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

When the trident came the cudgel parried,

When the cudgel struck the trident blocked.

One was supreme commander of the mountain,

The other was the Handsome Monkey King, Protector of the Law.

At first they fought in the dust,

But then they rose into mid-air.

The steel-tipped trident

Was bright-pointed and deadly sharp;

The As-You-Will cudgel

Was black and banded with gold.

Whoever was run through would go to the Underworld;

If either was hit he would surely meet King Yama.

All depended on a fast hand and a quick eye;

Strength and vigor were essential.

Each was mindless of life or death,

Who would survive, and who would be killed?

After some thirty rounds of combat between the old fiend and the Great Sage the issue was still not settled. As Monkey wanted to win glory he used an “extra body” trick: plucking a hair out, he chewed it into little bits, blew them all out, and shouted, “Change!” They turned into well over a hundred Monkeys, all dressed like him and wielding iron cudgels. They surrounded the monster in mid-air, and in his fright he countered with a trick of his own. He turned his head sharply to the Southeast opened his mouth three times, and blew. A yellow hurricane suddenly arose. It was really terrible.

As it howled and moaned all was changed;

Without sign or shadow the yellow dust whirled,

Whistling through forests, toppling mountains, and uprooting trees,

Picking up dust to blot out the tumbling ridge.

The Yellow River's waters were all in turmoil,

While the Yangtse's waves were blown backwards.

The Polar palace was rocked in the sky,

The Senluo Palace in the Underworld was all but blown down.

Heaven was filled with the shouting of Arhats,

The Eight Great Vajrapanis were all yelling wildly.

Manjusri's black-coated lion fled,

Samantabhadra's white elephant was nowhere to be found.

The True Martial Emperor's tortoise and snake were missing,

Zi Tong's mule was blown away by its saddle-cloth.

Travelling merchants called on Heaven,

Boatmen made vows to the gods as they sought safety.

Lives were washed away in the torrent,

Fortune or death was decided by the waters.

The cave palace on the magic mountain was murky dark,

And Penglai, island of joy, was wrapped in gloom.

Lao Zi could hardly manage to look after his furnace,

The Star of Longevity put away his fan of dragon's beard grass.

The Queen Mother, on her way to a Peach Banquet,

Had the pendants at her waist blown in a tangle.

Erlang could not find his city of Guanzhou;

Nezha could scarcely draw his sword from its scabbard.

Heavenly King Li lost sight of the pagoda in his hand,

Lu Ban the carpenter dropped his gold-tipped awl.

Three stories of the pagoda at Thunder Monastery fell,

And the stone bridge at Zhaozhou collapsed.

The red wheel of the sun sent out no light,

And all the stars in the sky were dimmed.

The birds of the Southern hills were carried to the North,

The waters of the East lake flowed to the West.

Husband was parted from wife,

Mother snatched from child.

The dragon king searched the seas for his yakshas,

The thunder god hunted everywhere for his lightning.

The Ten Kings of hell looked for the judge,

While the bull-headed demons searched for the horse-faced.

This hurricane overturned Potaraka Island,

Rolling up all of Guanyin's scriptures.

The white lotus went flying beyond the seas,

And the twelve courts of the Bodhisattva were all blown down.

Pan Gu, who had seen all winds since creation,

Had never seen one as fine as this,

Howl, howl-

As mountains and seas trembled,

Heaven and Earth were all but blasted asunder.

The hurricane that the monster had summoned up made all the little Monkeys that the Great Sage had produced from his hair whirl round in mid-air like so many spinning-wheels, and, far from being able to use their cudgels, they could not even control their own bodies. At this critical moment Monkey shook his hair and put it back on his body, then advanced to give battle with his iron cudgel held high. The monster blew another yellow hurricane at him, and it was so strong that Monkey had to shut his fiery eyes with their golden pupils tight. Opening them was out of the question. Unable to use his iron cudgel, he had to flee from the scene of battle, at which the monster put his wind away and went back to his cave.

When Pig saw the great yellow hurricane blow up and cast Heaven and Earth into darkness, he held on to the horse and kept a grip on the carrying pole while he crouched in the hollow on the mountain side, not daring to open his eyes or raise his head as he invoked the Buddha and made all sorts of vows to him. He did not know whether Monkey had won or lost, or whether their master was still alive. As he worried about all this the wind died down and the sky became clear again. He raised his head to look towards the entrance of the cave, but he could neither see any weapons nor hear any gongs or drums. The idiot did not want to get any nearer to those gates, and there was nobody else to look after the horse and the baggage, so he was stuck there, not knowing what to do, and feeling miserable. His gloomy thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Monkey shouting to the West of him. Pig half rose to his feet to welcome him and said, “That was quite a wind, elder brother. Where've you been?”

“That was terrible,” said Monkey, “Never in my life have I known such a hurricane. That old fiend came out to fight me with a steel trident, and after we'd been at it for thirty rounds I used my extra body trick to surround him. This made him so worried that he deliberately summoned up the wind. It was really vicious-it blew so hard I couldn't stand my ground, so I had to put my tricks away and clear out. What a wind, what a wind! I can call up wind or rain, but I've never produced anything as vicious as his.”

“Can that evil monster fight well?” Pig asked.

“He's not bad at all,” Monkey replied, “and he has a very neat way with this trident. We were evenly matched, apart from that foul wind, which makes him unbeatable.”

“Then how are we going to rescue our master?” Pig asked.

“His rescue will have to wait,” Monkey replied. “I wonder if there's an oculist near here to treat my eyes.”

“What's happened to them?” Pig asked.

“When that monster blew his wind at me,” said Monkey, “it made my eyes very sore, and they keep on watering.”

“We're halfway up a mountain, and night's falling,” said Pig. “Never mind about an oculist, there's nowhere for us to shelter for the night.”

“There's no problem about shelter,” Monkey replied. “I don't think that evil spirit will dare to do our master any harm, so let's find the main path and look for a house to stay in tonight. We can come back here at first light to subdue that fiend.”

“Very well, very well,” Pig replied.

Leading the horse and carrying the baggage, they came out of the hollow and went along the path. The dusk was gradually deepening when they heard dogs barking under a hill to the South of the path. They stopped to look and saw a farmhouse with a lamp shining brightly in its window. The pair of them stopped bothering to look for the path and cut straight through the grass to the gate. They saw

Dark magic fungus,

Greeny white rocks.

The magic fungus was dark among the many herbs,

The white rocks were green with moss.

Some tiny fireflies made dots of light

Against the dense ranks of the forest trees.

Heavy was the fragrance of the orchid,

And the tender bamboo had been newly cut.