Staff Legends 97
the earliest versions of the story cycle, Lu is armed with the staff. A Southern
Song list of topics popular among storytellers classifies the “Tattooed Monk”
story in the category of “staff ” (ganbang) tales.^46
Like Huiming, Lu Zhishen is equipped with a “prohibitions’ knife” in
addition to his weapon of choice, the staff. In the Ming period novel, the lat-
ter is cast iron and weighs sixty-two jin (approximately eighty pounds), or
four times the weight recommended by Cheng Zongyou in his Shaolin Staff
Method. The staff’s improbable weight likely is meant to highlight its propri-
etor’s extraordinary strength. Indeed, the tattooed monk is so strong that he
wishes his staff would be even heavier, as he explains to the blacksmith:
”I need a ‘Chan staff ’ (chan zhang) and a ‘prohibitions’ knife’ (jiedao),”
said Lu Zhishen. “Do you have any first-rate metal?”
“I do indeed. How heavy a staff and knife do you want? We’ll make
them according to your requirements.”
“The staff should be a hundred jin.”
“Much too heavy,” the smith laughed. “I could make it for you, but
you’d never be able to wield it. Even Guangong’s broadsword (dao)
wasn’t more than eighty-one jin!”
“I’m every bit as good as Guangong,” Lu Zhishen burst out impa-
tiently. “He was only a man, too.”
“I mean well, Reverend. Even forty-five jin would be very heavy.”
“You say Guangong’s broadsword was eighty-one jin? Make me a
staff of that weight, then.”
“Too thick, Master. It would look ugly, and be clumsy to use. Take
my advice, let me make you a sixty-two jin Chan staff of burnished
metal. Of course, if it’s too heavy, don’t blame me.”^47Ming visual representations of Lu Zhishen reveal a tiny crescent at one end of
his weapon (figure 17). A similar design is discernible in a few of Huiming’s im-
ages (figure 18), as well as in those of another fictional staff-wielding cleric:
“Sha Monk” (Sha Heshang), who figures as a secondary character in the Jour-
ney to the West (figure 19). So far we have not mentioned “Sha Monk,” whose
name—literally “Sand Monk”—derives from the Buddhist “God of the Deep
Sands” (Shensha shen). In the sixteenth-century novel, the weapon of the
“Sand Monk” is referred to as “Precious Staff ” (baozhang) as well as “Demon-
Felling Staff” (xiangyao zhang).^48 Interestingly, in all three cases—Lu Zhishen,
Huiming, and “Sha Monk”—the crescent is perceptible in some of the fighting
monks’ visual representations, but it is not mentioned in the written narratives
celebrating them.
Future research may determine the origins of the crescent shape, which is
visible in some Ming period illustrations of the staff. Here I will mention only
that an identical design is common in a wide variety of twentieth-century mar-
tial arts weapons, whether or not they are wielded by Buddhist clerics. The