Before a miracle comes a familiar figure: a loose hat, a worn fan, a robe that has seen better days. Hangzhou’s tales call him Jigong. Behind the character is Daoji, a Southern Song monk from Tiantai whose life became closely associated with Lingyin and Jingci temples.
Folk tales
The monk with the worn fan
A patched robe, an easy laugh, and a habit of noticing the person everyone else has passed by.
In the same city · Hangzhou ↗An unlikely arrival
The person at the edge
In the stories, dignity seldom arrives in fine clothes. Jigong wanders through streets and temple courtyards, upsetting the comfortable and helping people in trouble. His jokes turn a situation sideways. Someone dismissed as foolish suddenly sees clearly; someone certain of his importance loses the last word.
One fan, many doors
A flying hill and a timber-bearing well belong to separate adventures. The same shabby figure walks through each, carrying the promise that kindness may arrive in an unexpected form. At Lingyin, his image and the paintings in his hall give these wandering stories a place to pause.
