My Taoist Career_Chapter 1 Mysterious Birthmark

As for my profession, I was a Taoist, which used to sound more decent. In contrast to the present era, people once liked to call us “the godlike”.

But sometimes I felt somewhat helpless; after all, it is ‘metaphysics”, the legacy of our ancestors. Besides the fact that few people can truly comprehend it, due to some taboos, the honored masters generally don’t serve the ordinary people.

Therefore, once people encountered enough cheaters and charlatans who flaunted themselves as Taoists, the title of “the godlike” for the profession was generally adopted by the masses.

To be frank, in recent years I have made 37 deals in total, but the people I served were either the rich or the noble. However, there were two exceptions.

But presently I don’t do any business since I just want to enjoy life. Of course, everyone likes money; well, it is well-known that the destiny arranged by heaven should be divulged lightly, if one leaks too much of heaven’s mystery to common people, he may incur extremely evil fortunes. Considering this, how can I continue in that career without reservations?

However, people tend to get bored with long-time idleness. Recalling what I have gone through during the over forty years in my life, my only regret is my guilt towards my Master, since the aspiration he embraced throughout his whole life were nothing other than carrying forward the true “metaphysics” and erecting a good reputation for true Taoists.

So, is it easy to make a fortune as a Taoist? In contemporary society, the profession is full of hardships. Actually, our national leaders attach importance to “metaphysics”, and place great value on the masters in the profession.

But the profession involves issues which cannot be revealed to common people. Do not ask me for the reason, just trust me.

All I can do is put down on paper what I have experienced during these years, in order to let people understand what a true Taoist is like, what the true “metaphysics” are like.

Of course, I cannot write down the specific skills. If everyone got access to and mastered them, they would not have been in danger of dying out. Besides, I don't intend to mislead anyone or let the curious ones be mocked.

As for whether my writing is true or not, I just want to declare that you can compare it with your own life.

Ok, let’s get down to our business. The following are my experiences, which I selected and put down on paper. For various reasons, artistic license was used in some key points.

Text:

I am from Sichuan province, born in an impoverished village in the southwest of Sichuan in the winter of 1967. On account of my profession's taboos, I won't reveal my detailed birth date and my eight horoscope characters, only my birth time - exactly 12 o'clock sharp at noon - which would help me explain my following stories.

Perhaps someone will pose a question here. The birth time sounds so incredible! Is it true? Nobody would be able to prove it was right at 12 o'clock, not one second more or less, even if my father had held a watch in hand at that time.

Well, your doubt makes sense!

So I should clarify that the time was calculated by my master based on my eight horoscope characters.

I have never doubted my master, and later the facts proved that what he forecasted for me invariably became true.

So what is so special about a person born at 12 o'clock, sharp? This will be answered later.

However, please do not be nervous if you are one of the persons who were born at the same time. Actually, however, there are few people who are born at this time.

Let’s continue.

The winter when I was born was unusually chilly, and nowadays my parents can still recall it vividly.

Regarding that winter, my father described it: “it was so chilly that our old hens moved on their tiptoes in our courtyard.”

I cannot imagine how amusing it must look when a hen walks on its tiptoes. It was really impressive that it got so cold in my hometown, where it barely ever snow. Compared with the north, where it snows, the South’s winter, with clammy and gloomy chills penetrating people’s bones, was more unbearable.    

That’s the winter when I was born. When I was born, my parents almost didn’t believe I could survive it, particularly in that abnormal time.

There were three reasons:

First, when I was born, I looked excessively tiny and feeble, like a baby cat, giving out only a short cry.

Second, my crying sounded fairly feeble, as if something was stuck in my throat. The seasoned rural midwife, thinking I had swallowed amniotic fluid, patted my back a few times, but it didn’t work.  

Third, while bathing me, my father and the rural midwife found a birthmark on the back of my head. Actually, birthmarks are very common, but mine looked like blood at first glance, and when they observed it carefully it seemed like an eye.

The country folks were superstitious. The midwife became frightened, saying: “The birthmark looks like an eye, and it even seemed like it was staring at me. Your baby is so feeble, and he has such a birthmark. Would you like to ask someone to check whether your baby has some problem or not?”

My parents, illiterate, were shocked and rattled by what the midwife suggested.

Particularly my mother, faint after giving birth, just slumped down in the bed. My father appeared calmer, asking the midwife: “Granny Liu, what is wrong with my baby, in your opinion? So whom shall I ask for help? Do I go to the township clinic to ask for a doctor?”

The villagers were poor, and medical conditions were outdated. In my parents’ eyes, the seasoned midwife was certainly the most well-informed person whom they could rely on.

Upon hearing my father’s question, Granny Liu whispered to my father after she glanced around secretly, “something often sticks to a feeble new-born, do you know that? It would leave marks on the babies. For example, if it grabs a baby, it would leave some black fingerprint-like marks; if it kicks one, it would leave a footprint on the baby’s body. The ones who were pulled down to drown by water ghosts, if you ever saw them, mostly had handprints on the corpses.

As soon as she finished her words, my father couldn’t help but shudder, feeling scared, and began to understand what the midwife meant. My father would have treated her story as nonsense if she hadn’t added the section of the water ghosts, but my father had to believe, since he had once seen one drowned corpse with black marks. 

It happened in summer, over a decade earlier, when my father was a teenager. The rural children often went swimming in the river.

As usual, my father joined several buddies to go swimming after he completed his farm work. His friends included twin brothers, who were called Da Shuang and Xiao Shuang, and the accident happened to them.

My father hadn’t witnessed the whole event. All he could recall was that while he was playing some mud games with a boy on the bank of the river, he heard Xiao Shuang screaming: “My brother is sinking, hurry up, help, help me!”

Upon hearing this, my father was startled and turned back, seeing that Da Shuang’s body was sinking in the center of the river, only his head above the water. But strangely, he wasn’t struggling to float up.

Xiao Shuang was swimming hurriedly towards his brother, and another two boys were following him.

My father also promptly swam to Da Shuang without any hesitation. Soon, Xiao Shuang grasped his brother’s head. No sooner than he took a breath, he shouted: “shit, he is so heavy, puppy Wang, hurry up and help me.”

Puppy Wang, who was the nearest to Xiao Shuang, sped up to approach him, and grasped his struggling hands above the water.

“Hold my brother, I can’t go on anymore," Xiao Shuang could barely breathe, exhausting himself by pulling his brother onto the bank. 

Besides the five or six boys, there were several adults who also ran there after hearing the screaming. The twins were finally rescued by their effort.

When Da Shuang was pulled up onto the bank, he had lost consciousness. After swallowing too much water, his belly was swollen. Xiao Shuang’s face turned livid, and he trembled slightly in the sticky summer. Everyone thought he was frightened as they were too busy with tending to Da Shang.

Luckily the people living there all had knowledge of first aid measures for drowning. Da Shuang finally opened his eyes after a quarter of an hour.

As he opened his empty eyes, he seemed astonished that he was still alive. Fourth Uncle cursed Da Shuang, giving him a slap, “you naughty boy, why were you swimming to the middle of the river? You just don’t care about your safety.”

The reproach was out of sincere concern. The people were simple at that time, and the villagers all knew each other and had good relationships, so even if others’ children had had an accident, they would also be concerned about the child.

Da Shuang did not retort. My father knew he hadn’t fully regained consciousness. But the trembling Xiao Shuang near them recalled: “Fourth Uncle, I don’t think that it was my brother's intention to swim to the middle. but he seemed to have been pulled by something there. What I said was true.”

Though Xiao Shuang kept a low voice, a hush fell over the crowd, and Fourth Uncle also held his breath.

The country folks all heard of some ghost or such weird tales. And what Xiao Shuang described just proved the water ghost was seeking a victim! Even after hearing and gossiping much about this, they just didn’t totally believe it was true.

“You are the little ignorant boy speaking nonsense because you are afraid of being beaten by your father, aren’t you? Do not make up lies, it will cause panic.” Uncle Li looked solemn. To the country folk, making up ghost stories to escape punishment was sure to incur evil fortunes.

“I didn’t lie” Xiao Shuang jumped up and screamed, “I saw my brother swimming, then he stopped moving all of a sudden and began to sink towards the center, like he was being pulled by something, and, and ….”

“And what?” Uncle Li’s countenance turned more and more grave. He could feel the kid wasn’t lying, but the whole matter just sounded so weird.

“While I was rescuing my brother, I felt his body was strangely heavy, like something was also pulling him down. In addition, I felt so cold. As soon as I grabbed my brother, I felt chilly all over,” said Xiao Shuang. People began to believe Xiao Shuang’s words, noticing he had been shivering ever since he came up to the riverbank.  

My father also helped drag Da Shuang out of the river, he had also felt Da Shuang’s frosty body. But to his surprise, he and the other kids seemed unaffected. When they recalled this, they figured that maybe they were very strong, with intense Yang Qi (according to Taoism, all the objects exist with both Yang Qi and Yin Qi, literally, male and female properties), so the evil thing had to give up, otherwise, it would have been impossible for the person possessed by evil to be rescued.

At the same time, Da Shuang managed to speak: “I saw some fish beneath the water, so I plunged into the river, but then felt my ankles being grabbed by someone, and I instantly felt so icy that I couldn’t move at all.”

Da Shuang was speaking with his dull eyes and scared face. When he sub-consciously looked at Da Shuang’s ankles, my father saw 3 clear thumb marks. The dark thumb marks looked so weird and spooky. That was a moment my father could never forget in his whole life.

“Well, boy, then you are lucky,” Uncle Li only remarked this and again fell into silence, like everyone else.

The weird experience of my father’s childhood ended there. Recalling the scary experience, he got more anxious, since he had been looking forward to having a boy, following the birth of two daughters. He could not bear to lose the one he just received.

“Granny Liu, please let me know what is wrong with my baby. I just don’t know what I should do,” my father asked anxiously.

“This mark looks like an eye. I am afraid this is perhaps why your baby is chosen” Granny Liu lowered her voice and guessed.

“Just please let me know what to do?” my father deeply believed her guess. The old saying, ‘A drowning man will clutch at a straw at the bank’, can exactly represent his mood at that time.

“What to do? I am afraid you have to ask for…” after taking a swift glance around, Granny Liu lowered her voice: “Widow Zhou to come and check what the problem is.”

“Ah, Widow Zhou?” My father couldn’t help but sigh, knitting his brows. Apparently, Granny Liu’s suggestion placed him in a dilemma.

“Widow Zhou?” my mother struggled to sit up, disagreeing strongly: “no, no, days ago a meeting held by the village committee advocated for cracking down on all sorts of bad guys and destroying the Four Olds. We can’t engage in superstitious activities.”

Granny Liu just rose up: “Chen, I made the suggestion for the sake of your family, thinking of you finally have a son after so many years. As for my advice, it is up to you both. I am leaving now.”

Giving my mother an accusing glare, my father hastened to rise up to see off Granny Liu. Approaching the gate, my father captured one young chicken and insisted that Granny Liu receive it, saying: “Granny Liu, I always bear in mind others’ favors and help for me, and I will never do anything treacherous. Trust me, when my son is grown up, I will visit you and bring some bacon.”

“Ok, we are all fellow villagers, but we are not as close as before. Actually, no one hopes other families will live a bad life, but consider the morals of the present era….” Granny Liu only slightly grumbled, having understood my father’s attitude toward this, and left.

Of course, my mother was not to blame. She was only a timid housewife. My father and Granny Liu had to talk in a cautious way due to that special period in 1967. Everyone knows what had happened.

My father just wanted to show that he meant no harm to Granny Liu and that he wouldn’t be a blabbermouth, while Granny Liu sighed about the morals at that time, people being wary of each other for fear of being reported to the local government for activities against its policy.

Compared with the turmoil in other places, our impoverished village was a haven of peace and happiness. At least the people there retained some humanity and goodwill, compared to the outside world where people had engaged crazily in political campaigns.   

After seeing off Granny Liu, my father entered the room with a grim face and found that my two sisters, who had avoided the occasion earlier, had already entered.

The children could not be present where women were giving birth. This was our local custom.

My father saw the two sisters bending over the bed and watching me curiously with great care. My eldest sister, aged 5, instructed the younger 3-year- old sister: “do not touch our brother, he looks so delicate.”

Her words touched my father’s heartstrings. He scooped my younger sister up and fondled my eldest sister’s hair, looking at me with knitted brows.

“Chen, will you go to fetch Zhou? Are you serious?” as soon as my father had entered, my mother inquired of him. 

With a cough, my father interrupted my mother, and put down my sister. He said to my sisters: “Sister, take your sister to the kitchen to check the chicken soup. If it is boiled dry, you will have no chicken for supper.”

At that time, my father was competent and my mother was industrious. We lived a better life compared to others in our village. At least my mother could have nourishing old hen soup after giving birth. The leftover chicken my mother hadn’t eaten up would be given to my sisters.

On hearing about eating chicken, my sisters became excited. With a quick answer to my father, they ran to the kitchen and kept watching the pot.

“You cannot talk about this in the face of our children, in case they let other people know. They do not understand the consequences of such an affair.”

“I am just worried. Look at our son, so thin and short, and I do not have breast milk now. Besides, this winter gets so cold. I…” my mother could not bear to continue, hugging me tightly as if I would leave her in a moment.

“Widow Zhou is a bad person with a bad reputation. Though the village head and the villagers protect her with kindness, the high-level cadres all keep a close eye on her, expecting to find some pretext to earn rewards through denouncing her behavior against the Party’s policy.

“So what can we do?” my mother grumbled: “will we disobey the policy?”

My father felt a bit annoyed but also tried to resist the temptation to laugh at my mother. My mother was just an ordinary housewife. Apart from my father, the government was what she mostly believed in.

“Because the government wouldn’t know what happened to our son if she, so great a person, would consent to save our child. Do not bother yourself with this; let’s take him to the township clinic tomorrow. If the doctor cannot help, we will turn to Widow Zhou.” After pacifying my mother, he heaved a sigh of fear that Widow Zhou would not offer help.”