Ancient Cultivation Story: The Story of Taoist Zhi-Wei Hung

In Sung Dynasty, there was a Taoist by the name of Zhi-Wei Hung, who was a Taoist priest of Xing Guo Palace in Tai Ping near Mt. Lu. Though he was big and tall, his temperament was gentle and quiet. One day, a Tao cultivator imparted some special skills of cultivation to him. Since then Priest Hung appeared to become another person, acting like a lunatic who sang aloud after drinking excessively everyday. He often did inexplicable things. For instance, he would shout loudly at the bridge in front of the Palace, and madly stripped off all his clothes no matter whether it was in freezing cold winter or boiling hot summer. When someone donated anything to him, he would give it away to others immediately. Priest Hung sometimes lived in the mountains, and sometimes roamed in busy marketplace with two cloth pouches. The pouches were exceptionally stinky with unbearable mixed odors because he always stored whatever he got in them, but he himself regarded it as ” fragrant bag.”

Once there was a blizzard, and everywhere was covered with thick snow except Priest Hung’s house. He often referred to the crevices on the walls of his house as the routes of his trip to Szechwan. He studied few books, but he was eloquent and able to quote a lot of classics when talking. No one had noticed him write articles, but whatever he wrote would be a great work with exquisite viewpoints. Everybody was amazed by his story. As a result, many ranking officials and noble lords wanted to associate with him. Though Priest Hung was as crazy and intoxicated as before when was in his 90’s, still he looked like a young man with tender skin as smooth as jade.

Whatever good luck or misfortune mentioned by Priest Hung would come true. In the last years under Emperor Xuan-Ho’s governing, he was summoned to the palace after the Emperor learned of his stories. He was forced to enter the palace by local officials, so he had no way to reject it. When arriving at the Jiu River, he said: “The emperor is going to be replaced. Why should I go there?” Exactly, a new emperor succeeded before long, and the Priest was released from jail right away. One day, when sweeping the falling leaves in front of the Emperor’s palace, the Priest thoughtlessly sang that: “Something may happen next year! Something may happen next year!” On the same date in the following year, some bandits broke into the palace and set fire on it after they ransacked it. Afterward, the other Taoists of the palace buried Priest Hung somewhere nearby after he died in the palace.

A few years later, someone came back from Szechwan with a letter from Priest Hung, and said that he bumped into Priest Hung on a street in Cheng-du. All the people didn’t believe it, so they opened the letter and read it together. In the letter, they found the roster of the Taoists in Xing Guo Palace starting the time it was robbed. All the people were shocked. When digging out Priest Hung’s coffin right away, it turned out that nothing but the clothes he wore before his burial was inside the coffin.