Daomu Biji: Wu Xie’s Private Notes

There were two theories as to why it was called the Temple of Seeds.

The first one was a local legend about a general in ancient times who returned in triumph and seized many treasures. A horse plague was afflicting the area when they arrived, and a lot of horses died, which meant that the treasures couldn’t be taken away. In the end, the general used kilns to melt the gold and then threw those precious gold pieces into the river here.

The treasures he melted were in the shape of golden melon seeds (1). He ordered the villagers not to harvest them, and said he would kill the whole village if he saw a golden melon seed in the market.

Because this general had an outstanding record and high prestige, no one dared salvage the golden melon seeds when they were thrown into the river. These golden melon seeds were gradually buried under the river sand until the dynasty changed.

People who had heard of this legend came to salvage the golden melon seeds one after another, so in order to deter these greedy people, the local villagers built a statue of the general near the river. It actually kept away those who wanted to create trouble. Later, to commemorate this incident, they built a temple near the statue and called it the Temple of Seeds.

The temple was long gone, but the legend of the Temple of Seeds had been passed down.

The second theory was the complete opposite. It was said that the river here produced golden sands, many of which were in the shape of melon seeds. Many people came here to gather them, and those people later settled down here and started to build ancestral halls and temples. Generation after generation prospered, and people called this place the Temple of Seeds because the golden melon seeds had originated here a long time ago.

According to my research, it was very likely that the general in the first story was Wu Zixu (2), but there were many similar famous legends in Liyang, Jiangsu. I had no idea why this kind of story appeared in Shandong (3), but according to general speculations, a considerable number of the immigrants here may have come from Jiangsu and brought their folklore to Shandong.

Wu Zixu and the Virgin Woman

Around 500 BC, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, King Chu Ping wrongfully killed Wu Zixu's father and brother. Wu Zixu escaped from Zhaoguan, crossed the Yangtze River, and fled to the Wu Kingdom.

He was followed by soldiers who were trying to capture him. He walked day and night for seven days before stopping in Huangshan Lishui in Liyang  (he went from Gucheng Lake in Gaochun, walked by Nandu, Liyang, Xushe, Xijiu, Yicheng, Dongjiu and the Taihu River. The Yixing section was also known as Nanxi River.)

He met a virgin woman who was washing clothes by the river, and asked her for food. She gave him the batter (4) that was used to wash the clothes. Wu Zixu ate it and asked her not to tell anyone that he had been here so that the soldiers chasing him wouldn’t know his whereabouts. In order for Wu Zixu to escape without any worries, and to preserve her chastity, she picked up a big rock and threw herself into the water.

Later, Wu Zixu led the soldiers from the Wu Kingdom, defeated the state of Chu, and avenged his father and brother’s death. On the way back to the Wu kingdom, he went to Lishui to pay tribute to the virgin woman and threw hundreds of gold pieces into the river.

According to folklore, he made three buckets, and filled each of them with three liters of golden melon seeds. He sprinkled them into the water as gratitude.

I don’t want to assume the worst of the heroes back then, but this historical story still allows us to think of another cruel possibility.

When King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, Wu Zixu persuaded the new king of the Wu Kingdom to seize the chance and destroy the Yue country in order to unify Jiangnan. This story showed that Wu Zixu was the type of person who was determined and never left room for mercy. He could endure humiliation for decades before returning to the country for revenge, and could open graves to slaughter corpses. We can somewhat imagine what his character was like. Just like many forced "sacrifices" in modern Chinese history, we don’t know how many martyrs were actually killed at the hands of enemies.

“I begged for food while you were washing clothes. I was full, and you were drowned. Ten years later, you were rewarded with thousands of gold pieces.”

Blimey, was the woman who was washing clothes forced to die by the sword for a wonderful lie? Wu Zixu may have still felt somewhat guilty about it after all, but could the gold subside the long-term guilt in his heart?

Or maybe things weren’t as simple as I thought. Wu Zixu was a general who was famous for tomb robbing, so maybe the golden melon seeds were scattered here for some other reason. Or, these golden melon seeds had washed down from the ancient tombs upstream because the tomb robbers accidentally spilled the golden sands as they were transporting the treasures.

For the time being, I can only guess.

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TN Notes:

(1) “Guazi” means “melon seeds” in Chinese. The chapter could alternatively be called "Guazi Temple" but Vol 1 Ch. 3 of "Cavern of Blood Zombies" went with Temple of Seeds, so I'm being consistent.

(2) Wu Zixu was a general and politician of the Wu kingdom in the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC). Wiki link

(3) The Temple of Seeds is a fictional place, but the setting is in Shandong.

(4) In ancient times, people didn’t have soap, so they used batter to wash clothes.