1. After Lu Da killed the Weizhou thug Zhen Guanxi with his bare hands, the authorities pasted "Wanted" notices for him throughout the district. Lu fled to Mount Wutai, where he shaved his head, became a monk and changed his name to Lu Zhishen.
2. Five months later, chafing under the constraints of life in a monastery, "Lu Zhishen" slipped away and headed down to the nearest town.
3. Lu gorged himself on meat and liquor. It was nearly dawn before he staggered back to Mount Wutai.
4. Halfway up the mountain Lu thought he saw a huge figure blocking his path. "Make way you scurvy knave!" he bellowed, and swung a mighty punch-bringing down one of the uprights of what was just a trailside pavilion.
5. The monk on duty at the monastery alerted the abbot to Lu's return, and the abbot ordered the gates firmly locked.
6. In a drunken frenzy, Lu seized a wooden club and smashed the two guardian deities on either side of the entrance. "If you don't open up," he yelled, "I'll burn this lousy place to the ground!"
7. The monk had no choice but to open the gates. As Lu sauntered in he produced a bottle of liquor and a hunk of meat from inside his robe, and said: "How come monks don't get to drink, or eat meat?" Then he caught hold of a young monk and crammed meat and liquor into the boy's mouth.
8. When Lu sobered up the next day the abbot gave him a stern talking-to, then wrote a recommendation letter and sent him off to tend the vegetable garden at Daxiangguo Monastery near the Eastern Capital.
@List.jpg?w=522&h=410&mode=crop&format=webp&quality=80)
