Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019

The sign patience
Zheng Tingyu (? - approx. 1330)

During the sermon of the Buddha, one of the holy arhats was betrayed to vanity. The hellish torment was based on it, but Buddha mercifully sent the guilty to the ground, so that he would reborn in a human form. Now his name is Liu Jiuzuo, he is not in the faith, he may deviate from the righteous path. In order to instruct him, the Buddha Milla was sent in the form of a Monk with a sack. In addition, another instructor in the form of a man named Liu Nine is sent to encourage Liu Jionzo to go to the monastery, to accept the teachings of the Great Chariot, to deny wine, lust, greed and anger. Then the time of his temptation will be fulfilled.

Liu Jiuzuo is the richest man in the city, but differs by incredible scum. On a cold, snowy day, the hungry poor man freezes at the gate of his house. Normally, a pitiful rich man, to his own surprise, penetrates pity for the unfortunate, invites him to the house, heals and questions. It is found out that the stranger also wears the family name of Ayu and is also from Loyan. Liu Jiuzuo offers the poor man to marry and trusts the management of his mortgage bench.

It takes six months. Adopted in the rich family, his younger brother, Liu Jiuzuo, replaces the owner in the mortgage bench: he lends money, collects debts. On the birthday of the benefactor, he decides to invite him to a feast, but, knowing the frustration of the named brother, assures that all the treat and wine are brought up by relatives, friends and neighbors. At the gift festival, Liu Jiuzuo joyfully agrees.

At this time, a Monk with a bag appears. He is trying to convince Liu Jiuzuo in his own holiness, but he does not believe. Then the monk draws his "patience" character on his palm. This is one of the precepts of Buddhism, which is disgusting from worldly thoughts. However, patience is not among the virtues of Liu. When the holy doctrine in the image of Liu Nine's begging begs for money, he hits him and he dies. Rich in horror, that became a killer. The younger brother promises to blame himself. Here the monk returns. He promises to return the dead to life, if Liu Junzuo, who did not retain the patience prescribed for him, will go to the monastery.

Liu agrees, but then asks permission to live a monk in a hut in the garden behind his house - he's sorry to leave his wife and children. All home affairs he transfers to his sister. He himself eats livestock three times a day and reads prayers. One day, from his own child, he learns that in his absence, his wife drinking wine every day and admiring his brother. The hermit covers anger. He decides to take revenge, secretly penetrates into the house, but instead of the expected lover finds out, at the sight of Monk with a sack. The monk tells Liu to tolerate and demands that he go with him to the monastery, because he has not managed to live in the house with a monk.

In the monastery he listens to instructions, but his thoughts are constantly coming home: he misses no wife and children, worries about the abandoned wealth. The instructor, the poor Dinhui Dynasty, inspires patience above all else. It is necessary to cleanse the heart, get rid of desire and pray. But his sermon does not reach the novice. To Jiuzuo, his wife and children come to the mentor's will. On each of them he sees a sign of "patience". Then he notices a monk with two women and two children. The rector assures that this is the first and second teachers' wives.

Liu Jiuzuo leaves the monastery in anger. He believes that he was deceived: they spoke of holiness, and they themselves live with their wives.

He goes home, and the road wraps around the cemetery to visit the graves of his ancestors. The cemetery looks unusually exaggerated. From a conversation with the old man whom he meets near the generic graves, it turns out that Liu was absent not three months, but a hundred years. The old man is his grandson. Liu is not aged at all, and it is the merit of Buddha. Here appears a monk from whom Junzo learns that in the previous birth he was an archate from the holy heavens, for the sins that were thrown to the ground. All his relatives are also saints. The monk confesses that it is not just a simple monk, but Buddha Mila. With a prayerful exclamation on the mouth of Liu falls before him nits.