The Milky Way was clear,
The jade firmament free of dust.
The sky was full of coruscating stars,
A single wave wiped out the traces.
Stilled were all sounds,
And the birds were silent on a thousand hills.
The fisherman's light beside the bank was out,
The Buddha-lamp in the pagoda dimmed.
Last night the abbot's bell and drum had sounded;
This evening the air was filled with weeping.
This night he spent asleep in the monastery. Sanzang, however, could not sleep for thinking about the cassock. He turned over, and seeing that the sky was growing light outside the window, got straight out of bed and said, “Monkey, it's light, go and get the cassock.” Brother Monkey bounded out of bed, and in an instant a host of monks was in attendance, offering hot water.
“Look after my master properly,” he said. “I'm off.”
Sanzang got out of bed and seized hold of him. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“I've been thinking,” said Monkey, “that this whole business is the Bodhisattva Guanyin's fault. Although this is her monastery and she receives the worship of all these monks, she allows that evil spirit to live in the neighbourhood. I'm going to the Southern Sea to find her and ask her to come here herself to make that evil spirit give us back the cassock.”
“When will you come back?” Sanzang asked.
“After you've finished breakfast at the earliest, and by midday at latest, I'll have done the job. Those monks had better look after you well. I'm off now.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he had disappeared without a trace and reached the Southern Sea. Stopping his cloud to take a look, he saw:
A vast expanse of ocean,
Waters stretching till they joined the sky.
Propitious light filled the firmament,
Auspicious vapours shone over mountains and rivers.
A thousand snow-capped breakers roared at the azure vault,
A myriad misty waves reared at the sky.
Water flew in all directions,
Torrents poured everywhere.
As the water flew in all directions it echoed like thunder;
As the torrents poured everywhere they crashed and roared.
Let us leave the sea,
And consider what lay in it:
A precious mountain in many a misty color-
Red, yellow, purple, black, green, and blue.
Then did he see the beautiful land of Guanyin,
Potaraka Island in the Southern Sea.
What a wonderful place to go-
Towering peaks
Cutting through the sky,
With a thousand kinds of exotic flowers below them,
And every type of magical herb.
The wind shook priceless trees,
The sun shone on golden lotus.
Guanyin's palace was roofed with glazed tiles,
The gates of the Tide Cave were set with tortoise shell.
In the shade of green willows parrots talked,
While peacocks called amid purple bamboo.
On the marbled stone
The protecting gods are majestically severe;.
Before the agate strand
Stands the mighty Moksa.
Not pausing to take in the whole of this exotic scene, Monkey brought his cloud straight down to land under the bamboo grove. A number of devas were already there to meet him, and they said, “The Bodhisattva told us some time ago that you had been converted, Great Sage, and praised you very warmly. But if you are now protecting the Tang Priest, how have you found the time to come here?”
“Because something has happened while I've been escorting him on his journey. Please go and tell the Bodhisattva that I'd like an audience with her.” When the devas went into the cave to report this, Guanyin summoned him inside. Monkey did as he was told and bowed to her beneath the lotus throne.
“What have you come for?” the Bodhisattva asked.
“My master's journey has brought him to a monastery of yours,” Monkey replied, “and I find that although you accept incense from its monks, you allow a black bear spirit to live in the neighbourhood, and have let him steal my master's cassock. I've tried to take it off him a number of times but got nowhere, so now I've come to ask you to demand it from him.”
“What nonsense, you ape,” the Bodhisattva retorted. “Even if a bear spirit has stolen your cassock, what business have you to ask me to go and demand it for you? It all happened because you wanted to show it off, you big-headed and evil baboon, in front of petty-minded people. On top of that, in your wickedness you called up the wind to spread the fire that burnt down my monastery. And now you have the nerve to try your tricks here.”
These words from the Bodhisattva made Monkey realize that she knew all about the past and the future, so he hastily bowed down in reverence and pleaded, “Bodhisattva, forgive your disciple his sins, everything you say is true. All the same, my master will recite that spell again because that monster won't give back the cassock, and I couldn't bear the agonizing headache. That's why I came to bother you, Bodhisattva. I beg you in your mercy to help me catch that evil spirit, get the cassock back, and carry on towards the West.”
“That monster's magical powers are certainly no weaker than yours,” the Bodhisattva said. “Very well then, out of consideration for the Tang Priest I'll go there with you.” Monkey thanked her and bowed again, asked her to come out, and rode on the same magic cloud as her. In next to no time they reached the Black Wind Mountain, where they landed the cloud and headed for the cave on foot.
As they were on their way, a Taoist priest appeared on the mountain slope. He was carrying a glass salver on which were two pills of the elixir of immortality. Monkey was immediately suspicious of him, so he struck straight at his head with the iron cudgel, sending blood splattering out from brain and chest.
“Are you still as wild as this, you ape?” the shocked Bodhisattva asked. “He didn't steal your cassock, you didn't even know him, and he was no enemy of yours. Why kill him?”
“You may not know him, Bodhisattva,” Monkey replied, “but he was a friend of the Black Bear Spirit. Yesterday they and a white-clad scholar were sitting talking in front of the grassy mountainside. Today is the Black Spirit's birthday, and tomorrow he was coming to the 'Buddha's Robe Banquet'. That's why I recognized him. I'm sure that he was coming to greet that monster on his birthday.”
“If that's the way it is, very well then,” said the Bodhisattva. Monkey then went to lift up the Taoist to take a look at him, and he saw that he had been a grey wolf. There was an inscription under the glass salver that lay beside him. It read, “Made by Master Emptiness-reached”.
Brother Monkey laughed and sand, “What luck, what luck. This helps me and will save you trouble too, Bodhisattva. This monster has confessed of his own free will, and the other monster there can be finished off today.”
“What do you mean?” the Bodhisattva asked.
“I have a saying,” he replied, “that goes 'beat him at his own game'. Are you willing to let me do things my way?”
“Tell me about it,” the Bodhisattva said.
“The two pills of immortality you see on that salver will be the present we take to visit him with,” said Monkey, “and the words inscribed underneath-'Made by Master Emptiness-reached'-are the bait we'll set for him. If you do as I say, I have a plan for you that does not call for force or fighting. The fiend will collapse before our eyes, and the cassock will appear. If you won't let me have my way, then you go West, I'll go East, we can say good-bye to the Buddha's robe, and Sanzang will be up the creek.”