Screened by many a jagged peak,
With ancient paths winding around;
Green pines merged with bluish bamboo;
The softness of willows and wutong trees.
Odd boulders stood in pairs before the cliff,
While birds made couples hidden in the woods.
The water in the gully splashed against the rock-wall,
As the spring waters trickled over the sandbank.
Under the billowing clouds,
Rare herbs grew lush.
Fox spirits and crafty hares darted around;
Horned deer and river-deer fought for mastery.
Ancient creepers hung across the rocks,
And a thousand-year cypress was suspended in a chasm.
In pinnacled majesty it vied with Mount Hua;
The flowers and birdsong rivaled Tiantai Peak.
“Worthy brother,” said Monkey, “put our baggage in the wind-storing cave, let the horse out to pasture, and lie low while I go to the gates of that place and fight it out with them. I must catch that evil spirit before I can rescue our master.”
“There's no need to give me instructions,” Pig replied. “Go at once.”
Monkey straightened his tunic, tightened his tiger-skin kilt, and went straight to the gate with his cudgel in his hands. Above the gate he saw YELLOW WIND CAVE OF THE YELLOW WIND RIDGE written in large letters. Taking a firm stance and brandishing the club he shouted, “Evil monsters, send my master out if you don't want this den of yours turned upside-down and your home trampled flat.”
When the junior fiends heard this they were terrified, and they ran trembling inside to announce, “Your Majesty, a disaster.”
“What is it?” asked the Yellow Wind Monster who was sitting inside.
“There's a thunder-voiced, hairy-faced monk outside with a great thick iron cudgel in his hands, and he wants his master back,” they said.
The alarmed chieftain sent for the Tiger of the Vanguard and said to him, “When I sent you to patrol the mountain you were only supposed to catch mountain oxen, wild boar, deer, and goats. Why on earth did you bring that Tang Priest here? It's provoked his disciple into coming to make trouble. What are we to do?”
“There is no need for Your Majesty to worry,” the Tiger replied. “Your incompetent underling will take fifty junior officers out with me and bring back that Brother Monkey as a second course for the meal.”
“Apart from the higher and lower ranking commanders, we have about six hundred junior officers here,” said the chieftain. “Take as many of them as you like with you. If you catch that Monkey, we can dine off the priest at our leisure, and I promise to make you my sworn brother. But I'm afraid that you won't be able to get him, and that he'll kill you. If that happens, don't blame me.”
“Rest assured,” the tiger monster said, “rest assured. I'll soon be back with him.” Mustering fifty strong and spirited young fiends, he charged out of the gates with drums rolling and banners waving; his two bronze swords were tied to his body. “Where are you from, ape monk?” he shrieked at the top of his voice. “What do you mean by all this yelling and shouting?”
“You skinned beast,” Monkey retorted, “you played that trick of skinning yourself to capture my master, and you have the nerve to ask me what I'm doing! Bring my master out at once and I'll spare your life.”
“Yes, I captured your master,” the monster replied, “and he's going to be served up at His Majesty's dinner table. If you have any sense, go away. Otherwise I'll catch you too, and you'll be served up with him. As I've got one of you, I'll let the other off.” Monkey was now furious, and he gnashed his steely teeth as his fiery eyes opened wide in a terrible glare.
“What powers have you,” he roared, brandishing his iron cudgel, “to give you the nerve to talk so big? Hold it a moment, and take this.” The tiger put his hands on his swords, and a terrible fight ensued as each of them showed off his powers.
The monster was like a goose egg,
Monkey was an egg-shaped stone.
Trying to ward off Monkey with bronze swords
Was like throwing eggs at a stone.
How can a crow or jackdaw fight a phoenix?
What chance has a pigeon against a hawk?
The monster snorted out winds that covered the mountain with dust,
But Monkey breathed a fog that blotted out the sun.
After fighting it out for many a round,
The Vanguard was exhausted, his strength all gone.
He turned away, defeated, to flee for his life,
Only to have Monkey harry him to death.
When he could defend himself no longer, the monster turned to flee. As he had talked so boastfully in front of his chieftain he dared not return to the cave, so he tried to escape up the mountain side. Monkey, who had no intention of letting him go, chased him as fast as he could, waving his cudgel, roaring, and howling. He chased him as far as the hollow where the wind was stored, where Pig could be seen pasturing the horse. As soon as Pig heard the shouting he turned to look, and when he saw Monkey pursuing the defeated tiger monster he let go of the horse, raised his rake, and struck the tiger diagonally across the head. The poor monster, who thought he had made his way out of the silken net, never realized that he had been caught by a fish-trapper. Pig's rake made nine holes from which the blood gushed, and the brains all spurted out. There is a pome to prove it that goes:
Converted to the true faith several years before,
He avoided meat and was awakened to emptiness.
Determined with all his heart to defend Sanzang
He won this merit early in his religious life.
Planting his foot in the middle of the monster's back, Pig swung the rake with both hands and smote him again. When Monkey saw this he was delighted, and he said, “That's the way, brother. He led a few dozen petty fiends out to do battle with me, but I beat him. Instead of running back to the cave he came this way, as if he wanted to die. If you hadn't been here to meet him, he'd have got away again.”
“Was he the one who made a gale and carried off our master?” Pig asked.
“The very one,” Monkey replied. “Did you ask him where our master is?” Pig asked.
“He took our master into the cave and wanted to give him to his chieftain to eat with his rice. This made me so angry that I fought him all the way to here, where you finished him off. The credit for this must go to you, brother. You'd better go on looking after the horse and our things while I drag that monster's body over to the cave and challenge them to another fight. We must capture the chief monster if we're to rescue our master.”
“You're right,” said Pig, “so off you go. If you beat that chief monster, mind you chase him this way for me to corner and kill.” Splendid Monkey went straight to the mouth of the cave with his cudgel in one hand and the dead tiger in the other. Indeed:
When the patriarch was in danger from evil monsters,
Emotion and Nature combined to subdue the demons.
If you don't know whether he defeated the evil monsters and saved Sanzang, listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 21
The Protectors of the Faith Build a Farm for the Great Sage
Lingji from Sumeru Pacifies the Wind Devil
The fifty petty devils fled routed into the cave, their banners and drums smashed, to report, “Your Majesty, the Tiger of the Vanguard is no match for the hairy-faced monk, who chased him down the mountain.” The old fiend was very angry at the news, and he sat silent with his head bowed as he thought over what to do.