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

In the ancient earthly paradise on the Mountain of Infinite Longevity

The manfruit ripens once in nine thousand years.

When the magic roots were bared and the branches dead,

The sweet dew brought leaves and fruit back to life.

The happy meeting of the Three Stars was predestined;

It was fated that the four monks would encounter one another.

Now that they have eaten the manfruit at this feast,

They will all enjoy everlasting youth.

The Bodhisattva and the Three Stars ate one each, as did the Tang Priest, who realized at last that this was an Immortal's treasure, and Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand. Master Zhen Yuan had one to keep them company and the Immortals of the temple divided the last one between them. Monkey thanked the Bodhisattva, who went back to Potaraka, and saw the Three Stars off on their journey home to the island of Penglai.

Master Zhen Yuan set out some non-alcoholic wine and made Monkey his sworn brother. This was a case of “if you don't fight you can't make friends,” and their two households were now united. That night Sanzang and his disciples went to bed feeling very happy. That venerable priest had now

Been lucky enough to eat the Grass-returning Cinnabar,

Gaining long life, and resistance to fiends and monsters.

Listen to the next installment to hear how they took their leave the next day.

The Corpse Fiend Thrice Tricks Tang Sanzang

The Holy Monk Angrily Dismisses the Handsome Monkey King

At dawn the next day Sanzang and his three disciples packed their things before setting off. Now that Master Zhen Yuan had made Monkey his sworn brother and was finding him so congenial, he did not want to let him go, so he entertained him for another five or six days. Sanzang had really become a new man, and was livelier and healthier now that he had eaten the Grass-returning Cinnabar. His determination to fetch the scriptures was too strong to let him waste any more time, so there was nothing for it but to be on their way.

Soon after they had set out again, master and disciples saw a high mountain in front of them. “I'm afraid that the mountain ahead may be too steep for the horse,” Sanzang said, “so we must think this over carefully.”

“Don't worry, master,” said Monkey, “we know how to cope.” He went ahead of the horse with his cudgel over his shoulder and cleared a path up to the top of the cliff. He saw no end of

Row upon row of craggy peaks,

Twisting beds of torrents.

Tigers and wolves were running in packs,

Deer and muntjac moving in herds.

Countless river-deer darted around.

And the mountains was covered with fox and hare.

Thousand-food pythons,

Ten-thousand-fathom snakes;

The great pythons puffed out murky clouds,

The enormous snakes breathed monstrous winds.

Brambles and thorns spread beside the paths,

Pines and cedars stood elegant on the ridge.

There were wild fig-trees wherever the eye could see,

And sweet-scented flowers as far as the horizon.

The mountain's shadow fell North of the ocean,

The clouds parted South of the handle of the Dipper.

The towering cliffs were as ancient as the primal Essence,

The majestic crags cold in the sunlight.

Sanzang was immediately terrified, so Monkey resorted to some of his tricks. He whirled his iron cudgel and roared, at which all the wolves, snakes, tigers and leopards fled. They then started up the mountain, and as they were crossing a high ridge Sanzang said to Monkey, “Monkey, I've been hungry all day, so would you please go and beg some food for us somewhere.”

“You aren't very bright, master,” Monkey replied with a grin. “We're on a mountain with no village or inn for many miles around. Even if we had money there would be nowhere to buy food, so where am I to go and beg for it?” Sanzang felt cross, so he laid into Monkey. “You ape,” he said, “don't you remember how you were crushed by the Buddha in a stone cell under the Double Boundary Mountain, where you could talk but not walk? It was I who saved your life, administered the monastic vows to you, and made you my disciple. How dare you be such a slacker? Why aren't you prepared to make an effort?”

“I always make an effort,” said Monkey. “I'm never lazy.”

“If you're such a hard worker, go and beg some food for us. I can't manage on an empty stomach. Besides, with the noxious vapors on this mountain we'll never reach the Thunder Monastery,”

“Please don't be angry, master, and stop talking. I know your obstinate character-if I'm too disobedient you'll say that spell. You'd better dismount and sit here while I find somebody and beg for some food.”

Monkey leapt up into the clouds with a single jump, and shading his eyes with his hand he looked around. Unfortunately he could see nothing in any direction except emptiness. There was no village or house or any other sign of human habitation among the countless trees. After looking for a long time he made out a high mountain away to the South. On its Southern slopes was a bright red patch.

Monkey brought his cloud down and said, “Master, there's something to eat.” Sanzang asked him what it was. “There's no house around here where we could ask for food,” Monkey replied, “but there's a patch of red on a mountain to the South that I'm sure must be ripe wild peaches. I'll go and pick some-they'll fill you up.”

“A monk who has peaches to eat is a lucky man,” said Sanzang. Monkey picked up his bowl and leapt off on a beam of light. Just watch as he flashes off in a somersault, a whistling gust of cold air. Within a moment he was picking peaches on the Southern mountain.

There is a saying that goes, “If the mountain is high it's bound to have fiends; if the ridge is steep spirits will live there.” This mountain did indeed have an evil spirit who was startled by Monkey's appearance. It strode through the clouds on a negative wind, and on seeing the venerable Sanzang on the ground below thought happily, “What luck, what luck. At home they've been talking for years about a Tang Monk from the East who's going to fetch the 'Great Vehicle'; he's a reincarnation of Golden Cicada, and has an Original Body that has been purified through ten lives. Anyone who eats a piece of his flesh will live for ever. And today, at last, he's here.” The evil spirit went forward to seize him, but the sight of the two great generals to Sanzang's left and right made it frightened to close in on him. Who, it wondered, were they? They were in fact Pig and Friar Sand, and for all that their powers were nothing extraordinary, Pig was really Marshal Tian Peng while Friar Sand was the Great Curtain-lifting General. It was because their former awe-inspiring qualities had not yet been dissipated that the fiend did not close in. “I'll try a trick on them and see what happens,” the spirit said to itself.

The splendid evil spirit stopped its negative wind in a hollow and changed itself into a girl with a face as round as the moon and as pretty as a flower. Her brow was clear and her eyes beautiful; her teeth were white and her lips red. In her left hand she held a blue earthenware pot and in her right a green porcelain jar. She headed East towards the Tang Priest.

The holy monk rested his horse on the mountain,

And suddenly noticed a pretty girl approaching.

The green sleeves over her jade fingers lightly billowed;

Golden lotus feet peeped under her trailing skirt.

The beads of sweat on her powdered face were dew on a flower,

Her dusty brow was a willow in a mist.

Carefully and closely he watched her

As she came right up to him.

“Pig, Friar Sand,” said Sanzang when he saw her, “don't you see somebody coming although Monkey said that this was a desolate and uninhabited place?”