The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2

by Unknown

  The demon said to himself, “One mountain can’t hold him down.” He recited a spell once more and summoned the Emei Mountain4 into the air. Pilgrim again turned his head and the mountain landed on his right shoulder. Look at him! Carrying two mountains, he began to give chase to his master with the speed of a meteor! The sight of him caused the old demon to perspire all over, muttering to himself, “He truly knows how to pole mountains!” Exerting his spirit even more, he recited another spell and sent up the Tai Mountain to press down on Pilgrim’s head. With this magic of the Tai Mountain Pressing the Head, the Great Sage was overpowered as his strength ebbed and his tendons turned numb; the weight was so great that the spirits of the Three Worms5 inside his body exploded and blood spouted from his seven apertures.6

  Dear monster! After he used his magic power to pin down Pilgrim, he himself mounted quickly a gust of violent wind to catch up with the Tang Monk. From the edge of the clouds, he stretched down his hand to try to seize the rider of the horse. Sha Monk was so startled that he threw away the luggage and whipped out his fiend-routing staff to block the attempt. Wielding the sword of the seven stars, the demon met him head on and it was some battle!

  The sword of seven stars,

  The fiend-routing staff,

  All flashed golden beams as lightning bright.

  This one, eyes glowering, seemed the black god of death;

  That one, iron-faced, was the true Curtain-Raising Captain.

  The fiend before the mountain showed his power,

  Solely bent on catching Tripitaka Tang.

  This man, earnestly guarding the true monk,

  Would not let go e’en at the threat of death.

  The two belched fog and cloud to reach Heaven’s Palace;

  They sprayed dirt and dust to cover the stars.

  They fought till the red sun grew dim and lost its light—

  The great earth, the cosmos, turned dusky all.

  Back and forth they scuffled for eight, nine rounds:

  ’Twas quick defeat for which Sha Monk was bound!

  The demon was exceedingly ferocious; the thrusts and slashes of his sword fell on his opponent like meteor showers. Growing weaker by the moment, Sha Monk could no longer withstand him and turned to flee, when the precious staff was forced aside and he was seized by a huge hand. Wedging Sha Monk beneath his left arm, the demon dragged Tripitaka off the horse with his right hand; with the tip of his feet hooked on to the luggage and his mouth tugging at the mane of the horse, he used the magic of removal and brought them all to the Lotus-Flower Cave in a gust of wind. Shouting at the top of his voice, he cried, “Elder Brother, all the monks are caught and brought here!”

  When the old demon heard these words, he was very pleased, saying, “Bring them here for me to have a look.” “Aren’t these the ones?” asked the second demon. “Worthy brother,” said the old demon, “you caught the wrong ones again.” “But you told me to catch the Tang Monk,” said the second demon. The old demon said, “It was the Tang Monk, all right, but you did not manage to catch the able Pilgrim Sun. We have to catch him first before we can enjoy eating the Tang Monk. If we haven’t caught him, be sure not to touch any of his companions. That Monkey King, you see, has vast magic powers and knows many ways of transformation. If we devour his master, you think he’ll accept that? He will certainly come to quarrel with us at our door and we will never be able to live in peace.” “Elder Brother,” said the second demon with a laugh, “you know only how to exalt others! According to your words, that monkey is unique on Earth, and rare even in Heaven. But as I see him, he’s so-so only, with not many abilities.” “You caught him, then?” asked the old demon. “He has already been pinned down by three large mountains that I summoned,” said the second demon, “and he can’t move even an inch. That’s how I managed to transport the Tang Monk, Sha Monk, the white horse, and even the luggage back here.” When the old demon heard these words, he was filled with delight, saying, “What luck! What luck! Only after we have caught this fellow can the Tang Monk be food in our mouths.” He thereupon said to the little fiends, “Prepare some wine at once. Let’s present to our Second Great King the goblet of merit.” The second demon said, “Elder Brother, let’s not drink wine yet. Let’s order the little ones to scoop Zhu Eight Rules out of the water and hang him up.” Eight Rules was thus hung up in the east side of the cave, Sha Monk in the west side, and the Tang Monk in the middle. The white horse was placed in a stable while the luggage was brought inside the cave.

  Smiling, the old demon said, “Worthy Brother, what marvelous ability! You went out twice and you caught three monks. Though Pilgrim Sun, however, has been pressed beneath the mountains, we must find a way to bring him here so that he can be steamed together with the others.” The second demon said, “If Elder Brother wants to bring Pilgrim Sun here, there’s no need for us to move. Please take a seat. We need only order two little monsters to put him in two treasures of ours and bring him here.” “Which treasures should they take along with them?” asked the old demon. The second demon said, “Take my red gourd of purple gold and your pure mutton-jade vase.” Bringing out the treasures, the old demon said, “Whom should we send?” The second demon said, “Let’s send Sly Devil and Wily Worm, the two of them.”

  He then gave the instructions to the two, saying, “Take these treasures and go to the tallest peak of the three mountains. Turn one of them upside down so that its mouth will face the ground and its bottom, the sky. Call out the name, ‘Pilgrim Sun,’ and if he answers, he will be sucked immediately inside. You will then seal the container with the tape bearing the words, ‘May Laozi Act Quickly According to This Command.’7 In one and three-quarter hours, he will be reduced to pus.” The two little fiends kowtowed before they left to fetch Pilgrim, and we shall speak no more of them for the moment.

  We tell you now about the Great Sage, who was pressed beneath the mountains by the magic of the demon.

  Suffering, he thought of Tripitaka;

  In adversity, he recalled the holy monk.

  He cried out with a loud voice, “O Master! I remember how you went to the Mountain of Two Frontiers to lift up the tape that had me pressed down, and it was then that old Monkey escaped his great ordeal to embrace the vow of complete poverty. Thanks to the Bodhisattva, I was given the dharma decree so that you and I could stay together and practice religion together, so that we would be brought under the same affinity and attain the same enlightenment and knowledge. How should I expect that we would run into such a demonic obstacle here, and that I would be pinned down again by his mountains. O pity it all! You may be fated to die, but pity Sha Monk, Eight Rules, and the little dragon who took all that trouble of changing into a horse. Truly as the saying goes,

  A tall tree beckons the wind, the wind will rock the tree;

  A man lives for his name, his name will wreck the man.”

  When he finished this lamentation, tears rained down his cheeks.

  All that noise, however, immediately disturbed the mountain god, the local spirit, and the Guardians of Five Quarters, who came together with the Golden-Headed Guardian. The last one said, “Whose mountains are these?” “Ours,” said the local spirit. “Do you know who it is that you have pinned down beneath the mountains?” “No, we don’t,” said the local spirit. “So, you don’t know,” said the Guardian, “but he happens to be the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, the Pilgrim Sun Wukong who caused tremendous disturbance in Heaven five hundred years ago. Now he has embraced the right fruit to follow the Tang Monk as his disciple. How could you permit the demon to borrow these mountains to pin him down? You are as good as dead! If he ever finds release and comes out, you think he’ll spare you? Even if he lets you all go lightly, the local spirit will be demoted to an attendant in a post-house, the mountain god will be banished to military service, and even we will be placed under a terrible obligation.” Only then did the mountain god and the local spirit become frightened; they said, “We really didn’t kno
w. All we heard was the spell for moving mountains recited by the demon and we transferred the mountains here. How could we know that it was the Great Sage Sun?”

  The Guardian said, “Don’t be afraid now. The Law says, ‘The ignorant will not be held culpable.’ You and I can discuss the matter and see how we can release him without making him beat us.” “This is becoming rather ridiculous,” said the local spirit. “Will he beat us even after we have released him?” “You have no idea,” said the Guardian, “that he possesses a compliant golden-hooped rod, a most powerful weapon indeed. One stroke of it means death; one touch, a bad wound! A small tap and the tendons snap, a tiny brush and the skin collapses!”

  Growing more and more alarmed, the mountain god and the local spirit had a discussion with the Guardians of Five Quarters before walking up to the front of the three mountains and crying, “Great Sage, the mountain god, the local spirit, and the Guardians of Five Quarters have come to see you.” Dear Pilgrim! Though he might be like a lean tiger at the moment, his prowess remained. When he heard the announcement, he replied at once resolutely in a ringing voice, “Why do you want to see me?” The local spirit said, “Allow me to report this to the Great Sage. I ask your permission to move the mountains away so that the Great Sage might come out and pardon the crime of disrespect unknowingly committed by this humble deity.” Pilgrim said, “Move the mountains away. I won’t hit you.” When he said this, it was as if an official pardon had been announced! The various gods began reciting their spells and the mountains were sent back to their original locations.

  Once released, Pilgrim leaped up; shaking off the dirt and tightening up his skirt, he whipped out his rod from behind his ear and said to the mountain god and the local spirit: “Stick out your shanks. Each of you will receive two strokes so that old Monkey may find some relief for his misery!” Terrified, the two gods said, “Just now the Great Sage promised to pardon us. How could you change your word, now that you have come out, and want to hit us?” “Dear local spirit! Dear mountain god!” said Pilgrim. “You are not afraid of old Monkey, you are afraid of the monsters instead!” The local spirit said, “Those demons have vast magical powers. With their incantations and spells, they would summon us into their cave and we would have to take turns to be on duty.”

  When Pilgrim heard these two words “on duty,” he, too, was quite shaken. Lifting his head to face the sky, he cried in a loud voice, “O Azure Heaven! Since the division of chaos and the creation of Heaven and Earth, and since the Flower-Fruit Mountain gave birth to me, I did search all around for the enlightened teacher to transmit to me the secret formula for longevity. Think of it, I can change with the wind, tame the tiger, and subdue the dragon; I even caused great disturbance in the Celestial Palace and acquired the name Great Sage. But I never dared to be so insolent as to order a mountain god or a local spirit around. These demons today are truly lawless! How could they be so arrogant as to make the mountain god and the local spirit their servants, forcing them to take turns to be on duty? O Heaven, if you had given birth to old Monkey, why did you give birth to these creatures also?”8

  As the Great Sage was thus sighing, he saw in the distance beams of light rising from a mountain valley. “Mountain god, local spirit,” said Pilgrim, “since you have been on duty in the cave, you must know what objects are those emitting the light.” “They must be the luminescent treasures of the demons,” said the local spirit. “Some monster spirits, I suppose, are coming with the treasures to subdue you.” Pilgrim said, “This is a lot more fun! Let me ask you quickly, who would socialize with them in the cave?” The local spirit said, “Those they love are are persons who heat the cinnabar and refine the herbs; those whom they delight in are the Quanzhen Daoists.” “No wonder he changed into an old Daoist to lure my master away,” said Pilgrim. “Since this is the case, your beating will be deferred for the moment. You may leave, let old Monkey himself catch them.” The various deities rose into the air and left.

  This Great Sage shook his body once and changed into an old adept. “How was he dressed?” you ask.

  His head had two buns of hair;

  He wore a clerical robe;

  His hand struck a bamboo fish;9

  A Master Lü10 sash circled his waist.

  Reclining by the main road,

  He waited for the little fiends.

  In awhile the fiends arrived;

  The Ape King released his tricks.

  In no time at all, the two little fiends came before him and Pilgrim stuck out his golden-hooped rod. Unprepared for this, one of the little fiends tripped on it and fell; only when he scrambled up did he see Pilgrim. “Villainy! Villainy!” he began to cry. “If our Great Kings didn’t have a special fondness for your kind of people, I would scrap with you.” “What’s there to scrap about?” said Pilgrim, smiling amiably. “A Daoist meeting a Daoist, we are all in the same family!” “Why did you lie here,” said the fiend, “and cause me to stumble?” Pilgrim said, “A Daoist youth like you, when you run into an aged Daoist like me, must take a fall—it’s a sort of substitute for presenting an introductory gift.” The fiend said, “Our Great Kings only demand a few ounces of silver as introductory gifts. Why do you insist on someone taking a fall? This must be the custom of another region, and you can’t possibly be a Daoist from around here.” “Indeed, I’m not,” said Pilgrim, “for I came from Penglai Mountain.” The fiend said, “But Penglai is an island in the territory of immortals.” “If I’m not an immortal,” said Pilgrim, “who’s an immortal?” Turning all at once from anger to delight, the fiend approached him and said, “Old Immortal, Old Immortal! We are of fleshly eyes and mortal stock, and that’s why we can’t recognize you. Our words have offended you. Please pardon us.” “I won’t blame you,” said Pilgrim, “for as the saying goes, ‘The immortal frame does not tread on ground profane.’ How could you know? The reason why I have landed on your mountain today is that I want to enlighten a good man to become an immortal, to understand the Dao. Which of you is willing to follow me?” Sly Devil said, “Master, I’ll follow you,” while Wily Worm also said, “Master, I’ll follow you.”

  Though he knew the reason already, Pilgrim nonetheless asked, “Where did you two come from?” “From the Lotus-Flower Cave,” said one of the fiends.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Our Great Kings have ordered us,” said the fiend, “to go capture Pilgrim Sun.” “To capture whom?” asked Pilgrim. “To capture Pilgrim Sun,” said the fiend again. Pilgrim said, “Could it be Pilgrim Sun, the one who’s following the Tang Monk to seek scriptures?” “Exactly, exactly,” said the fiend. “You know him too?”

  “That monkey is rather rude,” said Pilgrim. “I know him all right, and I am a little mad at him. I’ll go with you to capture him; we’ll consider this my assisting you in making merit.”

  “Master,” said the fiend, “no need for you to assist us in making merit. Our Second Great King has considerable magic powers: he summoned three huge mountains and had that monkey pinned down, unable to move even an inch. He then told us to come with treasures to store him up.”

  “What kind of treasures?” asked Pilgrim. Sly Devil said, “Mine is a red gourd, while his is a pure jade vase.” “How do you plan to store him up?” asked Pilgrim. The little fiend replied, “Turn my treasure upside down so that its mouth will face the earth and its bottom the sky. I’ll then call him once, and if he answers me, he will at once be sucked inside. I will then seal the treasure with a tape bearing the words, ‘May Laozi Act Quickly According to This Command.’ In one and three-quarter hours, he will be reduced to pus.”

  When Pilgrim heard that, he said to himself in secret alarm, “Formidable! Formidable! Previously the Day Sentinel said that they had five treasures, and these must be two of them. I wonder what sort of things are the other three?” He smiled and said to the two of them, “Could you two permit me to have a look at the treasures?” Completely unsuspecting, the little fiends took out from the
ir sleeves at once the two treasures and presented them to Pilgrim with two hands. When Pilgrim saw them, he was delighted, saying to himself, “Marvelous things! Marvelous things! I could wag my tail once and leap clear of this place, making off with the treasures as if they had been presented to me as gifts.” He then thought to himself, “It’s no good! I can rob them of these things, but old Monkey’s reputation will be ruined. This is nothing but committing robbery in broad daylight.” He therefore returned the treasures to the fiends, saying, “You haven’t seen my treasure yet.” One of the fiends said, “What kind of treasure does Master have? Would you permit us profane people to have a look, to ward off calamities, perhaps?”

  Dear Pilgrim! Stretching forth his hand, he pulled off a piece of hair from his tail and gave it a squeeze, crying “Change!” It changed at once into a huge red gourd of purple gold, about seventeen inches tall. He took it out from his waist, saying, “You want to see my gourd?” Having received it in his hands and examined it, Wily Worm said, “Master, your gourd is big, and it has nice form. It’s good to look at all right, but I’m afraid that it’s not good to use.” “What do you mean by not good to use?” asked Pilgrim. The fiend said, “Each one of our treasures can store up to a thousand people.” “So,” said Pilgrim, “yours can store up people. What’s so rare about that? This gourd of mine can even store up Heaven!”

  “It can?” said the fiend. “Indeed,” said Pilgrim. “I’m afraid you are lying,” said the fiend. “Store it up for us to see and we’ll believe you; otherwise, we’ll never believe you.” “If Heaven irritates me,” said Pilgrim, “I usually store it up seven or eight times within a single month. If it doesn’t bother me, I will not store it up for as long as half a year.” “Elder Brother,” said Wily Worm, “a treasure that can store up Heaven! Let’s exchange ours with his.” Sly Devil said, “How would he be willing to exchange his with ours, which can only store up people?” “If he’s unwilling,” said Wily Worm, “we’ll make it good with our vase also.” Secretly delighted, Pilgrim thought to himself: