“This is bad,” said Monkey. “Let's get out of here.” And with that he somersaulted straight up to the ninth heaven, not concerning himself with Pig, Friar Sand and the heavenly hosts, who failed to take his hint and were left behind to be caught in the bag again. Monkey alone escaped. The demon king then called off his forces and took them back inside the monastery, where once more he sent for ropes and tied them up again. The Tang Priest, Pig and Friar Sand were hung up from a high beam and the white horse was tethered at the back. The gods, who were also bound, were carried down into a cellar that was then covered and sealed. We will not go into how the devils then packed everything away once more.
When Monkey saved his life by springing up into the clouds and saw the devil soldiers returning, not waving their banners, he knew that his side must have been made prisoner once more. As he landed his auspicious light on the Eastern summit
He ground his teeth in hatred of the demon;
The tears flowed free as Monkey missed his master.
Then in despair he turned his face to heaven
And groaned aloud at Sanzang's new disaster.
“Master,” he called, “in whatever past world did you lay down so many difficulties for yourself that you meet evil spirits at every turn? There's no end to your troubles. What are we to do?” He sighed alone up there for a long time before calming himself down and working out what to do.
“I wonder what sort of pouch it is the devil has that can hold so many things inside!” he thought. “Now it's got the gods, the heavenly generals and a lot of other people too. I'll have to ask Heaven to help me, but I fear the Jade Emperor will be angry about what has happened. Now I remember there's a True Martial God of the North, the Heavenly Honoured Demon Suppressor, who now lives on Mount Wudang in the Southern Continent of Jambu. I'll go and ask him to rescue my master.” Indeed:
With the Way still uncompleted ape and horse were scattered;
When the mind was masterless the Five Elements lacked life.
If you don't know what happened on this journey listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 66
All the Gods Meet a Vicious Foe
Maitreya Binds the Evil Monster
The story tells how the Great Sage Sun, finding himself at his wit's end, somersaulted by auspicious cloud straight to Mount Wudang in the Southern Continent of Jambu to ask the Heavenly Honoured Demon Suppressor to save Sanzang, Pig, Friar Sand, the heavenly soldiers and all the rest of them. He flew non-stop and was soon in sight of the patriarch's immortal domain. As he brought his cloud gently down to land and took a good look around this is what he saw:
The great fortress of the Southeast,
A divine pillar of the central heaven.
Lotus Pinnacle soared in its majesty,
Purple-covered Ridge rose to a great height.
The nine rivers ended here, far from Jing and Yang;
A hundred mountains touch the stars in Wing and Axletree.
Above was the precious cave of Emptiness,
And the spirit tower of Zhu and Lu.
In the thirty-six palaces golden chimes rang,
As thousands of worshippers offered their incense.
Here the emperors of antiquity patrolled and worshipped,
Officials held jade tablets inscribed in gold.
Blue birds flew over lofty towers;
Under the canopies red gowns were worn.
The place was set on a mountain that towered over the cosmos,
An immortal domain suffused with emptiness.
Some plum trees were just in blossom,
And the hillside was covered in a blaze of color from the flowers.
Dragons hid at the bottom of ravines
While tigers lurked on the precipices.
The pheasants seemed to be talking;
Tame deer came up to people.
White cranes perched in cloud-topped junipers;
Green and red phoenixes sang to the sun.
Jade-pure, it resembles a land of immortals;
The compassion of the golden gateway rules the age.
The True Martial Lord had been born after King Purejoy and his wife Queen Victoria had dreamed one night that she conceived by swallowing the light of the sun. After fourteen months of pregnancy she had given birth in the royal palace on the first day of the third month of the year jiachen, the first of the reign period of Kaihuang. The prince
Was brave from his boyhood,
Grew into perception.
Did not take the throne,
But practised religion.
His parents could not stop him.
He gave up the palace
For mysteries and trance
Here in the mountains.
When all was completed
He could fly by broad daylight.
The Jade Emperor named him
The True Martial Lord.
He responds to dark emptiness,
Joining with tortoise and snake.
In all quarters of the compass
Is his excellence proclaimed.
He penetrates all mysteries,
Achieves every glory.
From beginning to end
He exterminates demons.
While admiring the splendid view the Great Sage Sun was soon through the first, second and third gates to his heaven. When he arrived outside the Palace of Great Peace he saw five hundred spirit officers standing crowded together in the auspicious light and atmosphere. They stepped forward to ask, “Who is it who has come?”
“I am Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven,” Monkey replied, “and I would like to see the Teacher.” The spirit officers reported this at once to the patriarch, who came from his throne hall to welcome Monkey into the palace hall.
After paying his respects Monkey said, “I have a request to trouble you with.”
“What?”
“I am in trouble escorting the Tang priest on his journey to seek scriptures in the Western Heaven,” Monkey replied. “There is an evil monster who lives in the Lesser Thunder Monastery on a mountain called the Lesser Western Heaven in the Western Continent of Cattle-gift. When my master went in through the monastery gates and saw all the arhats, protectors, monks and priests line up there he thought that the Buddha was a real one, threw himself to the ground and started kowtowing to him. Then they caught him. Because I was too careless I let him trap me inside a pair of golden cymbals that were joined tight together without the slightest crack between them, just as if they were clamped together. Very luckily for me the Gold-headed Protector requested the Jade Emperor to send the Twenty-eight Constellations to come down to earth that very night. They couldn't prise the cymbals apart, but the Metal Dragon of the Gullet managed to push his horn between the cymbals and bring me out, thank goodness. Then I smashed the cymbals, which woke up the monster. When he came after us he caught us all-me, the Twenty-eight Constellations and the Five Protectors-and tied us all up with rope. I got out that night and rescued the constellations, the Tang Priest and the rest of them. Later I woke the old demon up again while I was looking for our things and he went after the heavenly soldiers to fight them again. When he took his pouch off to use it this time I recognized it and got away, but all the rest of them were caught. As I'm at my wit's end I've come to pay my respects to you, Teacher, and ask your help.”
“In the old days,” said the patriarch, “I garrisoned the North. My position was that of True Martial God, and I wiped out evil spirits all over the world on the orders of the Jade Emperor. Later I rode barefoot and with my hair loose on the leaping snake and the divine tortoise, and led the five thunder generals, young giant dragons, lions, ferocious beasts and vicious dragons to put an end to the black demonic atmosphere in the Northeast. That was when I was acting under the orders of the Original Heavenly Honoured One. Now I live in tranquility and ease on Mount Wudang in the Hall of Great Peace. The mountains and seas have long been at peace, and heaven and earth are very calm. In our Southern Continent of Jambu and the Northern Continent of Kuru all evil monsters have been exterminated and wicked demons are seen no more. I am very grateful that you've come to see me, Great Sage: the only trouble is that in the absence of instructions from Heaven I can't fight on my own authority alone. If I sent all my gods the Jade Emperor might well take offence; but if I turned your request down flat, Great Sage, I'd be showing a lack of finer feeling. I'm sure that even if there are evil creatures on that road West they cannot be really terrible. So I'll send General Tortoise, General Snake, and five magic dragons to help you. I guarantee that they will capture the evil spirit and rescue your master.”