Well, you can read Hakkai as meaning 'eight renunciations', which is amusing because one generally takes nine vows of renunciation upon joining some kinds of Buddhist order (and also fits well with his I-am-a-lay-monk sash). So you can sit there with a list going 'What didn't he give up? Sex? Drugs? Anger? Does it vary according to the phase of the moon?'*

I am however familiar with absolutely no symbolism involving eight, nine, eight hundred, or mice. Somebody really should check Journey to the West.

*Booze. He didn't give up booze. This crushed the soul of one of the people who was watching with me, because it means that he ought to be avowedly celibate. Unless, of course, it varies according to the phase of the moon.