by Wu Cheng-En
“I've heard tell for years of that monkey's ferocity;
Now I can vouch for the story's veracity.”
“What do you mean, elder brother?” the second demon chief asked.
“When that Sun the Novice first turned himself into a fly to sneak in here none of us realized who he was except our Third Brother, who put him in the jar. He used his skills to drill a hole in the jar, pick up his clothes and get out. Now he's outside challenging us to battle. Who's brave enough to be the first to take him on?” Nobody replied. The senior demon asked again; again there was no response. Everyone was pretending to be deaf and dumb.
“We've got ourselves a lousy reputation in the West already,” the senior demon chief said in fury. “Now that Sun the Novice has treated us with such contempt today our reputation will stand even lower if we don't fight him. I'm going out there to chance my old life on three rounds with him. If I can hold out for those three rounds the Tang Priest will still be a meal in our mouths. If I can't then shut the gates and let them pass.” He then kitted himself out in his armor, had the gates opened and went out. As Monkey and Pig watched from beside the gates they saw that he was a fine monster:
On iron brow and brazen head a precious helmet
With tassels dancing brightly in the wind.
His eyes both flashed as if with lightning,
And ruddy glowed the hair at his temples.
Pointed and sharp were his silvery claws,
And his saw-like teeth were set close and neat.
His armor was golden, without any seam,
Bound with a dragon sash that could foresee the future.
In his hand flashed a cutlass of steel.
Such martial might is rare in the world.
With a voice that roared like thunder he asked,
“Who is that knocking at my gates?”
“Your grandfather, Lord Sun, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven,” said Monkey, turning to face the gate.
“Are you Sun the Novice?” asked the demon with a laugh. “You've got a cheek, ape. I never gave you any trouble, so why are you here challenging me to battle?”
“'No waves come without a wind; without the tide the waters are still,'“ Monkey replied. “Would I have come looking for you if you hadn't given me trouble? The reason why I'm here to fight is because your gang of foxes and dogs is plotting to eat my master.”
“From the way you're acting so fierce and shouting at our gates you must want a fight,” the old demon replied.
“Yes,” Monkey said. “Stop all that ranting and raving then,” said the demon. “It would be most unfair if I brought out my devil soldiers and drew them up in battle order with flags flying and drums beating to fight you as I'm on my own territory. I'll fight you single-handed with no helpers for either side.”
When Monkey heard this he shouted, “Keep out of the way, Pig, and let's see how he copes with me.” The idiot did indeed get out of the way.
“Come over here,” the senior demon shouted, “and be a chopping block for me. Let me hack you three times as hard as I can with sword on your bare head. After that I'll let your Tang Priest pass. If you can't take it then hand your Tang Priest over at once. He'll be a tasty morsel to help our rice down.”
“Bring out a brush and some paper if you have them in your cave and I'll give you a bond. You can hack at me from today till next year, but it'll be nothing to me.”
The old demon then summoned up all his might, took up a stance with his feet apart, lifted his sword with both hands and hacked at the top of the Great Sage's head. The Great Sage raised his head, and though there was a mighty crash his scalp did not even go red.
“That monkey really does have a hard head,” exclaimed the old demon with shock.
“You wouldn't know about it,” said Monkey with a laugh. “I was
Born with a skull of bronze and iron,
Like nobody else's in all the world.
Hammer and axe will never smash me;
I went in Lord Lao Zi's furnace when I was a boy.
The Star Lords of the Four Dippers helped mould me,
The twenty-eight constellations all used their skill.
I've often been soaked in water but never come to harm,
And all over my body the sinews are knotty.
The Tang Priest, fearing I would not stand firm,
Placed a golden band around my head.”
“Cut out that insolence, ape,” the senior demon said, “and take these two blows from my sword. I'm most certainly not going to spare your life.”
“It's nothing,” Monkey replied. “Have another cut like that if you like.”
“You monkey,” the old demon said, “you don't know about this sword,”
Created in furnaces of metal and fire,
A hundred times tempered by divine craftsmanship.
Its sharp blade follows the Three Strategies,
And it is as strong as described in the Six Plans.
The point is as fine as a housefly's tail,
And supple as the body of a white dragon.
When it goes to the mountains dense clouds arise;
If it plunges into the sea the great waves roll.
It has been burnished times beyond number,
Heated and tempered many hundred times over.
Deep in the mountains it is kept in the caves;
Great is the glory it has won when in battle.
If I use it to strike at your monkish pate
I'll cut it into a pair of gourd ladles.”
“You're blind, evil spirit,” laughed the Great Sage, “if you think my head is just gourd ladles. I'll let you hack at me if you're silly enough to want to. Have another go and see what happens.”
The senior demon raised his sword for another hack, which the Great Sage moved his head forward to meet. With a loud band his head was split into two, whereupon the Great Sage rolled on the ground and gave himself a second body. The sight so alarmed the demon that he lowered his sword.
Watching all this from a distance Pig said with a laugh, “Give him a couple more hacks, old devil, then there'll be four of him.”
Pointing at Brother Monkey the senior demon said, “I'd heard that you can use self-dividing magic. Why are you showing it off to me now?”
“What self-dividing magic?” Monkey asked.
“Why was it that the first time I hacked you it made no impact, but this time I cut you in two?” the senior demon asked. “Don't worry, evil spirit,” said the Great Sage with a smile. “If you cut me ten thousand times there'll be twenty thousand of me.”
“You ape,” the demon said, “you may be able to divide yourself but you can't put yourself together again. If you can, hit me with your cudgel.”
“Don't talk nonsense,” said the Great Sage. “You asked to take three cuts at me but only took two. Now you've invited me to hit you once. I'm not Monkey if I hit you one and a half times.”
“Very well,” said the senior demon.
The splendid Great Sage hugged his two bodies together, rolled, became one body again and struck with his cudgel at the demon's head. The old demon raised his sword to parry the blow. “Damned ape,” he said, “you've got a cheek! How dare you come here attacking me with a mourner's staff like that?”
“If you ask about this cudgel of mine,” shouted the Great Sage, “everybody in heaven and earth has heard of it.”
“What's it famous for?” the senior demon asked. To this Monkey replied:
“The cudgel is made of nine-cycled wrought iron
Tempered by Lord Lao Zi himself in his furnace.
King Yu called it a divine treasure when he obtained it
To hold the eight rivers and four oceans in place.
In its middle the constellations are secretly set out,
And each end is banded with yellow gold.
Ghosts and gods are amazed at its intricate decorations,
Dragon patterns and phoenix signs.
Known
as the Divine Male Cudgel,
It was inaccessibly deep in the bed of the sea.
Its shape can change and it knows how to fly,
Sending clouds of many colours drifting through the air.
Once it was mine I took it back to my mountain,
Where I discovered how its infinite changes.
When I want size it's as thick as a vat,
Or it can be as thin as an iron wire,
Huge as a mountain or small as a needle,
Adapting its length to the wishes of my heart.
Lightly I lift it and coloured clouds spring up,
Or it flies through the sky and flashes like lightning.
The cold air it gives off chills all who feel it,
And ominous mists appear in the sky.
I have carried it with me to beat dragons and tigers,
Travelling to all of the ends of the earth.
Once with this cudgel I made havoc in heaven,
And used its great might to wreck the peach banquet.
The heavenly kings were unable to beat me,
And Nezha was hard pressed to match me in combat.
With this cudgel against them the gods had no safe refuge;
A hundred thousand heavenly troops all scattered and fled.
The gods of thunder guarded the Hall of Miraculous Mist
When the cudgel attacked the Palace of Universal Brightness
All of the angels at court were flustered
And the Jade Emperor's ministers were thrown into panic.
I raised my cudgel to overturn the Palace of the Dipper,
Then turned back to shake up the South Pole Compound.
Seeing my dread cudgel at his golden gates
The Jade Emperor invited the Buddha to see me.
The soldier takes defeat and victory in his stride;
There is nothing to choose between suffering and disaster.
I stuck it out for full five hundred years
Until I was converted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin.
Then a holy monk appeared in Tang
Who swore a mighty oath to heaven,
To save the souls in the City of the Unjustly Slain
And fetch the sutras at an assembly on Vulture Mountain.
On the journey to the West are many evil monsters
Whose actions would be a great obstacle to him.
So, knowing that my cudgel is matchless in the world,
He begged me to be his companion on the journey.
When it struck down evil spirits they were sent to the Underworld,
Their flesh turned to red dust and their bones all to powder.
Evil spirits everywhere were killed by the cudgel,
In thousands upon thousands too numerous to count.
Up above it wrecked the Dipper and Bull Palace,
And below it ruined the Senluo Court in Hell.
Of the heavenly generals it routed the Nine Bright Shiners,
And it wounded all of the Underworld's judges.
Dropped from mid-air it shakes mountains and rivers;
It is stronger than the sword of an evil star.
With this cudgel alone I protect the Tang Priest
And kill all the evil monsters in the world.”
When the monster heard this he trembled, lifted his sword and struck with all his strength. Chuckling, Monkey blocked the blow with his iron cudgel. At first the two of them struggled in front of the cave, but then they both sprang up and fought in mid-air. It was a splendid battle.
The divine rod had once secured the bed of Heaven's River:
The As-You-Will cudgel is the finest in the world,
Praise of its powers enraged the demon chief,
Whose mighty cutlass was full of great magic.
When they fought outside the gates they were still open to reason,
But no mercy was shown in their battle in the sky.
One could change his appearance at will;
The other could make himself grow on the spot.
The fight was so intense that the sky filled with clouds,
And all of the plains were enveloped in mist.
One had often determined to devour the monk Sanzang;
The other used his magic to protect the Tang Priest.
All because the Lord Buddha transmitted the scriptures
Evil and good were opposed in harsh conflict.
The senior demon and the Great Sage fought over twenty rounds without either emerging the victor while Pig admired their magnificent battle from down below until, unable to restrain himself, he grabbed his rake and leapt up into the air, riding on the wind to strike at the evil monster's face. The demon panicked, not realizing that Pig had no staying power, but could only rush recklessly in and give people a fright. All the demon could see was that Pig had a long snout, big ears and a vicious way with his rake, so he abandoned the struggle, threw his sword away, turned and fled.
“After him,” the Great Sage shouted, “after him!” The idiot raised his rake and went down in all his ferocious might straight after the monster. Seeing how close Pig was to him the old demon stood still in front of the mountainside, faced the wind, shook himself, resumed his real appearance and opened his mouth to devour Pig. This so terrified Pig that he fled as fast as he could into the undergrowth, not caring that brambles and thorns were tearing his head. He sat there trembling and listening out for the sound of the cudgel. When Monkey caught up with him the monster opened his jaws to eat Monkey up too. This was just what Monkey intended. Putting his cudgel away he went straight towards the demon, who swallowed him in a single gulp.
This gave the idiot such a fright as he was hiding in the undergrowth that he grumbled to himself, “You've got no common sense, Protector of the Horses. Why did you go towards the monster when he wanted to eat you up instead of running away? Now he's swallowed you. Today you're still a monk, but tomorrow you'll be a turd.” Only when the monster had departed in triumph did Pig emerge from the undergrowth and slip back by the way he had come.
Sanzang and Friar Sand were still waiting for Pig at the foot of the mountain when they saw him come running breathless towards them. “Pig,” said Sanzang with horror, “why are you in this terrible state? Why is Wukong not here?”
“My brother was swallowed up by the evil spirit in a single gulp,” Pig replied amid sobs, at which Sanzang collapsed in terror. A little later he stamped and beat his chest, saying, “Disciple, I thought you were good at subduing demons and were going to take me to see the Buddha in the Western Heaven. Who would have thought that you would die at this demon's hand today? Alas! Alas! All the efforts of my disciples have now turned to dust.” The master was thoroughly miserable.
Just look at the idiot. Instead of coming over to comfort his master he calls, “Friar Sand, fetch the luggage. Let's split it between us.”
“Why, brother?” Friar Sand asked. “Divide it up,” Pig replied, “and all of us can go our separate ways. You can go back to the River of Flowing Sand and carry on eating people. I'll go back to Gao Village and see my wife. We can sell the white horse to buy the master a coffin to be buried in.” The master was so upset when he heard this that he wept aloud to Heaven.
We shall leave them and return to the senior demon chief.
When he had swallowed Monkey he thought he had won, so he went straight back to his cave, where all the other demons came out to ask him how the fight had gone.
“I've got one of them,” the senior demon said.
“Which one is that?” asked the second demon with delight.
“Sun the Novice,” the senior demon replied.
“Where have you got him?” the second demon chief said.
“In my stomach,” said the senior demon, “I swallowed him.”
“Elder brother,” said the third demon chief with horror, “I forgot to tell you that Sun the Novice wasn't worth eating.”
“I'm delicious,” said the Great Sage from inside the demon
's stomach, “and I'll stop you from ever feeling hungry again.”
This caused the junior devils such a shock that they reported, “This is terrible, Your Senior Majesty. Sun the Novice is talking inside your stomach.”
“That doesn't frighten me,” said the senior demon. “If I'm clever enough to catch him do you think I'm not clever enough to deal with him? Make me some hot salty water at once. I'll pour it into my stomach, vomit him out, and have him fried at my leisure to eat as a snack with some drinks.”
The junior devils soon had ready half a bowl of hot salty water that the old demon drained in one, filling his mouth. He then really did vomit, but the Great Sage, who had taken root in his stomach, did not even move. The monster then pressed his throat and vomited again till his head was spinning, his eyes in a daze and his gallbladder split, but still Monkey would not be shifted. By now the senior demon was gasping for breath.
“Sun the Novice,” he called, “won't you come out?”
“Not yet,” Monkey replied. “I don't want to come out now.”
“Why not?” the old demon asked.
“You really don't understand, evil spirit,” said Monkey. “Ever since I've been a monk I've had scant food and clothing. Although it's autumn now and getting cool I'm still only wearing a thin tunic. But it's warm in your stomach and there are no drafts down here. I think I'll spend the winter here before coming out.”
When the evil spirits heard this they all said, “Your Majesty, Sun the Novice wants to spend the winter in your stomach.”
“If he wants to spend the winter there I'll take to meditation and use magic to shift him,” the senior demon said. “I won't eat anything all winter. The Protector of the Horses will starve to death.”
“You just don't understand, my boy,” the Great Sage said. “I came via Guangzhou when I started escorting the Tang Priest and I've got a folding cooking pan with me that I brought in here to cook myself a mixed grill. I'll take my time enjoying your liver, bowels, stomach and lungs. They'll be enough to keep me going till spring.”
“Brother,” said the second demon chief with shock, “that ape would do it too.”
