The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2 Read online

  When the king saw how hideous they were, he was immediately frightened. By the time he heard what Idiot had said, he was shaking so hard that he fell down from his dragon couch. Fortunately, there were attendants nearby who took hold of him and helped him up. The Tang Monk was so terrified that he knelt before the court and kowtowed without ceasing, saying, “Your Majesty, this monk deserves ten thousand deaths, ten thousand deaths! I said that my disciples were ugly and that they should not be granted an audience because it might injure your dragon body. Now, they have indeed alarmed the Throne.” Still trembling, the king went forward to raise up the priest, saying, “Elder, it’s a good thing that you told me about them before. If you hadn’t, the sudden sight of them would have scared me to death!”

  After he had calmed down, the king said, “Elder Zhu and Elder Sha, which one of you is good at subduing monsters?” Foolishly Idiot answered, “Old Hog knows how.” “In what way?” asked the king. “I am the Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds,” said Eight Rules. “Because I transgressed Heaven’s decree, I fell to the Region Below where luckily I could embrace the truth and become a monk. Since our journey from the Land of the East, I have been the one most capable of subduing monsters.” The king said, “If you are a celestial warrior who has descended to Earth, you must know very well the magic of transformation.” “I shouldn’t boast,” said Eight Rules, “but I do know a few little tricks.” “Try to change into something for me to have a look,” said the king. Eight Rules said, “Give me a subject, and I’ll change into its form.” The king said, “Change into something big, then.”

  That Eight Rules happened to know thirty-six kinds of transformation. He stood before the steps and showed off his ability; making the magic sign with his fingers and reciting a spell, he shouted, “Grow!” He straightened his torso and at once attained the height of eighty or ninety feet just like a pathfinding deity. The two rows of civil and military officials shook in their boots; the ruler and the subjects of the entire kingdom were terror-stricken. One of the palace guardian-generals managed to ask, “Elder, when will you stop growing? Is there a limit to your height?” Idiot could not refrain from spouting idiotic words. “It depends on the wind,” he said. “It’s all right if the east wind is blowing, and the west wind is okay, too. But if the south wind rises, I’ll bore a great hole in the blue sky!” Horrified, the king said, “Retrieve your magic. I know your power of transformation.” Squatting down, Eight Rules changed back into his original form at once and stood before the steps. “Elder,” asked the king once more, “what sort of weapons do you intend to bring with you to do battle on this expedition?” Eight Rules took out his muckrake and said, “What old Hog uses is a pronged rake.” “That’s shameful!” said the king with a chuckle. “We have here whips, maces, gilt bludgeons, mallets, scimitars, spears, halberds with crescent-shaped blades, battle-axes, swords, halberds, lances, and battle sickles. You can pick anything you like and take it with you. How could you regard that rake of yours as a weapon?” “You have no idea about this, Your Majesty,” said Eight Rules. “This rake may seem a rather crude instrument, but it is one that has stayed with me since my youth. When I was commanding some eighty thousand sailors in the naval department at the Heavenly River, I relied solely on the strength of this rake. Now that I have descended to this mortal world to accompany my master, that which

  Plows through the mountain dens of tigers and wolves

  And overturns the water homes of dragons and snakes

  is all the work of this rake!”

  Most delighted and reassured by what he heard, the king turned to some of his ladies in the court, saying, “Bring me my own special wine. Take the whole bottle, in fact, so that we can send the elder off properly.” He then poured a goblet of it and presented it to Eight Rules, saying, “Elder, this cup of wine is for the labor you are about to undertake. Wait till you capture the monster and bring back our little girl. We shall have a huge banquet and a thousand pieces of gold to thank you.” Idiot took hold of the cup in his hands; though he was a rude and rowdy person, he could act courteously when he wanted to. Bowing deeply to Tripitaka, he said, “Master, you should be the first one to drink this wine. But since it is the king who bestows it on me, I dare not refuse. Please permit old Hog to drink this wine first. It should help inspire me to catch the monster.” Idiot drained the goblet with one gulp before filling it again to hand it to his master. Tripitaka said, “I don’t drink. You brothers may take it.” Sha Monk went forward to receive the cup, while the clouds sprouted beneath Eight Rules’s feet and lifted him straight into the air. When the king saw this, he said, “So Elder Zhu knows even cloud soaring!”

  Idiot left, and after draining the goblet also with one gulp, Sha Monk said, “Master, when that Yellow Robe Fiend caught you, two of us could only battle him to a draw. If Second Brother goes by himself now, I fear that he may not be able to withstand him.” “You are right, disciple,” said Tripitaka. “You may go to lend him some assistance.” Hearing this, Sha Monk leaped up and left soaring on the clouds. The king became alarmed and caught hold of the Tang Monk, saying, “Elder, please sit with us for awhile. Don’t you go away too, soaring on the clouds.” The Tang Monk said, “Pity! Pity! I can’t even move half a step like that!” At this time, the two of them chatted in the palace, and we shall speak of them no further.

  We tell you now about Sha Monk, who caught up with Eight Rules, saying, “Elder Brother, I’m here.” Eight Rules said, “Brother, why did you come?” “Master told me to come help you,” said Sha Monk. Highly pleased, Eight Rules said, “Well said, and welcome! United in our minds and efforts, the two of us can go catch that monster. It may not be much, but we’ll spread our fame a little in this kingdom.” Look at them:

  Swathed in hallowed light they passed the kingdom’s edge;

  Borne by auspicious air they left the capital.

  They went by the king’s decree to the mountain cave

  To catch with all diligence the monster-spirit.

  In a little while, the two of them arrived at the mouth of the cave and lowered the direction of their clouds. Raising his rake, Eight Rules delivered a blow on the door of the Current-Moon Cave with all his might: at once a hole about the size of a barrel appeared in the stone door. The little fiends standing guard at the entrance were so startled that they opened the door immediately and found that it was the two monks. They ran inside to report, crying, “Great King, it’s terrible! The monk with a long snout and huge ears and the monk with the gloomiest complexion have returned and busted our door.”

  Surprised, the monster said, “These two have to be Zhu Eight Rules and Sha Monk. I spared their master already. How dare they come back and wreck my door!” A little fiend said, “They must have left behind something and returned to get it.” “Rubbish!” cried the old fiend. “You leave something behind and then you go and break down someone’s door? There has to be another reason.” He quickly put on his armor, grasped his scimitar, and walked outside. “Monks,” he asked, “I have already spared your master. For what reason do you dare come back and break down my door?”

  Eight Rules said, “You lawless monster, you have really done something all right!” “What?” asked the old demon. “You abducted the third princess of the Precious Image Kingdom to this cave and forced her to be your wife,” said Eight Rules. “It’s been thirteen years, about time that you give her up. I have been decreed by the king specially to capture you. Go inside quickly and come out again after tying yourself up. That’ll save old Hog from having to raise his hands.” When that old monster heard these words, he grew enraged. Look at him!

  Noisily, he ground his teeth;

  Round and round, his eyes glowered;

  In fury, he lifted his scimitar;

  With bloody thought, he slashed at the head.

  Eight Rules stepped aside to dodge the blow and returned one with his pronged rake. Immediately, Sha Monk wielded his precious staff and rushed forward to join the battle. T
his conflict waged on the peak was different from the one before. Truly,

  Wrong words and irksome speech arouse one’s wrath;

  Malice and rancor make one’s anger grow.

  The scimitar of this big demon king

  Slashes at the head;

  The nine-pronged rake of that Eight Rules

  Confronts him at the face.

  Sha Wujing unleashes the precious staff;

  The demon king parries this weapon divine.

  One savage fiend

  And two godlike monks

  Move back and forth, taking their time to fight!

  This one says, “You defraud a nation and are worthy of death!”

  That one says, “You’re wrongly indignant at someone’s affairs!”

  This one says, “You raped a princess and brought her country shame!”

  That one says, “It’s none of your business, so stop meddling!”

  It is all because of a letter sent

  That both monks and demon are not at peace.

  They battled for eight or nine rounds before the mountain, and Eight Rules began to weaken steadily; he could hardly lift his rake and he was rapidly losing his strength. Why couldn’t he prevail against the monster, you ask? When they fought previously, you see, there were the dharma-protecting deities who gave the disciples secret assistance because of the Tang Monk’s presence in the cave. That was why they fought to a draw. At this time, however, all the gods had gone to the Precious Image Kingdom to guard the Tang Monk, and the two disciples by themselves could not withstand their adversary. Idiot said, “Sha Monk, you come up and fight with him for awhile. Let old Hog go shit first!” Not showing the slightest care for Sha Monk, he dove right into a thicket of bramble bushes; without regard for good or ill, without any concern that the thorns were pricking his face and tearing up his scalp, he rolled right inside and lay down, refusing to come out at all. Only half of his ear was left outside, so that he could hear the rattle10 and learn how the battle was faring.

  When the monster saw that Eight Rules had run away, he went after Sha Monk. Completely flustered, Sha Monk did not even have time to try to escape, and he was seized by the monster and hauled back to the cave, where he was bound hand and foot behind his back by the little fiends. We do not know what will happen to his life; let’s listen to the explanation in the next chapter.

  THIRTY

  A deviant demon attacks the true Dharma;

  The Horse of the Will recalls Mind Monkey.

  We were telling you about the fiend who, having had Sha Monk firmly bound, did not proceed to kill him or beat him. He did not, in fact, utter so much as an abusive word to his prisoner. Holding on to his scimitar, he thought to himself instead, “The Tang Monk is a man from a noble nation, who must know the meaning of propriety and righteousness. How could he possibly send his disciples to try to seize me, when it was I who spared his life in the first place? Aha! It has to be some sort of letter sent by that wife of mine back to her kingdom, and that’s how the news is leaked! Let me go ask her.” Turning savage all of a sudden, the monster wanted to kill the princess.

  The princess, alas, was still in the dark about the whole matter. After putting on her makeup, she was walking along when she saw the fiend approaching with bulging eyes and knitted brows, fiercely grinding his teeth together. Smiling broadly, she said to him, “Husband, what’s bothering you so terribly?” “You filthy bitch!” cried the fiend. “You don’t have any regard for human relations! When I first brought you here, you didn’t utter half a word of protest. You had silk to wear and gold to put on; whatever you needed I went out to procure. You have been enjoying the goods of all four seasons and my deep affection every day. Why do you still think only of your parents, with no care at all for our marriage?” When the princess heard what he said, she was so terror-stricken that she knelt on the ground at once. “Husband,” she said, “why are you speaking such words of separation today?” “I don’t know whether it’s you or I who wants separation!” said the fiend. “I caught the Tang Monk and wanted very much to enjoy him. Why did you promise him release before you even consulted me? The fact of the matter had to be that you wrote a letter in secret and asked him to deliver it for you. If it weren’t so, why did those two monks come fighting back to my door and demand your return? Didn’t you do all this?” “Husband, you wrong me,” said the princess. “Since when did I send any letter?” “Still trying to deny it, huh?” said the fiend. “I’ve caught someone here who’s going to be a witness.” “Who’s he?” asked the princess. The old fiend said, “Sha Monk, the second disciple1 of the Tang Monk.”

  Now, no human person is likely to accept death willingly even if death is near. Determined to deny everything, the princess said, “Husband, calm yourself and let us go question him. If there were a letter, I would gladly let you beat me to death. But if there were no such letter, wouldn’t you have slain me unjustly?” When the fiend heard these words, he did not wait for further discussion. Stretching forth his indigo hand that had the size and shape of a winnow, he grabbed the princess by those ten thousand locks of long, lovely hair and pulled her all the way to the front. He threw her to the ground and then went forward, scimitar in hand, to question the prisoner. “Sha Monk,” he bellowed, “since the two of you dared fight up to our door, I ask you this: was it because this girl had sent a letter back to her country that the king told you to come?”

  When the shackled Sha Monk saw how furious the monster was, hurling the princess to the ground and threatening to kill her with the scimitar, he thought to himself, “Of course she sent a letter. But she also saved my master, and that was an incomparably great favor. If I admitted it freely, he would kill the princess on the spot and that would have meant our repaying kindness with enmity. All right! All right! Old Sand, after all, has followed Master all this time and I haven’t made the merest of merit. Today, I’m already a bound captive here; I might as well offer my life to repay my master’s kindness.” He then shouted, “Monster, don’t you dare be unruly! What kind of letter did she send that made you want to accuse her and take her life? There was another reason for us to come to demand from you the princess. Because you had imprisoned my master in the cave, he had the chance to catch a glimpse of the princess, her looks and her gestures. By the time we reached the Precious Image Kingdom and had our travel rescript certified, the king was making all kinds of inquiry about the whereabouts of his daughter with a painted portrait of hers. He showed my master that portrait and asked us whether we had seen her on the way. When my master described the lady he saw at this place, the king knew it was his daughter. He bestowed on us his own imperial wine and commanded us to come here to take you captive and bring his princess back to the palace. This is the truth. Since when was there a letter? If you want to kill someone, you can kill old Sand! But don’t harm an innocent bystander and add to your sins!”

  When the fiend heard how heroically Sha Monk had spoken, he threw away his scimitar and lifted the princess up with both his hands, saying, “I was quite rough with you just now, and I must have offended you deeply. Please forgive me!” He helped her straighten her hair again and reset the bejeweled ornaments with great tenderness and amiability, hugging her and teasing her as they walked inside. He then asked her to take a seat in the middle of the chamber and apologized again. The princess, after all, was a rather fickle woman; when she saw how penitent he became, she, too, had a change of heart. “Husband,” she said, “if you have regard for our love, please loosen those ropes on Sha Monk a little.” When the old fiend heard that, he ordered the little ones to untie Sha Monk and lock him up instead. After he was freed and locked up, Sha Monk stood up, secretly pleased and thinking to himself, “The ancients said, ‘Kindness to others is really kindness to oneself.’ If I were not kind to her, she wouldn’t make him untie me, would she?”

  The old fiend, meanwhile, asked also for wine and food to be served as a means of making further amends to the princess and calming
her fears. After drinking until they were half tipsy, the old fiend suddenly changed into a brightly colored robe and girded a sword on his waist. “Mistress,” he said, caressing the princess with his hand, “you stay home and drink some more. Look after our two kids and don’t let Sha Monk get away. While the Tang Monk is still in the kingdom, I’m going there to get acquainted with my kin.” “To get acquainted with what kin?” asked the princess. “Your Father King,” said the old fiend. “I’m his imperial son-in-law and he’s my father-in-law. Why shouldn’t I go and get acquainted?”

  The princess said, “You can’t go.” “Why not?” said the old fiend. The princess said, “My Father King did not win his empire by might on horseback; he inherited it from his ancestors. Since he ascended his throne in his youth, he hasn’t even left the gate of the city. We have no violent men with looks so savage and gruesome as yours. If you meet him, you might scare him and that wouldn’t be a good thing. It’s better that you not go to get acquainted.” “If you put it like that,” said the old fiend, “let me change into a handsome fellow and go there.” “Change and let me look at you first,” said the princess.

  Dear monster! Right before the dining table, he shook his body once and changed into a very comely person. Truly he had