Wu Cheng-en - Journey to the West (vol. 2)

My people come from the Mount of Flowers and Fruit,

From the Water Curtain Cave in the middle of the sea.

Since childhood I have made my body indestructible;

The Jade Emperor created me Heaven-equaling Sage.

When I made havoc in the Dipper and Bull Palace

All the gods of Heaven were not enough to beat me.

The Buddha then was asked to use his great and subtle powers;

His infinite wisdom went beyond the mortal world.

When I matched my powers with his and made my somersaults

His hand turned to a mountain and crushed me underneath.

There I was kept for full five hundred years,

And only was released when converted by Guanyin

Because Sanzang was going to the Western Heaven

To seek the Buddha's words at distant Vulture Peak.

She freed me then to escort the holy monk,

To clear up all the monsters and purify my conduct.

Our journey led to Jisai in the regions of the West

Where there monkish generations have been cruelly mistreated.

When in our mercy we asked them what had happened

We learned that the pagoda no longer shone with light.

My master swept it clean to find out the reason.

In the deep silence of the night's third watch,

We captured the demons and extracted their confessions:

They said you were the thief who had stolen the great treasure,

Conspiring to be a robber with the ancient dragon king

And the princess who is also known as Infinitely Sage.

Your rain of blood washed out the pagoda's magic light

And you brought the treasure back to use it here yourselves.

The confession that they made was true in every detail,

And we have come here now on His Majesty's own orders.

That is why we looked for you and challenge you to battle:

Never will you need to ask my name again.

Give the king back his treasure this instant

If you want to save the lives of all members of your family.

Should you in your folly try to make resistance

Your pool will be dried out and your palace smashed to ruins.”

When the prince heard all this he replied with a touch of a mocking smile, “If you're monks going to fetch the scriptures you shouldn't be trumping up charges where it's none of your business. So what if I stole their treasure? You're going to fetch your Buddhist scriptures and it's nothing to do with you. Why are you here looking for a fight?”

“Thieving devil,” said Monkey, “you've got no idea of right and wrong. The king's done us no favours. We don't drink his kingdom's waters or eat its grain. We were under no obligation to do thing for him. But you have stolen his treasure, contaminated his pagoda, and brought years of misery to the monks in the Golden Light Monastery. They are our fellow believers, so of course we'll make an effort for them and right their wrong.”

“So it looks as though you want a fight,” said the prince. “As the saying goes, the warrior avoids unnecessary combat; but once I start there'll be no mercy, you'll be dead in next to no time, and that will be the end of going to fetch the scriptures.”

“Bloody thieving devil,” Monkey cursed back, “you must think you're quite a fighter, talking big like that. Come here and take this!” The prince was not flustered in the least as he blocked the cudgel with his crescent-bladed halberd. A fine battle ensued on the Ragged Rock Mountain.

Because the monster stole the treasure the pagoda was dark;

Monkey went to catch the demons for the sake of the king;

The little devils fled for their lives back into the water;

The ancient dragon took counsel in his terror.

Prince Ninehead showed his might

As he went out in armor to exercise his powers.

The angry Great Sage Equaling Heaven

Raised his gold-banded cudgel that was very hard Indeed:

In the monster's mine heads were eighteen eyes

Shining bright as they looked in all directions.

Monkey's iron arms were immensely strong

And auspicious lights glowed all around.

The halberd was like a new moon's crescent,

The cudgel like flying frost.

“Why don't you give up trying to right wrongs?”

“You were wrong to steal the pagoda's treasure.

Behave yourself, damned devil,

And give me back the treasure if you want to live.”

Cudgel and halberd fought for mastery:

Neither emerged as victor in the fight.

The two of them fought hard for over thirty rounds without either of them emerging as winner. Pig, who was standing on the mountain admiring the sweetness and beauty of their fight, raised his rake and brought down on the evil spirit from behind, Now the monster's nine heads all had eyes in them, and he could see Pig coming behind him very clearly, so he now used the butt-end of his halberd to block the rake while holding off the cudgel with the blade. He resisted for another six or seven rounds until he could hold out no longer against the weapons that were swinging at him from before and behind, when he rolled away and leapt up into the sky in his true form as a nine-headed bird. He looked thoroughly repulsive: the sight of him was enough to kill one with horror:

His body all covered in feathers and down,

His girth was some twelve feet measured around,

And he was as long as an old crocodile.

His two feet were as sharp as book-shaped blades,

And his nine heads were all set in a circle.

When he opened his wings he could fly superbly:

Not even the roc could match his great strength.

His voice could resound to the edge of the sky,

With an echo even louder than the call of the crane.

Bright flashed golden light from his many pairs of eyes;

His pride far outstripped that of ordinary birds.

The sight alarmed Pig, who said, “Brother, I've never seen anything as ugly in all my days. What sort of blood could that monstrous bird have been born of?”

“There's nothing like him,” Monkey replied, “nothing. I'm going up to kill him.” The splendid Great Sage then leapt up on his cloud into mid-air, where he struck at the monster's head with his cudgel. The monster now displayed the power of his body as he swooped down, his wings outspread, then turned with a roaring noise to come low over the mountain and shoot out from his waist another head with a mouth open wide like a bowl of blood. His beak gripped Pig's bristles at the first attempt, then he dragged Pig to the pool and pulled him in.

Once back outside the dragon palace he turned himself back into what he had been before, threw Pig to the ground, and said, “Where are you, little ones?”

Thereupon the mackerel, trout, carp, mandarin fish, hard and soft-shelled tortoises, and alligators, who were all armored demons, rushed forward with a shout of, “Here!”

“Take this monk and tie him up for me,” said the prince. “This will be revenge for our patrolling sentries.” Shouting and pushing, the spirits carried Pig inside, to the delight of the ancient dragon king, who came out to meet the prince with the words, “Congratulations, son-in-law. How did you catch him?” The prince then told him the whole story, after which the ancient dragon ordered a celebratory banquet, which we need not describe.

Instead the story tells how Monkey thought in terror after the evil spirit had captured Pig, “This monster is terrible. But if I go back to the court to see the master the king will probably laugh at me. But if I challenge him to battle again how will I deal with him single-handed? Besides, I'm not used to coping in water. I'll just have to turn myself into something to get inside and see what the evil spirit has done with Pig. If it's possible I'll sneak him out of there to help me.”

The splendid Great Sage then made magic with his fingers, shook himself, turned into a crab again, and plunged into the water till he was outside the archway again. He knew the way from when he had come here the previous time and stolen the Bull King's water-averting golden-eyed beast. When he reached the gateway to the palace he walked in sideways to see the ancient dragon king, the nine-headed monster and their whole family drinking together to celebrate. Not daring to go too close. Monkey crawled under the eaves of the Eastern verandah, where several shrimp and crab spirits were fooling around and amusing themselves. He listened to them for a while then said, imitating their way of talking, “Is the long-snouted monk the prince brought here dead or alive?”