Journey to the West (vol. 3)

by Wu Cheng-En

  This suggestion delighted the demon king, who said, “What a brilliant plan, brilliant! If I don't catch the Tang Priest this way, that'll be that. But if I do I can assure you you'll be richly rewarded. I'll make you commander of the vanguard.” The junior devil kowtowed to thank him for his grace and went off to call the roll of the devils. After all the monsters in the cave had been carefully checked through, three capable junior devils were selected. They turned into the senior devil's doubles and went to lie in wait for the Tang Priest with their iron maces.

  The venerable Tang elder meanwhile was following Pig along the way without a care in the world. When they had been going for some time there was a crashing sound from beside the track and out leapt a junior devil who rushed straight at them, evidently to grab Sanzang. “The evil spirit's here, Pig,” Monkey shouted. “Get him!”

  The idiot, who was taken in by the imposture, hacked wildly at the devil with his rake. The evil spirit parried Pig's blows with his mace as he met the onslaught. While the battle between the pair of them ebbed and flowed on the mountainside there was a noise in the undergrowth as another monster sprang out and charged at the Tang Priest.

  “This is bad, Master,” said Monkey. “Pig can't see straight. He's let the monster escape to catch you. I'm going to fight him.” Pulling his cudgel out in a flash, he went up to the monster, shouting, “Where d'you think you're going? Take this!”

  Without saying a word the evil spirit raised his mace to meet the attack. But while the two of them were locked in combat, swinging at each other, there was a howling wind from the other side of the mountain and a third evil spirit sprang out who also rushed straight at the Tang Priest. When Friar Sand saw it he exclaimed in alarm, “Master, big brother and second brother both can't see straight. They've let the evil spirit get away to catch you. Stay on the horse while I get him.”

  Friar Sand was taken in too. Brandishing his staff he blocked the evil spirit's iron mace and started a bitter combat. It was a wild fight with shouts and awful yells, and they drew further and further away. When the demon king saw from up in the sky that the Tang Priest was alone on the horse he reached down with his five-clawed steel hook and seized him. The master lost horse and stirrups as the evil spirit carried him off in a gust of wind. Alas! This was a case of

  When the dhyana-nature encountered a monster the true achievement was hard;

  The monk of the river current met once more with a star of disaster.

  Bringing his wind down to land, the demon king took the Tang Priest into the cave and called, “Commander of the vanguard!”

  The junior devil who had made the plan came forward, knelt and said, “I am not worthy.”

  “How can you say that?” the demon king replied. “Once the commander-in-chief has spoken, white becomes black. What I said before was that if I failed to catch the Tang Priest, that would be that; but that if I succeeded I'd make you my commander of the vanguard. Your brilliant plan has succeeded today, so there is no reason why I should break faith with you. Bring the Tang Priest here and tell the underlings to fetch water, scrub the cooking pot, fetch some firewood and light the fire. When he's been steamed you and I will each have a piece of his flesh and live for ever.”

  “Your Majesty,” the commander of the vanguard replied, “he mustn't be eaten yet.”

  “Why ever not?” the demon king asked. “We've captured him.”

  “It wouldn't matter if you ate him, Your Majesty,” said the commander of the vanguard, “as far as Zhu Bajie and Friar Sand are concerned. They would be reasonable. But I'm worried about that Sun the Novice: he'd be really vicious. If he found out we'd eaten the Tang Priest he wouldn't come to give us a straight fight. He'd just thrust that gold-banded cudgel of his into the mountainside and make a hole so big that the whole mountain would collapse. We'd be homeless.”

  “What do you suggest, commander of the vanguard?” the demon king asked.

  “In my opinion,” the commander replied, “we should send the Tang Priest out to the back garden, tie him to a tree, and starve him for two or three days. That will clean him up inside and let us make sure that the three disciples don't come here looking for him. Once we've found out that they've gone home we can bring the Tang Priest out and enjoy him at our leisure. That'd be better, wouldn't it?”

  “Yes, yes,” the senior demon said with a laugh. “You're right, commander of the vanguard.”

  An order was issued and the Tang Priest taken into the back garden to be roped to a tree, while all the junior devils went out to the front to keep watch. Look at the venerable elder as he suffers in his bonds, tied up tightly and unable to stop the tears rolling down his cheeks.

  “Disciples,” he called, “where did you chase those demons to when you went to capture them in the mountains? I have been captured by a wicked ogre and have met with disaster. When will I ever see you again? The pain is killing me.”

  Just when the tears from both eyes were joining in a single stream he heard someone calling from a tree opposite, “Venerable elder, you're here too.”

  Taking control of himself, the Tang Priest asked, “Who are you?”

  “I'm a woodcutter who lives on this mountain,” the other replied. “I've been tied up here for three days. I reckon they're going to eat me.”

  “Woodcutter,” said the Tang Priest with tears in his eyes, “If you die it will only be you. You have nothing else to worry about. But if I die it won't be a clean end.”

  “What do you mean, it won't be a clean end, venerable elder?” the woodcutter asked. “You have no parents, wife or children, so if you die that'll be that.”

  “I am from the East,” the Tang Priest replied, “and was going to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven. I was going on the orders of Emperor Taizong of the Tang to worship the living Buddha and fetch the true scriptures. This was to save all the lonely souls in the underworld who have nobody to care for them. If I lose my life today the vain waiting will kill my sovereign and I will let down his ministers. Countless wronged souls in the City of the Unjustly Slain will suffer a terrible disappointment and never ever be able to escape from the wheel of life. The true achievement will all be turned to dust in the wind. How can that possibly be considered a clean end?”

  When the woodcutter heard this the tears fell from his eyes as he said, “If you die that is all there to it. But my death will be even more painful for me to bear. I lost my father when I was a boy, and live alone with my mother. Because we had no property I have had to make our living as a woodcutter. My aged mother is eighty-two this year and I am her only support. If I die who will there be to bury her? It's very hard to bear: the pain of it is killing me.”

  When the venerable elder heard this he began to wail aloud, “Oh dear, oh dear,

  Even the mountain man thinks of his mother;

  I am reciting the sutras in vain.

  Serving one's monarch and serving one's parents are both the same in principle. You are moved by your mother's goodness to you and I by my sovereign lord's goodness to me.” This was indeed a case of

  Weeping eyes looking at eyes that weep,

  A heartbroken one who sees off one with a broken heart.

  But we will say no more of Sanzang's sufferings as we return to Monkey, who after driving the junior devil back down the grassy slope rushed back to the track to find that his master had disappeared. All that was left were the white horse and the luggage. In his alarm he led the horse and shouldered the carrying-pole as he headed for the top of the mountain in his search for the master. Oh dear! Indeed:

  The long-suffering monk of the river current had met with new suffering;

  The Great Sage, subduer of demons, had run into a demon.

  If you do not know how his search for his master ended, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

  Chapter 86

  The Mother of Wood Lends His Might in Defeating the Ogre

  The Metal Lord Uses His Magic to Wipe Out the Monster />
  The story tells how the Great Sage Monkey was leading the horse and carrying the baggage while he searched the whole mountain top, calling out for his master. Suddenly Pig came running up to him, puffing and panting, to ask, “Why are you shouting like that, brother?”

  “The master's disappeared,” Brother Monkey replied. “Have you seen him?”

  “Why did you have to play that trick on me when I was being a good monk with the Tang Priest?” Pig asked. “What was all that about me being commander of the vanguard? I had to fight for my life before I could beat that evil spirit and come back in one piece. You and Friar Sand were looking after the master, so why ask me about it?”

  “I don't blame you, brother,” said Monkey. “Somehow or other your eyes must have gone blurred-you let the evil spirit get away and come back to catch the master again. When I went off to fight it I told Friar Sand to look after the master, and he's disappeared too.”

  “I expect he's taken the master somewhere for a crap,” said Pig with a grin, but before he had finished speaking Friar Sand turned up.

  “Where's the master, Friar Sand?” Monkey asked.

  “You two must both be blind,” retorted Friar Sand, “letting the evil spirit escape to come back for the master. When I went to fight the evil spirit the master was left in the horse by himself.”

  At this Monkey leapt with rage, shouting, “He's fooled me! He's fooled me!”

  “How's he fooled you?” Friar Sand asked.

  “It was a 'dividing the petals of the plum blossom' trick,” Monkey replied, “to draw us three off so that he could make a blow for the heart and carry off the master. Whatever in the name of Heaven are we to do?”

  He could not stop the tears from streaming down his cheeks, at which Pig said, “Don't cry. If you cry you're a pustule. He can't be far away. He must be on this mountain. Let's look for him.” The three of them had no better plan than to look for him on the mountain. When they had covered some six or seven miles they saw a cave palace at the foot of a beetling precipice:

  Clean-cut pinnacles blocking the light,

  Towering and grotesque-shaped rocks.

  The fragrance of rate and wonderful flowers,

  The beauty of red apricots and green peaches.

  The ancient trees in front of the precipice,

  Forty spans round, and with bark scarred by frost and rain;

  The azure pines standing outside the gates,

  Two thousand feet of green blue reaching up to the sky.

  Pairs of wild cranes

  That dance in the breeze at the mouth of the cave;

  Mountain birds in couples

  Chirping by day at the ends of the branches.

  Clumps of yellow creepers like ropes,

  Rows of misty willows with leaves like hanging gold.

  Water fills the pools that are square;

  All over the mountain are caves that are deep.

  In the pools that are square

  Dragons lie hidden with scales unchanged.

  In the mountain's deep caves

  Dwell ogres that long have been eaters of humans.

  This can be matched with the lands of immortals,

  A den where the winds and the vapors are stored.

  When Monkey saw this he took two or three paces forward, sprang towards the gates and saw that they were shut tight. Above them was a horizontal stone tablet on which was written in large letters

  LINKED RING CAVE:

  BROKEN RIDGE:

  HIDDEN MISTS MOUNTAIN.

  “Strike, Pig,” said Monkey. “This is where the evil spirit lives. The master must be here.”

  At this the idiot turned vicious, raised his rake, and brought it down on the gates with all his strength, smashing a big hole in them and shouting, “Ogre, send my master out at once if you don't want me to smash your gates down and finish the lot of you off.” At this the junior devils on the gates rushed back inside to report, “Disaster, Your Majesty.”

  “What disaster?” the senior demon asked.

  “Someone's smashed a hole in the front gates and is yelling that he wants his master,” the junior devils replied.

  “I wonder which one's come looking for him,” said the demon king in a state of great alarm.

  “Don't be frightened,” said the commander of the vanguard. “Let me go out and take a look.” He hurried straight to the front gates, twisted his head to one side and craned to look through the hole that had been smashed in them. He saw someone with a long snout and big ears.

  “Don't worry, Your Majesty,” he turned round and shouted at the top of his voice, “it's Zhu Bajie. He's not up to much and he won't dare try any nonsense on us. If he does we can open the gates and drag him inside to put in the steamer too. The only one to worry about is that hairy-cheeked monk with a face like a thunder god.”

  “Brother,” said Pig when he heard this from outside, “he's not scared of me but he is of you. The master's definitely inside. Come here quick.”

  “Evil damned beast,” said Monkey abusively. “Your grandfather Monkey is here. Send my master out and I'll spare your life.”

  “This is terrible, Your Majesty,” the commander of the vanguard reported. “Sun the Novice is here looking for him too.” At this the demon king started complaining, “It's all because of your 'petal-dividing' or whatever you called it. You've brought disaster on us. How is this going to end?”

  “Don't worry, Your Majesty,” the commander of the vanguard replied, “and don't start grumbling yet. That Sun the Novice is a monkey of great breadth of spirit. Although he has such tremendous magical power he's partial to flattery. We'll take an imitation human head out to fool him with, say a few flattering things to him and tell him we've eaten his master already. If we can take him in, the Tang Priest will be ours to enjoy. If we can't we'll have to think again.”

  “But where are we to get an imitation human head?” the demon king asked.

  “I'll see if I can make one,” the commander of the vanguard replied.

  The splendid ogre then cut a piece of willow root with an axe of pure steel into the shape of a human head, spurted some human blood on it from his mouth to make it all sticky, and told a junior devil to take it to the gates on a lacquer tray, calling, “My Lord Great Sage, please overcome your anger and allow me to address you.”

  Brother Monkey really was partial to being flattered, and when he heard himself being addressed as “My Lord Great Sage” he grabbed hold of Pig and said, “Don't hit him. Let's hear what he has to say.”

  To this the junior devil with the tray replied, “When my king took your master into the cave the junior devils were naughty and behaved very badly. They gobbled and gnawed and grabbed and bit, and ate the whole of your master up except his head, which I have here.”

  “If you've eaten him up, that's that,” Monkey replied. “Bring the head out and let me see whether it's real or false.” The junior devil threw the head out through the hole in the gates, a sight that started Pig howling and saying, “This is terrible. The master went in looking one way and he's come out looking like this.”

  “Idiot,” said Monkey, “have a look and find out if it's real before you start crying.”

  “You're shameless,” said Pig, “how could there ever be such a thing as a fake human head?”

  'This one's a fake,” Brother Monkey replied.

  “How can you tell?” Pig asked. “When you throw a real human head it lands quietly,” Monkey explained, “but when you throw a fake it makes a loud noise like a pair of wooden clappers. If you don't believe me, I'll throw it for you. Listen!” He picked the head up and threw it against a rock, where it gave a hollow ring.

  “It was loud, brother,” said Friar Sand.

  “That means it's a fake,” said Monkey. “I'll make it turn back into its real self to show you.” Producing his gold-banded cudgel in a flash he hit the head open. When Pig looked he saw that it was a piece of willow root. This was too much for the i
diot, who started talking abusively.

  “I'll get you, you hairy lot,” he said, “you may have hidden my master in your cave and fooled your ancestor Pig with a piece of willow root, but don't imagine that my master is just a willow-tree spirit in disguise.”

  The junior devil who was holding the tray was thrown into such a panic by this that he ran shaking with fear back to report, “It's terrible, terrible, terrible.”

  “What's so terribly terrible then?' the senior demon asked.

  “Zhu Bajie and Friar Sand were taken in, but Monkey's like an antique dealer-he really knows his stuff,” the junior demon replied. “He could tell it was an imitation head. If only we could give him a real human head he might go away.”

  “But how are we to get one?” the senior demon wondered, then continued, “Fetch a human head we haven't eaten yet from the flaying shed.” The devils then went to the shed and choose a fresh head, after which they gnawed all the skin off it till it was quite smooth and carried it out on a tray.

  “My lord Great Sage,” the messenger said, “I am afraid it was a fake head last time. But this really is Lord Tang's head. Our king had kept it so as to bring good fortune to our cave, but now he's making a special offering of it.” He then threw the head out through the hole in the gates, it landed with a thud and rolled on the ground, gory with blood.

  Seeing that this human head was a real one Monkey could not help starting to wail, in which he was joined by Pig and Friar Sand.

  “Stop crying, brother,” said Pig, holding back his tears. “This is very hot weather, and the head will soon become putrid. I'm going to fetch and bury it while it's still fresh. We can cry for him afterwards.”

  “You're right,” said Monkey, and the idiot cradled the head against his chest, not caring about the filth, as he hurried up the cliff till he found a South-facing spot where the winds and the natural forces were gathered. Here he hacked out a hole with his rake, buried the head, and piled a grave-mound over it. Only then did he say to Friar Sand, “You and big brother weep over him while I look for some offerings.”