Journey to the West

96

Squire Kou Entertains the Lofty Monk

The Tang Priest Does Not Covet Wealth and Honour

All kinds of matter are really without matter; No emptiness is truly empty.

Stillness and clamour, speech and silence, all are the same: Why bother to dream−talk in one's dreams? The useful includes the useless in its application; Achievement lurks within failure. When the fruit is ripe it reddens of itself; Do not ask how the seed is to be grown.

The story has told how the Tang Priest and his disciples used their magic powers to stop the monks of the Spread Gold Monastery. When the monks saw after the black wind had passed that the master and his disciples had disappeared they thought that their visitors must have been living Buddhas come down to earth, so they kowtowed and went back. Of them we tell no more. As master and disciples traveled West spring was giving way to early summer:

The air was clear, mild and refreshing; Water chestnuts and lotuses were growing in the pool. Plums were ripening after the rain; The wheat was forming as the breezes blew. Flowers were fragrant where blossoms fell from trees; The oriole grew tired amid the willow's light branches.

Swallows over the river taught their young to fly; The pheasants fed their chirping chicks. South of the Dipper the sun was always seen; All of creation shone with brightness.

We could never describe in full how they ate at dawn, found shelter at dusk, rounded ravines and climbed hills as they went along their way without incident for a fortnight. Then another city wall appeared in front of them. As they came closer to it Sanzang asked, "What sort of place is this, disciple?"

"I don't know," Brother Monkey replied, "I don't know."

"You've been this way before," put in Pig, "so how can you claim that you don't know? I suppose you're being crafty and just pretending you can't recognize the place to make fools of us."

"You're being completely unreasonable, you idiot," said Monkey. "Although I've been this way several times I've always come and gone by cloud high up in the sky. I've never landed here. I had no interest in the place, so why should I have looked it over? That's why I didn't know. I'm not being crafty, and not trying to make a fool of you either."

While they were talking they came close to the city before they realized it. Sanzang dismounted, crossed the drawbridge and went straight in through the gates. As they went along the main street there were two old men to be seen sitting under a portico and talking.

"Disciples," said Sanzang, "stand here in the middle of the road, keep your heads bowed and don't run wild. I am going under that portico to ask where we are."

Monkey and the others stood still as they had been told while the venerable elder went up to the two men, put his hands together and called out, "Greetings, benefactors." The two old men were idly chatting about such things as prosperity and decay, success and failure, sages and good men, their heroic deeds in ancient times, and where such men were now. Really, they said, it was enough to make you sigh.

When they suddenly heard Sanzang's greeting they returned it and asked, "What do you have to say to us, reverend sir?"

"I am a monk who has come from far away to worship the Lord Buddha," Sanzang replied, "and I have just arrived here. I wonder what this place is called, and where there are any pious folk from whom I might beg a meal."

"This is the prefecture of Brazentower," one of the old men said, "and this is the county of Diling near Brazentower city. If you want vegetarian food, reverend sir, you won't need to beg. Go past this archway to the street running North−south. There's a gate−tower shaped like a sitting tiger facing the East, and that's Squire Kou's house. In front of it is a sign that says 'All monks welcome'. A monk from far away such as yourself will be given all you want. Off you go, and stop interrupting our conversation."