Chapter Eleven: The Pine Valley Daoist

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Xiaoyao discovers an ancient and enigmatic inscription in a hidden alcove of the monastery, and learns the difficult technique of stone rubbing.

The fat monk and the boatman instruct him in the art of duàn jù: "breaking the sentences" for pieces of writing that have no punctuation and look utterly incomprehensible. (See the transcript for the original piece in Chinese).

Later, the Abbot joins them as they parse through the text written by the Pine Vally Daoist, and the fat monk finally learns his lesson.

SHOW NOTES:

Xiaoyao Xingzhe, the self-styled carefree pilgrim, has lived and worked all over the world, having crossed the Gobi in a decrepit jeep, lived with a solitary monk in the mountains of Korea, dined with the family of the last emperor of China, and helped police with their enquiries in Amarillo, Texas.

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