The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 3

by Unknown

  This secret spot of Heaven,

  This hidden depth of Earth,

  Where a hundred springs join to bathe both sun and stars,

  Where the wind blows as the moon beams her rippling light.

  When the tide rises, the great fishes6 change:

  When the waves churn, the huge scorpaenids swim.

  Here water joins the northwest sea,

  Its billows the Eastern Ocean fuse.

  The four seas are linked by the same Earth pulse;

  Each isle immortal has its fairy homes.

  Speak not of Penglai every where.

  Let’s look at Cave Potalaka.

  What fine scenery!

  The peak’s bright colors show prime essence strong.

  Auspicious breeze wafts moonlight beneath the ridge.

  Through groves of purple bamboo peacocks fly;

  On willow-branch a sentient parrot speaks.

  Jade grass, jasper flowers bloom fair each year:

  Gold lotus, jewelled trees grow annually.

  A few times the white cranes fly up the peak;

  The phoenix comes often to the mount-kiosk.

  E’en fishes by nature seek authentic Truth,

  For to hear scriptures they leap through the waves.

  Descending slowly from the Potalaka Mountain as he admired the scenery, he was met by the disciple, Mokṣa, who said to him, “Sha Wujing, why aren’t you accompanying the Tang Monk to procure scriptures? Why are you here?”

  After Sha Monk returned his bow, he said, “I have a matter that requires my having an audience with the Bodhisattva. Please take the trouble to announce me.” Mokṣa already knew that it had to do with his search for Pilgrim, but he did not mention it. He went instead inside first and said to the Bodhisattva, “The youngest disciple of the Tang Monk, Sha Wujing, is outside seeking an audience.” When Pilgrim Sun heard that beneath the platform, he chuckled and said, “This has to be that the Tang Monk has met some kind of ordeal, and Sha Monk is here to seek the assistance of the Bodhisattva.”

  The Bodhisattva at once asked Mokṣa to call him in, and Sha Monk went to his knees to kowtow. After his bow, he raised his head and was about to tell the Bodhisattva what had happened, when all of a sudden he saw Pilgrim Sun standing on one side. Without even a word, Sha Monk whipped out his fiend-routing staff and aimed it at Pilgrim’s face. Pilgrim, however, did not fight back; he only stepped aside to dodge the blow. “You brazen ape!” screamed Sha Monk. “You rebellious simian guilty of ten evil deeds! So, you are even here to hoodwink the Bodhisattva!” “Wujing!” shouted the Bodhisattva. “Don’t raise your hands! If you have a complaint, tell it to me first.”

  Putting away his treasure staff, Sha Monk knelt down before the platform, and, still huffing, said to the Bodhisattva, “This monkey has performed countless violent acts along the way. The day before, he beat two highwaymen to death beneath the mountain slope, and Master already found fault with him. Little did we expect that that very night we had to live right in the bandit camp, and he slaughtered a whole band of them. As if that weren’t enough, he took a bloody head back to show to Master, who was so aghast that he fell down from his horse. It was then that Master gave him a reprimand and banished him. After we separated, Master found the hunger and thirst unbearable at one place and told Eight Rules to go find water. When he didn’t return after a long while, I was told to go find him. When Pilgrim Sun saw that we both had left, he sneaked back and gave Master a blow with his iron rod, after which he took away our two blue woolen wraps. When we finally returned, we managed to revive Master, and then I had to make a special trip to his Water-Curtain Cave to demand from him the wraps. How could I know that he would change his face and refuse to recognize me? Instead, he was reciting back and forth the travel rescript of Master. When I asked him why, he said that he was no longer willing to accompany the Tang Monk. He wanted to go procure sciptures in the Western Heaven and take them all by himself to the Land of the East. That, he said, would be his sole merit, and the people would honor him as their patriarch while his fame would be everlasting. I told him, ‘Without the Tang Monk, who would be willing to give you scriptures?’ He said then that he had already selected a true, enlightened monk, and he brought out a Tang Monk, all right, including a white horse, followed by an Eight Rules and a Sha Monk for me to see. ‘I’m the Sha Monk,’ I said, ‘so how could there be another Sha Monk?’ I rushed up to this impostor and gave him a blow with my treasure staff; it turned out to be a monkey spirit. Then this ape led his followers to try to capture me, and that was when I fled and decided to come here to inform the Bodhisattva. He must have used his cloud somersault and arrived first, and I don’t know what sort of balderdash he has mouthed to dupe the Bodhisattva.”

  “Wujing,” said the Bodhisattva, “don’t blame another person wrongly. Wukong has been here for four days, and I haven’t let him go anywhere. How could he have gone to find another Tang Monk to go fetch scriptures by themselves?” “But,” said Sha Monk, “I saw a Pilgrim Sun in the Water-Curtain Cave. You think I’m lying?” “In that case,” said the Bodhisattva,“don’t get upset. I’ll tell Wukong to go with you to take a look at the Flower-Fruit Mountain. Truth is indestructible, but falsehood can easily be eliminated. When you get there, you’ll find out.” On hearing this, our Great Sage and Sha Monk took leave at once of the Bodhisattva and left. And so, the result of their journey will be that

  Before Mount Flower-Fruit black and white will be made distinct;

  By the Water-Curtain Cave the true and perverse will be seen.

  We don’t know, however, how that will be accomplished; let’s listen to the explanation in the next chapter.

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  Two Minds cause disorder in the great cosmos;

  It’s hard for one body to realize true Nirvāṇa.1

  After our Pilgrim and Sha Monk kowtowed to take leave of the Bodhisattva, they rose on two beams of auspicious light and departed from the South Sea. Now, the cloud somersault of Pilgrim, you see, was much faster than the mere cloud soaring of Sha Monk. He therefore wanted to speed ahead, but Sha Monk pulled him back, saying, “Elder Brother, you need not try to cover up or hide your tracks by getting there first. Let me travel right beside you.” The Great Sage, of course, was full of good intentions, whereas Sha Monk at that moment was filled with suspicion.

  So, the two of them rode the clouds together and in a little while, they spotted the Flower-Fruit Mountain. As they lowered their clouds to glance around, they found indeed outside the cave another Pilgrim, sitting high on a stone ledge and drinking merrily with a flock of monkeys. His looks were exactly the same as those of the Great Sage: he, too, had a gold fillet clamped to his brownish hair, a pair of fiery eyes with diamond pupils, a silk shirt on his body, a tiger kilt tied around his waist, a golden-hooped iron rod in one of his hands, and a pair of deerskin boots on his feet. He, too, had

  A hairy face, a thunder god beak,

  An empty jowl unlike Saturn’s;

  Two forked ears on a big, broad head,

  And huge fangs that have outward grown.

  His ire aroused, our Great Sage abandoned Sha Monk and rushed forward, wielding his iron rod and crying, “What sort of a fiend are you that you dare change into my appearance, take my descendants captive, occupy my immortal cave, and assume such airs?” When that Pilgrim saw him, he did not utter a word of reply; all he did was meet his opponent with the iron rod. The two Pilgrims closed in, and you could not distinguish the true one from the false. What a fight!

  Two iron rods,

  Two monkey sprites,

  This fight of theirs is truly no light thing!

  They both want to guard the royal brother of Tang,

  Each seeking merit to acquire great fame.

  The true ape accepts the poverty faith;

  The specious fiend utters false Buddhist claims.

  Their magic gives them transformations vast:

  They’re exact equals,
that’s the honest truth!

  One is the Equal to Heaven Sage of the unified breath of Composite Prime;2

  One is a long-cultivated sentient spirit, able to shorten the ground.

  This one is the compliant golden-hooped rod;

  That one is the acquiescent staff of iron.

  They block and parry and fight to a draw;

  They buck and resist and neither can win.

  They join hands at first outside the cave;

  Soon they rise to do battle in midair.

  Treading on the cloudy luminosity, the two of them rose into the sky to fight. On the side, Sha Monk did not have the courage to join the battle, for he found it truly difficult to distinguish between the two of them. He wanted very much to lend his assistance, but he feared that he might inadvertently inflict harm on the real Pilgrim. After waiting patiently for a long while, he leaped down from the mountain cliff and wielded his fiend-routing staff to disperse the various fiends outside the Water-Curtain Cave. He then overturned the stone benches and smashed to pieces all those eating and drinking utensils before searching for his two blue woolen wraps. They were, however, nowhere to be seen. The cave, you see, was located actually behind a huge waterfall, which had the entrance neatly hidden as if it were behind a white curtain. That was the reason for the name, Water-Curtain Cave. Sha Monk, of course, had no idea of its history or its layout, and it was therefore difficult for him to make his search.

  Unable to recover his wraps, Sha Monk again mounted the clouds to rush up to midair. He held high his treasure staff, but he simply dared not strike at either of the combatants. “Sha Monk,” said the Great Sage, “if you can’t help me, go back to Master and tell him about our situation. Let old Monkey do battle with this fiend all the way to the Potalaka Mountain of South Sea so that the Bodhisattva can distinguish the true from the false.” When he finished speaking, the other Pilgrim also said the same thing. Since both of them had exactly the same appearance and there was not even the slightest difference even in their voices, Sha Monk could not distinguish one from the other. He had no choice but to change the direction of his cloud and go back to report to the Tang Monk. We shall now leave him for the moment.

  Look at those two Pilgrims instead! They fought as they journeyed; soon they arrived at the Potalaka Mountain in the South Sea, trading blows and insults all the time. All the continuous uproar quickly alerted the various guardian deities, who rushed inside the Tidal Sound Cave to say, “Bodhisattva, there are indeed two Sun Wukongs who have arrived fighting!” The Bodhisattva immediately descended from her lotus platform to go out of the cave with her disciples Mokṣa, the Boy Skilled in Wealth, and the Dragon Girl. “Cursed beasts,” she cried, “where do you two think you are going?” Still entangled together, one of them said, “Bodhisattva, this fellow indeed resembles your disciple. We started our battle from the Water-Curtain Cave, but we have not yet reached a decision even after such a long bout. The fleshy eyes of Sha Wujing were too dim and dull to tell us apart, and thus he couldn’t help us even if he had the strength. Your disciple told him to go back to the road to the West and report to my master. I have fought with this fellow up to your treasure mountain because I want you to lend us your eyes of wisdom. Please help your disciple to distinguish the true from the false, the real from the perverse.” When he finished speaking, the other Pilgrim also repeated the same words. The various deities and the Bodhisattva stared at the two for a long time, but none could tell them apart. “Stop fighting,” said the Bodhisattva, “and stand apart. Let me look at both of you once more.” They indeed let go of each other and stood on opposite sides. “I’m the real one,” said one side. “He’s a fake!” said the other.

  Asking Mokṣa and Goodly Wealth to approach her, the Bodhisattva whispered to them this instruction: “Each of you take hold of one of them firmly, and let me start reciting in secret the Tight-Fillet Spell. The one whose head hurts is the real monkey; the one who has no pain is specious.” Indeed, the two disciples took hold of the two Pilgrims as the Bodhisattva recited in silence the magic words. At once the two of them gripped their heads and rolled on the ground, both screaming, “Don’t recite! Don’t recite!” The Bodhisattva stopped her recital, and the two of them again became entangled together, fighting and shouting as before. Unable to think of anything else, the Bodhisattva asked the various deities and Mokṣa to go forward to help, but the gods were afraid that they might hurt the real person and they, therefore, dared not raise their hands. “Sun Wukong,” called the Bodhisattva, and the two of them answered in unison. “When you were appointed Bimawen,” she said, “and when you brought chaos to Heaven, all those celestial warriors could certainly recognize you. You go up to the Region Above now and they should be able to distinguish between the two of you.” This Great Sage thanked her and the other Pilgrim also thanked her.

  Tugging and pulling at each other, screaming and hollering at each other, the two of them went before the South Heaven Gate. The Devarāja Virūpākṣa was so startled that he led Ma, Zhao, Wen, and Guan, the four great celestial warriors, and the rest of the divine gate attendants to bar the way with their weapons. “Where are you two going?” they cried. “Is this a place for fighting?”

  The Great Sage said, “I was accompanying the Tang Monk on his way to acquire scriptures in the Western Heaven. Because I slayed some thieves on the way, that Tripitaka banished me, and I went to tell my troubles to the Bodhisattva Guanyin at the Potalaka Mountain. I have no idea when this monster-spirit assumed my form, struck down my master, and robbed us of our wraps. Sha Monk went to look for our things at the Flower-Fruit Mountain and discovered that this monster-spirit had taken over my lair. Thereafter, he went to seek the assistance of the Bodhisattva, and when he saw me standing at attention beneath the platform, he falsely accused me of using my cloud somersault in order to cover up my faults. The Bodhisattva, fortunately, was righteous and perceptive; she didn’t listen to Sha Monk and told me to go with him instead to examine the evidence at the Flower-Fruit Mountain. I discovered there that this monster-spirit indeed resembled old Monkey. We fought just now from the Water-Curtain Cave to the place of the Bodhisattva, but even she found it difficult to tell us apart. That’s why we came here. Let all of you deities take the trouble of using your perception and make distinction between the two of us.” When he finished speaking, that Pilgrim also gave exactly the same account. Though the various gods stared at them for a long time, they could not tell the difference. “If all of you can’t recognize us,” the two of them shouted, “stand aside and let us go see the Jade Emperor!”

  Unable to resist them, the various deities had to let them through the Heaven Gate, and they went straight up to the Treasure Hall of Divine Mists. Marshal Ma dashed inside with Zhang, Ge, Xu, and Qiu, the Four Celestial Masters, to memorialize, saying, “There are two Sun Wukongs from the Region Below who have fought their way into the Heaven Gate. They claim they want to see the Emperor.” Hardly had they finished speaking when the two monkeys brawled their way in. The Jade Emperor was so taken aback that he stood up and came down the treasure hall to ask, “For what reason did the two of you enter the celestial palace without permission? Are you seeking death with your brawling before us?”

  “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” cried our Great Sage. “Your subject has already made submission and embraced the vow of poverty. I would never dare be so audacious as to mock your authority again. But because this monster-spirit has changed into the form of your subject, . . .” whereupon he gave a thorough account of what had taken place, ending with the words, “I beg you to do this for your subject and distinguish between the two of us.” That Pilgrim also gave exactly the same account.

  Issuing a decree at once to summon Devarāja Li, the Pagoda-Bearer, the Jade Emperor commanded: “Let us look at those two fellows through the imp-reflecting mirror, so that the false may perish and the true endure.” The devarāja took out the mirror immediately and asked the Jade Emperor to watch with the vario
us celestial deities. What appeared in the mirror were two reflections of Sun Wukong: there was not the slightest difference between their golden fillets, their clothing, and even their hair. Since the Jade Emperor found it impossible to distinguish them, he ordered them chased out of the hall.

  Our Great Sage was laughing scornfully, while that Pilgrim also guffawed jovially as they grabbed each other’s head and neck once more to fight their way out of the Heaven Gate. Dropping down to the road to the West, they shouted at each other, “I’ll go see Master with you! I’ll go see Master with you!”

  We now tell you about that Sha Monk, who since leaving them at the Flower-Fruit Mountain, traveled again for three nights and days before he arrived at the mountain hut. After he told the Tang Monk all that had taken place, the elder was filled with regret, saying, “I thought at that time that it was Sun Wukong who gave me a blow with his rod and who robbed us of our wraps. How could I know that it was a monster-spirit who had assumed the form of Pilgrim?” “Not only did that fiend do that,” said Sha Monk, “but he had someone change into an elder, and another into Eight Rules poling our wraps. In addition to a white horse, there was still another fiend who changed into the likeness of me. I couldn’t restrain my anger and killed him with one blow of my staff. He was actually a monkey spirit. I left in a hurry to go to inform the Bodhisattva, who then asked Elder Brother to go with me to see for ourselves back at the Water-Curtain Cave. When we arrived, we discovered that that fiend was indeed an exact copy of Elder Brother. I couldn’t tell them apart and it was difficult, therefore, for me to lend any assistance. That’s why I came back first to report to you.” On hearing this, Tripitaka paled with fright, but Eight Rules laughed uproariously, saying, “Fine! Fine! Fine! The Popo of our patron’s house has spoken true! She said that there had to be several groups of pilgrims going to procure scriptures. Isn’t this another group?”