Ascetic

"Ascetic" is a novel that spans a hundred years of vicissitudes. The story begins in 2026, when Master Benzhen, a disciple of Zhang Wujie, participated in a pilgrimage for peace in the United States, walking 2,300 miles. The story goes back to 1890. Zhang Wujie was born into a declining scholarly family in Suzhou. He was stubborn when he was young. After the abolition of the imperial examination, he traveled east to Japan, but accidentally joined a gang and participated in political assassinations in the name of "revolution", with blood on his hands. From Tao Chengzhang to Song Jiaoren, he fell from a passionate young man to a shady killer. The artillery fire of the Revolution of 1911 failed to illuminate his life, but Yuan Shikai's wanted order put him on the road to escape. When he was desperate, he was enlightened by an old monk in the mountains of Fujian and was ordained as a monk with the Buddhist title Yongtong. In the years that followed, he rescued refugees in wars, buried corpses in ruins, and searched for salvation in Buddhist scriptures. He has witnessed Rao Jiaju's compassion, followed Rabe's righteous deeds, and also experienced the heartbreaking pain of losing his loved one. In a hundred years of life, he has killed people, saved people, loved people, and failed people. He spent the second half of his life scrubbing away the blood stains from the first half of his life until the last moment of his life. This is a story about crime and punishment, confusion and enlightenment. It asks: How long does it take for a person to be cleansed of his sins? How long does it take to wipe a lamp covered in ash before it lights up again? The answer may be: a lifetime. But someone has to wipe it out.