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

For many years a guest beyond the world of things,

An eternal child amid the mountains,

Untouched by any speck of dust,

He let the years go tumbling by.

When this boy had come out he shouted, “Who's making that row out here?”

The Monkey King scampered down the tree, went up to him, and said with a bow, “Immortal child, I am a disciple who has come to ask about the Way and study under the Immortal. The last thing I'd do would be to make a row here?” The boy laughed.

“So you've come to ask about the Way, have you?”

“Yes,” the Monkey King replied.

“Our master has just got up,” the boy said, “and has now mounted the dais to expound the Way. Before he had started to explain about origins he told me to open the door. He said, 'There is someone outside who wants to cultivate his conduct. Go and welcome him.' I suppose he must have meant you.”

“Yes, he meant me,” the Monkey King said with a smile.

“Come with me,” the boy said.

The Monkey King straightened his clothes and followed the boy deep into the depths of the cave. He saw majestic pavilions and towers of red jade, pearl palaces and gateways of cowry, and countless rooms of silence and secluded cells leading all the way to a jasper dais. He saw the Patriarch Subhuti sitting on the dais and thirty-six minor Immortals standing below it.

A golden Immortal of great enlightenment, free from filth,

Subhuti, the marvel of the Western World.

Neither dying nor born, he practices the triple meditation,

His spirit and soul entirely benevolent.

In empty detachment he follows the changes;

Having found his true nature he lets it run free.

As eternal as Heaven, and majestic in body,

The great teacher of the Law is enlightened through aeons.

As soon as the Handsome Monkey King saw him he bowed low and knocked his head on the ground before him many times, saying, “Master, master, your disciple pays his deepest respects.”

“Where are you from?” the Patriarch asked. “You must tell me your name and address before you can become my pupil.”

“I come from the Water Curtain Cave in the Flowers and Fruit Mountain in the land of Aolai in the Eastern Continent of Superior Body,” replied the Monkey King.

“Throw him out,” the Patriarch roared. “He's a liar and a cheat, and even if he tried cultivating his conduct he would get nowhere.”

The Monkey King desperately kept hitting his head on the ground and said, “Your disciple spoke the truth. I promise I wasn't lying.”

The Patriarch asked, “If you were speaking the truth, why did you say that you came from the Eastern Continent of Superior Body? Between here and the Eastern Continent there are two seas and the Southern Jambu Continent, so how could you possibly have come here from there?”

The Monkey King, still kowtowing, replied, “I sailed across seas and oceans, crossed frontiers and wandered through many countries for over ten years before I arrived here.”

“So you came here by stages,” the Patriarch remarked. “What is your surname?”

“I'm not surly,” the Monkey King replied. “If people call me names it doesn't bother me, and if they hit me I don't get angry. I'm just polite to them and that's that. I've never been surly.”

“I didn't ask if you were surly. I wanted to know the surname you inherited from your parents.”

“I didn't have any parents,” the Monkey King replied.

“If you had no parents, did you grow on a tree?”

“I grew not on a tree but in a stone,” the Monkey King replied. “All I remember is that there was a magic stone on the top of the Flower and Fruit Mountain, and that one year the stone split open and I was born.”

Concealing his delight at searing this, the Patriarch remarked, “In other words, you were born of Heaven and Earth. Walk around for a moment and let me have a look at you.” The Monkey King leapt to his feet and shambled round a couple of times.

The Patriarch smiled and said, “Though you have rather a base sort of body, you look like one of the rhesus monkeys that eat pine seeds, and I ought to give you a surname that fits your appearance and call you Hu ('Macaque'). The elements that make up the character Hu are 'animal,' 'old' and 'moon'. What is old is ancient, and the moon embodies the Negative principle, and what is ancient and Negative cannot be transformed. But I think I would do much better to call you Sun ('Monkey'). Apart from the 'animal' element, the character Sun has one part implying male and one part suggesting a baby, which fits in with my basic theories about children. Your surname will be Sun.”

When the Monkey King heard this he kowtowed with delight and said, “Great! Great! Now I have a surname. I am eternally grateful to you for your mercy and compassion, master. I beg you to give me a personal name to go with my new surname, then it will be much easier to address me.”

“There are twelve words within my sect,” said the Patriarch, “which I give as names. You belong to the tenth generation of my disciples.”

“What are these twelve words?” asked the Monkey King.

“Broad, great, wisdom, intelligence, true, likeness, nature, sea, bright, awakened, complete and enlightenment. If we work out the generations of disciples, then you should have a name with Wu ('Awakened') in it. So we can give you the Dharma-name Sun Wukong, which means 'Monkey Awakened to Emptiness'. Will that do?”

“Marvellous, marvellous,” said the smiling Monkey King. “From now on my name will be Sun Wukong.” Indeed:

When the Great Vagueness was separated there were no surnames;

To smash foolish emptiness he had to be awakened to emptiness.

If you want to know what success he had in cultivating his conduct, you must listen to the explanation in the next installment.

He Becomes Aware of the Wonderful Truth of Enlightenment

By Killing the Demon He Realizes His Spirit-Nature

The story goes on to tell how after being given a name the Handsome Monkey King jumped for joy and bowed to Subhuti to express his thanks. The Patriarch then ordered the others to take Sun Wukong out through the double doors and teach him how to sprinkle and sweep the floor, answer orders, and deport himself properly. All the Immortals went out in obedience to this command. When Sun Wukong was outside the doors he bowed to all his spiritual elder brothers and laid out his bed on the verandah. The next morning and every following day he studied language and deportment under his spiritual elder brothers, expounded the scriptures, discussed the Way, practiced calligraphy, and burnt incense. When he had any spare time he would sweep the grounds, dig the vegetable patch, grow flowers, tend trees, look for kindling, light the fire, carry water, and fetch soy. Everything he needed was provided. Thus six or seven years slipped by in the cave without his noticing them. One day the Patriarch took his seat on the dais, called all the Immortals together, and began to explain the Great Way.

Heavenly flowers fell in profusion,

While golden lotuses burst forth from the earth.

Brilliantly he expounded the doctrine of the Three Vehicles,

Setting forth ten thousand Dharmas in all their details.

As he slowly waved his whisk, jewels fell from his mouth,

Echoing like thunder and shaking the Nine Heavens.

Now preaching the Way,

Now teaching meditation,

He showed that the Three Beliefs are basically the same.

In explaining a single word he brought one back to the truth,

And taught the secrets of avoiding birth and understanding one's nature.

As Monkey sat at the side listening to the exposition he was so delighted that he tugged at his ear, scratched his cheek and smiled. He could not help waving his hands and stamping. When the Patriarch noticed this he said to Monkey, “Why are you leaping around like a madman in class instead of listening to the lesson?”