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01 Water Curtain Cave

The shouting brought the Patriarch from the cave. ‘Why this uproar?’ he demanded. Wukong hastily resumed his true form and hid among the others; and the disciples, not daring to conceal it, told the Patriarch what Wukong had done. The Patriarch rebuked him in anger. ‘Did I teach you the Way that you might show off before others? Go on as you are doing and you will surely bring down some great calamity. Go! Return to the place you came from!’ Seeing that his master meant to send him home, Wukong fell to his knees and begged forgiveness. But the Patriarch's mind was made up, and he said harshly, ‘You will surely bring down disaster. You must never say that you are my disciple. Utter so much as half a word, and I will flay your skin and grind your bones, and banish your spirit to the ninefold darkness, where through ten thousand ages you shall never rise again!’ Seeing that he could stay no longer, Wukong bowed three times to his master, took leave of his brothers, and mounted the Cloud-Somersault eastward. In a moment Wukong was back at Flower-Fruit Mountain. He brought his cloud to earth and found everything in ruin, nothing as it had been. Several apes, seeing their king returned, came out to meet him weeping. He asked at once what had happened, and the apes told him, ‘To the north there is a Filthy Water Cave, and in it a Demon King of Chaos. Of late he has raided us again and again and means to seize our Water Curtain Cave!’ At this Wukong's anger blazed within him. Wukong rode his cloud to the Filthy Water Cave. Seeing several imps dancing at its mouth, he cursed them roundly: ‘You wretched imps — go in and tell that wretched bird-demon of Chaos to come out at once and meet his death!’ The imps scrambled and crawled back into the cave in fright to report. In a little while the Demon King of Chaos came out, armed and carrying a blade. Seeing Wukong he laughed. ‘You are not four feet tall and barely thirty years old. How is it that your tongue runs so wild?’ Wukong wasted no words on him, but leapt forward and struck him full in the face. The demon king swung his blade to parry, but Wukong was nimble of body, and several cuts all struck empty air, till the demon howled with rage. The demon threw aside his great blade and answered with fists and feet. Small and thin though Wukong was, his movements were quick, and he struck always at the demon's soft flanks and joints, so that the demon could do no more than ward him off, and had no strength to strike back. After several rounds Wukong plucked out a few hairs, chewed them to shreds, and spat them into the air. In an instant they became two or three hundred little monkeys, who threw themselves upon the demon all at once — gouging his eyes, wrenching his legs, pummeling his belly and beating his chest — and held him fast in a ring. Wukong took up the Demon King of Chaos's own great blade, pushed the monkeys aside, and with one furious stroke cleft the demon in two. Having destroyed the Demon King of Chaos, Sun Wukong freed the young apes who had been carried off, recovered their goods, and with a great fire burned the Filthy Water Cave to the ground. Wukong returned in triumph and spread a victory feast. Raising his cup he said to the apes, ‘My children! I have come home with my learning complete, and my master has given me the name Sun Wukong. From this day forward we shall all bear the surname Sun. And whoever dares oppress my children, I swear he shall die without a grave to lie in.’

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