The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 3 Read online

  Dear Pilgrim! He said he would go, and at once he mounted his cloud-somersault. Instantly he arrived at the Spirit Mountain. Lowering his auspicious luminosity, he looked everywhere. Marvelous place!

  The noble Mount Spirit,

  Fine, pure cloud-layers;

  A divine summit touching jade-green sky.

  A great town seen in Western Heaven,

  Its form, its air surpassing even China’s.

  The primal breath flows to widen Heav’n and Earth;

  Strong wind scatters a platform full of flowers.3

  Long notes of bells and stones are often heard,

  And clear, loud scripture recitations.

  You see, too, lay-sisters lecturing beneath green pines

  And arhats walking among jadelike cedars.

  White cranes with feelings come to Vulture Peak;

  Blue phoenixes wish to stand by quiet arbors.

  Black apes in pairs hold up immortal fruits;

  Aged deer in twos present purple blooms.

  Rare birds call often like some tale-telling,

  And flowers too strange and fair to have names.

  The ranges turn and circle, fold upon fold;

  The old path meanders, though it’s level.

  A place where pure void of spirit’s the norm—

  Buddha’s solemn and great awakened form.

  As Pilgrim enjoyed the sight of the mountain scenery, he heard someone calling him: “Sun Wukong, where did you come from? Where are you going?” He turned quickly and found that it was the Honored One Bhikṣuṇi.4 The Great Sage greeted her and said, “I have a matter that requires an audience with Tathāgata.” “You rascal!” said Bhikṣuṇi, “if you want to see Tathāgata, why don’t you ascend the treasure temple? Why stay here to look at the mountain?” “This is the first time I have been to this noble region,” replied Pilgrim, “and that’s why I am acting boldly.” “Follow me quickly,” said Bhikṣuṇi, and Pilgrim ran after her up to the gate of the Thunderclap Monastery, where their way was barred by the heroic figures of the Eight Great Diamond Guardians.5 “Wukong,” said Bhikṣuṇi, “wait here for a moment and let me announce your arrival.” Pilgrim had no choice but to wait outside the gate. Going before the Buddha, Bhikṣuṇi pressed her palms before her and said, “Sun Wukong needs to have an audience with Tathāgata.” Whereupon Tathāgata commanded him to enter, and only then did the diamond guardians allow him to pass.

  After Pilgrim touched his head to the ground, Tathāgata asked, “Wukong, I heard previously that after the Honored One Guanyin had freed you, you made submission to Buddhism and agreed to accompany the Tang Monk to seek scriptures here. Why have you come all by yourself? What is the matter?” Again touching his head to the ground, Pilgrim said, “Let me report this to our Buddha. Since your disciple embraced the faith, he has followed the master from the Tang court in his journey west. We reached the Golden Helmet Cave of the Golden Helmet Mountain, where we ran into an evil demon, who had the name of Bovine Great King. He had such vast magic powers that he abducted my master and brothers into his cave. Your disciple demanded their return, but he had no good will at all and we fought it out. My iron rod was snatched away by a ghostly white fillet of his. As I suspected that he might be some celestial warrior who longed for the world, I went to the Region Above to investigate. The Jade Emperor was kind enough to lend me the assistance of the father-and-son team of Devarāja Li, only to have him rob the prince of his six weapons. Then I asked the Star of Fiery Virtue to burn him with fire, but he took the fire equipment also. Next we asked the Star of Watery Virtue to drown him with water, but we couldn’t even touch a single hair of his. After your disciple spent enormous energy to steal back the iron rod and other things, we went again to provoke battle. Once again his fillet sucked away all our weapons, and we are powerless to subdue him. That’s why I have this special request for our Buddha, in his great compassion, to survey the world and find out what is the true origin of this creature. I shall then be able to capture his kin or neighbor so that it will facilitate the arrest of the demon and the rescue of my master. All of us then will be able to bow, with palms pressed together and with utter sincerity, to seek the right fruit.”

  After Tathāgata heard this, he trained his eyes of wisdom to peer into the distance and immediately he had knowledge of the whole affair. “Though I’ve learned the identity of that fiendish creature,” he said to Pilgrim, “I can’t reveal it to you because you have such a loose, apish tongue. If somehow you pass on the fact that it was I who disclosed his identity, he would not fight with you but he would start a quarrel up here in Spirit Mountain. That would cause me a lot of trouble. Let me give you the assistance of my dharma power instead to help you capture him.” Bowing deeply again, Pilgrim thanked him and said, “What sort of dharma power will you bestow on me?” Tathāgata immediately ordered the Eighteen Arhats to open the treasury and take out eighteen grains of golden cinnabar sand to assist Wukong. “What will this golden cinnabar sand do?” asked Pilgrim. “Go before the cave,” said Tathāgata, “and ask the demon for a contest. Entice him to come out and the arhats will at once release the sand, which will entrap him. Since he won’t be able to move his body or raise his feet, you can beat him up at will.” “Wonderful! Wonderful!” cried Pilgrim, laughing. “Bring them out quickly!”

  Not daring to delay, the arhats at once took out the golden cinnabar sand and walked out of the gate. After Pilgrim thanked Tathāgata again, he ran after the crowd and found there were only sixteen arhats. “What sort of a place is this,” yelled Pilgrim, “that you are taking bribes and releasing prisoners?” “Who is taking bribes and releasing prisoners?” asked the arhats, and Pilgrim said, “Originally eighteen of you were sent. Why is it that there are only sixteen now?” Hardly had he finished speaking when Dragon Subduer and Tiger Tamer, the two Honored Ones, walked out from inside. “Wukong,” they said, “how could you be so mischievous? The two of us remained behind because Tathāgata had further instructions for us.” “That’s a wretched way to take bribes!” said Pilgrim. “If I waited even a moment in hollering, you probably would not come out.” Laughing uproariously, the arhats mounted the auspicious clouds.

  In a moment, they arrived at the Golden Helmet Mountain, where they were met by Devarāja Li leading the rest of the deities. “No need to go into the details,” said one of the arhats. “Go quickly and ask him to come out.” Holding his fists high, our Great Sage went before the cave entrance and shouted, “Blubbery fiend! Come out quickly and try your hands with your Grandpa Sun.” Again those little fiends dashed inside to make the report. Infuriated, the demon king said, “This thievish ape! I wonder whom he has invited to come make a nuisance here!” “There’s no other warrior,” said the little fiends, “he’s all by himself.” “I’ve already taken away his rod,” said the demon king. “How is it that he shows up all by himself again? Could it be that he wants to box some more?” Picking up his treasure and his lance, he ordered the little fiends to move away the boulders and leaped out of the cave. “Larcenous ape!” he scolded. “For several times you haven’t been able to gain the upper hand, and that should make you stay away. Why are you here again making noises?” Pilgrim said, “This brazen demon doesn’t know good or evil! If you don’t want your Grandpa to show up at your door, you make submission, apologize, and send out my master and brothers. Then I’ll spare you.” “Those three monks of yours,” said the fiend, “have been scrubbed clean. Soon they will be slaughtered. And you are still making a fuss? Go away!”

  When Pilgrim heard the word “slaughter,” fire leaped up to his cheeks. Unable to suppress the anger of his heart, he wielded his fists and attacked the demon with hooks and jabs. Spreading out his long lance, the fiend turned to meet him. Pilgrim jumped this way and that to deceive the monster. Not knowing it was a trick, the demon left the entrance of the cave and gave chase toward the south. At once Pilgrim shouted for the arhats to pour the golden cinnabar sand down on the demon
. Marvelous sand! Truly,

  Like fog, like mist, it spreads out at first;

  In great profusion it drops from afar.

  One mass of white

  Blinding vision every where.

  A dark expanse

  Flaring up to lead you astray.

  The working woodsman has lost his partner;

  The fairy youth picking herbs can’t see his home.

  It drifts and soars like fine wheat-flour;

  Some grains are coarse like sesame.

  The world seems opaque as the summits darken;

  The sun’s hidden and the sky disappears.

  It’s not quite the noise and dust at a horse’s heels,

  Nor the light fluffiness chasing a scented car.

  This sand is by nature a ruthless thing

  Which can blot out the world to seize the fiend.

  Because a demon assails the right Way,

  The arhats by Law release their power.

  Though your hand may hold a bright shiny pearl,

  Soon the blown sand will your eyesight obscure.

  When the demon saw that the flying sand was clouding up his vision, he lowered his head and discovered that his feet were already standing in three feet of the stuff. He was so horrified that he tried to jump upward; before he could even stand up properly the sand grew another foot. In desperation, the fiend tried to pull up his legs while taking out his fillet. Throwing it up into the air, he cried, “Hit!” With a loud whoosh, the eighteen grains of golden cinnabar sand were sucked away. The demon then strode back to the cave.

  All of those arhats with bare hands stopped their clouds, while Pilgrim drew near and asked, “Why are you not sending down the sand?” “There was a sound just now,” one of them said, “and instantly our golden cinnabar sand vanished.” “That little something has sucked them away again!” sighed Pilgrim with a laugh. “If he’s so hard to catch,” said Devarāja Li to the rest, “how could we ever arrest him? When will we be able to return to Heaven? How could we face the Emperor?” On one side, Dragon Subduer and Tiger Tamer, the two arhats, said, “Wukong, did you know why we delayed in coming out of the door just now?” “Old Monkey only feared that you were trying to find some pretense not to come,” said Pilgrim. “I don’t know any other explanation.” One of the two arhats replied, “Tathāgata told the two of us that the demon had vast magic powers. If we lost the golden cinnabar sand, he said, we should ask Sun Wukong to search for his origin at the place of Laozi, the Tushita Palace of the Griefless Heaven. The demon would be caught with one stroke.” When Pilgrim heard this, he said, “That’s most despicable! Even Tathāgata is trying to hornswoggle old Monkey! He should have told me right then and there, and there would have been no need for all of you to travel.” “If Tathāgata made such a clear revelation,” said Devarāja Li, “let the Great Sage go up there quickly.”

  Dear Pilgrim! “I’m off!” he said, and at once he mounted the cloud somersault to enter the South Heaven Gate. There he was met by the four grand marshals, who raised their folded hands to their chins to salute him, asking, “How’s the affair of arresting that monster?” Answering them as he walked along, Pilgrim said, “It’s unfinished! It’s unfinished! But I’m on his trail now!” The four grand marshals dared not detain him and permitted him to walk inside the Heaven Gate. Going neither to the Hall of Divine Mists nor to the Dipper Palace, he went instead straight up to the Tushita Palace of the Griefless Heaven, which was beyond the thirty-third Heaven. Two immortal youths were standing outside the palace. Without announcing who he was, however, Pilgrim walked right inside the door, so startling the youths that they tugged at him, crying, “Who are you? Where are you going?” Only then did Pilgrim say, “I’m the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven. I wish to see Laozi, Mr. Li.” “Why are you so rude?” asked one of the youths. “Stand here and let us announce you.” But Pilgrim would have none of that. With a shout, he dashed inside and ran smack into Laozi, who was just coming out. Bowing low hurriedly, Pilgrim said, “Venerable Sir, haven’t seen you for awhile.”

  “Why is this ape not going to seek scriptures?” said Laozi, chuckling. “What’s he doing here?” Pilgrim replied,

  Scripture-seeking—

  Toil unending.

  My way was blocked:

  I came shuffling.

  “If the road to the Western Heaven is blocked,” said Laozi, “what has that got to do with me?” Again Pilgrim said,

  Ah, Heaven West!

  Stop your protest!

  I find my trail:

  You I’ll contest.

  “This place of mine,” said Laozi, “is an incomparable immortal palace. What sort of trail can you find?”

  Eyes unblinking, Pilgrim went inside and looked left and right. He walked past several corridors and all at once he discovered a boy sound asleep by the corral. The green buffalo, however, was not inside. “Venerable Sir,” said Pilgrim, “your buffalo has escaped! Your buffalo has escaped!” “When did this cursed beast escape?” asked Laozi, highly astonished. All that clamor woke up the boy, who immediately went to his knees and said, “Father, your disciple fell asleep. I don’t know when he escaped.” “How could you fall asleep, you rogue?” scolded Laozi. The boy kowtowed several times before he answered, “Your disciple picked up one pellet of elixir in the elixir chamber. As soon as I ate it, I fell asleep.” “It must be the Elixir of Seven Returns to the Fire that we made the other day. One pellet fell out, and this rogue picked it up and ate it. Well, anyone who eats one of those pellets will sleep for seven days. Because you fell asleep, no one looked after that cursed beast, and he took the opportunity to go to the Region Below. Today is the seventh day.” Immediately Laozi wanted to make an investigation to see if any treasure was stolen, but Pilgrim said, “He doesn’t have any treasure except a fillet, and it is quite formidable.”

  Laozi made a quick inventory; everything was there except the diamond snare. “This cursed beast stole my diamond snare!” said Laozi. “So, that’s the treasure!” said Pilgrim. “It was the same snare that hit me that time!6 Now it’s going wild down below, sucking away who knows how many things.” “Where’s the cursed beast now?” asked Laozi. Pilgrim replied, “At the Golden Helmet Cave of the Golden Helmet Mountain. He caught my Tang Monk first and robbed me of my golden-hooped rod. When I asked the celestial soldiers to come help me, he also took away the divine weapons of the prince. When the Star of Fiery Virtue arrived, his equipment was also taken. Only Water Lord did not lose anything to him, but his water could not drown the demon either. Finally, I asked Tathāgata to order the arhats to use sand, but even that golden Cinnabar sand was snatched away. When someone like you, Venerable Sir, lets loose a fiendish creature to rob and harm people, with what kind of crime should we charge him?” Laozi said, “That diamond snare of mine is a treasure perfected since the time of my youth, and it was also an instrument with which I converted the barbarians when I passed through the Hangu Pass.7 Whatever weapons you may have, including fire and water, you can’t touch it. If the demon had stolen my plantain-leaf fan also, then even I would not be able to do anything to him.”

  Thereafter, Laozi took up his plantain-leaf fan and mounted the auspicious cloud, followed by a happy Great Sage. They left the celestial palace, went through the South Heaven Gate, and lowered their clouds on the Golden Helmet Mountain. There they were met by the eighteen arhats, the thunder squires, Water Lord, Fiery Virtue, and Devarāja Li and his son, to whom they gave a thorough account of what had taken place. “Sun Wukong,” said Laozi, “may go again to entice him to come out; I’ll put him away then.”

  Jumping down from the summit, Pilgrim again shouted, “You cursed blubbery beast! Come out quickly and submit to death!” Once more the little fiends went inside to report, and the old demon said, “This larcenous ape has asked someone to come again.” Quickly he took up his lance and treasure and walked out of the door. “You brazen demon!” scolded Pilgrim. “This time you will die for sure! Don’t run aw
ay. Have a taste of my palm!” He leaped right onto the chest of the demon and gave him a terrific whack on the ear before turning to flee. Wielding his lance, the demon gave chase, only to hear someone calling on the tall summit: “If that little buffalo doesn’t come home now, what’s he waiting for?” When the demon raised his head and saw that it was Laozi, his heart shook and his gall quivered. “This thievish ape,” he said, “is truly a devil of the Earth! How did he manage to find my master?”

  Reciting a spell, Laozi fanned the air once with his fan. The fiend threw the fillet at Laozi, who caught it immediately and gave him another fan. All at once the fiend’s strength fled him and his tendons turned numb; he changed back into his original form, which was that of a green buffalo. Blowing a mouthful of divine breath on the diamond snare, Laozi then used it to pierce the nostrils of the fiend. Next, he took off the sash around his waist and fastened one end of it to the snare while his hand held the other. Thus the custom of leading the buffalo with a ring in its nose was established, a custom in use even now. This is also what we call binlang.8 After he took leave of the various deities, Laozi climbed onto the back of his green buffalo.

  Mounting colored clouds,

  He went back to Tushita Palace;

  Having bound the fiend,

  He ascended to the Griefless Heaven.

  Then the Great Sage Sun fought his way with the other deities into the cave and slaughtered all the remaining little fiends, some one hundred of them. Each of the gods recovered his weapons, after which the father-and-son team of Devarāja Li went back to Heaven; the thunder squires to their mansions; Fiery Virtue to his palace; Water Lord to his rivers; and the arhats to the West. Pilgrim then took back his iron rod and untied the Tang Monk, Eight Rules, and Sha Monk, who also gave thanks to him. After they got the horse and the luggage ready, master and disciples left the cave and found the main road to journey once more.