ADVENTURES OF THE MAD MONK JI GONG:

Ji Gong is a Chinese folk hero from the 12th century whose adventures have captivated readers down the centuries. Thrown out of his monastery for his drunkenness and sociability, he eventually became a minor Buddhist deity, renowned for his kindness and dedication to righting injustice in society, rather like our own Robin Hood. His stories were passed down as performance art, and around 1900 Guo Xiaoting began to write them down. The world of Ji Gong became the milieu of rogues and vagabonds in Beijing and Shanghai, invoking an elemental and anarchic sense of life in opposition to the authorities. There are far more opium dens in Beijing than restaurants or brothels, and the Qing dynasty is on the verge of collapse. Ji Gong's code is basic decency, and he enforces it strictly. Abuse of office, sexual violence and the serious crime of snobbery never go unpunished. Ji Gong's warriors, consisting of martial-arts performers and bandits, are the moral police of Beijing. In the story "The Robber Rat creeps into the nunnery" Ji Gong's adversary is the evil Cloud Dragon, whose wickedness drives him to pursue a young girl who entered a nunnery after the death of her betrothed. Shao Shi would rather die than lose her chastity so Cloud Dragon kills her, then with his brother Wang Tong breaks into the prime minister's residence and steals some pendants and a coronet, writing a message of defiance on the wall. But Ji Gong is not far behind - This is the first full English translation. 542pp, paperback.