Jìgōng Quánzhuàn 濟公全傳
The Complete Biography of Jigong by 郭小亭 (撰)
About the work
Jìgōng Quánzhuàn 濟公全傳 is a full-length vernacular novel (zhānghui xiǎoshuō 章回小說) in 240 huí attributed to 郭小亭 (Guō Xiǎotíng), a late-Qīng popular fiction author. The novel recounts the legendary exploits of the eccentric Buddhist monk Jìgōng 濟公 (historical name: Lǐ Xiūyuán 李修緣, honorific: Dàodìng Chánshī 道濟禪師, 1148–1209), who lived at the Jìngcí Temple 淨慈寺 in Hángzhōu 杭州 during the Southern Sòng dynasty. The narrative blends hagiographic legend, martial arts adventure (xiá 俠), and miraculous interventions, centering on Jìgōng’s wanderings through Jiāngnan as a unconventional, wine-drinking, meat-eating monk who champions the poor against corrupt officials and supernatural evil. The KRP source comprises two interconnected sections totaling 240 chapters (the TOC lists chapters up to 第二百四十回), making it the principal version of the Jìgōng cycle in the Kanripo corpus.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The Jìgōng figure draws on historical accounts of the eccentric Southern Sòng monk Dàojì 道濟 (fl. late 12th century), enshrined at the Jìngcí Temple 淨慈寺, Hángzhōu. His unconventional behavior — violating monastic rules against meat and alcohol — was already celebrated in Sòng sources, and he rapidly became a cult figure. The fictional elaboration of his legend grew through the Míng and Qīng dynasties in performance texts, storytelling (shuōshū 說書), and printed fiction.
The text attributed to Guō Xiǎotíng — a pen name; the historical identity of the author is uncertain — was first published in the Guāngxù period (traditionally ca. 1898 or shortly before). It draws on earlier, shorter Jìgōng narratives such as the anonymous Qǔjǔ Yǎnyì 醉菩提 (also known as Zuì Pútí 醉菩提, a late-Míng or early-Qīng short novel by 天花才子) and expands them into a large cyclic adventure structure. The novel features stock figures of the gōng’àn 公案 and xiá 俠 genres alongside religious miracles, and it enjoyed wide popular readership from the late Qīng onward. A sequel, Xù Jìgōng Zhuàn 續濟公傳 (KR4k0152), attributed to 坑餘生, continues the cycle.
The work was not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書. No date of composition is independently documented; the date c. 1898 follows the consensus of bibliographers of late-Qīng popular fiction (see Ouyang Jian 欧阳健 and Xiao Xiangkai 萧相恺, Zhongguo tongsu xiaoshuo zongmu tiyao 中国通俗小说总目提要, 1990). Note that the novel’s framing text has multiple repetitions of the title-page line “(清) 郭小亭 著”, suggesting a composite or multi-fascicle print original.
Translations and research
- Shahar, Meir. 1998. Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 48. Harvard University Asia Center. The essential scholarly study of the Jìgōng cult and its literary history.
- Koss, Nicholas. 1981. The Jì Gōng cult. In Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 9.12 (1981). Early survey of the tradition.
Other points of interest
The KRP text contains several repeated title-page markers and multiple paragraph breaks between chapter sets, indicating that the digital text was compiled from multiple fascicle printings of the novel. There is also a brief appearance of the phrase “不著者便是高” embedded in the running text, which may be a colophon fragment from a different source layer.