“Again!” exclaimed Sanzang, to which Monkey replied, “Wait while I take another look.” Once more he buzzed over and squeezed inside, this time to find a little boy inside.
Splendid Monkey knew what to do. How true it is that few in the world can do improvised transformations, and hardly any as skillfully as he. He shook himself, turned into the exact image of the old Taoist, went into the chest and said “Disciple.”
“Where have you come from, master?” the boy asked him.
“I came by disappearing magic,” Monkey replied.
“What instructions do you have for me?” the boy asked.
“The Buddhist monk saw you getting into the chest,” said Monkey, “and if he says that there's a young Taoist in here we'll have lost. I've come here to work out a plan with you. We'll shave your head and guess that you're a Buddhist monk.”
“Do whatever you decide, master,” said the boy, “as long as we win. If we lose to him again our reputation will be ruined and the king will have no more respect for us.”
“You are right,” said Monkey. “Come here, my boy, and if we win I'll reward you richly.” He then turned his gold-banded cudgel into a razor, put his arms firmly round the boy, and said, “Put up with the pain, there's a good boy, and don't make a sound while I shave your head.” In an instant he had shaved off the boy's hair, which he stuffed into a ball and hid in a corner of the chest. Then he put the razor away and stroked the boy's shaven pate saying, “Your head looks like a Buddhist monk's now, my boy, but your clothes are wrong. Take them off and I'll transform them for you.”
The boy took off his greenish-white cloud-patterned crane cloak with embroidered brocade hems. Monkey blew on it with a magic breath, called “Change!” and turned it into a brown Buddhist monk's habit for the boy to put on. Monkey pulled out two more hairs and turned them into a wooden fish that he gave to the boy saying, “Listen carefully, disciple. Whatever happens don't come out when you hear a call of 'Taoist boy'. But when you hear someone say 'Buddhist monk,' lift the lid of the chest with your head, strike the wooden fish, and come out reciting a Buddhist surra. Do that and we will win.”
“But I can only recite the Classic of the Three Officials, the Classic of the Dipper, and the Classic of Elimination of Disaster,” said the boy, “I don't know any Buddhist scriptures.”
“Can you recite the name of a Buddha?” asked Monkey. “Anyone can recite 'Amitabha Buddha,'“ the boy replied.
“That'll have to do then,” said Monkey. “Recite the Buddha's name and save me the trouble of having to teach you a sutra. Remember what I've told you as I'm going now.” Monkey then turned back into the tiniest of insects, squeezed out, flew back to beside the Tang Priest's ear, and said, “Master, say that there's a Buddhist monk inside.”
“This time we are certain to win,” replied Sanzang.
“How can you be so sure?” Monkey asked.
“The sutras teach us that there are three treasures,” said Sanzang, “the Buddha, the Dharma and the Clergy; so a monk must count as a treasure.”
As Sanzang was saying this the Great Immortal Tiger Power said, “Your Majesty, this third time there is a Taoist boy inside.” Tiger Power called and called but the boy would not come out. Sanzang then put his hands together and said, “There is a monk inside.”
“There's a monk inside the chest,” shouted Pig at the top of his voice, at which the boy raised the lid of the chest with his head and stepped out, beating his wooden fish and repeating the name of the Buddha. The civil and military officials were so delighted that they all cheered; while the terrified Taoists were at a loss for words.
“This monk is being helped by gods and demons,” said the king. “How else could he have got into the chest as a Taoist boy and stepped out as a Buddhist monk? Even if a barber had got in with him he could only have shaved his head; but he's wearing a well-fitting habit and repeating the Buddha's name too. Teachers of the Nation, you must let those monks go.”
To this the Great Immortal Tiger Power replied, “Your Majesty, this is a case of a chess-player meeting his match, or a general coming up against a master strategist. We would like to try the martial arts we learned as boys in the Zhongnan Mountains against him.”
“What martial arts?” the king asked.
“We three brothers all have some divine powers,” Tiger Power replied. “We can put our head back on when they have been cut off; open up our chests, cut out our hearts, and make ourselves whole again; and take a bath in boiling oil.”
“But those are all certain death,” exclaimed the king in horror. “We have these powers,” said Tiger Power, “which is why I can give you a clear undertaking that we will not give up until we have been allowed a tournament with him.”
Monkey had just turned himself back into the tiniest of insects and gone over to investigate when he heard all this. Reverting to his real form he roared with laughter and said, “What luck, what marvellous luck. Business has brought itself to my front door.”
“But those are all ways of getting yourself killed,” said Pig. “How can you talk about business coming to your front door?”
“You still don't know my powers,” said Monkey.
“But all the transformations you can do are more than enough,” said Pig. “You can't have powers like that too.”
To this Monkey said,
“Cut off my head and I'll still go on talking,
Lop off my arms and I'll sock you another.
Chop off my legs and I'll carry on walking,
Carve up my guts and I'll put them together.
“When anyone makes a meat dumpling
I take it and down it in one.
To bath in hot oil is really quite nice,
A warm tub that makes all the dirt gone.”
When Pig and Friar Sand heard this they roared with laughter. Monkey then stepped forward and said, “Your Majesty, this humble monk can be beheaded.”
“What do you mean, you can be beheaded?” the king asked.
“When I was cultivating my conduct in the monastery many years ago,” Monkey replied, “a dhyana monk who came there taught me a method of being beheaded. I don't know if it's any good, and I'd like to try it out today.”
“That monk is too young to have any sense,” said the king with a smile. “Having your head cut off isn't something that you can try out for I fun. Your head is the chief of the Six Positives, and when it's cut off you're dead.”
“Your Majesty,” said the Great Immortal Tiger Power, “this is just the way I want him to act so that we can get our revenge on him.” Believing him, the foolish monarch ordered that a place for public execution be prepared.
As soon as the order was given, three thousand men of the royal guard were drawn up outside the palace gates. “The monk shall be beheaded first,” said the king. Monkey cheerfully agreed: “I'll go first, I'll go first.”
Then he put his hands together and shouted, “Teacher of the Nation, I hope you'll forgive my effrontery in going first.” Monkey then turned round and went outside.
“Be careful, disciple,” said Sanzang, catching hold of him as he passed, “this is no place for fooling about.”
“What's there to be afraid of?” said Monkey. “Stop holding me; let me go.”
The Great Sage went straight to the execution ground, where the executioners grabbed him and tied him up so that he was like a ball. When he was placed high on the earthen mound a shout of “Behead him!” was heard, and his head was cut off as the sword whistled down. The executioners then kicked it and sent it rolling thirty or forty paces away like a ripe watermelon. No blood came from Monkey's throat as a shout of “Come here, head” rose from his stomach.
The Great Immortal Tiger Power was so appalled by this display of magical skill that he said a spell and ordered the local deity, “Hold on to that head. When I've beaten this monk I shall request His Majesty to rebuild your little shrine as a big temple and replace your clay statue with a gold one.” Now the local deity was under Tiger Power's control because Tiger Power had the five-thunder magic, so he held Monkey's head down.