Journey to the West (vol. 3)

by Wu Cheng-En

  Great was the fame of the gold-banded cudgel;

  No one had heard of the hammerhead club.

  One of them was there to fetch the true scriptures;

  The other was lingering for love of rare flowers.

  Long had the demon known of the holy Tang Priest,

  And she longed to mate with his primal seed-juices.

  In a past year she had carried off the real princess,

  And taken the form of the king's true daughter.

  When she met the Great Sage, who saw her evil aura,

  He could tell true from false as he came to save a life.

  The murderous club was flung at the head;

  The mighty iron cudgel struck back at the face.

  Ranting and roaring, they were locked in struggle,

  Filling the skies and blotting out the sun.

  As the two of them battled in mid air they terrified the common people of the city, and struck fear into all the officials at court. The venerable elder kept saying as he supported the king, “Don't be alarmed, and please tell Her Majesty and all the others not to be afraid. Your princess is an impostor pretending to be her. When my disciple has captured her you will be able to see whether she is good or evil.” Some of the bolder consorts brought clothes and jewelry to show the queen.

  “These are what the princess wore. She tore them off and is fighting that monk up in the sky stark naked. She must be an evil spirit.” Only then did the king, queens and consorts come to their senses and look up into the sky.

  When the evil spirit and the Great Sage had been fighting for half a day without either emerging as victor Monkey threw his cudgel up and called “Change!” One turned into ten, ten into a hundred, and a hundred into a thousand. Half the sky was filled with writhing serpents and pythons striking wildly at the evil spirit. With a flurry of her hands and feet she turned into a pure wind and fled into the azure sky. Monkey said a spell, took all the iron cudgels back into a single cudgel, and went straight after her magic light.

  As he approached the Western Gate of Heaven and saw the dazzling flags and banners Monkey shouted at the top of his voice, “Heavenly gatekeepers, stop that evil spirit and don't let her get away.” The gate was being held by the Heavenly King Lokapala with the four great marshals Pang, Liu, Gou and Bi, who did indeed use their weapons to block the way. As she could not get further she turned straight back and started fighting Monkey with her short club.

  As he wheeled his iron cudgel the Great Sage looked carefully at her and saw that one end of her club was thick and one end thin, just like the lead of a trip-hammer used for hulling with a mortar, so he gave a furious roar and shouted, “Beast! What's that implement you're holding? How dare you fight me with it? Surrender at once or I'll smash your skull with a single blow from my cudgel.”

  Grinding her teeth, the evil spirit replied, “You don't know about this weapon of mine, so listen while I tell you:

  Its immortal root was a piece of mutton-fat jade,

  Which took countless years to be worked into shape.

  It was already mine when chaos was separated;

  When the primal disorder was sorted out I came first.

  Its origins cannot be compared with mere mortal things;

  Its nature has always belonged to the highest heaven.

  Embodying the golden light and the four images

  With the auspicious vapors of the Five Elements and the Three Primaries.

  Long did it live with me in the Moon Palace,

  Staying beside me in the Cassia Hall.

  For love of flowers I descended to the mortal world,

  Coming to India as a beautiful impostor.

  The only reason why I shared the King's pleasures

  Was because I wanted my destined marriage with the Tang Priest.

  How could you be so cruel as to ruin this fine mating,

  Pursuing me and giving rein to your vicious nature?

  Great is the fame of this implement of mine,

  Which is older than your cudgel with gold bands.

  It was a drug-pounding pestle in the Moon Palace:

  One blow from this and a life is ended.”

  When Monkey heard this he replied with a mocking laugh, “Evil beast! If you used to live in the Toad Palace you must have heard of my powers. How dare you argue with me! Turn back into your real self and surrender at once if I'm to spare your life.”

  “I know you,” the monster replied. “You're the Protector of the Horses who made great havoc in the palaces of Heaven five hundred years ago. By rights I ought to give way to you, but because you've wrecked my marriage I hate you as much as if you'd killed my mother and father. It's more than I can stand for. I'm going to kill you, you Protector of the Horses, for breaking the laws of Heaven.” The words Protector of the Horses always infuriated the Great Sage, so the moment he heard them he flew into a great rage, lifted his iron cudgel and struck at her face. The evil spirit swung her pestle in reply. A ferocious battle then ensued in front of the Western Gate of Heaven. In this combat there were

  A gold-banded cudgel,

  A drug-pounding pestle,

  Two immortals' weapons, a worthy match.

  One had come down to earth for the sake of a marriage;

  The other was there to protect the Tang Priest.

  It was because the king was not a righteous one

  And loved flowers that he attracted the evil spirit,

  Causing today's bitter strife

  As two of them gave Ml play to their stubbornness of heart.

  Charging and rushing each other they strove for triumph;

  In cutting words they fought on with their tongues.

  Rare was the martial prowess of the medicine pestle,

  But finer still was the iron cudgel's might.

  A powerful golden light flashed at the heavenly gates;

  Brilliantly coloured mists went right down to the earth.

  After a dozen rounds of fighting to and fro

  The evil spirit became too weak to resist.

  When the evil spirit had fought another dozen or so rounds with Brother Monkey she could see how thick and fast his blows were coming, and realized that she could not win. Feinting with her pestle, she shook herself and fled due South in ten thousand beams of golden light with the Great Sage in pursuit. Suddenly they reached a great mountain, where the evil spirit landed her golden light and disappeared into a cave. Monkey, who was worried that she might escape, return to India and do some underhand harm to the Tang Priest, made sure he could recognize the mountain then turned his cloud round and went straight back to the capital.

  It was now about four in the afternoon. The king was clinging to Sanzang, shivering and shaking as he kept saying, “Save me, holy monk!”

  The consorts and queens were all in a panic as the Great Sage came down from the clouds with a cry of, “Here I am, Master!”

  “Stand still, Wukong,” said Sanzang. “You must not alarm His Majesty. Now, I am asking you what in fact happened about the imitation princess.” Standing outside the Jay Palace, Monkey put his hands together in front of his chest and said, “The imitation princess was an evil spirit. First of all I fought her for half a day, and she couldn't beat me, so she turned into a pure wind and fled straight to the gates of heaven. I shouted to the gods to block her way. She turned back into her real self and fought another dozen or so rounds with me. Then she turned herself into golden light and fled due South to a mountain, beaten. I chased her as fast as I could till I got to the mountain, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Then I came back because I was worried she might come here to harm you.”

  When the king heard this he grabbed hold of the Tang Priest and asked, “If the false princess was an evil spirit, where is my real princess?”

  “When I've caught the false princess your real princess will turn up by herself,” Monkey replied straight away. When the queens and consorts heard this their fears vanished, and each of them came forward to
bow and say, “We beg you to rescue our real princess, holy monk, and sort out the light from the dark. You will be richly rewarded.”

  “This is no place for us to talk,” said Monkey. “I beg Your Majesty to go from the inner quarters to the throne hall with my master. Her Majesty and the rest of them should all go back to the inner palace, and my fellow-disciples Pig and Friar Sand should be sent for to protect my master so that I can go and subdue the demon. That will keep a proper distinction between the inner and outer quarters of the palace, and spare me from worrying. I am going to sort this out to show my sincerity.”

  The king accepted the suggestion and was boundlessly grateful. He led the Tang Priest out of the inner quarters and straight to the throne hall. All the queens and consorts returned to the inner palace. A vegetarian meal was ordered while Pig and Friar Sand were sent for. The two of them soon arrived. Monkey explained to them both about what had happened and told them to guard the master carefully. The Great Sage set off by his cloud somersault and flew up into mid air. All the officials in front of the throne hall looked up into the sky and bowed low.

  The Great Sage Monkey went straight to the mountain that lay due South. When the evil spirit had fled in defeat to the mountain and gone into her den she blocked the entrance with boulders and lay hidden there, terrified. Having looked around for a while and seen no sign of life Monkey felt very impatient, so he made a spell with his hands and said the magic words, calling out the local deity and mountain god to be questioned. A moment later the two gods arrived, kowtowed and said, “We didn't realize, we didn't realize. If we had known we'd have gone a long way to meet you. We beg you to forgive us.”

  “I won't hit you just now,” Monkey said. “Tell me what this mountain's called. How many evil spirits are there here? Tell me the truth and I'll forgive you your crimes.”

  “Great Sage,” the two gods replied, “this mountain is called Mount Hairtrip. There are three have warrens in the mountain, but from remote antiquity there have never been any evil spirits here. This is a blessed land of five felicities. Great Sage, if you want to find an evil spirit, take the road to the Western Heaven.”

  “I've reached the kingdom of India in the Western Heaven, where the king has a princess who was carried off by an evil spirit and abandoned in the wilds. The evil spirit turned herself into the princess's double to deceive the king into building a decorated tower from which she could throw an embroidered ball to find herself a husband. When I got to the foot of the tower while escorting the Tang Priest she deliberately hit the Tang Priest because she wanted to mate with him and lure his primal masculinity out of him. When I saw through her I turned back into myself in the palace to catch her. She threw off her human clothes and jewels and fought with me for half a day with a short club that she called a medicine-pounding pestle. Then she turned herself into a pure wind and disappeared. When I chased her as far as the Western Gate of Heaven and fought another dozen or more with her she realized she couldn't beat me, turned herself into golden right and fled here. Why didn't you see her!”

  When the two gods heard this they led Brother Monkey to search the three warrens. When they first looked by the warren at the foot of the mountain a few frightened hares were startled and ran away. When their search reached the cave at the top of the mountain they saw that the entrance was blocked with two great boulders.

  “The evil spirit must have gone inside,” the local god said, “when you were chasing her so hard.”

  Monkey then pried the boulders apart with his iron cudgel. The evil spirit, who was indeed hiding in there, sprang out with a whoosh, raising her medicine pestle to strike him with. As Monkey swung his cudgel to parry her blow the mountain deity fell back in terror and the local god fled.

  From the demon's mouth came abusive grumbles: “Who told you to bring him here to find me?” She continued to fend off the iron cudgel as she fled up into mid air in a fighting retreat.

  Just at the moment of crisis, when it was getting late in the day, Monkey became more vicious than ever and his blows were even harder. He wished he could finish her off with a single stroke. Just then a call came from the ninefold azure sky of, “Don't strike, Great Sage! Don't strike! Be kind with your cudgel.”

  When Monkey turned round he saw that it was the Star Lord of the Moon leading his beauties and immortals down on multicolored clouds to stand in front of him. A flustered Monkey at once put his iron cudgel away, bowed and said, “Where are you going, Old Man? I'm sorry I didn't keep out of your way.”

  “The evil spirit fighting you is the Jade Hare who pounds the immortal elixir of mysterious dew in my palace,” the Moon replied. “A year ago she secretly opened the golden locks on the jade gates and absconded from the palace. As I reckoned that she would be in mortal peril I have come here to save her life. I do beg you, Great Sage, to spare her life out of consideration for me.”

  Monkey assented, saying only, “I wouldn't dare harm her, I wouldn't dare. No wonder she's so good with a medicine-pounding pestle. She's the Jade Hare. What you don't know, Old Moon, is that she has kidnapped the king of India's daughter, made herself into the princess's double, and wants to ruin my master's primal masculinity although he's a holy monk. This is the truth. We can't stand for crimes like that. How can you possibly let her off so lightly?”

  “There are things you don't know,” the Moon replied. “That king's daughter is no ordinary mortal. She was the White Beauty from the Moon Palace. Eighteen years ago she slapped the Jade Hare, after which she longed for the human world and came down to it in a beam of magic light to the womb of the king's senior queen. She was born then. The Jade Hare was getting her own back for that slap when she ran away from the palace last year and threw White Beauty into the wilds. But she was wrong to want to marry the Tang Priest. That's an offence she mustn't get away with. It was a good thing you were careful enough to see through her before she ruined your master. But I plead with you to forgive her for my sake and let me take her back.”

  “If that's why it happened,” Brother Monkey replied with a smile, “I wouldn't dare to make any objections. But if you take the Jade Hare back I'm worried that the king might not believe it, so I'd like to trouble you and the immortal sisters to take the Jade Hare over there to prove it to the king. Then I'll be able to show off my powers and explain how White Beauty came down to earth. I'll make the king fetch Princess White Beauty to prove the truth of retribution.

  The Moon was persuaded, so he pointed at the evil spirit and shouted, “Repent and submit, evil beast!” The Jade Hare rolled on the ground and turned back into her real form. Indeed she was

  Gap-lipped and sharp-toothed,

  Long-eared and with few whiskers.

  Her body was covered with jade-coloured fur;

  When she stretched out her legs she flew over mountains.

  Her straight nose was like yogurt,

  Glossier than face-cream with powder.

  Two eyes glowed red,

  Brighter than dots of rouge on the snow.

  Crouching on the ground

  She was a heap of pure white silk;

  When she stretched herself out

  She was a structure of dazzling silver wire.

  Often did she

  Drink in the purest dew of the heavenly dawn,

  Pounding the elixir with her pestle of jade.

  When the Great Sage saw this he was delighted, and treading clouds and light he led the way as the Moon Lord brought all the beauties and immortals, taking the Jade Hare with them as they headed straight for India. It was now dusk, and the moon was slowly rising. When they reached the walls of the capital they heard the drums being beaten on the watch-towers. The king and the Tang Priest were still inside the throne hall, while Pig, Friar Sand and the officials were standing in front of the steps. They were just discussing whether the king should withdraw when a sheet of coloured cloud as bright as day was seen due South.

  When they all raised their heads to look they heard t
he Great Sage Monkey shouting at the top of his voice, “Your Majesty, King of India, ask your queens and consorts to come out and look. Under this canopy is the Star Lord of the Moon Palace, and the immortal sisters to either side of him are the beauties of the moon. This Jade Hare was the bogus princess of yours who has now turned back into her real form.” The king then quickly called his queen, consorts, palace beauties and maids out, and they all kowtowed towards the sky. The king, the Tang Priest and the officials also bowed to the sky in thanks. There was nobody in any house throughout the whole city who did not set out an altar on which to burn incense, kowtow and recite the name of the Buddha.

  Just when everyone was looking up Pig felt a surge of uncontrollable desire, leapt up into the air and flung his arms round an immortal girl dressed in a rainbow. “We're old Mends, darling,” he said. “Let's go and have a bit of fun.” Monkey went up to Pig, grabbed hold of him, gave him a couple of slaps and swore at him: “You village idiot. What sort of place is this for getting randy?”

  “I was just going to chat her up for a bit of fun,” said Pig.

  The Moon Lord had his celestial canopy turned about as he took the Jade Hare straight back to the Moon Palace with all his beauties. Brother Monkey threw Pig down into the dust, then was thanked by the king in the throne hall.

  When the king was told what had happened he said, “We are very grateful to you, holy monk, for using your great magical powers to capture the imitation princess. But where is our real daughter?”

  “She is no ordinary human either,” Monkey replied, “but the immortal girl White Beauty from the Moon Palace. Because she slapped the Jade Hare in the face eighteen years ago she yearned for the lower world, came down to the womb of Your Majesty's senior queen and was born here. It was because the Jade Hare nursed her old grudge that she surreptitiously opened the golden lock on the jade gate's, came down here, abandoned White Beauty in the wilds and made herself look like White Beauty to deceive you. The Moon Lord himself told me about this chain of events. Today we've got rid of the imposter, and tomorrow I'll invite Your Majesty to go in your royal carriage to fetch the real one.”