“Tang Priest,” she said, “it was a six-eared macaque pretending to be Wukong who hit you the other day. Fortunately the Tathagata could tell who he was, and Wukong has now killed him. You must now take Wukong back. There are many demon obstacles on the way ahead and you must have his protection if you are to reach Vulture Peak, see the Buddha and fetch the scriptures, so stop being angry with him.”
“I shall respectfully obey,” Sanzang replied.
Just as he was kowtowing in thanks there was the roar of a whirlwind from the East carrying Pig with the two bundles on his back. Seeing the Bodhisattva the idiot kowtowed to her and said, “Your disciple left the master the other day and went back to the Water Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit to look for this luggage. I found the imitation Tang Priest and imitation Pig and killed the pair of them. They were both monkeys. Then I went inside and found the bundles. Nothing's missing-I've checked them over. So I came straight back by wind. What happened to the two Monkeys?”
The Bodhisattva then told him how the Tathagata had told the two of them apart. The idiot was delighted and gave thanks at great length. Master and disciples then said farewell to the Bodhisattva, who went back to the sea. The four of them were now once more of a single will and a single mind; all grievances had been washed away and anger removed. They thanked their hosts in the thatched cottage, retied the luggage, saddled up the horse, and headed West. Indeed:
A separation on the journey muddled the Five Elements;
At the demon-subduing gathering enlightenment returned.
The spirit returned to the house of the mind and dhyana was calmed;
When the six perceptions were controlled the elixir was completed.
If you don't know how long it was till Sanzang saw the Buddha and asked for the scriptures after setting out again listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 59
Sanzang's Way Is Blocked at the Fiery Mountains
Monkey First Tries to Borrow the Plantain Fan
The many species are at root the same;
All flows into the boundless sea.
Every thought and worry is in vain;
All types and forms together blend.
When the achievement is complete
Great will be the full and shining dharma.
Do not allow your differences to divide:
Keep everything together.
Gather all into the elixir furnace,
Refine it till it is red as darkest gold.
Then in its brilliance and beauty
On dragons it may ride at will.
The story tells how Sanzang took back Brother Monkey as the Bodhisattva had instructed him and headed towards the Western Heaven, united in heart with Pig and Friar Sand. They were no longer in two minds, and the ape and the horse were firmly under control. Time shot by like an arrow; days and nights alternated with the speed of a shuttle. After the scorching heat of summer they were now in the frosts of late autumn. What they saw was:
The sparse clouds blown away by the wild West wind,
Cranes calling in the distant hills amid the frosty woods.
This is a chilly time
When mountain rivers seem longer than ever.
The swan returns through the Northern frontier passes;
Migrating birds go back to their Southern fields.
The traveler feels lonely on the road;
Monastic robes do not keep out the cold.
As master and disciples pressed ahead they began to feel hotter and hotter in the warm air. “It is autumn now, so why is it getting hotter again?” Sanzang asked, reining in his horse.
“Don't know,” said Pig. “There's a country in the West, Sihali, where the sun sets. People call it 'the end of the sky'. At about six o'clock every evening the king sends people on the city walls to band drums and blow bugles to cover the sound of the sea boiling. That's because when the fire of the sun falls into the Western Ocean there's a great seething noise like something burning being plunged into water. If they didn't cover the noise with their drums and bugles the shock would kill all the little children in the city. That's where I think we are-the place where the sun sets.” When the Great Sage heard this he could not help laughing.
“Don't talk such nonsense, you idiot. We're a long way from Sihali yet. The way our master keeps dithering and changing his mind we won't get there in three lifetimes, even if we go on from childhood to old age, then to childhood again, and then to another old age and a third childhood.”
“Tell me then, brother,” said Pig, “if this isn't where the sun sets why's it so scorching hot?”
“The seasons must be out of joint,” said Friar Sand. “I expect they're following summer rituals here although it's autumn.” Just as the three disciples were arguing they saw a farm by the side of the road. It had a red tiled roof, red brick walls, and red painted doors, windows and furniture. It was red everywhere.
“Wukong,” said Sanzang, dismounting, “go to that house and find out why it's so burning hot.”
The Great Sage put his gold-banded cudgel away, neatened his clothes, and swaggered along the road like a fine gentleman. When he reached the gate to have a look an old man suddenly appeared from inside. This is what he looked like:
He wore a robe of hemp-cloth,
Not quite brown or red,
A sunhat of woven bamboo,
In between black and green.
The knobby stick in his hand
Was neither crooked nor straight.
His long boots of leather
Were not new, but not yet old.
His face was the color of copper,
His beard bleached white like yarn.
Long eyebrows shaded his jade-blue eyes
And his smile showed golden teeth.
The old man had a shock when he looked up to see Monkey. “Where are you from, you freak?” he asked, steadying himself on his stick. “What are you doing at my gate?”
“Venerable patron,” replied Monkey with a bow, “don't be afraid. I'm no freak. My master and we three disciples have been sent by the Great Tang emperor in the East to fetch the scriptures from the West. As we've now reached your residence I have come to ask you why it's so boiling hot here and what this place is called.”
Only then did the old man stop feeling worried and reply with a smile, “Please don't take offence, reverend sir. My old eyes are rather dim and I failed to recognize your distinguished self.”
“There's no need to be so polite,” said Monkey. “Which road is your master on?” the old man asked.
“That's him, standing on the main road due South,” Monkey replied.
“Ask him over, ask him over,” the old man replied, to Monkey's pleasure. Monkey waved to them, and Sanzang came over with Pig and Friar Sand leading the white horse and carrying the luggage. They all bowed to the old man.
The old man was at the same time delighted by Sanzang's fine appearance and alarmed by Pig's and Friar Sand's remarkable ugliness. Inviting them in, he told the younger members of the family to bring tea and cook a meal. Hearing all this Sanzang rose to his feet to thank the old man and ask, “Could you tell me, sir, why it has turned so hot again although it is autumn now?”
“These are the Fiery Mountains,” the old man replied. “We don't have springs or autumns here. It's hot all the year round.”
“Where are the mountains?” Sanzang asked. “Do they block the way to the West?”
“It's impossible to get to the West,” the old man replied. “The mountains are about twenty miles from here. You have to cross them to get to the West, but they're over 250 miles of flame. Not a blade of grass can grow anywhere around. Even if you had a skull of bronze and a body of iron you would melt trying to cross them.” This answer made Sanzang turn pale with horror; he dared not to ask any more questions.