Wu Cheng-en - Journey to the West (vol. 1)

“Stop grumbling,” said Monkey. “Now that it's light you can rest in the forest beside the road and build your strength up before we move on.” Sanzang obediently dismounted and sat down on the roots of a pine tree, using it as a makeshift meditation platform. Friar Sand put down the luggage and took a nap, while Pig pillowed his head on a rock and went to sleep. Monkey, the Great Sage, had his own ideas and amused himself leaping from tree to tree.

After the lecture in the palace of the Original Celestial Jade Pure One the Great Immortal Zhen Yuan led his junior Immortals down from the Tushita Heaven through the jade sky on auspicious clouds, and in a moment they were back at the gates of the Wuzhuang Temple. The gates, he saw, were wide open, and the ground was clean.

“So Pure Wind and Bright Moon aren't so useless after all,” he said. “Usually they're still in bed when the sun is high in the sky. But now, with us away, they got up early, opened the gates, and swept the grounds.” All the junior Immortals were delighted. Yet when they went into the hall of worship there was no incense burning and nobody to be seen.

Where were Bright Moon and Pure Wind, they wondered. “They probably thought that with us not here they could steal some stuff and clear out.”

“What an outrageous idea,” said the Great Immortal. “As if men cultivating immortality could do anything so evil! I think they must have forgotten to shut the gates before they went to sleep last night and not have woken up yet.” When the Immortals went to look in their room they found the doors closed and heard the boys snoring. They hammered on the doors and shouted for all they were worth, but the boys did not wake up. They forced the doors open and pulled the boys from their beds: the boys still did not wake up. “Fine Immortal boys you are,” said the Great Immortal with a smile. “When you become an Immortal your divine spirit should be so full that you do not want to sleep. Why are they so tired? They must have been bewitched. Fetch some water at once.” A boy hastily handed him half a bowl of water. He intoned a spell, took a mouthful of the water, and spurted it on their faces. This broke the enchantment. The two of them woke up, opened their eyes, rubbed their faces, looked around them, and saw the Great Immortal as well as all their Immortal brothers. Pure Wind bowed and Bright Moon kowtowed in their confusion, saying, “Master, that old friend of yours, the priest from the East…a gang of bandits… murderous, murderous…”

“Don't be afraid,” said the Great Immortal with a smile. “Calm down and tell us all about it.”

“Master,” said Pure Wind, “the Tang Priest from the East did come. It was quite soon after you had left. There were four monks and a horse-five of them altogether. We did as you had ordered us and picked two manfruits to offer him, but the venerable gentleman was too vulgar and stupid to know what our treasures were. He said that they were newborn babies and refused to eat any, so we ate one each. Little did we imagine that one of his three disciples called Brother Sun Wukong, or Monkey, would steal four manfruits for them to eat. We spoke to him very reasonably, but he denied it and secretly used his magic. It's terrible…” At this point the two boys could no longer hold back the tears that now streamed down their cheeks. “Did the monk strike you?” asked the immortals. “No,” said Bright Moon, “he only felled our manfruit tree.”

The Great Immortal did not lose his temper when he heard their story, “Don't cry,” he said, “don't cry. What you don't realize is that Monkey is an Immortal of the Supreme Monad, and that he played tremendous havoc in the Heavenly Palace. He has vast magic powers. But he has knocked our tree over. Could you recognize those monks?”

“I could recognize all of them,” replied Pure Wind.

“In that case come with me,” said the Great Immortal. “The rest of you are to prepare the instruments of torture and be ready to flog them when we come back.”

The other Immortals did as they were told while the Great Immortal, Bright Moon and Pure Wind pursued Sanzang on a beam of auspicious light. It took them but an instant to cover three hundred miles. The Great Immortal stood on the edge of the clouds and gazed to the West, but he did not see Sanzang; then he turned round to look East and saw that he had left Sanzang over two hundred and fifty miles behind. Even riding all night that venerable gentleman had covered only forty miles, which was why the Great Immortal's cloud had overshot him by a great distance.

“Master,” said one of the Immortal boys, “there's the Tang Priest, sitting under a tree by the side of the road.”

“Yes, I'd seen him myself,” the Great Immortal replied. “You two go back and get some ropes ready, and I'll catch him myself.” Pure Wind and Bright Moon went back.

The Great Immortal landed his cloud, shook himself, and turned into and itinerant Taoist. Do you know what he looked like?

He wore a patchwork gown,

Tied with Lu Dongbin sash,

Waving a fly-whisk in his hand

He tapped a musical drum.

The grass sandals on his feet had three ears,

His head was wrapped in a sun turban.

As the wind filled his sleeves

He sang The Moon Is High.

“Greetings, venerable sir,” he called, raising his hands. “Oh, I'm sorry I didn't notice you before,” replied Sanzang hastily.

“Where are you from?” the Great Immortal asked. “And why are you in meditation during your journey?”

“I have been sent by the Great Tang in the East to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven,” Sanzang said, “and I'm taking a rest along the way.”

“You must have crossed my desolate mountain if you have come from the East.”

“May I ask, Immortal sir, which mountain is yours?”

“My humble abode is the Wuzhuang Temple on the Mountain of Infinite Longevity.”

“We didn't come that way,” said Monkey, who realized what was happening. “We've only just started out.”

The Great Immortal pointed at him and laughed. “I'll show you, you damned ape. Who do you think you're fooling? I know that you knocked our manfruit tree down and came here during the night. You had better confess: you won't get away with concealing anything. Stay where you are, and give me back that tree at once.” Monkey flared up at this, and with no further discussion he struck at the Great Immortal's head with his cudgel. The Great Immortal twisted away from the blow and went straight up into the sky on a beam of light, closely pursued by Monkey on a cloud. In mid-air the Great Immortal reverted to his true appearance, and this is what he looked like:

A golden crown on his head,

A No-worries cloak of crane's down on his body.

A pair of turned-up sandals on his feet,

And round his waist a belt of silk.

His body was like a child's,

His face was that of a beautiful woman.

A wispy beard floated down from his chin,

And the hair on his temples was crow-black.

He met Monkey unarmed

With only a jade-handled whisk in his hands.

Monkey struck wildly at him with his club, only to be parried to left and right by the Great Immortal's whisk. After two or three rounds the Great Immortal did a “Wrapping Heaven and Earth in His Sleeve” trick, waving his sleeve gently in the breeze as he stood amid the clouds, then sweeping it across the ground and gathering up the four pilgrims and their horse in it.

“Hell,” said Pig, “We're all caught in a bag.”

“It isn't a bag, you idiot,” said Monkey, “he's caught us all in his sleeve.”

“It doesn't matter, anyhow,” said Pig. “I can make a hole in it with a single blow of my rake that we can all get through. Then we'll be able to drop out when he relaxes his grip on us.” But however desperately he struck at the fabric he could make no impression on it: although it was soft when held in the hand it was harder than iron when hit.