In the Eastern Jin Dynasty more than 1,600 years ago, there was a monk Huili in Jiankang, the capital of the country, who went around begging for money under the guise of the emperor. On this day, under the pretense of building an earthen pot temple inside the Zhonghua Gate and wanting to make some money to spend, he planned a fund-raising event.
On this day, Monk Huili specially invited the four famous families of Wang, Xie, Yu, Huan and some other dignitaries. In order to show his elegance, he also invited the painter Gu Kaizhi to accompany him. During the dinner* **There are twenty or thirty people.
Monk Huili was a snob. In his eyes, he only saw the powerful bureaucrats, bowing their heads to them. He just poured a cup of tea and ignored poor painters like Gu Kaizhi, who had no money or power. Gu Kaizhi saw it and sneered, lowered his head and just drank tea, ignoring it.
After everyone sat down, Huili spoke. After praising the current emperor, he also praised the four major families. After speaking, he held out a big book and asked everyone to give as he pleased.
In Jiankang at that time, the Yu family was a large clan with a lot of money. The representative of the Yu family did not give in. He took a notebook and wrote "Donate 100,000 yuan." When Huili saw it, he opened such a grand plate with just one stroke of his pen. He beamed with joy and bowed hurriedly. Then he went to the gallery and asked others to pledge donations. Seeing that the surname Yu had already been written, how could the three major families of Wang, Xie and Huan be left behind? They all took up their pens and wrote "donate one hundred thousand yuan". Then the book was handed to Gu Kaizhi. Gu Kaizhi didn't even look at it. He just said lightly: "Everyone, please come first." After saying that, he raised the cup and drank his tea as usual.
Monk Huili had always looked at Gu Kaizhi as a poor and stingy person, so when he saw that he was ignoring him, he was not angry at all. He twisted his face and passed the alms book from person to person. The other officials and gentry present had no choice. Some donated ten thousand, some donated five thousand, and some donated eight hundred. At the end, Huili walked back to Gu Kaizhi, handed the book away with both hands, and deliberately provoked him: "Please give me charity, General Gu."
This appeared to be respectful to Gu Kaizhi, but in fact, he wanted to embarrass Gu Kaizhi. Face, make him look embarrassed in public. When Gu Kaizhi saw that the alms book was brought over again, he nodded and smiled, put down the tea cup, took the book carelessly, drew a few times, closed the book after drawing, and returned it to Huili. Monk Huili thought to himself: This poor man must have donated too little. He was embarrassed, so he closed the book. He sincerely wanted to make Gu Kaizhi look embarrassed, so he rolled his eyes and came up with another bad idea. He pretended to open the alms book and claimed that he wanted to read out everyone's donations. When he read about Gu Kai, Huili's expression changed and he suddenly stuttered: "One..." He was stunned, and everyone in the room pricked up their ears to hear how much they had donated. Huili stuttered for a long time, and finally reported the number: "One million!"
"Ah!" The words shocked everyone, and the four major families were all so shocked that their eyes squinted. Gu Kaizhi looked at the chaos in the hall, Huili and the four major families were so surprised that they looked like bears. He felt angry and funny in his heart, so he stood up, flicked his sleeves and left.
Gu Kaizhi never believed in Buddhism, so why did he donate so much money? Is he richer than the four major families? It turns out that Gu Kaizhi loved painting, and painting was his lifeblood. When he started painting, people became obsessed with it, so he was known as a "painting madman". Today, when he saw those snobs competing with each other, he felt disgusted, so he became so crazy that he simply made fun of these people and wrote "one million", which made everyone laugh. Huh. In fact, all Gu Kaizhi's furniture is not worth even one million!
Not long after, the Crock Temple will be completed. On this day, Monk Huili sent someone to Gu Kai's house to ask for money. Gu Kaizhi had forgotten about this a long time ago. After hearing this, he couldn't help but be startled. Then he frowned and said, "The money is easy to come by. I'll pay it on the day your Earthen Pot Temple is completed." He looked after the visitor and told Monk Huili to leave some money when he went back. Make a bathroom and whitewash the walls.
Early the next morning, Gu Kaizhi asked the boy to prepare brushes and paints, and followed him to the Crock Temple. Entering the reception hall, he avoided the monks, closed the door and began to paint on the wall. When it's time to eat, just ask the monk Zhike to bring some vegetarian food; when it's time to rest, just undress on the ground and rest for the night. I did this every day for more than a month.
The day before the consecration of Wagon Temple, Gu Kaizhi called Monk Huili to the side hall and ordered: "I have painted a statue of the Golden Millet Tathagata for you, and the eyes will be lit soon. From tomorrow on, you will When the door of this palace is opened, those who come to see the painting on the first day are each asked to donate one hundred thousand yuan; those who come to see the painting on the second day are asked to donate fifty thousand yuan; after the third day, everyone is asked to give alms voluntarily. The one million yuan I donated will be paid off within these three days."
The monk Huili looked at the Buddha statue carefully and saw nothing surprising, but he didn't say much, just verbally. Shang repeatedly agreed, but his heart was full of doubts. After Gu Kaizhi added the finishing touches, he closed the palace door and went home.
The next day, the monk in the temple opened the door of the temple and suddenly saw the golden light shining in the hall. The monks couldn't help but squeeze in and take a look. The golden millet Buddha on the wall was smiling, his eyes seemed to be able to talk, and he lifted his feet as if to walk out of the wall. His whole body was shining and shining, making the entire toilet shine brightly. As a result, rumors such as "The Tathagata appeared" and "The Living Buddha appeared" immediately spread throughout the capital. On this day, the crowd was packed with people vying to see the Golden Buddha. Sure enough, in less than three days, the Crock Temple received several million dollars in donations. In fact, there is no such thing as "the appearance of a living Buddha". It's just that Gu Kaizhi's painting skills are so superb that they look fake and real.
From then on, Gu Kaizhi's reputation was at its peak.