To appreciate matching couplets is a pleasant and joyful thing. Throughout the history of matching couplets, which spans several thousand years, aside from the well-known, excellent matches of Sister Su (Su Xiaomei) and Qin Shaoyou, it is the clever matches of the Venerable Ji and his fiancee Liu Xiuxiu that draw the most understanding smiles, and are still intensely talked about and recited by many today.

Everyone knows who the Venerable Ji is. When he was born, his father arranged his engagement to Xiuxiu, the daughter of a rich man named Liu. The Venerable Ji was very intelligent; he could recite poems at four, compose at five, and was a child prodigy of Tiantai Prefecture of Zhejiang Province. He recited poems and composed verses with Xiuxiu ever since he was little. Unexpectedly, when he was nine years old, his father was falsely charged with treason, and consequently his entire family was killed and their property confiscated overnight. That night, the Venerable Ji was visiting the Lius and escaped the disaster. The next morning, the Venerable Ji was gone, leaving a verse which said, "The way of the world is truly laughable. There are so many disasters and afflictions. Must we grieve and suffer over them? Flinging the hands clean and leaving the homelife settles everything." Mr. Liu's heart was deeply pained when he read the verse, and he sent people out to look for the Venerable Ji, but to no avail. In less than a month's time, both Mr. Liu and his wife died, leaving Xiuxiu, who was only nine. Being a young orphan, she was sent to live with her uncle, Mr. Dong.

When Xiuxiu was eighteen, her uncle wanted to marry her to his own son. Xiuxiu made it clear to him that, "If you want me to forsake my engagement and marry someone else, I will do so, but only to a person who can match my couplet. If no one can come up with a match, then I will remain unmarried." An invitation for the test was posted. People of all walks of life from all over the country—the rich, the poor, the handsome, and the ugly—converged at the uncle's front door in a huge crowd. However, after taking one look at the couplet, most of them shook their heads and left. A few tried very hard but failed to come up with a match. It was hard because each of the eleven characters which made up the couplet had the “precious cover" radical [Translator: This radical has the implication of "home"], and it described Xiuxiu's life and situation well. The couplet said, "Living here as a guest, accompanied only by the empty loneliness of the chilly window."

One day, there came a crazy monk wearing a tattered hat, ragged robe, and worn-out shoes. Holding a fan made of broken rushes in his hand, he walked up to the Dongs' front door. Without any thinking or hesitation, he picked up the brush and wrote an eleven-character match in which cach character had the "walk" radical. The match said, "Having gone far away to escape the path of delusion, I retired to the lotus path of leisure." An old servant folded up the paper and passed it to the servant girl to give to Xiuxiu. Soon the Venerable Ji was told that the Miss was inviting him in. Just when he was about to step over the threshold, Uncle Dong came back from outside. He was furious when he saw the monk. He stopped him and said, "Crazy monk, where did you come from to disturb us?" The Venerable Ji was all smiles; waving the fan, he said, "Just a little genie from a monastery, I specially came to visit your precious home." Hearing that, Uncle Dong knew that this monk was no ordinary person. So he said quickly, "A monk matches the couplet and seeks marriage. It's nonsense!" Venerable Ji said confidently, "A son returns home and answers the match. It's proper!" Uncle Dong said scornfully, "Petty, foolish monk, how able are you?" Venerable Ji raised his broken fan and said, "Great rich man, it's all in my bosom." The rich man was exasperated; he pointed to the monk and said, "Any more nonsense, and I'll kick you out!" Venerable Ji laughed and said, “I present a fine match, and the Miss will invite me in!" With these words, he roared with laughter and swaggered toward the middle section of the house. [Translator: The conversation between Uncle Dong and the Venerable Ji was in matched couplets.]

After entering the middle section, he continued walking toward the inner section of the house. Just then, a servant girl came out holding a tray in her hands. On the tray was a couplet. The Venerable Ji took the couplet and saw that it said, "Half’ and ‘moon' forms 'plump,' 'long’ and ‘moon’ forms 'puffy’, 'Maitreya Buddha strolls holding his belly in his hands. Would you say he is plump or puffy?" Venerable Ji answered as easily as if digging in his pocket to take out things. "The tenth terrestrial branch' and 'end forms 'drunk,' 'eyes' and 'suspend’ forms 'sleep.’ Li Taibai [Note: a famous Chinese poet] holds the wine glass with his eyes closed. Would you say he is drunk or asleep?" The servant girl took the match and went in. Immediately, word came from the Miss asking the Venerable Ji to go into the inner section.

Venerable Ji patted the broken rush fan and walked into the inner section laughing. There was another servant girl waiting for him holding a couplet in her hands. The Venerable Ji took the couplet and saw, "The character 'friend' is made of two copies of the character ‘month’; frost and snow are the same color. Which month would you say has frost and which month snow?" Venerable Ji said easily, "The character 'Lu' [A Chinese surname] is made of two copies of the character 'mouth'; water and wine are the same color. Which mouth would you say drinks water and which mouth wine?" The servant girl again brought the match in. An order soon came out asking the Master to go into the embroidery pavilion.

When he arrived at the door of the pavilion, a servant girl came up and handed him a couplet. He picked it up and saw that it said, "The bamboo planted in front of the pavilion sprouts new shoots." Without hesitation, the Venerable Ji wrote, "The flowers planted in the back of the house grow old branches." A while later, Xiuxiu gave him the test personally from behind a bead curtain, "In Mount Mangyang, he beheaded a white snake. Emperor Gao's surname was Liu, and so is mine." Venerable Ji replied from outside of the room, "Riding on a blue ox, he went through the Han Pass. Lao Zi's surname was Li, and so is mine." Xiuxiu rolled up the bead curtain and saw a monk in rags. sitting in full lotus with his eyes closed, waiting to be interviewed.

At that time, a servant girl who was grinding ink accidentally smeared her hand black. Seeing this, Xiuxiu improvised a couplet which said, "Grinding the ink, the attendant girl's one hand was smeared black by the ink." [Note: In Chinese, the words "grinding," "ink," and "smeared” have the same sound but differ in tone.] Venerable Ji could not come up with a match just then. Coincidentally, the old lady who was boiling tea by the pavilion's door yelled, "The water is boiling." Venerable Ji quickly made the match: "Adding charcoal, the tea lady's two eyebrows were darkened by the explosion of the charcoal." [In Chinese, the words "charcoal" and "eyebrows" have the same sound but differ in tone.] Xiuxiu said casually, "I was listening to the night watcher's drum last night. Five beats is three o'clock, and three o'clock is five beats; five times five is twenty-five beats. Every single beat was on time. The dark prison was melancholy, while Qin Pavilion was filled with music and laughter. They frolicked and I grieved." Venerable Ji matched easily, "This petty monk is casting a horoscope today. Six lines and eight trigrams, eight trigrams and six lines; eight times eight is sixty-four diagrams. Every single diagram is efficacious. Be free of contention in this world. The joy of Bodhi is free of melancholy. The five passes are all empty." 

Upon hearing it, Xiuxiu said, "The Master is truly talented. However, I must still ask you to explain the meaning of the couplet at the front door of our house." Venerable Ji replied, " 'Living here as a guest, accompanied only by the empty loneliness of the chilly window' means that your parents passed away, leaving you alone with no one to depend on. Thus, you lodge with your uncle like a guest. You live alone in a bedroom deep inside the house, pining for your fiance." Xiuxiu said with a sigh, "Is the Master's match, ‘Having gone far away to escape the path of delusion, I retire to the lotus path and return to leisure,’ exhorting me to stop wasting my time feeling lonely in the mundane dust; to take refuge with the lotus path, with a blue light and wooden fish as company, and to eventually attain leisure and be at ease for the rest of my life?" Venerable Ji, full of smiles, waved the broken rush fan and said, "That is correct!" Xiuxiu kept feeling that this Master looked quite familiar. She thus asked, "Master, who are you anyway?" "I am the crazy monk of matching couplets." "May I ask the Master's lay name?" "Li Xiuyuan, the deceased." When she heard the words "Li Xiuyuan," she knew the monk was her fiance.

In the end, Liu Xiuxiu followed the Venerable Ji and left the home-life.