by Wu Cheng-En
The evil demons to the West
Boiled and fried fresh human meat.
Apart from the heroic Handsome Monkey King
No common mortal would have dared go in.
He was soon inside the second gates, and when he looked around here he saw that things were different from outside. Here was purity, quiet elegance, beauty and calm. To left and right were rare and wonderful plants; all around were tall pines and jade-green bamboo. After another two or three miles he reached the third gates, slipped inside for a peep, and saw the three old demons sitting on high. They looked thoroughly evil. The one in the middle
Had teeth like chisels and saws,
A round head and a square face.
His voice roared like thunder;
His eyes flashed like lightning.
Upturned nostrils faced the sky;
Red eyebrows blazed with fire.
Wherever he walked
The animals were terrified;
If he sat down
The demons all trembled.
He was the king among the beasts,
The Blue-haired Lion Monster.
The one sitting on his left was like this:
Phoenix eyes with golden pupils,
Yellow tusks and powerful thighs.
Silver hair sprouting from a long nose,
Making his head look like a tail.
His brow was rounded and wrinkled,
His body massively heavy.
His voice as delicate as a beautiful woman's,
But his face was as fiendish as an ox-headed demon's.
He treasured his tusks and cultivated his person for many years,
The Ancient Yellow-tusked Elephant.
The one on the right had
Golden wings and a leviathan's head,
Leopard eyes with starry pupils.
He shook the North when he headed South,
Fierce, strong and brave.
When he turned to soaring
Quails laughed but dragons were terrified.
When he beat his phoenix wings the birds all hid their heads,
And the beasts all lost their nerve when he spread his talons.
He could fly thirty thousand miles through the clouds,
The Mighty Roc.
Beneath these two were ranged a hundred and ten commanders high and low, all in full armor and looking most imposing and murderous. The sight delighted Brother Monkey, who strode inside, quite unafraid, put down his clappers and bell, and called, “Your Majesties.”
The three old demons chuckled and replied, “So you're back, young Wind-piercer.”
“Yes,” Monkey replied. “When you were patrolling what did you find out about where Sun the Novice is?”
“Your Majesties,” Monkey replied, “I don't dare tell you.”
“Why not?” the senior demon chief asked.
“I was walking along sounding my clappers and ringing my bell following Your Majesties' orders,” Monkey said, “when all of a sudden I looked up and saw someone squatting and polishing a pole there. He looked like one of the gods that clear the way. If he'd stood up he'd have been well over a hundred feet tall. He'd scooped up some water in his hand and was polishing his iron bar on the rocky scar. He was saying to himself that his cudgel still hadn't the chance to show its magical powers here and that when he'd shined it up he was coming to attack Your Majesties. That's how I realized he was Sun the Novice and came here to report.”
On hearing this the senior demon chief broke into a sweat all over and shivered so that his teeth chattered as he said, “Brothers, I don't think we should start any trouble with the Tang Priest. His disciple has tremendous magical powers and he's polishing his cudgel to attack us. Whatever are we to do?”
“Little ones,” he shouted, “call everybody, high and low, who's outside the cave to come inside and shut the gates. Let them pass.”
“Your Majesty,” said one of the subordinate officers who knew what had happened, “the little devils outside have all scattered.”
“Why?” the senior demon asked.
“They must have heard about his terrible reputation. Shut the gates at once! At once!” The hosts of demons noisily bolted all the front and back gates firmly.
“Now they've shut the gates they might ask me all sorts of questions about things in here,” Monkey thought with alarm “If I don't know the right answers I'll give the game away and they'll catch me. I'd better give them another scare and get them to open the gates to let me out.”
“Your Majesty,” he said, stepping forward, “there were some other wicked things he said.”
“What else?” the senior demon chief asked.
“He said he was going to skin Your Senior Majesty,” replied Brother Monkey, “slice up the bones of His Second Majesty, and rip out His Third Majesty's sinews. If you shut the gates and refuse to go out he can do transformations. He might turn himself into a fly, get in through a crack between the gates and catch us all. Then we'll be done for.”
“Be very careful, brothers,” said the senior demon. “We haven't had a fly here for years, so any fly that gets in will be Sun the Novice.”
“So I'll change into a fly and frighten them into opening the gates,” thought Monkey, smiling to himself. The splendid Great Sage then slipped aside, reached up to pull a hair from the back of his head, blew on it with a magic breath, called “Change!” and turned it into a golden fly that flew straight into the old demon's face.
“Brothers,” said the old demon in a panic, “this is terrible! He's inside!” All the demons great and small were so alarmed that they rushed forward to swat the fly with their rakes and brooms.
The Great Sage could not help giggling aloud, which was just what he should not have done as it revealed his true face. The third demon chief leapt forward, grabbed him and said, “Brothers, he almost had us fooled.”
“Who had who fooled?” the senior demon asked.
“The young devil who reported just now was no junior Wind-piercer,” the third chief replied, “but Sun the Novice himself. He must have run into a junior Wind-piercer and somehow or other murdered him and done this transformation to trick us.”
“He's rumbled me,” thought Monkey with alarm, rubbing his face.
“What do you mean, I'm Sun the Novice?” Monkey said to the senior demon chief. “I'm a junior Wind-piercer. His Majesty's mistaken.”
“Brother,” said the senior demon, “he really is a junior Wind-piercer. He's in the roll-call out front three times a day. I know him. Do you have a pass?” he went on to ask Monkey.
“Yes,” Monkey replied, pulling his clothes apart to produce it. Seeing that it looked genuine the senior demon said, “Brother, don't mistreat him.”
“Elder brother,” the third demon chief replied, “didn't you see him slip aside just now and giggle? I saw him show his face: it's like a thunder god's. When I grabbed hold of him he turned back into what he looks like now. Little ones,” he called, “fetch ropes!” The officers then fetched ropes.
The third demon chief knocked Monkey over and tied his hands and feet together. When his clothes were stripped off he was most evidently the Protector of the Horses. Now of the seventy-two transformations that Monkey could perform, when he turned himself into a bird, a beast, a plant, a tree, a vessel or an insect he changed his whole body. When he turned into another person, however, he could only change his head and face but not his body, and indeed he was still covered with brown hair and had red thighs and a tail.
“That's Sun the Novice's body,” the senior demon chief said when he saw this, “and a junior Wind-piercer's face. It's him! Little ones,” he ordered, “bring wine and give His Third Majesty a cup of it to congratulate him. Now that we've captured Sun the Novice the Tang Priest is as good as a meal in our mouths.”
“We mustn't drink now,” said the third demon chief. “Sun the Novice is a slippery customer and is good at escaping by magic. I'm worried he might get away. Tell the junio
rs to bring the jar out and put him inside. Then we can drink.”
“Yes, yes,” said the senior demon chief with a smile, who then chose thirty-six little demons to go inside, open the storerooms, and carry the jar out. Do you know how big the jar was? It was only two feet four inches high. So why were thirty-six people needed to carry it? It was because the jar was a treasure of the two vital forces, male and female, and contained the seven precious things, the eight trigrams and the twenty-four periods of the year that thirty-six carriers were required to match the number of the stars of the Dipper. Before long the precious jar had been carried out, set down outside the third pair of gates, cleaned up and opened. Monkey was untied, stripped bare and sucked inside the jar with a hiss by magical vapor that came out of it.
The lid was then put back on and sealed on with a label, after which the demons went off to drink, saying, “Now that he's in our jar that monkey can forget all about his journey West. The only way he'll be able to pay his respects to the Buddha and fetch the scriptures now will be by pushing the wheel of destiny backwards and being reborn.” Watch how all the demons great and small go laughing off to celebrate. But of that no more.
Once inside the jar the Great Sage, who was very cramped, decided to transform himself and squat down in the middle, where he found it very cool. “Those evil spirits don't live up to their reputation,” he said to himself, laughing aloud. “Why ever do they tell people that anyone put in this jar will be turned to pus and blood in a few moments. It's so cool that spending seven or eight years here would be no problem.”
Alas! The Great Sage did not know about this treasure. Anyone put inside it who said nothing for a year would stay cool for a year; but the moment a voice was heard fires began to turn. Before Monkey had finished speaking the whole jar was full of flame. Luckily he could use the knack of making fire-averting magic with his hands as he sat in the middle of the jar completely unafraid. When he had endured the flames for an hour forty snakes emerged from all around to bite him. Swinging his arms about him Monkey grabbed hold of all of them, twisted with all his strength, and broke them into eighty pieces. A little later three fire dragons appeared to circle above and below Monkey, which was really unbearable.
It drove Monkey into a helpless desperation of which he was only too conscious, “The other things were no trouble,” he said, “but these three fire dragons are a real problem. If I don't get out soon the fire will attack my heart, and what then? I'll make myself grow,” he went on to think, “and push my way out.” The splendid Great Sage made a spell with his hands, said the words of a spell and called out, “Grow!” He made himself over a dozen feet tall, but as he grew the jar grew with him, enclosing him tightly. When he made himself smaller, the jar shrank too.
“This is terrible,” Brother Monkey thought with alarm, “terrible. It grows when I grow and shrinks when I get smaller. Why? What am I to do?” Before he had finished speaking his ankle began to hurt. Putting his hand down at once to feel it he found that it had been burnt so badly it had gone soft. “I don't know what to do,” he said with anxiety, “My ankle's been cooked tender. I'm a cripple now.” He could not stop the tears from flowing. Indeed:
When suffering at the demons' hands he thought of his master;
In facing deadly peril he worried about the Tang Priest.
“Master,” he exclaimed, “since I was converted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin and delivered from my heavenly punishment you and I have toiled over many a mountain. I've beaten and wiped out a lot of monsters, subdued Pig and Friar Sand, and gone through no end of suffering. All this was done in the hope of reaching the West and completing the true achievement together. Never did I expect to meet these vicious demons today. Now I've been stupid enough to get myself killed in here I've left you stuck in the middle of the mountains. What a mess to be in for someone who used to be as famous as I was!”
Just when he was feeling thoroughly miserable he suddenly remembered, “Years ago the Bodhisattva gave me three life-saving hairs on the Coiled Snake Mountain. I wonder if I've still got them. I'd better look for them.” He felt all over his body and found three very rigid hairs on the back of his head.
“All the other hair on my body is soft except for these three that are as hard as spears,” he said with delight. “They must be my lifesavers.” Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pulled the three hairs out, blew on them with magic breath and called, “Change!” One of them turned into a steel drill, one into a strip of bamboo, and one into a silken cord. He made the bamboo strip into a bow to which he fixed the drill. After a noisy spell of drilling at the bottom of the jar he made a hole through which the light came in. “I'm in luck,” he said with glee, “I'm in luck. Now I can get out.” No sooner had he transformed himself ready to escape than the jar became cool again. Why was that? It cooled because the hole he had bored in it let the male and female vital forces escape.
The splendid Great Sage put his hairs back, made himself small by turning into the tiniest of insects, a very delicate creature as thin as a whisker and as long as an eyebrow hair, and slipped out through the hole. Instead of making his escape Monkey flew straight to the senior demon chief's head and landed on it. The senior demon, who was drinking, slammed his goblet down and asked, “Third brother, has Sun the Novice been liquefied yet?”
“Is the time up?” the third demon chief asked. The senior demon told his messengers to carry the jar in. When the thirty-six young devils picked the jar up they found that it was far lighter.
“Your Majesty,” they reported with alarm, “the jar's lighter.”
“Nonsense!” the senior demon shouted. “It has the full powers of the male and female vital forces. It couldn't possibly get lighter.”
One of the junior demons who liked showing off picked the jar up and said, “Look. It is lighter, isn't it?” When the senior demon took the lid off to look in he saw that it was bright inside.
“It's empty,” he could not help shouting aloud, “it's leaked.” And Monkey, sitting on his head, could not help shouting, “Search, my lads! He's escaped.”
“He's escaped,” all the monsters shouted, “he's escaped!” The order was then given to shut the gates.
With that Monkey shook himself, took back the clothes that had been taken off him, turned back into himself and leapt out of the cave. “Behave yourselves, evil spirits,” he flung back insultingly. “I've bored through the jar and you can't keep anyone in it any more. You'll have to take it outside and shit in it.”
Shouting and yelling with glee he went straight back on his cloud to where the Tang Priest was. Here he found the venerable gentleman making symbolic incense with a pinch of earth and praying to the sky. Monkey stopped his cloud to listen to what he was saying. Sanzang had his hands together in front of his chest and was saying to Heaven,
“All you immortals up there in the clouds,
The Dings and the Jias and each god and goddess,
Protect my disciple, whose powers are enormous,
And magic is boundless, the good Sun the Novice.”
When the Great Sage heard this he decided to redouble his efforts. Putting his cloud away he went up to Sanzang and called, “Master, I'm back.”
Sanzang held him as he said, “Wukong, you have been to great trouble. I was very concerned because you had gone so far into these high mountains and not come back for so long a time. How dangerous is the mountain in fact?”
“Master,” Monkey replied with a smile, “that trip just now depended in the first place on the good destiny of all the living beings in the East, secondly on your boundless achievement and great virtue, and thirdly on your disciple's magical powers.” Then he told the whole story of how he had pretended to be a Wind-piercer, been drawn into the jar and escaped.
“Now I've seen your face again, Master, It's like having a second life.”
Sanzang expressed endless thanks then asked, “Did you not fight the evil spirits this time?”
“No, I didn'
t,” replied Brother Monkey.
“Then you won't be able to escort me safely across this mountain,” Sanzang said, at which Monkey, who hated to admit he was beaten, shouted, “What do you mean, I won't be able to escort you?”
“If you and they have not yet had it out and you can only give me evasive answers I will never dare press ahead,” the venerable elder replied.
“Master,” laughed the Great Sage, “you really don't understand. As the saying goes, you can't spin a thread from a single strand of silk, and you can't clap one-handed. There are three demon chiefs and thousands of the little devils. How could I fight them all single-handed?”
“If you are that outnumbered you would indeed find it hard by yourself,” Sanzang replied. “Pig and Friar Sand also have their talents. I shall tell them to go with you to help you clean up the path across the mountain and escort me over it.”
“What you say is completely right, Master,” replied Monkey with a smile. “Tell Friar Sand to protect you while Pig comes with me.”
“Brother,” said Pig in alarm, “you're a poor judge. I'm rough and I can't do anything much. I'd just get in the way as I walked along. What use would I be to you?”
“You may not be up to much, brother,” Monkey replied, “but you're someone. As the saying goes, even a fart can swell the wind. You'd make me feel a bit braver.”
“All right,” Pig said, “all right. You can take me with you. But don't play any of your tricks on me when the going gets tough.”
“Don't forget that Friar Sand and I will be waiting here,” said Sanzang.
The idiot braced himself and set off a gale with Monkey that carried them by cloud up to the top of the mountain where the entrance to the cave was. They saw at once that the gates were shut tight. There was nobody in sight anywhere around. Monkey went forward, his iron cudgel in his hands, to shout at the top of his voice, “Open up, evil monsters! Come out right now and fight Monkey!” When the young devils in the cave went inside to report the senior demon shook with terror as he commented,