“That's Sun the Novice's body,” the senior demon chief said when he saw this, “and a junior Wind-piercer's face. It's him! Little ones,” he ordered, “bring wine and give His Third Majesty a cup of it to congratulate him. Now that we've captured Sun the Novice the Tang Priest is as good as a meal in our mouths.”
“We mustn't drink now,” said the third demon chief. “Sun the Novice is a slippery customer and is good at escaping by magic. I'm worried he might get away. Tell the juniors to bring the jar out and put him inside. Then we can drink.”
“Yes, yes,” said the senior demon chief with a smile, who then chose thirty-six little demons to go inside, open the storerooms, and carry the jar out. Do you know how big the jar was? It was only two feet four inches high. So why were thirty-six people needed to carry it? It was because the jar was a treasure of the two vital forces, male and female, and contained the seven precious things, the eight trigrams and the twenty-four periods of the year that thirty-six carriers were required to match the number of the stars of the Dipper. Before long the precious jar had been carried out, set down outside the third pair of gates, cleaned up and opened. Monkey was untied, stripped bare and sucked inside the jar with a hiss by magical vapor that came out of it.
The lid was then put back on and sealed on with a label, after which the demons went off to drink, saying, “Now that he's in our jar that monkey can forget all about his journey West. The only way he'll be able to pay his respects to the Buddha and fetch the scriptures now will be by pushing the wheel of destiny backwards and being reborn.” Watch how all the demons great and small go laughing off to celebrate. But of that no more.
Once inside the jar the Great Sage, who was very cramped, decided to transform himself and squat down in the middle, where he found it very cool. “Those evil spirits don't live up to their reputation,” he said to himself, laughing aloud. “Why ever do they tell people that anyone put in this jar will be turned to pus and blood in a few moments. It's so cool that spending seven or eight years here would be no problem.”
Alas! The Great Sage did not know about this treasure. Anyone put inside it who said nothing for a year would stay cool for a year; but the moment a voice was heard fires began to turn. Before Monkey had finished speaking the whole jar was full of flame. Luckily he could use the knack of making fire-averting magic with his hands as he sat in the middle of the jar completely unafraid. When he had endured the flames for an hour forty snakes emerged from all around to bite him. Swinging his arms about him Monkey grabbed hold of all of them, twisted with all his strength, and broke them into eighty pieces. A little later three fire dragons appeared to circle above and below Monkey, which was really unbearable.
It drove Monkey into a helpless desperation of which he was only too conscious, “The other things were no trouble,” he said, “but these three fire dragons are a real problem. If I don't get out soon the fire will attack my heart, and what then? I'll make myself grow,” he went on to think, “and push my way out.” The splendid Great Sage made a spell with his hands, said the words of a spell and called out, “Grow!” He made himself over a dozen feet tall, but as he grew the jar grew with him, enclosing him tightly. When he made himself smaller, the jar shrank too.
“This is terrible,” Brother Monkey thought with alarm, “terrible. It grows when I grow and shrinks when I get smaller. Why? What am I to do?” Before he had finished speaking his ankle began to hurt. Putting his hand down at once to feel it he found that it had been burnt so badly it had gone soft. “I don't know what to do,” he said with anxiety, “My ankle's been cooked tender. I'm a cripple now.” He could not stop the tears from flowing. Indeed:
When suffering at the demons' hands he thought of his master;
In facing deadly peril he worried about the Tang Priest.
“Master,” he exclaimed, “since I was converted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin and delivered from my heavenly punishment you and I have toiled over many a mountain. I've beaten and wiped out a lot of monsters, subdued Pig and Friar Sand, and gone through no end of suffering. All this was done in the hope of reaching the West and completing the true achievement together. Never did I expect to meet these vicious demons today. Now I've been stupid enough to get myself killed in here I've left you stuck in the middle of the mountains. What a mess to be in for someone who used to be as famous as I was!”
Just when he was feeling thoroughly miserable he suddenly remembered, “Years ago the Bodhisattva gave me three life-saving hairs on the Coiled Snake Mountain. I wonder if I've still got them. I'd better look for them.” He felt all over his body and found three very rigid hairs on the back of his head.
“All the other hair on my body is soft except for these three that are as hard as spears,” he said with delight. “They must be my lifesavers.” Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pulled the three hairs out, blew on them with magic breath and called, “Change!” One of them turned into a steel drill, one into a strip of bamboo, and one into a silken cord. He made the bamboo strip into a bow to which he fixed the drill. After a noisy spell of drilling at the bottom of the jar he made a hole through which the light came in. “I'm in luck,” he said with glee, “I'm in luck. Now I can get out.” No sooner had he transformed himself ready to escape than the jar became cool again. Why was that? It cooled because the hole he had bored in it let the male and female vital forces escape.
The splendid Great Sage put his hairs back, made himself small by turning into the tiniest of insects, a very delicate creature as thin as a whisker and as long as an eyebrow hair, and slipped out through the hole. Instead of making his escape Monkey flew straight to the senior demon chief's head and landed on it. The senior demon, who was drinking, slammed his goblet down and asked, “Third brother, has Sun the Novice been liquefied yet?”
“Is the time up?” the third demon chief asked. The senior demon told his messengers to carry the jar in. When the thirty-six young devils picked the jar up they found that it was far lighter.
“Your Majesty,” they reported with alarm, “the jar's lighter.”
“Nonsense!” the senior demon shouted. “It has the full powers of the male and female vital forces. It couldn't possibly get lighter.”
One of the junior demons who liked showing off picked the jar up and said, “Look. It is lighter, isn't it?” When the senior demon took the lid off to look in he saw that it was bright inside.
“It's empty,” he could not help shouting aloud, “it's leaked.” And Monkey, sitting on his head, could not help shouting, “Search, my lads! He's escaped.”
“He's escaped,” all the monsters shouted, “he's escaped!” The order was then given to shut the gates.
With that Monkey shook himself, took back the clothes that had been taken off him, turned back into himself and leapt out of the cave. “Behave yourselves, evil spirits,” he flung back insultingly. “I've bored through the jar and you can't keep anyone in it any more. You'll have to take it outside and shit in it.”
Shouting and yelling with glee he went straight back on his cloud to where the Tang Priest was. Here he found the venerable gentleman making symbolic incense with a pinch of earth and praying to the sky. Monkey stopped his cloud to listen to what he was saying. Sanzang had his hands together in front of his chest and was saying to Heaven,