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

The demon, refusing to believe a word of this, raised his fire-tipped spear to thrust at Monkey. With the unhurried ease of a true expert Monkey avoided the spear-thrust, swung his iron cudgel, and insulted him: “You don't know when you're out-classed, you little demon. Take this!”

The evil spirit also moved out of the way and said, “Times have changed and you've been left behind, vicious ape. Take this!” There was no more talk of their kinship as the pair of them showed their magic powers in great anger. They leapt into mid-air, and it was a fine duel:

Monkey was very famous,

The demon king was powerful.

One held a gold-banded cudgel before him,

The other thrust with a fire-tipped spear.

The fogs they breathed out darkened the three worlds;

They snorted out clouds that covered the four quarters.

It was a day of terror and of murderous shouts,

When sun, moon and stars could not be seen.

In speech neither yielded an inch;

Both were unreasonable by nature.

One was a discourteous bully,

The other forgot the obligations of kinship.

The parrying cudgel made one mightier;

The thrusting spear showed the other's savagery.

One was a true Great Sage from Primal Chaos,

The other was the page Sudhana.

The pair of them strove for supremacy,

All because the Tang Priest would worship the Buddha.

While the evil spirit fought twenty rounds with Monkey without result Pig could see clearly from the sidelines that although the demon had not been defeated he was only holding Monkey at bay and had no hope of making an attack on him. And although Monkey had not yet beaten the demon, he was wielding his cudgel with such consummate skill that he kept striking at the demon's head without ever missing his aim.

“This is no good,” thought Pig. “Monkey's a slippery customer, and if he shows the monster an opening and gets the demon to charge, Monkey'll finish him off with one blow of his cudgel and there'll be no glory for me.” Watch Pig as he summons up his spirit, raises the nine-pronged rake, and brings it down from mid-air towards the demon's head. This gave the demon so bad a fright that he fled in defeat.

“After him,” shouted Monkey, “after him.”

The pair of them chased him to the mouth of the cave, where the demon stood on the middle one of the five little carts, brandishing his fire-tipped spear with one hand, and clenching the other into a fist with which he punched himself twice on the nose. “Shameless thing,” laughed Pig, “punching yourself on the nose to make it bleed, then wiping the blood all over your face. Are you going to bring a lawsuit against us?”

But when the demon hit his nose twice he also said a spell and breathed out fire, while he snorted thick clouds of smoke from his nose. In the wink of an eye flames were everywhere. Fire poured from the five carts. After the demon had blown a few more times a great fire was leaping up to the sky, blotting out the Fire-cloud Cave. Heaven and earth were both engulfed in the blaze. “Brother,” said Pig in horror, “this is terrible. Once in that fire that would be the end of you. I'd be baked, and he'd only need to add a few spices to make a meal of me. Let's get out of here.” At that he fled back across the ravine, ignoring Monkey.

Monkey's magical powers really were very great. Making a fire avoidance spell with his fingers he plunged into the flames in pursuit of the demon. Seeing Monkey coming after him the demon breathed out yet more fire, which was even worse than ever. That fire

Fiercely blazing filled the sky,

Covered the earth with a terrible red,

Flew up and down like a fire-wheel,

Danced East and West like sparks.

This was not the fire of the Firemaker rubbing wood,

Or of Lao Zi heating his elixir furnace,

Not a heavenly fire,

Or a prairie fire,

But the True Samadhi Fire the demon had refined.

The five carts combined the Five Elements,

And the fire was formed from their transformations.

The wood of the liver can make the heart fire blaze;

The fire of the heart can settle the spleen's earth.

Spleen's earth gives rise to metal, which turns to water,

And water gives birth to wood, completing the magic cycle.

To fire are due all births and transformations;

It makes all things to flourish throughout space.

The evil spirit had long learned to breathe Samadhi Fire;

He was for ever the first lord of the West.

Monkey could not find the monster amid the raging flames, or even see the way to the mouth of the cave, so he sprang back out of the fire. The demon, who could see all this clearly from the entrance to the cave, put his fire-making equipment away when he knew Monkey had gone, led his devilish horde back inside the cave, and shut the stone doors. He felt he had won a victory, so he told his underlings to lay on a banquet. There was music and much rejoicing, of which we will not speak.

Instead we return to Monkey, who had leapt back across the Withered Pine Ravine and brought his cloud down to land where he could hear Pig and Friar Sand talking loudly and clearly among the pines.

He went up to them and shouted at Pig, “You're no man, you cretin. You were so scared of the demon's fire that you ditched me and fled for your life. But I've long had a trick or two up my sleeve.”

“Brother,” laughed Pig, “that monster was quite right when he said that you're not up to it any more. As the old saying goes,

Only the man who can meet today's need

May be acclaimed as a hero Indeed:

That demon was no relation of yours, but you tried to force him to take you for one; and when it came to a fight he set off all that terrible fire. Instead of running away are you going to get stuck into another fight with him?”

“How do the monster's fighting powers compare with mine?” Monkey asked.

“He's no match for you,” said Pig.

“What's he like with his spear?”

“No good either,” replied Pig. “When I saw that he was barely holding out I took a swipe at him to help you. He wouldn't play and ran away. Then he cheated and set that fire going.”

“You shouldn't have come,” said Monkey. “It would be best if I had a few more rounds with him and caught him a crafty one with my cudgel!” The two of them then fell to discussing the demon's skill and his terrible fire while Friar Sand leaned against a pine trunk, grinning broadly.

“What are you grinning at, brother,” asked Monkey when he noticed. “Don't tell me you've got some power with which to capture the demon and defeat his magic fire. If you had, you'd be helping all of us. As the saying goes, 'many hands make light work.' If you can capture the demon and rescue the master you'll have something very fine to your credit.”

“I've got no magic powers,” said Friar Sand, “and I can't subdue demons. I was just smiling at the way you two were getting so desperate.”

“What do you mean?” Monkey asked.

“The demon's no match for either you in magic or at fighting,” said Friar Sand. “The only reason you can't beat him is because of his fire. If you took my advice you could catch him easily by using the principle of the elements overcoming each other.”

At this Monkey chuckled aloud and said, “You're right. We were so desperate we forgot about that. On the principle of the elements overcoming each other we'll have to beat fire with water. The question is, where do we get the water to put that fire out and rescue the master?”

“Yes,” said Friar Sand, “and we mustn't waste any time.”

“You two stay here,” said Monkey, “but don't get into a fight with him. I'll go and borrow some dragon soldiers from the Eastern Ocean to bring water to douse the devil fire.”