The Fisherman and his Soul - an epitaph

I would like to build one nice grave for the fisherman and the mermaid. Hope visitors would grasp their way of life and learn something.

Here lies,

The Fisherman with a monkey soul and the Mermaid with no soul. One fisherman once lost his soul before getting buried here. Mermaid with beautiful voice tried this fisherman to love her and he let the soul go.

Soul with no heart learn good and bad while it's away from the master through the journey. Mermaid gave an ultimate ordeal, as if she is the master monk. Soul of the fisherman experienced greed, anger, and finally understood good, as if it is a monkey. People need heart to love people and to know the good.

If the soul is a monkey, a monkey needs heart to understand minds of people. However, the master monk cannot do anything to help a monkey get enlightened. Fisherman had a heart so the soul learned good. Yet the fisherman was unenlightened.

What happened to the fisherman and how he lived?

He was just no one but broke precious teachings and promised not to go to heaven. Poor fisherman, stay close to your beloved mermaid with the purified soul and a heart fulfilled you.

This story reminds me of the extremely long and complicated Chinese novel, the Journey to the West. There are lots to learn from this book and interesting to read.