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Story 62: Jigong Living Buddha Folktales

Jigong Living Buddha

Author: Anonymous

Jigong Living Buddha is a legendary figure that has been well-known to the people of Hangzhou for thousands of years. The image of Jigong in the minds of Hangzhou people is that he wears a shabby monk’s hat, a shabby cassock, and holds a tattered cattail leaf fan. He looks neither a monk nor a vulgar man, neither a hooligan nor a beggar. He is crazy, humorous, playful, and has great supernatural powers.

A popular mad monk who takes care of injustices in the world. There are many legends about Jigong, and most of them are related to the West Lake in Hangzhou. Legend has it that Jigong was a native of Tiantai, Zhejiang during the Southern Song Dynasty, and his common name was Li Xiuyuan.

At the age of 18, he came to Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou and became a monk. His Buddhist name was Daoji. He is unruly, loves to drink, and eats dog meat. Later he moved to Jingci Temple in Nanshan to serve as a monk in the office (clerk).

Once, a fire broke out in Jingci Temple and destroyed the Main Hall. He was entrusted by the abbot to collect large trees for building the temple. After drinking heavily for three days, he shouted loudly: “The big log is here! You can get it from the well! Sure enough, a big log came out from the bottom of the well in the temple. The temple officials hurriedly took out seven or eight feet long and five feet round from the well. There were more than 60 large logs with diameter.

Later, the abbot said that it was enough, and the large logs stopped emerging. A large log that was about to come out of the well stopped. Today’s “Shenyun Well” (also known as “Shenyun Well” (also known as “Yunyun Well”) in Jingci Temple In the “Mugu Well”), you can also see the large wooden end surface on the surface of the well.

Once, Jigong foresaw that a hill would fly from the west and land in front of Lingyin Temple. In order to save the lives of the villagers in the small village in front of the temple, he wisely adopted the “monk” method.

The method of “stealing the bride” caused the villagers to rush to save the bride, thus avoiding the bad luck of being crushed to death by the mountain. This is the story of Feilaifeng.

Once, Jigong passed by the West Lake and saw that many residents had cut off the tails of snails in preparation for eating. Jigong begged the residents for these snails and released them into the West Lake. All the tailless snails came alive.

Since then, many tailless snails have grown in the West Lake. To this day, tailless snails still grow in the mountain streams in Hupao and Xixi areas. Legend has it that they are the “historic things” released by Jigong himself.

Today, there is a small stream in front of Hupao Temple. It often dried up in ancient times. It was Jigong who held a broken cattail leaf fan and shouted repeatedly: “Rise, rise!” The water immediately spewed out, and it has been flowing continuously since then, never drying up.