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

Sanzang was delighted, and when Pig and Friar Sand saw Monkey bowing to him they kowtowed too and said, “Master, we're stupid and too awkward with words to be able to explain things properly. Please take your dharma seat and let each of us take a pupil. It'll be fun, and something to remind us of our journey West.” Sanzang was happy to agree.

Monkey then took the three young princes into a quiet room behind the pavilion where he drew a star-chart of the Dipper and told them to prostrate themselves inside it while they shut their eyes and settled their spirits. Meanwhile he silently said the words of the spell, recited a mantra, and blew magic breath into the hearts of the three of them. He put their primal spirits back into their original home, taught them magical spells, gave each of them immense strength, applied the right heat, and performed a magic that replaced their old bodies and bones with new ones. After the heat circulated in a roundabout way through their bodies the three young princes came to, stood up, rubbed their faces, summoned up their spirits, and all found that they were much stronger. The eldest of them could pick up the gold-banded cudgel, the second could swing the nine-toothed rake, and the third could raise the demon-quelling staff.

When the king saw this he was beside himself with delight, and arranged another vegetarian feast for the Tang Priest and his three disciples. In front of the banquet each of the princes was taught his own skill: the one who was learning the rod practised with the rod, the one who was learning the rake practised with the rake, and the one who was learning the staff practised with the staff. Though the young princes did manage a few turns and movements it took a lot of effort, and going through a series of movements left them gasping for breath, so that they could not go on. Besides this, the weapons they were using had the power of transformation, so that as the princes advanced, retreated, attacked and lifted the weapons shrunk, grew and went through amazing changes by themselves. But the princes were, after all, only mortals, and were unable to keep up with the speed of their weapons. Later that day the banquet came to an end.

The next day the three princes came back once more to express their thanks and say, “We are very grateful to you, divine teachers, for giving us this strength, but when we try to spin your divine weapons around we can only move them with great difficulty. We would like to get smiths to make lighter copies of them, but we don't know whether you would agree to that, Teachers.”

“Great, great,” said Pig. “That's the way to talk. You ought to have your own made because you can't use our weapons, and anyhow we need them to protect the Dharma and beat monsters.” The princes then sent for smiths who bought ten thousand pounds of iron and steel, set up a workshop with a furnace in the front courtyard of the prince's palace, and began to cast the weapons. On the first day the steel was made, and on the second Monkey and the other two were asked to bring out their gold-banded cudgel, nine-toothed rake and demon-quelling staff and put them under the matting shelter to be copied. The work went on by night and day without stopping.

These weapons were the treasures they always carried with them that they could not be parted from for a moment. Normally they hid them about their persons. Now the weapons were protected by coloured light, so that when they were put in the yard of the workshop for several days many beams of radiance reached up to the heavens, while every kind of auspicious vapor blanketed the earth. That night an evil spirit, who was sitting out on a night watch in a cave called Tigermouth Cave on a mountain called Mount Leopard Head that was only some twenty-five miles from the city, noticed the glow and the auspicious vapors.

Going up on his cloud to investigate he saw that the light came from the city, whereupon he brought his cloud down and went closer for a better look. Discovering that the light was coming from the weapons, he thought with delight and desire, “What wonderful weapons, what splendid treasures. I wonder whose they are and why they've been left here. This must be my lucky chance. I'll take them, I'll take them.” His covetousness now moved, he created a mighty wind, scooped up all three weapons and took them back to his cave. Indeed:

Not for one moment must the Way be left;

What can be left is not the true Way.

Cultivation and trance will both be in vain

When divine arms have been taken away.

If you do not know how these weapons were found, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

The Tawny Lion Spirit Arranges a Rake Feast in Vain

Metal, Wood and Earth Make Havoc on Mount Leopard Head

The story tells how after days on end of hard work the smiths all went to sleep that night, only to get up at dawn to start again and find that the three weapons had disappeared from under the matting shelter. Dumbfounded with horror, they started looking for them everywhere, and when the three young princes came out of the inner quarters to watch, the smiths all kowtowed to them and said, “Young masters, we don't know where the divine teachers' three weapons have all gone.”

When the young princes heard this news they trembled and said, “We expect our masters put them away last night.” Rushing to the Gauze Pavilion, they found the white horse still tethered in the walkway and could not help shouting, “Teachers, are you still asleep?”

“We're up,” Friar Sand replied, and opened the door of their room to let the young princes in.

When they saw that the weapons were not there they asked with alarm, “Masters, have you put your weapons away?”

“No,” replied Monkey, springing up.

“The three weapons disappeared during the night,” the princes explained.

“Is my rake still there?” Pig asked as he scrambled to his feet.

“When we came out a moment ago we saw everyone searching for them,” the princes replied. “When they couldn't find them we wondered if you had put them away, which is why we came to ask. As your treasures can shrink or grow we wonder if you've hidden them about yourselves to play a trick on us.”

“Honestly, we haven't,” said Monkey. “Let's all join the search.”

When they went to the matting shelter in the yard and could see that there really was no sign of the weapons Pig said, “You smiths must have stolen them. Bring'em out at once. Do it right now or I'll kill you. I'll kill you, I say.”

The smiths kowtowed desperately and said with tears pouring down their faces, “Your Lordships, we went to sleep last night because we'd been working so hard for days on end. When we got up this morning they'd gone. We're only ordinary mortals. We could never have moved them. Spare our lives, Your Lordships, spare our lives.”

Monkey said with bitter regret, “It's our fault. After we'd shown them what they look like to copy we should have kept them on us instead of leaving them lying there. I suppose our treasures' glowing clouds and light must have alerted some monster who came and stole them during the night.”

“Nonsense, brother,” Pig replied. “This is a peaceful, orderly sort of place, not somewhere in the wilds or the mountains. No monsters could possibly have come here. I'm sure it was those evil smiths who stole our weapons. They could tell they were treasures from the light shining from them. They must have left the palace last night and got a whole gang together to carry or drag them out. Bring'em here! I'm going to hit them.” The smiths kowtowed and swore to their innocence for all they were worth.

Amid all this commotion the senior prince came out, and when he asked what had happened the color drained from his face too. After muttering to himself in a low voice for a while he said, “Divine teachers, your weapons were not mere mortals' ones. Even if there had been a hundred or more people they would never have been able to move them. Besides, my family has been ruling this city for five generations. I'm not boasting, but I do have a certain reputation for being a good man. The soldiers, civilians and artisans who live here fear my laws, and I am certain that they could never have had so wicked an idea. I hope that you divine teachers will think again.”