Chapter 1 The Beginning

It was late summer of the eighteenth year of the Jianyan era.

Fa Chang was an ordinary, small-to-medium-sized monk at Famen Temple in Fufeng County, Fengxiang Prefecture. But now, this monk, though called ordinary, was not so ordinary after all. Of course!

Ever since the Emperor had set the tone during the Yue Tai Grand Ceremony, designating temples in various regions to be responsible for the *qingmiao* loans (green sprout loans), the status of proper large temples had improved. And as this Emperor pacified the north, unified China, and then went on to conquer Liaodong, his prestige was unparalleled. These *qingmiao* loan officials – the policy of incorporating tax grain and land tax into land acreage – was quickly implemented across the country with almost no significant resistance. The status of these Luohan temples (a common term among the people for the temples designated by the Secretariat to handle *qingmiao* loans) rose rapidly, and the monk ordination certificates also became increasingly valuable.

Before becoming a monk, Fa Chang's secular surname was Li. Perhaps, like Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, who people often compared to the current Emperor a thousand years ago, they were from the same family. After failing the imperial examinations for many years, he became a monk in a fit of anger. Because he was literate, and the temples at the time were in need of such talent, he benefited from something called the "Famen Temple Introduction of High-Literacy Talent Proposal of the Sixteenth Jianyan Year," and after entering the temple, he skipped the *bhikkhu*, *sramanera*, *moro*, and other Buddhist positions that ordinary monks had to endure for many years, and directly became a monk. That's right, before becoming a monk, Fa Chang didn't know that not just any bald person in the temple could be called a monk. And terms like "Great Monk" and "Old Monk" were even more remarkable; there were only a few in a temple. One step further for a Great Monk would be the most popular Four-Character Chan Master of today. Apart from the only Six-Character Chan Master in the country, namely Dahui Chan Master, who was personally given the title of Golden-Bodied Universal Salvation Dahui Chan Master by the Emperor after spreading Buddhism in East and West Mongolia, the Four-Character Chan Master was the most precious in the temple business.

Fa Chang was awakened by the temple's clapper in the middle of the Yin hour. He hurriedly put on his monk's robe, washed up with some well water, and then, with his hands clasped together, walked slowly towards the Buddhist hall to recite scriptures while chanting the Buddha's name. Although the weather in late summer was still somewhat hot, the well water was still icy cold. The sky had just begun to brighten, and apart from the occasional bird call, the temple was filled with sparse streams of people gathering towards the Buddhist hall. The path leading to the Buddhist hall was spotless, but in the flowerbeds along the road, several large spiderwebs were inappropriately hanging, with fat, old *keke* spiders quietly waiting for food in each corner of the web. Fa Chang once wanted to save a butterfly that had unfortunately fallen into the web, but his master, the supervisor of the temple, said, "Beautiful butterflies can be saved, but what about mosquitoes and flies? Let them live and die as they will." He didn't quite understand.

Fa Chang had originally thought that coming to the temple to become a monk would be the end of all worries, but he found that things didn't go as he wished. There were indeed some monks in the temple who were just loafing around, not only idle but also receiving a few coins as a reward for attending the scripture recitations in the Buddhist hall on time every day, but monks like him were not allowed to do that. The current abbot of Famen Temple was a local, with a Fengxiang accent that occasionally blurted out a phrase like "My Buddha," and had a gentle nature and didn't manage things much. The supervisor, however, was a proper high-ranking monk who graduated from the Great Xiangguo Temple Buddhist Academy in Tokyo and had also traveled to the Great Xiangguo Temple in Tokyo, the Shaolin Temple in Luoyang, and the Youquan Temple in Yan. He was usually very strict. Those monks who were designated as abbot, supervisor, and discipline disciples would be severely reprimanded by the supervisor for not being diligent if they were even slightly lazy each day, and each reprimand lasted no less than half an incense stick's time.

Senior Brother Fa De, who presided over the morning service, was an interesting monk. In his early years, he had traveled to Japan on a large ship with a maritime trade company and was quite receptive to new things. After the morning scripture recitation, which was originally the proper time for meditation, he changed the habit when he was in charge, dividing the meditation time into two halves. One half was still proper meditation, and the other half was practicing a secret technique for strengthening the body that he had learned from the Shaolin Temple, called the Yijin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Change Classic), which was extremely focused on physical flexibility, pulling and stretching into various strange poses. The supervisor had come to see it before, but seeing that there was nothing indecent and that it was good for the young disciples' bodies, he simply shook his head and left without interfering. After the morning service, they would go to the refectory for vegetarian food. They would walk all the way to the entrance of the refectory chanting scriptures, and the senior brothers in the refectory would have prepared the food and invite them in. When Fa Chang first entered the temple, he had also played around with a few carefree fellow disciples, which was to walk to the refectory, and if it wasn't ready yet, several of them would loudly chant the Buddha's name "Namo Shakyamuni Buddha" over and over again at the entrance. Whenever this happened, the senior brother in the refectory would hurriedly run out and say, "Stop howling, you're rushing me to death, I know you're hungry." There were also some rules for eating vegetarian food; they were not allowed to speak. Thanks to the strange water conservancy facilities that the Emperor had built in recent years, as well as the selected seeds developed by the Agricultural Affairs Department of the Taiyuan Academy, although the weather hadn't been much better than in previous years, the grain yield had increased year by year. The temple wouldn't be short of food. If they weren't full after one bowl of rice, they would simply use their chopsticks to mark the spot in the bowl where they wanted more rice when they saw the patrolling senior brother come over, and the senior brother would take the bowl away, add rice, and send it back.

These disciple monks had proper business to do after their morning meal, which was to help out at the Shanmiao Hall (Good Seed Hall). Since the year before last, these *qingmiao* loans were no longer entirely handled by the monks. The temple was more of a figurehead, and then they would explain the current Secretariat's *miao* loan policy to the farmers, and also receive those who had encountered unfair things and dared not go to the government to complain. Most of them were appeased and sent home politely. If there was indeed a reasonable basis and the matter was not too serious, they would choose to report it to the supervisor, and then the supervisor would collectively summarize and select the reports before submitting them to the Military Control Department. The proper *miao* loan business was handled by the Shanmiao Hall next to the temple, which was actually a *miao* affairs company established in imitation of the popular maritime trade companies of recent years, hiring some proper laypeople who understood accounting to do the work, and was also supervised by the local Fufeng County-level public pavilion. The supervisor often reminded these disciple monks to help keep an eye on any illegal activities. After all, the temple's name was attached to it, and once a major accident was found by the Military Control Department, the signboard would be smashed, and the consequences would be more than just a loss of incense money.

Fa Chang had never done such secular affairs before becoming a monk, which was very normal, of course, normal. Because every day, he would either pore over the official books designated for the imperial examinations, or review the past examination questions over and over again, or run to various famous teachers' classes to inquire about possible questions. Where would he have other time? These famous teachers would either say that they had a relationship with some Yuan ministers of the Secretariat, or that they had been familiar with the Emperor's routines for many years, all saying that their predictions were accurate. As a result, not to mention the effort and energy wasted, the money was also spent completely, otherwise, he wouldn't have become a monk in a fit of anger. He just didn't expect that he would be even busier after becoming a monk. He helped out at the Shanmiao Loan for half a day, and also received and persuaded away seven or eight farmers, and then was pulled to the Single Monk Reception Department to help, and even the midday meal was a casual fast food. Nowadays, the proper *ya* (government offices) and management in various parts of the country are copying the fast-food system in Tokyo, with a nice saying called "Tokyo Efficiency," which was said by the current Emperor once during a political inquiry at the Taiyuan Academy, and it immediately became popular throughout the country.

Famen Temple is not only a Luohan temple designated by the government for *qingmiao* loans, but also the temple with the most incense in the Guanzhong area because it enshrines the Buddha's finger relic. There are many monks from all directions who come to the temple to travel and stay, and it is necessary to check and ask about the monk's resume and the purpose of this trip, and eliminate those who are just padding the numbers, but not all wandering monks have to be accepted. On this day, because it was the time to return the *miao* loans after the wheat harvest, there were too few monks in charge of the reception department, so they were busy until nearly dusk, and there were still many monks gathering in front of the door.

Fa Chang saw an old monk with a tall figure, wearing ordinary monk's robes and carrying a large package on his shoulder, waiting silently in the line since noon. He made no move when someone cut in line. A thin disciple behind him, although his face was unhappy, did not go forward to stop him when he saw that the old monk did not move. Therefore, he was still in the line by dusk. Fa Chang's heart stirred slightly, and he got up and squeezed towards the old monk from the side. Before he could get close and ask, he heard the little novice nagging beside him, "Master refuses to stay in a hotel, and hasn't had a good night's sleep since coming from Datong Prefecture. The sky is getting late, are we going to spend the night in a ruined temple outside the city again tonight? Why not take out the gold-trimmed purple robe that the Emperor bestowed on Master and put it on. Since the Emperor said that Master can speak to and manage all the illegal monks in the world, isn't this cutting in line illegal?" After hearing this, the old monk just smiled, "This is not illegal, the city gates are about to close, let's go." After saying that, he simply turned and left, and the little novice had no choice but to follow quickly. Fa Chang raised his hand to try to keep him, but he didn't know why, he was suddenly unable to speak, and he raised his hand and put it down again.

The old monk hadn't done impromptu Chan for a long time.

The pre-sleep time after finishing the evening service was Fa Chang's own. Fa Chang was good at painting. He often painted during his studies, but he was often reprimanded for not doing his job properly. At this time, no one cared about him painting anymore. He would paint what he saw and felt during the day.

Rest.

A day in the life of a monk, Xu Ruchang