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

The monster, who was still asleep in the Hall of Silvery Peace, heard someone calling his name as he was dreaming, turned over, and looked up to see Pig and Friar Sand shouting from the clouds. “I'm not bothered about Pig,” he thought, “but Friar Sand was tied up at home. However did he escape? Could my wife have let him go? How did he get to catch my sons? Perhaps this is a trick Pig is using to catch me because I won't come out and fight with him. If I'm taken in by this I'll have to fight him, and I'm still the worse for wear after all that wine. One blow from his rake would finish off my prestige. I can see through that plan. I'll go home and see whether they are my sons before arguing with them.”

Without taking leave of the king, the monster went back across the forested mountains to his cave to find out what had happened. By now the palace knew he was an evil spirit. The seventeen other women who had fled for their lives when he ate the Palace Beauty had told the king all about it early the next morning, and his unannounced departure made it even clearer that he was an ogre. The king told the officials to look after the false tiger.

When Monkey saw the monster coming back to the cave he thought of a way to trick him. He blinked till the tears came down like rain, started to wail for the children, and jumped and beat his breast as if in grief, filling the cave with the sound of his sobbing. The monster failed to recognize who Monkey really was and put his arms round him. “What makes you so miserable, wife?” he asked.

“Husband,” said Monkey, weeping as he concocted his devilish lies, “How true it is that 'A man without a wife has no one to look after his property; a woman who loses her husband is bound to fall'. Why didn't you come back yesterday after going to the city to meet your father-in-law? Pig came and seized Friar Sand this morning, and then they grabbed our sons and refused to spare them despite all my pleas. They said they were taking them to the palace to meet their grandfather, but I haven't seen them all day. I don't know what's become of them, and you were away. I've been so miserable at losing them that I can't stop crying.” The monster was furious.

“My sons?” he asked.

“Yes,” Monkey replied, “Pig carried them off.”

The monster, now jumping with rage, said, “Right, that's it. He's killed my sons. He'll die for this. I'll make that monk pay for it with his life. Don't cry, wife. How are you feeling now? Let me make you better.”

“There's nothing wrong with me,” said Monkey, “except that I've cried so much my heart aches.”

“Never mind,” the monster replied. “Come over here. I've got a treasure here that you just have to rub on your pain to stop it hurting. But be very careful with it and don't flick it with your thumb, because if you do you'll be able to see my real body.”

Monkey was secretly delighted. “What a well-behaved fiend,” he thought, “giving that away without even being tortured. When he gives me the treasure I'll flick it to see what kind of monster he really is.” The ogre then led him to a remote and secluded part of the cave and spat out a treasure about the size of a hen's egg. It was magic pill skillfully fashioned from a piece of a conglomeration of internal secretion. “What a splendid thing,” Monkey thought. “Goodness knows how many times it had to be worked, refined and mated before becoming such a magic relic. Today it was fated to meet me.”

The ape took it, rubbed it over his pretended pain, and was just going to flick it with his thumb when the monster took fright and tried to grab it from him. The crafty Monkey popped it into his mouth and swallowed it. The monster clenched his fist and hit at him, but Monkey parried the blow, rubbed his face, and reverted to his real form with a shout of, “Behave yourself, ogre. Take a look and see who I am.”

“Wife,” said the shocked monster, “however did you get that terrible face?”

“I'll get you, you damned fiend,” said Monkey. “I'm not your wife. Can't you even recognize your own grandfather?” The monster, now beginning to see the light, said, “You do look a bit familiar.”

“Take another look,” said Monkey, “I won't hit you.”

“I know you by sight,” the monster said, “but I can't remember your name. Who are you? Where are you from? Where have you hidden my wife? Why did you swindle me out of my treasure? This is a disgusting way to behave.”

“As you don't know who I am,” said Monkey, “let me tell you that I am Sun Wukong, Brother Monkey, the Tang Priest's senior disciple. I'm your ancestor by a clear five hundred years.”

“Nonsense,” the ogre replied, “nonsense. I know that the Tang Priest only had two disciples when I captured him. They were called Pig and Friar Sand. Nobody mentioned anyone by the name of Monkey. You must be a fiend from somewhere or other who has come to trick me.”

“I didn't come here with the other two,” said Monkey, “because my master is a kind and merciful man who sent me back home for killing too many evil spirits. You ought to know your ancestor's name.”

“What sort of man are you?” asked the monster, “how can you have the face to come back after your master has sent you away?”

“You wouldn't understand, you damned monster,” said Monkey, “that when a man has been your teacher for a single day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life, and that father and son should never let the sun set on a quarrel. You've harmed my master, so of course I've come to rescue him. Even if I could ignore that, it's quite outrageous that you insulted me behind my back.”

“I never insulted you,” said the monster.

“Pig told me you did,” replied Monkey.

“You shouldn't believe that sharp-tongued old gossip,” said the monster.

“Let's stop beating about the bush,” said Monkey. “You've treated me very shabbily for a guest from far away. You may not have any wine or fine delicacies to feed me but you do have a head, so stretch it out and let me hit it with my cudgel-that'll do instead of tea.”

The mention of hitting made the monster bellow with laughter. “You've got it all wrong this time, Monkey,” he said. “You shouldn't have come in if you wanted to fight me. I have a thousand devils of all sizes in here. Even if you were covered with arms you'd never be able to fight your way out.”

“Nonsense,” replied Monkey. “Never mind one thousand-if you had thousands or tens of thousands of them I'd only need to see them clearly for my every blow to strike home. I'll wipe the lot of you out.”

The monster at once ordered all the fiends and ogres in and around the cave to muster with their weapons and put a close blockade on all the doors. Monkey was delighted to see them, and wielding his cudgel with both hands he shouted “Change!” and suddenly had six arms and three heads. Then he shook his gold-banded cudgel and turned it into three gold-banded cudgels. He went into action with his six arms and three cudgels. He was a tiger in a sheepfold, a hawk in a chicken run. The poor little demons had their heads smashed to pulp, while their blood flowed like water. He rushed to and fro as if there was nobody else there until only the old ogre was left.

He followed Monkey outside and said “Insolent ape. How dare you come here and bully us?”

Monkey turned, beckoned to him and said, “Come here, come here. Let me win the credit for killing you.”

The monster struck at the head with his sword, and Monkey riposted to the face with his cudgel. They fought it out amid the mists on the mountain top.

Mighty was the magic of the Great Sage,

Awful the monster's power.

One of them wielded an iron cudgel;

The other, a sword of tempered steel.