CHAPTER 31 

Bajie Moves the Monkey King Through His Goodness; Sun Xingzhe Subdues the Ogre Through Cunning

They swore to become brothers,

And the dharma brought them back to their true nature.

When Metal and Wood were tamed, the True Result could be achieved;

The Mind-Ape and the Mother of Wood combined to make the elixir.

Together they would climb to the World of Bliss,

And share the same branch of the faith.

The scriptures are the way of self-cultivation,

To which the Buddha has given his own divinity.

The brothers made up a triple alliance,

With devilish powers to cope with the Five Elements.

Sweeping aside the six forms of existence,

They head for the Thunder Monastery.

As he was being dragged and carried back by the crowd of monkeys, Bajie’s tunic was shreds. “I’m done for,” he grumbled to himself, “done for. He’ll kill me now.”

Before long he was back at the mount of the cave, where Xingzhe, sitting on top of a rock-face, said to him angrily, “You chaff-guzzling idiot. I let you go, so why swear at me?”

“I never did, Elder Brother,” said Bajie on his knees, “May I bite off my tongue if ever I did. All I said was that as you weren’t coming I’d have to go and tell the master. I’d never have dared to swear at you.”

“You can’t fool me,” Wukong replied. “If I prick my left ear up I can hear what they’re saying in the Thirty-third Heaven, and if I point my right ear down I can know what the Ten Kings of Hell and their judges are discussing. Of course I could hear you swearing at me as you walked along.”

“Now I see,” said Bajie. “With that devilish head of yours you must have changed yourself into something or other to listen to what I said.”

“Little ones,” Wukong said, “bring some heavy rods. Give him twelve on the face, then twelve on the back. After that I’ll finish him off with my iron cudgel.”

“Elder Brother,” pleaded Bajie, kowtowing desperately, “I beg you to spare me for our master’s sake.”

“That good and kind master? Never!” said Wukong.

“If he won’t do, then spare me for the Bodhisattva’s sake.”

The mention of the Bodhisattva made Wukong relent slightly. “Now you’ve said that I won’t have you flogged,” he said. “But you must tell me straight and without lying where the Tang Priest is in trouble—which is presumably why he sent you to try and trick me.”

“He isn’t in trouble,” Bajie protested, “he’s honestly missing you.”

“You really deserve a beating,” said Wukong, “for still trying to hood-wink me, you moron. Although I’ve been back in the Water Curtain Cave, I’ve stayed with the pilgrim in my mind. The master must have been in trouble at every step he has taken. Tell me about it at once if you don’t want that flogging.”

Bajie kowtowed again and said, “Yes, I did try to trick you into coming back. I didn’t realize that you would see through it so easily. Please spare me a flogging and let me go, then I’ll tell you.”

“Very well then,” replied Wukong, “get up and tell me.” The junior monkeys untied his hands. He leapt to his feet and began looking around wildly. “What are you looking at?” asked Wukong.

“I’m looking at that wide empty path for me to run away along,” said Bajie.

“That wouldn’t get you anywhere,” Wukong said. “Even if I gave you three days’ start I’d still be able to catch you up. Start talking. If you make me lose my temper, that’ll be the end of you.”

“I’ll tell you the truth,” said Bajie. “After you came back here Friar Sand and I escorted the master. When we saw a dark pine forest the master dismounted and told me to beg for some food., When I’d gone a very long way without finding anyone I was so tired that I took a snooze in the grass; I didn’t realize that the master would send Friar Sand after me. You know how impatient the master is; he went off for a stroll by himself, and when he came out of the wood he saw a gleaming golden pagoda. He took it for a monastery, but an evil spirit called the Yellow-robed Monster who lived there captured him. When I and Friar Sand came back to find him, all we saw was the white horse and the baggage. The master had gone. We searched for him as far as the entrance to the cave and fought the monster. Luckily the master found someone to save him in the cave. She was the third daughter of the king of Elephantia and she’d been carried off by the monster. She gave the master a letter to deliver to her family and persuaded the ogre to let him go. When we reached the capital and delivered the letter the king asked our master to subdue the monster and bring the princess home. I ask you, brother, could the master catch a monster? We two went off to fight him, but his powers were too much for us: he captured Brother Sha and made me run away. I hid in the undergrowth. The monster turned himself into a handsome scholar and went to court, where he introduced himself to the king and turned the master into a tiger. The white horse changed himself back into a dragon in the middle of the night and went to look for the master. He didn’t find him, but he did see the monster drinking in the Hall of Silvery Peace, so he turned himself into a Palace Beauty. He poured wine and did a sword dance for the ogre in the hope of finding a chance to cut him down, but the ogre wounded his hind leg with a lantern, it was the white horse who sent me here to fetch you. ‘Our eldest brother is a good and honorable gentleman,’ he said, ‘and gentlemen don’t bear grudges. He’s sure to come and rescue the master.’ Please, please remember that ‘if a man has been your teacher for a day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life.’ I beg you to save him.”

“Idiot,” said Wukong, “I told you over and over again before leaving that if any evil monsters captured the master you were to tell them I am his senior disciple. Why didn’t you mention me?” Bajie reflected that to a warrior a challenge was more effective than an invitation and said, “It would have been fine if we hadn’t used your name. It was only when I mentioned you that he went wild.”

“What did you say?” asked Wukong.

“I said, ‘Behave yourself, kind monster, and don’t harm our master. I have an elder brother called Sun Xingzhe who is an expert demon-subduer with tremendous magic powers. If he comes he’ll kill you, and you won’t even get a funeral.’ This made the ogre angrier than ever, and he said, ‘I’m not scared of Sun Xingzhe. If he comes here I’ll skin him, tear his sinews out, gnaw his bones, and eat his heart. Although monkeys are on the skinny side, I can mince his flesh up and deep-fry it.’ ” This so enraged Wukong that he leapt around in a fury, tugging at his ear and scratching his cheek.

“Did he have the gall to say that about me?” he asked.

“Calm down, brother,” said Bajie. “I specially remembered all his insults so as to tell you.”

“Up you get,” said Wukong, “I didn’t have to go before, but now he’s insulted me I must capture him. Let’s be off. When I wrecked the Heavenly Palace five hundred years ago all the generals of Heaven bowed low at the sight of me and called me ‘Great Sage.’ How dare that fiend have the nerve to insult me behind my back! I’m going to catch him and tear his corpse to shreds to make him pay for it. When I’ve done that I’ll come back here.”

“Quite right,” said Bajie. “When you’ve captured the monster and got your own back on him, it’ll be up to you whether you come on with us.”

The Great Sage jumped down from the cliff, rushed into the cave, and took off all his devil clothes. He put on an embroidered tunic, tied on his tigerskin kilt, seized his iron cudgel, and came out again. His panic-stricken monkey subjects tried to stop him, saying, “Where are you going, Your Majesty Great Sage? Wouldn’t it be fun to rule us for a few more years?”

“What are you saying, little ones?” replied Wukong. “I have to protect the Tang Priest. Everyone in Heaven and Earth knows that I am the Tang Priest’s disciple. He didn’t really drive me away. He just wanted me to take a trip home and have a little relaxation. Now I’ve got to attend to this. You must all take good care of our household. Plant willow and pine cuttings at the right season, and don’t let things go to pieces. I must escort the Tang Priest while he fetches the scriptures and returns to the East. When my mission is over I’ll come back to this happy life with you here.” The monkeys all accepted his orders.

Taking Bajie’s hand, Wukong mounted a cloud and left the cave. When they had crossed the Eastern Sea he stooped at the western shore and said, “You carry on at your own speed while I take a bath in the sea.”

“We’re in a terrible hurry,” said Bajie. “You can’t take a bath now.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Wukong replied. “While I was at home I developed rather a devil-stink, and I’m afraid that with his passion for cleanliness the master would object.” Only then did Bajie realize that Wukong really was being sincere and single-minded.

After Wukong’s dip they were back on their clouds and heading west again. When they saw the gleam of the golden pagoda Bajie pointed at it and said, “That’s where the Yellow-robed Monster lives. Friar Sand is still there.”

“You wait for me up here,” said Wukong, “while I take a look around the entrance before fighting the evil spirit.”

“No need,” said Bajie, “as he’s not at home.”

“I know,” said Wukong. The splendid Monkey King landed his gleaming cloud and looked around outside the entrance. All he could see was two children, one of about ten and the other of eight or nine, hitting a feather-stuffed ball with curved sticks. Without bothering to find out whose children they were, Wukong rushed up at them as they played, grabbed them by the tufts of hair that grew on the top of their heads, and flew off with them. The sobs and curses of the terrified boys alarmed the junior devils of the Moon Waters Cave, who rushed in to tell the princess that someone, they did not know who, had carried her sons off. These boys, you see, were the children of the princess and the ogre.

The princess ran out of the cave to see Wukong holding her sons on the top of a cliff and about to hurl them over.

“Hey, you, I’ve never done you any harm,” she screamed desperately, “so why are you kidnapping my sons? Their father won’t let you get away with it if anything happens to them, and he’s a killer.”

“Don’t you know who I am?” said Xingzhe. “I’m Sun Wukong, the senior disciple of the Tang Priest. If you release my brother Friar Sand from your cave, I’ll give you your sons back. You’ll be getting a good bargain—two for one.” The princess hurried back into the cave, told the junior demons who were on the door to get out of her way, and untied Friar Sand with her own hands.

“Don’t let me go, lady,” said Friar Sand, “or I’ll be letting you in for trouble with that monster when he comes back and asks about me.”

“Venerable sir,” the princess replied, “what you said about the letter saved my life, so I was going to let you go anyhow, and now your brother Sun Wukong has come here and told me to release you.”

Friar Sand felt as though the oil of enlightenment had been poured on his head and the sweet dew had enriched his heart. His face was all happiness and his chest filled with spring. He looked more like someone who had found a piece of gold or jade than someone who had just been told that a friend had arrived. He brushed his clothes down with his hands, went out, bowed to Wukong and said, “Brother, you’ve dropped right out of the blue. I beg you to save my life!”

“Did you say one word to help me, Brother Sha, when the master recited the Band-tightening Spell?” asked Wukong with a grin. “Talk, talk, talk. If you want to rescue your master you should be heading west instead of squatting here.”

“Please don’t bring that up,” said Friar Sand. “A gentleman doesn’t bear a grudge. We’ve been beaten, and we’ve lost the right to talk about courage. Please rescue me.”

“Come up here,” Wukong replied, and Friar Sand sprang up on the cliff with a bound.

When Bajie saw from up in the air that Friar Sand had come out of the cave, he brought his cloud down and said, “Forgive me, forgive me, Brother Sha.”

“Where have you come from?” asked Friar Sand on seeing him.

“After I was beaten yesterday,” said Bajie, “I went back to the capital last night and met the white horse, who told me that the master was in trouble. The monster has magicked him into a tiger. The horse and I talked it over and we decided to ask our eldest brother back.”

“Stop chattering, idiot,” said Wukong. “Each of you take one of these children to the city. Use them to provoke the monster into coming back here to fight me.”

“How are we to do that?” asked Friar Sand.

“You two ride your clouds, stop above the palace,” said Wukong, “harden your hearts, and drop the children on the palace steps. When you’re asked, say they’re the sons of the Yellow-robed Monster, and that you two brought them there. The ogre is bound to come back when he hears that, which will save me the trouble of going into town to fight him. If we fought in the city, the fogs and dust storms we stirred up would alarm the court, the officials and the common people.”

“Whatever you do, brother,” said Bajie with a laugh, “you try to trick us.”

“How am I tricking you?” asked Wukong.

“These two kids have already been scared out of their wits,” Bajie replied. “They’ve cried themselves hoarse, and they’re going to be killed at any moment. Do you think the monster will let us get away after we’ve smashed them to mince? He’ll want our necks. You’re still crooked, aren’t you? He won’t even see you, so it’s obvious you’re tricking us.”

“If he goes for you,” said Wukong, “fight your way back here, where there’s plenty of room for me to have it out with him.”

“That’s right,” said Friar Sand, “what our eldest brother says is quite right. Let’s go.” The pair of them were an awe-inspiring sight as they went off, carrying the two boys.

Wukong then jumped down from the cliff to the ground in front of the pagoda’s gates, where the princess said to him, “You faithless monk. You said you’d give me back my children if I released your brother. Now I’ve let him go, but you still have the boys. What have you come back for?”

“Don’t be angry, Princess,” said Wukong, forcing a smile. “As you’ve been here so long, we’ve taken your sons to meet their grandfather.”

“Don’t try any nonsense, monk,” said the princess. “My husband Yellow Robe is no ordinary man. If you’ve frightened those children, you’d better calm them down.”

“Princess,” said Wukong with a smile, “do you know what the worst crime on earth you can commit is?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“You’re a mere woman, so you don’t understand anything,” said Wukong.

“I was educated by my parents in the palace ever since I was a child,” she said, “and I remember what the ancient book said: ‘There are three thousand crimes, and the greatest is unfilial behavior.’ ”

“But you’re unfilial,” replied Wukong. “ ‘My father begot me, my mother raised me. Alas for my parents. What an effort it was to bring me up.’ Filial piety is the basis of all conduct and the root of all goodness, so why did you marry an evil spirit and forget your parents? Surely this is the crime of unfilial behavior.” At this the princess’ face went red as she was overcome with shame.

“What you say, sir, is so right,” she said. “Of course I haven’t forgotten my parents. But the monster forced me to come here, and he is so strict that I can hardly move a step. Besides, it’s a long journey and nobody could deliver a message. I was going to kill myself until I thought that my parents would never discover that I hadn’t run away deliberately. So I had nothing for it but to drag out my wretched life. I must be the wickedest person on earth.” As she spoke the tears gushed out like the waters of a spring.

“Don’t take on so, Princess,” said Wukong. “Bajie has told me how you saved my master’s life and wrote a letter, which showed you hadn’t forgotten your parents. I promise that I’ll catch the monster, take you back to see your father, and find you a good husband. Then you can look after your parents for the rest of their lives. What do you say to that?”

“Please don’t get yourself killed, monk,” she said. “Your two fine brothers couldn’t beat Yellow Robe, so how can you talk about such a thing, you skinny little wretch, all gristle and no bone? You’re like a crab, the way your bones all stick out. You don’t have any magic powers, so don’t talk about capturing ogres.”

“What a poor judge of people you are,” laughed Wukong. “As the saying goes, ‘A bubble of piss is big but light, and a steelyard weight can counterbalance a ton.’ Those two are big but useless. Their bulk slows them down in the wind as they walk, they cost the earth to clothe, they are hollow inside, like fire in a stove, they are weak and they give no return for all that they eat. I may be small, but I’m very good value.”

“Have you really got magic powers?” the princess asked.

“You’ve never seen such magic as I have,” he replied. “I have no rival when it comes to subduing monsters and demons.”

“Are you sure you won’t let me down?” said the princess.

“Yes,” said Wukong.

“As you’re so good at putting down demons, how are you going to catch this one?”

“Hide yourself away and keep out of my sight,” said Wukong. “Otherwise I may not be able to deal with him properly when he comes back. I’m afraid you may feel more friendly towards him and want to keep him.”

“Of course I won’t want to keep him,” she protested. “I’ve only stayed here under duress.”

“You’ve been his wife for thirteen years,” said Wukong, “so you must have some affection for him. When I meet him it won’t be for a child’s game. I shall have to kill him with my cudgel and my fists before you can be taken back to court.”

The princess did as she had been told and went off to hide in a quiet place. As her marriage was fated to end she had met the Great Sage. Now that the princess was out of the way the Monkey King turned himself with a shake of his body into the very image of the princess and went back into the cave to wait for the ogre.

Bajie and Friar Sand took the children to the city of Elephantia and hurled them down on the palace steps, where the wretched boys were smashed to mincemeat; their blood splashed out and their bones were pulverized. The panic-stricken courtiers announced that a terrible thing had happened—two people had been thrown down from the sky. “The children are the sons of the Yellow-robed Monster,” said Bajie at the top of his voice, “and they were brought here by Bajie and Friar Sand.”

The monster, who was still asleep in the Hall of Silvery Peace, heard someone calling his name as he was dreaming, turned over, and looked up to see the two monks shouting from the clouds. “I’m not bothered about Bajie,” he thought, “but Friar Sand was tied up at home. How ever did he escape? Could my wife have let him go? How did he get to catch my sons? Perhaps this is a trick Bajie is using to catch me because I won’t come out and fight with him. If I’m taken in by this I’ll have to fight him, and I’m still the worse for wear after all that wine. One blow from his rake would finish off my prestige. I can see through that plan. I’ll go home and see whether they are my sons before arguing with them.”

Without taking leave of the king, the monster went back across the forested mountains to his cave to find out what had happened. By now the palace knew he was an evil spirit. The seventeen other women who had fled for their lives when he ate the Palace Beauty had told the king all about it early the next morning, and his unannounced departure made it even clearer that he was an ogre. The king told the officials to look after the false tiger.

When Wukong saw the monster coming back to the cave he thought of a way to trick him. He blinked till the tears came down like rain, started to wail for the children, and jumped and beat his breast as if in grief, filling the cave with the sound of his sobbing. The monster failed to recognize who Wukong really was and put his arms round him. “What makes you so miserable, wife?” he asked.

“Husband,” said Wukong, weeping as he concocted his devilish lies, “How true it is that ‘A man without a wife has no one to look after his property; a woman who loses her husband is bound to fall.’ Why didn’t you come back yesterday after going to the city to meet your father-in-law? This morning Bajie the pig came and seized Friar Sand, and then they grabbed our sons and refused to spare them despite all my pleas. They said they were taking them to the palace to meet their grandfather, but I haven’t seen them all day. I don’t know what’s become of them, and you were away. I’ve been so miserable at losing them that I can’t stop crying.”

The monster was furious. “My sons?”

“Yes,” Wukong said, “Bajie carried them off.”

The monster, now jumping with rage, said, “Right, that’s it. He’s killed my sons. He’ll die for this. I’ll make that monk pay for it with his life. Don’t cry, wife. How are you feeling now? Let me make you better.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” said Wukong, “except that I’ve cried so much my heart aches.”

“Never mind,” the monster replied. “Come over here. I’ve got a treasure here that you just have to rub on your pain to stop it hurting. But be very careful with it and don’t flick it with your thumb, because if you do you’ll be able to see my real body.”

Wukong was secretly delighted. “What a well-behaved fiend,” he thought, “giving that away without even being tortured. When he gives me the treasure I’ll flick it to see what kind of monster he really is.”

The ogre then led him to a remote and secluded part of the cave and spat out a treasure about the size of a hen’s egg. It was magic pill skillfully fashioned from a piece of a conglomeration of internal secretion. “What a splendid thing,” Wukong thought. “Goodness knows how many times it had to be worked, refined and mated before becoming such a magic relic. Today it was fated to meet me.” The Great Sage took the pill, rubbed it over his pretended pain, and was just going to flick it with his thumb when the monster took fright and tried to grab it from him. The crafty monkey popped it into his mouth and swallowed it. The monster clenched his fist and hit at him, but Wukong parried the blow, rubbed his face, and reverted to his real form with a shout of, “Behave yourself, ogre. Take a look and see who I am.”

“Wife,” said the shocked monster, “how ever did you get that terrible face?”

“I’ll get you, you damned fiend,” said Wukong. “I’m not your wife. Can’t you even recognize your own grandfather?” The monster, now beginning to see the light, said, “You do look a bit familiar.”

“Take another look,” said Wukong, “I won’t hit you.”

“I know you by sight,” the monster said, “but I can’t remember your name. Who are you? Where are you from? Where have you hidden my wife? Why did you swindle me out of my treasure? This is a disgusting way to behave.”

“As you don’t know who I am,” said Wukong, “let me tell you that I am Sun Wukong Xingzhe, the Tang Priest’s senior disciple. I’m your ancestor by a clear five hundred years.”

“Nonsense,” the ogre replied, “nonsense. I know that the Tang Priest only had two disciples when I captured him. They were called Zhu Bajie and Friar Sand. Nobody mentioned anyone by the name of Sun Wukong. You must be a fiend from somewhere or other who has come to trick me.”

“I didn’t come here with the other two,” said Wukong, “because my master is a kind and merciful man who sent me back home for killing too many evil spirits. You ought to know your ancestor’s name.”

“What sort of man are you?” asked the monster, “how can you have the face to come back after your master has sent you away?”

“You wouldn’t understand, you damned monster,” said Wukong, “that when a man has been your teacher for a single day, you should treat him as your father for the rest of his life, and that father and son should never let the sun set on a quarrel. You’ve harmed my master, so of course I’ve come to rescue him. Even if I could ignore that, it’s quite outrageous that you insulted me behind my back.”

“I never insulted you,” said the monster.

“Bajie told me you did,” replied Wukong.

“You shouldn’t believe that sharp-tongued old gossip,” said the monster.

“Let’s stop beating about the bush,” said Wukong. “You’ve treated me very shabbily for a guest from far away. You may not have any wine or fine delicacies to feed me but you do have a head, so stretch it out and let me hit it with my cudgel—that’ll do instead of tea.”

The mention of hitting made the monster bellow with laughter. “You’ve got it all wrong, Sun Wukong,” he said. “You shouldn’t have come in if you wanted to fight me. I have a thousand devils of all sizes in here. Even if you were covered with arms you’d never be able to fight your way out.”

“Nonsense,” replied Wukong. “Never mind one thousand—if you had thousands or tens of thousands of them I’d only need to see them clearly for my every blow to strike home. I’ll wipe the lot of you out.”

The monster at once ordered all the fiends and ogres in and around the cave to muster with their weapons and put a close blockade on all the doors. Wukong was delighted to see them, and wielding his cudgel with both hands he shouted “Change!” and suddenly had six arms and three heads. Then he shook his gold-banded cudgel and turned it into three gold-banded cudgels. He went into action with his six arms and three cudgels. He was a tiger in a sheepfold, a hawk in a chicken run. The poor little demons had their heads smashed to pulp, while their blood flowed like water. He rushed to and fro as if there was nobody else there until only the old ogre was left.

He followed Wukong outside and said “Insolent ape! How dare you come here and bully us?”

Wukong turned, beckoned to him and said, “Come here, come here. Let me win the credit for killing you.”

The monster struck at the head with his sword, and Wukong riposted to the face with his cudgel. They fought it out amid the mists on the mountain top.

Mighty was the magic of the Great Sage,

Awful the monster’s power.

One of them wielded an iron cudgel;

The other, a sword of tempered steel.

When the sword was raised it shone with a bright aura;

The parrying cudgel was wreathed in cloud.

They leapt to and fro protecting their heads,

Turning and somersaulting over and over.

One of them changed his face with every breeze,

The other stood still and shook his body.

One glared with fiery eyes as he stretched out his simian arm,

The other’s golden pupils flashed as he twisted his tigerish waist.

They were locked in mortal combat

As sword and cudgel struck without mercy.

The Monkey King wielded his iron club according to the martial classic,

And the monster’s swordplay followed the ancient manuals.

One was a demon king experienced in the black arts,

The other used magical powers to protect the Tang Priest.

The ferocious Monkey King became fiercer than ever,

The heroic monster grew an even greater hero.

They fought in space, ignoring death,

All because the Tang Priest went to see the Buddha.

They had fought fifty or sixty rounds without issue when Wukong thought, “That bloody monster’s sword is as good as my cudgel. I’ll pretend to give him an opening and see if he can tell it’s a trick.” The Monkey King raised his cudgel and did a “Reaching Up to a Tall Horse” movement. The monster, not realizing that this was a trick, and imagining that he saw a real opening, took a tremendous swipe at Wukong with his sword. The Great Sage at once did a high swing to avoid the blow, then struck at the monster’s head with a “Stealing a Peach from under the Leaves” movement and knocked him so hard he vanished without a trace. Wukong put his cudgel away and looked for him but without success.

“Wow,” exclaimed Wukong in astonishment, “I didn’t just hit him—I knocked him out of existence. But if I really killed him there ought at least to be some blood and pus, and there’s no sign of any. Perhaps he got away.” He leapt up on a cloud to look around, but nothing was moving. “My eyes can see anything at a glance,” he thought, “so how can he have got away so mysteriously? Now I see. He said he seemed to recognize me, so he can’t be an ordinary monster. He must be some spirit from Heaven.”

This was too much for Wukong, who lost his temper and somersaulted up to the Southern Gate of Heaven with his cudgel in his hands. The startled Heavenly Generals Pang, Liu, Gou, Bi, Zhang, Tao, Deng, and Xin bowed low on either side of the gateway, not daring to block his way. They let him fight his way through the gates and straight on to the Hall of Universal Brightness, where the Four Great Heavenly Teachers Zhang, Ge, Xu and Qiu asked, “What have you come for, Great Sage?”

“As I was escorting the Tang Priest to Elephantia an evil monster abducted a princess and harmed the master. I had to fight him, and in the middle of our battle he disappeared. I thought that he couldn’t be an ordinary monster and was probably a spirit from Heaven, so I’ve come to check up if any wicked deities have left their posts.” On hearing this the heavenly teachers went and reported it to the Jade Emperor in the Hall of Miraculous Mist. He ordered an investigation. They found that nobody was missing among the Nine Bright Shiners, the Gods of the Twelve Branches, the Five Dippers of the Five Quarters, the hosts of the Milky Way, the Five Peaks, the Four Rivers, and all the other gods of Heaven. Then they investigated outside the Palace of the Dipper and the Bull, and found that one of the Twenty-eight Constellations, the Strider, was missing.

“Strider, the Wooden Wolf, has gone down to Earth,” they reported to the throne.

“How long has he been away from Heaven?” the Jade Emperor asked.

“He has missed four roll-calls,” they replied, “and with one roll-call every three days that makes thirteen days.”

“Thirteen days in Heaven would be thirteen years down on Earth,” said the Jade Emperor, and he ordered the Strider’s fellow stars to go down and bring him back to Heaven.

On receiving this edict the twenty-seven other constellations went out through the gates of Heaven and startled the Strider as each chanted his own spell. Do you know where he had been hiding? He had been one of the heavenly generals who was terror stricken when the Great Sage made havoc in Heaven, and he had lain low in a mountain stream that masked his demonic cloud and kept him out of sight. Only when he heard the other constellations shouting their spells did he dare to emerge from the water and go back to Heaven with them. The Great Sage was blocking the gates of Heaven and would have killed him but for the pleas of the other constellations, who saved him and escorted him to see the Jade Emperor. The monster now produced his golden tablet of office from his belt and kowtowed on the floor of the palace, admitting his guilt.

“Strider the Wooden Wolf,” said the Jade Emperor, “why did you go off by yourself instead of being content with the infinite beauty of Heaven?”

“I deserve to die, Your Majesty,” the Strider replied. “That daughter of the king of Elephantia was no ordinary mortal. She was a Jade Maiden in the Hall of Incense who wanted to have an affair with me. As we did not want to defile the Heavenly Palace she decided to become a mortal first and was reborn in a king’s palace. Then I became an evil monster and occupied a mountain in order not to let her down. I carried her off to my cave, and we were man and wife for thirteen years. ‘Every bite and every sip is preordained,’ as the saying goes, and now the Great Sage has succeeded in bringing me here.” The Jade Emperor withdrew his tablet of office and degraded him to be a menial helping Lord Lao Zi stoke his fires in the Tushita Palace. If he did well he would be restored to his previous post; if not, his sentence would be made heavier. Wukong was delighted to see how the Jade Emperor dealt with him, and chanting a “na-a-aw” of respect he said to the assembled gods, “Gentlemen, I’m off.”

“That monkey is as ill-mannered as ever,” chuckled the Heavenly Teachers, “just chanting a ‘na-a-aw’ and going without thanking Your Majesty for your celestial kindness in catching the monster for him.”

“We can consider ourselves fortunate,” said the Jade Emperor, “if he leaves without disturbing the peace of Heaven.”

The Great Sage brought his shining cloud straight down to the Moon Waters Cave on Bowl Mountain, found the princess, and told her off for becoming a mortal and marrying a fiend. As he was doing this he heard Bajie and Friar Sand shouting in mid-air, “Leave us a few demons to polish off, brother.”

“I’ve already wiped them out,” Wukong replied.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Friar Sand. “Let’s take the princess back to the palace. Stop staring at her, Second Brother. We’d better do some distance-shortening magic.”

The princess heard a rush of wind in her ears, and in a moment she was back in the city. The three disciples took her to the throne hall, where she bowed to her royal parents and met her sisters again. All the officials came to bow to greet her. Then she reported, “We are indebted to this venerable monk for the defeat of the Yellow-robed Monster and my rescue.”

“What type of monster was he?” the king asked.

“Your Majesty’s son-in-law,” Wukong replied, “is the Strider constellation from Heaven, and your daughter was a Jade Maiden who held the incense until she decided to become a mortal and came down to this world. This marriage was predestined. When I went up to the Heavenly Palace and submitted a memorial to him, the Jade Emperor found that the monster had missed four roll-calls and had been away from Heaven for thirteen days, which is thirteen years down here on earth. The Emperor sent his fellow stars down to fetch him, then banished him to the Tushita Heaven, where he is to redeem his sins. That’s how I rescued your daughter and brought her here.” The king thanked Wukong and told him to go and see his master.

The three disciples left the throne hall and went with all the courtiers to the antechamber, where the iron cage was carried in and the false tiger unchained. Wukong was the only one who could see that he was human; all the others thought he was really a tiger. As Sanzang was under the demon’s spell he could not move, and although he was clear in his mind, he was unable to open his mouth or his eyes.

“What a fine monk you are, Master,” said Wukong, “getting yourself into this revolting shape. You accused me of being a murderer and sent me home for it, but you wouldn’t be such an awful sight if your heart had been set on goodness.”

“Save him, brother, don’t tell him off,” said Bajie.

“It was you who put him up to it all,” said Wukong. “You were his favourite disciple. Why didn’t you save him instead of sending for me? Besides, I told you that I’d go back when I’d defeated the monster and avenged that insult.”

Friar Sand went over and knelt down before him. “As the old saying goes,” he pleaded, “ ‘If you won’t do it for the monk’s sake, do it for the Buddha’s sake.’ I beg you to save him now that you’re here. We wouldn’t have gone all that way to ask you to come if we’d been able to save him ourselves.”

“I couldn’t bear not to save him,” replied Wukong, raising Friar Sand to his feet. “Bring me some water.” Bajie flew back to the hostel, fetched the horse and luggage, took the golden begging bowl from it, half-filled it with water, and handed it to Wukong. The Great Sage took the water in his hand, said the words of a spell, and spurted it at the tiger’s head. The evil magic was dissolved, and the tiger-aura was dispersed.

Sanzang was seen in his true form once more. Once he had gathered himself together and opened his eyes he saw Wukong, took hold of him, and said, “Where have you come from?” Friar Sand, who was standing in attendance, told him all about how Wukong had been asked back, defeated the monster, rescued the princess, dispersed the tiger-aura, and come back to the palace. “Worthy disciple,” said Sanzang, full of gratitude, “thank you, thank you. When we return to the East from our journey to the West I shall report to the Tang emperor that you have won the greatest distinction.”

“Don’t mention it,” said a smiling Wukong, “don’t mention it. The best way you can show your gratitude is by not saying that spell.” When the king heard about all this he thanked the four of them and gave a great vegetarian banquet for them in the eastern wing. After this expression of the king’s kindness master and disciples took their leave of him and set out for the west. The king and his courtiers came a long way to see them off, after which

The monarch returned to the palace to rule his country,

The monk went on to Thunder Monastery to see the Buddha.

If you don’t know what happened next or when they reached the Western Heaven, listen to the explanation in the next installment.