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

Taizong arranged for a court to be held at midday and sent Wei Zheng with a decree summoning Xuanzang to attend. He found the monastic official assembling the monks as he climbed the rostrum for the chanting of surras and gathas. The moment he heard the decree he came down from the rostrum, tidied his clothes, and went with Wei Zheng to the imperial presence.

“Up till now we have had nothing suitable with which to thank you, Your Grace, for your efforts in acquiring merit. This morning Xiao Yu met two monks who have vowed to give you a precious brocade cassock and a nine-ringed monk's staff. We have therefore sent for you, Master, to come and receive them,” said the Emperor. Xuanzang kowtowed in thanks.

“If you do not reject it, Your Grace, let us see what it looks like on you.” Xuanzang shook it open, draped it across his shoulders, took the staff in his hand, and stood respectfully before the steps of the throne. The monarch and all his ministers were overjoyed. He truly was a son of the Tathagata. Look at him:

How elegant his imposing features;

His Buddha-vestments fit as if they had been made for him.

The glow radiating from them fills Heaven and Earth,

While the colours crystallize in the sky.

Rows of gleaming pearls above and below,

Layers of golden threads joining front and back.

A hood edged with brocade,

Embroidered with ten thousand strange designs.

Patterns of the Eight Treasures hold the threads of the buttons,

While the golden collar is fastened with catches of velvet.

The Buddha-Heavens are set out in order of eminence,

While to left and right are the high and humble stars.

Great is the destiny of Xuanzang Master of the Law,

Who is worthy to accept this gift at present.

He is just like a living Arhat,

Excelling the Enlightened One of the West.

On the monkish staff the nine rings clink,

And richly glows the Vairocana miter.

How true that be is a Buddha's son;

It is no lie that he has surpassed enlightenment.

All the civil and military officials cried out with admiration, and the Emperor was delighted. Telling the Master of the Law to put the cassock on properly and take the staff, he granted him two bands of ceremonial attendants and had a host of officials see him out of the palace and walk with him to his monastery. It was just like the procession for a top graduate in the palace examination. Xuanzang bowed once more to thank the Emperor and then set out, striding majestically along the highway. All the travelling merchants, the shop-keepers, the fashionable young men, the professional scribes, the men and women, young and old, in the city of Chang'an fought to get a look at him and praise him.

“What a splendid Master of the Law,” they said. “He's an Arhat come down to earth, a living Bodhisattva come to see us mortals.” Xuanzang went straight to his monastery, where all the monks left their places of meditation to welcome him. When they saw the cassock he was wearing and the staff in his hand they all said that King Ksitigarbha had come, did homage to him, and stood in attendance to right and left. Ascending the main hall, Xuanzang burned incense and worshipped Buddha, and when he had given an account of the Emperor's grade they all returned to their seats for meditation. Nobody noticed that the red wheel of the sun was now sinking in the West.

As the sun sinks, plants and trees are veiled in mist

While the capital echoes to the bell and drum.

After three chimes of the bell nobody moves:

The streets throughout the city are still.

The monastery gleams with the light of its lamps;

The village is lonely and silent.

The Chan monks enter the trance and repair damaged sutras.

A good way to purify oneself of evil and nourish the true nature.

Time passed in the snap of a finger, and it was time for the special assembly on the seventh day, so Xuanzang wrote a memorial inviting the Tang Emperor to come and burn incense. His reputation for piety had now spread throughout the empire. Taizong therefore led a large number of civil and military officials and his empresses, consorts and their families to the monastery in a procession of carriages to the temple early that morning. Everyone in the city, whether young or old, humble or mighty, went to the temple to hear the preaching.

The Bodhisattva said to Moksa, “Today is a special day of the Great Mass of Land and Water, which will go on from this first seventh day to the seventh seventh day, as is proper. You and I are going to mingle with the crowds for three reasons: to see the service, to see the Golden Cicada enjoying the blessing of wearing our treasure, and to hear what branch of the scriptures he preaches on.” The pair of them went to the temple. They were fated to meet their old acquaintance, just as the Wisdom returned to its own preaching place. When they went inside the monastery they saw that this great and heavenly dynasty surpassed any other in the world; while the Jetavana Monastery and Sravana were no match for this temple. Sacred music sounded clear above the shouting of Buddha names. When the Bodhisattva approached the preaching dais she saw in Xuanzang the likeness of the wise Golden Cicada. As the poem goes:

Pure in every image, free of every speck of dirt,

The great Xuanzang sat on his lofty dais.

The lonely souls who have been delivered come in secret,

While the well-born arrive to hear the law.

Great is his wisdom in choosing suitable methods;

All his life he has opened the doors of the scriptures.

As they watch him preach the infinite Law,

The ears of young and old alike are filled with joy.

As Guanyin went to the temple preaching hall

She met an old acquaintance who was no common mortal.

He spoke about every current matter,

And mentioned the achievements of many a mortal era.

The clouds of the Dharma settle over every mountain,

The net of the teaching spreads right across the sky.

If one counts the number of pious thoughts among humans

They are as plentiful as raindrops on red blossom.

On his dais the Master of the Law read through the Sutra to Give Life and Deliver the Dead, discussed the Heavenly Charm to Protect the Country and preached on the Exhortation to Cultivate Merit. The Bodhisattva went up to the dais, hit it, and shouted out at the top of her voice, “Why are you only talking about the doctrine of the Little Vehicle, monk? Can you preach about the Great Vehicle?”

On hearing these questions a delighted Xuanzang leapt down from the preaching dais, bowed to the Bodhisattva, and said, “Venerable teacher, your disciple has sinned grievously in failing to recognize you. We monks who stand before you only preach the law of the Little Vehicle, and we know nothing of the doctrine of the Great Vehicle.”

“That doctrine of the Little Vehicle of yours will never bring the dead to rebirth; it's only good enough for a vulgar sort of enlightenment. Now I have the Three Stores of the Buddha's Law of the Great Vehicle that will raise the dead up to Heaven, deliver sufferers from their torments, and free souls from the eternal coming and going.”

As the Bodhisattva was talking, the Master of Incense, an official who patrolled the temple, made an urgent report to the Tang Emperor that just when the Master of the Law was in the middle of preaching the wonderful Law a pair of scabby itinerant monks had dragged him down and were engaging him in wild argument. The Emperor ordered them to be arrested and brought before him, and a crowd of men hustled the two of them into the rear hall of the monastery.

When they saw Taizong they neither raised their hands in greeting nor bowed, but looked him in the eye and said, “What does Your Majesty want to ask us about.”