1. Once, Li Shutong and Xia Zun were drinking tea in the pavilion in the center of the West Lake and watching the scenery - they saw the water and sky were the same color, and the birds were flying back and forth.
Enter concentration.
2. Li Shutong left his wife and son on August 19, 1918, and quietly escaped into Buddhism, with the Buddhist name "Hongyi". Before becoming a monk, I gave half a house of Western oil paintings and art books to the Beijing Art School; I gave my seals to the Hangzhou Xiling Seal Society; I sent all the calligraphy and paintings I had collected in my life to frames and sent them to Xia Beizun; I gave the music and calligraphy works collected over the past few decades to It was given to his student Liu Zhiping; Feng Zikai was a close friend of him, so Li Shutong sent it with scattered things; but for himself, he only kept three rags, two bags of Buddhist scriptures, a staff, a bowl and shoes.
3. After becoming a monk, Li Shutong’s wife Yu and their two sons were settled by relatives and friends, while his Japanese wife Fuji was not easy to deal with.
The infatuated girl Fu Ji traveled across the ocean, accompanied by Mrs. Yang Baimin and Mrs. Huang Yanpei. After three days of searching in Hangzhou, she finally found Li Shutong by the West Lake, and then found Li Shutong in a vegetarian restaurant in front of the Yue Temple*** meal.
During the dinner, three people asked questions, and Li Shutong answered them. At the end of the meal, he lowered his eyebrows and lowered his eyes, neither speaking nor looking at anyone.
After the meal, Uncle Li hired a boat to leave. The three of them went to the shore to see them off, but the boat swung toward the center of the lake with each oar, until it was submerged in the depths of the mist.
From the beginning to the end, Li Shutong never looked back. Mrs. Yang and Mrs. Huang were dejected, and Fuji even returned home crying.
(Another version: Hongyi’s Japanese wife came from Nanjing with her baby and cried outside the Hupao Temple in Hangzhou for three days and three nights. Hongyi walked from his house to the temple door, back and forth for dozens of times. I would rather cry alone inside, and be so cruel that I will be separated from the world of mortals from now on)
4. After Li Shutong became a monk, he tried his best to avoid falling into the quagmire of fame and fortune, so he never took it easy. Accept worship and offerings from good men and women.
Every time he went to a place to promote the Dharma, he would first make three promises: firstly, he would not be a teacher to others, secondly, he would not hold a welcome party, and thirdly, he would not brag in newspapers.
He declined secular connections and rarely interacted with secular people, especially those in the officialdom.
At that time, when Master Hongyi was meditating in Qingfu Temple in Wenzhou, Wenzhou Taoist Zhang Zongxiang came to visit him. Being able to make friends with Dao Yin is something most people can only dream of, but Master Hongyi refuses to meet him.
Unfortunately, Zhang Zongxiang admired the master’s name so much that he had to meet him. Master Hongyi’s master, Master Jishan, had no choice but to take Zhang Zongxiang’s business card to intercede on his behalf. When Hongyi heard this, he begged the master and even shed tears: “Master is merciful! Master, Master is merciful!” Mercy! My disciples are not seeking food and clothing, they are just for the sake of life and death. How about my friends who have abandoned me?"
Zhang Zongxiang had no choice but to leave in dismay.
5. He faced the meal on the plate with such an expression of cherishment and satisfaction: it was just the most ordinary radish and cabbage. He carefully picked it up with chopsticks and put it in his mouth, as if he was enjoying the delicacies of the mountains and seas. . Just as his good friend and modern scholar Mr. Xia Beizun said: "Everything is good for him, old towels are good, straw sandals are good, walking is good, radishes are good, cabbage is good, straw mats are good..."
< p> Attachment: There was an abbot of a temple who once made a strange rule: every year at the end of the year, the monks in the temple had to say two words to the abbot.At the end of the first year, the abbot asked the new monk what he wanted most in his heart. The new monk said: "The bed is hard."
At the end of the second year, the abbot asked the new monk what he wanted most in his heart. What he wanted to say, the new monk said: "The food is bad."
At the end of the third year, the new monk didn't wait for the abbot to ask questions, so he said: "Farewell."
The abbot looked at the new monk. The monk's back is muttering to himself: "If there is a demon in one's heart, it is difficult to achieve positive results."
If there is a demon in one's heart, it is difficult to achieve positive results. "Demon" is the never-ending complaint in the new monk's heart.
6. Once, Master Hongyi visited the home of his son Feng Zikai, and Feng Zikai invited him to sit on a wicker chair.
Before he sat down, he gently rocked the wicker chair. After a while, he slowly sat down.
Feng Zikai felt strange at first, but he didn't dare to ask. Later, he saw that he was like this every time, so he couldn't help but ask him why he was so cautious.
After listening to the disciple’s question, Master Hongyi responded gently and naturally: “There may be small insects lurking in this chair between the two vines. If you sit down suddenly, you may crush them. Death, so before I sit down, I shake it first to let them move away, and then I sit down slowly like this, and there will be no problem."
7. Mr. Xia Beizun said that Master Hongyi is a good person. One of the characteristics of a young man is "doing the same thing and being like the same person", and Yu Pingbo described it more vividly and completely: "When I was a young man, I was like a handsome son; when I was a celebrity in middle age, I was like a romantic celebrity; when I was acting in a drama, I was like a handsome man. Actor; learn oil painting, like an artist; learn piano, like a musician; run a newspaper, like an editor; be a teacher, like a teacher; become a monk, like a monk.
How can Master Hongyi be able to do this? Doing the same thing? It’s because he does everything seriously, seriously, and with devotion.” 8. Master Hongyi’s becoming a monk may seem like an accidental event on the surface. Behind this so-called accident, there are various inevitable reasons that led him to choose to become a monk.
Master Hongyi once described his fateful encounter with the Buddha in more detail in his article "My Experience of Becoming a Monk in West Lake":
I used to be a monk since I was five years old. I often meet with monks and monks, and I often see monks come to my home to chant sutras and perform repentance. When he was twelve or thirteen years old, he also learned how to make flames. But I didn’t live with a virtuous monk. At the same time, I didn’t know what was going on in the temple and what the life of a monk was like.
Later, when I was nearly middle-aged and working as a teacher in a school in Hangzhou, there was a time when a famous person came to give a speech in the school. However, the layman Xia Beizun and I went out to escape and went to the Huxin Pavilion. Go up and have tea!
At that time, Master Xia Beggar said to me: "It would be good for people like us to become monks." When I heard this sentence, I found it very interesting. This can be said to be a remote reason why I later became a monk.
Later, I often went to the temple to stay for a while, chatting with the monks in the temple and discussing Buddhist scriptures together. At that time, I had already put on the clothes of a monk and was planning to get tonsured in the next year.
At the beginning of July, the layman Xia Beggar came. When he saw that I was wearing the clothes of a monk but had not yet become a monk, he said to me: "It is meaningless to live in a temple and wear the clothes of a monk without becoming a monk. So I'd better get tonsured as soon as possible." ! ”
I originally wanted to become a monk again next year, but following his advice, I quickly became a monk. The thirteenth day of the seventh month is said to be the Christmas Day of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, so he became ordained on that day.
9. Master Hongyi once commented on his own temperament: My temperament is very special. I only hope that my things will fail, because things fail and are incomplete, which makes me often feel very ashamed! If I can understand that my own moral character is lacking and my cultivation is insufficient, then I can study hard and try to make amends!
10. Mr. Feng Zikai once said in memory of Master Hong Yi:
"Master Hong Yi changed from a handsome young man to an overseas student, and then to a teacher. A Taoist becomes a monk after four transformations. He is like an all-around actor: he looks like a green yi, he looks like an old man, he looks like a big face... all of them. Because of seriousness.
"Now Master Hongyi has passed away in Quanzhou, Fujian. When the bad news reached Zunyi, Guizhou, I was getting ready to move to Chongqing. I vowed to paint a hundred portraits of the Master after arriving in Chongqing, distribute them to believers in various places, and carve stones to make offerings. Now the portrait is as it should be. The mortal relationship between Mr. Li and me as a junior disciple in this world has ended, but his legacy—seriousness—will always be engraved in my heart. ”
11. On October 10, 1942, three days before returning to the West, Master Hongyi wrote the four words “Sorrow and Joy” in his handwriting.
This is the master’s last work in the world.
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