Home > Journey to the West > 16-kingdom-of-wuji

16 The Kingdom of Wuji

The Tang Monk set down his pewter staff, straightened his robe, pressed his palms together, and went straight through the mountain gate. Once inside the second gate, a magnificent Great Hero Hall rose before him. While he was silently admiring it, a lay brother who did the odd jobs came out of a doorway. Seeing the Tang Monk's noble bearing, he hurried forward to bow and asked where the monk had come from. Hearing what the Tang Monk had to say, the lay brother hurried into the abbot's quarters to report to the monk-official. The monk-official put on his Vairocana cap and his cassock and hastily opened the door to welcome the guest. But when the monk-official came outside and saw the Tang Monk bareheaded, wearing a shabby old monk's robe and a pair of worn-out shoes, leaning by the back gate with every sign of a man down on his luck, his face changed colour. He pointed an angry finger and gave the lay brother who had announced him a furious scolding, then turned and went back in. Seeing how snobbish the monk-official was, the Tang Monk could only swallow his humiliation and come out. He told his three disciples that the temple could not conveniently put them up. Wukong laughed. "It must be that with your clumsy tongue you did not make yourself clear, Master. As the saying goes, all who gather beneath the Buddha's banner are bound by affinity. Let me go in and see." Wukong went straight to the Great Hero Hall, iron staff in hand, and shouted inside, "This old Sun is escorting the holy monk of Great Tang to worship the Buddha in the Western Heaven and fetch the true scriptures. We have come here tonight to lodge! If you refuse us, a few strokes of my staff will tear your temple down!" A lay brother who was burning the evening incense inside was so terrified that he ran at once to report to the monk-official. The monk-official was just coming out to see what was happening when Wukong barged in. The monk-official saw Wukong's hollow cheeks, two yellow eyes, a bulging forehead and tusks jutting outward, and in his fright slammed the door of the abbot's quarters shut. Wukong smashed the door panels with one blow of his staff and said savagely, "Sweep out a thousand clean rooms at once for this old Sun to sleep in!" The monk-official groaned again and again, thinking to himself that the abbot's quarters, the Buddha hall, the bell and drum towers and the two side corridors together did not come to three hundred rooms. He could only say the temple was inconvenient and beg Wukong to lodge elsewhere. Wukong made his staff as thick as a basin and stood it upright in the courtyard, saying savagely, "Monk, if it is inconvenient, then you move out!" The monk-official said, "There are four or five hundred of us, old and young. Where are we to move? Even if we moved out, we would have nowhere to live." Wukong's anger flared up. Seeing a stone lion outside the abbot's door, he raised his staff and smashed it to pieces with a few blows. The monk-official, watching through a hole in the window paper, was terrified out of his wits and cried again and again, "Convenient! Convenient! We will move! We will move! My lord, do not raise your staff against us." Wukong said, "Go at once and muster those four or five hundred monks and bring my Tang master in, and I will not beat you." The monk-official said, "My lord, if you will not beat us, we will even carry him in." He hurried to the main hall and beat the drum and struck the bell to gather the monks. Wukong laughed to himself and marched the monks out through the mountain gate, where they all knelt down together. The monk-official kowtowed and called loudly, "My lord of Tang, pray be seated in the abbot's quarters." The Tang Monk, seeing them all kowtow, felt uneasy and stepped forward, saying, "Rise, all of you." But the monks feared a beating and dared not move. Only when the Tang Monk pleaded with Wukong did they get to their feet. The monks led the horse, shouldered the luggage, carried the Tang Monk in a chair, bore Bajie upon their backs and supported Sandy, and together they entered the mountain gate and sat down in the abbot's quarters. The monk-official, doing his utmost to please, ordered the monks to prepare tea and a meal for the Tang Monk and his disciples. When the master and his disciples had finished their evening meal and the monks had cleared everything away, the Tang Monk thanked them, saying, "Venerable abbot, we have disturbed your precious mountain. Where shall my disciples and I rest?" The monk-official hastily had three meditation rooms swept out and beds and curtains laid, and invited the four to lodge there. Wukong and the other two, worn out by the day's travelling, each chose a rattan couch and lay down. The Tang Monk sat upright in the meditation hall, opened his scripture and read silently. The Tang Monk sat on until the third watch, then wrapped his scripture in its case and prepared to sleep. The moment he stood up he heard a sudden gust of wind whipping outside the door, blowing the lamp flame dim and bright by turns and filling him with terror.

 2/10   Home Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next Last