A Monk Who Returns to Lay Life

Name: A Monk Who Returns to Lay Life
Author: Xinghan Peak in Purple Mountain

还俗僧

by Xinghan Peak in Purple Mountain (紫金山的邢汉峰)

Status: Completed
Source: Fanqie

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39Chapters

Synopsis

His name is Zhang Xiaomo. An orphan from a farm in the Central Plains, he was fifteen years old when his parents died. The monastery on the mountain took him in. He was ordained, wore a monk's robe, and took the title of "Sage". From then on, the ancient Buddha with green lanterns and bells in the morning and drums in the evening. This was supposed to be his destination for the rest of his life - until late one night, the sound of the train whistle at the foot of the mountain penetrated his ears, and his heart could no longer be at peace. At the age of eighteen, he returned to secular life and joined the army. His comrades called him "Monk Soldier", and the girl he was dating turned around and left as soon as she heard about his past. He thought he would be like this for the rest of his life - a person whose mark could never be washed away. Until I met Xiufen. The girl said, "What happened to the monk? You are not a monk now." With this sentence, he was rescued from the abyss of inferiority. Get married, have children, a son and a daughter. After twenty years of fireworks, he finally became a normal person. Then Xiufen was diagnosed with breast cancer. Late stage. He knelt in the corridor of the ward, and for the first time he didn't know where to put his hands - neither clasping hands nor saluting. He wanted to hold something, but couldn't hold anything. The wife is gone. The child is older. He became a human again. One morning, he passed by the temple and heard the bell ringing. I stood there for a long time without going in. Turn around and walk towards the crowd in the market. This time, he completely returned to secular life. This is a person's half-life fate: a fate with Buddhism, a fate with a woman, and a fate with this human world. He is also a person who has been repeatedly beaten by fate. How to put his soul at ease?

Reader comments

The novel explores a core proposition through Zhang Xiaomo's rough life from orphan to monk, from soldier to husband, and then to the loss of his wife in middle age: Can people truly get rid of the identity imprint given by fate? Returning from the mortal world is not only the protagonist's behavior of leaving the temple, but also a spiritual metaphor - he returns from Buddhism to the secular world, from loneliness to the fireworks of the world, and finally returns to the true state of life after losing everything. The novel attempts to answer: When a person is repeatedly beaten by fate, how can he rest his soul? This novel tells the story of a "person with no place to come" looking for a place to return. He searched slowly, clumsily, and was covered in scars. But he found it. It's not like finding a house, a piece of land, or an identity. But I found someone. That person doesn't think he's boring, doesn't think he can't speak, and doesn't think he smells bad. That person cooked porridge when he was sick, sewed cotton-padded jackets when he was injured, and stayed with him in silence when he was silent. That's enough. @ The story tells the story of a monk who returned to secular life for thirty years in the human world, savor it carefully!
8 likes5mo ago

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