Chinese revere Buddhism but they're not above joking about it. After all, as the woodcarver once admitted, "He who carves the Buddha does not worship him." I especially like this joke, which is about the evil Beelzebug (mosquitoes, you know, are the deadliest creature on the planet, killing more people each year than any other creature--and the link between mosquitoes and malaria was discovered right here in Amoy in the late 1800s, which is why Gulangyu Islet is know as "The Cradle of Tropical Medicine").Buddha's Bugs (A Qing Dynasty Tale, 1644-1912)
A Buddhist monk vowed to offer his blood to feed other living things, but after mosquitoes had bitten him for hours, the itching got to him and he began swatting them with abandon.
"What happened to your vow?" asked a bystander.
The monk sighed. "Some of them have started coming back for seconds."
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill Brown
Academic Director, XMU OneMBA
School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"
www.amoymagic.com
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