Zhou Dian's Fairy Tales

An unknown legend is recorded in Biography of Ji Fang in Ming Dynasty. This man is Zhou Dian, a yogi. He is both a "canon", a monk and a Taoist, and was recognized as a "fairy family" by the emperor. He always tells the truth every time, and always gives Zhu Yuanzhang great help at critical moments, so that he has been emperor for 26 years.

There are records of ancient Chinese in the History of Ming Dynasty, the Summary of Siku Quanshu and Zhu Yuanzhang's Biography of Zhou Dian. I'll sort it out a little bit and describe it as follows:

Zhou Dian was born in Jianchang and descended from Zhou Dunyi. At the age of fourteen, he got a strange disease of madness and begged in Nanchang market. Everyone called him Zhou Dian. When he grows up, he looks strange. He went to the local government several times to say "peace".

At that time, no one in the world rebelled, and no one knew what he meant. Later, Nanchang was occupied by Chen Youliang, and Zhou Dian avoided Chen Youliang's army. After Zhu Yuanzhang captured Nanchang, Zhou Dian visited Zhu Yuanzhang on the road. Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Jinling (Nanjing) by boat, and Zhou Dian later went to Nanjing. One day, when Zhu Yuanzhang was traveling, Zhou Dian met him again on the road. When Zhu Yuanzhang asked him what he wanted to do, Zhou Dian said, "Tell Taiping". From then on, Zhu Yuanzhang was often greeted by this sentence on the road. Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he had a big vat covered with wood and set it on fire. Estimated that he is ripe, only to find that Zhou Dian nothing, just a little hot sweat on his head. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that he was not an ordinary person and asked someone to take him to live in a temple on Jiangshan Mountain. A few days later, the monk reported that Zhou Dian had been on a hunger strike for half a month because he was competing with the young monk for food. So Zhu Yuanzhang went to see him and found that Zhou Dian was full of energy, and it seemed that he had not eaten for half a month. So Zhu Yuanzhang arranged a banquet for him to eat. After eating, he was locked in an empty room and was not given food for a month. When he went to see it a month later, he found that he was still the same as before.

Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to attack Chen Youliang's army and asked Zhou Dian, "Will this invasion go smoothly?" Zhou Dian replied after divination: "Smooth." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Chen Youliang has proclaimed himself emperor. It must be difficult to attack him, right? " Zhou Dian looked up for a moment and said seriously, "God didn't arrange for him to be emperor."

Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to follow and took a boat to Anqing. Without the wind, the ship can't go forward. Zhu Yuanzhang asked someone to ask Zhou Dian, and Zhou Dian said, "The ship ran away and the wind ran away." So Zhu Yuanzhang asked someone to pull the optical fiber, and the ship soon sailed forward. Suddenly a strong wind blew, and all the warships of the army were sent directly to the small solitary area. Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid that Zhou Dian's nonsense would lead to cholera morale, so he was locked up and kept under strict supervision. When the fleet arrived in Madang and saw dolphins swimming in the river, Zhou Dian said with emotion, "Many people will die when they see monsters." The guards quickly reported to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and threw Zhou Dian into the river. When the troops marched to the mouth of the lake, Zhou Dian suddenly appeared, saw Zhu Yuanzhang and asked for food. So Zhu Yuanzhang gave him food. After eating, Zhou Dian got up and tidied up his personal belongings, as if he were going to other places, and then left. After Chen Youliang was destroyed, Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to Lushan Mountain to look for Zhou Dian, but he never found him. Everyone suspects that Zhou Dian has become an immortal. In the 26th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang personally wrote Biography of Zhou Dian and Poems of Barefoot Monks, which recorded the story about Zhou Dian. Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered Zhan Xiyu, a calligrapher and China calligrapher, to write down these poems, so that craftsmen could carve them on stone tablets and erect them on Lushan Mountain, and the inscriptions are still there today.

According to records, Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite "Zhou Dian Fairy" not only has the ability to predict, but also has some "spells" that convince Zhu Yuanzhang, and has also offered Dan medicine.

Zhu Yuanzhang's Biography of Immortals in Zhou Dian praised his achievements, and another poem in memory of him, Poems of Barefoot Monks, praised this "immortal" greatly: God pitied Qian's head to prolong his life, and Dan Bait was ill for a long time.

After Zhu Yuanzhang sat in the world for 26 years, there is no need to use his inference about Chen Youliang to play tricks, because Zhu's frankness can't beat these ghosts. The only reason is Zhu Yuanzhang's obsession and admiration for him. It seems that "Zhou Dian Fairy" is neither a fairy nor a scholar, but a cynical Taoist who plays the fool. There were many people who sang wildly in feudal times, and only he tried his best in troubled times.