Part-Time Taoist Priest 2

Ancestral Finger

Xie Lingya spent two days inventoring Baoyang’s storeroom and found a signboard. It was the original temple sign that had graced the entrance for hundreds of years.

When Golden Osmanthus Street was renovated some years ago, the building fronts along the entire street were refurbished to look uniform. Baoyang Temple stood outside the street gate but, probably due to being next to it, its external wall didn’t escape the urban designers’ hands.

The whole temple covered less than one mu¹1 mu = 666.7 m2 or 797.3 sq yd. The front wall is 15 m wide so the temple grounds should be a rectangle with dimensions ~15 x 45 m, or ~16 x 50 yd.—it could only be called a mini-Taoist temple. It had small, brick-and-wood buildings, a row of bamboo planted along the front yard wall, and an old, the Eight-Trigrams-shaped well in one corner.

The largest structure was the main temple hall, and it was dedicated to The Three Purities.²The three highest Gods in the Taoist pantheon, regarded as pure manifestation of the Tao and the origin of all sentient beings. They can be considered symbolic representations of the Three Treasures: Jing (creative energy), Qi (vital energy) and Shen (spiritual energy) In the back was a depiction of the Jade Emperor,³One of the most important and popular figures in Chinese mythology and an especially important Daoist deity. He is considered to be the supreme ruler of Heaven and the first of all Chinese emperors and the east and west alcoves housed Taiyi Tianzun.

Beyond the Hall of The Three Purities, other buildings surrounded the inner courtyard. Except for two side halls, the Spirit Official Hall⁴Dedicated to Spirit Official Wang and Wenchang⁵Wenchang is a Taoist deity, known as the God of Culture and Literature Hall, the rest were living quarters, a kitchen, and so on. Many were repaired with cement.

The inner courtyard included a small vegetable garden, but it fell into disuse long ago. There were also some stone tablets with inscriptions, hundreds of years old, that managed to survive over the years.

As a whole, Baoyang adhered to the traditional architectural style of Taoist temples. It faced south and had a symmetrical layout of siheyuan.⁶Courtyard surrounded by buildings on all four sides However, everything, from the columns to roof tiles, was old and timeworn, or even damaged and in dire need of restoration.

According to the predecessors’ notes, it was founded in the Ming dynasty, destroyed once, and rebuilt in the late Qing dynasty.⁷Ming dynasty – 1368–1644; Qing dynasty – 1644-1912

When Xie Lingya was a child, his uncle told him that in Baoyang’s heyday, there were additional rows of buildings along the central axis. Originally, the statue of Spirit Officer resided in the main hall, the Three Purities in the rear hall, and the rest of the deities in the numerous side halls. After the temple’s destruction, only the main hall and two of the side halls remained. The Three Purities were moved to the main hall and Spirit Officer to the side hall.

Xie Lingya took pictures of everything and went to the Municipal Cultural Bureau. His uncle wasn’t very concerned about things like cultural heritage and relics, but he reckoned the temple was old enough he might as well ask.

He learned Baoyang was already registered.

Over the past two years, the city had begun to pay more attention to the protection of cultural relics and historic sites. The Cultural Bureau visited Baoyang to appraise it, but its only priest, Wang Yuji, tended to take off now and then—sometimes for prolonged periods—so they could only register it.

When Xie Lingya showed up, they said they’d also issue an official data plate for Baoyang, the same as other historical monuments. Xie Lingya happily received it and, while he was at it, inquired whether there was a protection fund he could apply for.

He was informed that yes, there was such a fund, but unfortunately, the money was limited. Baoyang Temple was neither the oldest nor the worst off; it was hard to tell when its turn would come.

Xie Lingya was good-looking and always carried a smile on his face. The reception staff had a favorable impression of him, so they told him the Bureau was compiling a book about local places of interest, historical relics, and legends. If he wanted Baoyang to be included, he could send them information later.

Heartened, Xie Lingya went back and looked through the records.

Baoyang needed money for repairs. To get money, it needed worshippers. However, no one would visit a plain, destitute temple without a single priest, so it was easy to get trapped in a vicious downward spiral. He had to attract visitors somehow. It would be difficult in the early stages, but an absolute must.

Wang Yuji had never considered commercializing; perhaps he didn’t know it was possible. After some pondering, Xie Lingya decided to touch up the temple’s back story.

Baoyang had lots of records, and succeeding generations kept adding notes and annotations to them until almost half of each page was filled with commentary. The stories Xie Lingya was looking for were scattered throughout them. He skimmed through several books, finding his childhood scribbles in the process.

Though he used to dislike studying, he often peeked into Wang Yuji’s books.

A special physique was indeed miraculous. Xie Lingya didn’t know how it was for other people with these so-called celestial bones and if “the talent to become immortal” was a real thing, but despite having learned nothing from his uncle, he was able to comprehend the notes with ease.

He leafed through the pages, the knowledge they contained vivid in his memory.

After reading for a while, Xie Lingya gained both new insights into what he had studied before and found material suitable for his needs.

There are many ways to chose names for Taoist temples. The names of gods, legendary places or figures, as well as Taoist concepts—any of them were useable. Xie Lingya had always thought the name “Baoyang” [抱阳] was derived from the idea of “fù yīn bào yáng,” that is,“(everything is contained in) negative Yin and positive Yang.”

Now, he found, from a predessor’s notes, that the word “yang” came from “yáng” [羊] meaning “sheep,” not from “yáng” [阳] of “Yin and Yang”—because the temple used to keep a lot of sheep. Later, the name transformed into its current form.

“This is too random.” Slightly disconcerted, Xie Lingya decided to omit this part. He took some stories and anecdotes recorded by the predecessors and, with vigorous strokes of his pen, produced an awe-inspiring legend about the founding of Baoyang Temple involving Immortals descending to the earth, fights with demons and evil spirits… you get the drift.

When Xie Lingya finished writing, he felt there was still something to be desired. His story wasn’t flamboyant at all. During his visit to the Cultural Bureau, he happened to read some of the material sent by others and holy cow, each was more exaggerated than the last. The most daring touched on the goddess Nüwa and the Yellow Emperor, and even the simplest still mentioned the Qianlong Emperor.

The Three Purities, as the highest gods, were enshrined in every Taoist temple. This was usually alongside the main god to whom the temple was dedicated to—which depended on the beliefs of the locals or the temple’s priests. There were temples dedicated to Xuanwu, Lü Dongbin, Caishen, Wenxuqing, and many others.

Spirit Official Wang was the Supreme Protector God of Taoism and specialized in guarding the Taoist temples. Thus, the first hall of most temples was dedicated to him.

Xie Lingya whipped up a story about Spirit Official Wang granting his power to the master of Baoyang temple to help him vanquish demons and save the people. He sent the rough draft to the person at the Cultural Bureau, and they replied with a row of “thumbs-up” emojis, so they presumably understood the idea.

Baoyang Temple seemed tranquil and austere. However, this was relative—it wasn’t a hermitage hidden in the mountains, after all.

Behind Baoyang was a vegetable market that opened very early in the morning, and during the day, the pedestrian street on the left bustled with people. The evening wasn’t any quieter either because the elderly gathered in Dawn Square for square dancing.⁸Lit. ‘public square dance,’ is an exercise routine performed to music in squares, plazas or parks of Chinese cities. It is popular with middle-aged and retired women. Apparently, they get many complaints about noise pollution. There were different groups, and the music was loud enough to wake the dead.

Xie Lingya spent the day reading books in such an environment. The longer he read, the more surprising he thought it would be if believers frequented this kind of temple…

He hadn’t figured out how to earn money yet. Half his time was spent reading professional books related to his major, financial management, and the rest was transcribing the temple records and notes into a digital version. Incidentally, this helped improve his typing speed.

Baoyang Temple faced Dawn Square. Thanks to that, the cacophony of music the square dancers danced to was so loud inside Xie Lingya had to wear headphones to read. He read for a long time and fell asleep. He didn’t know how long he slept, but when he woke up, his throat was dry. When he took off his headphones, he heard the faint sound of knocking on the door.

He was still drowsy, so it took him a moment to remember there was a door in the corner of the backyard wall, which opened toward the vegetable market. The knocking sounded like it came from there.

Xie Lingya woke up his phone to check the time—it was 2:10 a.m. Who would knock on a temple’s door at this hour?

The knocking became more and more insistent and erratic. The buildings around were shops, and, apparently, only Xie Lingya was being disturbed. Since he was not among the faint of heart, he took his phone, put on slippers and went to check the door. On the way, he grabbed a rolling pin from the kitchen.

The night was starless, only moonlight quietly scattered over the surroundings. Not asking who was outside, Xie Lingya opened the door halfway with one hand and growled, “What do you want?”

He Zun practically laid against the door, his teeth chattering from the terror that washed over him in waves. He had been knocking for three minutes but to no avail, while the darkness behind him seemed to slowly gain substance…

He was about to give up all hope when suddenly, the door opened.

Creak.

Moonlight poured in through the gap, illuminating a beautiful face. The young man on the other side had a pale complexion, resembling the color of the moon, and a pair of limpid eyes. The plump lower eyelids would normally make him look endearing, but from He Zun’s slightly lower angle of view (as he was still clinging to the door), the man’s countenance appeared somewhat cold.

After a moment of shocked silence, He Zun became ecstatic at finally meeting a living human. “Please let me in, save me!”

Xie Lingya’s eyebrows inched upward.

He Zun tried to squeeze in through the door, but Xie Lingya held on tight. He blurted out, “Buddhists say that ‘saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-story pagoda’ so let me hide inside, Venerable!”

“Pagoda? Venerable? Can’t you tell this is a Taoist temple, buddy?”⁹Pagodas are most commonly seen in Buddhist temples and ‘Venerable’ is how you address Buddhist monks

He Zun: “…”

He really couldn’t tell… He simply saw a roof with fly-eaves appear in the darkness and thought it was a temple, that’s all. How would he know which was it?

Afraid the man would really shut him out—perhaps believing he was running from debt collectors—he hung on to the door and cried out, “Please, I beg you! There’s a ghost, please help me!”

A ghost? Xie Lingya paused in the middle of closing the door and, still holding the doorknob tight, he scrutinized the other party. As the man’s eyes filled with expectation, he slowly raised his left hand—

The index finger and the little finger were bent, the ring finger curled over the proximal joint of the middle finger, and his thumb touched its underside. The white, slender middle finger extended upwards, proudly pointing to the heavens.

He Zun: “…”

A shiver rippled over his skin, then he said indignantly, “What the heck is wrong with you? You don’t believe me—fine, you can leave me to die, but you don’t need to flip me off on top of that!”

Xie Lingya: “…?”

A gentleman prefers death to humiliation!

He Zun turned on his heel and walked away.

Behind him, Xie Lingya shouted, “Hey, wait, you’d better come in.”

He Zun took five steps, but as a matter of fact, he regretted his impetuousness by the third—the world outside was scary! He whipped around before Xie Lingya finished speaking, calling out, “Okay!”

Xie Lingya, who was about to explain himself: “…”

Xie Lingya poured a cup of hot water for the stranger and sized him up. The man looked young, about twenty years old. “What were you talking about just now?” He asked.

He Zun felt much better already, and drinking the hot water helped him regain composure. He slowly narrated the ordeal he went through that night.

He’s a second-year student at Niuyang University. That evening, he met with his friends for dinner and karaoke. He drank some alcohol and was feeling sleepy, so after everyone dispersed, he headed toward a nearby hotel.

He wanted to take a shortcut and passed through a narrow alley. Then, he found that even though he walked and walked, he still couldn’t reach his destination. What’s more, the surroundings became strangely quiet.

It was the middle of a commercial district which should be busy even in the middle of the night. And yet, not only there was no sound to be heard, but all the buildings were dark, and the street lights went out too. The sole source of light was dim, eerie moonlight, which only added to the creepiness of the situation.

All of a sudden, the world had no sound, no light, and there was no road to be taken… Terror awakened He Zun from his state of intoxication. Two words flashed through his mind: ghost walls.¹⁰Lit. “ghost pounding the wall”, also known as “ghosts building walls” – refers to the phenomenon of people walking around in circles when they’re in situations where there is not enough light or visual cues to help them navigate. The idea is that a person is obstructed by walls that some ghosts have thrown up in front of them, thus forcing that person to walk in circles (so they can’t leave)

Then, he realized that not only couldn’t he get out, but there was a vague sensation of someone watching him from the dark. It made his hair stand on end.

When He Zun was about to give in to despair, he happened to glance in the direction of Baoyang Temple. He noticed the faint glow of a room lamp inside, like the brightest star in the night sky.

What happened later, Xie Lingya already knew—He Zun rushed to frantically knock on the door. At the time, Xie Lingya was still asleep, wearing headphones, so he knocked for several minutes but didn’t get a response.

He Zun observed Xie Lingya as he talked. There didn’t seem to be any skepticism or ridicule in his expression, so after a pause, he said, “Um, actually, when you gave me the finger just now, I felt as if some kind of veil that had been wrapped around me suddenly disappeared and I returned to the real world. Was it because of your… middle finger?”

Xie Lingya: “…Yes, but not in the way you think.”

He Zun clapped his hands and bowed to Xie Lingya, babbling, “Thank you so much! I misunderstood you, your middle finger saved me! Did I encounter something strange? When I first saw you, I thought you were full of killing intent and sure enough, you scared these things off! Thank you, I learned a great deal!”

Temporarily speechless, Xie Lingya took him to the nearby Spirit Official Hall.

He Zun looked around and saw a statue of a god standing in the central position. The god was wearing golden armor and red robes, his hair and beard were red too. He appeared rather old but dignified and full of commanding presence, and there was a third eye on his forehead. He held a gold whip in one hand, while the other was raised in the same gesture as Xie Lingya displayed earlier—with the middle finger straight and pointing up.

He Zun gasped in shock. “…Are all Taoist gods so badass?”

Xie Lingya: “…………”

Resisting the impulse to roll his eyes, he explained, “This is our Venerable Patriarch, the Great Founder of Baoyang Temple: Heavenly Venerable Thunder Deity of Supreme Unity, Supreme Protector God of Taoism, Spirit Official Wang. His hand forms the Spirit Official’s Seal, also known as Jade Pivot Fire Finger, which can drive out evil spirits and suppress demons. This hand seal is passed down through generations so Baoyang disciples can ward off evil.”¹¹According to Taoist tradition, Wang is the head of the five hundred spirit officials and supposedly possesses the ability to suppress demons. His hair and beard are red, he wears golden armor and holds a gold whip. He has an eye on his forehead which can distinguish between good and evil and between true and false. (By the way, 灵 [líng] in Wang Lingguan and Xie Lingya is the same character.)

—Although it looks very similar, it’s really not flipping somebody off! This is exorcism, exorcism! It’s much more awesome than giving the finger, got it? This isn’t badass in ‘that’ way!

Baoyang Temple was dedicated to Spirit Official Wang, and this was basic knowledge for all his worshippers. The predecessors’ notes further elaborated on it.

Generally, hand seals were accompanied by incantation and pacing the corresponding pattern on the ground. The Spirit Official’s Seal was no exception. However, it had been gradually simplified by succeeding generations of disciples. What Xie Lingya did was but a knock-off of the real thing—a unique trick passed down from the ancestors.

This made He Zun even more awestruck. He said this middle finger was freaking awesome; Xie Lingya just pointed it at him, and he felt the chilly air enveloping his whole body being driven out.

While He Zun wouldn’t say he had been a confirmed atheist, he wasn’t in the habit of visiting temples, either Buddhist or Taoist. Today, however, made him change his beliefs somewhat. He said reverentially, “Then I’d like to burn the incense for the great founder as my thanks!”

After He Zun finished burning the incense, he badgered Xie Lingya, “Say, was my body affected by this? Will there be any sequelae? What on earth did I bump into, is there something I should pay attention to now? It must’ve been the legendary ‘ghost walls,’ right?”

Xie Lingya replied, “I have no idea.”

He Zun: “???”

Inside, he already considered Xie Lingya, who saved him in a critical moment, a high-level expert. This sentence caused him to stiffen, with a somewhat funny expression on his face.

Xie Lingya said innocently, “I really don’t know. I’m not a Taoist priest, I just live here.”

Not all Taoist priests kept their hair long, but he really wasn’t a priest, and sorry, he couldn’t pretend to be one.

His theoretical knowledge wasn’t systematic but a jumble of things he had randomly learned. Though his practical skills were quite good, he wasn’t able to determine whether the thing He Zun encountered was the ‘ghost walls.’

The expression in He Zun’s eyes changed rapidly. He looked at Xie Lingya and exclaimed in awe, “I see, you’re the sweeper monk…”¹²Allusion to the Sweeper Monk from Demi Gods and Semi Devils (Jin Yong’s novel). He’s the cleaning guy for the library in Shaolin Temple, most of the higher-up monks in Shaolin didn’t even know about him, and he ends up being the strongest character in the entire Jin Yong universe

“…” Xie Lingya looked at him with eyes filled with pity for the mentally retarded.

Translator’s Notes:

1. “Less than one mu” – 1 mu = 666.7 m2 or 797.3 sq yd. The front wall is 15 m wide so the temple grounds should be a rectangle with dimensions ~15 x 45 m, or ~16 x 50 yd.
2. The Three Purities [三清; Sānqīng] – the three highest Gods in the Taoist pantheon, regarded as pure manifestation of the Tao and the origin of all sentient beings. They can be considered symbolic representations of the Three Treasures: Jing (creative energy), Qi (vital energy) and Shen (spiritual energy). (Source)
3. The Jade Emperor [玉皇, Yù Huáng] – one of the most important and popular figures in Chinese mythology and an especially important Daoist deity. He is considered to be the supreme ruler of Heaven and the first of all Chinese emperors. (Source)
4. Spirit Official Hall [灵官殿, Língguān Diàn] – dedicated to Spirit Official Wang (see note no. 10). (Source)
5. Wenchang [文昌] – a Taoist deity, known as the God of Culture and Literature. (Source)
6. Siheyuan – refers to a courtyard surrounded by buildings on all four sides. (Source)
7. Ming dynasty – 1368–1644; Qing dynasty – 1644-1912
8. Square dancing – lit. ‘public square dance,’ is an exercise routine performed to music in squares, plazas or parks of Chinese cities. It is popular with middle-aged and retired women. Apparently, they get many complaints about noise pollution. (Source)
9. “Pagoda? Venerable? Can’t you see this is a Taoist temple, buddy?” – pagodas are most commonly seen in Buddhist temples and ‘Venerable’ is how you address Buddhist monks.
10. Ghost walls [鬼打墙, lit. “ghost pounding the wall”, also known as 鬼砌墙, “ghosts building walls”] – refers to the phenomenon of people walking around in circles when they’re in situations where there is not enough light or visual cues to help them navigate. The idea is that a person is obstructed by walls that some ghosts have thrown up in front of them, thus forcing that person to walk in circles (so they can’t leave). (Source)
11. Spirit Official Wang [王灵官, Wáng Língguān, also known as 王天君, Wàng Tiānjūn, or 王善, Wáng Shàn] – the Supreme Protector God of Taoism. According to Taoist tradition, Wang is the head of the five hundred spirit officials and supposedly possesses the ability to suppress demons. His hair and beard are red, he wears golden armor and holds a gold whip. He has an eye on his forehead which can distinguish between good and evil and between true and false. (By the way, 灵 [líng] in Wang Lingguan and Xie Lingya is the same character.) (Source)
12. “You’re the sweeper monk” – allusion to the Sweeper Monk from Demi Gods and Semi Devils (Jin Yong’s novel). He’s the cleaning guy for the library in Shaolin Temple, most of the higher-up monks in Shaolin didn’t even know about him, and he ends up being the strongest character in the entire Jin Yong universe. (Source)

Translator: Eques
Editor: Bet

Eques:

Sihyehuans (these are residences; as a temple, Baoyang’s layout would be a bit different):

The Eight-Trigrams-shaped well might’ve looked like one of these:

Below is the picture of Leong San See Temple in Singapore. It’s way, WAY more ornate than Baoyang Temple, but its interior set-up pretty much the same (though the deities are different):

And here we have Spirit Official Wang (the bronze one is probably the closest):

I’m going to add as few notes as possible – you can google most of the stuff anyway (like the deities).

Xie Lingya inherited a temple whose main god exorcises ghosts by flipping them off (not). Come on, I had to pick this novel up. 😆