Ages Ago: Thirty-Seven Tales from the <i>Konjaku Monogatari</i> Collection

## TALE 1 Vakkula's Good Deed AGES AGO, in India, there was among the disciples of Buddha one called the venerable Vakkula. In a previous rebirth, back in the ninety-first cycle, after buddha Vipacin's entrance into Nirvana, there had been a monk whose head always pained him. Vakkula, at that time a poor man, saw and pitied this monk and gave him a haritaka fruit to take. As soon as the monk took it, his head stopped aching. For having given medicine to a suffering monk, Vakkula passed the next ninety-one cycles among heavenly beings, joyous and calm, free from all bodily pain. In his last rebirth he became the son of a Brahman. His mother died, and his father married again. Once, when very young, Vakkula saw his stepmother making rice cake and begged for some. His stepmother, hating Vakkula, took and tossed him upon the griddle. The griddle was piping hot, but Vakkula did not get burned. No, just then his father came home, looked about for Vakkula, and there he was on the griddle. Seeing which, his father, all of a tremble, clasped him close and helped him down. Another time, his stepmother, angrier still, got the cauldron boiling and popped Vakkula in, but Vakkula did not get scalded. No, just then his father missed him, looked about but could see him nowhere, and anxiously called, " Vakkula!" When his answer seemed to come from inside the cauldron, his father at once searched there and got him out in a hurry. Yes, Vakkula recovered and looked the same as before. Still another time, his stepmother, angry enough to burst, walked Vakkula along the river to where it was deep and sud- CONTENTS FOREWORD TALES OF INDIA 1. Vakkula’s Good Deed 2. King Prasenajit’s Daughter Vajra the Deformed 3. How Preceptor Bodhidharma Toured India Observing the Acts of Monks 4. How a Poor Woman in India Got the Lotus Sutra Copied 5. How Three Beasts Practiced the Bodhisattva Discipline and the Hare Roasted Itself 6. How Lion’s Pity for Monkey’s Young Made Him Cut a Chunk Off Himself for Eagle 7. How in India a Fox Passed for Beast King and Died of Riding a Lion 8. How Tortoise, Heedless of Crane’s Warning, Fell to Earth and Got a Cracked Shell 9. How Tortoise Was Outwitted by Monkey 10. Where Persons Over Seventy Were Deported TALES OF CHINA 11. How Under Emperor Ming of the Later-Han Dynasty Buddhism Crossed to China 12. How Under Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty Bodhidharma Crossed to China 13. How Chinese Meng Tsung’s Filial Piety Got His Old Mother Bamboo Shoots in Winter 14. How Chinese Han Po-yü When Beaten by His Mother Wept for Grief 15. How T’ang Emperor Hsüan-tsung’s Yang Kuei-fei Was Killed by His Majesty's Favor 16. How Knight Confucius While Traveling Met Boys Who Quizzed Him 17. When Chuang-tzu Observed the Doings of Animals and Took to His Heels 18. How a Woman of Ch’ang-an Changed Pillows with Her Husband and Was Killed by His Enemy TALES OF JAPAN 19. The Might of Assistant High Priest Jitsu-in of Hieizan 20. Wrestler Umi Tsuneyo’s Match with a Snake 21. How Wrestler Kisaichi Munehira Tossed a Blue Shark 22. How a Man Bounced His Sword-Sheath Rod on a Fingernail and a Woman Her Needle 23. When Kudara Kawanari and Hida Takumi Competed 24. How a Lady Went to a Master of Medicine, Was Cured of a Boil, and Slipped Off 25. How a Man’s Wife Became a Vengeful Ghost and How Her Malignity Was Diverted by a Master of Divination 26. When Emperor Murakami and Sugawara Fumitoki Each Composed a Chinese Poem 27. How Taira Koremochi Had a Retainer Killed on Him 28. How an East-Bound Traveler Fathered a Child by a Turnip 29. How in Mimasaka Province a God Was Trapped by a Hunter and Living Sacrifice Stopped 30. How Mikawa Province Originated Dog's-Head Silk 31. How the Reizei-in Water Spirit Assumed Human Form and Was Caught 32. How Ki Tösuke’s Meeting with a Ghost-Woman in Mino Province Ended in His Death 33. How Ex-Emperor En-yü’s Rat-Day Was Attended by Sone Yoshitada 34. When Chikuzen-Governor Fujiwara Akiie’s Samurai Forgot Himself 35. How in Mutsu Province a Dog-and-Mountain Dog Bit to Death a Big Snake 36. Tsunekiyo Yasunaga’s Fuha-Barrier Dream about His Wife at the Capital 37. Two Brothers Plant Day-Lilies and Asters Background Points Sources and Related Texts Bibliography Index