With fancy combs and a tasseled neck,
Hard claws, long spurs and angry eyes,
Nobly he leaps, complete in all his powers,
Towering majestic as three times he cries.
He is no common fowl who by a cottage crows
But a star down from the sky in all his glory.
Vainly the vicious scorpion took a human form:
Revealed now as herself she ends her story.
Pig went forward and said, one foot planted on the monster's back, “Evil beast, You won't be able to use your horse-killer poison this time.” The monster did not move, whereupon the idiot pounded her to mincemeat with his rake. The star lord gathered his golden light around him once more and rode away on his cloud. Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand all raised their clasped hands to Heaven in thanks.
“We have put you to much trouble,” they said. “We shall go to your palace to thank you another day.”
When the three of them had finished expressing their gratitude they bot the luggage and the horse ready and went into the cave, where the young and old serving girls were kneeling on either side saying, “My lords, we are not evil spirits but women from Western Liang who were carried off by the evil spirit. Your master is sitting in the scented room at the back crying.”
On hearing this Monkey took a very careful look around, and seeing that there were indeed no more devilish vapors he went round to the back and called, “Master!” The Tang Priest was very pleased indeed to see them all there.
“Good disciples,” he said, “I have put you to such a lot of trouble. What has happened to that woman?”
“That damned female was really a scorpion,” said Pig. “Luckily the Bodhisattva Guanyin told us what to do. Brother Monkey went to the palaces of Heaven to ask the Star Lord of the Pleiades to come down and defeat the demon. I've beaten her to pulp. That's why we dared to come right inside to see you, Master.”
The Tang Priest thanked them deeply. They then looked for some meat-free rice and noodles and laid on a meal for themselves that they ate. The kidnapped women were all taken down the mountain and shown the way back home. Then they lit a firebrand and burned down all the buildings there before helping the Tang Priest back on his horse and continuing along the main road West. Indeed:
They cut themselves off from worldly connections,
Turning away from the lures of desire.
By pushing right back the ocean of gold,
In their minds and their hearts their awareness was higher.
If you don't know how many years were to pass before they finally won their true achievement, listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 56
The Spirit Goes Wild and Wipes Out the Bandits
The Way in Confusion Sends the Mind-Ape Away
As the poem goes,
The heart that is empty of all things is said to be pure,
In utter placidity not giving rise to a thought.
The ape and the horse must be tethered, not left to run wild;
The spirit must always be cautious, not seeking for glory.
Wake up to Three Vehicles, wipe out the Six Bandits,
And all human destinies then become clear.
Extinguish the evil of sex and rise to enjoy
The pleasures of paradise that can be found in the West.
The story tells how Tang Sanzang bit on the bullet, straggled with all his powers to preserve the purity of his body and was rescued from the Pipa Cave when Monkey and the others killed the scorpion spirit. There is nothing to tell about the next stage of their journey, and it was soon summer again. What they saw was
Fragrant winds carrying the scent of wild orchids,
New bamboo cool as the skies clear after rain;
No travelers to pick artemisia on the hillside,
And the fragrant flowers of cattails filling the streams.
Bees are bewitched by pomegranates' beauty,
While siskins delight in the willow trees' shade.
How can the wayfarers offer dumplings to Qu Yuan?
Dragon boats should be mourning his death in the river.
Master and disciples were just enjoying the early summer scenery as they spent the day of the Dragonboat Festival without being able to celebrate it when a high mountain rose in front of them to block their way forward. Sanzang reined in his horse and turned back to say, “Be careful, Wukong: I'm worried that there may be demons on that mountain ahead.”
“Don't worry, Master,” said Brother Monkey. “We are all faithful believers. I'm not scared of demons.” This reply pleased the venerable elder greatly, who
Whipped on his noble charger,
Gave the dragon steed his head.
Before long they were above a rock-face on the mountain, and when they raised their heads to look around this is what they saw:
Cypress and pine that touch the azure heavens,
Creepers climbing up hazels on the cliffs.
A hundred thousand feet high,
A thousand sheer-cut strata.
A hundred thousand feet high are the towering pinnacles;
A thousand sheer-cut strata of the chasm's sides.
Mosses and liverwort cover damp rocks,
Locust and juniper form a great forest.
Deep in the forest
Birds are heard unseen,
Singing their songs with beautiful voices.
The water in the brook is a torrent of jade;
The fallen blooms by the path are piles of gold.
The mountain is steep,
The going is hard,
And hardly a pace is on level ground.
Foxes and David's deer come in twos;
White stage and black gibbons greet one in pairs.
The bowl of the tiger fills one with terror;
The call of the crane resounds through the sky.
Plum and red apricot provide one with food;
No names can be put to the many wild flowers.
After climbing the mountain slowly for a long time the four of them crossed the summit, and on the Western slopes they saw a stretch of level sunlit ground. Pig put on a great show of energy, telling Friar Sand to carry the luggage while he raised his rake in both hands and tried to drive the horse ahead. But the horse was not afraid of him and carried on at the same slow pace despite all the noises he made to speed it up.
“Why are you trying to make the horse go faster, brother?” Monkey asked. “Let it walk slowly at its own speed.”
“It's getting late,” Pig replied, “and I'm hungry after that day on the mountain. We'd better get a move on and find a house to beg some food from.”
“In that case let me speed him up,” said Monkey waving his gold-banded cudgel and shouting, at which the horse slipped its halter and started to gallop along the track with the speed of an arrow. Do you wonder why the horse was afraid of Monkey but not of Pig? It was because five hundred years earlier Monkey had been given a post in the Imperial Stables in the Daluo Heaven as Protector of the Horses; the name has been passed on right till the present day, which is why all horses are still afraid of monkeys. The venerable elder could not keep hold of the reins: he simply held tight to the saddle and gave the horse its head as it galloped six or seven miles towards some farm land before slowing down to a walk.
As Sanzang was riding along he heard a gong being struck as over thirty men armed with spears, swords and staves emerged from both sides of the track to block his way and say, “Where do you think you're going, monk?” This made the Tang Priest shake with fright so badly that he lost his seat and fell off the horse.
“Spare my life, Your Majesty,” he pleaded as he squatted in the undergrowth by the path, “Spare my life.”