Journey to the West (vol. 2)

by Wu Cheng-En

  Monkey bowed deeply and expressed profound thanks. The Bodhisattva then produced a brocade bag from his sleeve and took out of it the Wind-fixing Pill. This he gave to Monkey to sew up securely inside the lapel of his tunic. “I won't detain you here any longer,” Lingji said as he saw Monkey out through doors. “Head Northwest and that will get you to Raksasi's mountain.”

  Taking his leave of Lingji Monkey rode his somersault cloud straight back to Mount Turquoise Cloud and was there in a moment. “Open up, open up!” he shouted, hammering on the doors with his iron cudgel. “Monkey's here to borrow the fan.”

  This so alarmed the servant girl inside the doors that she ran back and reported, “Your Highness, he's here to borrow the fan again.” The news frightened Raksasi, who thought, “That damned monkey really has got some powers. If I fan anyone else with my treasure they go 27,000 miles before stopping. How can he be back so soon after being blown away? This time I'll fan him two or three times and he'll never be able to find his way back here.”

  She sprang to her feet, tied all her armor firmly on, and went out of the cave with her swords in her hands shouting, “Sun the Novice, aren't you afraid of me? Why have you come back here to get yourself killed?”

  “Don't be so stingy, sister-in-law,” said Monkey with a smile. “You've got to lend me it. I'll bring it back as soon as I've escorted the Tang Priest across the Fiery Mountains. I give you my word as a gentleman. I'm not the sort of low creature who borrows things but doesn't give them back.”

  “Damned macaque,” Raksasi shouted back. “You're outrageous, and you understand nothing. I've got to avenge the loss of my son, so how could I possibly be prepared to lend you my fan? Clear off if you don't want a taste of my sword.” The Great Sage, not at all afraid, struck back at her hands with his iron cudgel, and the two of them fought six or seven rounds. By then Raksasi's arms were becoming too tired to wield the swords, while Brother Monkey was feeling strong and fighting well. Seeing that the balance of the fight was tilting against her, Raksasi took out the fan and fanned it once in Monkey's direction.

  He stood unmoved, put his iron cudgel away, and said with a chuckle, “This time it's different. Fan as much as you like. If I move an inch I'm no man.” She fanned twice more and still he did not move. By now she was so alarmed that she put her pride and joy away at once, went straight back into the cave, and shut the doors firmly.

  When Monkey saw this he used magic. He tore the lapel of his tunic open, put the Wind-fixing Pill in his mouth, shook himself, turned into the tiniest of insects, and squeezed in through the crack between the doors, where he saw Raksasi shouting, “I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty. Quick, bring me some tea.” The servant girl who attended her fetched a pot of the best tea and poured a large cup of it so noisily that the surface was frothy. Monkey was delighted. With a quiet buzz of his wings he flew under the froth. Raksasi was so parched that she drained the tea in two gulps.

  Once inside her stomach Monkey reverted to his own form and shouted at the top of his voice, “Sister-in-law, lend me the fan.”

  Raksasi went pale with shock. “Little ones,” she called to her underlings, “are the front doors shut?”

  “Yes,” they all said.

  “If the doors are shut then how can Sun the Novice be inside the cave and shouting?” she asked.

  “He's shouting from inside you,” the servant girl replied.

  “Where are you playing your conjuring tricks, Sun the Novice?” Raksasi asked.

  “I've never been able to do conjuring tricks in all my life,” Monkey replied. “My magic and my powers are all real. I'm fooling around in your own in-sides, good sister-in-law. I've just seen your lungs and your liver. I know you're very hungry and thirsty, so I'll give you a bowlful to quench your thirst.” With that he stamped his foot, giving Raksasi an unbearable cramp in her stomach that left her sitting groaning on the floor. “Don't try to say no, sister-in-law,” Monkey then said. “I'm giving you a pastry in case you're hungry.” He butted upwards, causing such a violent heart pain that she could only roll around on the ground, her face sallow and her lips white from agony.

  “Spare me, brother-in-law, spare me,” was all she could say.

  Only then did Monkey stop hitting and kicking. “So you call me brother-in-law now, do you?” he said. “I'll spare your life for my brother Bull's sake. Get me the fan, and quick.”

  “You shall have it, brother-in-law, you shall have it,” she said. “Come out and get it.”

  “Fetch it and show it to me,” Monkey said. She told the servant girl to fetch a plantain fan and stand holding it beside her. Monkey poked his head up her throat to see it and said, “As I'm sparing your life, sister-in-law, I won't smash my way out under your ribs. I'll come out through your mouth. Open wide three times.” With that Raksasi opened her mouth and Monkey turned back into the tiny insect to fly out and alight on the fan. Not realizing what had happened Raksasi went on to open her mouth twice more.

  “Come out, brother-in-law,” she said.

  Monkey turned back into himself, took the fan and said, “Here I am. Thanks for the loan.” With that he strode forward while the underlings opened the doors to let him out of the cave.

  The Great Sage then turned his cloud around and headed back East. A moment later he had landed the cloud and was standing by the red brick wall. Pig was very pleased indeed to see him. “Master,” he said, “Monkey's here! He's back!” Sanzang went out with the old man of the farm and Friar Sand to greet him, and they all went back inside.

  Propping the fan against the wall, Monkey asked, “Tell me sir, is this the fan?”

  “Yes, yes,” the old man said.

  “This is a great achievement, disciple,” said Sanzang. “Fetching this treasure must have cost you a great deal of trouble.”

  “No trouble at all,” said Monkey. “Do you know who that Iron Fan Immortal is? She's Raksasi, the wife of the Bull Demon King and the Red Boy's mother. Her other name is Princess Iron Fan. I found her outside her cave and asked to borrow the fan, but all she could talk of were her old grudges. She took a few cuts at me with her swords, but when I gave her a bit of a scare with the cudgel she fanned me with the fan and blew me all the way to Little Mount Sumeru. I was lucky enough to be able to see the Bodhisattva Lingji who gave me a tablet that stops winds and showed me the way back to Mount Turquoise Cloud. Then I saw Raksasi again, but this time her fan did not move me an inch, so she went back into her cave and I turned into a tiny insect to fly back in after her. When the damned woman-asked for some tea I slipped in under the froth at the top, got inside her, and started giving her a few punches and kicks. She couldn't take the pain. She kept saying, 'Spare me, brother-in-law, spare me.' As she agreed to lend me the fan I spared her life and took the fan. I'll give it back to her after we've crossed the Fiery Mountains.” When Sanzang heard this he was extremely grateful.

  Master and disciples then took their leave of the old man and traveled about fifteen miles West. The heat was becoming unbearable. “The soles of my feet are being roasted,” Friar Sand complained.

  “My trotters are getting burnt and it hurts,” said Pig. The horse was going much faster than usual too. The ground was so hot that they could not stop, but every step was painful.

  “Please dismount, Master,” said Monkey, “and brothers, stay here while I use the fan to put the fire out. When the wind and the rain come the ground will be a lot cooler and we'll be able to get across the mountains.” He then raised the fan and fanned it hard once in the direction of the fire: tongues of flame rose above the mountains. He fanned again, and they were a hundred times as high. He fanned a third time, and now they were a couple of miles high and beginning to burn him. Monkey fled, but not before two patches of fur had been burnt away. He ran straight back to the Tang Priest and said, “Hurry back, hurry back, the flames are coming.”

  The master remounted and headed back East with Pig and Friar Sand some seven miles before stopping and asking, “What hap
pened, Wukong?”

  “It's the wrong one,” Monkey said, flinging the fan down, “it's the wrong one. The damned woman fooled me.”

  When Sanzang heard this he frowned and felt thoroughly depressed. “What are we to do?” he sobbed, the tears flowing freely down his cheeks.

  “Brother,” said Pig, “why did you come back in such a mad rush and send us back here?”

  “The first time I fanned there were flames,” Monkey replied, “the second time the fire got fiercer, and the third time the flames were a couple of miles high. If I hadn't run fast all my fur would have been burnt off.”

  “But you're always telling us that you can't be hurt by thunder and lightning and that fire can't burn you,” said Pig with a laugh. “How come you're afraid of fire now?”

  “Idiot,” said Monkey, “you don't understand anything. The other times I was ready: that's why I wasn't hurt. Today I didn't make any flame-avoiding spells or use magic to defend myself. That's why two patches of my fur were singed.”

  “If the fire's so fierce and there's no other way to the West what are we going to do?” Friar Sand asked.

  “We'll just have to find somewhere where there isn't any fire,” Pig replied.

  “Which way will that be?” Sanzang asked.

  “East, North or South: there's no fire those ways,” said Pig. “But which way are the scriptures?”

  “Only in the West,” Pig replied.

  “I only want to go where the scriptures are,” Sanzang said.

  “We're well and truly struck,” said Friar Sand. “Where there are scriptures there's fire, and where there's no fire there are no scriptures.”

  While master and disciples were talking this nonsense they heard someone call, “Don't get upset, Great Sage. Come and have some vegetarian food before you take your discussions any further.” The four of them looked round to see an old man wearing a cloak that floated in the wind and a hat the shape of a half moon. In his hand he held a dragon-headed stick, and on his legs were boots of iron. With him was a demon with the beak of an eagle and the cheeks of a fish carrying on his head a copper bowl full of steamed buns, millet cakes, cooked millet and rice.

  The old man bowed to them on the road to the West and said, “I am the local god of the Fiery Mountains. As I know that you are escorting this holy monk, Great Sage, and can't go any further I have brought this meal as an offering.”

  “Eating doesn't matter,” Monkey replied. “When are these fires going to be put out so that my master can cross the mountains?”

  “If you want to put the fires out you must first ask Raksasi to lend you the plantain fan,” the local god said. Monkey went to the side of the path, picked the fan up, and said, “This is it, isn't it? The more I fan the flames the more fiercely they burn. Why?”

  “Because it's not the real one,” said the local deity with a laugh when he looked at it. “She fooled you.”

  “Then how am I to get the real one?” Monkey said.

  The local god bowed again and had a slight smile on his face as he replied, “If you want to borrow the real plantain fan you will have to ask the Strongarm King.”

  If you don't know all about the Strongarm King listen to the explanation in the next installment.

  Chapter 60

  The Bull Demon King Gives Up the Fight to Go to a Feast

  Monkey Tries the Second Time to Borrow the Plantain Fan

  “The Strongarm King is the Bull Demon King,” the local god explained.

  “Did he set these mountains ablaze and pretend they were the Fiery Mountains?” Monkey asked.

  “No, no,” the local god replied. “If you'll promise to forgive me for doing so, Great Sage, I'll speak frankly.”

  “What's there to forgive?” Monkey said. “Speak frankly.”

  “You started this fire, Great Sage,” the local god replied.

  “That's nonsense,” said Monkey angrily. “I wasn't here. Do you take me for an arsonist?”

  “You don't realize who I am,” the local god said. “These mountains haven't always been here. When you made havoc in Heaven five hundred years ago and were captured by the Illustrious Sage Erlang you were escorted to Lord Lao Zi, put in the Eight Trigrams Furnace and refined. When the furnace was opened you kicked it over, and some of its bricks that still had fire in them fell here as the Fiery Mountains. I used to be one of the Taoist boys who looked after the furnace in the Tushita Palace, but Lord Lao Zi was so angry with me for failing in my duty that he sent me down to be the local god here.”

  “I was wondering why you were dressed like that,” said Pig forcefully, “you're a Taoist turned local god.”

  “Tell me why I need to find the Strongarm King,” said Monkey, only half-convinced.

  “He's Raksasi's husband,” the local god said. “He's abandoned her now and gone to live in the Cloud-touching Cave in Mount Thunder Piled. A fox king there who'd lived for ten thousand years died leaving an only daughter, Princess Jade, with property worth a million but nobody to manage it. Two years ago she visited the Bull Demon King and found out about his tremendous magical powers. She decided to give him her property if he'd come to live in her cave as her husband. So the Bull Demon King abandoned Raksasi and hasn't been back to see her for ages. If you can find him, Great Sage, and persuade him to come here you'll be able to borrow the real fan. First, you'll be able to blow the flames out to take your master across the mountains. Second, you'll put an end to this disastrous fire so that the land here can come back to life. And third, I'll be pardoned and allowed to go back to Heaven and return to live under Lord Lao Zi's command.”

  “Where is Mount Thunder Piled, and how far is it from here?”

  “Due South,” the local deity said, “and over a thousand miles.” Once he knew this Monkey told Friar Sand and Pig to look after the master and ordered the local god to stay with them. There was then a roaring like the wind as he disappeared.

  In less than an hour he saw a high mountain that touched the sky. Bringing his cloud down he stood on the peak to look around, and this is what he saw:

  Was it tall?

  Its peak touched the azure sky.

  Was it big?

  Its roots went down to the Yellow Springs.

  While the sun warmed the front of the mountain

  The winds behind the ridge blew cold.

  On the sun-warmed front of the mountain

  The flowers and trees never knew what winter was;

  In the cold winds behind the ridge

  The ice and frost did not even melt in summer.

  From a dragon pool a river flowed in gullies;

  Flowers bloomed early by the tiger's cave in the crag.

  The river split into a thousand jade streams;

  The flowers bloomed together like brocade.

  On the twisting ridge grew twisted trees;

  Beside the knotted rocks were knotted pines.

  Indeed there were

  A high mountain,

  Steep ridges,

  Sheer precipices,

  Fragrant flowers,

  Fine fruit,

  Red creepers,

  Purple bamboo,

  Green pines,

  Turquoise willows.

  It looked the same throughout the seasons;

  Changeless forever, like a dragon.

  After looking for a long time the Great Sage walked down from the towering peak to find his way through the mountain. Just when he was feeling bewildered a slender young woman came towards him holding a spray of fragrant orchid. The Great Sage slipped behind a grotesque rock and took a good look at her. This is what she was like:

  A ravishing beauty to enchant a nation

  Walking so slowly on her little lotus feet.

  Her face was like Wang Qiang or the woman of Chu.

  She was a talking flower,

  Scented jade.

  The hair was swept down from her coiffure like jade-blue crows;

  The green of her eyes made one think of
autumn floods.

  Her silken skirt showed a glimpse of tiny feet;

  From her turquoise sleeves came long and elegant wrists.

  She would put anyone into the mood for love;

  Red were her lips, and white her pearly teeth.

  Her skin was as smooth and her brows as fine as the Jinjiang beauty;

  She was more than a match for Wenjun or Xue Tao.

  As the young woman slowly approached the rock the Great Sage bowed to her and said, “Where are you going, Bodhisattva?” Before he spoke she had not noticed him; but when she looked up and saw how hideous the Great Sage was she was petrified, unable to move forward or back.

  All she could do was shiver and force herself to reply, “Where are you from? How dare you question me?”

  “If I tell her about fetching the scriptures and borrowing the fan,” the Great Sage thought, “this damn woman might be some relation of the Bull Demon King's. I'd better pretend to be some kinsman of the Bull Demon King come to invite him to a banquet.”

  When he would not answer her questions the woman turned angry and shouted, “Who are you and how dare you question me?”

  “I'm from Mount Turquoise Cloud,” Monkey replied with a bow and a forced smile. “I don't know the way as it's my first time here. Could I ask you, Bodhisattva, if this is Mount Thunder Piled?”

  “It is,” she replied.

  “Where might I find the Cloud-touching Cave?” the Great Sage asked.

  “What do you want to find it for?” the woman asked.

  “I've been sent by Princess Iron Fan in the Plantain Cave on Mount Turquoise Cloud with an invitation for the Bull Demon King,” Monkey replied.

  The moment the woman heard him speak of Princess Iron Fan sending an invitation to the Bull Demon King she flared into a rage and went crimson from ear to ear.

  “She ought to know better, the low bitch. It's less than two years since the Bull Demon King came here, and goodness only knows how much jewelry, gold, silver, fine silk and brocade I've given her since then. I send her firewood every year and rice every month. She's doing nicely thank you. So what's the shameless hussy doing, sending him an invitation?”