The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 4

by Unknown

  The prince, who was indeed an upright and knowledgeable person, at once asked his visitor to enter. After Tripitaka had saluted him at the foot of the steps to the main hall, the prince invited him to take a seat inside. Tripitaka then presented the rescript. When the prince read it and noticed the seals of various kingdoms and their rulers’ signatures, he too applied the treasure seal amiably and affixed his own signature. Folding it up again and placing it on the desk, the prince asked, “Elder National Preceptor, I see you have gone through many nations. Exactly how far is it from your Great Tang to this place?”

  “This humble cleric does not quite remember the exact distance,” replied Tripitaka. “Years ago, however, the Bodhisattva Guanyin revealed herself to our emperor and left his line of the gātha: ‘The way: a hundred and eight thousand miles.’1 On his journey, this humble cleric has already gone through fourteen summers and winters.”

  “That means fourteen years!” said the prince with a smile. “You must have had some delays on the way, I suppose.”

  “I can’t even give you a brief account of them—those ten thousand beasts and a thousand demons!” replied Tripitaka. “You have no idea, Your Highness, how much I have suffered before reaching your treasure region.” Highly pleased, the prince immediately asked the royal chef to prepare a vegetarian meal for his visitor.

  “Your Highness,” said Tripitaka again. “This humble cleric has three disciples waiting outside. I dare not receive the maigre, for I fear that our journey might be delayed.” The prince said to the court attendant, “Go quickly to invite the three disciples of the elder to come in and have a meal.”

  The officer went out with the invitation, but he was greeted by the remark: “We haven’t see them! We haven’t seen them!” Then one of the followers said, “There are three ugly priests sitting in the Guest Hostel. They must be the ones.” The court attendant went with his followers to the hostel and asked the official in charge, “Which ones are the noble disciples of the scripture-seeking priest of the Great Tang? Our lord has commanded that they be invited for a meal.”

  Eight Rules was just seated there, dozing. The moment he heard the word meal he could not refrain from leaping up and replying, “We’re the ones! We’re the ones!” The sight of him so terrified the court attendant that he screamed, shaking all over, “It’s a hog-demon! A hog-demon!”

  When Pilgrim heard the commotion, he tugged at Eight Rules and said, “Brother, try to be a little more civilized, and stop being such a village brute!” When those officials saw Pilgrim, they cried, “It’s a monkey-spirit! A monkey-spirit!”

  Folding his hands in his sleeve before his chest, Sha Monk said, “Please do not be frightened, all of you! We three are all disciples of the Tang Monk.” On seeing him, the various officials all cried, “The god of the hearth! The god of the hearth!” Pilgrim Sun then asked Eight Rules to lead the horse and Sha Monk to tote the luggage so that they could all enter the Jade-Flower Royal Residence. The court attendant meanwhile went ahead to announce their arrival. When the prince’s eyes beheld such ugliness, he, too, became quite frightened. Pressing his palms together, Tripitaka said, “Please have no fear, Your Highness. Though my disciples look ugly, they are all goodhearted.” Eight Rules walked forward and bowed, saying, “This humble cleric salutes you!” The prince grew even more apprehensive.

  “My disciples,” Tripitaka said again, “were all recruited from the wilds. They are untutored in proper etiquette, and I beg you to forgive them.” Suppressing his fear, the prince told the royal chef to take the monks to the Gauze-Drying Pavilion for the vegetarian meal. After thanking him, Tripitaka left the prince and went with his disciples to the pavilion, where he immediately scolded Eight Rules. “You coolie!” he said. “You have no manners at all! You should have kept your mouth shut, and that would have been all right. How could you be so rude! One word, and you nearly knocked down the T’ai Mountain!”

  “It’s a good thing I neither spoke nor bowed,” said Pilgrim, chuckling. “I’ve managed to save some energy!”

  “He should have waited for us to bow together,” said Sha Monk. “Instead, he went ahead and started hollering with his snout jutting!”

  “What a fuss! What a fuss!” said Eight Rules. “You told me some days ago, Master, that I should bow and make a salutation when I met someone. I did that today, and you say now that it’s no good. What am I supposed to do?”

  “I told you to bow and greet people,” said Tripitaka, “but I didn’t tell you to fool with the prince! As the proverb says,

  There are different kinds of things

  And different grades of people.

  How could you not distinguish between the noble and the lowly?” As they spoke, the royal chef led the servants to spread out tables and chairs and serve the maigre. Master and disciples stopped talking as each ate his meal.

  We tell you instead about the prince, who left the main hall and went inside the palace. When his three young princes saw how pale he looked, they asked, “Why does Father King seem so frightened today?”

  The prince said, “Just now there was a priest sent by the Great Tang in the Land of the East to seek scriptures from Buddha. He came to have his travel rescript certified, and he seemed a rather comely person. When I asked him to stay for a meal, he told me that he had disciples waiting in front of our residence. I ordered them invited also, but when they came in after a little while, they did not pay me the respect of performing the grand ceremony. All they did was bow, and I was already displeased. But when I managed to take a look at them, each one was ugly as a monstrous demon. I grew quite frightened, and that’s why I look pale.” Now those three young princes, you see, were quite different from other people, for each of them was fond of martial arts. So they rolled up their sleeves at once and clenched their fists, saying, “Could these be monster-spirits from the mountain who have assumed human forms? Let us take our weapons out and have a look!”

  Dear princes! The eldest took up a rod tall as his eyebrows; the second wielded a nine-pronged rake; and the third picked up a staff coated with black enamel. In big heroic strides, they walked out of the palace and shouted, “Who are the monks seeking scriptures? Where are they?” The chef and other officials all went to their knees and said, “Young princes, they are having their vegetarian meal at the Gauze-Drying Pavilion.”

  Without regard for good or ill, the young princes barged right in and bellowed: “Are you fiends or humans? Speak up quickly, and we’ll spare your lives.” Tripitaka was so terrified that he paled with fright. Abandoning his rice bowl, he stood bowing and said, “Your humble cleric is someone sent by the Tang court to seek scriptures. I’m a human, not a fiend.”

  “You seem like a human all right,” said one of the princes, “but those three hideous ones have to be fiends!” Eight Rules kept right on gorging himself with rice and refused to pay them any attention. Sha Monk and Pilgrim, however, rose slightly and said, “We too are humans. Our features may seem ugly, but our hearts are good; our bodies may seem cumbersome but our natures are kind. Where have you three come from? Why are you so brash with your words?”

  The royal chef, standing at their side, said, “These three are our prince’s heirs.” Dropping down his bowl, Eight Rules said, “Your Highnesses, why are you each holding your weapon? Could it be that you want to fight with us?”

  The second prince strode forward and raised his rake with both hands, about to strike Eight Rules. “That rake of yours,” said Eight Rules, giggling loudly, “only deserves to be the grandson of my rake!” He at once lifted up his garment and took out his own rake from his waist. One wave of it and there were ten thousand shafts of golden light; he moved it a few times and there were a thousand strands of auspicious air. The prince was so terrified that his hands weakened and his tendons turned numb; he did not dare wield his own weapon any further.

  When Pilgrim saw the eldest using a rod and hopping about, he took out from his ear the golden-hooped rod. One wave of it
and it had the thickness of a rice bowl and the length of about thirteen feet. He gave the ground a stab with it and it went in about three feet. As it stood there, Pilgrim said with a chuckle, “Allow me to present you with this rod of mine!” When he heard that, the prince threw away his own rod and went to take hold of the other. He used all his strength to try to pull it out of the ground, but he could not move it one whit. He then tried to give it a shove and a shake, but it remained there as if it had taken root.

  Growing impatient, the third prince attacked with his black-enameled staff, only to be brushed aside with one hand by Sha Monk. With his other, Sha Monk took out his fiend-routing staff, and with a little twirl it created luminous colors and radiant mists. The royal chef and other officials were struck dumb and numb with fright, while the three young princes all knelt down and said, “Divine masters! Divine masters! Being mortals we did not recognize you. We beg you to show us your abilities, so that we may honor you as our teachers.” Walking forward, Pilgrim lifted up his own rod with no effort at all and said, “It’s too cramped here. I can’t stretch my hands. Let me leap into the air and show you a little of how the rod should be used.”

  Marvelous Great Sage! With a loud whistle he somersaulted right up into midair, his two feet treading the auspicious cloud of five colors. At about three hundred paces above ground, he let loose his rod to make Sprinkling Flowers over the Top2 and the Yellow Dragon Entwining the Body. Up and down he moved, circling left and right. In the beginning his person and the rod so complemented each other that they seemed, as the adage had it, like flowers added to brocade. By and by even the person disappeared, and all one could see was a sky full of twirling rods!

  Shouting a “Bravo!” down below, Eight Rules could not contain himself any longer. “Let old Hog go and sport a little too!” he cried. Dear Idiot! Mounting on a gust of wind, he rose also to midair and let loose his rake: three strokes up and four down, five strokes left and six strokes right, seven strokes in front and eight behind. All these bodily movements made one hear only a loud continuous swish. When the performance reached its most exciting moment, Sha Monk said to the elder, “Master, let old Sand go also and exercise!”

  Dear Monk! With one leap he, too, rose into the air and wielded his staff. Now an ardent fighter swathed in golden radiance, he used both hands to make with his staff the Scarlet Phoenix Facing the Sun and the Hungry Tiger Leaping on its Prey. A tight parry and a slow block were followed by swift turns and quick lunges. The three brothers thus made a tremendous display of their magic potency, showing off their prowess and martial ability in midair. Thus it is that

  The image of true Chan’s no common view:

  The Great Way’s causes3 the cosmos imbue.

  In power Gold and Wood fill the dharma-sphere;

  Tossing Spatula and Ubiquity 4 cohere.

  At all times divine arms can their might lay bare;

  Elixir vessels are honored every where.

  Though India’s lofty, one must nature coerce;

  Jade-Flower princes all to the Mean reverse.5

  So astounded were the three young princes that they went to their knees in the dust. Those officials, of high rank or low, around the Gauze-Drying Pavilion, the old prince in the royal residence, and the entire population of the city—whether military or civilian, male or female, Buddhist monks or nuns, Daoist clergy or laymen—all began chanting the name of Buddha and kowtowing. Each household, moreover, took up lighted incense and worshipped. Truly,

  Images seen redeem monks to the real,

  To bless the human world with peace and weal.

  Henceforth the fruit ripens on Bodhi’s way

  Where all honor Chan and Buddha obey.

  After the three disciples had made a thorough display of their heroic ability, they lowered their auspicious clouds and put away their weapons. Going before the Tang Monk, they bowed and thanked their master for permission before taking their seats again. There we shall leave them for the moment.

  We tell you instead about those three young princes, who hurried back to the palace to report to the old prince, saying, “Father King, ten thousand happinesses have come upon you! Unsurpassable merit may be ours this very moment! Have you seen the display in midair?”

  “I only saw colorful mists in the sky,” replied the old prince, “and immediately your mother and I burned incense to worship along with the rest of the residents of the palace. We have no idea what immortals have come down and congregated at this place.”

  “They weren’t immortals from anywhere,” said one of the young princes. “They were just those very ugly disciples of the scripture-seeking priest. One of them used a golden-hooped iron rod, one a nine-pronged muckrake, and the third a fiend-routing treasure staff. Though the weapons we three use may resemble theirs, ours can in no way be compared with those three weapons. We asked them to exercise for us, and they told us that it was too cramped for them to perform on the ground. They wanted to rise to the air to give us an exhibition. When they mounted the clouds, the sky was filled with auspicious clouds meandering and hallowed air circling. They finally dropped down only a moment ago to take their seats once more in the Gauze-Drying Pavilion. Your sons are so delighted that they would like very much to honor them as teachers. If we could learn their ability to protect our nation, this would be indeed our unsurpassable merit. We wonder what our Father King thinks of this?” The aged prince at once gave his consent to what he heard.

  And so father and sons, the four of them, did not ask for the royal carriage or the imperial panoply. Instead, they walked to the Gauze-Drying Pavilion, where they found the four pilgrims packing their belongings and just about to enter the royal palace to give thanks for the meal. No sooner had the Jade-Flower and his sons entered the pavilion than they all bowed low, so startling the elder that he, too, hugged the earth to return the salutation. Pilgrim and his two brothers, however, stepped to one side and only gave a slight smile. After the bows, the prince invited the four priests to enter the main hall to take a seat, and the four amiably agreed. Then the old prince stood up and said, “Old Master Tang, we have a request to make. Do you think that your noble disciples will grant it?”

  “Please tell us, Your Highness,” said Tripitaka. “My humble disciples would not dare refuse you.”

  “When we first met you,” said the old prince, “we thought that you were merely mendicants from the distant Tang court. In fact, our eyes of flesh and our mortal disposition prevented us from recognizing you, and we might have greatly offended you. Just now when we beheld how Master Sun, Master Zhu, and Master Sha performed in the air, we realized that you are immortals and buddhas. As our three unworthy sons have always been fond of martial arts, they are now most eager to become disciples in order to learn the art well. We, therefore, beg the masters to open their hearts wide as Heaven and Earth. Spread afar your vessels of mercy and transmit your mysteries to our humble offspring. We shall thank you with the wealth of our entire city.”

  On hearing this, Pilgrim could not refrain from laughing uproariously. “Your Highness!” he said. “You’re so benighted! We are people who have left the family, and we’re only too anxious to take on a few disciples. If your sons have the desire to follow virtue, you think we’d turn them down? Just don’t bother with even the merest hint of payment or profit. Treat us with kindness—that shall be our sufficient reward.”

  The prince was delighted by Pilgrim’s words, and he immediately gave the order for a huge banquet to be laid out right there in the main hall of his residence. Behold! No sooner had the decree been issued than it was carried out. You see

  Colors aflutter,

  Curls of fragrant smoke,

  And gold inlaid tables festooned in bright silk

  To dazzle one’s eyes.

  Gay lacquered chairs with brocade spread out

  Add stylishness to the seats.

  Fresh fruits from the trees

  And aromatic teas.

  Four or five dish
es of pastries so light and sweet;

  One or two panfuls of breads both rich and neat.

  More marvelous are those steamed crispies and honey-glazed;

  The oily-dips and sugar-roasted are truly great!

  A few bottles of fragrant glutinous rice wine

  Which, when poured,

  Surpasses the juice of jade;

  Several cups of Yangxian divine tea6 offered,

  Once held in hand,

  Its scent o’erpowers the cassia.

  There’s food of every variety—

  Each item is extraordinary!

  During this time the court entertainers were ordered to sing, to dance, and to play their woodwind and string instruments. Master and disciples spent a happy day together with the prince and his princes.

  When night fell, the food and wine were taken away and bedding was laid out at the Gauze-Drying Pavilion for the pilgrims to rest. By morning, the prince said, the young princes would burn incense and return with all sincerity to receive instruction in martial arts. As each person obeyed the royal command, scented liquid was prepared for the masters to bathe in before retiring. At this time

  The birds rest aloft and all seems at peace;

  He leaves the couch, the poet’s chantings cease.

  The Milky Way shines as the heavens brighten;

  The wild path’s forlorn where grasses heighten.

  Washing flails jangle in a yard nearby;

  Dark, distant hills where homeward longings lie.

  To know one’s feelings the cold cricket seems:

  Its loud plaint by bedside would pierce your dreams!

  The night went by, and early in the morning, the old prince and his sons arrived once more to visit. When they were received by the elder, they greeted the priests as their teachers, even though they themselves had been honored as royalty the day before. Thus the young princes kowtowed to Pilgrim, Eight Rules, and Sha Monk as they made this request: “We beg the honorable teachers to take out their weapons and allow their disciples to look at them once more.”