Monkey landed his cloud and lay sprawled out under the peak, listless and dispirited. “That demon is a terror,” he thought with bitter regret, and without realizing what was happening he shut his eyes as if he were going to sleep.
Just then there came a calclass="underline" “Great Sage, don't go to sleep. Get up and rescue them as soon as you can. Your master's life is in great danger.” At once Monkey opened his eyes again and sprang to his feet to see that it was the Duty God of the Day.
“You wretched little god,” Monkey shouted, “you were so greedy for your blood and sacrifices over there that you haven't reported for duty for days. Why are you coming to disturb me now? Put out your foot. I'm going to hit you a couple of times to cheer myself up. I'm feeling low.”
The Duty God hastily bowed and said, “Great Sage, you are one of the happy immortals in the human world. How could you possibly be feeling low? We've been here for a long time on the Bodhisattva's orders to keep secret guard over the Tang Priest. We and the local gods have never left him for a moment, which is why we can't pay our respects to you often enough. You can't hold that against me.”
“If you're guarding him,” Monkey replied, “tell me where the evil spirit has imprisoned the constellations, the protectors, the guardians, my master and the rest of them. What are they suffering?”
“Your master and your fellow-disciples have been hung up in the cloister outside the main hall,” the Duty God replied. “The constellations are all in agony in a pit. For the last couple of days I've had no news of you, Great Sage, but I've just seen that the evil spirits have captured the divine dragons, Tortoise and Snake and put them in the pit too. It was only then that we realized you must have fetched some reinforcements, Great Sage, which is why we came specially to look for you. Whatever you do you must rescue them at once, Great Sage, no matter how tired you are.”
Hearing this, Monkey said to the duty god, the tears streaming down his face, “I'm too ashamed to go up to Heaven, and I haven't the nerve to go to the sea. I'm afraid of asking for the Bodhisattva's help and too miserable to look the Buddha in the face. The ones who were captured just now were the True Martial God's Tortoise, Snake and five dragons and their forces. There's nowhere else I can turn for help. What am I to do?”
The Duty God smiled as he replied, “Relax, Great Sage, I've thought of some elite troops who are bound to be able to subdue these demons. You went to Wudang just now that was in the Southern Jambu Continent. The troops I have in mind come from the same continent, from Bincheng on Mound Xuyi. It's what's now called Sizhou. There's a Great Sage Bodhisattva King Teacher there who has enormous magical powers. He has a disciple called Little Prince Zhang and four divine generals: the other year they subdued the Water Mother Goddess. You should go there yourself to ask him. If he in his kindness is willing to help you're bound to be able to catch the demon and save the master.”
The news delighted Monkey, who said, “You look after the master and don't let him come to any harm while I go off to ask his help.”
Monkey then set off on his somersault and left that demon-infested place to go straight to Mount Xuyi. He was soon there, and when he looked around he saw that it was a fine place.
The Yangtse was not far to the South,
To the North it faced the Huai River.
To the East it led to the islands in the sea,
To the West it was connected with Fengfou.
On the mountain-top was a lofty temple
While springs gushed forth from its sides.
Grotesquely-shaped rocks towered high;
Lofty pines were elegantly angular.
There was always fresh fruit in season,
And every kind of flower opened in the sun.
People moved around like armies of ants
While boats came from far and wide like flights of geese.
On it there stood
The Auspicious Crag Temple,
The Palace of the Eastern Peak,
The Shrine of the Five Illustrious Ones,
The Tortoise Mountain Monastery.
Rhythmic bells and incense smoke rose to the heavens.
There were also
The Crystal Spring,
The Valley of Five Stupas,
The Terrace of Eight Immortals,
The Apricot Orchard.
The colours of the mountain and trees lit up Bincheng.
Boundless were the stretches of cloud,
While hidden birds still sang when they were tired.
Never mind mounts Tai, Song, Heng or Hua;
Here was the beauty of an earthly paradise.
The Great Sage enjoyed the view enormously as he crossed the Huai River, entered the city of Bincheng, and arrived at the gates of the Great Sage's Dhyana Monastery. Over the majestic halls and colorful cloisters there towered a pagoda. Indeed:
It rose ten thousand feet through clouds to the sky;
The golden vase penetrated the heavens above.
The light from it filled the universe;
No shadows were cast on its windows.
Heavenly music was heard when the wind rang the bells;
The sun shone on roof-dragons facing the Buddha-hall.
Birds constantly came here to sing their complaints;
Endlessly beautiful was the view of the Huai River.
Monkey looked at it all as he went in to the inner gates, where the Bodhisattva King Teacher, who was expecting him, had come out to meet him with Little Prince Zhang. After they had greeted each other and exchanged polite remarks Monkey said, “I'm escorting the Tang Priest to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven. We have come to the Lesser Thunder Monastery where there's a Yellow-browed Demon who's pretending to be a Buddha. Not realizing he was an impostor, my master kowtowed to him and was captured. Then I was caught inside a pair of golden cymbals until, thank goodness, the constellations who had been sent down from heaven rescued me. I smashed the cymbals, but when we fought him again he wrapped the heavenly gods, the protectors, the guardians, my master and my fellow-disciples up in a cloth bag. As I have nowhere else to turn, Bodhisattva, I've come to call on you and ask you to give play to your great strength. Use the magic powers with which you put down the Water Mother and saved the common people to go with me to rescue my master. Then he can take the scriptures back to China to be transmitted forever, praise the wisdom of our Buddha and make the prajna-paramita better known.”
“What you ask today is indeed for the greater glory of our Buddha,” said King Teacher, “and I really ought to go myself. But it's early summer now, just the time when the Huai River floods. The Great Sage Water Ape I subdued recently gets active when there's water, and I'm worried that he'd take advantage of my absence to make so much trouble that no divine powers could bring him back under control. I'll send my disciple with four generals to help you force the demon into submission.”
Monkey thanked him then headed back by cloud with the four generals and Little Prince Zhang to the Lesser Western Heaven, where they went straight to the Lesser Thunder Monastery. Here Little Prince Zhang brandished his paper-white spear and the four generals swung their superb swords as they shouted abuse to challenge the demons to battle.
When the little devils ran inside to report this, the demon king led his devils out once more, had his drums beaten and replied, “Who've you persuaded to come this time?”
Before the words were all out of his mouth Little Prince Zhang at the head of the four generals shouted, “Damned evil spirit! Do you have no eyes in your head? Don't you recognize who we are?”