“Do not be afraid,” she said. “I am here to capture this demon king. I want this whole area swept completely clean, with not a living creature left behind within a hundred miles of here. All the baby animals in their dens and fledglings in holes in the trees must be put on the top of this high crag for safety.” Obediently the demons withdrew, and soon they were all back. “Now that the place is clean, you may all return to your shrines,” said the Bodhisattva. She then turned her vase of purity upside-down, letting the water roar out with a noise like thunder. Indeed, it
Flowed down from the peak,
Smashed through the rocks.
Flowed down from the peak with the force of the sea,
Smashed through the rocks like a mighty ocean.
Black spray rose to the watery heavens,
Great waves coldly reflected the sun.
Jade waves smashed through crags,
While the sea was covered with golden lotuses.
Guanyin displayed her demon-quelling magic,
Producing a fixing dhyana from her sleeve.
She made the mountain a Potaraka Island,
Just like the one in the Southern Sea
Tall grew the rushes, and the epiphyllum tender,
Flowers were everywhere, and the pattra looked fresh.
Parrots perched in the purple bamboos,
And quails were calling amid the verdant pines.
Endless lines of waves as far as the eye could see,
And all that could be heard was the wind on the waters.
The Great Sage Monkey was full of silent admiration: “What great mercy and compassion. If I had that magic power I'd just have tipped the vase over, and to hell with the birds, beasts, reptiles and insects.”
“Stretch your hand out, Wukong,” said the Bodhisattva. Monkey at once neatened his clothes and put out his left hand. The Bodhisattva drew out her sprig of willow, moistened it in the sweet dew, and wrote “Confusion” on his palm. “Make a fist,” she old him, “and go to challenge the demon to battle. Let him beat you, then draw him back here. I have a Dharma power with which to subdue him.”
Monkey obediently took his cloud straight back to the cave entrance. Brandishing his cudgel with one hand and clenching the other into a fist, he shouted, “Open up, evil spirits.” The little devils scampered back inside to report, “Sun the Novice is here again.”
“Shut the doors tight and ignore him,” said the demon king.
“What a fine son you are,” shouted Monkey, “driving your own father out of doors and refusing to open the doors to him.”
“Sun the Novice is being very abusive,” the little devils came back in to report.
“Ignore him,” said the demon king. When the doors were still shut after he had called twice, Monkey grew very angry. He raised his iron cudgel and smashed a hole in them.
This threw the little devils into such a panic that they ran tumbling and stumbling in to say, “Sun the Novice has broken the doors down.”
Hearing that the outer doors had been broken down after all the earlier reports the demon king now leapt up and sprang outside brandishing his spear and flinging insults back at Monkey: “You ape, you have no sense at all. I let you off lightly, but you don't know when enough is enough. You're trying to bully me again. I'll make you pay for the crime of smashing down my doors.”
“What about your crime in driving your own father away?” retorted Monkey.
In his humiliation and anger the demon king thrust his spear at Brother Monkey's chest. Monkey parried this with his cudgel and hit back. Once they started they fought four or five rounds in which Monkey, one hand holding the cudgel and the other clenched in a fist, gave ground. “I'm going back to get the Tang Priest scrubbed and cleaned,” said the demon.
“You be careful, my boy,” said Monkey. “Heaven can see what you're doing. You come here.” This stung the demon king into an even greater fury. Running after Monkey he caught him up and took another thrust at him with his spear. Monkey swung back with his cudgel, and after a few more rounds ran away in defeat again. The demon king started to taunt him once more: “Last time you were good for twenty or thirty rounds. But now you're running away each time we fight. What's wrong with you?”
“My dear boy,” grinned Monkey, “your father's afraid you'll start that fire again.”
“I won't,” said the demon, “now, come here.”
“If you're not going to start a fire,” said Monkey, “let's move away from here. A tough guy doesn't attack people in front of his own door.” Not realizing that this was a trick, the evil spirit raised his spear and ran after him. Monkey trailed his cudgel and opened his other hand. The demon king then fell into confusion and chased Monkey for all he was worth. The quarry moved like a shooting star, and the pursuer like a bolt that had just been shot from a crossbow.
Before long Monkey saw the Bodhisattva. “Evil spirit,” he said to the demon, “I'm scared of you. Please spare me. I'm going to where the Bodhisattva Guanyin of the Southern Sea lives. You go home now.” The demon king was not going to believe this, so he gritted his teeth and continued the pursuit. With a shake of his body Monkey hid himself in the Bodhisattva's divine radiance.
Seeing that Monkey had disappeared, the evil spirit went up to the Bodhisattva, glared at her, and asked, “Are you reinforcements sent for by Monkey?” The Bodhisattva did not answer.
The demon king then twirled his spear and roared, “Hey! Are you reinforcements sent for by Monkey?” The Bodhisattva again did not answer.
The demon king then thrust his spear straight at the Bodhisattva's heart, at which she turned into a beam of golden light and rose straight up to the highest heavens. Monkey went up with her and complained, “Bodhisattva, you've tricked me again. Why did you act deaf and dumb and say nothing when that demon kept asking you? One thrust from his spear and you ran away. You've even ditched your lotus throne.”
“Keep quiet,” the Bodhisattva said, “and see what he does next.”
Monkey and Moksa stood next to each other up there watching while the demon said with a derisive jeer, “Insolent ape, you didn't know who you were up against. You didn't realize what sort of person I am. You fought me and lost several times, and then you sent for that putrid Bodhisattva. One thrust from my spear and she's disappeared. She's even left her lotus throne behind. Well, I'm going to sit on it now.” The evil spirit then sat cross-legged in the middle of the throne, imitating the Bodhisattva.
“That's just marvellous,” said Monkey. “Now you've given your lotus throne away.”
“What are you saying now, Wukong?” the Bodhisattva asked.
“What am I saying?” Monkey replied. “I'm saying you've given your lotus throne away. That fiend has just sat himself down on it. Would you care to get it back?”
“But I want him to sit on it,” the Bodhisattva said. “He's so small he'll sit on it much more safely than you did,” Monkey replied.
“Stop talking,” said the Bodhisattva, “and watch the power of the Dharma.”
She pointed downwards with her sprig of willow and called. “Turn back.” The colours and auspicious glow of the lotus sea all disappeared, leaving the demon king sitting on the points of swords. “Drive the swords in by hitting their handles with the demon-quelling pestle,” she ordered Moksa.
Moksa then took his cloud straight down and struck over a thousand times with the demon-quelling pestle as if he were ramming down earth to build a wall. The demon was now pouring with blood from his open wounds as the points of two swords both came out through his thighs. Watch the demon as he grits his teeth against the agony. Throwing his spear down he pulled furiously at the swords.