But the whole family of the two old men was not at all willing to let them go. “We have been under a great debt to you for saving our children that we have not yet been able to repay,” they said. “We have built a Temple of Deliverance where incense has been burned to you ever since without ceasing.” Then they called out the children in whose place Monkey and Pig had gone to be sacrificed, Chen Guan-given and Pan of Gold, to kowtow in thanks and ask them into the shrine to take a look. Sanzang then put the bundles of scriptures in front of the hall of their house and read them one roll of the Precious Eternity sutra. Then they went to the temple, where the Chens had set out delicacies. Before the pilgrims could sit down another group of people came to invite them to another meal, and before they could pick up their chopsticks yet another group came with a third invitation. This went on and on without end, so that they had no chance to eat properly. Sanzang, who dared not decline the invitations, had to make gestures of eating. The shrine was indeed most handsomely built:
The gateway was thickly painted in red
Thanks to the generous donors.
A tower rose there
Where houses with a pair of cloisters had now been built.
Red were the doors
And the Seven Treasures were finely carved.
Incense floated up to the clouds;
Pure light filled the vault of space.
Some tender cypress saplings were still being watered;
A number of pine trees did not yet form a grove.
Living waters met one in front
Where the waves of the River of Heaven were rolling;
High cliffs rose behind
Where range upon range of mountains joined the earth dragon.
When Sanzang has seen everything he climbed the high tower, where statues of the four pilgrims had been placed. “Looks just like you, brother,” said pig, tugging at Monkey, when he saw them.
“Second brother,” said Friar Sand, “Your statue's just like you too. The only thing is that the master's is too good-looking.”
“It is very good,” said Sanzang, “it is very good.” They then came downstairs, where people were still waiting, and urged them to eat the vegetarian food that was set out in the hall and in the cloisters behind it.
“What happened to the Great King's Temple that used to be here?” Brother Monkey asked.
“It was demolished that year,” the old men replied. “My lords, we have had good harvests every year since this monastery was established, thanks to your lordships' blessed protection.”
“That was heaven's gift,” said Monkey with a smile, “nothing to do with us. But after we have gone this time I guarantee that the families in your village will have many sons and grandsons, flourishing livestock, wind and rain at the right time year in and year out, and rain and wind year out and year in at the right time.” The people all kowtowed in thanks.
What could then be seen were a countless number of people lined up behind each other to offer fruit and other vegetarian food. “I'll be blowed,” said Pig with a laugh. “In the old days, when I could eat, nobody ever asked me to do so ten times over. But now, when I can't, one family won't wait for another to finish before offering me food.”
Although he was feeling full he did get going a little and ate eight or nine meatless dishes; and despite having an injured stomach he also downed twenty or thirty steamed breadrolls. When they were all full, more people came with further invitations. “Grateful though I am for your great affection,” Sanzang said, “I do not deserve it. I hope that we may be allowed to rest tonight. Tomorrow morning we will accept some more.”
It was now late at night. Sanzang, who was guarding the true scriptures and would not leave them for a moment, sat in meditation at the foot of the tower to keep a vigil. As the third watch of the night approached he said quietly, “Wukong, the people here know that we have found the Way and completed our undertaking. As the old saying goes, 'The true adept does not show his face; who shows his face is no true adept.' I am afraid that if we tarry too long here that we may fail in our main enterprise.”
“What you say is right, Master,” Monkey replied. “Let's slip quietly away in the middle of the night while they're all sound asleep.” Pig too understood, Friar Sand comprehended very clearly, and the white horse also knew what he meant. So they got up, quietly loaded the packs, shouldered the poles, and carried the things out along the cloister. When they reached the main gates and found them locked Monkey used unlocking magic to open the inner gates and the main gates. They followed the path East, only to hear the Eight Vajrapanis calling from mid-air. “Come with us, escapers.” The venerable elder then smelt incense as he rose up into the air. This was indeed a case of:
When the elixir is formed one sees the original face;
When the body is strong one can then visit one's sovereign.
If you do not know how he saw the Tang emperor, listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 100
The Journey Back to the East Is Made
The Five Immortals Achieve Nirvana
We will tell not of how the four travelers escaped and rose on the wind with the vajrapanis, but of the many people in the Temple of Deliverance in Chen Village. After they rose at dawn to prepare more fruit and delicacies to offer they came to the ground floor of the tower and found the Tang Priest gone. Some asked questions and others searched. They were all thrown into panic and did not know what to do.
“We've let those living Buddhas all get clean away,” they lamented as their howls rose to the skies. As there was nothing else they could do about it they carried all the food they had prepared to the ground floor of the tower as offerings and burned imitation paper money. From then on four major sacrifices and twenty-four minor sacrifices were held every year. In addition people praying for cures or safety, seeking marriages, making vows, and seeking wealth or sons came at every hour of every day to bum incense and make offerings. Indeed:
Incense smoked in the golden burner for a thousand years;
The light burned in the lamps of jade through eternity.
We will say no more of this, but tell of how the Eight Vajrapanis used a second fragrant wind to carry the four pilgrims off again. Some days later they reached the East, and Chang'an came gradually into view. Now after seeing the Tang Priest off from the city on the twelfth day of the ninth month in the thirteenth year of Then Guan the Emperor Taizong had in the sixteenth year sent officials of his Department of Works to build a Watching For the Scriptures Tower outside the city of Chang'an to receive the scriptures. Here Taizong went in person every year. It so happened that on the very day the emperor went to the tower the Western sky was filled with auspicious light and gusts of scented wind.
“Holy monk,” the vajrapanis said, stopping in mid air, “this is the city of Chang'an. We cannot come down as the people here are too clever: we are afraid that they might give away what we look like. The Great Sage Monkey and the other two gentlemen cannot go there either. You must go there yourself to hand the scriptures to your monarch then come back here. We will be waiting for you up in the clouds ready to go to report back on your mission.”