by Wu Cheng-En
Sanzang bowed in greeting before the prince's hall, and the prince invited him into the hall to sit down. When the prince read the passport that Sanzang handed him and saw the seals and signatures from so many countries on it he signed it himself, folded it up and put it on his table. “Venerable Teacher of the Nation,” he said, “you have passed through many countries on your way here from Great Tang. How long has your journey taken?”
“I have kept no record of the distance,” Sanzang said, “but some years ago the Boddhisattva Guanyin appeared to me and left an address in verse in which it was said that the road would be sixty thousand miles long. I have already seen fourteen winters and summers on my journey.”
“That means fourteen years,” the prince replied. “I should imagine that there were many delays along the way.”
“It would be hard to tell of them all,” said Sanzang. “There were thousands of monsters and I don't know how much suffering to be endured before I could reach here.” The prince was so pleased with his visitor that he ordered his kitchens to prepare a vegetarian meal for him.
“I wish to inform Your Royal Highness that I have three disciples,” Sanzang said. “As they are waiting outside I will not be able to delay our journey by accepting the meal.” The prince then ordered his aides to go straight out to invite the venerable elder's three disciples into the palace to share the meal.
When the aides went out with this invitation they said, “We can't see them, we can't see them.”
“There are three hideous monks sitting in the hostel,” one of their staff said. “Must be them.”
The aides and their staff then went to the hostel, where they asked the people in charge, “Which are the disciples of the monk from Great Tang who's going to fetch the scriptures? His Royal Highness has invited them to a meal.”
As soon as Pig, who was sitting there snoozing, heard the word “meal" he could not help jumping up and saying, “We are, we are,” at the sight of which the palace aides' souls flew from their bodies as they shivered and said, “A pig demon! A pig demon!”
When Monkey heard this he seized hold of Pig and said, “Act a bit more civilized, brother, and don't be so wild.” When the officials saw Monkey they all said, “A monkey spirit! A monkey spirit!”
“There's no need to be frightened,” said Friar Sand, raising his hands together in polite greeting. “We're all disciples of the Tang Priest.”
“A stove god, a stove god,” was the officials' reaction to the sight of him. Monkey then told Pig to lead the horse and Friar Sand to shoulder the carrying-pole as they followed the officials' staff into the prince of Yuhua's palace. The aides went ahead to announce them.
When the prince looked up and saw how ugly they were he too was frightened. “Do not be alarmed, Your Royal Highness,” said Sanzang, putting his hands together in front of his chest. “Although my rough disciples are ugly they have good hearts.”
Pig intoned a noise of respect and said, “How do you do?” This made the prince feel even more alarmed.
“All my rough disciples are from the wilds and the mountains and they do not know how to behave,” Sanzang explained, “so please forgive them.” Overcoming his fear, the prince told the superintendent of his kitchens to take the monks to eat in the Gauze Pavilion.
Sanzang thanked the prince, came down from the hall to proceed to the pavilion with his disciples, then grumbled at Pig, “You idiot,” he said, “you've not a shred of manners. If you had kept your mouth shut that would have been fine, but why did you have to be so coarse? That one remark from you was enough to knock a mountain over.”
“I did better by not making a respectful chant,” said Monkey, “and I saved a bit of my breath too.”
“You didn't even intone the chant properly,” said Friar Sand to Pig. “First of all, you stuck your snout out and roared.”
“It makes me hopping mad,” said Pig. “The other day the master told me that the polite thing when I met someone was to say, 'How do you do?' I do it today and you tell me it's wrong. How do you want me to behave?”
“I told you to say, 'How do you do?' when you meet people,” Sanzang replied, “but not to make such a fool of yourself when you meet a prince. As the saying goes, things, like people, come in grades. Why can't you see the differences of social rank?” While he was still making these remarks the superintendent of the kitchens led servants in to set out tables and chairs and serve the vegetarian feast. Then the monks stopped talking and started eating their meal.
When the prince withdrew from the palace hall to his living quarters his three sons noticed his pallor and asked, “What has given you such a fright today, Father?”
“A most remarkable monk has arrived,” the prince replied. “He has been sent by the Great Tang in the East to worship the Buddha and fetch the scriptures, and he came to present his passport. When I invited him to take a meal he told me that he had some disciples outside the palace, so I asked them in. When they came in a moment later they didn't kowtow to me but just said, 'How do you do?' That was upsetting enough. Then when I looked at them I saw that they were all as ugly as demons, which gave me quite a shock. That's why I'm looking pale.”
Now the three young princes were no ordinary boys. They were all fond of the martial arts, so they stretched out their hands, rolled up their sleeves and said, “They must be evil spirits from the mountains disguised as humans. Wait while we fetch our weapons and take a look at them.”
Splendid young princes! The eldest wielded a brow-high rod, the second a nine-toothed rake and the third a black-painted cudgel, and the three of them strode with great valour and spirit out of the palace, shouting, “What's this about monks fetching scriptures? Where are they?”
“Young prince,” replied the superintendent of the kitchens and the others on their knees, “they're eating in the Gauze Pavilion.”
The young princes then charged straight in without stopping to think as they shouted, “Are you men or monsters? Tell us at once and we'll spare your lives.”
This gave Sanzang such a fright that he turned pale, dropped his bowl, bowed to them and replied, “I have come from Great Tang to fetch the scriptures. I am a man, not a monster.”
“You look human enough,” the princes said, “but the three ugly ones are definitely monsters.”
Pig kept eating and ignored them, while Friar Sand and Monkey bowed and said, “We're all human. Our faces may be ugly but our hearts are good, and despite our clumsy bodies we have good natures. Where are you three from, and why are you shooting your mouths off so wildly?”
“These three gentlemen are His Royal Highness's sons,” explained the superintendent of the kitchens and the others who were standing at the side of the pavilion.
“Well, Your Highnesses,” said Pig, throwing down his bowl, “what are you carrying those weapons for? Do you want a fight with us?”
The second prince strode forward wielding his rake in both hands to strike at Pig, which made him say with a chuckle, “That rake of yours is only fit to be the grandson of my one.” With that he stripped down, pulled his own rake out from his belt and swung it, making ten thousand beams of golden light, then went through some movements, leaving a thousand strands of auspicious vapor. The second prince was so terrified that his hands went weak and his muscles turned numb and he lost the nerve for any more showing off.
When Monkey saw that the oldest of the young princes was leaping about with a brow-high rod he brought his own gold-banded cudgel out from his ear and shook it to make it as thick as a bowl and twelve or thirteen feet long. Ramming it into the ground, he made a hole about three feet deep in which it stood upright, then said with a smile, “I'm giving you this cudgel.”
As soon as the prince heard this he threw his own rod down and went to take the cudgel, but though he pulled at it with all his strength he couldn't move it by as much as a hair's breath. Then he straightened himself up and shook it, but it was as if it had taken root. At this the third prince st
arted acting wild, moving into the attack with his black-painted cudgel. Friar Sand dodged the blow, then brought out his own demon-quelling staff, and as he fingered it brilliant light and glowing, coloured clouds came from it, leaving the superintendent of the kitchens and the rest of them wide-eyed and speechless. The three young princes then kowtowed, saying, “Divine teachers, divine teachers, we mere mortals failed to recognize you. We beg you to give us a display of your powers.”
Monkey went up to them, effortlessly picked up his cudgel and said, “It's too cramped here for me to do my stuff. I'm jumping up into the auto play around and give you something to see.”
The splendid Great Sage went whistling up by somersault and stood on an auspicious cloud of many colours up in mid-air about three hundred feet above the ground. Then he moved up and down and spun to left and right as he performed a Canopy from Which Flowers Are Scattered and a Twisting Dragon with his gold-banded club. At first both he and the cudgel moved like flowers being added to brocade, but later he could no longer be seen as the whole sky was filled with the whirling cudgel.
As he roared his approval from down below Pig could not keep still, and with a great shout of “I'm going to have a bit of fun too!” the splendid idiot rode a breeze up into the air and started swinging his rake. He went three times up, four times down, five times to the left, six times to the right, seven times forwards and eight times backwards as he ran through all the movements he knew, filling the air with a noise like a howling gale.
Just when he had warmed up Friar Sand said to Sanzang, “Master, let me go up and give a show too.” Springing up into the air with both feet, the splendid monk whirled his club through the air, which glittered with golden light. Wielding his demon-subduing cudgel he performed a Red Phoenix Facing the Sun and a Hungry Tiger Seizing Its Prey, attacking hard and defending with time to spare as he turned for a sudden forward thrust. The three brother disciples all gave a most imposing display of their magical powers. This was indeed
An image of the dhyana, no common sight;
The causation of the Great Way filling all of space.
Metal and wood fill the dharma-world with their might;
A pinch of elixir produces perfect unity.
The quality of these magic warriors is often displayed;
The splendor of their weapons is widely revered.
Lofty though India is,
The princes of Yuhua now return to the central truth.
This all so terrified the three young princes that they fell to their knees in the dust; and all the staff in the Gauze Pavilion, high and low, together with the senior prince in his palace, all the soldiers, civilians, men and women, Buddhist monks and nuns, Taoist clergy, lay people-everyone in fact-all invoked the Buddha, kowtowed, held sticks of incense and worshipped. Indeed:
All the monks were converted at the sight of the true images,
Bringing blessings to mankind and the joys of peace.
From here the achievement was won on the road to enlightenment;
All joined in meditation and worshipped the Buddha.
When the three of them had given a display of their heroic powers they brought their auspicious clouds down to land, put their weapons away, joined their hands together in homage to the Tang Priest, thanked him and took their seats again.
The three young princes hurried back into the palace to report to their father, “A most wonderful thing has happened, Father. Today has been a tremendous success. Did you see the performance in the sky just now?”
“When I saw the coloured clouds glowing in the sky a little while back I, your mother and everyone else in the inner palace burned incense and worshipped,” the prince, their father, replied. “I don't know where the gods or immortals who had gathered there were from.”
“They weren't gods and immortals from somewhere else,” the young princes said. “They were the three hideous disciples of the monk who's going to fetch the scriptures. One of them uses a gold-banded iron cudgel, one a nine-toothed take, and one a demon-quelling staff, all exactly the same as our three weapons. When we asked them to give us a display they said it was too cramped down here to be able to manage, so they'd go up into the sky to give us a show. Then they all went up on clouds, filling the sky with auspicious clouds and vapors. They only came down a moment ago, and they're now sitting in the Gauze Pavilion. We are all very taken with them and we'd like to make them our teachers and learn their skills to protect the country with. This really will be an enormous achievement. I wonder what Your Majesty thinks.” When the prince, their father, heard this he was convinced and agreed.
Father and sons then went straight to the Gauze Pavilion, going on foot instead of by carriage, and without any parasols. The four travelers had by now packed up their luggage and were just about to go to the palace to thank the prince for the meal and start out on their journey again when they saw the prince of Yuhua and his sons come into the pavilion and prostrate themselves before them. The venerable elder hurriedly rose and prostrated himself to return the courtesy, while Monkey and the rest of them moved aside with a hint of a mocking grin. When the kowtowing was over the four travelers were happy to go into the palace on being invited to do so and take seats of honour.
Then the senior prince got up and said, “Tang Master, there is one thing I would like to ask of you, but I do not know whether your three illustrious disciples will grant it.”
“My disciples will obey any instruction that Your Royal Highness gives them,” Sanzang replied.
“When I first saw you gentlemen,” said the prince, “I took you for pilgrim monks from distant Tang, and because I am a mere mortal with fleshly eyes I treated you in a most offhand way. It was only when I saw Teacher Sun, Teacher Zhu and Teacher Sand whirling around in the sky that I realized you are immortals and Buddhas. My three wretched sons have been fond of the martial arts all their lives and they now wish most sincerely to be accepted as your disciples and learn some of your skills. I beg that in the greatness of your hearts you will agree to be the salvation of my boys. I will certainly reward you with all the wealth of the city.”
When Brother Monkey heard this he could not restrain himself from replying with a chuckle, “You really don't understand, Your Royal Highness. As monks we'd love to have disciples, and your fine sons have their hearts set on goodness. But you mustn't talk about material benefits. As long as they can get on with us we'll look after them.” This delighted the prince, who ordered a great banquet in the main hall of the palace. It was amazing: no sooner had he issued his order than everything was there. This is what could be seen:
Fluttering silken decorations,
Darkly fragrant incense smoke.
Gold-inlaid tables hung with knotted silks,
Dazzling the eyes;
Lacquered chairs with cushions of brocade,
Making them even more splendid.
Fresh fruit,
Fragrant tea.
Three or four courses of pure confectioneries,
One or two servings of rich and pure breadrolls.
The crisp steamed honeycakes were even finer;
The deep-fried sweets were truly delicious.
There were jugs of mild rice-wine,
Better than nectar when poured;
Servings of Yangxian tea that is fit for immortals,
More fragrant than cassia when held in the hands.
Every possible dish is provided;
All that is offered is outstanding.
Meanwhile there was singing, dancing, instrumental music, acrobatics and opera to entertain them. Master, disciples, the prince and his sons all had a day of delight, and after night fell unnoticed they dispersed. The princes then had beds and curtains set up in the pavilion and invited their teachers to turn in for the night; early the next morning they would piously burn incense and call on them again to ask them to teach their martial skills. These orders were obeyed, and hot, scented water was brought in for the travelers to bath in, after w
hich everyone went to bed. At that time
The birds perched high in the trees and all was silent;
The poet came down from his couch to end his chanting.
The light of the Milky Way now filled the sky,
And the grass grew thicker along the overgrown path.
The bang of a washing stick came from another courtyard;
The distant mountains and passes made one long for home.
The chirp of crickets expressed people's feelings,
Chirruping at the bedside interrupted one's dreams.
That describes the night. Early the next morning the prince and his three sons came to call on the venerable elder again. The previous day they had greeted each other with the etiquette appropriate to a prince, but today's greetings were those appropriate to teachers.
The three young princes kowtowed to Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand, then asked with bows, “Will you let your disciples have a look at your weapons, honoured teachers?” As soon as Pig heard this request he happily brought out his iron rake and threw it on the ground, while Friar Sand tossed his staff against the wall. The second and third young princes sprang to their feet to pick them up, but they might just as well have been dragonflies trying to shake a stone pillar: they both strained themselves till they were red in the face without moving the weapons in the slightest. When their elder brother saw this he said, “Don't waste your efforts, brothers. Our teachers' weapons are all magical ones. Goodness only knows how heavy they are.”
“My rake's not all that heavy,” said Pig with a smile. “It only weighs a couple of tons-5,048 pounds including the handle.”
