing this, the county magistrate was overjoyed and hurriedly bowed his head to listen.
Ao Tu said:
“Because of your greedy heart, you wrongly tortured the holy monk on the journey for sutras, committing boundless sins. You should suffer thirty-three years of punishment in Avici Hell to eliminate the sins. But seeing your sincere repentance, this venerable will give you a method to reform.
Use your own money to set up a thousand tables of continuous feast in the city, invite that holy monk from the Tang Dynasty to perform Buddhist mass for thirty-three days, to save the departed souls and benefit the people.
For each day the holy monk performs the Buddhist mass and each day of banquet opened, it eliminates one year of sin. After completing thirty-three days, the sins will be fully eliminated. Do you understand?”
The county magistrate hurriedly kowtowed: “Understood, understood.”
Ao Tu added: “This venerable has no desires, does not want your incense and fire. If you really build a temple for me and offer worship, and I find out, I will definitely cast you into boundless hell, never to be reborn.”
Hearing this, the county magistrate believed even more in Ao Tu’s identity and hurriedly agreed, saying he would not build a temple.
Ao Tu hid his form and, before leaving, instructed:
“Remember, do not mention this to outsiders. If you leak heavenly secrets, it won’t work.”
The county magistrate kowtowed again: “Yes, yes, yes, this official understands.”
