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

He traveled West about four miles from the pine forest without meeting anybody. It was indeed a lonely place inhabited only by wolves and tigers. The idiot found the going heavy, and he muttered to himself, “When Monkey was with us the old priest could have anything he wanted, but now I have to do it all. How true it is that 'you have to keep house to realize how expensive rice and firewood are, and raise sons to understand parental love'. There's nowhere at all to beg on this road.” By now he felt sleepy after all this walking and he thought, “If I go back now and tell the old monk that there's nowhere I can beg food, he may not believe I've come this far. I'd better hang around here for another hour or two before reporting back. Oh well, I may as well take a snooze in that grass.” With that the idiot pillowed his head in the grass and went to sleep. He had only meant to take forty winks and then get up again, not realizing that he was so exhausted by the journey that he would be sound asleep as soon as his head was down.

Let us leave Pig asleep there and return to Sanzang in the forest. As he was feeling anxious and unsettled he said to Friar Sand, “It's late now. Why isn't Pig back from begging for food?”

“Master,” said Friar Sand, “you still don't understand him. He's found out that many of these Westerners give food to monks, and with his big belly he won't be bothering about you. He won't be back till he's eaten his fill.”

“True,” said Sanzang. “If he's greedily stuffing himself somewhere far away we needn't concern ourselves with him. It's getting late and this is no place to spend the night. We must find somewhere to stay.”

“There's no rush, master,” said Friar Sand. “You sit and wait here while I go and find him.”

“Very well,” said Sanzang, “very well. Never mind about the food. It's somewhere for the night that matters.” Clasping his precious staff, Friar Sand went off through the pine forest in search of Pig.

Sanzang felt thoroughly tired and miserable as he sat alone in the forest, so he summoned up his spirits, leapt to his feet, hid all the luggage in a cache, tethered the horse to a tree, took off his reed hat, and drove his staff into the ground. Then he straightened out his black robes and took a leisurely stroll among the trees to cheer himself up. As he looked at all the wild flowers he did not hear the calls of the birds returning to their nests. The grass was deep and the forest paths were narrow, and in his distraction he lost his way. He had started out to cheer himself up and also to find Pig and Friar Sand; what he did not realize was that they had headed due West while he, after wandering in all directions, was going South. He came out of the forest and looked up to see a dazzling golden light. On closer examination he saw that it was the golden roof of a pagoda whose gleaming in the setting sun. “What a sad destiny my disciples have,” he thought. “When I left the land of the East, I vowed that I would burn incense in every temple I passed, would worship every Buddha statue I saw, and sweep up every pagoda I encountered. Isn't that a golden pagoda gleaming over there? Why didn't we go that way? There's bound to be a monastery at the foot of the pagoda, and the monastery must surely contain monks. Let me have a look. The luggage and the white horse can come to no harm in that uninhabited spot. If there is some suitable place we can all spend the night here when my disciples come back.”

Alas! The venerable Sanzang was once more the victim of delusion. He strode over to the pagoda, and what he saw was

A cliff ten thousand fathoms high,

A lofty mountain reaching to the firmament.

Its roots sunk deep into the earth,

Its peak thrust up into the sky.

On either side were trees by the thousand,

While creepers stretched many miles around.

The wind made shadows as it bent the tips of the flowers;

The moon had no root where the waters flowed under the clouds.

A fallen tree spanned a deep ravine,

Withered creepers were knotted round the gleaming peak.

Under the stone bridge,

Ran the water from a spring;

On the sacred altar

The ever-burning lamp was as bright as chalk.

From a distance it looked like the Three Islands of Paradise;

Close to, it resembled the blessed land of Penglai.

Fragrant pine and purple bamboo grew round the mountain brooks,

Magpies, monkeys, crows, and apes roamed the lofty ridge.

Outside the door of a cave

Animals came and went in orderly groups.

Among the trees

Flocks of birds were briefly seen.

Luxuriant grew the green and scented herbs,

As the wild flowers bloomed in all their glory.

This was clearly an evil place

That the deluded priest approached,

Sanzang stepped out and was soon at the gate of the pagoda. Seeing a curtain of speckled bamboo hanging inside, he lifted it up and went in. He raised his head and saw an evil monster sleeping on a stone bed. Do you know what he looked like?

A dark blue face,

White fangs,

A huge gaping mouth.

On either side of it were matted hairs

All stained with fat and grease.

The purple tufts of his beard and moustache

Made one think of splayed-out lichee shoots.

His nose was as hooked as a parrot's beak

His eyes as dim as stars in the dawn.

His two fists

Were the size of a monk's begging bowl;

His indigo-blue feet

Were like a pair of logs.

The pale yellow robe that was flung across him

Was grander than a brocade cassock.

The sword in his hand

Gleamed and flashed;

The rock on which he slept

Was exquisite, smooth and flawless.

As a little fiend he had marshaled ant formations,

When a senior demon he had sat in the wasps' headquarters.

At the sight of his awe-inspiring might

All would shout out,

Calling him master.

He had created three men drinking in the moonlight,

And had magicked out of the wind cups of refreshing tea.

Consider his tremendous supernatural powers-

In the wink of an eyelid

He could be at the ends of the earth.

In wild forests he could sing like a bird;

Deep in the bush he would stay with snakes and tigers.

When an Immortal farms the land it bears white jade;

When a Taoist master tends the fire he produces elixir.

Although this little cave-mouth

Did not lead to the Avichi Hell,

Yet this ferocious monster

Was a bull-headed demon.

Sanzang was so terrified at the sight of him that he shrank back, his whole body numb with terror. No sooner had he turned to go than the monster, whose powers really were tremendous, opened a fiendish eye with a golden pupil and shouted, “Who is that outside the door, little ones?”

A junior devil poked his head out to look, saw a shaven-headed priest, and ran in to report, “A monk, Your Majesty. He has a large face and a round head, and his ears hang down to his shoulders. His flesh looks most tender and his skin extremely delicate. He's a very promising monk.”

The monster cackled and said, “This is what they call 'a fly landing on a snake's head, or food and clothing presenting themselves to you'. Go and catch him for me, lads, and bring him back here. I'll reward you well.” The junior demons rushed out after Sanzang like a swarm of bees; and Sanzang, in his alarm, started to run so fast he seemed to fly. But he was so terrified that his legs were soon like numb jelly, and on top of this the path was very uneven and it was twilight in the deep forest. He could not move fast enough, and the junior demons picked him up and carried him back.

A dragon in shallows falls victim to shrimps;

A tiger on the plain can be put upon by dogs.