“I did not realize, Most Merciful One, that you were coming down to the mortal world,” said Brother Monkey as he kowtowed, “and it was wrong of me to fail to keep out of your way. May I venture to ask where you are going, Bodhisattva?”
“I am here especially to find and take this evil monster,” the Bodhisattva replied.
“What is the monster's background, and how can he put you to the trouble of capturing him in your illustrious person?” Monkey asked.
“He is a golden-haired giant hound on which I used to ride,” the Bodhisattva replied. “The boy in charge of it fell asleep and failed to keep proper guard over it, so that the wicked beast bit through its iron chains and escaped to save the king of Purpuria from disaster.”
When Monkey heard this he hastily bowed and said, “You have it the wrong way round, Bodhisattva. He's been mistreating the king and his queen, and thus damaging public morality. So how can you say that he has saved the king from disaster when in fact he has brought him disaster?”
“You would not know,” the Bodhisattva replied, “that when the previous king of Purpuria was reigning and the present king was the crown prince and had not yet taken the throne he was a superb archer and huntsman. Once he led his men and horses hunting with falcon and hound. They came to the Fallen Phoenix Slope, where a young peacock and peahen, two children of the Buddha's mother in the West, the Bodhisattva Maurya Vidya Rani were resting. When the king shot with his bow he wounded the cock, while the hen died with an arrow still in her. After the Buddha's mother realized to her regret what had happened she ordered that the prince should be separated from his wife for three years and suffer himself the way birds do when they are parted from their mates. At the time I was riding that hound and we both heard her say that. I never imagined that the beast would remember it and come back to mistreat the queen and thus save the king from disaster. That was three years ago, and now that the misdeed has been paid for it was fortunate that you came along to cure the king. I am here to recover the wicked and evil creature.”
“Bodhisattva,” said Monkey, “this may well be so, but he did sully the queen, damage public morality, offend ethics and break the law. You can't let him off a non-capital punishment. Let me give him twenty blows before handing him over for you to take back.”
“Wukong,” said the Bodhisattva, “as you know I am here you really ought to show me the respect I deserve and spare him completely. This still counts as one of your successes in subduing a demon. If you hit him with your cudgel it'll kill him.”
Monkey dared not disobey, but bowed and said, “If you're taking him back to the ocean with you, Bodhisattva, you mustn't let him escape and come down to the human world again. That would be quite a catastrophe.”
Only then did the Bodhisattva shout, “Wicked beast! Turn back into your own form! What are you waiting for?” The monster could be seen doing a roll and turning back into himself. Then he shook his fur for the Bodhisattva to mount on his back. The Bodhisattva looked down at his neck to see that the three golden bells were missing. “Wukong,” she said, “give me my bells back.”
“I don't know where they are,” Monkey said.
“Thieving ape,” the Bodhisattva shouted. “If you hadn't stolen those bells then ten Sun Wukongs, never mind one, would have dared go nowhere near him. Hand them over at once.”
“I really haven't seen them,” Monkey replied with a smile.
“In that case I'll have to recite the Band-tightening Spell,” said the Bodhisattva.
This scared Monkey, who could only plead, “Don't say it, don't say it. The bells are here.” This was indeed a case of
Who could untie the bells from neck of the giant hound?
To find that out ask the one who first fastened them on.
The Bodhisattva then placed the bells round the giant hound's neck, and flew up to her high throne. Watch as the
Four-stalked lotus flowers blazed with fire;
Her whole body was thickly clad in cloth of gold.
We will say no more of how the Great Merciful One returned to the Southern Ocean.
The Great Sage Sun Wukong then tidied up his clothing and charged into the Horndog Gave swinging his iron cudgel and killing to his heart's content. He wiped all the demons out till he reached the inner quarters of the palace and asked the Golden Queen to go back to her country. She prostrated herself to him for a long time. Monkey told her all about how the Bodhisattva had subdued the demon and why she had been separated from her husband. Then he gathered some soft grasses that he twisted together into a long straw dragon.
“Sit on this, ma'am,” he said, “and shut your eyes. Don't be afraid. I'm taking you back to court to see your master.” The queen followed his instructions carefully while he used his magic power. There was a sound of the wind whistling in her ears.
An hour later he brought her into the city. Bringing his cloud down he said, “Open your eyes, ma'am.” When the queen opened her eyes and looked she recognized the phoenix buildings and dragon towers. She was very happy, and getting off the straw dragon she climbed the steps of the throne hall. When the king saw her he came straight down from his dragon throne to take the queen by her jade hand.
He was just going to tell her how much he had missed her when he suddenly collapsed, shouting: “My hand hurts, my hand hurts.”
“Look at that mug,” Pig said, roaring with laughter, “he's out of luck. No joy for him. The moment he meets her again he gets stung.”
“Idiot,” said Monkey, “would you dare grab her?”
“What if I did?” Pig asked.
“The queen's covered with poisonous spikes,” Monkey replied, “and she has poison on her hands. In the three years she was with the Evil Star Matcher in Mount Unicorn the monster never had her. If he had, his whole body would have been in agony. Even touching her with his hand made his hand ache.”
“Then what is to be done about it?” the officials asked. While all the officials were wondering what to do in the outer palace and the consorts and concubines in the inner palace were full of terror, the Jade and the Silver Queen helped their king to his feet.
Amid-the general alarm a voice was heard in the sky shouting, “Great Sage, I'm here.” Brother Monkey looked up, and this is what was to be seen:
The cry of a crane soaring through the heavens,
Then flying straight down to the palace of the king.
Beams of auspicious light shone about;
Clouds of holy vapors drifted all around.
Mists came from the cloak of coconut that covered his body:
Rare were the straw sandals on which he trod.
The fly-whisk in his hand was made of dragon whiskers,
And silken tassels hung around his waist.
He joined human destinies together throughout heaven and earth
As he roamed free and easy all over the world.
He was the Purple Clouds Immortal of the Daluo Heaven,
Come down to earth today to lift an enchantment.
Monkey went over to him to greet him with, “Where are you going, Zhang Boduan of the Ziyang sect?”
The True Man of Ziyang came to the front of the hall, bowed and replied, “Great Sage, the humble immortal Zhang Boduan greets you.”
“Where have you come from?” Monkey replied.
“Three years ago I passed this way when going to a Buddha assembly,” the True Man said. “When I saw that the King of Purpuria was suffering the agony of being parted from his wife I was worried that the demon would defile the queen. That would have been an affront to morality and made it hard for the queen to be reunited with the king later on. So I turned an old coconut cloak into a new dress of many colours and gave it to the demon king. He made the queen wear it as her wedding dress. As soon as she put it on poisonous barbs grew all over her body. They were the coconut cloak. Now that you have been successful, Great Sage, I've come to lift the spell.”