The Great Sage had the banners unstitched and washed, then put them all together as one multicolored banner which bore the legend, Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Restorer of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, Recreator of the Water Curtain Cave. They hung the banner from a pole outside the cave, and for days on end he invited demons and held gatherings of the wild beasts. He accumulated provisions, and the word “monk” was never mentioned. As he was so generous and his powers so great he was able to go and borrow some sweet magic waters from the dragon kings of the four seas with which to bathe the mountain and make it green again. In front of it he planted elms and willows, and behind it pines and cedars; he also put in peaches, greengages, jujubes, and plums. Thus he led a happy and carefree life.
Let us return to the Tang Priest, who had trusted the word of crafty Nature and dismissed the Mind Ape. He climbed into his saddle, and with Pig leading the way and Friar Sand carrying the luggage they carried on Westwards. After crossing the White Tiger Ridge they saw a range of forested hills of which it could truthfully be said that creepers climbed and twisted among the bluish cypresses and green pines.
“Disciples,” said Sanzang, “this rough mountain path is very hard going, and we must be careful in the dense pine forests ahead as I'm afraid there may be evil spirits and monsters.” At this the idiot Pig summoned up his spirits and, telling Friar Sand to guide the horse, cleared a path with his rake along which he led the Tang Priest into the forest. As they were going along, the venerable Sanzang reined in his horse and said to Pig, “I'm really starving today. Is there anywhere you could find some food for me?”
“Please dismount, master,” Pig replied, “and wait here while I go and find some.” Sanzang dismounted, while Friar Sand put down his load, took out his begging bowl, and handed it to Pig. “I'm off,” said Pig, and when asked by Sanzang where he was going he replied, “Don't let that bother you. I'll beg you some food even if it's like cutting through ice to get fire, or even if it means squeezing oil out of snow.”
He traveled West about four miles from the pine forest without meeting anybody. It was indeed a lonely place inhabited only by wolves and tigers. The idiot found the going heavy, and he muttered to himself, “When Monkey was with us the old priest could have anything he wanted, but now I have to do it all. How true it is that 'you have to keep house to realize how expensive rice and firewood are, and raise sons to understand parental love'. There's nowhere at all to beg on this road.” By now he felt sleepy after all this walking and he thought, “If I go back now and tell the old monk that there's nowhere I can beg food, he may not believe I've come this far. I'd better hang around here for another hour or two before reporting back. Oh well, I may as well take a snooze in that grass.” With that the idiot pillowed his head in the grass and went to sleep. He had only meant to take forty winks and then get up again, not realizing that he was so exhausted by the journey that he would be sound asleep as soon as his head was down.
Let us leave Pig asleep there and return to Sanzang in the forest. As he was feeling anxious and unsettled he said to Friar Sand, “It's late now. Why isn't Pig back from begging for food?”
“Master,” said Friar Sand, “you still don't understand him. He's found out that many of these Westerners give food to monks, and with his big belly he won't be bothering about you. He won't be back till he's eaten his fill.”
“True,” said Sanzang. “If he's greedily stuffing himself somewhere far away we needn't concern ourselves with him. It's getting late and this is no place to spend the night. We must find somewhere to stay.”
“There's no rush, master,” said Friar Sand. “You sit and wait here while I go and find him.”
“Very well,” said Sanzang, “very well. Never mind about the food. It's somewhere for the night that matters.” Clasping his precious staff, Friar Sand went off through the pine forest in search of Pig.
Sanzang felt thoroughly tired and miserable as he sat alone in the forest, so he summoned up his spirits, leapt to his feet, hid all the luggage in a cache, tethered the horse to a tree, took off his reed hat, and drove his staff into the ground. Then he straightened out his black robes and took a leisurely stroll among the trees to cheer himself up. As he looked at all the wild flowers he did not hear the calls of the birds returning to their nests. The grass was deep and the forest paths were narrow, and in his distraction he lost his way. He had started out to cheer himself up and also to find Pig and Friar Sand; what he did not realize was that they had headed due West while he, after wandering in all directions, was going South. He came out of the forest and looked up to see a dazzling golden light. On closer examination he saw that it was the golden roof of a pagoda whose gleaming in the setting sun. “What a sad destiny my disciples have,” he thought. “When I left the land of the East, I vowed that I would burn incense in every temple I passed, would worship every Buddha statue I saw, and sweep up every pagoda I encountered. Isn't that a golden pagoda gleaming over there? Why didn't we go that way? There's bound to be a monastery at the foot of the pagoda, and the monastery must surely contain monks. Let me have a look. The luggage and the white horse can come to no harm in that uninhabited spot. If there is some suitable place we can all spend the night here when my disciples come back.”
Alas! The venerable Sanzang was once more the victim of delusion. He strode over to the pagoda, and what he saw was
A cliff ten thousand fathoms high,
A lofty mountain reaching to the firmament.
Its roots sunk deep into the earth,
Its peak thrust up into the sky.
On either side were trees by the thousand,
While creepers stretched many miles around.
The wind made shadows as it bent the tips of the flowers;
The moon had no root where the waters flowed under the clouds.
A fallen tree spanned a deep ravine,
Withered creepers were knotted round the gleaming peak.
Under the stone bridge,
Ran the water from a spring;
On the sacred altar
The ever-burning lamp was as bright as chalk.
From a distance it looked like the Three Islands of Paradise;
Close to, it resembled the blessed land of Penglai.
Fragrant pine and purple bamboo grew round the mountain brooks,
Magpies, monkeys, crows, and apes roamed the lofty ridge.
Outside the door of a cave
Animals came and went in orderly groups.
Among the trees
Flocks of birds were briefly seen.
Luxuriant grew the green and scented herbs,
As the wild flowers bloomed in all their glory.
This was clearly an evil place
That the deluded priest approached,
Sanzang stepped out and was soon at the gate of the pagoda. Seeing a curtain of speckled bamboo hanging inside, he lifted it up and went in. He raised his head and saw an evil monster sleeping on a stone bed. Do you know what he looked like?
A dark blue face,
White fangs,
A huge gaping mouth.
On either side of it were matted hairs
All stained with fat and grease.
The purple tufts of his beard and moustache
Made one think of splayed-out lichee shoots.
His nose was as hooked as a parrot's beak
His eyes as dim as stars in the dawn.
His two fists
Were the size of a monk's begging bowl;
His indigo-blue feet
Were like a pair of logs.
The pale yellow robe that was flung across him
Was grander than a brocade cassock.
The sword in his hand
Gleamed and flashed;