Wu Cheng-en - Journey to the West (vol. 3)

Threads of silver grew in his mane;

In his tail hung strands of jade.

Forget about Eight Chargers and dragon steeds;

This was steadier than the great Sushuang;

Its bones alone would have sold for a thousand ounces of silver;

It could gallop after the wind for three thousand miles.

When it climbed a mountain it merged into the clouds;

As it neighed at the moon it was as white as snow.

It was truly a dragon from an ocean island,

A unicorn of Jade in the human world.

The commander-in-chief rode the white horse instead of his own steed as he led his men back into the city. The trunk was carried to his headquarters, where he and the East city commissioner sealed it with strips of paper on which they wrote and set a guard over it till morning, when they would submit a memorial to the king and request a decision on what to do with it. After that the other troops were dismissed.

The story now tells how the venerable Tang Priest was grumbling at Monkey inside the chest. “Ape,” he said, “you've killed me this time. If I had been arrested outside and taken to the king of Dharmadestructia I might well have been able to put up a good argument in my defense. But now I am here, locked in this trunk. I have been carried off by bandits and recaptured by the army. When we are shown to the king tomorrow we will be all ready for him to put to the sword and make up his ten thousand.”

“There are people outside!” exclaimed Monkey. “If they open the trunk and take you out you'll either be tied up or hung up. If you don't want to be tied or strung up you'd better show a little patience. When we're taken to see this deluded king tomorrow I'll definitely be able to talk my way out of things. I guarantee that not one hair of yours will be harmed. So stop worrying and go back to sleep.”

In the third watch Monkey used one of his magic powers. Slipping his cudgel out he blew on it with a magic breath, called “Change!” and turned it into a triple auger with which he drilled two or three holes near the bottom of the chest, forming a single larger hole. He put the auger away, shook himself, turned into an ant and crawled out. Then he turned back into himself and rode his cloud straight to the palace gates. The king was fast asleep at the time, so Monkey used his Great All powerful Body-dividing Magic.

Plucking all the hairs out of his left arm he blew on them with a magic breath, called “Change!” and turned them into little Monkeys. Then he pulled all the hairs out from his right arm, blew on them with a magic breath, called “Change!” and turned them into sleep-insects. Next he recited the magic word Om and told the local deity of the place to take the little Monkeys to distribute them throughout the palace to all the officials in every office and department of government. Each holder of official rank was given a sleep-insect to ensure that he or she would sleep soundly and not get up. Monkey then took his gold-banded cudgel in his hands, squeezed it, waved it, called, “Change, treasure!” and turned it into over a thousand razors of the sort used for shaving the head. Taking one himself, he told all the little monkeys to take one each and shave the heads of everyone in the inner quarters of the palace and in all the government departments and offices. This was indeed a case of:

When the Dharma king would destroy it the Dharma is infinite;

The Dharma runs through heaven and earth, opening the Great Way.

The origins of ten thousand Dharmas all come down to one;

The features of the Three Vehicles are basically the same.

He bored through the trunk to find out the news,

Distributed his golden hairs to smash delusion,

Determined to bring the Dharma king to the true achievement,

To the eternal emptiness of what is not born and dies not.

That night the head-shaving was completed, so Monkey said another spell to dismiss the local deity, shook himself to bring all the hairs back to his arms, then touched all the razors to turn them back into their true form as the gold-banded cudgel, which he made much smaller and hid in his ear again. Finally he reverted to being an ant, crawled back into the trunk, and went on guarding the Tang Priest in his time of danger.

When the palace ladies in the inner quarters got up to wash and do their hair before dawn the next morning they all found that their hair had gone. The same had happened to all the eunuchs, senior and junior, who moved around the palace. They all crowded to the outside of the royal bedchamber, where they played music to wake the king up, all holding back their tears but not daring to speak. Before long the queen in the palace woke up to find her hair gone too. When she hurried with lanterns to the dragon bed she found a monk sleeping in the brocade quilt, at which she could restrain her tongue no longer, thus awakening the king.

When the king suddenly opened his eyes wide and saw the queen's bald head he got straight out of bed and said, “Why are you like that, my queen?”

“You're the same, Your Majesty,” she replied. The king then rubbed his head, which gave him such a fright that the three souls in his body groaned, and his seven spirits flew off into the air.

“What has happened to me?” he exclaimed.

Just when he was in this panicky state the royal consorts, the palace ladies and the eunuchs young and old all fell to their knees, their heads shaved bald, and said, “Lord, we have all been turned into monks.”

At the sight of them the king wept. “We think this must be because of all the monks we have killed,” he said. He then gave these orders: “None of you are to say anything about the loss of our hair as, if you do, the civil and military officials may slander our country and say that it has been badly governed. Let us now hold court in the throne hall.”

Now all the officials high and low in all the departments and offices of government went to court to pay their respects before dawn. As it turned out, all these men had lost their hair in the night too, and they all submitted memorials reporting the fact. All that could be heard was:

The whip of silence sounding three times at the royal audience;

As all report that their heads have now been shaved.

If you do not know what happened to the booty in the trunk that the commander-in-chief had recaptured and whether the Tang Priest and his three disciples were to live or die, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

The Mind-ape is jealous of the Mother of Wood

The Demon Chief Plots to Devour the Master of Dhyana

The story tells how when the king held his dawn audience the civil and military officials all carried memorials. “Sovereign Lord,” they reported, “we beg you to forgive your servants for their lack of decorum.”

“Gentlemen,” the king replied, “you are all as courteous as ever. What lack of decorum are you showing?”

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “we do not know why, but all of your servants lost their hair last night.” Holding in his hand these memorials about the lost hair, the king descended from his dragon throne to say to the officials, “Indeed, we do not know why either, but everyone in the palace, young and old, lost their hair last night.”

King and ministers alike all wept as they said, “From now on we will not dare kill any more monks.” The king then returned to his throne and the officials took their places in their proper ranks. The king then said, “Let those with business here come forward from their ranks to report. If there is no other business the curtain may be rolled up and the audience ended.”

The commander-in-chief of the capital's garrison then moved forward from the ranks of military officials and the East city commissioner moved forward from the ranks of the civil officials to kowtow at the steps of the throne and report, “We were patrolling the city on Your Majesty's orders last night when we recaptured a trunk of bandits' booty and a white horse. As we do not dare take unauthorized action over these we beg Your Majesty to issue an edict.” The king was delighted.