by Unknown
The little monster, you see, had dashed in and closed the doors, and had gone to the center of the cave to say to the old monster, “Venerable Father, there are two monks outside again.”
The old monster said, “Did your great king and the rest return—Gibbon-Lion, Snow Lion, Elephant-Baiter, and Wildcat?”
“I haven’t seen any of them! I haven’t seen any of them!” replied the little monster. “Only two monks high on the peak scanning the region. When I saw them, I turned and ran. They chased me back here, and I quickly bolted the door.”
On hearing this, the old monster fell silent for a long time; then all at once he shed a few tears. “Woe!” he cried. “My Yellow Lion grand-disciple is dead, and the others have all been taken captive into the city by those priests. How am I to avenge myself?”
Lying on one side, a melancholy Eight Rules, who had been trussed up along with the Tang Monk, the old prince, and his sons and left there to suffer, was gladdened by this statement of the old monster about his grandsons. “Master, don’t be afraid!” he whispered. “And Your Highness, don’t worry! My elder brother has won a victory and caught several monsters. He’ll soon find his way here to rescue us.” He finished speaking, and then he heard the old monster say, “Little ones, stand guard here. Let me go out and capture those two monks and bring them in here also for punishment.”
Look at him! With neither armor on his body nor weapons in his hands, he walked in big strides up to the front, where he could hear the shoutings of Pilgrim Sun. Flinging wide the doors, he did not wait for the exchange of even one word before heading straight for Pilgrim. As Pilgrim wielded his iron rod to meet him, Sha Monk brandished his treasure staff and struck. All the old monster did was to give his head one shake, and eight other heads with open mouths appeared, four on each side. Ever so gently they caught Pilgrim and Sha Monk and brought them inside the cave. “Bring me some ropes!” he cried.
Shifty-and-Freaky, Freaky-and-Shifty, and Child Blue Face were the three who had escaped with their lives the night before. Taking out two ropes, they bound up the priests firmly.
“You wretched ape!” said the old monster. “You’ve taken my seven grandsons, but I’ve caught four of you priests and four princes. That should be a fair exchange for my grandsons’ lives! Little ones, select some thorny willow canes. Let’s give this monkey-head a flogging, so that my Yellow Lion granddisciple may be avenged.”
Each picking up a willow cane, those three little monsters began to rain blows on Pilgrim. Pilgrim’s body, however, was one that had undergone prolonged cultivation and refinement. The effect of those willow canes on him was no more severe than scratching an itch! No matter how hard they flogged him, he neither showed concern nor made a sound. Eight Rules, the Tang Monk, and the princes, however, were petrified at the sight. After a little while, even the canes broke from the flogging and had to be replaced.
It went on like this until evening. The blows Pilgrim received were numberless. When Sha Monk saw how long Pilgrim had been beaten, he felt guilty and said, “Let me take a hundred strokes or so for him!”
“Don’t be so impatient!” said the old monster. “You’ll be beaten tomorrow! Each of you will have your turn!” Horrified, Eight Rules said, “Then the day after tomorrow will be old Hog’s turn!”
The flogging continued for yet another while until it grew dark. “Little ones, let’s stop!” cried the old monster. “Light the lamps, and take some food and drink, all of you. I’m going to my brocade den to take a nap. All three of you have suffered before in the hands of these monks, and you should therefore guard them carefully. Wait till tomorrow before we flog them some more.”
Moving the lamps over, the three little monsters took up the willow canes and began beating Pilgrim’s skull: tick-tick-tock, tock-tock-tick, now fast, now slow, it sounded as if they were beating a rattle. As the night deepened, however, the monsters all fell sound asleep.
Immediately Pilgrim exercised his magic of Passage. He shrank his body and climbed out of the ropes. Having shaken loose his fur and straightened out his clothes, he whipped out his rod from his ear. One wave of it and it acquired the thickness of a bucket and the length of twenty feet. “You cursed beasts!” he said to the three little monsters. “You have beaten your Venerable Father umpteen times, but he hasn’t changed a bit. Let your Venerable Father drop this rod on you a little, and see what happens!” Ever so lightly he dropped the rod on those three little fiends, and at once they turned into three meat patties.
Then Pilgrim pulled up the wick in a lamp and began to untie Sha Monk. As he had been hurting from the ropes, Eight Rules could not refrain from saying in a loud voice, “Elder Brother, my hands and feet are swollen! Why can’t you untie me first?” This one yell of Idiot’s aroused the old monster, who scrambled up immediately, saying, “Who’s untying . . . ?”
When he heard that, Pilgrim blew out the lamp immediately and abandoned Sha Monk. With his iron rod he punched through several doors and escaped. The old monster went out to the center hall and called out: “Little ones, why are the lights out? Has someone escaped?”
He shouted like that once, but no one answered him. He cried again, but still there was no answer. By the time he lit a lamp himself, the first thing he saw were three bloody meat patties on the ground. Then he saw that the old prince, his sons, the Tang Monk and Eight Rules were still there; only Pilgrim and Sha Monk had disappeared. With a lighted torch, he rushed to the back and front to search for them, and he found Sha Monk sidling along a wall in one of the porches. The old monster grabbed him, threw him on the ground, and tied him up as before. Then he continued to search for Pilgrim. When he saw that several of the doors had been smashed, he knew that Pilgrim had managed to escape. Instead of giving chase, he tried to patch up and repair the doors to guard his property. There we shall leave him for the moment.
We tell you instead about the Great Sage Sun who, having emerged from the Nine-Bends Curvate Cave, went straight back to the Jade-Flower County astride the auspicious cloud. In the air above the city he was met by several local spirits of the region and the tutelary deities of the city, all bowing.
“Why did you all wait until now to come to see me?” asked Pilgrim.
“These humble deities,” replied the city god, “knew already that the Great Sage had descended upon the Jade-Flower County. Since you have been entertained by a worthy prince, we dared not intrude upon you. Now we have learned that the princes encountered fiends and that the Great Sage is in the process of subduing demons. We have therefore come especially to bow to receive you.”
Pilgrim was still annoyed and was beginning to berate them when the Golden-Headed Guardian, the Six Gods of Darkness, and the Six Gods of Light appeared with another local spirit in their custody. As they knelt down, they said, “Great Sage, we have captured this devil-in-the-earth and brought him here.”
“Why aren’t you all protecting my master at the Bamboo-Knot Mountain?” snapped Pilgrim. “Why are you milling about at this place?”
One of the Gods of Darkness and Light said, “Great Sage, after you had escaped, the monster-spirit captured again the Curtain-Raising General and had him tied up once more. When we saw how powerful his magic was, we rounded up the local spirit of the Bamboo-Knot Mountain and marched him here. He should know the origin of this monster-spirit. Let the Great Sage question him, so that he may devise the proper means to rescue the sage monk and deliver the worthy prince from his suffering.”
Pilgrim was delighted by what he heard. Trembling all over, the local spirit kowtowed and said, “The year before last that old monster descended upon the Bamboo-Knot Mountain. The Nine-Bends Curvate Cave was originally a den for six lions. Since the old monster’s arrival, however, the six lions all honored him as their grandsire, who is actually a nine-headed lion. He styles himself the Nine-Numina Primal Sage. If you want to vanquish him, you must go to the Wondrous-Cliff Palace at the East Pole and fetch his master. Only that person and no one else
has the power to subdue him.”
When he heard this, Pilgrim thought for quite some time, musing to himself: “The Wondrous-Cliff Palace at the East Pole, that’s the Salvific Celestial Worthy of the Great Monad. His beast of burden is precisely a nine-headed lion. In that case . . .” He at once gave this instruction: “Let the Guardian and the Gods of Darkness and Light return with the local spirit to their proper stations to provide secret protection for my master, my brothers, and the princes of the district. The city deities should take up their post to guard the city.” The various deities obeyed and left.
Mounting the cloud somersault, our Great Sage journeyed through the night. By about the hour of the Tiger,4 he arrived at the East Heaven Gate, where he ran into Devarāja Virūpākṣa and an entourage of celestial guards and vīra. They all stopped and, folding their hands in their sleeves to salute him, asked, “Where are you going, Great Sage?”
After returning their salutation, Pilgrim said, “Making a trip to Wondrous-Cliff Palace.”
“Why aren’t you on your way to the Western Heaven?” asked the devarāja. “Why have you come to the Eastern Heaven?”
“When we arrived at the Jade-Flower County,” replied Pilgrim, “we were royally entertained by the prince. His three sons, in fact, took us three brothers in and honored us as teachers of martial arts. Little did we expect that we would end up with a bunch of lion-fiends. I’ve just found out that the Salvific Celestial Worthy of the Great Monad at the Wondrous-Cliff Palace is the lion master, and I would like to ask him to subdue the fiend and rescue my master.”
“It’s precisely because you desired to act as someone’s teacher,”5 said the devarāja, “that you got into trouble with a den of lions.”
“No doubt that’s the reason! No doubt that’s the reason!” chuckled Pilgrim. All the soldiers and vīra saluted him again with folded hands and stepped aside to let him pass. After the Great Sage entered the East Heavenly Gate, he reached in a little while the Wondrous-Cliff Palace. He saw
Colored clouds in tiers,
Billows of purple mist,
Tiles shimmering in golden flames,
Doors guarded by rows of jade-beasts.
Flowers fill a double arch swathed in red mist;
Tall trees, sun-drenched, are encased in green dew.
Truly myriad gods surround the place
Where all sages flourish.
The buildings are layers of brocade,
All joined through windows and porches,
Watched by an old dragon circling in light
Divine and charged with thick, auspicious air.
This is the realm of everlasting bliss,
The Palace of Wondrous-Cliff.
Inside the gate of the palace stood a divine lad wearing a garment of rainbow hues. When he caught sight of the Great Sage Sun, he went inside to announce, “Holy Father, the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, who caused great havoc in the Celestial Palace, has arrived.”
The Salvific Celestial Worthy of the Great Monad at once asked his guards and attendants to usher his visitor in. When they entered the palace, the Celestial Worthy left his lofty lotus throne of nine colors enshrouded in countless beams of auspicious radiance to greet them. Pilgrim bowed low, and the Celestial Worthy returned his salutation, saying, “Great Sage, we haven’t seen you these few years. I heard some time ago that you left the Dao to embrace Buddha in order to escort the Tang Monk to acquire scriptures in the Western Heaven. Your merit and work must have been accomplished.”
“Not quite,” replied Pilgrim, “but they are near completion. At this moment, however, my accompaniment of the Tang Monk has taken us to the Jade-Flower County, where the local prince was kind enough to have his three sons take old Monkey and his brothers as teachers of martial arts. New weapons were being forged, using ours as models, but they were stolen by a thief at night. When we looked for them in the morning, we learned that the thief was a golden-haired lion-spirit residing in the Tiger’s-Mouth Cave on the Leopard’s-Head Mountain north of the city. A ploy of old Monkey got back our weapons, but that spirit banded together with a considerable number of other lion-spirits to brawl with me. In their midst was a nine-headed lion who possessed vast magic powers. He caught with his mouths my master, Eight Rules, and the four princes and took them to the Nine-Bends Curvate Cave of the Bamboo-Knot Mountain. The next day old Monkey and Sha Monk followed them there, and we too were captured. Old Monkey was bound and beaten by him countless times, but I was fortunate enough to have escaped, using my magic. They are still suffering at that place. Not until I questioned the local spirit of the region did I find out that the Celestial Worthy happens to be his master. I’ve come especially to ask you to subdue the monster and grant deliverance.”
On hearing this, the Celestial Worthy immediately ordered his subordinates to fetch the lion page from the lion den and bring him forward for interrogation. The page, however, was sleeping soundly and did not wake up until some of the gods had given him a few shakes. They dragged him up to the center hall, and the Celestial Worthy asked, “Where’s the lion?”
Shedding tears and kowtowing, the page boy could only mutter, “Spare me! Spare me!”
“In the Great Sage Sun’s presence you will not be beaten,” said the Celestial Worthy. “But you’d better confess quickly how you carelessly allowed the nine-headed lion to run away.”
“Holy Father,” said the page, “the day before yesterday I came upon a bottle of wine in the Hall of Universal Sweet Dew. Not knowing any better, I stole it and drank it, and I fell fast asleep. I must not have locked up the beast properly, and that’s why he escaped.”
The Celestial Worthy said, “That wine happened to be a gift of Laozi called Jade Liquid of Transmigration. If you drank it, you’d stay drunk for three whole days. How many days has it been since the lion ran away?”
“According to the local spirit,” said the Great Sage, “he descended to earth the year before last. By now it’s almost three years.”
“Yes! Yes!” said the Celestial Worthy with a smile. “A day in Heaven is a year in the mortal world.” Then he said to the lion page, “Get up. We’ll spare you for the moment. Follow me and the Great Sage to the Region Below to retrieve him. The rest of the immortals may go back. There’s no need for all of you to accompany us.”
The Celestial Worthy trod the clouds with the lion page and the Great Sage to reach the Bamboo-Knot Mountain, where they were met by the Guardians of Five Quarters, the Six Gods of Darkness and the Six Gods of Light, and the local spirit of the mountain. “You who are supposed to be guardians, has my master been harmed?” asked Pilgrim.
“The monster-spirit,” replied the deities, “has been rather upset and has gone to sleep. He has not inflicted punishment on anyone.” “After all,” said the Celestial Worthy, “that Child Primal Sage of mine is a true spirit who has attained the Way through prolonged cultivation. One roar of his can reach the Three Sages above and penetrate the Nine Springs down below. He will not take a life casually. Great Sage Sun, please go and provoke battle at his door. Entice him to come out so that I may subdue him.”
Hearing this, Pilgrim indeed whipped out his rod and leaped toward the cave’s entrance, shouting, “Brazen monster-spirit! Return my people! Brazen monster-spirit! Return my people!” He shouted several times, but there was no answer at all, for the old monster had fallen fast asleep. Growing impatient, Pilgrim wielded his iron rod and fought his way inside, shouting abuses as he moved along. Only then was the old monster roused from his sleep. Startled and enraged, he scrambled up and roared, “To battle!” At once he shook his head and attacked with open mouths.
Pilgrim turned back and leaped out of the cave. The monster-spirit followed him out, crying, “Monkey thief! Where are you going?”
Standing on a cliff, Pilgrim said, chuckling, “You still dare be so audacious and unruly! You have no idea what’s coming to you in a moment! Don’t you realize that your Venerable Father Master is here?”
The monster-spirit rushed up to the cliff, only to find a Celestial Worthy reciting a spell and shouting, “Child Primal Sage, I’m here!” The monster recognized his master, and he dared not struggle at all. Falling prostrate on all fours, he could only kowtow repeatedly. From one side the lion page dashed out and, seizing his hair on the neck with one hand, rained blows on his head with the other. “You beast!” he scolded him. “Why did you run away and make me suffer?”
The lion dared neither move nor utter a word. Only when his fist grew tired did the lion page stop punching and put the brocade saddle on. The Celestial Worthy mounted him, gave the order to leave, and the lion rode the colored clouds to return to the Wondrous-Cliff Palace.
After giving thanks toward the sky, the Great Sage entered the cave. He untied the Jade-Flower prince first, then Tripitaka Tang, and finally, Eight Rules, Sha Monk, and the three princes. Together they looted the cave’s valuables before stepping outside. Eight Rules piled up dried wood front and back and started a blaze. The entire Nine-Bends Curvate Cave was reduced to a charred and gutted kiln! Then the Great Sage dismissed the other deities, though he ordered the local spirit to remain there and guard the region. Eight Rules and Sha Monk were told to exercise their magic and carry the princes back to the prefectural city on their backs, while Pilgrim himself took hold of the Tang Monk by the hands to transport him. In a short while, when the sky darkened, they all arrived at the capital and were met by the queen, the palace ladies, and various officials. Evening maigre was served at once, and they all sat down to enjoy the fare. The elder and his disciples again rested in the Gauze-Drying Pavilion, while the prince retired to the palace. They all had a peaceful night.
The next day the prince ordered another huge vegetarian banquet, for which all the officials of the palace, high and low, gave thanks. Pilgrim also asked the butchers to slaughter the six lions and skin them, as they had done to the yellow lion. Their meat was to be prepared for the people’s enjoyment. Delighted by this suggestion, the prince at once gave this command: the meat of one lion was to be saved for the residents of the palace, and that of another would be given to the Administrator of a Princely Establishment and other district officials. The rest of the five lions would be cut into small pieces, about two to three ounces each, and distributed by palace guards to the civilian and military populace in and out of the city, so that they might have a taste of lion meat to calm their fears. All the households thus acknowledged the gift with gratitude.