by Wu Cheng-En
The king was mystified about what this adjuvant could be, but only after repeated questions did the Elder of the Nation reply, “The monk from the East who is being sent to fetch the scriptures has pure organs and regular features. His is the body of one who has cultivated his conduct for ten lifetimes. He has been a monk since childhood and has preserved his masculine purity, which all makes him ten thousand times better than those little boys. If you can make a decoction from his heart with which to take my elixir I can guarantee you an extremely long life.”
When the deluded king heard this he believed it completely. “Why didn't you tell us before?” he said to the Elder of the Nation. “If it's as good as you say we should have kept him when he was here just now and not let him go.”
“This will present no problem,” the Elder of the Nation said. “You have already told the department of foreign relations to give him a vegetarian banquet. He can't possibly leave the city before eating the meal. Urgent orders must be issued to have the gates firmly closed. Send troops to surround the government hostel and bring that monk here. First we will try to win his heart by treating him with courtesy. If he agrees we will cut it out and give him a royal burial, build him a temple and make offerings to him. If he will not agree we'll use rough methods. We can tie him up and cut it out. There will be no problem.” The deluded ruler accepted this suggestion and ordered that all the gates be closed. He then sent the officers and men of the royal guard to surround the hostel.
Having found all this out Monkey flew straight to the hostel, turned back into himself and said to the Tang Priest, “Something terrible's happened, Master, something terrible.” Sanzang had just begun to eat the king's vegetarian banquet with Pig and Friar Sand when this sudden announcement scattered his three bodily spirits and made smoke come out of his seven orifices. He collapsed in the dust, pouring with sweat, and unable to see clearly or speak.
Friar Sand was so alarmed he came forward to help him back to his feet, calling, “Wake up, Master, wake up.”
“What's so terrible?” Pig asked. “What's so terrible? You should have broken the news gently instead of giving the master such a scare.”
“When the master left the palace I went back to keep an eye on things,” Monkey replied. “That Elder of the Nation is an evil spirit. A moment later the city garrison came to report about the cold wind carrying the little boys away. This upset the king, but the Elder of the Nation cheered him up by saying that this was Heaven giving him eternal life. He wants to use your heart as an adjuvant for the elixir of immortality, Master. The deluded king has accepted this wicked suggestion and ordered his best troops to surround this hostel. He's also sent an aide to ask you for your heart, Master.”
“What a merciful and compassionate chap you are,” said Pig with a laugh. “You saved the boys and made the wind blow all right, but now you've got us in this disastrous mess.”
Trembling and shaking, Sanzang dragged himself to his feet, seized hold of Monkey and said imploringly, “Good disciple, how are we to get out of this?”
“If you want to get out of this,” said Monkey, “there'll have to be a switch.”
“What do you mean by a switch?” Friar Sand asked.
“If you want to survive,” Monkey replied, “the disciple will have to become the master and the master the disciple. Do that and we'll be safe.”
“Save my life,” said Sanzang, “and I will gladly become your disciple or even your disciple's disciple.”
“In that case there must be no hesitation,” Monkey replied, continuing, “Pig, mix up some mud at once.” The idiot loosened some earth with his rake then, not daring to go outside for water, lifted his tunic to make some water himself. With this he mixed up a lump of foul-smelling mud that he handed to Monkey. Monkey had no option but to beat it out flat and press it against his face so that it looked like a monkey's face. Then he told his master to stand up and neither move nor say anything while he placed the mask on his face, said the words of a spell, blew a magic breath and said, “Change!”
The venerable elder now looked just like Monkey. He took off his own clothes and put on Monkey's while Monkey dressed in his master's clothes, made a spell with his hands, said the magic words, shook himself and made himself look just like the Tang Priest. Even Pig and Friar Sand could not tell that he really was not.
Just when they had completed the disguises together there came the sound of gongs and drums as a dense forest of spears and swords appeared. The commanders of the royal guard had surrounded the hostel with their three thousand men. A royal aide came into the main hall of the hostel to ask, “Where is the reverend gentleman from the Tang court in the East?”
The superintendent of the hostel anxiously fell to his knees and said, pointing, “In the guest room over there.”
The aide then went into the room and said, “Venerable elder from Tang, His Majesty has sent for you.”
Pig and Friar Sand stood on either side of the imitation Monkey to guard him while the imitation Tang Priest went out through the door, bowed and said, “Your Excellency, what does His Majesty wish to say to me? Why has he sent for me?” The aide stepped forward to grab hold of him and say, “You and I are going to the palace. His Majesty must have some use for you.” Alas!
Wickedness was stronger than goodness and mercy;
Goodness and mercy only led to catastrophe.
If you don't know whether they were to survive this departure listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 79
Searching the Cave to Capture the Fiend They Meet Longevity
The Reigning Monarch Saves the Little Boys
The story tells how the royal aide dragged the imitation Tang Priest out of the government hostel and marched him, heavily surrounded by royal guardsmen, straight to the gates of the palace, where he said to the eunuch gate officer, “Please be so good as to report to His Majesty that we have brought the Tang Priest.” The eunuch officer hurried into the palace to pass this on to the deluded king, who ordered that they be brought in.
All the officials knelt at the foot of the steps to the throne hall, leaving the imitation Tang Priest standing alone in the middle of them.
“King of Bhiksuland,” he shouted, “what have you summoned me here to say to me?”
“We are sick with a chronic illness that has dragged on for many a day without any improvement,” the king replied. “Now the Elder of the Nation has to our good fortune presented us with a prescription that has been made up. All that is needed now is an adjuvant. The reason we have sent for you, reverend sir, is to ask you for the adjuvant. If we recover we will build a temple to you in which offerings will be made in all four seasons and incense will be burnt to you in perpetuity by our country.”
“I am a man of religion,” the imitation Tang Priest replied, “and have brought nothing with me. I do not know what adjuvant the Elder of the Nation has told Your Majesty you need.”
“Your heart, reverend sir,” the deluded monarch replied.
“I will be frank with Your Majesty,” the imitation Tang Priest said. “I have a number of hearts. I don't know which you want.”
“Monk,” pronounced the Elder of the Nation, who was standing beside the king. “I want your black heart.”
“Very well then,” the imitation Tang Priest replied. “Produce your knife at once and open up my chest. If there is a black heart there I shall offer it to you obediently.”
The deluded monarch thanked him delightedly and ordered an official in attendance to bring a small knife with a blade shaped like a cow's ear that was handed to the imitation Tang Priest. Taking the knife, the imitation Tang Priest undid his clothes, thrust out his chest, pressed his left hand against his abdomen and cut the skin of his stomach open with the knife in his right hand. There was a whoosh, and out rolled a whole pile of hearts. The civilian officials all turned pale with fright; the military officers were numbed.
When the Elder of the Nation saw thi
s from inside the throne hall he said, “This monk is a suspicious-minded character. He has too many hearts.”
The imitation Tang Priest then held up the hearts one by one, each dripping with blood, for all to see. They included a loyal red heart, a pure white heart, a yellow heart, an avaricious heart, a fame-hungry heart, a jealous heart, a calculating heart, an over-competitive heart, an ambitious heart, an overbearing heart, a murderous heart, a vicious heart, a frightened heart, a cautious heart, a heretical heart and a heart full of indefinable gloom. There was every kind of evil heart except a black one. The deluded ruler was horror-struck, unable to speak until he said in trembling tones, “Put them away! Put them away!”
The imitation Tang Priest had taken as much as he could, so he put his magic away and turned back into himself to say to the deluded monarch, “Your Majesty, you're not at all perceptive. We monks all have good hearts. It's only this Elder of the Nation of yours who has a black heart. His would make a good adjuvant for the medicine. If you don't believe me I'll take his out to show you.”
When the Elder of the Nation heard this he opened his eyes wide to take a careful look. He saw that the monk's face had changed to something quite different. Heavens! Recognizing him as the Great Sage Monkey who had been so famous five hundred years ago he made a getaway by cloud. Monkey did a somersault and sprang up into mid-air to shout, “Where do you think you're going? Take this from me!” The Elder used his stick with a dragon on its head to meet the blow from Monkey's cudgel. The two of them fought a fine battle up in the sky:
The As-You-Will cudgel
And the dragon stick
Making clouds up in the sky.
The Elder of the Nation was really an evil spirit,
Using his fiendish daughter's seductive charms.
The king had made himself ill through his lust;
The monster wanted to butcher the boys.
There was no escape from the Great Sage's divine powers
To catch demons and to rescue their victims.
The cudgel's blows to the head were really vicious;
Splendid was the way in which the stick met them.
They fought so hard that the sky was full of mist,
Casting city and people into darkness and fear.
The souls of civil and military officials went flying;
The faces of the queens and concubines turned pale.
The deluded king tried desperately to hide,
Trembling and shaking, unable to do anything.
The cudgel was as fierce as a tiger from the mountains;
The staff whirled round like a dragon leaving the sea.
Now they made havoc in Bhiksuland
As good and evil were clearly set apart.
When the evil spirit had fought over twenty hard rounds with Monkey his dragon staff was no longer a match for the gold-banded cudgel. Feinting with his staff, the spirit turned himself into a beam of cold light and dropped into the inner quarters of the palace to take the demon queen he had presented to the king out through the palace gates with him. She too turned into cold light and disappeared.
Bringing his cloud down, the Great Sage landed in the palace and said to the officials, “That's a fine Elder of the Nation you have!” The officials, all bowed to him, thanking the holy monk.
“No need for that,” said Monkey. “Go and see where your deluded king is.”
“When our monarch saw the fighting he hid in terror,” the officials replied. “We do not know which of the palaces he is in.”
“Find him at once,” Monkey ordered them. “Perhaps Queen Beauty has carried him off.” As soon as the officials heard this they rushed with Monkey straight to the rooms of Queen Beauty, ignoring the fact that these were the inner quarters. They were deserted and there was no sign of the king. Queen Beauty was nowhere to be seen either. The queens of the main, the Eastern and the Western palaces and the consorts of the six compounds all came to kowtow in thanks to the Great Sage.
“Please get up,” Monkey said. “It's too early for thanks now. Go and find your sovereign lord.”
A little later four or five eunuchs appeared from behind the Hall of Caution supporting the deluded king. All the ministers prostrated themselves on the ground and called out in union, “Sovereign lord! Sovereign lord! We are grateful that this holy monk came here to uncover the impostor. The Elder of the Nation was an evil spirit and Queen Beauty has vanished too.” When the king heard this he invited Monkey to come from the inner quarters of the palace to the throne hall, where he kowtowed in thanks to Monkey.
“Venerable sir,” he said, “when you came to court this morning you were so handsome. Why have you made yourself look different now?”
“I can tell you for a fact, Your Majesty,” replied Monkey with a grin, “that the one who came this morning was my master Sanzang, the younger brother of the Tang Emperor. I'm his disciple Sun Wukong. There are two more of us disciples, Zhu Wuneng, or Pig, and Sha Wujing, or Friar Sand, who are both now in the government hostel. I turned myself into my master's double and came here to defeat the monster because I knew that you had been deluded by his evil suggestions and were going to take my master's heart to use as an adjuvant for your elixir.”
When the king heard this he ordered his ministers in attendance to go straight to the hostel to fetch Monkey's master and fellow-disciples. The news that Brother Monkey had turned back into himself and had fought the evil spirit in mid-air gave Sanzang such a fright that his souls scattered. It was lucky that Pig and Friar Sand were able to hold him up. His face was still plastered with stinking mud and he was feeling thoroughly depressed and miserable when he heard someone call, “Master of the Law, we are ministers in attendance sent by the king of Bhiksuland to invite you to court to receive His Majesty's thanks.”
“Don't be afraid, master,” said Pig, “don't be afraid. This time he's not sending for you to take your heart out. I'm sure that elder brother has succeeded and they're inviting you there to thank you.”
“Even if they have come to invite me there because he has succeeded I could not face anyone with this stinking mask on,” Sanzang replied.
“We've got no option,” said Pig. “We'll just have to go to see my elder brother. He's bound to have a solution.” The venerable elder really did have no choice but to go to the main hall of the hostel with Pig and Friar Sand carrying the luggage and leading the horse. When the ministers saw him they were all terrified.
“My lord,” they said, “they both have heads like monsters.”
“Please don't take offence at our ugliness,” Friar Sand replied. “Both of us have the bodies that were left after an earlier life. If my master could see my elder brother he'd become handsome straight away.”
When the three of them reached the palace they went straight to the throne hall without waiting to be summoned. As soon as Monkey saw them he turned round and came down from the hall to meet them. Pulling the mud mask off his master's face he blew on him with magic breath, called “Change!” and turned the Tang Priest back into himself. Sanzang was now in better spirits. The king came down from the throne hall to greet him as “Master of the Law” and “ancient Buddha.” Master and disciples then tethered the horse and went into the throne hall to be presented.
“Does Your Majesty know where the monsters came from?” Monkey asked. “Let me go and catch them both for you. Then we will have eliminated future catastrophe.”
When all the queens, consorts and concubines of the three palaces and six compounds, who were behind the screen of bright green jade, heard Monkey saying that he was going to eliminate future catastrophe they cast aside all their inhibitions about appearing in front of an outsider, and a male one at that, as they came out to bow to him and say, “We beg you, holy monk and venerable Buddha, to destroy them completely, root and branch, with your dharma powers. That would be an act of the greatest kindness, and we would of course reward you richly.” Quickly responding to their bows Monkey insisted that the ki
ng tell him where the monsters lived.
“We asked him when he came here three years ago,” the king replied shamefacedly, “and he told us that it was only some twenty miles to the South of the city, in Pure Splendor Grange on Willow Slope. The Elder of the Nation was old and had no son, only the daughter that his second wife had given him. She was just fifteen and unmarried. He offered to present her to us, and because we fancied the girl we accepted her. She was the favorite among all the palace women. We never expected that we would fall so ill that all the prescriptions of the Royal College of Physicians would be of no avail. Then he told us that he had a formula for an elixir for which a decoction of boiled little boys' hearts was needed as the adjuvant. In our folly we believed him and chose some boys from among the common people. At noon today we were going to operate and take out their hearts. We never expected that you would come down to us, holy monk, and that at that very moment all the boys would disappear in their coops. Then he said that as you were a holy monk who had cultivated the truth for ten lifetimes and not yet dissipated your primal masculinity your heart would be ten thousand times more effective than the little boys' ones. In our temporary delusion we did not realize that you would see through the evil monster, holy monk. We hope that you will make full use of your great dharma to eliminate any future catastrophe. All the wealth of the nation will be given to you as your reward.”
“I will tell you the truth,” Monkey replied. “Because my master took pity on the little boys in the coops he told me to hide them. Don't say anything about giving us wealth. When I capture the evil monsters that will be a good deed to my credit. Come with me, Pig.”
“Whatever you say, elder brother,” Pig replied. “The only thing is that I've got an empty belly: I'll be rather weak.” The king then ordered the department of foreign affairs to prepare a vegetarian meal at once. Before long the food arrived.
Having eaten his fill, Pig braced his spirits and rose by cloud with Monkey. The king, queens, consorts and civil and military officials were all so astonished that they all kowtowed to the sky, exclaiming, “They really are immortals and Buddhas come down to earth.” The Great Sage led Pig twenty miles due South, stopped their wind and cloud and started searching for the demons' home. All he could see was a clear stream running between banks on which grew thousands of willows: he had no idea where the Pure Splendor Grange might be. Indeed:
