Then he led his forces charging into the cave, where they exterminated all the demons, big and small. He shook his hair and put it back on his body. The monkeys who did not go back on his body were the little monkeys the demon king had carried off from the Water Curtain Cave. Sun Wukong asked them how they had got there.
There were thirty of forty of them, and they replied with tears in their eyes, “It was after Your Majesty went off to become an Immortal. He has been fighting with us for the last two years. He brought us all here by force. All the things here-the stone bowls and plates-were stolen from our cave by that beast.”
“If it's our stuff, take it all out,” said Sun Wukong. He then set fire to the Cave in the Belly of the Water and burnt it to a cinder.
“Come back with me,” he ordered the monkeys.
“Your Majesty,” they replied, “when we came here all we could hear was the wind howling in our ears as it blew us here, so we don't know the way. How are we ever going to get back?”
“There's nothing at all to that spell he used,” said Sun Wukong. “I can do it too, as now I only have to know the smallest bit about something to understand it completely. Shut your eyes and don't worry.”
Splendid Monkey King. He recited a spell, took them riding on a hurricane, then brought the cloud down to the ground.
“Open your eyes and look, children,” he shouted. As soon as the monkeys' feet touched the ground they recognized their home. In their delight they all ran along the familiar path to the cave, and the monkeys who had stayed in the cave all crowded in as well. They divided themselves into age-groups and bowed in homage to the Monkey King. Wine and food was laid out to celebrate, and they asked him how he had defeated the demon king and saved their children. When Sun Wukong had told them the whole story the monkeys were full of admiration.
“Where did you learn such arts, Your Majesty?” they asked insistently.
“When I left you,” Sun Wukong replied, “I followed the waves and the currents, and drifted across the Eastern Ocean to the Southern Jambu Continent. Here I taught myself to take human form and to wear these clothes and boots. I swaggered around for eight or nine years, but I never found the Way, so I sailed across the Western Ocean to the Western Continent of Cattle-gift. After long enquiries I was lucky enough to meet a venerable Immortal, who taught me the True Result, which makes me as immortal as heaven, and the great Dharma Gate to eternal youth.” The monkeys all congratulated him and exclaimed that his like could not be found in a billion years.
Sun Wukong laughed and said, “Children, we should congratulate ourselves on having a surname.”
“What is Your Majesty's surname?” the monkey masses asked.
“My surname is now Sun, and my Buddhist name is Wukong.”
The monkeys all clapped their hands with joy and said, “Your Majesty is Old Sun, and we are Second Sun, Third Sun, Thin Sun, Little Sun-a family of Suns, a nation of Suns, a den of Suns.” They all offered Old Sun their respects, with big plates and small bowls of coconut toddy, grape wine, magic flowers, and magic fruit. The whole household was happy. My word!
By uniting themselves with a single surname
They are waiting to be transferred to the Register of Immortals.
If you don't know how this ended and want to know about the rest of their lives there, then listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 3
The Four Seas and Thousand Mountains All Submit
In the Ninth Hell the Tenth Category Is Struck Off the Register
We have related how the Handsome Monkey King returned home in glory, bringing a large sword he had captured when he killed the Demon King of Confusion. From then on they practiced the military arts every day. He asked the little monkeys to cut down bamboo to make spears, carve swords out of wood, and learn to use banners and whistles. They learned to advance and retreat, and build a camp with a stockade round it. They spent a lot of time playing at this.
Once Sun Wukong was sitting in his seat of meditation when he wondered: “What would happen to us if our games were taken for the real thing? What if it alarmed some human monarch or gave offence to some king of birds or beasts? They might say that we were having military training for a rebellion, and attack us with their armies. You would be no match for them with your bamboo spears and wooden swords. We must have really sharp swords and halberds. What are we to do about it?”
When the monkeys heard this they all said with alarm, “Your Majesty has great foresight, but there's nowhere we can get them.” When it was the turn of four older monkeys to speak-two bare-bottomed apes and two gibbons-they came forward and said, “Your Majesty, if you want sharp weapons they can be very easily obtained.”
“How could it be easy?” asked Sun Wukong.
“To the East of our mountain,” they replied, “there is a lake some seventy miles wide that is the boundary of the country of Aolai. That country has a princely capital, and huge numbers of soldiers and civilians live in the city. It must have workshops for gold, silver, bronze and iron. If you went there, Your Majesty, you could either buy arms or get them made; then you could train us to use them in the defense of our mountain. This would give us long-term security.” Sun Wukong was delighted with the suggestion.
“Wait here while I go there,” he said.
Splendid Monkey King! He leapt on to his somersault cloud, crossed the seventy miles of lake, and saw that on the other side there was indeed a city wall, a moat, streets, markets, ten thousand houses, a thousand gates, and people coming and going in the sunlight.
“There must be ready-made weapons here,” Sun Wukong thought, “and getting a few by magic would be much better than buying them.” So he made a magic with his fist and said the words of the spell, sucked in some air from the Southeast, and blew it hard out again. It turned into a terrifying gale carrying sand and stones with it.
Where the thunderclouds rise the elements are in chaos;
Black fogs thick with dust cloak the earth in darkness.
Boiling rivers and seas terrify the crabs and fish;
As trees are snapped off in mountain forests tigers and wolves flee.
No business is done in any branch of commerce;
And no one is working at any kind of trade.
In the palace the king has gone to his inner quarters;
And the officials in front of the steps have returned to their offices.
The thrones of princes are all blown over;
Towers of five phoenixes are shaken to their foundations.
Where the storm blew, the prince of Aolai fled in terror, and gates and doors were shut in the streets and markets. Nobody dared to move outside. Sun Wukong landed his cloud and rushed straight through the gates of the palace to the arsenal and the military stores, opened the doors, and saw countless weapons: swords, pikes, sabres, halberds, battleaxes, bills, scimitars, maces, tridents, clubs, bows, crossbows, forks, and spears were all there.
At the sight of them he said happily, “How many of these could I carry by myself? I'd better use the magic for dividing up my body.”
Splendid Monkey King. He plucked a hair from his body, chewed it up, spat it out, made the magic with his fist, said the words of the spell, and shouted “Change!” It turned into hundreds and thousands of little monkeys, who rushed wildly about grabbing weapons. The strong ones took six or seven each and the weaker ones two or three, and between them they removed the lot. He climbed back up on the clouds, called up a gale by magic, and took all the little monkeys home with him.