Brother Monkey went for a close look and saw thick clouds of demoniacal fog hanging over it, as well as an abundance of evil winds and vapors of injustice. Up in the air Monkey sighed and said,
“Auspicious light would shine all around
If a true monarch now sat on the throne.
But black vapors hang over the gates of the palace
Now that a fiend has made it his own.”
As he was sighing Monkey heard the clear report of a cannon. The Eastern gate of the city opened, and out poured a column of people and horses. It was indeed an impressive hunting party:
Leaving the Forbidden City at dawn,
They fan out into the bush,
Their coloured flags bright in the sun,
White horses galloping into the wind.
Alligator-skin drums pound
As fencing spears clash together.
Ferocious the corps of falconers,
Martial the masters of the bounds.
Cannons shake the heavens,
While sticky-poles gleam red in the sun.
Each man carries a crossbow;
Everyone has a bow at his waist.
The nets are spread at the foot of the hills,
And snares are set along the paths.
With a noise more frightening than thunder
A thousand horsemen surround a bear.
The cunning hare cannot save itself,
And the crafty river-deer is at its wit's end.
The foxes are fated to meet their doom,
And death now faces the roebuck.
The mountain pheasant cannot fly away,
Nor can its cousin on the plain escape.
They have taken over the mountains to catch wild beasts,
And are destroying the forests to shoot the flying birds.
After they all left the city they ambled through the Eastern outskirts and before long they were on high ground some six miles away where there was a military encampment. There was a very short general wearing a helmet, a breast plate, a sash round his waist, and eighteen metal plates. He held a blue-edged sword and sat astride a yellow charger. At his waist hung a ready-strung bow. Indeed:
He was the image of a monarch,
With an emperor's noble visage.
His manners were not those of a petty man;
He moved like a true dragon.
As Brother Monkey looked down from mid-air he was delighted. “It goes without saying that he must be the crown prince. I think I'll play a trick on him.” The splendid Great Sage brought his cloud down to land and charged straight through the soldiers till he was before the crown prince's horse. Then he shook himself and turned himself into a white hare that started to run around frantically in front of the prince's horse, to the delight of the prince when he spotted it. Fastening an arrow to his bow, he drew it and hit the hare with his first shot.
Now the Great Sage had deliberately made the prince hit him, and with the quickness of his hand and eye he caught the arrowhead, dropped its feathers on the ground beside him, and started to run. Seeing his arrow hit the jade rabbit, the crown prince gave his horse its head and galloped ahead of the field in pursuit. He did not notice that when his horse galloped fast Monkey went like the wind, and that when the horse slowed down Monkey slowed down too, keeping only a little distance ahead. Watch as he leads the prince for mile after mile until he has lured him to the entrance of the Precious Wood Monastery. Here Monkey turned back into himself. The hare was no longer to be seen. There was only an arrow stuck into the lintel. Monkey rushed inside and told the Tang Priest, “He's here, Master, he's here.” Then with another transformation he turned himself into a tiny monk only two inches tall and squeezed into the red box.
Having chased the jade here as far as the monastery entrance the prince was most surprised when it disappeared and all that could be seen was an arrow fletched with vulture feathers stuck in the lintel.
“That's odd,” he exclaimed, “very odd indeed. I'm quite sure that I hit the jade here. It can't have disappeared, leaving only my arrow here. I suppose that over the years the here must have become a spirit.” Pulling his arrow out he saw the words ROYALLY FOUNDED PRECIOUS WOOD MONASTERY written large over the entrance.
“I remember,” he said to himself. “Some years ago when my father was in the palace's throne hall he sent officials with gifts of money and silk for the monks here to build a Buddha hall with Buddha statues. I didn't expect to come here today; but, as they say,
To hear the monk's words when you pass a shrine
Is half a day's rest from the vanity of life.”
The crown prince dismounted and was just on the point of going inside when his personal guards and the three thousand horsemen galloped up in a great crowd, all pushing and shoving to get into the monastery. Deeply alarmed, the monks all came out to kowtow in greeting and lead the prince into the monastery's main hall, where he worshipped the statues of Buddhas. When he raised his head to look around before taking a stroll along the cloisters to see the sights he noticed a monk sitting right in the middle of the hall. “What effrontery!” he exclaimed. “I, the crown prince, have come to visit this monastery in person today, and although the monks did not have to travel to meet me as they were not notified by royal decree, this monk should at least have got up when I arrived with all my army. How dare he carry on sitting there?” He then ordered that the monk be arrested.
At the word “arrest” the officers standing to either side of the prince all seized Sanzang at once and got ropes ready to tie him up with. Monkey was now silently praying in his box: “Heavenly Kings who protect the dharma, Six Dings and Six Jias, I have a plan to subdue a demon, but this prince doesn't know what he's doing, and he's going to have my master tied up. You must protect him at once. If you allow him to be tied up you'll all be in trouble.” None of them dared disobey the Great Sage's secret instructions, and they did indeed protect Sanzang. The officers could not even touch Sanzang's shaven pate; it was as if he were surrounded by a wall, and they could get nowhere near him.
“Where are you from, and how dare you insult me with this self-protection magic?” asked the crown prince. Sanzang went up to him, greeted him respectfully, and said, “I have no self-protection magic. I am the Tang Priest from the East going to worship the Buddha, fetch scrip-tares and offer treasures in the Thunder Monastery.”
“Your Eastern lands may be in the central plains,” replied the prince, “but they are extraordinarily poor. What treasures could you possibly have? Tell me.”
“The cassock I am wearing,” said Sanzang, “is the third-grade treasure. I also have treasures of the first and second grade that are much better things.”
“But that cassock only half covers you,” objected the prince. “It can't possibly be worth enough to deserve being called a treasure.”
“The cassock may not cover both shoulders,” replied Sanzang, “but there is a poem about it that goes:
Of course a monk's habit leaves one shoulder bare,
But it covers a true Buddha free from worldly dust.
This was the True Achievement of thousands of needles;
Nine Pearls and Eight Treasures formed its spirit.