COLLECTION · Series · 2009

百年虚云‎

Original title

On a stormy night in 1840, the magistrate of Quanzhou, Xiao Yutang, and his wife were blessed with a child in their middle years—only to find that she had given birth to a flesh sack. Lady Xiao died of shock, and Xiao Yutang, stricken with grief and fury, ordered a servant to discard the sack. An old herbalist appeared out of nowhere and cut open the amniotic sac. A cry that shook the heavens rang out—thus was Xuyun born into this world, beginning his one-hundred-and-twenty-year quest for the Way, a journey marked by forty-eight extraordinary events. Through storylines rich in Zen wit and insight, intricate and vivid, sincere and moving, this drama series portrays the life of Elder Xuyun—enduring what is hard to endure, practicing what is hard to practice, forgetting his own body for the sake of the Dharma. In seven parts—Leaving the Dust Behind and Becoming a Monk, The Path to Enlightenment, The Westward Journey in the Gengzi Year, Reviving Mount Ji, Pacifying the Tibetan-Han Conflict, Protecting the Nation with a Buddha's Heart, and The Lamp of Wisdom Ever Bright—it recreates the legendary life of a monk of the highest order, the likes of which appear but once in a century.