But the more I think about it, the more I feel something is wrong, and I can't help but want to say a few words at random.
At that time, Mr. Han may have only thought of one aspect of the problem, that is, he insisted that the monk was going to someone else's house, or that this was a foreign monk, so he used "knocking".
But I don't think it's possible for a monk to knock at the temple gate in the middle of the night. If the monk is knocking at the temple gate, it means that he may be a traveling monk, traveling here, passing by the temple and staying overnight. But considering that he didn't touch the front of the temple until midnight, and he was a stranger, there is certainly little chance of success in staying. Even if you knock at the door, it will be dark, there will be no food and no one to make the bed. As a wandering monk, he can't live without the experience of accommodation.
Another hypothesis is that monks visit friends. But according to the routine, only after midnight do you think of visiting friends and knocking on people's doors so that the host can get up in a hurry and find slippers and socks to light candles? A little abrupt! This assumption is probably not reliable.
Besides, is the monk in a hurry to find someone else? Appendicitis. Send for a doctor? The flurry of action is not consistent with the quiet environment of "keeping birds in the trees by the pool" This assumption should also be ruled out!
Then we can only consider whether the monk wants to go back to his temple.
This is a local monk, a young monk who keeps pace with the times, because only the young monk is full of energy, and he is still jumping outside when the tree is at the top of the moon. Maybe he slipped out of the temple after dinner, went online to play games and chat with MM, and didn't come back until midnight. Go back to your place. You don't have to knock, do you? If the knocking at the door wakes up the birds perched on the trees by the pool at night, wouldn't it ruin the original quiet mood in the poem?
There are two ways for monks to return to the temple:
First, he is the only monk in the small temple, and he is alone in the temple. Because I couldn't bear loneliness, I ran out to visit friends and discuss classics. When he returned to his deserted temple, even if he knocked down the door, no one would open it, let alone a muddy family. Why bother?
Second, there are many monks in the temple, and those honest monks are all snoring with the ancient Buddha Green Lantern. The monk who had just finished the sauna, sang karaoke and ate barbecue crept back to the temple in the moonlight. Even if he had a hundred guts, would he dare to knock? If the knock on the door alarmed the senior brother who was on the night shift and reported it to the abbot, wouldn't the young monk know the taste of being punished? He will gently push open the door left unlocked when he goes out and sneak back to his meditation room like a loach. What if the temple gate is closed? It is estimated that everyone gave him the idea that "the monk turned over the moon and went down the door." This kind of scene is familiar to people who love to play! Of course, this assumption is another matter.
On the other hand, even if the young monk goes to someone's house in the middle of the night, must he be knocking at the door? I don't think so! What if he went to the widow's house a few blocks away? Young widows who often come to the temple to burn incense will close the door tightly and wait for the monk to knock at the door? If the knock on the door alarmed the gossip girl living next door, wouldn't it add a lot of right and wrong to her door? So the monk will only choose to push the door instead of knocking. In addition, the door must be unlocked.
On second thought, I think it might be a monk knocking at the door. Maybe he went to the abbot in the moonlight. Because the young monk is not yet 35 years old, there is a vacancy in the temple recently. The young monk is young and holds an undergraduate correspondence diploma from XX Buddhist College. He wants to compete for this profitable position. At this time, the abbot is lying on the Italian sofa in the villa he bought for a female pilgrim, discussing the personnel arrangement in the temple with the female pilgrim!
The young monk with a thick stack of incense money will surely knock on the door with trepidation.