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

If I whisper to him warmly on the pillow

He pleads old age and says the urge is lost.”

At this the crown prince broke away from his mother's embrace and remounted his horse. “What's up, child?” the queen asked, holding on to him. “Why are you off before we've even finished our conversation?”

The prince then knelt before her and said, “I hardly dare tell you, Mother. When I went out hunting this morning with the falcons and hounds His Majesty kindly lent me I happened to meet a holy monk who was on his way to fetch the scriptures. His senior disciple is Sun the Novice, or Brother Sun. He is very good at exorcising demons. It appears that His Majesty my father is dead in the eight-sided well with glazed tiles in the palace gardens, and that the wizard turned himself into my father's double in order to usurp the throne. In the middle of last night my father came to him in a dream. He asked the priest to come here to capture the fiend. I came to ask you that question because I couldn't quite bring myself to believe them. From what you have just told me, Mother, I'm now sure he is an evil spirit.”

“You shouldn't believe what strangers tell you, my son,” said the queen.

“I wouldn't have believed him at all,” replied the crown prince, “except that His Majesty my father left proof with him.” When the queen asked what it was, the prince produced the gold-bordered white jade scepter from his sleeve and handed it to her. The queen saw it and recognized it as the king's treasure. She could not hold back her tears.

“My lord,” she cried out, “why did you never come to me in the three years since you died? Why did you appear to the holy monk and then to the prince first?”

“What do you mean, Mother?” the prince asked.

“My child,” said the queen, “I too had a dream in the small hours of the morning. I saw your father standing soaking wet in front of me. He told me himself that he had been killed and that his ghost had called on the Tang Priest to ask him to capture the impostor on the throne and rescue him. I can remember him saying all this, but only very vaguely. I was just wondering about it when you came, asked that question, and showed me the scepter. I'll keep it, and you go and ask that holy monk to be as quick as possible. Then the evil mists can be swept away, truth can be separated from falsehood, and you can repay His Majesty your father for his kindness in raising you.”

The prince quickly remounted and went out through the back gate of the palace to get away from the city. Indeed:

With tears in his eyes he took leave of his mother;

Bowed down with grief he returned to Sanzang.

He was soon out of the city and back at the gate of the Precious Wood Monastery, where he dismounted amid the greetings of the whole army. It was now almost sunset. The crown prince ordered that the soldiers were to make no unnecessary movements. He then went back into the monastery, neatened up his clothes, and went to pay his respects to Brother Monkey just as he was swaggering out of the main hall.

The prince fell to his knees and said, “Master, I'm back.”

Monkey went over to him to raise him to his feet and said, “Please get up. Who did you question when you went into town?”

“I questioned my mother,” the crown prince replied, going on to tell him everything that had happened.

Monkey grinned slightly as he said, “If he's that cold he must be a transformation of something icy. Never mind. It doesn't matter. I'll wipe him out for you. The only trouble is that it's a bit late to do anything today. Go back now and wait till I come to see you tomorrow.”

The prince knelt down again, kowtowed and said, “Let me stay here to be at your beck and call till I go in with you tomorrow.”

“No,” said Monkey, “that would be no good. If we two went into town together the fiend would have his suspicions. He wouldn't think that I'd just met you by chance. He'd say that you'd asked me to come, and then be angry with you.”

“But-he's going to be angry with me anyhow if I go back to the city now,” replied the prince.

“Why?” asked Monkey.

“Because I'll have no way to face him when I go back without having caught a single thing after taking out so many men, horses, falcons and hounds on his orders this morning,” said the prince. “If he punishes me for incompetence I'll be thrown into jail and you'll have nobody to help you when you go into town tomorrow. And in this whole force there isn't a single friend of mine.”

“No problem,” said Monkey. “If you'd told me earlier I'd have a good bag ready for you now.”

Splendid Great Sage. Watch him as he shows off his powers in front of the prince, leaping up into the clouds with a single bound, making the magic with his fingers, and saying the esoteric words, “Om ram Pure Dharma World.”

He made the mountain gods and local deities of the place bow to him in mid-air and say, “Great Sage, what orders do you have for us humble deities?”

To this Brother Monkey replied, “I've escorted the Tang Priest this far and now I want to capture a demon. The trouble is that the crown prince has caught nothing on his hunt, so he doesn't dare return to the palace. I'd like to ask a favour of you all. Will you fetch some river-deer, antelopes, deer, hares, other birds and beasts to send him back with?” None of the mountain gods or local deities dared not to accept this order.

When they asked how many of each were wanted the Great Sage replied, “It doesn't matter. Just get some.”

The gods then mustered their invisible soldiers and made a magical animal-gathering wind blow. They caught hundreds and thousands of pheasants, deer, antelopes, river-deer, foxes, badgers, raccoon dogs, hares, tigers, leopards and wolves, which they presented to Monkey.

“I don't want them,” he said. “I'd like you to hamstring them and set them out on both sides of the fifteen miles of the road back so that the hunters can take them to the capital without having to use their falcons or hounds. That will redound to your credit.” The gods did as they were told, put their magic wind away, and set the prey out beside the road.

Only then did Brother Monkey bring his cloud down to land and say to the prince, “You may go back now, Your Highness. Your bag is set out by the road for you to collect.” After the mid-air display of Monkey's amazing powers the prince was utterly convinced that this had happened, so he could but kowtow and take his leave. He then went out of the monastery and ordered the soldiers back to the city. There were indeed no end of wild animals by the road that the soldiers could catch with their bare hands, not needing the falcons or dogs. They all cheered the prince and said that this was due to his very good luck, not realizing that it was Monkey's magical achievement. Just listen to the triumphant songs as they swarm back to the capital.

Monkey, meanwhile, was guarding Sanzang. Seeing how well the two of them were getting on with the prince, the monks of the monastery had to treat them with great respect. They provided them with vegetarian meals and looked after the Tang Priest, who was still resting in the meditation hall. For nearly a whole watch, or about two hours, Monkey was too troubled to sleep.

He jumped up, went over to the Tang priest's bed and called, “Master.”

Sanzang was still awake too, but he pretended to be asleep because he knew that Monkey was someone who caused alarms and trouble. So Monkey rubbed Sanzang's shaven pate and shouted wildly, “Why are you asleep, Master?”

“Wicked creature,” said the Tang Priest angrily, “what are you shouting for at this time of night when you ought to be asleep?”

“But Master,” said Monkey, “there's something I want to talk about with you.”