by Wu Cheng-En
“No problem,” said Monkey. “I'll be there. If things get sticky I'll look after you. If he questions you, tell him that you are the imperially commissioned monk sent from the East to go to the Western Heaven to worship the Buddha, fetch the scriptures and offer some treasures. When he asks you what treasures, tell him about the golden cassock and say, 'This is my third-grade treasure. I also have very fine treasures of the first and second grade.' When he asks you about them tell him that in this box you have a treasure that knows everything that has happened or will happen for five hundred years in the past, five hundred years in the present era, and another five hundred years after that-fifteen hundred years in all. Then let me out of the box and I'll tell the prince everything that you were told in your dream. If he believes me I'll go to capture the fiend. That will avenge his father and do our reputation a lot of good. But if he still doesn't believe you, show him the white jade scepter. My only worry is that he may be too young to remember it.”
Sanzang was delighted with Brother Monkey's suggestions. “Disciple,” he said, “this is a superb plan. When I talk about my three treasures I can call one of them the golden cassock and another the white jade scepter. But what shall I call the one you turn yourself into?”
“Call it the King-maker,” said Monkey. Sanzang committed his instructions to memory. There was no way that the master and his disciples were going to sleep that night as they waited for the dawn. They only wished that by giving a nod they could make the sun rise, and blow away all the stars in the sky with a puff of breath.
Before long the Eastern sky did grow lighter. Monkey gave his parting instructions to Pig and Friar Sand: “You mustn't disturb the monks or go rushing wildly about the place. As soon as we've succeeded in our mission we'll continue on the journey with you.” No sooner had he taken his leave of them than he leapt up into mid-air with a whistling somersault. As he gazed due West with his fiery eyes he did indeed see the city. You may wish to ask how this was possible. We were told before that the city was only some fifteen miles away, so he would have been able to see it from that great height.
Brother Monkey went for a close look and saw thick clouds of demoniacal fog hanging over it, as well as an abundance of evil winds and vapors of injustice. Up in the air Monkey sighed and said,
“Auspicious light would shine all around
If a true monarch now sat on the throne.
But black vapors hang over the gates of the palace
Now that a fiend has made it his own.”
As he was sighing Monkey heard the clear report of a cannon. The Eastern gate of the city opened, and out poured a column of people and horses. It was indeed an impressive hunting party:
Leaving the Forbidden City at dawn,
They fan out into the bush,
Their coloured flags bright in the sun,
White horses galloping into the wind.
Alligator-skin drums pound
As fencing spears clash together.
Ferocious the corps of falconers,
Martial the masters of the bounds.
Cannons shake the heavens,
While sticky-poles gleam red in the sun.
Each man carries a crossbow;
Everyone has a bow at his waist.
The nets are spread at the foot of the hills,
And snares are set along the paths.
With a noise more frightening than thunder
A thousand horsemen surround a bear.
The cunning hare cannot save itself,
And the crafty river-deer is at its wit's end.
The foxes are fated to meet their doom,
And death now faces the roebuck.
The mountain pheasant cannot fly away,
Nor can its cousin on the plain escape.
They have taken over the mountains to catch wild beasts,
And are destroying the forests to shoot the flying birds.
After they all left the city they ambled through the Eastern outskirts and before long they were on high ground some six miles away where there was a military encampment. There was a very short general wearing a helmet, a breast plate, a sash round his waist, and eighteen metal plates. He held a blue-edged sword and sat astride a yellow charger. At his waist hung a ready-strung bow. Indeed:
He was the image of a monarch,
With an emperor's noble visage.
His manners were not those of a petty man;
He moved like a true dragon.
As Brother Monkey looked down from mid-air he was delighted. “It goes without saying that he must be the crown prince. I think I'll play a trick on him.” The splendid Great Sage brought his cloud down to land and charged straight through the soldiers till he was before the crown prince's horse. Then he shook himself and turned himself into a white hare that started to run around frantically in front of the prince's horse, to the delight of the prince when he spotted it. Fastening an arrow to his bow, he drew it and hit the hare with his first shot.
Now the Great Sage had deliberately made the prince hit him, and with the quickness of his hand and eye he caught the arrowhead, dropped its feathers on the ground beside him, and started to run. Seeing his arrow hit the jade rabbit, the crown prince gave his horse its head and galloped ahead of the field in pursuit. He did not notice that when his horse galloped fast Monkey went like the wind, and that when the horse slowed down Monkey slowed down too, keeping only a little distance ahead. Watch as he leads the prince for mile after mile until he has lured him to the entrance of the Precious Wood Monastery. Here Monkey turned back into himself. The hare was no longer to be seen. There was only an arrow stuck into the lintel. Monkey rushed inside and told the Tang Priest, “He's here, Master, he's here.” Then with another transformation he turned himself into a tiny monk only two inches tall and squeezed into the red box.
Having chased the jade here as far as the monastery entrance the prince was most surprised when it disappeared and all that could be seen was an arrow fletched with vulture feathers stuck in the lintel.
“That's odd,” he exclaimed, “very odd indeed. I'm quite sure that I hit the jade here. It can't have disappeared, leaving only my arrow here. I suppose that over the years the here must have become a spirit.” Pulling his arrow out he saw the words ROYALLY FOUNDED PRECIOUS WOOD MONASTERY written large over the entrance.
“I remember,” he said to himself. “Some years ago when my father was in the palace's throne hall he sent officials with gifts of money and silk for the monks here to build a Buddha hall with Buddha statues. I didn't expect to come here today; but, as they say,
To hear the monk's words when you pass a shrine
Is half a day's rest from the vanity of life.”
The crown prince dismounted and was just on the point of going inside when his personal guards and the three thousand horsemen galloped up in a great crowd, all pushing and shoving to get into the monastery. Deeply alarmed, the monks all came out to kowtow in greeting and lead the prince into the monastery's main hall, where he worshipped the statues of Buddhas. When he raised his head to look around before taking a stroll along the cloisters to see the sights he noticed a monk sitting right in the middle of the hall. “What effrontery!” he exclaimed. “I, the crown prince, have come to visit this monastery in person today, and although the monks did not have to travel to meet me as they were not notified by royal decree, this monk should at least have got up when I arrived with all my army. How dare he carry on sitting there?” He then ordered that the monk be arrested.
At the word “arrest” the officers standing to either side of the prince all seized Sanzang at once and got ropes ready to tie him up with. Monkey was now silently praying in his box: “Heavenly Kings who protect the dharma, Six Dings and Six Jias, I have a plan to subdue a demon, but this prince doesn't know what he's doing, and he's going to have my master tied up. You must protect him at once. If you allow him to be tied up you'll all be in trouble.” None of them dared disobey the Great Sage's secret
instructions, and they did indeed protect Sanzang. The officers could not even touch Sanzang's shaven pate; it was as if he were surrounded by a wall, and they could get nowhere near him.
“Where are you from, and how dare you insult me with this self-protection magic?” asked the crown prince. Sanzang went up to him, greeted him respectfully, and said, “I have no self-protection magic. I am the Tang Priest from the East going to worship the Buddha, fetch scrip-tares and offer treasures in the Thunder Monastery.”
“Your Eastern lands may be in the central plains,” replied the prince, “but they are extraordinarily poor. What treasures could you possibly have? Tell me.”
“The cassock I am wearing,” said Sanzang, “is the third-grade treasure. I also have treasures of the first and second grade that are much better things.”
“But that cassock only half covers you,” objected the prince. “It can't possibly be worth enough to deserve being called a treasure.”
“The cassock may not cover both shoulders,” replied Sanzang, “but there is a poem about it that goes:
Of course a monk's habit leaves one shoulder bare,
But it covers a true Buddha free from worldly dust.
This was the True Achievement of thousands of needles;
Nine Pearls and Eight Treasures formed its spirit.
Fairies and holy women sewed it reverently
As a gift to a dhyana monk to purify his body.
Failure to greet Your Highness may be overlooked,
But what use is a man who avenges not his father?”
Hearing this put the crown prince into a fury. “You're talking nonsense, you impudent monk,” he shouted. “You can use your gift of the gab to overpraise your tatty little garment if you like. But you'll have to tell me what wrongs to my father I've failed to avenge.”
Sanzang took a step forward, joined his hands in front of his chest, and said, “Your Royal Highness, how many great kindnesses does a man receive on earth?”
“Four,” the prince replied. “What are they?” Sanzang asked. “There is the kindness that heaven and earth show by covering and supporting him,” said the prince. “There is the kindness of the sun and moon in giving him light. There is the kindness of his monarch in giving him land and water. And there is the kindness of his parents who rear him.”
“Your Highness is mistaken,” said Sanzang with a smile. “People are only covered and supported by heaven and earth, lit by sun and moon, and provided with land and water by their monarchs. They are not brought up by fathers and mothers.”
“Monk,” roared the prince in anger, “you shaven-headed food-scrounging tramp, you rebel, where would people come from if they did not have parents to rear them?”
“That is something, Your Highness,” said Sanzang, “that I do not know. But I have in this box here a treasure called the King-maker who knows everything that has happened or will happen for five hundred years long ago, five hundred years in the present era, and five hundred years in the future after that, making fifteen hundred years in all. He will be able to tell us all about not knowing the kindness of being reared by parents. He has made me wait here for a very long time.”
“Bring him out and let me see him,” said the crown prince. As Sanzang opened the lid of the box Brother Monkey jumped out and started rushing around on both sides of it. “A tiny speck of a man like that couldn't possibly know anything,” said the prince.
As soon as Monkey heard this objection to his size he used his magic powers to stretch himself till he was three feet four or five inches tall, to the amazement of the soldiers, who said, “If he went on growing at that rate it would only be a day or two before he smashed through the sky.”
Once Brother Monkey was back to his original size he stopped growing. Only then did the prince address him: “King-maker, this old monk says that you know all the good and evil things of the past and the future. Do you use tortoise-shell or milfoil for your divinations? Or do you do it by interpreting sentences from books.”
“I don't use anything,” said Monkey. “All I need is my three inches of tongue to know everything about everything.”
“You're talking nonsense again,” said the prince. “Even since the olden days the Book of Changes has been the best book for predicting the good and bad things that will happen in the world. It tells you what to avoid. That's why predictions can be made with tortoise-shell or yarrow. Why should I believe a word you say? You'll be making unfounded predictions of blessings and disasters to stir up trouble.”
“Be patient, Your Highness,” said Monkey, “until you've heard what I have to say. You are the eldest son of the monarch of Wuji. Five years ago there was a disastrous drought in your country that caused your people terrible suffering. The king your father and his ministers prayed devoutly for rain, but not a drop fell until a Taoist wizard came from the Zhongnan Mountains who could summon up winds and rain and turn stone into gold. Because the monarch was too fond of the wizard he took the wizard as his sworn brother. Is this all true so far?”
“Yes, yes,” said the crown prince, “go on.”
“When the wizard disappeared three years later who was then on the throne?”
“You're quite right that there was a wizard,” said the prince, “and that His Majesty my father took him as his sworn brother. They slept in the same room and ate from the same table. Three years ago they were enjoying the beauty of the palace gardens when he used a gust of magic wind to seize my father's gold-bordered white jade scepter and carry it back with him to the Zhongnan Mountains. My father still misses him. Without him my father has no interest in any relaxation, and the palace gardens have been completely shut for the last three years. If the king isn't my father I'd like to know who else he could be.”
Monkey smiled, and kept on smiling without answering when the prince asked more questions. “Damn you,” said the furious prince, “what do you mean by just grinning at me?”
“I have a great deal more to say,” Brother Monkey finally replied, “but this is hardly the place to talk with so many people around.” Realizing that there must be something behind this remark the prince dismissed his soldiers with a wave of his sleeve. The officers in attendance passed the order on at once, sending the three thousand soldiers and their horses to pitch camp outside the monastery gates. Now that there was nobody else in the hall of the monastery the prince took the best seat. The venerable elder stood beside the prince with Monkey standing next to him. All the monks of the monastery withdrew.
Monkey then stopped smiling as he stepped forward and said. “Your Highness, it was in fact your very own parent that was carried away by the wind, and it is the rain-making wizard who now sits on the throne.”
“Nonsense,” said the prince, “nonsense. Ever since the wizard went away my father has kept the weather well regulated, the country strong and the people contented. But you say that he isn't my father. As I'm of such tender years I'll spare you; but if His Majesty my father heard you uttering such treason he'd have you arrested and hacked into ten thousand pieces.” He then shouted at Monkey to go away.
“What did I say?” Monkey asked the Tang Priest. “I said he won't believe me. Oh, well. The only thing I can do now is to give him that treasure in the hope of obtaining a passport so that we can carry on towards the Western Heaven.” Sanzang handed the red box to Monkey, who took it, shook himself, made it disappear-it was, after all, one of his own hairs transformed-and put it back on his body. He then presented the white jade scepter with both hands to the prince.
“A splendid monk you are, I must say,” exclaimed the crown prince on seeing it. “Five years ago you came here as a Quanzhen wizard to trick my family out of its treasure, and now you've come back as a Buddhist monk to present it to me.”
“Arrest him,” the prince shouted, and as the order was passed on Sanzang pointed to Monkey in his terror and panic and said, “You wretched Protector of the Horses. All you can do is cause gratuitous trouble in which you get
me involved.” Monkey rushed forward to stop him.
“Shut up,” he said, “or you'll give the game away. I'm not called King-maker. I have a real name.”
“Come here,” shouted the angry crown prince. “I want your real name so that I can hand you over to the legal authorities for sentence.”
“I am this elder's senior disciple,” said Monkey. “My name is Sun Wukong. As I'm going with my master on his way to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven, we took shelter here last night. My master was reading sutras late last night, and he had a dream in the third watch. In this dream His Majesty your father told my master that the wizard had murdered him by pushing him into the eight-sided well with glazed tiles in the palace gardens. The wizard then turned himself into such a good likeness of your father that none of the officials at court could tell the difference. You were too young to know any better and banned from the harem. The garden was closed. This was because he was afraid that the truth would get out. His Majesty your father came last night specially to ask me to put the fiend down. I was worried in case the present king wasn't really an evil spirit, but when I took a look from up in the air I saw that he definitely is. I was just going to grab him when you rode out of the city to go hunting. The jade hare you hit with your arrow was me. I led you to this monastery to meet my master. Every word I have told you is the truth. You can recognize that white jade scepter; so why don't you bow in gratitude to the father who reared you and avenge him?”
At these words the crown prince was deeply distressed, and he said to himself in his grief, “Perhaps I shouldn't believe what he says, but it does seem to be rather convincing. But if I do believe him, however can I face my father in the palace?” He was indeed
Caught upon the horns of a dilemma,
Wondering what on earth he ought to do.