The towering peak rose high;
In the earth it occupied
Its ranges spread afar.
What blocked the sun
Was the ridge dark with pines;
Where clouds were made
Was among the boulders glistening underneath the scar.
The dark pines
Were green throughout all seasons;
The glistening boulders
Would never change in many a thousand years.
Apes could often be heard howling in the night,
And evil pythons would often cross the deep ravines.
On the mountains birds sang sweetly
While the wild beasts roared.
Mountain roebuck and deer
Moved around in many a pair.
Mountain magpies and crows
Flew in dense flocks.
There was no end of mountain flowers in sight,
While mountain peaches and other fruit gleamed in season.
Steep it was, and the going impossible,
But this was still a place where evil immortals could live in retirement.
The Great Sage gazed with unbounded delight and was just about to look for the entrance to the cave when flames leapt out from a mountain hollow. In an instant the red fire blazed to the heavens, and from the flames there poured out evil smoke that was even more terrible than the fire. What splendid smoke! This is what could be seen:
The fire glared with a myriad golden lamps;
The flames leapt in a thousand crimson rainbows.
The smoke was not a stove chimney's smoke,
Nor the smoke of grass or wood,
But smoke of many colours,
Blue, red, white, black and yellow.
It blackened the columns outside the Southern Gate of Heaven,
Scorched the roofbeams in the Hall of Miraculous Mist.
It burned so hard that
Wild beasts in their dens were cooked through, skins and all,
And the forest birds lost all their plumage.
At the mere sight of this appalling smoke he wondered
How the demon king could be captured in the mountain.
Just as the Great Sage was transfixed with terror a sandstorm burst out of the mountain. What magnificent sand! It blotted out the sun and the sky. Look:
Swirling masses of it filled the sky,
Dark and turbid as it covered the earth.
The fine grains blinded the people everywhere,
While bigger cinders filled the valleys like rolling sesame seeds.
Immortal boys collecting herbs lost their companions;
Woodmen gathering firewood could not find their way home.
Even if you were holding a bright-shining pearl
It still would have blown too hard for you to see.
Monkey had been so absorbed in enjoying the view that he did not notice the sand and cinders flying into his nose till it started tickling. Giving two great sneezes he stretched his hand out behind him, felt for two pebbles at the foot of a cliff and blocked his nostrils with them, then shook himself and turned into a fire-grabbing sparrowhawk that flew straight in among the flames and smoke, made a few swoops, and at once stopped the sand and cinders and put out the fires. He quickly turned back into himself, landed, and looked around again. This time he heard a banging and a clanging like a copper gong.
“I've come the wrong way,” he said to himself. “This is no den of demons. The gong sounds like an official messenger's gong. This must be the main road to some country, and that I must be an official messenger on his way to deliver some document. I'll go and question him.”
As Monkey went along what looked like a young demon appeared. He was holding a yellow flag, carrying a document on his back and beating a gong as he hurried along so fast he was almost flying. “So this is the so-and-so who was beating that gong,” Monkey said. “I wonder what document he's delivering. I'll ask him.”
The splendid Great Sage shook himself and turned into a grasshopper that lightly flew over and alighted on his document bag. Here Monkey could hear the evil spirit talking garrulously to himself as he beat the gong. “Our king is thoroughly vicious. Three years ago he took the Golden Queen from the Kingdom of Purpuria, but fate's been against him and he hasn't been able to get his hands on her. The poor palace ladies he took had to suffer on her behalf. He killed two of them who came, then the next four. He demanded them the year before last, last year and earlier this year. When he sent for two more this time he found his match. The vanguard warrior who went to demand the palace ladies was beaten by someone called Sun the Novice or whatever. He didn't get his palace girls. It made our king so angry he wants to wage a war on Purpuria. He's sent me with this declaration of war. Their king will be all right if he doesn't fight, but if he does fight it'll be a disaster for him. When our king uses his fire, smoke and sandstorms their king, ministers and common people will all die. Then we'll take over their city. Our king will be its monarch and we'll be his subjects. But even though we'll get official posts it goes against Heaven.”
Monkey was very pleased to hear this. “So there are even some decent evil spirits,” he thought. “That last remark-'it goes against Heaven'-was very good. I wonder what he meant when he said that fate has been against their king and he hasn't been able to get his hands on the Golden Queen. Let me ask him some questions.” With a whining buzz he flew away from the evil spirit to a point some miles ahead of him on the road, shook himself and turned into a Taoist boy:
He wore his hair in two bunches
And a robe of a hundred patches.
He beat on a fisherman's drum
As he sang some Taoist snatches.
As Monkey came round the slope towards the little devil he raised his hands in greeting and said, “Where are you going, sir? What official document is that you're delivering?”
The devil seemed to recognize him as he stopped beating his gong, returned his greeting and said with a titter, “Our king's sent me to Purpuria with a declaration of war.”
“Has that woman from Purpuria slept with the king yet?” Monkey asked, pressing on with his questioning.
“When he brought her here the other year,” the little devil replied, “an immortal gave the Golden Queen a magic robe as her wedding dress. As soon as she put it on she was covered from head to foot with spike. Our king didn't dare so much as caress her. Even the slightest touch makes his hand hurt. I don't know why it happened. So from that year till this he hasn't had her. When his vanguard fighter was sent this morning to demand two more palace ladies to serve her he was beaten. Our king was so angry he sent me with this declaration of war. He's going to fight him tomorrow.”
“So is the king in a bad mood?” Monkey asked.
“Yes, he's in a bad mood back there,” said the little devil. “You ought to go and sing him some Taoist songs to cheer him-up.” The splendid Monkey put his arms in his sleeves, ready to go, while the evil spirit went on his way beating his gong as before. Monkey then turned murderous. He brought out his cudgel, turned round and hit the little devil on the back of his head. The unfortunate demon's head was smashed to a pulp. The blood gushed out as his skin split open and his neck was broken. He was dead. Monkey then put his cudgel away and said to himself with regret.
“I was in too much of a hurry. I never asked him his name. Too bad.” He took the declaration of war from the body and put it in his sleeve. Then he hid the yellow flag and the gong in the undergrowth by the path and was dragging the body by its ankles to throw it down the ravine when he heard something clinking. An ivory tablet inlaid with gold could be seen at the demon's waist. The writing on it read:
This is our trusted subordinate Gocome. He is of short stature and has a spotty and unbearded face. This tablet is to be kept permanently at his waist. Anyone without this tablet is an impostor.