Chapter 15 Chapter Thirteen

The car drove into a manor in the mountains and stopped under a three-story building with a traditional Japanese architectural style. Suzuki turned around and said, "Mr. Xie, Miss Sally, please." Xie Huiren looked through the car window. This is really a big manor. From the gate of the manor to the main entrance of this building, it is a full two kilometers away. There are trees planted on both sides of the road. Passing through them, you can vaguely see the road behind. There are small buildings, probably stables or warehouses for storing garden tools, and the corridor in the middle is carefully paved with golden bricks.

Xie Huiren naturally thought of the Lonely Garden in Savatthi. When Sakyamuni was still alive, there was a wealthy businessman named Sudatta in Savatthi in Kosala. When he came to Sravasti City to teach the Dharma, he discussed with the Buddha's disciple Shariputra where the Buddha lived.Later, the lonely elder fell in love with the garden of Prince Jituo.The prince told the lonely elder that if he could cover the ground of the garden with gold, then he would sell the garden to him, and he did so.Ji Tuo was very moved, so he charged a small price, and the two of them welcomed the Buddha to live here and teach the Dharma together.This legendary garden covered with gold is the famous Gion Abode.Now in the Garan Hall in the monastery, King Bosni, Ji Tuo and Ji Ji of the Sravasti Kingdom are enshrined.

Once Xie Huiren watched a TV series and saw Zhu Bajie looking for gold bricks on the ground of Savatthi City, he couldn't help laughing.This plot does not exist in the book, it is obviously a plot added casually by the screenwriter, but this kind of "joking" plot that is now popular shows timidity.According to Buddhist scriptures, where the Buddha lives, gold is everywhere, even ordinary bricks are of course gold bricks, so what are you looking for? Xie Huiren looked to the right side of the car again, not far away was the main building of the manor.But time did not allow him to take a closer look, a middle-aged man in a well-dressed suit had already come down from the front steps to greet them.

Xie Huiren got out of the car, and the man just walked in front of him. He bowed and said respectfully in not fluent Chinese, "Mr. Xie, you are welcome. You can call me Shantou." He recognized immediately that this was the man who called him last night, that is, the client. Passing through a long and narrow corridor, and going up a narrow and somewhat steep staircase, Xie Huiren and Sally followed Yamato to a room.Shanto looked at Xie Huiren apologetically, motioned him to wait a moment, and then reached out and knocked gently on the door.Xie Huiren heard an old voice from inside the room, "Shanto, are Huiren and the others here? Please come in."

The door is a traditional Japanese horizontal sliding door.After Shanto pushed it away, Xie Huiren felt as if he had broken into another world at once. At a glance, the light emitted from this room was in sharp contrast to the narrow and dark corridor. He saw Bo Gu at the entrance The blue and white five-clawed dragon pattern bowls from Ding Kiln are randomly placed on the shelf, the rare right-handed white conch, the Buddha statue carved from the whole white sandalwood, and the golden vase holding lottery that confirmed the reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhism in the Qing Dynasty... On the ground are A whole piece of Nepalese handmade carpet, embroidered with patterns of the heavens. On the wall opposite the door is a hanging curtain embroidered with thousands of Buddhas in Sassanian style floral silk. An old man is sitting in a wheelchair and is struggling to move towards the door. .

The old man has short gray hair, is hale and hearty, and has a kind face, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, revealing two rows of white teeth, and looks well maintained.He put in more effort, finally pushed the wheelchair to the door, stretched out his hand, and said in fluent Chinese: "Hui Ren, welcome, I have been waiting for you for a long time." Xie Huiren shook hands with the old man very politely, "It's an honor to meet you, sir, may I ask you..." The old man waved his hand and said, "Come in and talk." He turned the wheelchair around and made a circle, signaling Yamato to push him.He gestured to walk to the left of the room and said, "Normal people are not allowed to enter this study room. I haven't entertained guests here for a long time. Here, for you, Chinese guests, I changed the Japanese-style teahouse into a Sofa and coffee table, alas, neither fish nor fowl."

Xie Huiren walked behind, but his eyes couldn't help but look around this antique study room. Behind the wisteria wood carved screen on the left is a small living room. There is an ancient painting in the middle of the main wall of the small living room. A Guqin is placed horizontally on the Ming Dynasty sandalwood table on the wall. On the side of the table is the sofa that the old man said. It is a group of sofas with classical Chinese style, surrounded by a skillfully woven rattan and bamboo. On the coffee table, between the two sofas near the screen, there is a one-meter-high raindrop glazed porcelain vase, and at the opposite corner is a small shelf carved from sandalwood, with scrolls of ancient paintings randomly inserted in it.

Xie Huiren hurriedly turned his head to look at the other side of the living room, which is the right side of the door.It seems to be the place where the old man paints or writes. There is a large table covered with felt cloth, on which there are pen holders, brush washers and a large, simple inkstone that does not seem to have any carvings.Xie Huiren took a quick glance and saw that the inkstone was darkly green. He suspected that it was affected by the light, or else it was undoubtedly a fine product of Laokeng. Such a large piece of Laokeng duan inkstone is undoubtedly of great value.Beside the table case is a set of shelves reaching to the sky, in which there are wooden letters and some thread-bound books, interspersed with some ancient silk scrolls.

If it wasn't for being polite, Xie Huiren would definitely be walking around in this study like a child who has discovered a treasure, and almost everything would make his heart flutter.He felt a little regretful now, and his pace was still faster, but after a few glances, they had already entered the small living room. "Please sit down." The old man got up from the wheelchair and walked slowly to the sofa.It seems that he does not have a disabled leg, but sits in a health care wheelchair because of his old age.He smiled all over his face, and said humorously and kindly: "Uh, according to the rules, women should be given priority. This must be Ms. Sally. I'm so confused that I can't entertain you well. Please sit down."

Sally smiled, and sat happily on the sofa in the last seat. She obviously knew that the protagonists today were the old man and Xie Huiren. However, Xie Huiren did not greet the master very impolitely, but stared at the ancient painting on the wall, as if he had not heard the old man's greeting, stood there blankly, and was a little stunned. The old man turned his head slightly, looked at the painting, laughed, and said, "Hui Ren, it's a coincidence that you came today, you will definitely feast your eyes." Only then did Xie Huiren look away, smiled awkwardly, and said to the old man, "I'm sorry. If you read correctly, it was Fachang's handwriting?"

"Oh?" The old man leaned on the sofa, his eyes glowed, and he nodded appreciatively, "You have good eyesight." He turned sideways and joked with Sally, "It's a pity that you may not see it at an art auction house." inferred." Sally smiled slightly, and couldn't help turning her head to the side, and began to look at the ancient painting as well.But she really couldn't see what was so good about this painting. It seemed that the artist wanted to paint a dead tree branch. From the upper left to the lower right, he drew a crooked tree shape. There was an ape on the branch, but it was not so exquisite. If not, it looks like a pile of ink blobs.However, what is interesting is that in this way, the curved branches seem to be the arms and body of a monkey, wriggling playfully. She looked at Xie Huiren puzzled.At this moment, he was fascinated by this painting, and he muttered to himself, "It's really this painting, isn't it in Daitokuji Temple in Japan?" "Well, I begged for many days." The old man raised his hand in high spirits and said, "Later, the old monk agreed to lend me two days to hang it. Sutra, oh, it’s a bit of a loss.” Speaking of this, the old man’s expression seemed infinitely distressed again. Xie Huiren was startled. Although he didn't know the year when the Buddhist scriptures were engraved, but from the old man's tone, it was obviously an ancient version. He gave it away as soon as he said it, and he was too generous. Xie Huiren stared at this painting again, looked at it for a long time, and said to himself: "'Purely Zen', this painting is indeed a rare treasure." Sally didn't know what he was talking about, so she blurted out, "What did you say? Is it of such high value?" "'Purely Zen', the ancient Chinese comment on Fachang's landscape paintings, said that there are a lot of Buddhist teachings in the paintings." Xie Huiren could only tell her in the most simple terms. "Dharma? How can this be connected?" The old man laughed loudly, "All right, all right, Huiren, sit down first and tell Sally slowly." Xie Huiren wanted to get closer and take a closer look, but after hearing what the old man said, he had no choice but to sit down reluctantly. However, this painting has a special charm when viewed from a distance. He stared at the painting and said: "Fachang is a painter in the late Southern Song Dynasty. It is said that his lay surname is Li, and he is called Li Muxi. It was brought to Japan by Shengyi, and this "Ape" was regarded as a classic and named "Muxi Ape". The old man listened quietly on the sofa, squinting his eyes, nodding as he listened, as if approving. "What does that have to do with Buddhism? It can only be said that it was painted by a monk." "This can't be explained clearly in a few words." Xie Huiren said, "Let's just talk about the subject of this painting—ape, which is a symbol that often appears in Buddhism." Sally looked at Xie Huiren even more in surprise. Xie Huiren ignored her and said to himself, "Did you hear a children's story when you were young? It said that there was a monkey living by the sea, and there was a sea monster in the sea. If he wanted to eat the monkey's heart, he lied to him that there was something delicious on the other side. Yes, he went down into the sea with a hunchback. In the middle of the sea, the sea monster said that he wanted to eat the monkey's heart. The monkey was very clever and said, "I didn't take my heart with me, it was still on the tree on the shore. The sea monster had to hunch The monkey came back to get the heart." "Of course the monkey ran away as soon as it got ashore." Sally continued with a smile, "This is a fairy tale that almost every Chinese has read when they were young." "That's right. But did you know that this story was first recorded in the "Five Juan Books", a collection of stories from ancient India." Sally was really surprised: "Asshole, is this an Indian story?" "Isn't it? Many people thought it was a Chinese fairy tale." Xie Huiren said again, "There were many versions of this story. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Zhang Du who wrote a very famous collection of novels called "Xuanshi There is a variation of this story in "Annals", which said that a young man healed his father, and someone told him that his father had to eat human hearts to keep alive. One day he saw a monk in the mountains, and the monk said that he was willing to imitate Maha Prince Sattva gave his life to feed the tiger, he can give his heart, but he must eat a full meal before he dies. After the young man invited him to eat, the monk jumped on the tree and turned into an old ape. gone." "Well, the two stories are indeed somewhat similar." Sally nodded. "Actually, I only gave a rough idea. There are many Buddhist contents in the story. However, this story is indeed a Buddhist story, which can be found in many Buddhist scriptures." Xie Huiren paused, and continued, "Apes act The symbol of the Buddhist story has been circulated for a long time, the most famous one, everyone knows..." Sally blinked slyly, and said, "Monkey King!" Xie Huiren nodded and said with a smile: "That's right. In fact, it has a lot to do with "Five Volumes". This kind of storytelling method is learned by the Chinese from Indian stories and Buddhist scriptures." "Haha." The old man couldn't help laughing heartily, "Well said, but I can't finish talking about it for three days and three nights. Alright, let's drink tea." At this time, Yamato came in with a set of tea sets in his hand.

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Notes: , "The Canterbury Tales" and so on. "Five Juans" had a great influence on Chinese literature. According to preliminary research, there are 23 stories from "Five Juans" in Chinese folk tales.In the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures, you can find many stories that are also in the "Five Volumes".For example, the story of sea monsters and monkeys mentioned in the novel can also be found in the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures "Liu Du Ji Jing" Volume 36, "Sheng Jing" Volume 10, "Buddha Ben Xing Ji Jing" and so on. The structure of "Five Scrolls" is very peculiar, that is, several small stories that can be written independently form a complete big story, which is a unique form of ancient Indian literature.The structure of many Buddhist stories is also born out of this.This structure also influenced the creation of novels in ancient China, for example, its shadow can be clearly found.Therefore, Xie Huiren said later that it has a close relationship with the "Five Volumes".