by Wu Cheng-En
Going down to the side of a gill, he broke off some willow branches and gathered a few pebbles. Taking them back up to the tomb, he planted the willow branches on either side and piled the pebbles in front of it. “What's all that about?” Monkey asked.
“The willow branches are used instead of cypresses to shade the master's tomb for the time being,” Pig answered, “and the pebbles are offerings to him instead of cakes.”
“Cretin!” Monkey shouted. “He's already dead. What do you want to go offering him stones for?”
“Just to show what the living feel,” Pig replied, “and out of mourning and respect.”
“You'd better cut that nonsense out,” Monkey replied. “Tell Friar Sand to come here. He can guard the tomb and keep an eye on the horse and the luggage while we two go and smash the cave palace up, capture the monster and break his body into ten thousand bits. Then we'll have avenged the master.”
“You're absolutely right, big brother,” said Friar Sand through his tears. “You two be careful. I'll keep watch here.”
The splendid Pig then took off his black brocade tunic, tied his undershirt tightly, picked up his rake and followed Monkey. The two of them rushed straight for the stone gates, and with no more ado they smashed them down and shouted with a yell that made the heavens shake, “Give us our Tang Priest back alive!” This sent the souls flying from all the devils old and young in the cave, who complained that the commander of the vanguard had wronged them. “How are we going to deal with these monks now they've fought their way in through the gates?” the demon king asked.
“The ancients used to say,” the commander of the vanguard replied, “'Put your hand in a basket of fish and it's bound to stink.' Now we're in this we've got to see it through. We'll just have to take our troops into battle with these monks.” When the demon heard this he had no alternative but to issue the order, “Stand together, my little ones. Bring your best weapons with you and come with me.” They then charged out through the entrance of the cave with a great war cry.
The Great Sage and Pig quickly fell back a few paces before they held the devilish onslaught on a piece of flat ground on the mountainside, shouting, “Who's your best-known boss? Who's the ogre who captured our master?”
The devils had now palisaded their position, over which a multicolored embroidered flag flew, and the demon king shouted straight back as he held the iron mace, “Damned monks! Don't you know who I am? I'm the Great King of the Southern Mountains, and I've been running wild here for hundreds of years. I've eaten your Tang Priest up. What are you going to do about it?”
“You've got a nerve, you hairy beast,” retorted Monkey abusively. “How old are you, daring to call yourself after the Southern Mountains? Lord Lao Zi was the ancestor who opened up heaven and earth, but even he sits on the right of the Supreme Pure One. The Tathagata Buddha is the Honoured One who rules the world, and he sits below the Great Roc. Confucius the Sage is the Honoured One of the Confucian School, and all he's called is Master. So how dare you call yourself Great King of the Southern Mountains and talk about running wild for several hundred years? Don't move, and take this from your grandfather's cudgel!”
The evil spirit twisted aside to avoid the cudgel, which he parried with his iron mace. “How dare you try to put me down like that, monkey-face,” said the monster, glaring furiously. “What kind of powers have you got, acting like a maniac at my gates.”
“I'll get you, you nameless beast,” replied Brother Monkey with a grin. “You evidently don't know who I am, so just stand there and make yourself brave while I tell you:
My ancestral home is in the Eastern Continent,
Where heaven and earth nourished me for thousands of years.
On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit was a magic stone egg;
When the egg broke open my roots were inside.
My birth was not like that of an ordinary being:
My body was formed when sun and moon mated.
1 cultivated myself with formidable effect;
Heaven gave me a perceptive and cinnabar head.
As the Great Sage I dwelt in the palace in the clouds,
Using my strength in a fight against the Dipper and Bull Palace.
A hundred thousand heavenly troops could get nowhere near me;
All the stars in the sky were easily subdued.
My fame resounds throughout the cosmos;
I know all about everything between earth and sky.
Since my conversion to Sakyamuni's teachings
1 have been helping my master on his journey to the West.
When I clear a path through mountains no one can stop me;
My skill at bridging rivers causes demons distress.
In forests I use my power to seize tigers and leopards;
I capture wild beasts bare-handed before sheer cliffs.
For the sake of the East's true achievement I have come to the Western Regions;
What evil monster will dare to show itself?
I hate the wicked beasts who have murdered my master;
Their lives will all be ended at this moment.”
These remarks both shocked and infuriated the ogre, who ground his teeth, sprang forward and struck at Brother Monkey with his iron mace. Monkey blocked it effortlessly with his cudgel and would have said some more to him when Pig, unable to restrain himself any longer, started swinging wildly at the demon king's commander of the vanguard. The commander of the vanguard led his whole force into action, and a hectic and splendid battle was fought on that piece of level ground on the mountainside:
The monk from the great and superior country in the East
Was going to fetch true scriptures from the Western Paradise.
The great leopard of the Southern mountains breathed out wind and clouds
To block their way through the mountains and show off his prowess.
With tricks
And deception
He had foolishly captured the priest from Great Tang.
Then he met Monkey with his tremendous powers
As well as the famous Zhu Bajie.
While the demons fought on level ground in the mountains
Dust clouds arose and darkened the sky.
Above the fray rose the junior devils' roars
As they thrust out wildly with spear and with sword.
On the other side the monks shouted back,
Fighting with rake and with cudgel together.
The Great Sage was a matchless hero,
And Pig in his perfection reveled in his strength.
The ancient ogre of the South,
And his vanguard commander
For the sake of a piece of the Tang Priest's flesh
Were prepared to throw their own lives away.
These two hated them for killing their master:
The other two were set on murder because of the Tang Priest.
The struggle long swayed to and fro,
The clashes and charges yielding no victor.
When Monkey realized that the junior devils were fighting so hard that repeated attacks were failing to drive them back he used body-dividing magic, plucked out a bunch of hairs, chewed them up in his mouth, spat the pieces out, called “Change!” and turned them all into his own doubles, each wielding a gold-banded cudgel and fighting his way into the cave from the outside. The one or two hundred junior devils, unable to cope with their attacks from all sides, all fled for their lives back into the cave. Monkey and Pig then fought their way back out through the enemy ranks from the inside. The evil spirits who had no sense tried to stand up to the rake and found themselves bleeding from nine wounds, or resisted the cudgel and had their flesh and bones beaten to paste. The Great King of the Southern Mountains was so alarmed that he fled for his life on his clouds and wind. The commander of the vanguard, who did not know how to do transformations, had already fallen to Monkey's club and been revealed as what he really was: an iron-backed gray wolf ogre.
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sp; Pig went up to him, turned him over by his leg, and said, “Goodness only knows how many piglets and lambs this so-and-so has eaten.”
Monkey meanwhile shook himself, put the hair back on his body and said, “No time to lose, idiot. After the demon king! Make him pay for the master's life.” Pig turned back, but all the little Monkeys had disappeared.
“Your magic bodies have all gone, brother,” he exclaimed.
“I've taken them back,” Monkey replied.
“Splendid,” said Pig, “splendid.” The two of them went back in triumph, feeling very pleased.
When the senior demon escaped back to the cave he told his underlings to move rocks and earth to barricade the front gates. The surviving junior demons were all trembling with terror as they barricaded the entrance: they would not have dared to stick their heads out again now. Monkey led Pig to the gates and shouted without getting any response. Pig's rake made no impression when he struck them with it.
Realizing what had happened, Monkey said, “Don't waste your effort, Pig. They've barricaded the gates.”
“Then how are we going to avenge the master?” Pig asked.
“Let's go back to his grave and see Friar Sand,” Brother Monkey replied.
When they got back there they found Friar Sand still weeping, at which Pig became more miserable than ever, throwing down his rake, prostrating himself on the tomb mound and beating the ground with his hand as he howled, “Poor, poor Master. Master from so far away! I'll never see you again!”
“Don't distress yourself so, brother,” said Monkey. “The evil spirit may have barricaded his front gates, but he's bound to have a back entrance to go in and out through. You two wait here while I go and look for it.
“Do be careful, brother,” said Pig through his tears. “Don't get caught yourself too. We could never cope if we had to wail for the master then for you by turns. We'd make an awful mess of it.”
“No problem,” said Monkey. “I've got my ways of doing things.”
Putting his cudgel away the splendid Great Sage tightened his kilt, stepped out and went back over the mountain. On his way he heard the sound of flowing water. When he turned round to look he saw that there was a brook flowing down from above him, and beside the gill was a gate, to the left of which was a drainpipe from which red water was coming out.
“Goes without saying,” he thought. “That must be the back entrance. If I go as myself the junior demons may well recognize me when I open the door and see them. I'd better turn into a water snake to go in. No, hold on. If the master's spirit knows that I've turned into a water snake he'll be angry with me as a monk for turning into something so long drawn-out. I'd better turn into a little crab. No, that's no good either. The master would be cross with me for having too many legs for a monk.” So he turned into a water rat who slipped into the water with a soughing sound and went straight to the inner courtyard along the drainpipe. Here he thrust his head out for a look around and saw some junior devils setting out gobbets of human flesh to dry in a sunny spot.
“Heavens!” said Monkey. “That must be what they can't finish from the master's flesh. No doubt they're drying it to save for a rainy day. If I turned back into myself now, went up to them and wiped them out with one swing of my cudgel I'd be making myself look brave but stupid. I'll do another change, go in to look for the senior devil, and find out what's what.” With that he jumped out of the drain, shook himself, and turned himself into a winged ant. Indeed:
Weak and tiny and known as black colts,
They hide away for many a day till they have wings and can fly.
Casually crossing beside the bridge they draw up their ranks;
They enjoy battles of high strategy under the bed.
Because they know when rain is coming they block their holes
And build their mounds of dust that turn to ashes.
Light they are, and delicate and quick,
Rarely observed as they pass the wicker gate.
He spread his wings and flew straight into the inner hall, unseen and unheard. Here the senior demon could be seen sitting very angrily in the seat of honour, while a junior devil ran up from behind to report, “Many congratulations, Your Majesty.”
“What on?” the senior demon asked.
“I was on lookout by the gill outside the back door just now,” the junior devil replied, “when suddenly I heard some loud wails. I rushed up to the top of the mountain to take a look and saw Zhu Bajie, Sun the Novice and Friar Sand all bowing to a grave and weeping bitterly. I think they must have taken that head for the Tang Priest's and buried it, piled up a grave mound and mourned for it.”
When Monkey overheard this he said to himself with delight, “From what he's said they've still got the master here and haven't eaten him yet. I'll take a look around and find out if he's still alive, then have a word with him.”
The splendid Great Sage then flew into the main hall and looked all around until he saw a very tiny doorway on one side of it. It was very firmly shut, and when he squeezed through the narrow gap between the doors he found himself in a big garden in which he could vaguely make out the sound of sobbing. Flying further inside he saw a clump of tall trees at the foot of which were tied two men. One of these was the Tang Priest. As soon as Monkey saw him he felt an itch in his heart that he could not scratch.
He could not help turning back into himself, going up to Sanzang and calling, “Master.”
When the Tang Priest saw who it was he started crying and saying, “Is that you, Wukong? Save me as quickly as you can, Wukong.”
“Don't keep saying my name, Master,” Monkey replied. “There are people at the front and the secret may get out. As you're still alive I can rescue you. The ogres said they'd already eaten you and tricked me with an imitation human head. Now we're in a bitter struggle with them. There's no need to worry, Master. Just stick it out for a little longer till I've beaten the evil spirit, then I'll be able to rescue you.”
The Great Sage said the words of a spell, shook himself, turned into an ant again and flew back into the hall, where he landed on the main beam. From here he saw the surviving junior devils jostling and shouting. One of them sprang out from the crowd and said, “Your Majesty, now they know we've blocked the main gate and they won't be able to fight their way in they've given up hope. They've even made a tomb for the wrong head. They spent today mourning for him, and they'll do the same again tomorrow and the day after. I'm sure they'll go away after that. Once we find out that they've split up we can bring the Tang Priest out, chop him up into little bits, and fry him with aniseed. Then everyone will be able to eat a piece when he's steaming hot, and we'll all live forever.”
At this another junior devil clapped his hands together and said, “No, no, he'd taste much better steamed.”
“Boiling him would save some firewood,” another put in.
“He's such a rare and wonderful thing,” said someone else, “that we ought to salt him down and take our time over eating him.”
When Monkey heard all this from up among the beams he thought with fury, “What harm did my master ever do you? Why are you making these plans to eat him?” He pulled out a handful of hairs, chewed them up into little pieces, blew them lightly out of his mouth and silently recited the words of the spell that turned all the pieces into sleep insects. These he threw into the faces of all the devils, and the insects crawled up their noses, gradually making the devils feel sleepy. Before long the junior devils were all lying stretched out fast asleep. The demon king was the only one left fitfully awake as he kept rubbing his face and head, sneezing and pinching his nose.
“Perhaps he knows about how to cope with sleep insects,” Monkey thought. “I'd better give him a double dose.” He pulled out a hair, made two more sleep insects as before, and threw them into the demon's face to crawl up his nose, one up the left nostril and one up the right. The demon king jumped to his feet, stretched, yawned twice and fell fast asleep, breathing heavily.
Quietly delighted, Monkey then sprang down from the roof and turned back into himself. He produced his cudgel from his ear and waved it till it was the thickness of a duck egg, then with a loud bang broke down the side door, ran into the garden at the back and called out, “Master!”
“Untie me quick, disciple,” the venerable elder said. “Being roped up like this has been agony.”
“Be patient, Master,” said Monkey. “When I've killed the evil spirit I'll come and untie you.” He then hurried back into the hall, lifted his cudgel and was about to strike when he stopped and thought, “No, this is wrong. I ought to release the master before I kill the evil spirit.” He went back into the garden, where he changed his mind again: “No, I'll kill the monster first.” This happened two or three times till finally he came dancing back into the garden, where his master's grief turned to joy at the sight of him.
“You monkey,” he said, “I suppose it's because you're beside yourself with pleasure at seeing me still alive that you're dancing about like that.” Only then did Monkey go up to him, untie him, and help him walk away. The man tied to the other tree then called out, “Please save me too in your great mercy, my lord.”
The venerable elder stopped and said, “Untie him too, Wukong.”
“Who's he?” Monkey asked.
“He was captured and brought here a day before me,” Sanzang replied. “He's a woodcutter. He tells me his mother is very old and he is most worried about her. He is a very dutiful son. You must save him too.”
Doing as he was bid, Monkey untied the other man and took them both out through the back gate, up the scar and across the ravine. “Thank you for rescuing this man and me, worthy disciple,” said Sanzang. “Where are Wuneng and Wujing?”
“Mourning for you over there,” Monkey replied, “Give them a shout.”
Sanzang then shouted at the top of his voice, “Bajie! Bajie!” The idiot, who had been weeping so much that his head was spinning, wiped away the snot and tears to call, “Friar Sand, the master's come back as a ghost. That him calling, isn't it?”
