Monkey (28 page)

‘What thing is this ?’ asked Tripitaka.

‘When the magician disguised himself as me,’ said the
king, ‘this treasure was the one thing he forgot about. When the queen asked what had become of it, he said that the wonder-worker who came to make rain took it away with him. If my prince sees it, his heart will be stirred towards me and he will avenge me.’

‘That will do,’ said Tripitaka. ‘Wait for me a little, while I tell my disciple to arrange this matter for you. Where shall I find you?’

‘I dare not wait,’ he said.’ I must ask the Spirit that wanders at Night to blow me to the inner chambers of the palace, where I will appear to the queen in a dream and tell her how to work with her son, and to conspire with you and your disciple.’

Tripitaka nodded and agreed, saying,’ Go, if you will.’

Then the wronged ghost beat its head on the floor and turned as though to depart. Somehow it stumbled, and went sprawling with a loud noise that woke Tripitaka up. He knew that it had all been a dream, and finding himself sitting with the dying lamp in front of him, he hurriedly cried: ‘Disciple, disciple!’

‘Hey, what’s that?’ cried Pigsy, waking up and coming across to him. ‘In the old days when I was a decent chap and had my whack of human flesh whenever I wanted, and all the stinking victuals I needed, that was a happy life indeed. A very different matter from coddling an old cleric on his journey! I thought I was to be an acolyte, but this is more like being a slave. By day I hoist the luggage and lead the horse; by night I run my legs off bringing you your pot. No sleep early or late! What’s the matter this time ?’

‘Disciple,’ said Tripitaka, ‘I was dozing just now at my desk, and had a strange dream.’

At this point Monkey sat up, and coming across to Tripitaka said, ‘Master, dreams come from waking thoughts. Each time we come to a hill before we have even begun to climb it, you are in a panic about ogres and demons. And you are always brooding about what a long way it is to India, and wondering if we shall ever get there; and thinking about Ch’ang-an, and wondering if you will ever see it again. All this brooding makes dreams. You should be like me. I think
only about seeing Buddha in the west, and not a dream comes near me.’

‘Disciple,’ said Tripitaka, ‘this was not a dream of homesickness. No sooner had I dosed my eyes than there came a wild gust of wind, and there at the door stood an Emperor, who said he was the King of Crow-cock. He was dripping from head to foot, and his eyes were full of tears.’ Then he told Monkey the whole story.

‘You need say no more,’ said Monkey. ‘It is clear enough that this dream came to you in order to bring a little business my way. No doubt at all that this magician is an ogre who has usurped the throne. Just let me put him to the test. I don’t doubt my stick will make short work of him.’

‘Disciple,’ said Tripitaka, ‘he said the magician was terribly powerful.’

‘What do I care how powerful he is?’ said Monkey. ‘If he had any inkling that Monkey might arrive on the scene, he would have cleared out long ago.’

‘Now I come to think of it,’ said Tripitaka, ‘he left a token.’

Pigsy laughed. ‘Now, Master,’ he said, ‘you must pull yourself together. A dream’s a dream. Now it is time to talk sense again.’

But Sandy broke in, ‘ “He who does not believe that straight is straight must guard against the wickedness of good.” Let us light torches, open the gate, and see for ourselves whether the token has been left or not.’

Monkey did indeed open the gate, and there, in the light of the stars and moon, with no need for torches, they saw lying on the ramp of the steps a tablet of white jade with gold edges. Pigsy stepped forward and picked it up, saying, ‘Brother, what’s this thing,?’

‘This,’ said Monkey, ‘is the treasure that the king carried in his hand. It is called a jade tablet. Master, now that we have found this thing, there is no more doubt about the matter. Tomorrow it will be my job to catch this fiend.’

Dear Monkey I He plucked a hair from his tail, blew on it with magic breath, cried out’ Change!’, and it became a casket lacquered in red and gold; he laid the tablet in it, and said,
‘Master, take this in your hand, and when day comes put on your embroidered cassock, and sit reading the scriptures in the great hall. Meanwhile I will inspect that walled city. If I find that an ogre is indeed ruling there, I will slay him, and do a deed by which I shall be remembered here. But if it is not an ogre, we must beware of meddling in the business at all.’

‘You are right,’ said Tripitaka.

‘If,’ said Monkey, ‘the prince does not go out hunting, then there is nothing to be done. But if the dream comes true, I will bring him here to see you.’

‘And if he comes here, how am I to receive him ?’

‘When I let you know that he is coming, open the casket and wait while I change myself into a little priest two inches long, and put me in the casket. When the prince comes here, he will go and bow to the Buddha. Don’t you take any notice of the prince or kneel down before him. When he sees that you, a commoner, do not bow down to him, he will order his followers to seize you. You will, of course, let yourself be seized, and beaten too, if they choose to beat you, and bound if they choose to bind you. Let them kill you, indeed, if they want to.’

‘They will be well armed,’ said Tripitaka.’ They might very well kill me. That is not a good idea at all.’

‘It would not matter,’ said Monkey. ‘I could deal with that. I will see to it that nothing really serious happens. If he questions you, say that you were sent by the Emperor of China to worship Buddha and get scriptures, and that you have brought treasures with you. When he asks what treasures, show him your cassock and say it is the least of the three treasures, and that there are two others. Then show him the casket and tell him that there is a treasure within that knows what happened five hundred years ago, and what will happen in five hundred years long hence, and five hundred years between. One thousand five hundred years in all, of things past and present. Then let me out of the casket and I will tell the prince what was revealed in the dream. If he believes, I will go and seize the magician and the prince will be avenged upon his father’s murderer and we shall win
renown. But if he does not believe, I will show him the jade tablet. Only I fear he is too young, and will not recognize it.’

Tripitaka was delighted. ‘An excellent plan,’ he said. ‘But what shall we call the third treasure ? The first is the embroidered cassock, the second the white jade tablet. What is your transformation to be called ?’

‘Call it,’ said Monkey, ‘the Baggage that makes Kings.’ Tripitaka agreed, and committed the name to memory.

Neither disciple nor teacher could sleep. How gladly would they have been able, by a nod, to call up the sun from the Mulberry Tree where it rests, and by a puff of breath blow away the stars that filled the sky 1

However, at last it began to grow white in the east, and Monkey got up and gave his orders to Pigsy and Sandy. ‘Do not,’ he said, ‘upset the other priests in the temple by coming out of your cell and rollicking about. Wait till I have done my work, and then we will go on again together.’

As soon as he had left them he turned a somersault and leapt into the air. Looking due west with his fiery eyes he soon saw a walled and moated city. You may ask how it was that he could see it. Well, it was only forty leagues away from the temple, and being so high in the air he could see as far as that.

Going on a little way and looking closely, he saw that baleful clouds hung round the city and fumes of discontent surrounded it, and suspended in mid-air Monkey recited:

‘Were he a true king seated on the throne,

Then there would be a lucky gleam and fire-coloured clouds.

But as it is, a false fiend has seized the Dragon Seat,

And coiling wreaths of black fume tarnish the Golden Gate’

While he was gazing at this sad sight, Monkey suddenly heard a great clanging, and looking down he saw the eastern gate of the city open, and from it a great throng of men and horses come out; truly a host of huntsmen. Indeed, a brave show; look at them:

At dawn they left the east of the ‘Forbidden City;

They parted and rounded up in the field of low grass,

Their bright banners opened and caught the sun,

Their white palfreys charged abreast the wind.

Their skin drums clatter with a loud roll;

The hurled spears fly each to its mark.

The hunters left the city and proceeded eastwards for twenty leagues towards a high plain. Now Monkey could see that in the midst of them was a little, little general in helmet and breast-plate, in his hand a jewelled sword, riding a bay charger, his bow at his waist. ‘Don’t tell me!’ said Monkey in the air, ‘that is the prince. Let me go and play a trick on him.’

Dear Monkey! He lowered himself on his cloud, made his way through the ranks of the huntsmen and, when he came to the prince, changed himself into a white hare and ran in front of the prince’s horse. The prince was delighted, took an arrow from his quiver, strung it and shot at the hare, which he hit. But Monkey had willed the arrow to find its aim, and with a swift grab, just as it was about to touch him, he caught hold ofitandranon.

The prince, seeing that he had hit his mark, broke away from his companions and set out in pursuit. When the horse galloped fast, Monkey ran like the wind; when it slowed down, Monkey slowed down. The distance between them remained always the same, and so bit by bit he enticed the prince to the gates of the Treasure Wood Temple. The hare had vanished, for Monkey went back to his own form. But in the door-post an arrow was stuck.

‘Here we are, Master,’ said Monkey, and at once changed again into a two-inch priest and hid in the casket.

Now when the prince came to the temple-gate and found no hare, but only his own arrow sticking in the gate-post, ‘Very strange!’ said the prince, ‘I am certain I hit the hare. How is it that the hare has disappeared, but the arrow is here? I think it was not a common hare, but one that had lived too long and changed at last into a sprite.’

He pulled out the arrow, and looking up saw that above the gate of the temple was an inscription which said ‘Treasure Wood Temple, erected by Royal Command’. ‘Why, of course!’ said the prince. ‘I remember years ago my father the king ordered an officer to take gold and precious stuffs to the
priests of this temple, so that they might repair the chapel and images. I little thought that I would come here one day like this! A couplet says:

‘Chance brought me to a priest’s cell

and I listened to his holy talk;

From the life of the troubled world I got

Half a day’s rest.

I will go in.’

The prince leapt from his horse’s back and was just going in when three thousand officers who were in attendance upon him came galloping up in a great throng, and were soon pouring into the courtyard. The priests of the temple, much astonished, came out to do homage to the prince, and escort him into the Buddha Hall, to worship the Buddha. The prince was admiring the cloisters, when suddenly he came upon a priest who sat there and did not budge when he came past. ‘Has this priest no manners ?’ the prince cried in a rage. ‘As no warning was given that I was visiting this place, I could not expect to be met at a distance. But so soon as you saw men-at-arms approaching the gate, you ought to have stood up. How comes it that you are still sitting here without budging ? Seize him!’

No sooner had he uttered the command than soldiers rushed from the sides, dragged Tripitaka off with them and made ready to bind him hand and foot. But Monkey in the casket soundlessly invoked the guardian spirits, Devas that protect the Law, and Lu Ting and Lu Chia: ‘I am now on an errand to subdue an evil spirit. But this prince, in his ignorance, has bade his servants bind my master, and you must come at once to his aid. If he is indeed bound, you will be held responsible!’

Thus secretly addressed by Monkey, how could they venture to disobey? They set a magic ring about Tripitaka, so that each time any one tried to lay hands on him, he could not be reached, any more than if he had been hedged in with a stout wall. ‘Where do you come from,’ the prince asked at last, ‘that you can cheat us like this, making yourself unapproachable?’

Tripitaka now came forward and bowed. ‘I have no such art/ he said. ‘I am only a priest from China, going to the west to worship Buddha and get scriptures.’

‘China?’ said the prince. ‘Although it is called The Middle Land, it is a most destitute place. Tell me, for example, if you have anything of value upon you.’

‘There is the cassock on my back,’ said Tripitaka. ‘It is only a third-class treasure. But I have treasures of the first and second class, which are far superior.’

‘A coat like yours,’ said the prince, ‘that leaves half the body bare! It seems a queer thing to call that a treasure.’