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03 Revolt Against Heaven

From the day he became Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, Wukong had no care for food or clothing and was free to do as he pleased. He wandered east and drifted west, came on the clouds and went on the mist, and spent his days swearing brotherhood with every immortal he met, calling them all his brothers. At the morning audience one day, the Perfected Xu Jingyang reported to the Jade Emperor that Sun Wukong idled about and made friends of all the star lords of heaven, high and low alike, calling every one of them brother, and that in such idleness trouble was like to breed. Hearing this, the Jade Emperor at once summoned Wukong and gave him charge of the Peach Orchard of Immortality. Wukong gave thanks, well pleased, and went at once to the Peach Orchard to look it over. The local earth god stopped him. ‘Whither goes the Great Sage?’ Wukong told him that he had been commanded by the Jade Emperor to take charge of the orchard, whereupon the earth god hastily bowed and called the gardeners to pay their respects with him. The earth god led Wukong into the orchard and told him, ‘There are twelve hundred peach trees in each of the three quarters. Those in front ripen once in three thousand years, and whoever eats them becomes an immortal and attains the Way. Those in the middle ripen once in six thousand years, and whoever eats them knows neither age nor death. Those at the back ripen once in nine thousand years, and whoever eats them shall live as long as heaven itself.’ Wukong was greatly delighted. After this the Great Sage roamed no more, but came to the orchard every few days to inspect it. One day, seeing the peaches ripe and tempting, he longed to eat one; but the immortal clerks attended him closely on either side. So he devised a plan: he pleaded weariness and said he would rest a while in the pavilion, bidding the clerks wait outside the garden. Having sent them away, Wukong took off his robe, scrambled eagerly up a peach tree, and picking out only the ripest and largest fruit ate his fill. From that day on he came every few days to steal a meal. One day the Queen Mother, meaning to hold her Peach Banquet at the Jade Pool, sent the seven fairy maidens to the orchard to gather peaches. The earth god stopped them at the gate: ‘The Jade Emperor has set the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, to oversee this place; he must be told before the garden may be opened.’ But they could not find the Great Sage anywhere within, and so in the end they let the maidens in to pick. Wukong, it turned out, had eaten his fill and turned himself into a creature two inches long, and was sleeping beneath the thick leaves at the top of a tree. The seven maidens came in and picked their way to the trees at the back, where they found the fruit sparse and nothing left but a few green peaches with the down still on them. Even as they grumbled, they roused the Great Sage. Wukong resumed his true form and drew forth his golden-hooped rod. ‘What manner of creatures are you,’ he cried harshly, ‘that you dare steal peaches from me?’ The seven maidens fell to their knees in terror and told him the whole matter from beginning to end. Hearing of the Peach Banquet, the Great Sage's anger turned to pleasure, and he asked which immortals had been invited and whether his own name was among them. The maidens said they had heard no mention of him. The Great Sage said in wrath, ‘I am the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven. What is there amiss in asking this old Sun to sit at the head of the feast?’ Then the Great Sage thought again: since they have not asked me, I will go unbidden. He muttered the spell of binding and said to the seven maidens, ‘Stay! Stay! Stay!’ — and there they stood, rooted beneath the trees, unable to move. He mounted a propitious cloud and made straight for the Jade Pool. On the way he met the Barefoot Immortal, and knowing that he was bound for the Peach Banquet, deceived him, saying, ‘The Jade Emperor, knowing how swift this old Sun's Cloud-Somersault is, has sent me to receive the guests and bid you all rehearse the rites first in the Hall of Bright Pervasion before going on to the feast.’ The Barefoot Immortal was an upright and open-hearted man; though somewhat puzzled, he took the tale for truth and turned his cloud toward the Hall of Bright Pervasion. The Great Sage's trick had succeeded, and he changed himself at once into the likeness of the Barefoot Immortal and hurried on to the Jade Pool. Arriving at the Jade Pool he found the pavilion laid out in perfect order with rare delicacies, choice fruits and rich viands. Beneath the colonnade several strong men were carrying in the jade liquor and nectar, whose fragrance reached him from afar. Seeing that none of the immortals had yet arrived, Wukong could not keep the water from his mouth. He longed to fall to, but the strong men came and went without end and he could make no move. So he plucked out a handful of hairs and turned them into a swarm of sleep-inducing insects, then blew them from his lips. In an instant every one of the strong men grew drowsy, closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.

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