Journey to the West (vol. 3)

by Wu Cheng-En

  By now it was past midday, and Sanzang said, “I had better be going.”

  “I'll escort you, Master,” said Brother Monkey. “Me too,” said Pig.

  “No, don't, brother,” put in Friar Sand. “Your face is nothing much to look at, so there's no point in your going to look impressive outside the palace gates. Best let our big brother go,”

  “Wujing is right,” Sanzang commented. “The idiot is coarse and stupid. Wukong is more clever and subtle.” The idiot thrust his snout out and said, “Apart from you, Master, there's not much to choose between our three faces.”

  Sanzang then put on his cassock. Monkey took the passport case had accompanied him. In the streets everyone-gentleman, peasant; artisan, trader, scholar, pen-pusher, dim-wit, or common man-was exclaiming, “Let's go and see the embroidered ball being thrown.”

  Sanzang stood beside the road and said to Monkey, “People, clothes, buildings, language and speech here are all the same as in our Great Tang. I remember that my late mother married after throwing an embroidered ball to make the match she was destined for, and they have that custom here too.”

  “What about us going to take a look too?” asked Monkey.

  “No, no,” Sanzang replied. “We are not wearing the right clothes for the occasion. We might arouse suspicion.”

  “Master,” said Monkey, “you've forgotten what the ancient monk in the Spread Gold Monastery told us. We could find out whether she is genuine or not while we're taking a good look at the decorated tower. With all this bustle and activity the king is bound to be going to hear the princess's good news. He won't bother with court business. Let's go.” On hearing this Sanzang did indeed go with Monkey. All kinds of people were there to watch the throwing of the embroidered ball. Oh dear! Little did they know that by going they were like a fisherman casting his hook and line and catching himself trouble.

  The story now explains that two years earlier the king of India had taken his queen, consorts and daughter into the royal garden to enjoy a moonlit night because he so loved landscapes and flowers. This had provoked an evil spirit, who had carried the princess off and turned herself into the girl's double. When she learned that the Tang Priest was coming at this time, day, month and year the evil spirit had used the wealth of the kingdom to build the decorated tower in the hope of winning him as her mate and absorbing his true masculine primal essence to make herself a superior immortal of the Great Monad.

  At the third mark of the noonday hour, when Sanzang and Monkey had joined in the crowd and were approaching the tower, the princess lit some incense and prayed to heaven and earth. She was surrounded by five or six dozen exquisitely made-up beauties who were attending her and holding her embroidered ball for her. The tower had many windows on all sides. As the princess looked around she saw the Tang Priest approaching, so she took the embroidered ball and threw it with her own hands at the Tang Priest's head. It knocked his Vairocana mitre askew, giving him such a start that he immediately reached with both hands to steady the ball, which rolled down his sleeve.

  At once there were great shouts from everyone on the tower of, “She's hit a monk! She's hit a monk!”

  Oh dear! All the travelling merchants at the crossroads pushed and shouted as they rushed to grab the embroidered ball, to be met by Monkey with a shout and bared teeth as he bent forward then grew to the majestic height of thirty feet. The hideous face he made gave them all such a fright that they collapsed and crawled about, not daring to come closer. A moment later they had all scattered and Monkey resumed his true form.

  The maids, palace beauties and senior and junior eunuchs who had been in the tower all camp up to the Tang Priest, kowtowed to him and said, “Your Highness, we beg you to come to the palace to be congratulated.” Sanzang was quick to return their greetings and help them all back to their feet.

  He then turned back to grumble at Monkey, “Ape! You've been trying to make a fool of me again.”

  “It was your head the embroidered ball landed on,” Monkey replied with a laugh, “and your sleeve it rolled into. Nothing to do with me, so what are you moaning at me for?”

  “What are we going to do?” Sanzang asked.

  “Stop worrying, Master,” Monkey said. “While you go to the palace to see the king I'll go back to the hostel to tell Pig and Friar Sand to wait. If the princess doesn't want you, that'll be that. You submit the passport and we can be on our way. If the princess insists on marriage you must say to the king, 'Please send for my disciples so that I can take my leave of them.' When we three are summoned to court I'll be able to tell whether the princess is real or an impostor. This is the trick called 'subduing a demon through marriage.'“ The Tang Priest had nothing to say as Monkey turned away and went back to the hostel.

  The venerable elder was hustled by the palace beauties and the rest of them to the foot of the tower, from where the princess came down to support him with her jade hand as they both entered the royal carriage. The retinue formed a procession to return to the palace gates.

  The eunuch gate-officer at once reported to the king, “Your Majesty, Her Royal Highness the princess is outside the Meridional Gate, holding a monk's arm and waiting to be summoned. I expect she hit him with her embroidered ball.”

  The king was most displeased to hear this, and wanted to have the monk driven away, but as he did not know what the princess had in mind he restrained his feelings and summoned them in. The princess and the Tang Priest came in to stand beneath the throne hall. Indeed:

  Man and future wife both hailed the king aloud;

  Good and ill together with deep respect kowtowed.

  When this ceremonial had been performed they were called into the throne hall, where the king began by asking, “Where are you from, monk? Did our daughter hit you with her ball?”

  The Tang Priest prostrated himself to reply, “I have been sent by the emperor of Great Tang in the continent of Jambu to the Western Heaven to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures in the Great Thunder Monastery. As I carry a passport for this long journey I was coming to present it for inspection at Your Majesty's dawn audience when I passed a decorated tower at a crossroads, never imagining that Her Royal Highness the princess would throw an embroidered ball that would hit me on the head. As I am a monk and belong to a different faith I could not possibly marry your exquisite daughter, so I beg you to spare me the death penalty and return the passport. Then I can be on my way and soon reach Vulture Peak, see the Buddha, ask for the scriptures and return to my own country, where Your Majesty's divine mercy will be for ever recorded.”

  “So you are a holy monk from the East,” the king replied. “Indeed, 'a thread can draw together a fated match across a thousand miles.' Our princess has reached the age of nineteen and is still unmarried, and as the hour, day, month and year are all now auspicious a decorated tower was set up for her to choose a good husband by throwing the ball from it. You just happened to be hit by it, and although this does not please us we would like to know the princess's views.”

  “Your Majesty my father,” the princess replied, kowtowing, “as the saying goes, 'Marry a cockerel and follow a cockerel; marry a dog and follow a dog.' I swore a vow beforehand, made the ball and told heaven, earth and the gods that heaven would choose as my husband the man my ball hit. As the ball hit the holy monk today this must have been fated ever since an earlier incarnation, which is why we met today. I would never dare to change my mind. I ask you to take him as your son-in-law.”

  Only then was the king happy, and he commanded the chief royal astrologer to choose a day. While organizing the trousseau the king issued proclamations to the world. When Sanzang heard this, so far from thanking the king for his kindness, he pleaded, “Forgive me, forgive me.”

  “You're most unreasonable, monk,” the king replied. “We offer you a nation's wealth to be our son-in-law. Why won't you stay here and enjoy yourself? All you can think about is fetching the scriptures. If you go on refusing we will have the palace g
uards take you out and behead you.”

  The venerable elder was so frightened by this that his soul left his body as he kowtowed, trembling, and submitted, “I am grateful for Your Majesty's heavenly grace, but there are four of us monks travelling West. I have three disciples outside. If I am now to be taken as your son-in-law I beg you to summon them inside as I have not yet taken my leave of them. Then you can return the passport and let them go at once, so that they will not fail in the purpose of their journey to the West.”

  The king approved this request, asking, “Where are your disciples?”

  “In the government hostel for foreigners,” Sanzang replied, and officers were at once sent to fetch the holy monk's disciples to receive the passport and be on their way, leaving the holy monk there to be the princess's husband. The venerable elder could only rise to his feet and stand in attendance.

  For the Great Elixir not to leak away the Triple Completeness is needed;

  Blame an evil fate if the ascetic way is hard.

  The Way is in the sage traditions; cultivation depends on the self;

  Goodness is accumulated by people, but blessings come from Heaven.

  Do not give play to the six sense-organs and their many desires;

  Open up the single nature, original and primary.

  When there are no attachments or thoughts, purity comes of itself;

  Strive for liberation and achieve transcendence.

  We will say no more of how officers were sent to the hostel to fetch Sanzang's three disciples.

  Instead the story tells how Monkey, after taking his leave of Sanzang at the foot of the decorated tower, went happily back to the hostel, laughing aloud as he walked. “Why are you laughing so cheerfully, brother,” Pig and Friar Sand asked as they greeted him, “and why's the master disappeared?”

  “The master has found happiness,” Monkey replied. “What happiness?” Pig asked. “He hasn't reached the end of the journey, he hasn't seen the Buddha and he hasn't fetched the scriptures.”

  “The master and I only got as far as the foot of a decorated tower at the crossroads,” Brother Monkey replied. “Just then the king's daughter hit the master with an embroidered ball, so he was hustled by palace beauties, pretty girls and eunuchs to the front of the tower, where he climbed into a carriage to go to the palace with the princess. He's been invited to become the king's son-in-law. Isn't that something to be cheerful about?”

  When Pig heard this he stamped, beat his chest and said, “If I'd known beforehand, I'd have gone too. It was all Friar Sand's fault for making trouble. I'd have run straight to the foot of the decorated tower, the embroidered ball would have hit me first time, and the princess would have taken me for her husband. That would have been marvellous, terrific. I'm handsome and good-looking: I'd have been just the man. We'd all have been in luck and have had a good time. It'd have been real fun.”

  Friar Sand went up to Pig, rubbed his face and said, “Shameless, you're shameless! That's a handsome mug, I must say. You're like the man who bought an old donkey for three-tenths of an ounce of silver and boasted that he'd be able to ride it. If she'd hit you first time she wouldn't have wanted to wait till tonight before burning spells to get rid of you. Do you think she'd have let trouble like you into the palace?”

  “You're being very disagreeable, you blacky,” Pig replied. “Ugly I may be, but I've got class. As the old saying goes, 'When skin and flesh are coarse, the bones may yet be strong: everyone is good at something.'”

  “Stop talking nonsense, idiot,” Monkey retorted, “and pack the baggage. I expect the master will get anxious and send for us, so we must be ready to go to protect him at court.”

  “You're wrong again, brother,” said Pig. “If the master's become the king's son-in-law and gone to take his pleasure with the king's daughter, he won't be climbing any more mountains, or tramping along the road, or running into demons and monsters. So what'll he want you to protect him from? He's old enough to know what happens under the bedcovers. He won't need you to hold him up.”

  Monkey grabbed Pig by the ear, swung his fist, and said abusively, “You're as dirty-minded as ever, you cretin! How dare you talk such nonsense!”

  While they were in the middle of their quarrel the hostel superintendent came to report, “His Majesty has sent an official here with a request for you three holy monks to present yourselves.”

  “What's he really asking us to go for?”

  “The senior holy monk had the good fortune to be hit by the princess's golden ball and be taken as her husband,” the superintendent replied, “which is why the official has come with invitations for you.”

  “Where is the official?” Monkey asked. “Send him in.”

  The official then bowed in greeting to Monkey, after which he did not dare look straight at Monkey as he muttered to himself, “Is it a ghost? a monster? a thunder god? a yaksha?”

  “Why are you mumbling instead of saying whatever you have to say, official?” Monkey asked.

  Trembling with terror, the official raised the royal edict with both hands as his words came tumbling out in confusion: “Her Royal Highness-invitation-meet her new relations-Her Royal Highness-meet her relations-invitation…”

  “We've got no torture equipment here and we're not going to beat you,” Pig said, “so don't be frightened and take your time telling us.”

  “Do you think he's scared you're going to beat him?” Monkey said. “What he's scared of is your ugly mug. Get the carrying-pole load packed up at once. We're taking the horse and going to court to see the master and talk things over.” Indeed:

  One you meet on a narrow path is hard to avoid;

  Determination can turn love to hatred.

  If you do not know what was said when they met the king, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

  Chapter 94

  The Four Monks Dine to Music in the Palace Gardens

  One Demon Loves in Vain and Longs for Bliss

  The story tells how Brother Monkey and the other two disciples went with the official who had brought the invitation to outside the Meridional Gate of the palace, where the eunuch gate officer immediately reported their arrival and brought back a summons for them to enter. The three of them stood in a row, not bowing. “Are you three gentlemen the illustrious disciples of the holy monk? What are your names? Where do you live? Why did you become monks? What scriptures are you going to fetch?” Monkey then came closer, intending to enter the throne hall.

  “Don't move,” one of the king's bodyguards shouted. “If you have anything to say, say it standing down there.”

  “We monks like to step forward whenever we're given an opening,” Monkey said with a smile, at which Pig and Friar Sand too approached the king. Worried that their rough manners would alarm the king, Sanzang stepped forward and called out, “Disciples, His Majesty has asked you why you have come here. You must submit your reply.”

  Seeing his master standing in attendance beside the king, Monkey could not restrain himself from calling aloud, “Your Majesty is treating yourself with respect but others with contempt. If you are taking my master as your son-in-law, why do you make him stand in attendance on you? The normal custom is for a king to call his son-in-law Your Excellency, and an Excellency really ought to be sitting down.”

  This gave the king so bad a fright that he turned pale and wished he could leave the throne hall. But as this would have looked very bad he had to summon up his courage and tell his attendants of fetch an embroidered stool on which he invited the Tang Priest to sit. Only then did Brother Monkey submit the following spoken memorial: “My ancestral home is the Water Curtain Cave in the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit in the land of Aolai in the Eastern Continent of Superior Body.

  My father was heaven, my mother earth,

  And I was born when a rock split open.

  1 took as my master a Taoist adept,

  And mastered the Great Way.

  Then I returned to my land of
immortals,

  Where I gathered all of us to live in our cave heaven.

  In the ocean's depths I subdued the dragons,

  Then climbed the mountains to capture wild beasts.

  I removed us from the registers of death,

  Put us on the rolls of the living,

  And was appointed Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

  I enjoyed the heavenly palaces,

  And roamed around the splendid buildings.

  I met the immortals of Heaven

  In daily carousals;

  Lived in the holy regions,

  Happy every day.

  But because I disrupted the Peach Banquet,

  And raised a rebellion in the palaces of Heaven,

  I was captured by the Lord Buddha

  And imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain.

  When hungry I was fed on pellets of iron,

  When thirsty I drank molten copper:

  For five hundred years I tasted no food or tea.

  Fortunately my master came from the East

  To worship in the West.

  Guanyin told him to deliver me from heavenly disaster.

  I was rescued from my torment

  To be converted to the Yogacarin sect.

  My old name was Wukong;

  Now I am known as the Novice.”

  When the king realized how important Monkey was he quickly came down from his dragon throne and walked over to steady the venerable elder with his hand and say, “Son-in-law, it was divine providence that brought us one such as yourself to be our kinsman through marriage.” Sanzang thanked the king profoundly for his graciousness and urged him to return to his throne. “Which gentleman has the distinction of being the second disciple?” the king asked. Pig thrust his snout out to make himself look more impressive as he replied: