Output:
“I’ll drop that pure vase of willow twigs on the monkey’s head. Even if it doesn’t kill him it will knock him off balance and enable the Little Sage to catch him.”

“That vase of yours is made of porcelain,” Lao Zi replied, “and if you hit the target that will be fine. But if it were to miss his head and smash into his iron club, it would be shattered. Just hold your hand while I give him a little help.”

“What sort of weapon do you have?” the Bodhisattva asked, and Lord Lao Zi replied, “I’ve got one all right.” He pulled up his sleeve and took a bracelet off his right arm.


Output: “This weapon,” he said, “is made of tempered steel to which I have added the magic elixir. It preserves my miraculous essence, can transform itself, is proof against fire and water, and can snare anything. One of its names is Diamond Jade and the other is Diamond Noose. When I went out through the Han Pass some years ago to turn into a foreigner and become a Buddha, I have a great deal to thank it for. It’s the best protection at any time. Just watch while I throw it down and hit him.”


Output:
As soon as he had finished speaking he threw it down from outside the heavenly gate, and it fell into the camp on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, hitting the Monkey King neatly on the head. The Monkey King was too preoccupied with fighting the seven sages to notice this weapon falling on him from heaven, and when it struck him on the forehead he lost his balance and stumbled, then picked himself up and started to run. The slim dog of the god Erlang caught him up and bit him in the calf, bringing him down again. As he lay on the ground he cursed at the dog.

“You don’t bother your own master, damn you; why pick on me to bite?” He rolled over and tried unsuccessfully to get up, but the seven sages all held him down, roped him up, and put a sickle-shaped blade round his collar-bone to prevent him from making any more transformations.


Output:
Lord Lao Zi then recovered his Diamond Jade and invited the Jade Emperor, Guanyin, the Queen Mother, and all the immortal ministers to return to the Hall of Miraculous Mist. Down below, Heavenly King Li and the four other Heavenly Kings assembled their troops and pulled up the stockade. They went over to congratulate the Little Sage and said, “It was all thanks to you, Little Sage.”

“No, it was thanks to the great blessings of His Celestial Majesty and the might of all the gods—it was nothing I did,” replied the Little Sage.

“No time to talk now, elder brother,” said the four marshals Kang, Zhang, Yao, and Li. “Let’s take this wretch up to Heaven to see the Jade Emperor and ask what is to be done with him.”


Output: “Worthy brothers,” Erlang replied, “you never received any heavenly commission, so it would not be right for you to see the Jade Emperor. The heavenly soldiers can escort him while I go up there with the Heavenly Kings to report back. You should comb this mountain with your troops, and when you’ve finished go back to Guanjiangkou. When I’ve asked for our rewards, I’ll come back and we can celebrate together.” The four marshals and the two generals accepted their orders, and the rest mounted their clouds and went to Heaven triumphantly singing victory songs. Before long they were outside the Hall of Universal Brightness. The heavenly teachers reported to the throne that the Four Great Heavenly Kings and the rest of them had captured the monkey devil, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, and were now waiting to be summoned. The Jade Emperor then issued an edict ordering the Strong-arm Demon King and the heavenly soldiers to march him to the Demon-beheading Tower, where the wretch was to have his body chopped to


Output: where the wretch was to have his body chopped to mincemeat. Goodness!


Output:
The bully and cheat now meets with a bitter punishment,

The heroic spirit must now come to an end.

If you don’t know what happened to the Monkey King’s life, then listen to the explanation in the next installment.

Chapter Seven

The Great Sage Escapes from the Eight Trigrams Furnace

The Mind-Ape Is Fixed Beneath Five Elements Mountain

Wealth and honour, glory and fame,

Are predetermined by fate:

No one should act against conscience to covet any of them.

Far-going and deep

Are the good results of true enlightenment and loyalty.

Heaven punishes all wild and wicked deeds

If not at once then later on.

Ask the Lord of the East the reason why

Disasters now strike him.

It is because his ambition was high, his plans far-reaching,

He did not respect authority, and he smashed convention.


Output:
The story goes on to tell how the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was escorted by the hosts of heavenly soldiers to the Demon-beheading Tower and tied to the Demon-subduing Pillar. They hacked at him with sabres, sliced at him with axes, lunged at him with spears and cut at him with swords, but they were unable to inflict a single wound on him. The Southern Dipper angrily ordered all the gods of the Department of Fire to set him alight and burn him up, but he would not ignite. He told the gods of the Department of Thunder to nail splinters of thunder into him, but however hard they tried they could not harm a hair of his body. The Strong-arm Demon King and the rest of them then reported this to the throne.

“Your Majesty,” they said, “this Great Sage has learned somewhere or other how to protect himself by magic.


Output: Although your subjects have hacked at him with sabres, sliced at him with axes, struck at him with thunder and tried to burn him with fire, we have not been able to harm a hair of his body. What are we to do?”


Output: “How can we deal with a wretch like this?” the Jade Emperor asked, and the Lord Lao Zi replied to this in a memorial: “That monkey has eaten the peaches of immortality, drunk the imperial liquor, and stolen the pills of elixir. He swallowed those five gourds of pills of mine, fresh ones and mature ones alike. Now we have used the fire of samadhi on him, which has tempered his body and made it a diamond one that cannot be harmed. The best course would be to let me take him and put him in my Eight Trigrams Furnace, where I can refine out my elixir with the civil and martial fire and reduce him to ashes at the same time. The Jade Emperor then ordered the Six Dings and the Six Jias to untie him and hand him over to the Lord Lao Zi, who took him away in obedience to the imperial decree. At the same time the Jade Emperor summoned the Illustrious Sage Erlang to his presence and rewarded him with a hundred golden flowers, a hundred jars of imperial liquor, a hundred pills of elixir, rare jewels, lustrous pearls,


Output: pills of elixir, rare jewels, lustrous pearls, brocade, embroidery, and other gifts to share with his sworn brothers. The True Lord Erlang thanked him for his bounty and returned to Guanjiangkou.


Output: When he reached the Tushita Palace, Lord Lao Zi had the Great Sage untied, took the hook from his collar-bone, pushed him into the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and ordered the priests in charge of it and the fire-boys to fan the fire up to refine him. Now this furnace was made up of the Eight Trigrams— Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Sun, Li, Kun, and Dui— so he squeezed himself into the “Palace of Sun,” as Sun was the wind, and where there was wind there could be no fire. All that happened was that the wind stirred up the smoke, which made both his eyes red and left him somewhat blind with the illness called “fire eyes with golden pupils.”


Output: Time soon passed, and without him realizing it the seven times seven, or forty-nine, days had passed, and Lord Lao Zi’s fire had reached the required temperature and burned for long enough. One day the furnace was opened for the elixir to be taken out. The Great Sage, who was shielding his eyes with both hands and wiping away his tears, heard a noise at the top of the furnace. He looked hard and saw daylight; and, unable to stand being in there a moment longer, leapt out of the furnace, kicked it over with a crash, and was off. In the ensuing chaos the fire-boys, the keepers of the furnace, the Dings and the Jias all tried to grab him, but he knocked them all down. He was like a white-browed tiger gone berserk, a single-horned dragon raving mad. Lord Lao Zi rushed up to seize him, but was thrown head over heels as the Great Sage freed himself. He took the As-You-Will cudgel from his ear, and shook it in the wind till it was thick as a bowl, and once more created total chaos in the Palace of Heaven, not


Output: created total chaos in the Palace of Heaven, not caring in the least what he did. He laid about him to such effect that the Nine Bright Shiners shut their windows and doors, and not a sign was to be seen of the Four Heavenly Kings.


Output:
Marvellous monkey spirit! As the poem has it,

His primordial body matches an earlier heaven,

Completely natural throughout ten thousand ages;

Vast and passive, blended with the Great Monad;

Always immobile, known as the Prime Mystery.

After so much refining in the furnace he is not lead or mercury;

Having lived long outside the ordinary he is a natural Immortal.

His changes are inexhaustible, and still he has more,

So say nothing about the Three Refuges or Five Abstentions.

Another poem says:

A single point of magic light can fill the whole of space;

Likewise that staff of his:

Longer or shorter, depending on his needs,

Upright or horizontal, it can shrink or grow.

Yet another poem runs:

To the ape’s immortal body is matched a human mind:

That the mind is an ape is deeply meaningful.

It was quite true that the Great Sage equaled Heaven:

The appointment as Protector of the Horse showed no discernment.

Horse and ape together make mind and thought;


Output:
Horse and ape together make mind and thought;

Bind them tightly together, and do not seek elsewhere.

When all phenomena are reduced to truth they follow a single pattern;

Like the Tathagatha reaching nirvana under the two trees.

This time the Monkey King made no distinctions between high and humble as he laid about him to East and West with his iron club. Not a single god opposed him. He fought his way into the Hall of Universal Brightness outside the Hall of Miraculous Mist, where the Kingly Spirit Officer, the lieutenant of the Helpful Sage and True Lord, fortunately was on duty. When he saw the Great Sage charging around he took up his golden mace and went forward to resist him.

“Where are you going, damned monkey?” he asked. “If you go wild you’ll have me to deal with.” The Great Sage was not in a position to argue with him, so he raised his cudgel to strike him. The Spirit Officer lifted his mace and advanced to meet him. It was a fine fight:

Great was the fame of the brave and loyal officer,


Output:
Evil the name of the rebel who bullied Heaven.

The low one and the good one were well matched;

Valiant heroes fighting each other.

Vicious the iron cudgel,

Quick the golden mace.

Both were straight, merciless, and terrible.

One of them is a deity formed from the Great Monad’s thunder;

The other is the monkey spirit, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

With golden mace or iron cudgel each is a master;

Both are weapons from the palaces of the gods.

Today they show their might in the Hall of Miraculous Mist,

A wonderful display of courage and skill.

One in his folly wanting to capture the Palace of the Dipper and the Bull,

The other exerting all his strength to support the world of the gods.

The fight is too hard to allow the use of magic,

As mace and cudgel struggle without result.


Output:
As mace and cudgel struggle without result.

As they fought together without either of them emerging as victor, the True Lord sent an officer with a message to the Thunder Palace ordering the thirty-six thunder generals to surround the Great Sage. Although they all fought with the utmost ferocity, the Great Sage was not in the least frightened, and parried and blocked to left and right with his As-You-Will cudgel, resisting his opponents in front and behind. Before long he found that the pressure was too great from the sabres, spears, swords, halberds, clubs, maces, claws-and-ropes, hammer, pole-axes, battle-axes, grabs, pennoned hooks, and moon-shaped bills of the thunder generals; so he shook himself and grew three heads and six arms. Then he shook his As-You-Will cudgel and changed it into three cudgels, and wielding the three cudgels in his six hands he flew round and round inside the encirclement like a spinning wheel. None of the thunder generals could get anywhere near him. Indeed,

Perfectly round,


Output:
Perfectly round,

Gleaming bright,

How can men learn to live for ever?

He can enter fire without being burned,

And go in the water but not be drowned.

He is as bright as a Mani pearl,

Swords and spears cannot harm him.

He is capable of good,

And capable of evil:

When faced with the choice between good and evil he might do either.

If he is good he becomes a Buddha or an Immortal,

If bad, he grows fur and horns.

With his boundless transformations he wrecked the Heavenly palace,

Nor can thunder generals and divine troops take him.

Although the gods had the Great Sage cornered, they were unable to get near him. The noise of the shouting and the fighting had already alarmed the Jade Emperor, who ordered the Miracle Official Youyi to go to the West with the Helpful Sage and True Lord and ask the Buddha to subdue him.


Output:
When these two sages received the order they went to the wonderful land of the Miraculous Mountain, where they offered their greetings to the Four Vajrapanis and Eight Bodhisattvas before the Thunder Monastery and asked them to pass on their massage. The gods went to the foot of the lotus seat to inform the Tathagata, who invited the two sages to his presence. When the sages had performed the threefold obeisance to the Buddha they stood in attendance below the throne.

“Why has the Jade Emperor troubled you two sages to come here?” asked the Buddha.


Output: “A monkey,” they reported, “who was born on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, has used his magic powers to unite all the monkeys and throw the world into confusion. The Jade Emperor sent down an edict of amnesty and appointed him Protector of the Horses, but this was not good enough for him, so he left Heaven again. When heavenly King Li and Prince Nezha were unsuccessful in their attempt to capture him the Jade Emperor sent down another amnesty with his appointment as a ‘Great Sage Equaling Heaven’. At first this appointment was purely nominal, but later he was told to look after the Peach Orchard. But he stole the peaches and then went to the Jade Pool where he stole the delicacies and the liquor and wrecked the banquet. In his drunkenness he staggered into the Tushita Palace, stole Lord Lao Zi’s pills of immortality, and left Heaven again. The Jade Emperor sent a hundred thousand heavenly troops, but they were still unable to subdue him. Then Guanyin recommended the True Lord Erlang and his sworn


Output: recommended the True Lord Erlang and his sworn brothers to go after the monkey, and he used many a transformation until he was finally able to capture the monkey after the Lord Lao Zi hit him with his Diamond Jade. The monkey was then taken to the imperial presence, and the order for his execution was given. But although he was hacked at with sabres, chopped at with axes, burned with fire, and struck with thunder, none of this did him any damage; so Lord Lao Zi requested permission to take him away and refine him with fire. But when the cauldron was opened after forty-nine days he jumped out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, routed the heavenly troops, and went straight to the Hall of Universal Brightness in front of the Hall of Miraculous Mist. Here he has been stopped and engaged in fierce combat by the Kingly Spirit Officer, the lieutenant of the Helpful Sage and True Lord Erlang, thunder generals have been sent there to encircle him; but no one has been able to get close to him. In this crisis the Jade


Output: able to get close to him. In this crisis the Jade Emperor makes a special appeal to you, the Tathagata, to save his throne.”


Output:
On hearing this the Tathagata said to the assembled Bodhisattvas, “You stay here quietly in this dharma hall and behave yourselves in your seats of meditation while I go to deal with the demon and save the throne.”

Telling the Venerable Ananda and the Venerable Kasyapa to accompany him, the Tathagata left the Thunder Monastery and went straight to the gate of the Hall of Miraculous Mist, where his ears were shaken by the sound of shouting as the thirty-six thunder generals surrounded the Great Sage. The Buddha issued a decree that ran: “Tell the thunder generals to stop fighting, open up their camp, and call on that Great Sage to come out, so that I may ask him what divine powers he has.”

The generals then withdrew, whereupon the Great Sage put away his magic appearance and came forward in his own body. He was in a raging temper as he asked, “Where are you from? You are a good man. You’ve got nerve, stopping the fighting and questioning me!”


Output:
“I am the Venerable Sakyamuni from the Western Land of Perfect Bliss,” replied the Buddha with a smile. “I have heard of your wild and boorish behavior, and of your repeated rebellions against Heaven, and I would like to know where you were born, when you found the Way, and why you have been so ferocious.”

“I am,” the Great Sage said,

“A miracle-working Immortal born of Heaven and Earth,

An old ape from the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.

My home is in the Water Curtain Cave,

I sought friends and teachers, and became aware of the Great Mystery.

“I have practiced many a method for obtaining eternal life,

Infinite are the transformations I have learned.

That is why I found the mortal world too cramped,

And decided to live in the Jade Heaven.

“None can reign forever in the Hall of Miraculous Mist;

Kings throughout history have had to pass on their power.

The strong should be honoured—he should give way to me:

This is the only reason I wage my heroic fight.”

The Buddha laughed mockingly.


Output:
The Buddha laughed mockingly.

“You wretch! You are only a monkey spirit and you have the effrontery to want to grab the throne of the Jade Emperor. He has trained himself since childhood, and suffered hardship for one thousand, seven hundred and fifty kalpas. Each kalpa is 129,600 years, so you can work out for yourself how long it has taken him to be able to enjoy this great and infinite Way. But you are a beast who has only just become a man for the first time. How dare you talk so big? You’re not human, not even human! I’ll shorten your life-span. Accept my teaching at once and stop talking such nonsense! Otherwise you’ll be in for trouble and your life will very shortly be over; and that will be so much the worse for your original form too.”


Output:
“Although he has trained himself for a long time, ever since he was a child, he still has no right to occupy this place for ever,” the Great Sage said. “As the saying goes, ‘Emperors are made by turn; next year it may be me.’ If he can be persuaded to move out and make Heaven over to me, that’ll be fine. But if he doesn’t abdicate in my favour I’ll most certainly make things hot for him, and he’ll never know peace and quiet again.”

“What have you got, besides immortality and the ability to transform yourself, that gives you the nerve to try to seize the Heavenly Palace?” the Buddha asked.

“I can do many tricks indeed,” the Great Sage replied. “I can perform seventy-two transformations, and I can preserve my youth for ten thousand kalpas. I can ride a somersault cloud that takes me thirty-six thousand miles at a single jump. So why shouldn’t I sit on the throne of Heaven?”


Output:
“I’ll have a wager with you then,” said the Buddha. “If you’re clever enough to get out of my right hand with a single somersault, you will be the winner, and there will be no more need for weapons or fighting: I shall invite the Jade Emperor to come and live in the West and abdicate the Heavenly Palace to you. But if you can’t get out of the palm of my hand you will have to go down to the world below as a devil and train yourself for several more kalpas before coming to argue about it again.”

When he heard this offer the Great Sage smiled to himself and thought, “This Buddha is a complete idiot. I can cover thirty-six thousand miles with a somersault, so how could I fail to jump out of the palm of his hand, which is less than a foot across?”

With this in his mind he asked eagerly, “Do you guarantee that yourself?”


Output: “Yes, yes,” the Buddha replied, and he stretched out his right hand, which seemed to be about the size of a lotus leaf. Putting away his As-You-Will cudgel, the Great Sage summoned up all his divine powers, jumped into the palm of the Buddha’s hand, and said, “I’m off.” Watch him as he goes like a streak of light and disappears completely. The Buddha, who was watching him with his wise eyes, saw the Monkey King whirling forward like a windmill and not stopping until he saw five flesh-pink pillars topped by dark vapours.


Output:
“This is the end of the road,” he said, “so now I’ll go back. The Buddha will be witness, and the Hall of Miraculous Mist will be mine.” Then he thought again, “Wait a moment. I’ll leave my mark here to prove my case when I talk to the Buddha.” He pulled out a hair, breathed on it with his magic breath, and shouted “Change.” It turned into a writing brush dipped in ink, and with it he wrote THE GREAT SAGE EQUALING HEAVEN WAS HERE in big letters on the middle pillar. When that was done he put the hair back on, and, not standing on his dignity, made a pool of monkey piss at the foot of the pillar. Then he turned his somersault round and went back to where he had started from.

“I went, and now I’m back. Tell the Jade Emperor to hand the Heavenly Palace over to me,” he said, standing in the Buddha’s palm.

“I’ve got you, you piss-spirit of a monkey,” roared the Buddha at him. “You never left the palm of my hand.”


Output:
“You’re wrong there,” the Great Sage replied. “I went to the farthest point of Heaven, where I saw five flesh-pink pillars topped by dark vapours. I left my mark there: do you dare come and see it with me?”

“There’s no need to go. Just look down.” The Great Sage looked down with his fire eyes with golden pupils to see the words “The Great Sage Equaling Heaven Was Here” written on the middle finger of the Buddha’s right hand. The stink of monkey-piss rose from the fold at the bottom of the finger.

“What a thing to happen,” exclaimed the Great Sage in astonishment. “I wrote this on one of the pillars supporting the sky, so how can it be on his finger now? He must have used divination to know what I was going to do. I don’t believe it. I refuse to believe it! I’ll go there and come back again.”


Output:
The dear Great Sage hurriedly braced himself to jump, but the Buddha turned his hand over and pushed the Monkey King out through the Western Gate of Heaven. He turned his five fingers into a mountain chain belonging to the elements Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, renamed them the Five Elements Mountain, and gently held him down.

All the thunder gods and the disciples Ananda and Kasyapa put their hands together to praise the Buddha: “Wonderful, wonderful,

An egg learned to be a man,

Cultivated his conduct, and achieved the Way.

Heaven had been undisturbed for the thousand kalpas,

Until one day the spirits and gods were scattered.

“The rebel against Heaven, wanting high position,

Insulted Immortals, stole the pills, and destroyed morality.

Today his terrible sins are being punished,

Who knows when he will be able to rise again?”


Output:
Who knows when he will be able to rise again?”

When he had eliminated the monkey fiend the Buddha told Ananda and Kasyapa to return with him to the Western paradise. At that moment Tian Peng and Tian You hurried out of the Hall of Miraculous Mist to say, “We beg the Tathagata to wait a moment as the Jade Emperor’s chariot is coming.”

The Buddha turned round and looked up, and an instant later he saw an eight-splendour imperial chariot and a nine-shining jeweled canopy appear to the sound of strange and exquisite music, and the chanting of countless sacred verses. Precious flowers were scattered and incense was burned.

The Jade Emperor went straight up to the Buddha and said, “We are deeply indebted to the great Buddha’s powers for wiping out the demon, and we hope that the Tathagata will spend a day here so that we may invite all the Immortals to a feast of thanksgiving.”


Output: The Buddha did not dare refuse, so putting his hands together he replied, “This old monk only came here in obedience to Your Celestial Majesty’s command. What magic powers can I pretend to? This was all due to the wonderful good fortune of Your Celestial Majesty and the other gods. How could I possibly allow you to thank me?”


Output: The Jade Emperor then ordered all the gods of the Department of Thunder to split up and invite the Three Pure Ones, the Four Emperors, the Five Ancients, the Six Superintendents, the Seven Main Stars, the Eight Points of the Compass, the Nine Bright Shiners, the Ten Chiefs, the Thousand Immortals, and the Ten Thousand Sages to a banquet to thank the Buddha for his mercy. Then he ordered the Four Great Heavenly Teachers and the Nine Heavenly Maidens to open the golden gates of the jade capital, and Palace of the Great Mystery, and the Tong Yang Jade Palace, invite the Tathagata to take his seat on the Throne of the Seven Precious Things, arrange the places for all the different groups of guests, and set out the dragon liver, phoenix bone-marrow, jade liquor, and magic peaches.


Output:
Before long the Original Celestial Jade Pure One, the High Celestial Precious Pure One, the Heavenly Celestial Pure One of the Way, the True Lords of the Five Humors, the Star Lords of the Five Constellations, the Three Officers, the Four Sages, the Left Assistant, the Right Support, the Heavenly Kings, Nezha, and the whole of space responded to the invitations that had been sent out magically. Their standards and canopies came two by two as they brought shining pearls, rare jewels, fruit of longevity, and exotic flowers, and presented them to the Buddha with bows.

“We thank the Tathagata for subduing the monkey fiend with his infinite powers. His Celestial Majesty has asked us all to come to his banquet to express our thanks. We beg the Tathagata to give this banquet a title.”

The Buddha accepted this commission and said, “Since you want a name for it, we could call it the ‘Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven.’”


Output:
“Splendid, ‘Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven,’ splendid,” exclaimed all the Immortals with one voice, and then they all sat down in their places, put flowers in their hair, and played the lyre. It was indeed a splendid banquet, and here are some verses to prove it:

The Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven far surpasses

The Banquet of Peaches that the monkey wrecked.

Radiance shines from dragon flags and imperial chariots;

Auspicious vapours float above streamers and symbols of office.

Melodious the fairy music and mysterious songs;

Loud sound the tones of phoenix flute and pipe of jade

The rarest of perfumes waft around the Immortals, assembled calm in the sky.

To congratulate the court on Pacifying the Universe.


Output:
When the Immortals were all enjoying the feast the Queen Mother and a group of fairies, immortal beauties, and houris, floated through the air as they danced towards the Buddha, and after paying her respects the Queen Mother said, “My Peach Banquet was ruined by that monkey fiend, and this Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven is being given because the Tathagata has used his great powers to chain down the evil monkey. Having nothing else with which to express my gratitude, I have picked a number of peaches of immortality with my own pure hands as an offering.” They were

Half red, half green, sweet-smelling beauties

Growing every ten thousand years from immortal roots.

The peaches of Wulingyuan seem laughable:

How can they compare with those of Heaven?

Purple-veined and tender, rare even in the sky,

Yellow-stoned, and matchless on earth for their sweetness.

They are able to adapt the body and make it live for ever;

Those lucky enough to eat them are no ordinary beings.


Output:
The Buddha put his hands together to thank the Queen Mother, who instructed the fairies and houris to sing and dance again, and their performance met with the praises of the whole assembly. Indeed:

Misty heavenly incense filled the room;

A chaos of heavenly petals and flowers.

Great is the splendour of the jade city and golden gates,

Priceless the strange treasures and rare jewels.

Two by two, coeval with Heaven,

Pair by pair, outliving ten thousand kalpas:

Even if land and sea changed places

They would not be astonished or alarmed.

Soon after the Queen Mother had ordered the fairies and houris to sing and dance, and when wine cups and chopsticks were weaving to and fro, suddenly

A strange scent reached their noses,

Startling the stars and constellations in the hall.

Immortals and the Buddha put down their cups,

Each of them raising their heads to look.

An old man appeared in the middle of the Milky Way

Holding a sacred mushroom.

His gourd contains ten-thousand-year elixir.


Output:
His gourd contains ten-thousand-year elixir.

On the sacred rolls his name is written Eternal Life.

In his cave Heaven and Earth are free.

In his bottle Sun and Moon were created.

As he wanders around the Four Seas in pure idleness

Taking his ease in the Ten Continents, enjoying the bustle.

When he went to Peach Banquets he often got drunk

But when he came round, the moon was as bright as ever.

A long head, big ears and a short body,

Known as Longevity from the Southern Pole.

The Star of Longevity had arrived. When he had made his greetings to the Jade Emperor and the Buddha he made a speech of thanks.


Output:
“When I heard that the monkey fiend had been taken by the Lord Lao Zi to his Tushita palace to be refined I thought that this was bound to restore peace,” he said, “and I never expected he would rebel again. Happily the demon was quelled by the Tathagata, and so when I heard that this feast was being given to thank him I came at once. As I have nothing else to offer I have brought with me purple magic mushrooms, jasper herbs, greenish jade lotus-root, and golden pills of immortality: these I humbly present.” The poem says

Offering the jade louts-root and golden pills to Sakyamuni,

To give him as many years as the grains of sand of the Ganges.

Peace and eternal joy decorate the Three Vehicles;

Prosperity and eternal life make the nine grades of immortals glorious.

Within the gate of No-Phenomena the true Law rules;

Above the Heaven of Nothingness is his immortal home.

Heaven and Earth both call him their ancestor,

His golden body provides blessings and long life.


Output:
The Buddha happily accepted his thanks, and after the Star of Longevity had taken his place the wine-cups started to circulate once more. Then the Bare-foot Immortal appeared, kowtowed to the Jade Emperor, and thanked the Buddha.

“I am deeply grateful to you for subduing the monkey fiend with your divine powers. As I have nothing else with which to express my respect, I offer you two magic pears and a number of fire-dates.”

Sweet are the Bare-foot Immortal’s pears and dates,

And long will be the life of the Buddha to whom they are offered.

The lotus seat of the seven treasures is as firm as a mountain,

His thousand-golden-flower throne is as gorgeous as brocade.

Coeval with Heaven and Earth—this is no lie;

It is true that his blessings are greater than a flood.

His Western Paradise of leisure and bliss

Truly provides all the long life and blessings one could hope.


Output:
The Buddha thanked him too, and telling Ananda and Kasyapa to collect together all the offerings he went over to the Jade Emperor to thank him for the banquet. When all the guests were thoroughly drunk the Miraculous Patrolling Officer reported that the Great Sage had poked his head out.

“It doesn’t matter,” the Buddha said, producing from his sleeve a strip of paper on which were written the golden words Om mani padme hum. He gave this piece of paper to Ananda and told him to stick it on the summit of the mountains. The Venerable Ananda took it through the gates of Heaven and pasted it firmly to a square boulder on the top of the Five Elements Mountain. When this was done the mountain sank roots and joined up all its seams. The Monkey King was still able to breathe and he could still stick his hands out and move them. Ananda went back to Heaven and reported that he had pasted the paper in place.


Output:
The Buddha then took his leave of the Jade Emperor and all the other deities. When he and his two disciples had gone out through the gates of Heaven his merciful heart moved him to chant a spell ordering a local tutelary god and the Revealers of the Truth of the Five Regions to live on the mountain and keep guard over him. When he was hungry they were to feed him iron pellets, and when he was thirsty they were to give him molten copper to drink. When the time of his punishment was over, someone would come and rescue him. Indeed:

The monkey fiend was bold enough to rebel against Heaven,

But was subdued by the Tathagata’s hand.

He endures the months and years, drinking molten copper for his thirst,

And blunts his hunger on iron pellets, serving his time.

Suffering the blows of Heaven, he undergoes torment,

Yet even in the bleakest time a happy fate awaits.

If some hero is ready to struggle for him,

One year he will go to the West in the service of the Buddha.

Another poem goes:


Output:
Another poem goes:

His great power grew as he humbled the mighty,

He used his wicked talents to subdue tigers and dragons.

He stole the peaches and wine as he wandered round Heaven,

Was graciously given office in the Jade Capital.

When his wickedness went too far his body suffered,

But his roots of goodness were not severed, and his breath still rose.

He will escape from the hand of the Buddha,

And wait till the Tang produces a saintly monk.

It you don’t know in what month of what year his sufferings ended, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

Chapter Eight

Our Buddha Creates the Scriptures and Passes on Perfect Bliss

Guanyin Obeys a Decree and Goes to Chang’an

If you try to ask about the dhyana

Or investigate the innumerable

You will waste your life and achieve nothing.

Polishing bricks to make mirrors,

Or piling up snow to turn it into grain—

However many years have you wasted like that?

A hair can contain an ocean,

A mustard-seed can hold a mountain,


Output:
A mustard-seed can hold a mountain,

And the golden Kasyapa only smiles.

When you are awakened you will surpass the Ten Stages and the Three Vehicles,

And stop the four kinds of birth and the six types of reincarnation.

Who has ever heard, before the cliff of thoughts extinguished,

Under the tree that has no shadow,

The sound of the cuckoo in a spring dawn?

The path by the Cao Stream is dangerous,

The Vulture Peak is high in the clouds:

Here the voice of the ancients was a mystery.

On a cliff ten thousand feet high

Five-leaved lotuses bloom

As scent coils round the shutters of the old palace.

At that time

Your knowledge smashes all the currents of thought;

The Dragon King and the Three Treasures can be seen.


Output:
This lyric poem is set to the tune Su Wu Man. Our story goes on to how our Buddha, the Tathagata, left the Jade Emperor and went back to the Thunder Monastery, where he saw the three thousand Buddhas, five hundred Arhats, eight great Vajrapanis and countless Bodhisattvas standing under the pairs of sala trees at the foot of the Vulture Peak, all holding banners, canopies, jewels and magical flowers. The Tathagata brought his propitious cloud to a halt and addressed them thus:

“With my deep insight

I surveyed the Three Worlds.

The origin of nature

Is ultimately emptiness,

Like the great void,

Containing nothing at all.

The subjection of this evil monkey

Was a mystery beyond understanding.

It is called the beginning of life and death:

Such is the appearance of things.


Output:
Such is the appearance of things.

When he had spoken a sacred light filled the sky with forty-two rainbows that linked North and South together. All who saw them bowed, and a moment later the Buddha gathered together some felicitous cloud and climbed to the supreme Lotus Throne, where he seated himself in majesty.

Then the three thousand Buddhas, the five hundred Arhats, the eight Vajrapanis and the four Bodhisattvas came forward to bow to him with their hands together and ask, “Who was it who wrecked the Heavenly Palace and ruined the Peach Banquet?”


Output: “The wretch was a monkey fiend born on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit,” the Buddha replied, “whose towering crimes would beggar description. None of the heavenly generals were able to subdue him, and when Lord Lao Zi refined him with fire after Erlang had captured him, he was unharmed. When I went there he was in the middle of the thunder generals, giving a great display of his martial prowess and his spirit. I stopped the fighting and asked him what it was all about. He said that he had divine powers, was able to do transformations, and could ride a somersault cloud for thirty-six thousand miles at a single jump. I made a wager with him that he could not jump out of my hand, then grabbed him, turned my fingers into the Five Elements Mountain, and sealed him under it. The Jade Emperor opened wide the golden gates of the Jade Palace, and invited me to be the guest of honour at a Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven he gave to thank me. After that I took my leave of him and came back here.” They were all


Output: leave of him and came back here.” They were all delighted by the news and they congratulated him effusively, after which they withdrew group by group, each to go about his duties as all rejoiced in the divine truth. Indeed:


Output:
Propitious vapours filled Paradise,

Rainbows surround the Venerable One.

The Western Paradise, known as the best,

Is ruled by the dharma King of non-phenomenon.

Black apes are always offering fruit,

Deer hold flowers in their mouths;

Blue phoenixes dance,

Coloured birds call;

Sacred turtles offer long life,

Immortal cranes present magic mushrooms.

Here they peacefully enjoy the Pure Land of the Jetavana Park,

The infinite realms of the Dragon Palace.

Every day flowers bloom,

Fruit is always ripe.

Through practicing silence they return to the truth,

Achieving reality by contemplation.

There is no birth nor death;

They neither wax nor wane.

Mists follow them as they come and go;

Untouched by heat or cold, they do not notice the years.


Output:
One day, as the Buddha dwelt in the Thunder Monastery on the Vulture Peak, he called together all the other Buddhas, Arhats, guardian deities, Bodhisattvas, Vajrapanis, monks and nuns and said, “As we are beyond time, I don’t know how long it has been since the crafty ape was subdued and Heaven pacified, but by earthly reckoning it must be about five hundred years. As today is a fine early autumn day and I have a precious bowl filled with a hundred kinds of rare flowers and a thousand varieties of exotic fruit, what would you say to our having an Ullambana Feast?” They all put their hands together and performed the reverence of going round him three times in acceptance. The Buddha then ordered Ananda to hold the bowl of flowers and fruit while Kasyapa laid them out. The hosts were moved to gratitude, which they expressed in verse.

The poem on happiness went:

The Star of Happiness shines bright before the Venerable One;

Gifts of happiness spread wide and deep, ever richer.


Output:
Fortune is boundless and lasts as long as the Earth;

A happy fate has the luck to be linked with Heaven.

Fields of happiness are widely sown and flourish every year;

The sea of happiness is mighty and deep, never changing.

Happiness fills Heaven and Earth, leaving legacies of happiness

Happiness grows beyond measure, eternally complete.

The poem on official rank went:

With rank as high as a mountain, coloured phoenixes call;

With rank ever increasing, we praise the evening star.

Salary raised to ten thousand bushels, and a healthy body;

Salary raised to a thousand tons, and the world at peace.

Rank and salary equaling Heaven, and eternal too;

Rank and fame as great as the sea, and even clearer.

Rank and favour continuing for ever, greatly to be admired;

Rank and nobility without bounds, like ten thousand kingdoms.

The poem on longevity went:

The Star of Longevity shines towards the Buddha;

The glories of the land of longevity start from here.


Output:
Fruits of longevity fill the bowls, glowing with good omen;

Longevity’s flowers are newly plucked and placed on the lotus throne.

Poems of longevity, pure and elegant, full of rare conceits,

Songs of longevity sung with exquisite talent.

Life as long as sun and moon,

Life that will outlast both mountains and seas.

When the Bodhisattvas had presented all the poems they asked the Buddha to expound the fundamentals to them. Then the Tathagata opened his excellent mouth and expounded the great Law and retribution. He spoke about the wonderful scriptures of the Three Vehicles and the theory of the Five Aggregates as contained in the Surangama-sutra; the deities and nagas gathered round, and flowers came raining down in profusion. Indeed:

The meditating heart shines like the moon in a thousand rivers;

The true nature embraces ten thousand miles of sky.


Output: When the Buddha had finished his sermon he said to the host, “I have observed that the morality of the living creatures of the four continents varies. In the Eastern Continent of Superior Body they worship Heaven and Earth, their minds are livery and they are even-tempered. In the Northern Kuru Continent they are given to killing living things, but they only do it to feed themselves; they are stupid and lazy by nature, but they do not trample much on others. Our Western Continent of Cattle-gift has people who neither covet nor kill. They nourish the vital essence and submerge the spirit; and although they produce no saints of the highest order, they all live to a ripe old age. But in the Southern Jambu Continent they are greedy and lecherous and delight in the sufferings of others; they go in for a great deal of killing and quarrelling. That continent can with truth be called a vicious field of tongues and mouths, an evil sea of disputation. I now have Three Stores of True Scriptures with which they can be


Output: Stores of True Scriptures with which they can be persuaded to be good.”


Output: On hearing this, all the Bodhisattvas put their hands together in submission, then went forward to ask, “What Three Stores of True Scriptures does the Tathagata have?”


Output: “I have one store of the Vinaya, the law, which is about Heaven; one of Sastras, expositions which are concerned with Earth; and one of Sutras, or scriptures, which save ghosts. The Three Stores consist of fifteen thousand one hundred and forty-four scrolls in thirty-five classes. They are the scriptures for cultivating the truth, and the gate to real goodness. I want to send them to the Eastern lands because it is intolerable that the beings of that quarter should all be such stupid wretches who slander and defame the true word, do not understand the gist of my Law, and have lapsed from the orthodox Yogacara Sect. How am I to find one with the magic powers to go to the East, choose a worthy believer and bid him make the arduous crossing of a thousand mountain and ten thousand rivers in search of the scriptures until he finally comes to this abode of mine to receive them? When he does come they will be sent to the East for ever to convert all living beings, which will be a blessing as big as a mountain, a


Output: which will be a blessing as big as a mountain, a cause for congratulation as deep as the sea. Is anyone willing to go and find him?”


Output:
The Bodhisattva Guanyin went up to the lotus throne, and after going round the Buddha three times by way of salutation she said, “Your untalented disciple wishes to go to the East to find a man to come and fetch the scriptures.” All present raised their heads to look at the Bodhisattva:

Her understanding filling out the four virtues,

Wisdom filling her golden body.

From her necklace hang pearls and jade,

Her bracelet is made of jewels.

Her hair is black clouds skillfully piled like coiling dragons;

Her embroidered girdle lightly sways, a phoenix wing.

Seagreen jade buttons,

A gown of white silk gauze,

Bathed with sacred light;

Brocade skirts,

A girdle of gold,

Shielded by propitious vapours.

Eyebrows like crescent moons,

Eyes like a pair of stars.

A jade face full of heavenly happiness,

Scarlet lips making a touch of red.

Her pure bottle of sweet dew is ever full,

The willow twigs in it are always green.

She delivers from the eight disasters,

Saves all living beings,


Output:
Saves all living beings,

Great is her compassion.

She stays on Mount Tai,

Lives in the Southern Sea,

Rescues the suffering when she bears their cries,

Never failing to answer every call,

Infinitely divine and miraculous.

Her orchid heart admires the purple bamboo;

Her orchid nature loves the fragrant creeper.

She is the merciful ruler of Potaraka Island,

The living Guanyin of the Tide Cave.

The Buddha was very pleased to see her.

“No one but the venerable Guanyin, whose divine powers are so great, will do for this mission,” he said.

“What instructions have you for your disciple as she goes to the East?” Guanyin asked.


Output:
“You must watch the route all the way,” said the Buddha. “You may not go via the Milky Way, but if necessary you may have a little cloud or mist. As you cross mountains and rivers you must note the distances carefully to enable you to give full instructions to the man who will come to fetch the scriptures. But that true believer will, I’m afraid, have a difficult journey, so I shall give you five treasures for him.” The Buddha ordered Ananda and Kasyapa to bring out a brocade cassock and a nine-ringed monk’s staff.

“Give this cassock and staff to him who will come to fetch the scriptures: they are for him to use. If he is determined to come here, he can avoid the Wheel of Reincarnation by wearing this cassock, and he will be free from evil if he carries this staff.” The Bodhisattva bowed and took them. The Buddha then produced three bands.


Output: “These precious things are called ‘tight bands,’” he told the Bodhisattva as he handed them to her. “Although all three of them look the same, they have different uses. I also have three Band-Tightening Spells. If you meet any devils with great magic powers on your journey you should persuade them to reform and become the disciples of the pilgrim who will come to fetch the scriptures. If they do not do is they are told these bands should be put on their heads, where they will of themselves take root in the flesh. If the appropriate spell for each one is recited the victim’s eyes will bulge, his head will ache, and his forehead will split open. He will thus be certainly induced to adopt our religion.”


Output:
When he finished speaking the Bodhisattva bowed eagerly and withdrew. She told Huian the Novice to accompany her, and he took his iron staff weighing a thousand pounds with him so that he could as a demon-quelling strongman for the Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva wrapped the cassock up in a bundle and gave it to him to carry. She then put the golden bands away safely and went down the Vulture Peak with the staff in her hand. This journey was to have consequences:

The Buddha’s disciple comes back to his original vow;

The Venerable Golden Cicada is dressed in sandalwood.

When the Bodhisattva reached the foot of the mountain the Gold-headed Immortal of the Jade Truth Temple stopped her at the temple gate and invited her to take some tea. But she dared not stop for long, and so she said, “I have been given a sacred command by the Tathagata to go to the East and find a man who will come to fetch the scriptures.”

“When will he arrive?” the Immortal asked.


Output:
“When will he arrive?” the Immortal asked.

“It is not definite,” the Bodhisattva replied, “but he will probably reach here in two or three years’ time.” She took her leave of the Immortal and as she traveled amid cloud and mist she estimated the distances. There are some verses to prove it:

She cared nothing of the journey of ten thousand miles to find him,

But worried about finding the right man.

Looking for the man seemed to be very chancy,

But how can it be a mere coincidence?

One who teaches the Way for the wrong motives will distort it;

He who explains it without faith will preach in vain.

Whoever will try and know it with his whole being,

Is bound to have a future ahead of him.

As the teacher and her disciple were on their journey they suddenly noticed a thousand miles of weak water, which was the River of Flowing Sands.


Output:
“Disciple,” said the Bodhisattva, “this will be hard to cross for the man who will come to fetch the scriptures, as he will be of impure bone and mortal flesh. How will he do it?”

“Teacher, how wide does the river look to you?” asked Huian. The Bodhisattva stopped her cloud to investigate. She saw:

Joining up with the deserts to the East,

Reaching the foreign kingdoms in the West,

Wuge in the South

The Tatars in the North.

It was about three hundred miles across,

And three million miles long.

As the waters flowed it was like the earth turning over,

The waves were like rearing mountains.

Broad and boundless,

Vast and mighty:

From three miles’ distance the mighty flood is heard.

Immortals’ rafts do not reach here,

Lotus leaves cannot float on it.

The sun slants through withered plants and bathes the crooked shore;

Brown clouds block its light and darken the long bank.

How could merchants pass this way?

Has a fisherman ever moored here?

No geese alight on the sandbanks,


Output:
No geese alight on the sandbanks,

But apes cry on the distant shore.

Its color comes from bountiful red smartweed,

While delicate white duckweed drifts together.

As the Bodhisattva was surveying the scene she heard a splash and saw a hideous ogre leap out of the waves. He was

Not really blue,

Not really black,

With an evil face;

Neither tall,

Nor short,

Bare legs and a muscular body.

His eyes flashed

Like a pair of tortoise-shell lanterns;

The comers of his mouth were as sinister

As a butcher’s cauldron.

Protruding fangs like swords,

Red hair, matted and unkempt.

He roared like a clap of thunder,

And ran across the waves with the speed of wind.

This ogre climbed up the bank with a pole in his hands to catch the Bodhisattva, but was stopped by Huian’s staff.

“Don’t run away,” Huian shouted as the ogre advanced towards him. The battle that ensued between them was quite terrifying:

Moksa with his iron club,

Using his divine powers to protect the Bodhisattva;


Output:
The ogre with his demon-quelling pole

Displaying his valour for all be was worth.

A pair of silver dragons dancing by the river;

Two holy monks in battle on the bank.

The one used his skill to control the River of Flowing Sands

The other had distinguished himself in protecting Guanyin.

The one could make the waves leap and roll,

The other could breathe out fogs and gales.

When the waves leapt and rolled, Heaven and Earth were darkened;

In the fogs and gales, sun and moon were dimmed.

The demon-quelling pole

Was like a white tiger coming down from the mountain;

The iron club

Was like a crouching yellow dragon.

When one goes into action

It beats the undergrowth to start the snakes;

When the other lashes out,

It parts the pines to flush the sparrowhawks.

They fight till the sky goes dark

And the stars twinkle.

Then the mist rises,

And earth and sky are dim.

The one has long been unrivalled in the Weak Waters;

The other has always been the hero of Vulture Peak.


Output:
When the pair of them had fought several dozen rounds inconclusively the ogre blocked his opponent’s iron staff and asked, “Where are you from, monk, that you dare to take me on?”

“I am Prince Moksa, the second son of the Pagoda-bearing Heavenly King Li,” the other replied. “I am also Huian the Novice. I am now protecting my teacher on her journey to the East to find the man who will fetch the scriptures. Which monster are you? How dare you stand in our way?” The ogre then realized who he was.

“I remember,” he said, “you used to cultivate your conduct with Guanyin of the Southern Sea in the Purple Bamboo Grove. Why have you come here?”

“Can’t you see my teacher standing there on the bank?”


Output: When the ogre heard this he chanted “na-a-aw” several times to show his respect, withdrew his pole and let Moksa seize it. Then he bowed to Guanyin and said, “Forgive me, Bodhisattva, and listen to what I have to tell you. I am not a demon, but the Curtain Raising General who used to stand in attendance by the imperial chariot in the Hall of Miraculous Mist. Just because I accidentally smashed a crystal dish at a Peach Banquet the Jade Emperor had me given eight hundred strokes of the rod, exiled me to the lower world, and made me look like this. And on top of it all every seven days he sends a flying sword here to stab my chest over a hundred times before it goes back again. It’s agony. I get so unbearably cold and hungry that I have to emerge from the waves every two or three days to devour a traveler. I never thought that in my ignorance I would insult the merciful Bodhisattva today.”


Output: “You were exiled here for a crime against Heaven, but now you are deepening your guilt by harming living beings. I am now going to the East on the Buddha’s orders to find the man who will fetch the scriptures. Why don’t you become one of us and ensure yourself good retribution in future by accompanying the pilgrim as a disciple and ascending to the Western Heaven to pay homage to the Buddha and seek the scriptures? I will see to it that the flying sword stops coming to pierce you, and when you are successful you will be forgiven your crimes and your old job will be given back to you. What do you think of that?”


Output:
“I am willing to return to the truth,” the ogre replied, then went closer as he continued, “Bodhisattva, I have lost count of the number of people I have eaten here, and I have even devoured some pilgrims who were trying to fetch scriptures. I throw the heads of all my victims into the river, and they all sink to the bottom as not even goose-down will float on this water. But the skeletons of those nine pilgrims floated and would not sink. I was so impressed by this that I threaded them together with rope and play with them in my spare time. But I am afraid that the man who is to fetch the scriptures may not get this far, which would wreck my future.”

“Of course he’ll get here,” the Bodhisattva replied. “You should hang those skeletons from your head and wait for him. They will come in useful.”


Output:
“In that case,” the ogre said, “I shall await your instructions.” The Bodhisattva then laid her hands on his head and administered the monastic rules to him, chose for him the surname Sha (“Sand”) and gave him the Buddhist name of Wujing (“Awakened to Purity”). Then he entered monkish life and took the Bodhisattva across the river. He washed his heart, cleansed his thoughts, and stopped killing living creatures. All he did now was to wait for the pilgrim who would come to fetch the scriptures.

After leaving him the Bodhisattva and Huian hurried on towards the East. When they had been travelling for a long time they saw a high mountain veiled with an evil mist, and they were unable to climb it on foot. Just when they were intending to cross the mountain by cloud, a gale wind blew up and a monster suddenly appeared. He too was very menacing to behold:

His entrails hung from his mouth, rolled up and knotted;

His ears were like rush fans, his eyes shone gold.

His teeth were sharp as steel files,


Output:
His teeth were sharp as steel files,

And when he opened his mouth it was like a brazier.

His golden helmet was tied firmly round his cheeks;

His armour, bound with a silken sash, was a python’s sloughed-off skin.

In his hands he held a nailed rake like a dragon’s claw,

At his waist hung a curved bow the shape of a half-moon.

His martial might overawed the Year Planet;

His overweening spirit threatened the heavenly gods.

He rushed upon them, and without a second thought smote at the Bodhisattva with his rake. Moksa the Novice parried his blow, and shouted at the top of his voice, “Remember your manners, damned monster, and watch out for my staff.”

“Monk,” the other replied, “you don’t know how to keep yourself in one piece. Mind my rake!” At the foot of the mountain the pair of them rushed upon each other as they struggled for supremacy. It was a fine battle:

The fierce and murderous ogre;

Huian, imposing and able.

The iron staff could pulverize the heart;

The rake struck at the face.


Output:
The rake struck at the face.

The dust thrown up darkened Heaven and Earth;

The flying sand and stones startled gods and ghouls.

The nine-toothed rake

Gleamed and flashed

As its pair of rings resounded;

The lone staff

Was ominously black

As it whirled in its owner’s hands.

One was the heir of a Heavenly King,

One defended the Law on Potaraka Island.

The other was an evil fiend in a mountain cave.

In their battle for mastery,

None knew who the winner would be.

Just when the fight was getting really good, Guanyin threw down a lotus flower from mid-air to separate the two weapons. The monster, shocked at the sight of it, asked, “Where are you from, monk? How dare you try to fool me with a ‘flower in front of the eyes?’”

“I’ll get you, you stinking, flesh-eyed mortal,” replied Moksa. “I am a disciple of the Bodhisattva of the Southern Sea, and this lotus was thrown down by her. Don’t you know that?”


Output:
“By the Bodhisattva of the Southern Sea do you mean Guanyin Who Eliminates the Three Calamities and Saves from the Eight Disasters?” the monster asked.

“Who else could I mean?” retorted Moksa. The monster threw down his rake, bowed to him, and asked, “Where is the Bodhisattva, elder brother? May I trouble you to introduce me?” Moksa looked up and pointed.

“There she is,” he said. The monster kowtowed to her and shouted in a shrill voice, “Forgive me, Bodhisattva, forgive me.” Guanyin brought her cloud down to earth, went over to him and asked, “Are you a wild boar become a devil or a pig turned monster? How dare you block my way?”


Output:
“I’m neither a wild boar nor a pig,” the monster replied. “I used to be Marshal Tian Peng in the Milky Way. Because I took some wine to seduce the moon maiden, the Jade Emperor sentenced me to two thousand hammer blows and exile in the mortal world. My spirit had to find a womb to occupy, but I lost my way and entered the womb of a sow. That’s why I look like this. I ate up my sow mother, drove all the other pigs away, and seized this mountain, where I keep myself by eating people. I never meant to offend you, Bodhisattva. Save me, save me, I beg you.”

“What is this mountain called?” the Bodhisattva asked.


Output:
“It’s called the Mount of Blessing, and the cave in it is called the Cloud Pathway Cave. Second Sister Luan, who used to live there, saw that I knew how to fight and asked me to be the head of her household as her husband, but she died within a year and all her property became mine. As the days lengthened into years I found that I had no way of supporting myself, so I had to eat people to keep myself going as I had done before. Forgive me my sins, I beg of you, Bodhisattva.”

“There is an old saying,” the Bodhisattva replied, “that goes, ‘If you want to have a future, don’t do anything with no future in it?’ You broke the law in the upper world, and since then your vicious nature has not been reformed. You have further sinned by taking life, so this surely means that you will be doubly punished.”


Output:
“Future!” said the monster angrily. “According to you I should have lived on air! As the saying goes, ‘By the government’s law you’re beaten to death, and by the Buddha’s law you starve to death.’ Clear off! Clear off! If you don’t I’ll capture this pilgrim and eat this plump and tender old woman. I don’t give a hoot if it’s double sinning, triple sinning, or sinning a thousand or ten thousand times over.”

”‘If a man wishes to be good, Heaven will certainly allow him to be,’” said the Bodhisattva. “If you are prepared to submit to the truth, there are of course, ways to feed yourself. There are the five kinds of food-grains, and they are sufficient to assuage hunger, so why eat people to keep alive?”

When the monster heard these words it was as if he awoke from a dream, and he said to the Bodhisattva, “I would love to reform, but isn’t it true that ‘a sinner against Heaven has nowhere to pray to?’”


Output:
“I’m going to the East on the orders of the Buddha to find the man who will fetch the scriptures,” she replied. “You can be a disciple of his and make this journey to the Western Heaven; thus you will gain merit and atone for your crimes, and I will see to it that you are freed from disaster.”

“I’ll go with him, I’ll go with him,” the monster said over and over again. The Bodhisattva then laid her hands on his head and he accepted the monastic rules. She gave him the surname Zhu (“Pig”) because of his appearance, and gave him the Buddhist name Zhu Wuneng (“Pig Awakened to Power”). She ordered him to adhere to the truth and eat only vegetarian food, cutting out the five pungent vegetables as well as the three forbidden things; wild goose, dog and fish. He was now to wait single-mindedly for the pilgrim who would come to fetch the scriptures.


Output:
The Bodhisattva and Moksa then took their leave of the Pig Awakened to Power and continued on their way by low-altitude cloud. As they were travelling along they heard a jade dragon call to them in mid-air.

“Which dragon are you?” the Bodhisattva asked as she went up to him. “And why are you undergoing punishment here?”

“I am the son of Ao Run, the Dragon King of the Western Sea. Because I burnt up the bright pearls in the palace, my father reported me to the court of Heaven as a rebel. The Jade Emperor had me hung up in mid-air and given three hundred strokes, and I am to be executed any day now. I beg you to save me, Bodhisattva.”

When she heard his plea the Bodhisattva went in through the Southern Gates of Heaven with Moksa. Here they were met by the Heavenly Teachers Qiu and Zhang, who asked them, “Where are you going?”


Output: “I would like an audience with the Jade Emperor.” The two Heavenly Teachers hurried in to announce her, and the Jade Emperor came out of his palace to receive her. The Bodhisattva went forward to greet him and said, “On my way to the East on the orders of the Buddha to find the man to fetch the scriptures, I met a wicked dragon suspended in mid-air.. I have come here especially to ask you to spare his life and give him to me so that I can teach him to serve the pilgrim with his legs.” On hearing this the Jade Emperor issued a decree pardoning him, and he sent a heavenly general to release him and give him to the Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva thanked him for his generosity and left. The young dragon kowtowed to show how grateful he was for having his life spared, and he obediently did what the Bodhisattva told him to. She took him to a deep ravine, where he was to wait until the pilgrim came. When that happened he was to turn into a white horse and achieve merit by going to the Western Heaven. On receiving his


Output: by going to the Western Heaven. On receiving his orders the young dragon hid himself.


Output:
The Bodhisattva led Moksa the Novice across this mountain, and they hurried on towards the East. Before they had gone much further they suddenly saw ten thousand beams of golden light and a thousand wisps of propitious vapour.

“Teacher,” said Moksa, “the place where all the light is coming from is the Five Elements Mountain, where the Tathagata’s restriction order is posted.”

“This must be cause that Great Sage Equaling Heaven who wrecked the Peach Banquet and threw the Heavenly Palace into chaos is imprisoned there.”

“That’s right,” Moksa replied, and teacher and pupil climbed the mountain together to look at the paper. On it were written the true words Om mani padme bum, and when the Bodhisattva saw them she sighed deeply and composed a poem that went:

“Pity the evil monkey who did not obey the lord

In his arrogance he showed off his valour in the old days,

In his folly he wrecked the Peach Banquet,

And he had the effrontery to sin in the Tushita Palace.


Output:
In the army of a hundred thousand there was none to match him;

His might was felt above the ninefold heavens.

But now he has been caught by our Tathagata, the Buddha:

Will he ever be able to unleash his talents and win more glory?”

The conversation between teacher and disciple had disturbed the Great Sage, who shouted from under the roots of the mountain, “Who’s that up there?” When she heard this the Bodhisattva hurried down the mountain to visit him. At the foot of the mountainside the local gods, the mountain gods and the heavenly generals who were guarding the Great Sage all bowed to the Bodhisattva in greeting and took her to the Great Sage. She saw that he was pressed down inside a stone box, so that he could speak but could not move his body.


Output:
“Monkey,” the Bodhisattva said, “do you know who I am?” The Great Sage opened wide his fiery eyes with their golden pupils, nodded his head and shouted at the top of his voice, “Of course I recognize you. You, thank goodness, are the All-Compassionate. All-Merciful Deliverer from Suffering, the Bodhisattva Guanyin from Potaraka Island in the Southern Sea. You’re a very welcome visitor. Every day here seems like a year, and nobody I know has ever come to see me. Where have you come from?”

“I have received a mandate from the Buddha to go to the East and find the man who will fetch the scriptures,” she replied, “and as I was passing this way I decided to come over and see you.”

“The Buddha fooled me and crushed me under this mountain—I haven’t been able to stretch myself for five hundred years. I desperately hope that you will be obliging enough to rescue me, Bodhisattva.”

“You wretch,” she replied, “you have such an appalling criminal record that I’m afraid you’d only make more trouble if I got you out.”


Output:
“I have already repented,” he said, “and hope that you will show me the road I should follow. I want to cultivate my conduct.” Indeed:

When an idea is born in a man’s mind

It is known throughout Heaven and Earth.

If good and evil are not rewarded and punished

The world is bound to go to the bad.

The Bodhisattva was delighted to hear what he had to say.

“The sacred scriptures say,” she replied, ‘“If one’s words are good, they will meet with a response from even a thousand miles away; if they are bad, they will be opposed from the same distance.’ If this is your state of mind, then wait while I go to the East to find the man who will fetch the scriptures; I’ll tell him to rescue you. You can be his disciple, observe and uphold the faith, enter our Buddha’s religion, and cultivate good retribution for yourself in the future. What do you say to that?”

“I’ll go, I’ll go,” the Great Sage repeated over and over again.

“As you have reformed,” she said, “I’ll give you a Buddhist name.”


Output: “I’ve already got a name. It’s Sun Wukong.” The Bodhisattva, very pleased, said, “I made two converts earlier, and their names both contained Wu (‘Awakened’). There’s no need to give you any further instructions, so I’ll be off.” The Great Sage, now aware of his own Buddha-nature, was converted to the Buddha’s religion; and the Bodhisattva devotedly continued her search for a saintly monk.


Output: After leaving that place she and Huian carried straight on to the East, and before long they reached Chang’an, the capital of the Great Tang. Putting away their mists and clouds, teacher and pupil turned themselves into a pair of scabby itinerant monks and went inside the city of Chang’an. It was already dark, and beside the great market street they saw a shrine to a local tutelary god and went in. The local god was thrown into confusion at the sight of them, and the devil soldiers quaked with terror; they knew that she was a Bodhisattva, and kowtowed to her in greeting. The local god then scurried off to tell the City God, the Lord of the Alter, and the gods of all the other shrines in Chang’an. When they knew that the Bodhisattva had come they all went to report to her and said, “Bodhisattva, please forgive us for our crime in being late to welcome you.”


Output:
“You mustn’t let a whisper of this get out,” she said. “I have come here on a decree from the Buddha to find someone to fetch the scriptures. I shall be borrowing your temple for a few days while I find this true monk, and then I shall go back.” All the gods returned to their own shrines, and they took the local god to stay in the temple of the City God. Teacher and disciple disguised their true appearances. If you don’t know whom they found to fetch the scriptures, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

Chapter Nine

Chen Guangrui Comes to Grief on His Way to His Post

The Monk of the River Current Avenges His Parents


Output: The story goes on to tell that Chang’an city in the great land of Shaanxi had been a place where emperors and kings had made their capitals for generation after generation. Ever since the Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties, the Three Prefectures had been as rich as brocade, and the eight rivers had flowed round its walls. It was indeed a famous country. At that time Emperor Taizong of the Great Tang was on the throne. He had changed the name of the reign-period to Zhenguan, and had been reigning for thirteen years. The year was ji si and the world was at peace; tribute was being sent in from the eight directions, and all within the four seas acknowledged themselves as subjects.


Output:
One day Taizong took his seat on the throne and assembled all his military and civilian officials. When they had finished making their greetings, the minister Wei Zheng came forward from the ranks of officials and memorialized, “As the world is now at peace and the eight directions are calm, an examination should be held in accordance with the practice of the ancients. Thus we could recruit wise scholars and select men of talent to help with our civilizing mission.”

“The suggestion of our wise minister is right,” said the Emperor, and notices inviting worthy men to compete in the examinations were posted throughout the empire. All the Confucian scholars on the civil or military rolls in every prefecture, district and county who had distinguished themselves in the three-stage examinations for their understanding of literature were to go to Chang’an for a final test.


Output: When this notice reached the district of Haizhou it was seen by a man called Chen E, whose courtesy name was Guangrui. He returned home and said to Madame Zhang, his mother, “The court has issued a yellow notice saying that the Chancellery will be opened for an examination to select men of wisdom and talent. Your child wants to go and take part. If I am given an official post it will bring me fame and make our family illustrious; my wife will be given a title, my sons will be given preferential treatment; and it will bring glory to our house. Such is my ambition; and I have come to tell you, mother, that I am going.”


Output: “You are a scholar, my son,” his mother replied, “and it is right that ‘one who studies when young should travel when grown up’. But do take care on the journey to the examinations, and if you are given office, come back home as soon as you can.” Chen Guangrui then ordered his servants to get his luggage together, took his leave of his mother, and started off on his journey. When he reached Chang’an the examination grounds were open and he went in. Having been successful in this examination, he went to the palace for the three questions test. The Tang Emperor personally awarded him the first place, and he was paraded round the streets on horseback for three days.


Output: It happened that just when the procession was passing the gateway of the minister Yin Kaishan, the minister’s unmarried daughter Wenqiao, whose other name was Man-tang-qiao (Beauty Throughout the Hall), was making decorations for the house and throwing an embroidered ball to see who her future husband would be. When Chen Guangrui passed below she saw at once that he was exceptionally handsome, and she knew that he had come first in the recent examinations. She was thoroughly taken with him, and when she dropped her embroidered ball it landed squarely on his black hat. To the sound of pipes and flutes a dozen or so maidservants and serving women hurried downstairs to take hold of the head of Chen Guangrui’s horse and invite him into the minister’s mansion to marry his daughter. The minister and his wife came into the main hall, and when they had called for a master of ceremonies they married their daughter to Guangrui. When bride and groom had bowed to Heaven, Earth and each other they both bowed to the


Output: Earth and each other they both bowed to the bride’s father and mother. The minister ordered a banquet, and there was a night of drinking and celebration. The bride and groom went hand in hand into the bridal chamber.


Output:
At the third quarter of the fifth watch the next morning Emperor Taizong took his throne in the Golden Chariot Hall, and the civil and military officials came to court.

“What office should Chen Guangrui who came top in the examinations be given?” the Emperor asked, and the minister Wei Zheng replied, “Your subject has gone through the list of the prefectures and commanderies, and found that the district of Jiangzhou needs a prefect. I beg Your Majesty to give him this office.” The Emperor therefore appointed him prefect of Jiangzhou and ordered him to pack his belongings and set off as he had to be there by a set date. Chen Guangrui thanked the Emperor for his grace and withdrew. He went back to the minister’s mansion and consulted his wife, then he took his leave of his parents-in-law and set off together with her for his post in Jiangzhou.


Output:
It was late spring as they left Chang’an at the start of their journey. Warm breezes were coaxing the willows into green, and light rain was touching the blossoms with red. Chen Guangrui was able to call at his own home on the way, so he and his bride could pay their respects to his mother, Madame Zhang.

“Congratulations, my son,” she said. “And you have brought a bride back with you too.”

“Thanks to my mother’s blessings, your son was placed first in the examinations,” he replied, “and given a parade through the streets on His Majesty’s orders. As I was passing the gateway of minister Yin’s residence, I happened to be hit by an embroidered ball, and the minister was kind enough to give me his daughter’s hand. The court has appointed me prefect of Jiangzhou, so I have come to fetch you, mother, and take you with me to my post.” Madame Zhang was overjoyed, and she packed her luggage and traveled with them.


Output:
One night, after they had been on the road for several days, they put up at the Liu the Second’s Ten Thousand Flowers Inn, where Madame Zhang was suddenly taken ill.

“As I’m not feeling well,” she said to her son, “I’d better stay in this inn for a couple of days to get over it before going on.” Chen Guangrui accepted her suggestion. The next morning he saw a man selling a golden-coloured carp in front of the inn and brought it from him for a string of copper coins, intending to have it lightly fried for his mother. Then he noticed it blinking.

“It’s said that if a fish or a snake blinks it is no ordinary creature,” he thought. He asked the fisherman where he had caught it.

“In the Hongjiang River, five miles from the prefectural capital,” the fisherman replied. Chen Guangrui had the fish taken back to the Hongjiang River to be released there, then went back to the inn to tell his mother about what had happened.


Output:
“It is good to release living things,” his mother said, “and I am very pleased.” Then Chen Guangrui said, “We have been at this inn for three days, and the time limit set for me is a tight one, so I must be on my way tomorrow morning. Are you well enough yet, mother?”

“I’m still poorly,” his mother replied, “and it’s so hot to travel now that I’m afraid it might make me seriously ill. You had better take a couple of rooms for me and leave me some money; I’ll stay here for the time being. You two can go on ahead to your post. Come back to fetch me in the autumn when it’s cooler.” Having discussed it with his wife he rented a wing for her and gave her some money, then they took their leave of her and set off.


Output: It was a hard journey, setting off every day at dawn and not stopping till nightfall, and before they realized it they reached the ford over the Hongjiang Estuary. They saw two boatmen, Liu Hong and Li Biao, punt their ferry to the bank for them. This was the disaster, these were the enemies, that Chen Guangrui had been fated to meet ever since before he was born. He told his servant to put the luggage on board, while he and his wife climbed sedately into the boat. Liu Hong stared at Miss Yin, and saw that her face was like a full moon, her eyes like autumn waves, her tiny mouth like a cherry, and her waist as supple as a willow; her charms would have made fishes sink and wild geese fall from the sky, and her beauty put moon and flowers to shame. Evil thoughts surged up in him, and he conspired with Li Biao to punt the boat to a misty and deserted place and wait till the middle of the night, when they killed first the servant and then Chen Guangrui. They pushed both the corpses into the river and went away.


Output:
When the young lady saw her husband killed she tried to fling herself into the water, but Liu Hong put his arms round her and said, “If you come with me, you’ll be all right; but if you don’t, I’ll cut you in half.” Unable to think of any other way out, the young lady had to agree to stay with Liu Hong for the time being at least. The murderer took the boat across to the Southern bank and gave it to Li Biao. Then he dressed up in Chen Guangrui’s clothes and, armed with the dead man’s credentials, went with the young lady to take up his post in Jiangzhou.

The corpse of the murdered servant floated with the current, but Chen Guangrui’s body sank straight to the bottom and did not move. A patrolling yaksha demon stationed at the Hongjiang Estuary saw him and rushed straight back to the dragon palace to report. He arrived just as the dragon king was entering the throne-hall.


Output:
“Someone has murdered a learned gentleman at the Hongjiang Estuary, and thrown the body into the bed of the river,” he reported. The dragon king had the body brought in and laid in front of him. After examining it carefully he said, “This is the benefactor who saved my life: why has he been murdered? As the saying goes, ‘Always repay a kindness’. I must save his life today to repay him for the favour he did me in the past.” He wrote a memorandum and sent a yaksha with it to the city god and local god of Hongzhou asking for the scholar’s soul so that he could save his life. The city god and the local god told a junior devil to give Chen Guangrui’s soul to the yaksha, who took it back to the palace of crystal and reported to the dragon king.

“What is your name, scholar?” asked the dragon king. “Where are you from? What brought you here, and why were you killed?”


Output:
Chen Guangrui bowed to him and replied, “My name is Chen E and my courtesy name is Guangrui. I come from Hongnong County in Haizhou Prefecture. I was given first place in the recent examinations, and was on my way with my wife to take up my post as prefect of Jiangzhou when we boarded a ferry at the bank of this river. The boatman Liu Hong lusted after my wife, so he killed me and threw me overboard. I beg you to save me, Your Majesty.”

“So that’s how things stand,” said the dragon king. “I am the golden carp you released. You saved me then, so I must help you now that you are in trouble.” He had Guangrui’s body placed beside a wall and put a “Face Preserving Pearl” in its mouth to stop it from decomposing so that the soul could be returned to it in future for him to obtain his revenge. “As you are now a true soul, you shall stay in my palace for the time being as a commander,” the dragon king added. Chen Guangrui kowtowed in thanks, and the dragon king gave a banquet to welcome him.


Output:
Miss Yin’s hatred for the villainous Liu Hong was such that she wished she could eat his flesh and spread his flayed hide on her bed, but as she was pregnant and the child had not yet been born she had to force herself to go with him. In the twinkling of an eye they reached Jiangzhou. The clerks and constables all turned out to welcome him, and the subordinate officials in the prefecture gave a banquet for him in the main hall of his office.

“Now that I, your student, have come here, I shall be entirely dependent on the support of all you gentlemen,” said Liu Hong.

“Your honour is a great genius,” the officials replied, “and you will naturally treat the people as your own children, thus cutting down litigation and making punishment unnecessary. We will all be able to rely on you—your excessive modesty is uncalled for.” When the banquet was over they all went away.


Output: Time flew by. One day, when Liu Hong was far away on official business, the young lady was in a summerhouse in the official residence sighing sadly as she thought of her mother-in-law and her husband. Suddenly she felt weak and her belly started to ache. She fell to the ground unconscious, and before she knew it she gave birth to a son. She heard a voice in her ear saying, “Man-tang-qiao, you must do as I tell you. I am the Lord of the Southern Pole Star, and I have come to give you this son on the orders of the Bodhisattva Guanyin. One day he will be extraordinarily famous. When the villainous Liu comes back he will certainly want to kill this boy, so you must look after him with great care. Your husband has been rescued by the dragon king; one day you will be reunited with him and your son, and your sufferings will be at an end. Remember my words. Wake up, wake up!”


Output:
When the young lady came to she remembered every word he had spoken, but as she wrapped the baby tight in swaddling clothes, she could not think what to do. When Liu Hong came back he wanted to drown the child the moment he saw him, but the young lady said, “It’s already dark: we can throw him in the river tomorrow.”

Fortunately Liu Hong had to go a long way away on urgent business the next day.


Output: “If I wait till that villain returns my son will be killed,” thought the young lady, “so the best thing would be to abandon him in the river as soon as possible and let fate determine whether he is to live or do die. If Heaven is merciful someone will rescue the boy and bring him up, and we shall be reunited one day.” Then, worrying that she might not be able to recognize him, she bit open her finger and wrote a letter in blood giving a full account of his parentage and background. Then she bit off the little toe of the child’s left foot to be an identifying mark, wrapped him up in one of her own shifts, and carried him out of the official residence when nobody was looking. Luckily the residence was not far from the river bank. When she reached it she wept for a while and was just going to throw him in when she noticed a board floating beside the bank. The young lady bowed to Heaven in her gratitude and tied the child to the board with her sash, placing the blood letter next to his chest. Then she pushed him


Output: letter next to his chest. Then she pushed him out into the stream to go where he would and returned to the yamen in tears.


Output: The boy floated downstream on the plank until he came to a stop under the Jinshan Temple. The abbot of this temple was a monk called Faming who by cultivating the Truth and being awakened to the Way had found the secret of avoiding rebirth. As he was sitting at his meditation he heard a baby crying, and he hurried anxiously down to the riverside to look. He saw a baby lying on a board beside the bank, and got him out of the water as quickly as he could. When he read the letter written in blood that was on the baby’s chest he knew why he was there. He gave the child the milk-name Jiangliu, “River Current,” and arranged for him to be fostered. The letter in blood he put away in a very safe place. Time passed like an arrow, and the days and months moved as fast as a shuttle. When Jiangliu reached the age of seventeen the abbot told him to have his head tonsured and enter the religious life. Giving him the Buddhist name Xuanzang he laid his hands upon his head and instructed him to observe the monastic


Output: head and instructed him to observe the monastic discipline. Xuanzang was determined to cultivate the Way.


Output:
One day in late spring the whole community gathered under the shade of some pine trees to expound the scriptures, meditate and discuss the inner mysteries. A bibulous, meat-eating monk who had been confounded in a disputation by Xuanzang lost his temper and started to abuse him: “You animal, you don’t know your own surname or who your parents were. Don’t try any of your clever tricks here.” Stung by this abuse, Xuanzang went into the temple and knelt before his teacher with tears streaming from his eyes.

“All men who are born between Heaven and Earth, and who are endowed with the Positive, the Negative, and the Five Elements—all are begotten by a father and reared by a mother,” he said. “How can there be any man alive who never had father and mother?” He begged over and over again to know his parents’ names.


Output:
“If you really wish to find out about your father and mother, come with me into my cell,” said the abbot, and they went there together. The abbot lifted down a little box from on top of a massive beam, opened it, took out a letter written in blood and a shift, and gave them to Xuanzang, who unfolded the letter and read it. At last he learned about his parents and the wrongs they had suffered.

When he had read it he collapsed, weeping and crying out, “How can I be a man if I don’t avenge my father and mother? For seventeen years I haven’t known my own parents, but now I know that I have a mother. I would not be alive today, teacher, had you not rescued me and brought me up. Please allow me to go and see my mother, then I will put an incense-burner on my head and rebuild the temple to repay the great kindness you have shown me.”


Output:
“If you want to go and look for your mother you had better take the letter written in blood and the shift with you. If you go to the private residence of the prefect of Jiangzhou you will be able to see your mother.”

Xuanzang did as his teacher had said and went to Jiangzhou as a mendicant monk. It happened that Liu Hong was away on business, and as Heaven had arranged for mother and son to meet, Xuanzang went straight to the gateway of the residence to beg for alms. Miss Yin had dreamt the previous night of the moon being eclipsed and then coming back to its full roundness.


Output:
“I have never heard from my mother-in-law,” she thought, “and my husband was murdered by that evil man. My son was abandoned on the river, and if he was rescued and brought up, he would be seventeen now. Who knows, perhaps Heaven is going to make us meet today.” As she was deep in her reflections she heard someone chanting scriptures and calling for alms in front of her home, so she thought she would go out and ask him where he had come from, and he replied, “I am a disciple of Abbot Faming of the Jinshan Temple.”

“A disciple of Abbot Faming of the Jinshan Temple, are you?” she said. She asked him in and gave him a vegetarian meal while observing closely the way he moved and talked.

He seemed very much like her husband, so she sent the servants away and asked, “Tell me, young teacher, have you been a monk since childhood or did you become one later in life? What is your name? Do you have a mother and father?”


Output:
“I did not become a monk when I was a child nor when I was older,” he replied. “I must tell you that I bear a hatred as deep as the sea because of a terrible wrong. My father was murdered and my mother carried off by an evil man. The Abbot Faming, my teacher, told me to come and find my mother in the residence of the prefect of Jiangzhou.”

“What is your mother’s name?” she asked.

“My mother’s name is Yin Wenqiao,” he replied. “My father was called Chen Guangrui. My milk-name was Jiangliu, and my Buddhist name is Xuanzang.”

“I am Yin Wenqiao,” she said, then added, “Have you any proof?” When he learned that she was his mother, Xuanzang fell to his knees and wept aloud.

“Mother,” he said, “if you don’t believe me, then look at this evidence—the blood letter and the shift.” As soon as she saw that they were the real ones, she and her son embraced each other and wept.

Then she said, “Go away at once.”


Output:
Then she said, “Go away at once.”

“I can’t possibly leave you, mother, on the very day I’ve seen you after seventeen years of not even knowing who my parents were,” he said.

“My child, you must go away as fast as you can,” she replied. “The evil Liu will certainly kill you if he comes back. Tomorrow I’ll pretend to be ill and say that I once made a vow to donate a hundred pairs of monks’ shoes. I’ll come to your temple to fulfil the vow, and I’ll talk to you then.” Xuanzang obediently bowed to her and left.

Now that she had seen her son Miss Yin was both anxious and happy. One day she said that she was ill, and she lay in her bed refusing food and tea. When Liu Hong came back and asked what was the matter she said, “When I was young I once vowed that I would donate a hundred pairs of monks’ shoes. Five days ago I dreamt that a monk came with a sharp sword in his hand to demand the shoes, and since then I haven’t been feeling well.”


Output:
“That’s easily done,” said Liu Hong. “Why didn’t you mention it before?” He took his place in the official hall and gave instructions to yamen assistants Wang and Li that every household living in the city of Jiangzhou was to make a pair of monk’s shoes and hand them in within five days.

When the common people had handed all the shoes in, Miss Yin said to Liu Hong, “Now that the shoes have been made, what temples are there here to which I can take them to fulfil my vow?”

“In Jiangzhou we have the Jinshan Temple and the Jiaoshan Temple; you can go to whichever of them you prefer,” replied Liu Hong.

“I’ve long heard that the Jinshan Temple is a good one, so I’ll go there,” she said. Liu Hong told the yamen assistants Wang and Li to arrange a boat. Miss Yin went aboard with a trusted servant, the boatman pushed off, and they headed for the Jinshan Temple.


Output: On his return to the temple Xuanzang gave Abbot Faming a full account of what had happened. The abbot was delighted. The next day a maid arrived at the temple to say that her mistress was coining to repay a vow, and all the monks came out to welcome her. When Miss Yin came into the temple she prayed to the Bodhisattva, offered a rich meal to the monks with a donation of money to each of them, and told her maid to put the shoes and the summer socks into the offertory tray. She then went into the Buddha-hall and worshipped with great devotion. When she told him to, Abbot Faming went away to distribute the gifts to the monks. Xuanzang saw that all the other monks had gone and that there was nobody else in the Buddha-hall, so he went up to his mother and knelt down. She told him to take off his shoes and socks and saw that one toe was indeed missing from his left foot. The pair of them hugged each other and cried again, then they bowed to the abbot to thank him for his kindness in bringing the boy up.


Output:
“I’m worried that the villain may get to know of your reunion,” said the abbot, “so you had better go back as quickly as you can to avoid trouble.”

“My son,” said Miss Yin, “I shall give you a sandalwood bracelet. You must go to a place called the Ten Thousand Flowers Inn to the Northwest of Hongzhou, which is about five hundred miles from here, where we left Madame Zhang, your paternal grandmother. I shall also write you a letter that you must take to the house of the minister Yin Kaishan which lies to the left of the palace inside the capital city of the Tang Emperor. He is my father. Give him this letter and ask him to submit a memorial to the Tang Emperor asking him to send horse and foot to capture or kill that bandit. Then your father will be avenged and your mother will be rescued. I must stay no longer as I am afraid that evil man may be suspicious if I am late back.” She left the temple and went back in her boat.


Output:
Xuanzang returned to the temple in tears and told the abbot that he was leaving at once for Hongzhou. When he reached the Ten Thousand Flowers Inn he said to the innkeeper Liu the Second, “How is the mother of Prefect Chen of Jiangzhou who is staying in your inn?”

“She used to stay here,” replied the innkeeper. “She went blind, and as she didn’t pay any rent for three or four years, she now lives in a ruined tile-kiln near the Southern gate and begs in the streets every day to keep herself alive. That official went away a very long time ago and she hasn’t heard from him to this day, though I don’t know why.” On learning this he asked the way to the ruined tile-kiln at the Southern gate and found his grandmother.

“You sound like my son Chen Guangrui,” said his grandmother.

“I’m not Chen Guangrui, I’m his son. My mother is Miss Yin Wenqiao.”


Output:
“Why have your father and mother not come?” she asked; and he replied, “My father was murdered by a brigand and my mother was forced to become his wife. I have a letter here and a sandalwood bracelet from my mother.” His grandmother took the letter and the bracelet, and sobbed aloud. “My son came here for the sake of fame and glory. I thought that he had forgotten all feelings of decency and gratitude; it never occurred to me that he might have been murdered. What a blessing that Heaven in its mercy did not cut short my son’s line, so that I now have a grandson to come and find me.”

“How did you go blind, granny?” asked Xuanzang.

“I was always thinking of your father and longing for him to come back every day,” she said, “but as he never did I wept so much that! lost the sight of both my eyes.” Xuanzang fell to his knees and prayed to Heaven.


Output:
“Although I am seventeen,” he said, “I have been unable to avenge my parents. Today I have come on my mother’s orders and found my grandmother; if Heaven is at all moved by my sincerity, may my granny’s eyes see again.” When he had prayed, he licked her eyes with the tip of his tongue. The licking soon opened them, and they could see once more.

His grandmother looked at the little monk with a mixture of joy and sadness and said, “You really are my grandson—you’re the very image of my son Guangrui.” Xuanzang took her out of the kiln and reinstalled her in Liu the Second’s inn, where he rented a room for her, gave her some money to live on, and told her that he would be back within a month.

Taking his leave of his grandmother, he went straight on to the capital, where he found Minister Yin’s house in the Eastern Avenue of the imperial city. “I am a relation of the minister’s,” he said to the gate-keeper, “and I would like to see him.”


Output:
When the gate-keeper reported this to the minister, he said, “I am no relation of any monk.” But his wife said, “I had a dream last night that our daughter Man-tang-qiao came home; perhaps he has a letter from our son-in-law.”

The minister had the young monk brought into the main hall, and when the monk saw the minister and his wife he wept and bowed to the floor before them, then took an envelope out of his bosom and handed it to the minister. The minister opened the letter and read it through, then wailed aloud.

“What’s the matter, my lord?” asked his wife, and the minister replied, “This monk is our grandson. Our son-in-law Chen Guangrui was murdered by a brigand, who forced Man-tang-qiao to become his wife.” His wife too began to weep bitterly when she heard this news.

“Try not to upset yourself, wife,” said the minister. “I shall ask our sovereign at court tomorrow morning to be allowed to lead an army myself. I shall certainly avenge our son-in-law.”


Output: The minister went to court the next day and wrote in a memorial to the Tang Emperor: “Your subject’s son-in-law, the top graduate Chen Guangrui, was murdered by the boatman Liu Hong while going with his family to take up his office in Jiangzhou, and my daughter was forced to become his wife. This Liu Hong has usurped office for many years by masquerading as my son-in-law. This constitutes treason. I beg Your Majesty to dispatch horse and foot at once to destroy this rebellious brigand.”


Output: The Tang Emperor was so angry when he read this that he ordered Minister Yin to set off at the head of sixty thousand men of the Imperial Guard. The minister left the court with the decree and went to the parade ground to muster the soldiers before setting out for Jiangzhou. By setting out at dawn every day and not stopping till night, they traveled as fast as a shooting star or a flying bird, and before they realized it they had reached Jiangzhou, where Minister Yin’s army camped on the Northern bank. That night he sent a messenger with a gold-inscribed tablet to summon the deputy prefect and district judge of Jiangzhou. Minister Tin explained the situation to them and told them to call out their troops to help him. They crossed the river together, and surrounded Liu Hong’s yamen before dawn. Liu Hong, who was still in his dreams, heard the sound of cannon and the beating of drums and gongs; when the soldiers rushed his residence he was helpless and soon captured. The minister ordered that Liu Hong and his


Output: The minister ordered that Liu Hong and his gang should be tied up and taken to the execution ground, while the army was to encamp outside the city walls.