196
NOTES AND QUERIES
undying admiration of all around for his filial piety. In one version Guo was told by the feng shui expert to mix his father's ashes into a mulch and pour it into a crack which would appear in the dry earth in the plot. If the rich man should ask him what he was doing, he had to be told that Guo was taking washing water to the feng shui specialist. Exactly as foretold, a crack in the ground appeared and straightaway Guo poured the mulch into it.
The feng shui specialist, after warning Guo that his life would be comparatively short, then instructed Guo and his mother to keep walking out of the district until they saw a man with a brass head, a cow standing on a man and a fish living on top of a tree. At that spot he would eventually die, said the feng shui expert. As they walked, a rainstorm flooded their path and they were confronted by a priest with a bronze incense burner on his head to protect him from the rain, a cowherd crouching under one of his cows for the same reason and a fisherman who in his excitement had landed a fish over his head whereupon it was caught, alive still, in a tree. Guo realized that this was the place where he would die and where he must build his temple as advised by the feng shui specialist.
Guo and his mother built a home. She worked for a family nearby whilst Guo went daily to collect firewood. In one version it was claimed that as he was still but a boy, amongst the games he played with the other boys was one in which one of their number acted as Emperor and ordered the others about. They took turns daily to be Emperor, and the Emperor of the day stood or sat on a stump and ordered the others to collect his firewood. On one occasion whilst Guo was "Emperor" he felt himself stiffen and realized he was about to be taken off to Heaven. The boy playing before him at that moment fell over in a trance and Guo called out for the others to fetch his mother quickly. Tardily she appeared, not having realized what was happening and having finished watering the cows. By the time she arrived Guo too had fallen into a trance but was still seated cross-legged on the tree stump. His bewildered and excited mother pulled down his left leg to wake him up but she was just too late, his spirit was leaving his body. Her last words to him were, "If you really are a saint then you must look far away as saints are always ignored by their own people". Thus it is that he is always depicted with his left
196
NOTES AND QUERIES
undying admiration of all around for his filial piety. In one ver- sion Guo was told by the feng shui expert to mix his father's ashes into a mulch and pour it into a crack which would appear in the dry earth in the plot. If the rich man should ask him what he was doing, he had to be told that Guo was taking washing water to the feng shui specialist. Exactly as foretold, a crack in the ground appeared and straightaway Guo poured the mulch into it.
The feng shui specialist, after warning Guo that his life would be comparatively short, then instructed Guo and his mother to keep walking out of the district until they saw a man with a brass head, a cow standing on a man and a fish living on top of a tree. At that spot he would eventually die, said the feng shui expert. As they walked, a rain storm flooded their path and they were confronted by a priest with a bronze incense burner on his head to protect him from the rain, a cowherd crouching under one of his cows for the same reason and a fisherman who in his excite- ment had landed a fish over his head whereupon it was caught, alive still, in the tree. Guo realized that this was the place where he would die and where he must build his temple as advised by the feng shui specialist.
Guo and his mother built a home. She worked for a family nearby whilst Guo went daily to collect firewood. In one version it was claimed that as he was still but a boy, amongst the games he played with the other boys was one in which one of their number acted as Emperor and ordered the others about. They took turns daily to be Emperor, and the Emperor of the day stood or sat on a stump and ordered the others to collect his firewood. On one occasion whilst Guo was "Emperor" he felt himself stiffen and realized he was about to be taken off to Heaven. The boy playing before him at that moment fell over in a trance and Guo called out for the others to fetch his mother quickly. Tardily she appeared, not having realized what was happening and having finished watering the cows. By the time she arrived Guo too had fallen into a trance but was still seated cross-legged on the tree stump. His bewildered and excited mother pulled down his left leg to wake him up but she was just too late, his spirit was leaving his body. Her last words to him were, "If you really are a saint then you must look far away as saints are always ignored by their own people". Thus it is that he is always depicted with his left
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