“I wish to see the Jade Emperor,” said the Bodhisattva, “so may I trouble you to inform him on my behalf?” The heavenly teacher Qui Hongji then went to the Hall of Miraculous Mist, and the Bodhisattva was invited in. She found that Lord Lao Zi was there in the place of honour, and that the Queen Mother was behind him.
The Bodhisattva went in at the head of the others, and when she had done obeisance to the Jade Emperor she greeted Lao Zi and the Queen Mother. After they had all sat down she asked what had happened at the Peach Banquet.
“The banquet is held every year, and it is normally a very happy occasion,” the Jade Emperor replied, “but this year that monkey fiend wrecked it, so that your invitation was worth nothing.”
“Where does this monkey fiend come from?” asked the Bodhisattva.
“He was born from a stone egg on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit in the land of Aolai in the Eastern Continent of Superior Body,” the Jade Emperor answered. “When he was born golden beams flashed from his eyes that reached to the star palace. At first we paid no attention to him, but later on he became a spirit, subduing dragons and tigers, and erasing his own name from the registers of death. The Dragon Kings and King Yama of the underworld informed us of this in memorials, and we wanted to capture him, but the Star of Longevity memorialized that in the Three Worlds all beings with nine orifices can become Immortals. We therefore extended education to the worthy by summoning him to the upper world and appointing him Protector of the Horses in the Imperial Stable. But this was not good enough for the scoundrel, who rebelled against Heaven. We sent Heavenly King Li and Prince Nezha to accept his surrender, extended him an amnesty, and summoned him back to the upper world. We made him a 'Great Sage Equaling Heaven,' though this carried no salary. As he had nothing to do he would go wandering all over the place, and for fear that this might lead to trouble we had him look after the Peach Orchard. Once again he flouted the law by stealing and eating every single one of the big peaches from the old trees. When the banquet was to be held he was not invited as his position was purely an honorary one; so he played a trick on the Bare-foot Immortal, went to the banquet looking like him, ate all the immortal delicacies, and drank all the immortal liquor. On top of this he stole Lord Lao Zi's pills of immortality and some imperial liquor, which he took to his mountain for the monkeys to enjoy. This made us very angry so we sent a hundred thousand heavenly troops to spread heaven-and-earth nets and subdue him. But we have received no reports today, so we do not know whether we have been victorious.”
When the Bodhisattva heard this she said to Huian the Novice, “Hurry down from Heaven to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and find out about the military situation. If you meet with any opposition you may do your bit to help, but the important thing is to bring an accurate report back.” Huian the Novice straightened his robes, took his iron staff, left the palace by cloud, and went straight to the mountain. He saw that with the layer upon layer of heaven-and-earth nets, and the men holding bells and shouting passwords at the gates of the camp, the cordon round the mountain was watertight.
Huian stopped and called, “Heavenly soldiers at the gates of the camp, I would trouble you to report that I, Moksa, the second son of Heavenly King Li, also known as Huian, the senior disciple of Guanyin of the Southern Sea, have come to ask about the military situation.” Then the divine soldiers of the Five Mountains inside the camp went in through the gates of the headquarters, where the Rat, the Cock, the Horse and the Hare stars reported the news to the commander of the central corps. Heavenly King Li sent a flag of command with the order that the heaven-and-earth nets were to be opened to let Huian in. The East was just beginning to grow light as Huian followed the flag in and bowed to Heavenly King Li and the four other heavenly kings.
“Where have you come from, my son?” asked Heavenly King Li.
“Your stupid son accompanied the Bodhisattva to the Peach Banquet, and when she found the banquet deserted and nobody at the Jade Pool, she took me and the other Immortals to see the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor told her that you, father, and the other kings had gone down to the lower world to capture this monkey fiend. As the Jade Emperor has received no news all day on the outcome of the battle, the Bodhisattva sent me here to find out what has happened.”
“We arrived here and encamped yesterday,” Heavenly King Li replied, “then sent the Nine Bright Shiners to challenge the enemy to battle, but that wretch used such tremendous magic powers that the Nine Bright Shiners all came back defeated. Then we led out own soldiers into action, and the wretch also drew up his line of battle. Our hundred thousand heavenly soldiers fought an indecisive engagements with him till dusk when he used a spell to divide up his body and force us back. When we withdrew our forces and held an investigation, we found that we had only captured wolves, tigers, leopards, and so on, and had not even taken half a monkey fiend. We have not yet given battle today.”
Before he had finished speaking someone appeared outside the gates of the headquarters to report that the Great Sage was outside at the head of a crowd of monkey spirits, clamoring for battle. The four other Heavenly Kings, Heavenly King Li, and Prince Nezha were all for committing their forces, but Moksa said, “Father, when your stupid son was instructed by the Bodhisattva to come here and find out the news, I was also told that if there was a battle I could do my bit to help. May I please go and see what sort of a 'Great Sage' he is, untalented though I am?”
“My boy,” said Heavenly King Li, “you have been cultivating your conduct with the Bodhisattva for some years now so I suppose that you must have acquired some magic powers, but do be very careful.”
The splendid Prince Moksa hitched up his embroidered robes and charged out through the gates of the headquarters waving his iron staff with both hands. “Which of you is the Great Sage Equaling Heaven?” he shouted.
“I am,” answered the Great Sage, brandishing his As-You-Will cudgel. “But who do you think you are, asking a question like that?”
“I am Prince Moksa, the second son of Heavenly King Li, and I am now a disciple and a guard before the throne of the Bodhisattva Guanyin. My Buddhist name is Huian.”
“Why have you come here to see me instead of staying in the Southern Sea and cultivating your conduct?” asked the Great Sage, and Moksa replied, “My teacher sent me here to find out about the military situation, but now that I've seen your savagery I've come to capture you.”
“You talk big, don't you,” said the Great Sage.
“Well then, don't go away, try a taste of my cudgel.” Moksa, not in the least frightened, struck at him with his iron staff. It was a fine fight they fought, half-way up the mountainside outside the gates of the headquarters.
The staves were matched, but made of different iron;
The weapons clashed, but their masters were not the same.
One was a wayward Immortal known as the Great Sage,
The other a true dragon disciple of Guanyin.
The cast-iron staff, beaten with a thousand hammers,
Had been forged by the art of the Ding and the Jia.
The As-You-Will cudgel once anchored the Milky Way:
As the Treasure Stilling the Sea its magic power was great.