You Benchang, the TV Monk Who Became China's 'Jigong', Dies at 92
The actor who played television's ragged, laughing Ji Gong — a folk hero monks mocked and children adored — died peacefully in Beijing at 92, his family said, closing a seven-decade career that ended with a late-life acting rebirth and a deathbed party membership.
You Benchang, the actor whose puckish, ragged Ji Gong became one of Chinese television's most beloved characters, died in Beijing on Monday morning at the age of 92, the National Theatre of China announced. His daughter, the actress You Sihan, said he passed away in his sleep without pain, days after celebrating a birthday. His last words, she told reporters, were "我很舒服" — "I feel comfortable."
Ji Gong — the "Crazy Monk" of Chinese folklore — is a strange hero to have carried for four decades: a Chan Buddhist monk expelled from his monastery for eating meat and drinking wine, who wears a tattered robe and a broken fan, and rescues the poor with tricks and laughter rather than sutras. You's 1985 television portrayal, complete with that grin and that fan, fixed the character for generations of Chinese viewers the way a handful of actors elsewhere have fixed Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood. Clips from the show, its theme song a karaoke fixture, were recycled across Chinese social media within minutes of the announcement on Monday evening, where the hashtag "送别济公爷爷" — farewell, Grandpa Jigong — drew millions of interactions in hours.
The statistics of his career read like two lives. The first was a long apprenticeship: born in 1933, You spent decades in theatre and bit parts, a supporting player waiting for a face the camera loved. The second began in his fifties with Ji Gong and ran, improbably, to the very end — a resurgence that made him a character actor of national affection in his late eighties, most recently in the 2023 hit drama "Blossoms Shanghai," where he played a mentor figure to the young hero. Last summer he appeared at a reunion for the 40th anniversary of "Jigong," telling the audience that recovering from illness to see old colleagues again made him "too happy, too blessed."
Two details from the official obituary carried particular weight with Chinese readers. One was his late-arriving party membership: You applied in early 2024, saying he had long felt unworthy of applying, and was admitted as a probationary member in May 2025 — an unusual honour for a 91-year-old artist, and one state media gave prominence. The other was his personal motto, quoted across Monday's tributes: "以文艺化导人心" — use art to guide people's hearts — coupled with the line he said he never forgot, "always be ready." He had waited most of his life for the right role; when it came, he treated it as a discipline rather than a windfall.
At Monday's Golden Eagle Awards ceremony in Hangzhou, hours after his death was announced, the television industry's annual gathering paused to honour him alongside the singer Liu Huan, who died last week at 63 — a double farewell that lent the evening's memoriam an unusually heavy air. You is survived by his daughter, who told interviewers that the family was at peace with his passing: "He had no unfulfilled wishes. He said he felt happy.