by Unknown
“You are mistaken, Great Sage,” said the Dragon King, “for if you want rainwater, you shouldn’t have come to ask me.” “You are the Dragon King of Four Oceans, the principal superintendent of rain and dew. If I don’t ask you, whom should I ask?” The Dragon King said, “Though I’m in charge of rain, I can’t dispense it as I will. We must have the decree of the Jade Emperor, specifying where and when, the number of feet and inches, and the hour when the rain is to begin. Moreover, three officials have to raise their brushes to draft the document, which then must be dispatched by the North Star. Thereafter, we must also assemble the Thunder God, the Lightning Mother, the Wind Uncle, and the Cloud Boy, for as the proverb says, ‘The dragon can’t move without clouds.’”
“I have no need for wind, cloud, thunder, or lightning,” said Pilgrim, “only some rainwater to put out a fire.” “In that case,” said the Dragon King, “I still would not be able to help you all by myself. Let my brothers give you a hand to achieve this merit for you. How about that?” “Where are your brothers?” asked Pilgrim. The Dragon King said, “They are Aoqin, Dragon King of the Southern Ocean; Aorun, Dragon King of the Western Ocean; and Aoshun, Dragon King of the Northern Ocean.” Laughing, Pilgrim said, “If I have to go and tour the three oceans, I might as well go to the Region Above to ask for the Jade Emperor’s decree.” The Dragon King said, “There’s no need for the Great Sage to go there. All we have to do here is to beat our iron drum and sound the golden bell, and they will arrive momentarily.” Hearing this, Pilgrim said, “Old Dragon King, please beat the drum and sound the bell.”
In a moment, the three Dragon Kings rushed in and asked, “Big Brother, why did you summon us here?” Aoguang said, “The Great Sage Sun is here asking for our assistance; he needs rain to subdue a fiend.” The three brothers were led to greet Pilgrim, who then gave an account of why he needed water. Each one of the deities was willing to oblige. They at once called up
The shark, so ferocious, to lead the troops,
And the big-mouthed shad to be the vanguard.
The carp marshal leaped through the tide and waves;
The bream viceroy spewed forth wind and fog;
The mackerel grand marshal screamed passwords in the east;
The culter-fish commander urged the troops in the west;
Red-eyed mermaids danced along in the south;
Black-armored generals rushed forward from the north;
The sturgeon sergeant took command at the center;
Soldiers of five quarters were all valiant.
Astute and clever, the sea-turtle lord chancellor;
Shrewd and subtle, the tortoise counselor;
Full of plots and wisdom, the iguana minister;
Agile and able, the sand-turtle commander.
Wielding long swords, crab warriors walked sideways;
Stretching heavy bows, shrimp amazons leaped straight up.
The sheatfish vice-director checked his books with care
To call up the dragon soldiers to leave the waves.
We have also a testimonial poem that says:
Dragon Kings of four seas are pleased to help
At the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven’s request;
When Tripitaka meets an ordeal on the way,
Water is sought to put out the fiery red.
Leading those dragon troops, Pilgrim soon arrived at the Dried Pine Stream on the Roaring Mountain. “Worthy Ao Brothers,” said Pilgrim, “I’m sorry for asking you to traverse such a distance. This is the habitat of the demon. Please remain for the moment in the air and do not reveal yourselves. Let old Monkey go fight with him; if I win, there’s no need for you to catch him, and even if I lose, there’s no need for all of you to help me. Only when he starts his fire will I call on you, and then you can send down your rain.” The Dragon Kings all agreed to heed his command.
Pilgrim lowered his cloud and went straight into the pine forest, where he shouted “Brothers” to Eight Rules and Sha Monk. “Elder Brother,” said Eight Rules, “you’ve returned very quickly. Have you been able to fetch the Dragon Kings?” “They are all here,” said Pilgrim. “You two had better be careful not to let the luggage get wet by the torrential rain. Old Monkey will go fight with him.” Sha Monk said, “Go right ahead, Elder Brother, we’ll take care of everything here.”
Leaping over the stream, Pilgrim dashed up to the entrance of the cave and shouted, “Open the door!” The little fiends went at once to report, “Great King, Pilgrim Sun is here again.” Raising his head, Red Boy laughed aloud and said, “That monkey, I suppose, has not been burned by the fire and that’s why he has returned. Well, I’ll not spare him this time, for I won’t stop until his skin is charred and his flesh is seared.” As he leaped up to take hold of his lance, he gave the order: “Little ones, push out the carts!” After he rushed out the door, he said to Pilgrim, “Why are you here again?” “Return my master,” said Pilgrim. “Monkey head,” said the fiend, “you are indeed obtuse! If the Tang Monk can be your master, can’t he also be our hors d’oeuvre for wine? Forget him! Forget him!” When Pilgrim heard these words, he was infuriated; pulling out his golden-hooped rod, he struck at the fiend’s head. The monster-spirit quickly raised his fire-tipped lance to parry the blow, and their battle this time was not the same as theirs last time. Marvelous battle!
The wild demon, greatly enraged;
The Monkey King, highly incensed.
This one just wished to save the scripture monk;
That one would eat Tripitaka Tang.
Changed minds quelled all kinship feelings;
Estranged, they allowed no concession.
This one wished he could be caught and skinned alive;
That one wished he could be seized and dipped in sauce.
Truly so ferocious!
Indeed so strong and fierce!
The rod blocked by the lance, thus the contest raged;
The lance met by the rod, each strove to win.
They raised their hands to fight for twenty rounds,
Both persons’ abilities were just the same.
The demon king fought Pilgrim for some twenty rounds, and when he saw that he could not prevail, he made a fake thrust with his lance and turned quickly to give his own nose two punches with his fist. Fire and smoke poured out at once from his eyes and mouth as a huge blaze leaped up from the carts set before the cave’s entrance. Turning his head skyward, the Great Sage Sun shouted, “Dragon Kings, where are you?” Leading their aquatic kin, the Dragon King brothers sent a torrential downpour of rain toward the fire of the monster-spirit. Marvelous rain! Truly
Drizzling and sprinkling—
Pouring and showering—
Drizzling and sprinkling,
It’s like the meteors falling from the sky;
Pouring and showering,
It’s like waves churning in a sea upturned.
At first the raindrops seem the size of a fist;
In awhile they fall by the buckets and pans.
The whole earth’s o’erflowed with duck-head green,9
And tall mountains are washed blue like Buddha’s head.10
Water flies down the canyon like sheets of jade;
The stream swells in a thousand silver strands.
Roads forked three ways are all filled up;
So is a river which has nine bends.
The Tang Monk facing an ordeal is helped by dragons divine
Who o’erturn Heaven’s river and pour it down.
The rain descended in torrents but it could not extinguish the fiend’s fire at all. The fact of the matter was that what the Dragon Kings let loose happened to be unauthorized rain, capable of putting out worldly fires. How could it extinguish the true fire of samādhi cultivated by that monster-spirit? It was, in fact, like adding oil to the fire, making the blaze all the more intense. “Let me make the magic sign,” said the Great Sage, “and penetrate the flames.” Wielding the iron rod, he searched for the fiend. When the fiend saw him approa
ching, he blew a mouthful of smoke right at his face. Pilgrim tried to turn away swiftly, but he was so dazed by the smoke that tears fell from his eyes like rain. This Great Sage, you see, could not be hurt by fire but he was afraid of smoke. For during that year when he greatly disturbed the Heavenly Palace, he was placed in the eight-trigram brazier of Laozi, where he had been smelted for a long time.11 He managed to crawl into the space beneath the compartment which corresponded to the Sun trigram and was not burned. The smoke whipped up by the wind, however, gave him a pair of fiery eyes and diamond pupils, and that was the reason why even now he was afraid of smoke. Once more, the fiend spat out a mouthful of smoke and the Great Sage could no longer withstand it. Mounting the clouds, he fled hurriedly while the demon retrieved his fire equipment and returned to his cave.
His whole body covered by flame and smoke, the Great Sage found the intense heat unbearable and he dove straight into the mountain stream to try to put out the fire. Little did he anticipate that the shock of the cold water was so great that the heat caused by the fire was forced inward into his body and he fainted immediately. Alas!
His breath caught in his chest, his tongue and throat grew cold;
His spirit fled, his soul left, and his life was gone!
Those Dragon Kings of the Four Oceans were so terrified that they put a stop to the rain and yelled loudly, “Marshal Heavenly Reeds and Curtain-Raising Captain! Stop hiding in the forest! Start looking for your elder brother!”
When Eight Rules and Sha Monk heard that they were addressed by their holy titles, they quickly untied the horse and poled the luggage to dash out of the forest. With no regard for the mud and slush, they began searching along the banks of the stream when the bubbling currents swept down from above the body of a person. When Sha Monk saw it, he leaped into the water fully clothed and hauled the body back to shore. It was the body of the Great Sage Sun. Alas, look at him!
His four limbs were bent and they could not be stretched;
His whole body up and down was cold as ice.
“Elder Brother,” said Sha Monk, as tears filled his eyes, “what a pity you have to go like that! You were
Someone who never aged through countless years.
Now you have died young in the middle of the way.”
With a chuckle, Eight Rules said, “Brother, stop crying. This ape is pretending to be dead, just to scare us. Feel him a little and see if there’s any warmth left in his breast.” “The whole body has turned cold,” said Sha Monk. “Even if there were a little warmth left, how could you revive him?” Eight Rules said, “If he is capable of seventy-two transformations, he has seventy-two lives. Listen, you stretch out his legs while I take care of him.” Sha Monk indeed straightened Pilgrim’s legs while Eight Rules lifted his head and straightened his upper torso. They then pushed his legs up and folded them around the knees before raising him into a sitting position. Rubbing his hands together until they were warm, Eight Rules covered Pilgrim’s seven apertures and began to apply a Chan method of massage on him. The cold water, you see, had had such a traumatic effect on Pilgrim that his breath was caught in his cinnabar field12 and he could not utter a sound. He was lucky, therefore, to have all that rubbing, squeezing, and kneading by Eight Rules, for in a moment his breath went through the three passes,13 invaded the bright hall,14 and burst through his apertures. “O Master,” he began to say.
Sha Monk said, “Elder Brother, when you were alive, you lived for Master, and his name’s on your lips even when you are dead! Wake up first. We are all here.” Opening his eyes, Pilgrim said, “Are you here, Brothers? Old Monkey’s a loser this time!” “You fainted,” said Eight Rules Zhu, chuckling, “and if old Hog hadn’t saved you, you would have been finished. Aren’t you going to thank me?” Pilgrim got up slowly and raised his head, saying, “The Ao Brothers, where are you?” The Dragon Kings of Four Oceans replied in midair, “Your little dragons wait upon you here.” “I am sorry to have caused you to travel all this distance,” said Pilgrim, “but we have not accomplished our merit. Please go back first and I shall thank you again in another day.” The Dragon Kings led their large group of followers to return to their residences, which need not concern us here.
Sha Monk then supported Pilgrim and led him back into the pine forest to sit down. In a little while, Pilgrim felt more collected and his breathing became more even, but he could not restrain the tears from rolling down his cheeks. Again he cried out, “O Master!
Think of your leaving the Great Tang that year,
When you saved me from woe beneath that mount.
On waters and hills we face demonic foes;
Our bowels are torn by ten thousand pains.
We eat with an alms bowl, whether bare or filled;
In houses or woods we meditate at night.
Our hearts are set on achieving the right fruit.
How could I know I would be hurt this day?”
Sha Monk said, “Elder Brother, please do not worry. Let us devise a plan soon and see where we can go to ask for help to rescue Master.” “Where shall we go to seek help?” asked Pilgrim. Sha Monk said, “I remember when the Bodhisattva first gave us the instruction that we should accompany the Tang Monk, she also gave us the promise that when we called on Heaven, Heaven would respond, or when we called on Earth, Earth would reply. We just have to decide where we should go to seek help.” “When I caused great disturbance in the Heavenly Palace,” said Pilgrim, “all those divine soldiers were no match for old Monkey. This monster-spirit, however, has considerable magic powers, and so our helper must be someone stronger than even old Monkey. Neither the gods in Heaven nor those deities on Earth will be adequate. If we want to catch this demon, we must go to ask the Bodhisattva Guanyin. But unfortunately, my bones and muscles are sore and my torso is weak. I can’t perform my cloud somersault. How can I go?” “If you have any instruction,” said Eight Rules, “tell me. I’ll go.” Smiling, Pilgrim said, “All right! You can go, but when you appear before the Bodhisattva, don’t stare at her face. You must lower your head and bow with reverence, and when she asks you, you may then tell her the names of this place and the fiend and beseech her to come to rescue Master. If she’s willing, the fiendish creature will, of course, be taken.” After Eight Rules heard this, he mounted the clouds and mists at once and headed toward the south.
We now tell you about that demon king, who was celebrating in his cave. Merrily he said to his subjects, “Little ones, Pilgrim Sun truly has suffered loss this time. Though he may not die, he will be in a big coma! Holla! I fear that they might want to go find help somewhere. Open the doors quickly! Let me see where they are going.” The fiends opened the doors and when the monster-spirit rose into the air to look all around, he discovered Eight Rules heading toward the south. The south, the monster-spirit thought to himself, could mean only one thing: Eight Rules was going to seek the help of the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Dropping quickly from the clouds, the fiend cried, “Little ones, find that leather bag of mine and take it out. It hasn’t been used for quite some time and I fear that the rope around its mouth is not strong enough. Change the rope for me and place the bag beneath the second door. Let me go and capture Eight Rules by deception; when he is brought back here, we’ll store him in the bag. Then he’ll be steamed until he’s flaky so that all of you may enjoy him with wine.” The monster-spirit, you see, had a compliant leather bag, which those little fiends took out and fastened a new rope to its mouth. They placed it beneath the second door as they were told, and we shall speak no more of them.
We tell you instead about that demon king, who had lived in this place for a long time; the whole region, in fact, was familiar to him, and he knew which route to South Sea was the shorter one and which the longer. Taking the shorter route, he mounted the clouds and at once went past Eight Rules. He then lowered himself onto a tall ridge, sat down solemnly, and changed into a specious form of Guanshiyin to wait for Eight Rules.
Treading his clouds, Idiot was on h
is way when he saw suddenly the Bodhisattva. He could not, of course, distinguish the true from the false; like foolish men of the world, he regarded all images as real Buddhas! Stopping his cloud, Idiot bowed low and said, “Bodhisattva, your disciple Zhu Wuneng kowtows to you.” The monster-spirit said, “Why aren’t you protecting the Tang Monk on his way to fetch scriptures? Why have you come to see me?” “It was because your disciple and his master met on their way a Red Boy monster-spirit, who resided in the Fiery Cloud Cave by the Dried Pine Stream in the Roaring Mountain. He abducted our master, but your disciples found the way to his door and fought with him. He happened to be someone who knew how to start a fire; during our first battle, we could not prevail, and during our second one, we could not extinguish the fire even after we asked the Dragon Kings to assist us with rain. Since Elder Brother suffered burns so severe that he could not move, he asked me to come to plead with the Bodhisattva. We beg you to be merciful and save our master from his ordeal.”
“That master of the Fiery Cloud Cave,” said the monster-spirit, “is not prone to take human lives. It must be that you have offended him.” “Not I,” said Eight Rules, “but Elder Brother did offend him. The fiend changed himself at first into a small child hung on a tree to test Master. Our Master, of course, had a most kindly disposition; he told me to untie the child and Elder Brother to carry him for a distance. Elder Brother wanted to dash him to the ground, and that was when he abducted Master.” The monster-spirit said, “Get up and follow me into the cave to see the cave-master. I’ll speak on your behalf, and you can salute him; the two of us will ask him then to release your master.” “O Bodhisattva,” said Eight Rules. “If he’s willing to return our master, I’ll be glad to kowtow to him.” “Follow me then,” said the demon king.
Idiot, of course, did not know any better; instead of proceeding to the South Sea, he followed the fiend right back to the entrance of the Fiery Cloud Cave. When they reached the cave, the monster-spirit proceeded to walk inside, saying, “Don’t be suspicious, for he’s my acquaintance. You come in, too.” Idiot had no choice but to stride inside also. With a terrific shout, the various fiends seized him all at once and stuffed him into the leather bag. After the rope around its mouth was pulled tight, the bag was drawn up high to a beam and hung there. Changing back into his true form, the monster-spirit took a seat in the middle and said, “Zhu Eight Rules, what sort of abilities do you have that you dare accompany the Tang Monk to acquire scriptures? That you dare go ask the Bodhisattva to subdue me? Open your pair of eyes, take a good look, and see if you recognize me, the Great King Holy Child! Now you are caught, you’ll be hung for four or five days before you’ll be steamed and served as hors d’oeuvre to my little fiends for their wine.” When Eight Rules heard these words, he began screaming inside the bag, saying, “You brazen fiend! Don’t you dare be so insulting! So, you’ve plotted and planned to deceive me, but if you dare eat me, every one of you will be stricken with the Heaven-sent plague of swollen head!” Idiot thus persisted in his expostulation for a long time, but we shall speak no more of him for the moment.