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

It was now about four in the afternoon. The king was clinging to Sanzang, shivering and shaking as he kept saying, “Save me, holy monk!”

The consorts and queens were all in a panic as the Great Sage came down from the clouds with a cry of, “Here I am, Master!”

“Stand still, Wukong,” said Sanzang. “You must not alarm His Majesty. Now, I am asking you what in fact happened about the imitation princess.” Standing outside the Jay Palace, Monkey put his hands together in front of his chest and said, “The imitation princess was an evil spirit. First of all I fought her for half a day, and she couldn't beat me, so she turned into a pure wind and fled straight to the gates of heaven. I shouted to the gods to block her way. She turned back into her real self and fought another dozen or so rounds with me. Then she turned herself into golden light and fled due South to a mountain, beaten. I chased her as fast as I could till I got to the mountain, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Then I came back because I was worried she might come here to harm you.”

When the king heard this he grabbed hold of the Tang Priest and asked, “If the false princess was an evil spirit, where is my real princess?”

“When I've caught the false princess your real princess will turn up by herself,” Monkey replied straight away. When the queens and consorts heard this their fears vanished, and each of them came forward to bow and say, “We beg you to rescue our real princess, holy monk, and sort out the light from the dark. You will be richly rewarded.”

“This is no place for us to talk,” said Monkey. “I beg Your Majesty to go from the inner quarters to the throne hall with my master. Her Majesty and the rest of them should all go back to the inner palace, and my fellow-disciples Pig and Friar Sand should be sent for to protect my master so that I can go and subdue the demon. That will keep a proper distinction between the inner and outer quarters of the palace, and spare me from worrying. I am going to sort this out to show my sincerity.”

The king accepted the suggestion and was boundlessly grateful. He led the Tang Priest out of the inner quarters and straight to the throne hall. All the queens and consorts returned to the inner palace. A vegetarian meal was ordered while Pig and Friar Sand were sent for. The two of them soon arrived. Monkey explained to them both about what had happened and told them to guard the master carefully. The Great Sage set off by his cloud somersault and flew up into mid air. All the officials in front of the throne hall looked up into the sky and bowed low.

The Great Sage Monkey went straight to the mountain that lay due South. When the evil spirit had fled in defeat to the mountain and gone into her den she blocked the entrance with boulders and lay hidden there, terrified. Having looked around for a while and seen no sign of life Monkey felt very impatient, so he made a spell with his hands and said the magic words, calling out the local deity and mountain god to be questioned. A moment later the two gods arrived, kowtowed and said, “We didn't realize, we didn't realize. If we had known we'd have gone a long way to meet you. We beg you to forgive us.”

“I won't hit you just now,” Monkey said. “Tell me what this mountain's called. How many evil spirits are there here? Tell me the truth and I'll forgive you your crimes.”

“Great Sage,” the two gods replied, “this mountain is called Mount Hairtrip. There are three have warrens in the mountain, but from remote antiquity there have never been any evil spirits here. This is a blessed land of five felicities. Great Sage, if you want to find an evil spirit, take the road to the Western Heaven.”

“I've reached the kingdom of India in the Western Heaven, where the king has a princess who was carried off by an evil spirit and abandoned in the wilds. The evil spirit turned herself into the princess's double to deceive the king into building a decorated tower from which she could throw an embroidered ball to find herself a husband. When I got to the foot of the tower while escorting the Tang Priest she deliberately hit the Tang Priest because she wanted to mate with him and lure his primal masculinity out of him. When I saw through her I turned back into myself in the palace to catch her. She threw off her human clothes and jewels and fought with me for half a day with a short club that she called a medicine-pounding pestle. Then she turned herself into a pure wind and disappeared. When I chased her as far as the Western Gate of Heaven and fought another dozen or more with her she realized she couldn't beat me, turned herself into golden right and fled here. Why didn't you see her!”

When the two gods heard this they led Brother Monkey to search the three warrens. When they first looked by the warren at the foot of the mountain a few frightened hares were startled and ran away. When their search reached the cave at the top of the mountain they saw that the entrance was blocked with two great boulders.

“The evil spirit must have gone inside,” the local god said, “when you were chasing her so hard.”

Monkey then pried the boulders apart with his iron cudgel. The evil spirit, who was indeed hiding in there, sprang out with a whoosh, raising her medicine pestle to strike him with. As Monkey swung his cudgel to parry her blow the mountain deity fell back in terror and the local god fled.

From the demon's mouth came abusive grumbles: “Who told you to bring him here to find me?” She continued to fend off the iron cudgel as she fled up into mid air in a fighting retreat.

Just at the moment of crisis, when it was getting late in the day, Monkey became more vicious than ever and his blows were even harder. He wished he could finish her off with a single stroke. Just then a call came from the ninefold azure sky of, “Don't strike, Great Sage! Don't strike! Be kind with your cudgel.”

When Monkey turned round he saw that it was the Star Lord of the Moon leading his beauties and immortals down on multicolored clouds to stand in front of him. A flustered Monkey at once put his iron cudgel away, bowed and said, “Where are you going, Old Man? I'm sorry I didn't keep out of your way.”

“The evil spirit fighting you is the Jade Hare who pounds the immortal elixir of mysterious dew in my palace,” the Moon replied. “A year ago she secretly opened the golden locks on the jade gates and absconded from the palace. As I reckoned that she would be in mortal peril I have come here to save her life. I do beg you, Great Sage, to spare her life out of consideration for me.”

Monkey assented, saying only, “I wouldn't dare harm her, I wouldn't dare. No wonder she's so good with a medicine-pounding pestle. She's the Jade Hare. What you don't know, Old Moon, is that she has kidnapped the king of India's daughter, made herself into the princess's double, and wants to ruin my master's primal masculinity although he's a holy monk. This is the truth. We can't stand for crimes like that. How can you possibly let her off so lightly?”

“There are things you don't know,” the Moon replied. “That king's daughter is no ordinary mortal. She was the White Beauty from the Moon Palace. Eighteen years ago she slapped the Jade Hare, after which she longed for the human world and came down to it in a beam of magic light to the womb of the king's senior queen. She was born then. The Jade Hare was getting her own back for that slap when she ran away from the palace last year and threw White Beauty into the wilds. But she was wrong to want to marry the Tang Priest. That's an offence she mustn't get away with. It was a good thing you were careful enough to see through her before she ruined your master. But I plead with you to forgive her for my sake and let me take her back.”