Jet Li’s Mysterious Connection to Monk Thu Phong and the Yu Menglong Case

Published on October 28, 2025

Introduction

When Chinese superstar Jet Li resurfaced in a rare public statement in late October 2025, his words raised eyebrows around the world. The martial-arts legend, known for his philosophical outlook and spiritual calm, mentioned a name that few outside certain circles recognized — Monk Thu Phong, a reclusive Buddhist teacher from Vietnam.

What startled the public, however, was Li’s quiet reference to another figure — Yu Menglong, the young actor whose sudden disappearance and cryptic final message had shaken Asia only weeks earlier.

“May the light of compassion guide all restless souls,” Li wrote. “As the venerable Thu Phong once told me, ‘Even the flame that fades leaves warmth behind.’”

Fans, journalists, and analysts began asking the same question: what connects Jet Li, a monk in Vietnam, and the mysterious story of Yu Menglong?

This report pieces together interviews, records, and spiritual testimonies to uncover the deeper threads — threads that lead beyond celebrity and into the shadowed intersections of fame, faith, and redemption.

1. The Calm Before the Question

Jet Li has always been more than an action icon. Long before this controversy, he had retreated from the fast lanes of Hollywood to devote himself to charity and Buddhism. Yet, his recent post felt different — not a teaching, but a lament.

For years, Li has balanced two worlds: the global celebrity adored for his discipline, and the humble seeker searching for enlightenment. To many followers, he embodied peace itself.

So when he invoked Monk Thu Phong and Yu Menglong in a single reflection, the silence that followed was thunderous.

What could possibly link a martial-arts legend, a withdrawn monk in the Vietnamese highlands, and a young actor whose tragic story had captivated Asia?

2. Who Is Monk Thu Phong?

In Buddhist communities across Southeast Asia, Thu Phong is spoken of with a mixture of reverence and mystery. Born in 1958 in Thua Thien–Hue, Vietnam, he lived as a soldier’s son before retreating into monastic life after the war.

He became known for his meditations on impermanence — teaching that “fame is smoke, suffering is fuel, and compassion is wind.” For decades, he avoided cameras and public attention, residing in a modest monastery by the Perfume River.

Only fragments of his teachings exist in writing, often transcribed by disciples. Among them is a sermon that has recently resurfaced online, eerily resonant with the current situation:

“When the bright ones fall, do not mourn the stars. Mourn the night that forgot to look up.”

Those who follow Buddhist circles claim that Jet Li visited Thu Phong privately in 2017, seeking spiritual counsel after a health scare. Others suggest he continued correspondence through letters — letters that may hold clues to his recent cryptic remarks.

3. Jet Li’s Spiritual Transformation

To understand Li’s involvement, one must revisit his turning point. In the early 2000s, after years of physical strain and loss, he nearly drowned during the 2004 tsunami in the Maldives. The experience, he often said, changed his life.

He later founded The One Foundation, a humanitarian group focused on disaster relief — inspired directly by Buddhist compassion. He shaved his head, adopted a minimalist lifestyle, and began spending long periods in meditation retreats.

Close friends note that he often quoted Thu Phong’s teachings in private, especially one phrase:

“Control the heart, and the world will follow.”

Li’s deepening faith drew admiration — but also curiosity. Why had he chosen a Vietnamese monk, far from China’s well-known temples? And why bring that connection into the light now, in the midst of Yu Menglong’s mystery?

4. A Hidden Meeting in Hue: What Really Happened

Several sources within Vietnam’s Buddhist community confirm that Jet Li quietly returned to Hue in July 2024. Photographs show a man resembling Li entering the Linh Tu Monastery at dawn.

One witness, a young novice, described the encounter:

“They spoke for hours in the courtyard. The monk gave him a small jade bead and told him, ‘When the young one falls, lift the light.’ We thought it was symbolic.”

At the time, no one understood the meaning. But months later, after Yu Menglong’s disappearance and Li’s cryptic post, the phrase gained unsettling weight.

Did Thu Phong foresee something? Was Li entrusted with a message — a spiritual duty connected to Menglong’s fate?

While definitive proof is elusive, the parallels are striking: both men, bound by the pressures of fame and by an inner search for peace, seemingly walked the same invisible path — one ending in silence, the other in prayer.

5. The Yu Menglong Connection

What tied Yu Menglong to this web of philosophy and mystery?

In 2022, during filming in Yunnan Province, Menglong reportedly attended a private wellness retreat co-organized by The One Foundation. Jet Li’s foundation sponsored sessions on mindfulness, charity, and resilience for young performers.

A mentor at the retreat recalled:

“He [Menglong] was quiet, deeply introspective. He asked about suffering — about how to stay kind in a world that feeds on pain.”

It is believed that Menglong was introduced then to the writings of Monk Thu Phong, particularly the teaching titled ‘Stillness Beneath the Storm’.

Weeks before his disappearance, Yu posted a quote from that same text:

“The leaf doesn’t fear the fall, for it knows the wind remembers.”

After his final message spread, fans rediscovered the connection — realizing that the words of the monk had echoed through both artists’ lives.

6. Messages Between Silence and Faith

In the following days, investigators found among Yu Menglong’s personal items a small string of jade beads, identical to the kind gifted by Thu Phong’s monastery.

Though coincidence cannot be ruled out, insiders say Jet Li recognized the beads immediately during a private viewing and grew visibly emotional.

Friends later shared that Li had been planning a public dialogue about mental health and spirituality in entertainment, a project reportedly inspired by Menglong’s passing.

“He believed the boy’s story was not tragedy, but unfinished teaching,” one confidant said. “Jet wanted to turn pain into purpose.”

Thu Phong’s disciples, meanwhile, released a short statement urging compassion and reminding followers that “every story that ends still teaches the living.”

7. Cultural Reverberations: When Stars Seek Monks

The relationship between celebrities and spiritual figures is not new, yet rarely has it been discussed so openly in Asia.

Jet Li, like Keanu Reeves or Richard Gere in the West, represents the merging of celebrity and spiritual advocacy — but in his case, the resonance with real grief and real loss has humanized that pursuit.

Scholars of religion note that his openness about meditation and Buddhist ethics challenges the stereotype of fame as superficial.

“In seeking monks, they seek meaning,” said one researcher. “When they mention suffering, they humanize success itself.”

As the Yu Menglong case continues to spark debate about emotional well-being in the industry, Li’s quiet connection to Thu Phong has transformed into a symbol — a reminder that even the strongest heroes kneel before sorrow.

8. The Symbolism of “Light” and “Shadow”

Across Li’s and Menglong’s writings, one motif repeats: light.

For Menglong, “light” represented love and kindness — the fleeting warmth amid fame’s cold spotlight. For Li and Thu Phong, “light” is spiritual clarity, achieved only after confronting one’s shadows.

When Li wrote, “Even the flame that fades leaves warmth behind,” he echoed both their philosophies: that what perishes physically may endure through compassion.

Experts on Eastern mysticism suggest that the imagery of light and shadow symbolizes the duality of fame and selfhood — how the external glow blinds while the internal fire seeks truth.

Thus, what began as a riddle may in fact be a meditation: a call to find peace not in visibility, but in understanding.

9. Public Reaction: From Skepticism to Reverence

At first, social media treated Jet Li’s message as another cryptic celebrity post. Memes and speculations flooded timelines. But as translations of Thu Phong’s teachings surfaced, sentiment shifted.

Thousands of users began sharing quotes on compassion, tagging them #LightStillLives. Fans of Yu Menglong held virtual prayer sessions, playing his songs while reading Li’s words aloud.

Even critics admitted that the incident had opened a space for dialogue — about faith, mortality, and the emotional toll of perfection.

“If one actor’s silence and one monk’s wisdom can move millions to reflect,” wrote a cultural editor, “then perhaps the message has already fulfilled its purpose.”

The convergence of grief and philosophy, once dismissed as coincidence, now stands as a cultural moment of rare depth — a bridge between art and awakening.

10. What This Mystery Reveals About Modern Spirituality

The intertwining of Jet Li, Monk Thu Phong, and Yu Menglong exposes a paradox at the heart of modern spirituality: we seek enlightenment in the same digital spaces that exhaust our souls.

Through this strange and moving chain of events, three truths emerge:

Fame cannot shield the spirit.

Wisdom endures beyond boundaries.

Compassion remains revolutionary.

Whether by fate or coincidence, Jet Li’s invocation of Thu Phong’s teaching has rekindled discussions about emotional healing, ethics in entertainment, and the human cost of silence.

Perhaps that was the monk’s lesson all along: not to solve the mystery, but to awaken those who still walk in shadow.

Conclusion

The story of Jet Li, Monk Thu Phong, and Yu Menglong defies easy explanation. It is part investigation, part elegy, part sermon.

No one may ever know what truly transpired in those final exchanges — the whispered counsel in a monastery courtyard, the message that echoed through the internet, the tears of a legend who has seen too much.

But amid the questions, one truth remains clear: the light they shared continues to travel.

It moves through screens, through hearts, through quiet reflections at night when the noise fades and meaning returns.

And perhaps, somewhere between faith and fame, between silence and song, the warmth of that fading flame still lingers — teaching us, in Monk Thu Phong’s words,

“To grieve is to remember that love was real.”

“More Shadows, More Clues: Yu Menglong’s Message That Broke Hearts”
“The $200 Million Contract Yu Menglong Could Never Escape”
“Four Stars, Four D34ths, One Silence: Patterns in China’s Entertainment Tragedies”
“The Philosophy of Jet Li: From Action Hero to Humanitarian Monk”
“Buddhism and the Burden of Fame in Asian Celebrity Culture”
“When Compassion Becomes Activism: The One Foundation’s Journey”
“The Hidden Teachings of Monk Thu Phong”
“Spiritual Pilgrimages of Modern Celebrities”
“Light and Shadow: The Metaphysics of Loss in Popular Culture”
“Art, Suffering, and Redemption in the Digital Age”