“Woodcutter,” said the Tang Priest with tears in his eyes, “If you die it will only be you. You have nothing else to worry about. But if I die it won't be a clean end.”
“What do you mean, it won't be a clean end, venerable elder?” the woodcutter asked. “You have no parents, wife or children, so if you die that'll be that.”
“I am from the East,” the Tang Priest replied, “and was going to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven. I was going on the orders of Emperor Taizong of the Tang to worship the living Buddha and fetch the true scriptures. This was to save all the lonely souls in the underworld who have nobody to care for them. If I lose my life today the vain waiting will kill my sovereign and I will let down his ministers. Countless wronged souls in the City of the Unjustly Slain will suffer a terrible disappointment and never ever be able to escape from the wheel of life. The true achievement will all be turned to dust in the wind. How can that possibly be considered a clean end?”
When the woodcutter heard this the tears fell from his eyes as he said, “If you die that is all there to it. But my death will be even more painful for me to bear. I lost my father when I was a boy, and live alone with my mother. Because we had no property I have had to make our living as a woodcutter. My aged mother is eighty-two this year and I am her only support. If I die who will there be to bury her? It's very hard to bear: the pain of it is killing me.”
When the venerable elder heard this he began to wail aloud, “Oh dear, oh dear,
Even the mountain man thinks of his mother;
I am reciting the sutras in vain.
Serving one's monarch and serving one's parents are both the same in principle. You are moved by your mother's goodness to you and I by my sovereign lord's goodness to me.” This was indeed a case of
Weeping eyes looking at eyes that weep,
A heartbroken one who sees off one with a broken heart.
But we will say no more of Sanzang's sufferings as we return to Monkey, who after driving the junior devil back down the grassy slope rushed back to the track to find that his master had disappeared. All that was left were the white horse and the luggage. In his alarm he led the horse and shouldered the carrying-pole as he headed for the top of the mountain in his search for the master. Oh dear! Indeed:
The long-suffering monk of the river current had met with new suffering;
The Great Sage, subduer of demons, had run into a demon.
If you do not know how his search for his master ended, listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 86
The Mother of Wood Lends His Might in Defeating the Ogre
The Metal Lord Uses His Magic to Wipe Out the Monster
The story tells how the Great Sage Monkey was leading the horse and carrying the baggage while he searched the whole mountain top, calling out for his master. Suddenly Pig came running up to him, puffing and panting, to ask, “Why are you shouting like that, brother?”
“The master's disappeared,” Brother Monkey replied. “Have you seen him?”
“Why did you have to play that trick on me when I was being a good monk with the Tang Priest?” Pig asked. “What was all that about me being commander of the vanguard? I had to fight for my life before I could beat that evil spirit and come back in one piece. You and Friar Sand were looking after the master, so why ask me about it?”
“I don't blame you, brother,” said Monkey. “Somehow or other your eyes must have gone blurred-you let the evil spirit get away and come back to catch the master again. When I went off to fight it I told Friar Sand to look after the master, and he's disappeared too.”
“I expect he's taken the master somewhere for a crap,” said Pig with a grin, but before he had finished speaking Friar Sand turned up.
“Where's the master, Friar Sand?” Monkey asked.
“You two must both be blind,” retorted Friar Sand, “letting the evil spirit escape to come back for the master. When I went to fight the evil spirit the master was left in the horse by himself.”
At this Monkey leapt with rage, shouting, “He's fooled me! He's fooled me!”
“How's he fooled you?” Friar Sand asked.
“It was a 'dividing the petals of the plum blossom' trick,” Monkey replied, “to draw us three off so that he could make a blow for the heart and carry off the master. Whatever in the name of Heaven are we to do?”
He could not stop the tears from streaming down his cheeks, at which Pig said, “Don't cry. If you cry you're a pustule. He can't be far away. He must be on this mountain. Let's look for him.” The three of them had no better plan than to look for him on the mountain. When they had covered some six or seven miles they saw a cave palace at the foot of a beetling precipice:
Clean-cut pinnacles blocking the light,
Towering and grotesque-shaped rocks.
The fragrance of rate and wonderful flowers,
The beauty of red apricots and green peaches.
The ancient trees in front of the precipice,
Forty spans round, and with bark scarred by frost and rain;
The azure pines standing outside the gates,
Two thousand feet of green blue reaching up to the sky.
Pairs of wild cranes
That dance in the breeze at the mouth of the cave;
Mountain birds in couples
Chirping by day at the ends of the branches.
Clumps of yellow creepers like ropes,
Rows of misty willows with leaves like hanging gold.
Water fills the pools that are square;
All over the mountain are caves that are deep.
In the pools that are square
Dragons lie hidden with scales unchanged.
In the mountain's deep caves
Dwell ogres that long have been eaters of humans.
This can be matched with the lands of immortals,
A den where the winds and the vapors are stored.
When Monkey saw this he took two or three paces forward, sprang towards the gates and saw that they were shut tight. Above them was a horizontal stone tablet on which was written in large letters
LINKED RING CAVE:
BROKEN RIDGE:
HIDDEN MISTS MOUNTAIN.
“Strike, Pig,” said Monkey. “This is where the evil spirit lives. The master must be here.”
At this the idiot turned vicious, raised his rake, and brought it down on the gates with all his strength, smashing a big hole in them and shouting, “Ogre, send my master out at once if you don't want me to smash your gates down and finish the lot of you off.” At this the junior devils on the gates rushed back inside to report, “Disaster, Your Majesty.”
“What disaster?” the senior demon asked.
“Someone's smashed a hole in the front gates and is yelling that he wants his master,” the junior devils replied.
“I wonder which one's come looking for him,” said the demon king in a state of great alarm.
“Don't be frightened,” said the commander of the vanguard. “Let me go out and take a look.” He hurried straight to the front gates, twisted his head to one side and craned to look through the hole that had been smashed in them. He saw someone with a long snout and big ears.
“Don't worry, Your Majesty,” he turned round and shouted at the top of his voice, “it's Zhu Bajie. He's not up to much and he won't dare try any nonsense on us. If he does we can open the gates and drag him inside to put in the steamer too. The only one to worry about is that hairy-cheeked monk with a face like a thunder god.”
“Brother,” said Pig when he heard this from outside, “he's not scared of me but he is of you. The master's definitely inside. Come here quick.”
“Evil damned beast,” said Monkey abusively. “Your grandfather Monkey is here. Send my master out and I'll spare your life.”