Journey to the West

70

The Evil Monster's Treasures Emit Smoke,

Sand and Fire Wukong Steals the Golden Bells by Trickery

The story tells how Brother Monkey summoned up his divine prestige and rose up into the air on his magic light, wielding his iron cudgel. "Where are you from, evil monster?" he asked, shouting in the evil spirit's face. "And where are you going to wreak havoc?"

"I'm the vanguard warrior under the Great King Evil Star Matcher from Horndog Cave on Mount Unicorn," shouted the demon at the top of his voice, "that's who I am. His Majesty has ordered me to fetch two ladies−in−waiting to serve Her Majesty the Golden Queen. Who are you and how dare you question me?"

"I'm Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven," Monkey replied. "I was passing through this country while escorting the Tang Priest to worship the Buddha in the Western Heaven. Now I know that your gang of monsters was oppressing the king I'm going to use my heroic powers to bring the country back to order and wipe out this evil. And now you've come along to throw your life away just when I didn't know where to find you." When the monster heard this he foolishly thrust his spear at Monkey, who struck back at his face with the iron cudgel. They fought a splendid battle up in mid−air:

The cudgel was the sea−settler from the dragon's palace; The spear was of iron tempered by mankind. An ordinary weapon was no match for that of an immortal; In a few clashes its magic powers all drained away. The Great Sage was an immortal of the Supreme Ultimate; The spirit was only an evil monster. How could a demon approach a True One?

In the face of truth the evil would be destroyed. One stirred up wind and dust to terrify a king; The other trod on mist and cloud to blot out sun and moon. When they dropped their guard to try for victory Neither of them dared to show off.

The Heaven−equaling Great Sage was the abler fighter: With a loud clash of his cudgel the spear was broken.

When his spear was quickly broken in two by Monkey's iron cudgel the evil spirit was in fear for his life, so he turned the wind right round and fled Westwards.

Instead of chasing him Monkey brought his cloud down to the entrance of the underground demon shelter. "Master," he called, "you and His Majesty can come out now. The monster's run away." Only then did the Tang Priest come out of the underground shelter, supporting the king. The sky was clear, and all traces of the evil spirit had disappeared.

The king went over to the table, filled a golden goblet from the wine bottle with his own hands, and presented it to Monkey with the words, "Holy monk, allow us to offer our provisional thanks."

Monkey took the cup, but before he could reply an official came in from outside the Western gate of the palace to report, "The Western gate is on fire."

As soon as he heard this Monkey threw the wine, cup and all, up into the air. The cup fell with a clang. This so alarmed the king that he bowed to Monkey with the words, "Forgive us, holy monk, forgive us. We have treated you shabbily. The proper thing would have been to ask you into the throne hall to bow to you in thanks. We only offered you the wine here because it was to hand. Did you not throw the goblet aside because you were offended, holy monk?"

"Nothing of the sort," laughed Monkey, "nothing of the sort."

A moment later another official came in to report, "There's been a miraculous fall of rain. No sooner had the Western gate caught fire than a heavy rainstorm put it out. The streets are running with water and it all smells of wine."

"Your Majesty," said Monkey with another smile, "you thought I'd taken offence when I tossed the cup aside, but you were wrong. When the evil spirit fled Westwards I didn't go after him, so he started that fire. I just used the goblet to put out the demon's fire and save the people outside the Western gate. It didn't mean anything else."