Drawing Circles

When I was a kid, my mother kept a few chickens and ducks in the backyard so that we could have them as offerings to our ancestor gods during any important festival. Thus, my mother could help the family to save a substantial amount of money for the purchase of poultry from the market.

Every morning, my mother allowed the ducks to go out and spend the day at a nearby pond. In the evening they would come back without fail to sleep in their own ‘sweet home'.

Once, a big fat white duck did not come home with her companions in the evening. It was reported missing! All of us in the family were worried that the missing duck could have landed itself on somebody else's dinner table.

As there was no provision in the law of the country for us to make a police report for the missing duck, the only option left to us was to consult our Taoist ancestor god.

According to our Taoist ancestor god, the duck would be back within three days if it wasn't already in stomachs of others.

We had waited for a day and yet another day.No news of the duck was heard of!

On the third day, all of us were quite uneasy and moody thinking of our missing duck whose disappearance could have caused us some money if we were to buy it from the market. We started to cast doubts on our Taoist ancestor god for misleading us into raising a false hope. We were quite convinced by now that the duck could have travelled down the gut of some unscrupulous and greedy fellows living in our neighbourhood.

Surprisingly, just before nightfall on the third day, the big fat duck came home waddling in with its buttock swaying from left to right in a manner not unlike the majestic gait of a king.

We were overjoyed to see the duck returning home safe and sound. We truly thanked our Taoist ancestor god for the accuracy of his prediction.

Our Taoist ancestor god was our ‘family consultant' for matters ranging from trivial ones to that of utmost importance. Whatever problems that any of our family members could not solve, or when he could not make up his mind, he would leave it to our Taoist ancestor god to make the final decision. And most of the time our Taoist ancestor god would provide the right solution.

Upon an occasion when I was still a school-going lad, my family encountered a financial crisis. For a number of days we had not made any business at all as not a single customer patronized our shop. All of us in the family were worried that if there was still no business done for another day, we would not have money to buy food on the following day. Everyone in the family was like " ants jumping onto a heated pan" (如热锅上的蚂蚁). We were desperately yearning for an urgent solution to our immediate predicament.

As a last resort, my mother had no choice but to instruct me to burn three joss sticks and praying to our Taoist ancestor god hoping that he would answer our prayers.

To our relief, on that evening a rubber estate smallholder entered our shop to purchase a number of items for use in his estate including a few sheet-metal pails. The purchase had eased our financial constraint for the time being.

According to my mother, our Taoist ancestor before he became a god,had learned the psychic art from his master while he was young. Every day his master would ask him to draw circles as a practice to perfect the art. He drew circles year in and year out for almost three years without acquiring any further knowledge. He was getting bored and disappointed as he doubted he had chosen a wise master. He was planning to leave his master; the sooner the better to look for greener pastures elsewhere.

Incidentally, a group of bandits came up the mountain while his master was away. These bandits had the intention of occupying and making the summit of the mountain as their fortress. They incarcerated our Taoist ancestor temporarily in a storeroom for keeping firewood, with the ulterior motive of making him an errand boy.

In the storeroom, our Taoist ancestor was getting bored as he had nothing to do. To kill the time, he picked up a branch of firewood and started to draw circles on the ground as he normally did for his daily routine. As he was drawing, he was cursing the bandits for incarcerating him in the stuffy storeroom without food or drink.

Minutes slipped by and gave way to hours. After a long time had lapsed when, all of a sudden, our Taoist ancestor heard a commotion outside the storeroom. On peeping through an opening in the wall, he was surprised to see that each and every one of the bandits was tied up with a rope. None of them was able to disentangle himself from his bonds.

Seeing this as a golden opportunity to escape, our Taoist ancestor quickly broke down the door and rushed down the mountain to make a “police report" with the county magistrate to send a troop of soldiers to round up the bandits.

Our Taoist ancestor wasted no time to search for his master and to update him on the whole incident in every minute detail.

After hearing the report from our Taoist ancestor, the master said in no uncertain terms that, " My dear disciple, you have done a splendid job!”

Our Taoist ancestor was rather perplexed by his master's respond. He begged his master for a detailed explanation.

To this, he master said, “For every circle that you had drawn, a rope was wound around a bandit. I guess you must have drawn quite a lot of circles in the storeroom!"

On hearing the explanation from his master, our Taoist ancestor felt somewhat delighted and somewhat ashamed of himself. All this while, he was thinking that the drawing of the circles was merely a waste of time. Little did he know that the circles that he had drawn turned out to become such a powerful weapon to round up the enemy.

From that time onwards our Taoist ancestor made a vow that he would follow his master faithfully and wholeheartedly in pursuing the knowledge of psychic power.

法师公公

 

 





儿时妈妈在家里后院养了几只鸡鸭以备过年过节拜祭祖先神明。一般上，妈妈每天都会让鸭子们出去附近的池塘戏水。

傍晚时分鸭子们会自动回来睡觉。有一次，有一只鸭子早上出门晚上却没跟其他的鸭子一同回家。虽然我们很着急，可是又不能去报警，只好去请教我们的法师公公。法师公公说如果鸭子在三天内还没进入他人的五脏庙的话，它必定会平安回来。我们等了一天又一天，还没见到鸭子的踪影，大家断定鸭子恐怕凶多吉少了。我们很可能被法师公公骗了。到了第三天傍晚，那只失踪的鸭子很淡定的一摇一摆地走回来。我们大家真的喜出望外。我们的'宗教顾问'果然灵验。真实不可思议！

法师公公是我们刘门历代祖先。因为他曾经学过茅山法术，所以后代子孙称他为法师公公。法师公公也是我们家里的守护神。家里大小事情都要烦劳法师公公指点迷津，並要求公公帮忙我们解决问题。事情往往在绝望时，会有峰回路转、出乎意料的结局。信不信由你！
例如，儿时店里好几天没有顾客上门光顾，眼看米缸的米快要见底了，而第二天的买菜钱又还没有着落，一家大小如热锅上的蚂蚁，不知如何是好？母亲唯有吩咐我在法师公公炉前上香，请求法师公公帮忙。无巧不成书，在日落前有一位顾客上门，化解了我们的燃眉之急。
根据母亲所说，法师公公自小上山跟随茅山师父学法术。学法的最初三年，师父每天只叫他专心画圆圈,也没有再教他其他的法术了。法师公公学了三年，觉得一事无成，很想放弃学法，下山另谋高就。他心里盘算着一旦时机成熟，马上就一走了之。

 

刚巧，有一天山上来了一大群的山贼。他们趁着法师公公的师父不在山上，想一举占据这山头作为他们的山寨。他们先将法师公公暂时关在柴房里，打算日后要差遣他，当作小弟呼唤。

法师公公在柴房里闷得无聊，拿起柴房里的树支当毛笔，一面骂山贼一面在地上画圆圈。过了一顿饭的时间，法师公公听到外面有一片的呼叫声。他从窗口探头一望，原来每个山贼都各自被绳子紧紧得捆绑着，动弹不得。法师公公赶紧趁机破门而出，下山通知官府将山贼们一网打尽，顺便一五一十地禀告在山下的师父。

师父对法师公公说：“这次是你立了大功！”
法师公公丈二金刚摸不着头脑，连忙问道：“师父，此话何解？”
师父说：“你每画一个圆圈，一个山贼就被一綑绳子紧紧的束缚着。相信你一定画了不少的圆圈吧！”
法师公公听了师父的解释，心里即高兴又很愧疚。他原本认为画圈圈是浪费时间的，却没想到它却有不可思议的法力。此时此刻他深切体会到师父的法力高强莫测。从此以后，他老老实实追随他的师父学法术。

Rojak茶 ('Rojak Tea')

 

儿时我很爱吃Rojak. 爸爸给我一角钱上学的零用钱,本来是要我休息节时买食物充饥，没想到我还没去到学校，在培德校友会等校车的当儿就去买Rojak吃。

When I was a kid, I liked to eat sweet-spicy rojak. Every school day my father gave me ten cents as my pocket money to eat in the tuck shop during the recess. But, I already spent the money before reaching school buying a packet of rojak while waiting for the school bus to arrive.

 

小贩还'真的蛮好心'，让我先使用未来钱，给我加吃一角钱的Rojak,欠他的钱允许我明天再还。这么一来，我第二天的零用钱必然要交还给这小贩。如此一来，恶性循环，每天还了一角钱又再欠一角钱，债务永远还不清。我得长期光顾这Rojak小贩，成为他‘忠心恳恳’的顾客。我这笨蛋注定每一天都得吃这小贩的Rojak，吃到'漏屎'(lau-sai)也得吃！

The rojak vendor was rather 'too kind' to me. He allowed me to use my ‘future money' by allowing me to have a second helping of another packet of rojak on credit. Of course, on the following day, the very first thing I had to do was to pay the vendor ten cents I owed him, before I asked for another packet of rojak on a 'renewed' credit. Thus, a vicious circle was generated with the vendor as my creditor and I was his debtor. As a result, I had no choice but to eat rojak every day, six days a week without fail even though, at times, I was having diarrhoea.

经年累月吃Rojak，我对吃Rojak也多少有皮毛的认识。如今我也来尝试做Rojak 茶了。我将普洱茶加一些菊花和一小截的苦丁茶，使它变成带点苦甘味的普洱茶。一些朋友喝了我的Rojak 茶，他们也懂得‘追踪’我的茶，就好像我儿时‘被逼追踪’吃Rojak的那个样子。

After eating a lot of rojak in my younger days, now I have the ‘technical know-how’ to prepare a 'rojak tea'. A piece of 'pu-er' tea(普洱茶) was mixed with ten pieces of chrysanthemum flowers(菊花) and a tiny piece of 'ku tin' tea leaf（苦丁茶)to be brewed in a pot of hot water of 90-100 degrees Celsius. The tea which was brewed would carry a sweet-bitter taste which is not found in any other 'pu-er' tea in the existing market as it is a hybrid of 'pu-er' tea and chrysanthemum tea, with 'ku tin' tea leaf added to enhance it as a special edition of tea. Those who have tasted my 'rojak tea would ‘come’ after my 'rojak tea' just like I 'was forced to go' after the rojak vendor during my school days.