The Mad Monk of Jianzhou
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there was a monk in Jianzhou whose name was unknown to anyone, and he behaved like a madman. What he said and did was mostly verified by the facts later.
Shaowu County was near a river, and there was a big rock about a hundred paces away from the river. One day, this monk suddenly drew a horizontal line with ink halfway up the rock, while he sat on top of it, holding a fishing rod in the shape of a fisherman. The next day a flash flood broke out and the river receded just at the point where he had drawn the horizontal line.
In the year of Kemao, the mad monk cut down all the branches of trees sticking out to the south by the roadside, and when people asked him why he did so, he said, “So that these branches will not hinder the passage of banners and streamers.” And he also said, “When passing by, walk on one side.” When the army of Wu entered Jianzhou, they all passed on the side where the branches had been cut.
He also inscribed on the wall of the temple outside the city, “A certain number of people live here. Later, when the army came to the city, the temple was divided into several parts and used as a residence. The number of people living in the temple was no different from the number of people inscribed on the wall by the mad monk. Later on this mad monk was actually killed by the soldiers.
Once upon a time, in the late period of Wang’s rule in Mindi (Fujian), there were many disasters in Minjian area and people were not living. Someone asked the mad monk, “When will the world situation be settled?” He replied, “When I die, the situation will be settled.” When he died, the situation in the area of Minling was really stabilized. Just as he said.
(From “The Book of the Gods”)
The lords chased the white hare, and the mirror lake was pacified at the end of summer
During the Five Dynasties, Dong Chang became the emperor in Yuezhou and openly fought against the Tang Dynasty. Before Dong Chang’s defeat, a madman inscribed a poem on the wall of the inn in Qiting, Yuezhong: “The grass grows again day by day, and the city is long by the evening. The vassals are chasing the white rabbits, and the summer is full of mirror lake flat.
At first, people did not know the meaning of this poem, and only when Dong Chang failed did they realize it. Cao Chong is the word Dong, Ri Ri is the word Chang, and Su Cheng represents Yue Cheng, because it was built by Yang Su, the Duke of Yue in Sui. The vassal refers to Qian, who is the genus Shen Sheng, and the white hare refers to Dong Chang, the genus Mao Sheng. Xia Man represents June, and Mirror Lake refers to Yuezhong. In June, Dong Chang dived to his death while being escorted to Kyoto.
(from “Huijilu”)
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