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

Only when they had been asked this several more times did they prostrate themselves and say, “Forgive us. We deserve to die a thousand times. Forgive us. We were taking the treasures into the mountains when we met an immortal from Mount Penglai. He asked us where we were going and we told him we were off to catch Sun the Novice. When the immortal heard about the Sun the Novice he said he was angry with him too, and wanted to come along and help. We never asked him to, but we told him all about how we were going to put Sun into the treasure. The immortal had a gourd too that the whole sky could be put into. Because we were greedy to do our family a good turn we swapped our man-holder for his sky-holder. At first we offered a gourd for a gourd, but then Skilful Beast threw the vase in for good measure. But his immortal's treasure was not for the mortal likes of us. We were trying it out when gourd and immortal both disappeared. We beg you to spare us the deaths we deserve.”

At this the Senior Demon King thundered, “Damn it, damn it. It was Sun the Novice disguised as an immortal to trick them out of you. That monkey has enormous magic powers and has knows people everywhere. What hairy little god let him out to con our treasures out of us?”

“Please calm yourself, brother,” said the Junior Demon King.

“That ape is the bloody limit. With all those powers it should have been enough for him to escape. Why did he have to trick us out of our treasures? If I don't have the powers to catch him then I'll never be a monster on the road West again.”

“How are you going to get him?” asked the Senior King.

“We had five treasures,” said the Junior King, “so even after losing two we have three left with which we can and must capture him.”

“What three treasures?” asked the Senior King.

“The Seven-star Sword and the Plantain Fan that I carry with me,” the Junior King replied, “and the Dazzling Golden Cord that's kept at our old mother's place in the Crushed Dragon Cave in Crushed Dragon Mountain. We should now send a couple of little devils to invite our mother to a meal of the Tang Priest's flesh and ask her to bring the Dazzling Golden Cord to catch Sun the Novice with.”

“Which ones should we send?” asked the Senior King.

“Not rubbish like those two,” replied the Junior King, who then shouted at Dexterous Ghost and Skilful Beast to get up.

“What luck,” they said. “We weren't beaten and we weren't sworn at-we've been let off.”

“Send for my regular attendants Mountain Tiger and Ocean Dragon,” ordered the Junior King. The two of them knelt before him while he gave them his instructions. “You must be very cautious.”

“We'll be cautious,” they replied.

“And careful.”

“We'll be careful,” they replied.

“Do you know the way to our mother's home?” he asked.

“We do,” they replied.

“In that case go as soon as you can. When you get to the old lady's place bow to her very respectfully, then invite her to a meal of the Tang Priest's flesh and ask her to bring the Dazzling Golden Cord with her to catch Sun the Novice.”

The two demons obediently hurried off, unaware that Monkey had heard every single word. He spread his wings and flew till he caught up with Mountain Tiger and settled on him. After about a mile he was going to kill the pair of them when he reflected, “Killing them would be no problem, but I don't know where the old lady keeps her Dazzling Golden Cord. I'd better question them before killing them.”

Splendid Monkey! He flew buzzing away from the two little devils and let them get a good hundred paces ahead. He then changed himself with a shake into another little devil with a fox-skin cap and a tigerskin kilt worn upside-down, who hurried after them and called, “Wait a moment, travelers.”

Ocean Dragon looked back and asked, “Where are you from?”

“My dear brother,” Monkey replied, “don't you even recognize members of your own household?”

“You're not one of us,” said the little devils.

“What do you mean?” said Monkey. “Take another look and see if you can recognize me.”

“You're a stranger,” they replied, “and we've never met.”

“That's right,” Monkey said, “you've never met me. I'm one of the outside staff.”

“Well then,” the little devils replied, “we would never have met you, sir. Where are you going?”

“His Majesty told me,” Monkey said, “that he'd sent you two gentlemen to invite the old lady to a meal of the Tang Priest's flesh. You were to ask her to bring the Dazzling Golden Cord along to catch Sun the Novice. He's worried that you two would dawdle and misbehave yourselves and mess things up, so he sent me along too to hurry you up.” As he knew all the details the two little devils were not at all suspicious: they believed that Monkey really was one of them. They rushed along in a great hurry for about three miles.

“This is too fast,” said Monkey. “How far have we gone?”

“About five miles,” said the little devils.

“And how much further is there to go?”

“Just to the black wood over there,” said Ocean Dragon, pointing it out. Monkey looked up to see a dark stretch of woodland not far away. The old demon must live somewhere nearby, he thought; so he stopped to let the little devils get ahead of him, pulled out his cudgel, rushed after them; and took a swipe at their legs. Unfortunately he hit them so hard that he turned the two little devils into mincemeat.

He hid himself deep in the undergrowth beside the path, pulled out one of his hairs, blew on it, said “Change!” and turned it into Mountain Tiger. He turned himself into Ocean Dragon. Then the two imitation devils headed for the Crushed Dragon Cave to deliver the invitation to the old lady. Indeed:

Great are the powers of the seventy-two transformations;

Greatest of all is the art of improvisation.

With four or five bounds both of him was in the wood. He searched until he saw a pair of stone doors standing ajar. Not daring to charge in, he shouted, “Open the doors.”

The little she-devil on the doors was so startled that she opened one of them wide. “Where are you from?” she asked.

“We've been sent from the Lotus Flower Cave on Flat-top Mountain with an invitation for the old lady,” said Monkey, and the little she-devil invited both of him in. When he reached the inner doors he peeped round them and saw an old woman sitting in the middle of the cave. Do you know what she looked like?

A map of snow white hair,

Star-shining bright.

A ruddy, wrinkled countenance,

Few teeth, and a majestic manner.

She looked like a chrysanthemum amid the frost,

With a face the color of old pine-trees after rain.

A white silk scarf was wrapped around her head,

And jewels studded her golden ear-rings.

When Sun the Great Sage saw her he did not go in, but covered his face with his hands and started to sob outside the inner doors. Do you know why he was crying? Could it be because he was afraid of her? But even if he had been afraid, crying would have been no use. Besides, he had tricked them out of their treasures and killed the little demons, so what did he have to cry about? He had never shed a single tear the time when he had been put inside nine cauldrons and deep-fried in oil for eight or nine days on end.

It was only the thought of the Tang Priest's suffering in his quest for the scriptures that upset him so badly that he wept as he reflected thus: “I've used my powers to turn into a little demon and come with an invitation for this she-devil. It wouldn't do for me to stay upright when I talk to her: I'll have to kowtow to her. In my life I've only kowtowed to three people: Lord Buddha in the Western Heaven, Bodhisattva Guanyin in the Southern Ocean, and the Master-I kowtowed to him four times when he delivered me from the Double Boundary Mountain, and for him I'd wear out the six blades of my lungs and liver and the three hairs and seven apertures of my heart. But is it really worth banging my head on the ground before this she-devil for a roll of scripture? If I don't, I'll give the game away. This is terrible. I suppose it's only because the master is in trouble that I'll humiliate myself like this.” As he had no choice he rushed in, knelt down, and announced that he was kowtowing to the old lady.