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16 The Kingdom of Wuji

Bajie stood by, sneering without pause. Wukong said angrily, "You fool! What are you sneering at?" Bajie laughed. "You call me a fool, but I think you are the greater fool. What is hard about telling the true master apart? Just bear the pain in your head. Brother Sandy and I will each hold one of them, and let them recite the band-tightening spell. The one who can recite it is surely the true master." "An excellent plan!" said Wukong, and told the two Tang Monks to recite at once. The true Tang Monk opened his mouth and chanted. How could the demon king know it? He could only mumble nonsense. Bajie said, "The one who mumbles is the demon!" Bajie raised his rake and struck, but the demon king leapt up into the air and fled upon a cloud. Bajie and Sandy, weapons in hand, leapt into the air, blocked the demon and attacked him ferociously from all sides. Wukong, bearing the pain in his head, came up after them. Seeing that the demon king was firmly held by Bajie and Sandy and could not break free, he thought, "Let this old Sun leap higher and finish him off with a garlic-pounding blow from above." Wukong rose on an auspicious light into the highest heavens and was about to strike the fatal blow when he heard someone shout from the northeast, "Sun Wukong, hold your hand!" He looked toward the voice and saw the Bodhisattva Manjushri standing upon a rosy cloud. Wukong hastily lowered his staff, stepped forward and bowed. "Bodhisattva, how is it that you have come here?" Manjushri said, "I have come to take this demon off your hands." Wukong thanked him. "Then you have troubled yourself, Bodhisattva." Manjushri drew a demon-revealing mirror from his sleeve and turned its light upon the demon. Seen in the mirror, he was a blue-maned lion. Wukong said, "Bodhisattva, so this is your mount that ran off and became a spirit. Why did you not come and subdue him sooner?" Manjushri said, "Wukong, he was sent here by the Buddha's command." Wukong asked, puzzled, "Did the Buddha bid him become a demon and seize another man's throne?" Manjushri said, "Every morsel and every sip is ordained beforehand," and went on to tell Wukong the reason. It turned out that this king of Wuji was a good man who gave alms to the monks, and the Buddha sent the Bodhisattva Manjushri to bring him to the West and make him a golden-bodied arhat before his time. Since he could not appear in his true form, Manjushri changed himself into an ordinary monk and asked the king for alms. But the king of Wuji did not know the Buddha when he saw him. When Manjushri pressed him with a few searching words, the king flew into a rage, bound the Bodhisattva fast, and had him submerged in the royal watercourse for three days and three nights. The golden-bodied ones of the Six Jia rescued the Bodhisattva Manjushri and bore him back to the West, and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha, angered at the king of Wuji's insolence, ordered the blue-maned lion to change into a Taoist, go to the Kingdom of Wuji, push the king into the well and steep him there for three years, in requital for the three days Manjushri had suffered in the water. Wukong said bitterly, "You may have repaid a private grievance ordained of old, but how many people has that monster harmed?" Manjushri said, "These three years the winds and rains have been seasonable, the country at peace and the people content. Whom has he harmed?" Wukong said, "The queens of the three palaces - he must surely have defiled them." Manjushri said, "He could not have: he is a gelded lion." Wukong had nothing more to say, and could only reply, "So be it. Bodhisattva, take him away. Had you not come in person, I would never have spared his life!" Manjushri pronounced a spell and shouted, "Beast, why do you delay? Return to the right way at once!" Only then did the demon king resume his true form. The Bodhisattva cast a lotus bloom over the lion to hold him fast, seated himself upon his back, took leave of Wukong, and departed on an auspicious light. The three brothers brought their cloud down and went straight into the court, where the sovereign, the ministers and the heir apparent all came to bow and give thanks. Wukong told his master and the sovereign and ministers of the Kingdom of Wuji how the Bodhisattva Manjushri had subdued the demon and taken him away, and they all bowed in worship toward the heavens above. The Tang Monk urged the king to go up into the hall at once and take up his throne, but the king refused. Weeping and wailing, he knelt in the middle of the steps and begged whichever one of the four pilgrims it might be to become his ruler, saying that he himself was willing to take his wife and go outside the city to live as a commoner. None of the four would agree to it.

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