“I remember,” he said, “you used to cultivate your conduct with Guanyin of the Southern Sea in the Purple Bamboo Grove. Why have you come here?”
“Can't you see my teacher standing there on the bank?”
When the ogre heard this he chanted “na-a-aw” several times to show his respect, withdrew his pole and let Moksa seize it. Then he bowed to Guanyin and said, “Forgive me, Bodhisattva, and listen to what I have to tell you. I am not a demon, but the Curtain Raising General who used to stand in attendance by the imperial chariot in the Hall of Miraculous Mist. Just because I accidentally smashed a crystal dish at a Peach Banquet the Jade Emperor had me given eight hundred strokes of the rod, exiled me to the lower world, and made me look like this. And on top of it all every seven days he sends a flying sword here to stab my chest over a hundred times before it goes back again. It's agony. I get so unbearably cold and hungry that I have to emerge from the waves every two or three days to devour a traveler. I never thought that in my ignorance I would insult the merciful Bodhisattva today.”
“You were exiled here for a crime against Heaven, but now you are deepening your guilt by harming living beings. I am now going to the East on the Buddha's orders to find the man who will fetch the scriptures. Why don't you become one of us and ensure yourself good retribution in future by accompanying the pilgrim as a disciple and ascending to the Western Heaven to pay homage to the Buddha and seek the scriptures? I will see to it that the flying sword stops coming to pierce you, and when you are successful you will be forgiven your crimes and your old job will be given back to you. What do you think of that?”
“I am willing to return to the truth,” the ogre replied, then went closer as he continued, “Bodhisattva, I have lost count of the number of people I have eaten here, and I have even devoured some pilgrims who were trying to fetch scriptures. I throw the heads of all my victims into the river, and they all sink to the bottom as not even goose-down will float on this water. But the skeletons of those nine pilgrims floated and would not sink. I was so impressed by this that I threaded them together with rope and play with them in my spare time. But I am afraid that the man who is to fetch the scriptures may not get this far, which would wreck my future.”
“Of course he'll get here,” the Bodhisattva replied. “You should hang those skeletons from your head and wait for him. They will come in useful.”
“In that case,” the ogre said, “I shall await your instructions.” The Bodhisattva then laid her hands on his head and administered the monastic rules to him, chose for him the surname Sha (“Sand") and gave him the Buddhist name of Wujing (“Awakened to Purity"). Then he entered monkish life and took the Bodhisattva across the river. He washed his heart, cleansed his thoughts, and stopped killing living creatures. All he did now was to wait for the pilgrim who would come to fetch the scriptures.
After leaving him the Bodhisattva and Huian hurried on towards the East. When they had been travelling for a long time they saw a high mountain veiled with an evil mist, and they were unable to climb it on foot. Just when they were intending to cross the mountain by cloud, a gale wind blew up and a monster suddenly appeared. He too was very menacing to behold:
His entrails hung from his mouth, rolled up and knotted;
His ears were like rush fans, his eyes shone gold.
His teeth were sharp as steel files,
And when he opened his mouth it was like a brazier.
His golden helmet was tied firmly round his cheeks;
His armour, bound with a silken sash, was a python's sloughed-off skin.
In his hands he held a nailed rake like a dragon's claw,
At his waist hung a curved bow the shape of a half-moon.
His martial might overawed the Year Planet;
His overweening spirit threatened the heavenly gods.
He rushed upon them, and without a second thought smote at the Bodhisattva with his rake. Moksa the Novice parried his blow, and shouted at the top of his voice, “Remember your manners, damned monster, and watch out for my staff.”
“Monk,” the other replied, “you don't know how to keep yourself in one piece. Mind my rake!” At the foot of the mountain the pair of them rushed upon each other as they struggled for supremacy. It was a fine battle:
The fierce and murderous ogre;
Huian, imposing and able.
The iron staff could pulverize the heart;
The rake struck at the face.
The dust thrown up darkened Heaven and Earth;
The flying sand and stones startled gods and ghouls.
The nine-toothed rake
Gleamed and flashed
As its pair of rings resounded;
The lone staff
Was ominously black
As it whirled in its owner's hands.
One was the heir of a Heavenly King,
One defended the Law on Potaraka Island.
The other was an evil fiend in a mountain cave.
In their battle for mastery,
None knew who the winner would be.
Just when the fight was getting really good, Guanyin threw down a lotus flower from mid-air to separate the two weapons. The monster, shocked at the sight of it, asked, “Where are you from, monk? How dare you try to fool me with a 'flower in front of the eyes?'”
“I'll get you, you stinking, flesh-eyed mortal,” replied Moksa. “I am a disciple of the Bodhisattva of the Southern Sea, and this lotus was thrown down by her. Don't you know that?”
“By the Bodhisattva of the Southern Sea do you mean Guanyin Who Eliminates the Three Calamities and Saves from the Eight Disasters?” the monster asked.
“Who else could I mean?” retorted Moksa. The monster threw down his rake, bowed to him, and asked, “Where is the Bodhisattva, elder brother? May I trouble you to introduce me?” Moksa looked up and pointed.
“There she is,” he said. The monster kowtowed to her and shouted in a shrill voice, “Forgive me, Bodhisattva, forgive me.” Guanyin brought her cloud down to earth, went over to him and asked, “Are you a wild boar become a devil or a pig turned monster? How dare you block my way?”
“I'm neither a wild boar nor a pig,” the monster replied. “I used to be Marshal Tian Peng in the Milky Way. Because I took some wine to seduce the moon maiden, the Jade Emperor sentenced me to two thousand hammer blows and exile in the mortal world. My spirit had to find a womb to occupy, but I lost my way and entered the womb of a sow. That's why I look like this. I ate up my sow mother, drove all the other pigs away, and seized this mountain, where I keep myself by eating people. I never meant to offend you, Bodhisattva. Save me, save me, I beg you.”
“What is this mountain called?” the Bodhisattva asked.
“It's called the Mount of Blessing, and the cave in it is called the Cloud Pathway Cave. Second Sister Luan, who used to live there, saw that I knew how to fight and asked me to be the head of her household as her husband, but she died within a year and all her property became mine. As the days lengthened into years I found that I had no way of supporting myself, so I had to eat people to keep myself going as I had done before. Forgive me my sins, I beg of you, Bodhisattva.”
“There is an old saying,” the Bodhisattva replied, “that goes, 'If you want to have a future, don't do anything with no future in it?' You broke the law in the upper world, and since then your vicious nature has not been reformed. You have further sinned by taking life, so this surely means that you will be doubly punished.”
“Future!” said the monster angrily. “According to you I should have lived on air! As the saying goes, 'By the government's law you're beaten to death, and by the Buddha's law you starve to death.' Clear off! Clear off! If you don't I'll capture this pilgrim and eat this plump and tender old woman. I don't give a hoot if it's double sinning, triple sinning, or sinning a thousand or ten thousand times over.”