Chapter 37: Only those wearing cassocks are the most greedy
After a busy day of official work, Li You returned to his residence tiredly. He saw a fan on the table in the hall. Li You picked it up and looked at it carefully. It was an ivory fan bone with fine carvings of beautiful figures. It was made of fine white.
When you open the silk fan, a strange fragrance will hit your nostrils. The fan is painted with a picture of a beautiful woman on a swing, which is very lifelike, but it is signed by Qiu Shizhou.
The paintings were probably fake, but Li You felt the fan was warm and comfortable when he held it in his hand. He opened and closed it several times and couldn't put it down. He thought that he was considered to be half a famous person in the county, and he also lacked this kind of household item in his hand. In the past,
Why didn't you think of that?
Xiaozhu reported: "Master, this was sent by Mr. Sun during the day as an apology."
Li You thought it was Jin Baoer who put it here, and she was the only one who might have such a thing in the house, but it turned out to be a gift from Sun Bangxian. Li You stroked the fan and thought: "Did the scolding that night hurt him a little?"
Is it too much? After all, I’ve been a friend of my neighbor for many years, so I’d better apologize later.”
Jin Baoer also took it over, played with it a few times and commented: "Master, this fan matches you very well."
"I want to teach someone to change the fan surface and find a painter to paint my golden lady, so that it will match me."
"My status as a slave is not worthy of being your wife." Jin Baoer covered his mouth and said with a smile.
Li You thought of what would happen tomorrow and said to Jin Baoer and Xiaozhu: "Tomorrow I will go to Beiqiu Temple outside the city to talk to the monk there. Will you go? It is convenient to take an official ship."
"I want to burn incense." Jin Baoer said.
"Then let's all go!" Li You decided, "But, Xiaozhu, why do you look so bad?"
Xiaozhu choked and said: "The monk there is not working at all! My mother took the slave family there and gave a lot of money to the temple. She sold all the things in the house and gave them to the monk for free. Some of them didn't work. They were all big liars.
Father is still gone. Wuwuwu..."
Jin Baoer handed a handkerchief to Xiaozhu and said, "I'm not going to the Nu family either." He then comforted Xiaozhu and said, "You still have a mother. I don't even know what your parents are like. I only know that they are from Yangzhou. I have had to accept my fate these years.
well."
Li You originally planned to use the official ship for personal use and take the beauty on a boating trip, which is also a happy life event. Who thought that it would touch Xiao Zhu's heartache, but he was helpless.
The next day, Li You took a boat alone and looked north.
More than ten miles to the north of Xujiang County, there is a hill called Beiqiu, and a temple on it called Beiqiu Temple. It is a relatively popular temple in the county. The abbot, Master Yuanru, is also a famous monk. There are several monks in his lineage.
Several disciples and disciples have opened another monastery in the county, and some have opened branches in neighboring counties. The most important thing is that he also serves as the monk association secretary of the county, is in charge of issuing ultimatums, and is a leading monk in the county.
What a response.
More than an hour later, Li You got off the boat and told the boatman to wait.
The mountain is not high, but it is lush and green, with luxuriant trees. At the end of a small road, there are faintly visible green bricks and tiles. There are groups of good men and women walking along the road, some going up and some down, some worried and some happy.
Li You entered the mountain gate and passed through the front hall. He did not enter the majestic five-bay main hall, but only walked around the temple. He was wearing casual clothes today to save money, and he was dressed in ordinary cloth. He did not look like a rich and powerful person, so he had no choice.
People came forward to talk to me.
Li You looked east and west and saw a monk wearing a red cassock with black threads who was just seeing off his guests. He seemed to know the visiting monks, so he caught him and said, "My name is Li You in the official history of the county government. I am looking for the abbot. Please introduce him to me."
The monks didn't care whether it was a classic or not. There were many people looking for excuses to see the abbot. The monk Zhike looked up and down with sharp eyes. Seeing that Li You looked like a poor scholar, he said that the abbot was not in the temple yesterday when he went to Nanjing to visit friends.
Poor scholars who have studied but have no money are troublesome to receive and can't provide much incense. Such people also like to waste time by asking monks to talk about Zen and Taoism, and they often even stay in the name of staying.
It is common to write graffiti on the walls, and he is the most unpopular person in this temple.
Li You closed his fan and pointed at Zhike Monk: "You monk, don't talk nonsense!"
The guest monk's eyes changed, and in colloquial terms there was a flash of light in his eyes. His body shook a few times, seemingly frightened by King Li You's domineering aura, and he immediately clasped his hands together in salute and said: "Donor, please wait here for a moment, little monk.
Go and report."
"Go quickly!" Li You urged.
Zhike Monk secretly used his peripheral vision to identify the refined ivory carved fan in Li Dianshi's hand. It was definitely genuine. He didn't want to meet a low-key rich man. The protagonists these days like to pretend to be pigs and eat tigers, so he was lucky enough not to offend him rashly.
After waiting for a while, the monk Zhike came out of the backyard, found Li You and said, "Donor, please come with the young monk. The abbot of this temple has returned today."
Li You followed Zhike Monk and walked all the way into the deep side courtyard. Pushing the door open, he saw that the room was clean and tidy, with no furnishings or anything. It was really clean and pure, and it was a place to sit quietly and meditate without being disturbed by external objects.
A good place. Li You can only think of one word, "The family is surrounded by walls."
There was only one old monk sitting on the futon in the Zen room. Li You looked again, and saw that the old monk had a big face, big ears, a long beard that reached past his chest, and a majestic look on his face, looking like an eminent monk who had attained enlightenment.
The monk who knew the guest came forward and said, "Li Dianshi has arrived." He then said to Li You, "This is Abbot Yuanru."
Li You cupped his hands as a courtesy and said: "This county has been in drought for a long time without rain. The county minister's heart is burning, and he wants to come out to practice the magic."
The abbot's hand was as round as rolling a rosary and said: "Amitabha. There is a statue of Guanyin in Hanshan Temple in Gusu. It is made of thousand-year-old rare wood. It has spirituality and feels like my Buddha. If you want rain, you should welcome Guanyin with a guard of ceremony.
My county is offering rain and dew, and I am willing to do my best to invite fellow practitioners to join in the practice of praying for the Bodhisattva to appear."
Li You looked overjoyed and bowed repeatedly: "How dare you invite the master to come out!"
Yuan Ru sits with his eyes closed and is silent. He is profound and inscrutable. He does not say yes or no, and he is very Zen.
"I beg you, Master, to be compassionate and considerate of all sentient beings."
The master still sat in meditation with his eyes closed.
Li You waited for a while, but there was no movement for a long time.
The monk who knew the guest said, "The abbot has entered meditation. The donor should leave first."
Li You and Zhike Monk walked back to the main hall together and asked Zhike Monk: "Master, what do you mean?"
The monk who knew the guest changed his face and blamed him: "You don't know how to be a donor. Don't you need incense and money to welcome the Buddha and do the Dharma?"
Li You swallowed his anger and took out ten taels of silver with official stamps.
The monk Zhike took a look at the money and said, "This little money is enough. I think you are young and ignorant, so I won't argue with you. Let's go back and talk to an old man again!" The monk guessed that the county magistrate sent Li You to invite people. Since this
The villain wanted something for himself, so he dared to use his power to ridicule Li You with his words. He also had the idea of bullying Li You because he was young, and deliberately provoked him with words to make him pay a big price in anger. He was really used to doing this.
Yes, how to make money for incense is his strength, otherwise how to become a learned monk.
Li You, who had been ridiculed for nothing, couldn't help but get angry. Don't I know the ways here? The county magistrate only gave me a hundred taels in total, which is not enough for monks like you.
Recently, in terms of ranking in the county's yamen, Li You is not ranked among the top five, but is ranked among the top ten. Even in the county, he is a well-known figure. This has caused his mentality to be a bit inflated in front of ordinary people.
, how can I bear this birdiness.
"How can such a money-grubbing thief still be a monk?" Li You scolded. He took the fan into his arms and slapped the monk in the face. The monk's eyes were filled with golden flowers and his ears were thundering. With his status, he shouldn't do it himself.
Unfortunately, Li You's career was short, and he had no capable people around him to help him.
The monk Zhike was caught off guard and received a big slap from Li You. He was dizzy and struggled to resist a few times, but he couldn't beat him. He was beaten by Li You and fled in embarrassment.
Li You angrily beat the monk Zhike, and the pilgrims around him were dumbfounded. For some reason, some good men and women silently recited Amitabha Buddha to forgive their sins.
Someone else recognized Li Dianshi and secretly sighed that he was indeed a weird and crazy celebrity. This Li You, who is half red but not black, still plays with his personality like this. Most other famous people like to talk to monks about Zen and debate scriptures, showing their profound knowledge.
, this Li You insists on committing violence in front of the Buddha, but does he want to create an image of a knight-errant who puts his spirit first? Hype, it must be hype, and it is obvious that he will do anything to become famous.
Li You also regretted it here. It would be detrimental to his dignity to do it himself. After all, now that he is no longer a government servant, he is a person with status, so he must find a way to make up for it.
In a blink of an eye, he saw a pilgrim who seemed to be a scholar and was carrying a bag. He stepped forward and bowed, saying: "Do you have a pen and ink, sir? I can borrow it for you."
The scholar simply took out his pen and ink and handed it over.
Li You waved his hand and wrote six sentences on the door of the main hall: "In the jungles of the world, there is as much food as there is in the mountains, and alms bowls are everywhere for you to eat. Gold and white jade are not precious, but cassocks are the most greedy. Three hundred and sixty days for a living, less than half a day for a monk."
money!"
"Wonderful!" Suddenly someone behind him cheered loudly.
Li You turned around and looked. It turned out to be Mr. Liu, the old inspector of the Xishui Inspection Department. What was he teasing?
