The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 2 (31 page)

    
A gourd repays a gourd,

    
We add a vase of jade.

    
Two things exchanged for one:

    
That’s what I call fair trade!

He therefore went forward and caught hold of Wily Worm, saying, “If I store up Heaven, you will trade with me?” “If you do, yes,” said the fiend.
“If
I don’t, I’ll be your son!” “All right! All right!” said Pilgrim. “I’ll store it up for you to see.”

Dear Great Sage! Bowing his head and making the magic sign, he recited a spell that brought him the God of Day Patrol, the God of Night Patrol, and the Guardians of Five Quarters, to whom he gave the following instruction: “Report for me at once to the Jade Emperor and say that old Monkey has embraced the right fruit to accompany the Tang Monk to acquire scriptures in the Western Heaven. Our path has been blocked at a tall mountain, where my master encounters grievous calamity. I would like to entice certain demons, who possess some treasures, into trading with me. I therefore beseech His Majesty with due reverence to let old Monkey borrow Heaven to be stored up for half an hour so that I may accomplish my task. If he but utters half a ‘No,’ I shall ascend to the Divine Mists Hall and start a war!”

The deities went past the South Heaven Gate and stood below the Hall of Divine Mists to report to the Jade Emperor. “This impudent ape!” said the Jade Emperor. “He still speaks in such an unruly manner. Some time ago when Guanyin came to inform us that he had been released to accompany the Tang Monk, we even sent him the Guardians of the Five Quarters and the Four Sentinels to take turns ministering to him. Now he even wants to borrow Heaven to be stored up! How could Heaven be stored up?” Hardly had he finished speaking when the Third Prince Na
ṭ
a stepped forward from the ranks and memorialized, saying, “Your Majesty, Heaven, too, can be stored up.”

“How?” inquired the Jade Emperor.

Na
ṭ
a said, “When Chaos first divided, that which was pure and light became Heaven, and that which was heavy and turbid became Earth. Heaven, then, is a round mass of clear ether that nonetheless supports the Jasper Palace and the Heavenly ramparts. In principle, therefore, Heaven cannot be stored up. However, the matter of Pilgrim Sun’s accompaniment of the Tang Monk journeying westward to acquire scriptures is itself a source of blessings great as Mount Tai and deep as the sea. Today we should help him to succeed.”

The Jade Emperor said, “How would our worthy minister help him?”

“Let Your Majesty issue a decree,” said Nata, “and ask Zhenwu, the Lord of the North at the North Heaven Gate, to lend us his banner of black feathers, which should then be unfurled across the South Heaven Gate. The sun, the moon, and the stars will be covered, and it will be so dark on Earth that people cannot see each other even if they are standing face to face. The fiends will be deceived into thinking that Heaven has been stored up, and that is how we may help Pilgrim to succeed.” The Jade Emperor gave his consent to this suggestion, and the prince received the command to go to
the
North Heaven Gate, where he gave the account to Zhenwu. The patriarch at once handed the banner to the prince.

Meanwhile, the Day Patrol God swiftly returned to the Great Sage and whispered in his ear, “Prince Na
ṭ
a has come to help you.” Looking up, Pilgrim saw auspicious clouds looming up: indeed a deity was approaching. He turned to the little fiends, saying, “I’m going to store up Heaven.” “Go ahead,” said one of them. “Why keep dragging your feet?” “I was just exercising my spirit and reciting a spell,” said Pilgrim. The two little fiends stood there wide-eyed and determined to find out how he was going to store up Heaven. Pilgrim gave the specious gourd a mighty heave and tossed it up into the air. Think of it: that gourd was changed from a piece of hair. How heavy could it be? Lifted up by the mountain wind, it drifted here and there for at least half an hour before dropping down. Meanwhile, Prince Na
ṭ
a at the South Heaven Gate flung wide the black banner and in one instant covered the sun, the moon, and all the planets. Truly

    
The cosmos seemed dyed by ink,

    
The world was made indigo.

Astounded, the little fiends said, “It was just about noon when we were talking. How is it that it’s dusk already?” “Heaven has been stored up,” said Pilgrim. “You can’t tell time! How can it not be dusk?” “Why is it so dark?” they cried. Pilgrim said, “The sun, the moon, and the stars are all contained inside. There’s no light outside. How can it not be dark?” “Master,” said one of the little fiends, “where are you speaking?” “Am I not in front of you?” asked Pilgrim. The little fiend stretched out his hand to try to touch him, saying, “I can hear you, but I can’t see your face. Master, where are we?” To deceive them further, Pilgrim said, “Don’t move. This is the shore of the Gulf of Zhili. If you stumble and fall into the sea, you won’t reach bottom even after seven or eight days.” “Stop! Stop! Stop!” cried the horrified fiends. “Release Heaven, please! We know now how it is stored up. If we fool around anymore and drop into the sea, we’ll not get home.”

Dear Pilgrim! When he saw that they took the whole thing for the truth, he recited the spell again to alert the prince, who rolled up the banner and the sunlight of noon was seen once more. “Marvelous! Marvelous!” cried the little fiends, laughing. “Such fantastic treasure, if we don’t exchange for it, we are certainly no better than bastards!” Sly Devil at once took out the gourd and Wily Worm the pure vase; both of them then handed the treasures to Pilgrim. In return, Pilgrim gave them the specious gourd. After the exchange, Pilgrim wanted to make certain that the bargain stuck. Pulling off a piece of hair from beneath his belly, he blew on it and it changed into a copper penny. “Young man,” he said, “take this penny and buy us a
piece
of paper.” “What for?” asked the little fiend. “So that I can draw up a contract with you,” said Pilgrim. “The two of you used your human-storing treasures to exchange with me a single piece of Heaven-storing treasure. I fear that you may not consider that quite fair and that after a few years you will come to regret our deal. That’s why I want a contract for all of us.” “We don’t even have brush or ink around here,” said one of the fiends. “Why bother about writing a document? Let’s exchange vows instead.” “What kind of vow?” asked Pilgrim. The two little fiends said, “We gave two human-storing treasures to you in exchange for one Heaven-storing treasure. If we ever regret our decision, may we be stricken with plague in all four seasons.” “I’ll never regret mine,” said Pilgrim, smiling. “If I do, may I also be stricken like you.” After he made this vow, he leaped up and with one wag of his tail arrived before the South Heaven Gate, where he thanked Prince Na
ṭ
a for unfurling the banner and lending him assistance. The prince then went back to the palace to report to the Jade Emperor and to return the flag to Zhenwu. Pilgrim, meanwhile, stood in the air and looked at those little fiends. We do not know what happens thereafter; let’s listen to the explanation in the next chapter.

THIRTY-
FOUR

The demon king’s plotting entraps Mind Monkey;

The Great Sage, ever adroit, wangles the treasures.

We were telling you about those two little fiends who took the specious gourd in their hands and, for some time, fought to examine it. Raising their heads, they suddenly discovered that Pilgrim had vanished. “Elder Brother,” said Wily Worm, “even an immortal would lie. He said that after we had exchanged our treasures he would enlighten us to become immortals. Why did he leave without even telling us?” Sly Devil said, “When you tally up the score, we are the ones who have by far the greater gain. Why worry about his leaving? Give me the gourd. Let me store up Heaven, just for practice!” He indeed tossed the gourd up into the air, but it plopped down again immediately. “Why doesn’t it work?” asked a startled Wily Worm. “Could it be that Pilgrim Sun had changed into a false immortal and used a specious gourd to trade off our real one?” “Don’t talk nonsense!” said Sly Devil. “Pilgrim Sun is pinned down by those three mountains. How could he come out? Give it to me again. Let me recite those few words of the spell he said and see if it will store up Heaven.” Again the fiend tossed the gourd up into the air, crying, “If there is but half a ‘No,’ we shall ascend to the Divine Mists Hall and start a war.” Before he had even finished saying that, the thing plopped down again. “It doesn’t work! It doesn’t work!” shrieked the little fiends. “It’s got to be a fake!”

As they were clamoring like this, the Great Sage Sun saw and heard everything in midair. Fearing that they might learn the truth if they played with the thing too long, he shook his body and retrieved the piece of hair that had been changed into the gourd. The two fiends were left with four empty hands. “Brother,” said Sly Devil, “give me the gourd.” “You were holding it,” said Wily Worm. “My God! How come it disappeared?” They searched madly on the ground and in the bushes; they stuck their hands into their sleeves and slapped their waists. But there was nothing to be found. Stupefied, the two fiends mumbled, “What shall we do? What shall we do? The Great King at the time gave us the treasures and told us to capture Pilgrim Sun. Not only have we not caught Pilgrim Sun, but we have even lost the treasures now. How dare we go back to give our report? We will simply be beaten to death. What shall we do? What shall we do?”

After a while, Wily Worm said, “We’d better go.” “Where?” asked Sly Devil. “Never mind where,” said Wily Worm. “If we go back and say that we
have
no treasures, we will lose our lives for sure.” Sly Devil said, “Don’t run away, let’s go back instead. The Second Great King is ordinarily quite good to you; I’ll put a little blame on you. If he is in the mood to be somewhat lenient, our lives may be spared; if not, we’ll at least be beaten to death at home but we won’t be left dangling here. Let’s go. Let’s go.” After they had discussed the matter, the fiends began their walk back to their mountain.

When Pilgrim in midair saw them leaving, he shook his body again and changed into a fly to follow them. If he changed into a fly, you might ask, where did he put those treasures? If he left them by the road, or even if he hid them in the grass, people could pick them up if they saw them, and all his efforts would have been in vain. No, he had to take them with him, carrying the treasures on his body. But a fly is no bigger than the size of a pea. How could he carry them? The treasures, you see, were just like his golden-hooped rod; they were also called compliant Buddha-treasures. They would transform according to the size of the body: they could become large or small, and that was why even a tiny body like a fly could hold them. With a buzz, Pilgrim thus flew down and steadfastly followed the fiends till in no time they reached the cave.

The two head demons were sitting there and drinking wine when the little fiends faced them and knelt down. Pilgrim alighted on the door frame and listened. “Great Kings,” said the little fiends. “Have you returned?” said the second demon, putting down his cup. “Yes,” said the little fiends. “Have you caught Pilgrim Sun?” he asked again. The little fiends began to kowtow, not daring to make a sound. The old demon asked again, but they did not dare reply; all they did was to kowtow. Questioned again and again, they finally prostrated themselves on the ground and said, “Please pardon your little ones for the crime of ten thousand deaths! Please pardon your little ones for the crime of ten thousand deaths! When we took the treasures and reached the middle of the mountain, we ran into an immortal from Penglai Mountain. He inquired where we were going and we told him that we were going to catch Pilgrim Sun. When the immortal heard this, he said that he, too, was mad at Pilgrim Sun and wanted to give us assistance. We told him that there was no need for his assistance and explained how our treasures could store up humans. That immortal also had a gourd most capable of storing up Heaven. Moved by vain hopes and illicit desires, we thought we should exchange our treasures, which could only store up people, with his, which could store up Heaven. Originally, we wanted to exchange gourd for gourd, but Wily Worm decided to make good the deal by adding the pure vase. We had no idea that his immortal object could not be touched by the hands of the profane. Just as we were experimenting with it, it disappeared completely with the man, too. We beseech you to pardon our mortal offense.”

When
the old demon heard this, he was so aroused that he bellowed thunderously, “Undone! Undone! This has to be Pilgrim Sun who masqueraded himself as an immortal to dupe them. That ape has great magic powers and vast acquaintances. I don’t know which clumsy deity has let him out, and he has wangled our treasures.”

The second demon said, “Don’t be so angry, Elder Brother. I didn’t expect that ape head to be so insolent. If he has the ability, he can escape and that’s all right. Why did he have to wangle our treasures? If I don’t catch him, I’ll never be a monster on this road to the West!” “How will you catch him?” asked the old demon. The second demon said, “We have five treasures; two are gone but we still have three others. We must make certain that Pilgrim Sun will be caught by one of these.” “Which three do we have now?” asked the old demon. “I still have with me the sword of the seven stars and the palm-leaf fan,” said the second demon, “but the yellow-gold rope is kept at the Crush-Dragon Cave of the Crush-Dragon Mountain, the place of our aged mother. We should now send two little fiends to invite mother to come to dine on the Tang Monk’s flesh, and tell her at the same time to bring that yellow-gold rope to capture Pilgrim Sun.” The old demon said, “Whom should we send?” “Not these useless creatures,” said the second demon, and then he shouted to them, “Get up!” “Lucky! Lucky!” said the two of them. “We were neither beaten nor scolded. We are let go just like that!”